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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Valley | Kashmir Valley | The Kashmir Valley, also known as the Vale of Kashmir, is an intermontane valley in the northern part of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. The valley is surrounded by the ranges of the Himalayas, bounded on the southwest by the Pir Panjal Range and on the northeast by the Greater Himalayan Range. It is approximately 135 km (84 mi) long and 32 km (20 mi) wide, and drained by the Jhelum River. It falls entirely within the Kashmir Division of Jammu and Kashmir.
== Geography ==
The Kashmir Valley lies between latitude 33° and 35°N, and longitude 73° and 76°E. The valley is 100 km (62 mi) wide and covers 15,520.3 km2 (5,992.4 sq mi) in area. It is bounded by sub-ranges of the Western Himalayas: the Great Himalayas bound it in the northeast and separate it from the Tibetan Plateau, whereas the Pir Panjal Range in the Lesser Himalayas bounds it on the west and the south, and separates it from the Punjab Plain. The valley has an average elevation of 1,850 metres (6,070 ft) above sea-level, but the surrounding Pir Panjal range has an average elevation of 10,000 feet (3,000 m). The Jhelum River is the major river which acts a drainage for whole Kashmir Valley, before exiting the Kashmir Valley through Uri gorge the Jhelum River falls into Wular Lake second largest freshwater lake in Asia. Before entering Wular Lake Srinagar city and Sonawari lies on its banks and after leaving Wular Lake Sopore and Baramulla towns lies on its banks. It originates at Verinag; and then fed by a large number of glacier fed rivers and streams Lidder, Sind and Doodh Ganga rivers are its major tributaries. Unlike other areas of Kashmir region, the Kashmir Valley is densely populated owing to the availability of a large expanse of fertile flat land.
== Climate ==
The Kashmir Valley has a moderate climate, which is largely defined by its geographic location, with the towering Karakoram Range in the north, Pir Panjal Range in the south and west, and Zanskar Range in the east. It can be generally described as cool in the spring and autumn, mild in the summer and cold in the winter. As a large valley with significant differences in geo-location among various districts, the weather is often cooler in the hilly areas compared to the flat lower parts.
Summer is usually mild and fairly dry, but relative humidity is generally high and the nights are cool. Precipitation occurs throughout the year and no month is particularly dry. The hottest month is July (mean minimum temperature 16 °C, mean maximum temperature 32 °C) and the coldest are December–January (mean minimum temperature −15 °C, mean maximum temperature 0 °C).
The Kashmir Valley enjoys a moderate climate but weather conditions are unpredictable. The record high temperature is 37.8 °C and the record low is −18 °C. On 5 and 6 January 2012, after years of relatively little snow, a wave of heavy snow and low temperatures (winter storm) shocked the valley covering it in a thick layer of snow and ice.
The Valley has seen an increase in relative humidity and annual precipitation in the last few years. This is most likely because of the commercial afforestation projects which also include expanding parks and green cover.
== Notes ==
== See also ==
Kashmir Division, the administrative division of India covering the Kashmir Valley.
== References ==
== External links ==
Kashmir Division Administration
Kashmir Divisional Commissioner
Kashmir Valley travel guide from Wikivoyage
Vale of Kashmir
Khan, Asma (26 April 2018). "A Tryst of the Heart and History along the Karakoram Highway". Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 9 August 2019. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garvan%E2%80%93Olin_Medal#:~:text=1957%20Lucy%20W.%20Pickett | Garvan–Olin Medal | The Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin Medal, previously called the Francis P. Garvan Medal, is an annual award that recognizes distinguished scientific accomplishment, leadership and service to chemistry by women chemists. The Award is offered by the American Chemical Society (ACS), and consists of a cash prize (US$5,000) and a medal. The medal was designed by Margaret Christian Grigor.
== Background ==
Any individual may nominate a single eligible chemist in one year. Nominees must be a female citizen of the United States.
The award was established by Francis Garvan and Mabel Brady Garvan in 1936 in honor of their daughter. It was initially an essay contest, that ran for seven years, as a memorial to their daughter (the American Chemical Society's Prize Essay Contest). It was solely funded by the Francis P. Garvan Medal Endowment from its establishment in 1936 until 1979. W. R. Grace & Co. assumed co-sponsorship of the award from 1979 to 1983. In 1984, Olin Corporation assumed co-sponsorship. Mabel Brady Garvan remained involved with the Award through 1967.
The Garvan–Olin Award is the ACS' third-oldest award, and the first award established to honor women chemists.
== Award recipients ==
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
List of science and technology awards for women
== References ==
== External links ==
"Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal". American Chemical Society.
Special Collections and University Archives. "Finding Aid for MS 678 Garvan Medalists Survey Collection, 1981-2000". Iowa State University. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Sanchar_Nigam_Limited | Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited | Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (commonly known as BSNL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking, under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The central public sector undertaking was established on 01-October-2000 by the Government of India. Its highest official is designated as Chairperson and Managing Director, who is a central civil service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Communication Finance Service cadre or central engineering service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Telecommunication Service cadre. It provides mobile voice and internet services through its nationwide telecommunications network across India. It is the largest government-owned-wireless telecommunications service provider in India.
== History ==
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is an Indian government enterprise and its history can be traced back to British India. The foundation of the telecommunications network in India was laid by the British sometime during the 19th century. During the British era, the first telegraph line was established between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour in 1850. The British East India Company started using the telegraph in 1851 and until 1854 telegraph lines were laid across the country. In 1854, the telegraph service was opened to the public and the first telegram was sent from Mumbai to Pune. In 1885, the Indian Telegraph Act was passed by the British Imperial Legislative Council. After the bifurcation of the Post and Telegraph department in the 1980s, the creation of Department of Telecom eventually led to the emergence of the government owned telegraph and telephone enterprise which led to the foundation of BSNL. Until early 2000s, BSNL is the only service provider for Indian Railways to control and administrative communication circuits later, they are separated as RailTel.
For 160 years, BSNL had operated the public telegram service. In 2010, the telex network between its 182 offices was replaced with the "Web-Based Telegram Messaging System" which relied on internet connections rather than telex lines (which are more reliable where power outages are more common). This led to a decline in service, and the company applied the title "diminished service" to telegrams in 2010. Finally, on 15-July-2013, the public telegram service was shut down completely. BSNL also enjoys a part of revenue from the payments made for private players for recharge plans.
== Products and services ==
=== Telephone and Mobile ===
BSNL provides both fixed line telephones and mobile telephony services on the GSM platform.
==== BSNL Mobile ====
BSNL Mobile is a major provider of GSM network services under the brand names CellOne and BSNL all over India. It has wide network coverage in both urban and rural areas of India. It has over 121.82 million customers across India.
BSNL Mobile offers prepaid, postpaid services and value-added services such as Free Phone Service (FPS), India Telephone Card (Prepaid card), Account Card Calling (ACC), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Tele-voting, Premium Rate Service (PRM). It also offers the IPTV which enables customers to watch television through the Internet and Voice and Video Over Internet Protocol (VVoIP).
==== BSNL Landline ====
BSNL Landline was launched in the early 1990s. It was the only fixed-line telephone service for the whole country before the New Telecom Policy was announced by the Department of Telecom in 1999. Only the Government-owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper wire in the country. BSNL Landline is the largest fixed-line telephony in India. It has over 9.55 million customers and 47.20% market share in the country as of 28 February 2021.
=== Internet ===
BSNL is the fourth-largest ISP in India, having a presence throughout the country. It also has the largest Firebase telecom network in the country, around 7.5 lakh kilometers, among the four operators in the country.
==== BSNL Broadband ====
BSNL Broadband provides telecom services to enterprise customers including MPLS, P2P and Internet leased lines. It provides fixed-line services and landline using CDMA technology and its own extensive optical fiber network. BSNL provides Internet access services through dial-up connections as prepaid, NetOne as postpaid, and DataOne as BSNL Broadband.
==== BSNL Bharat Fiber ====
BSNL Bharat Fiber (FTTH) was launched in February 2019. It offers TV over IP (IPTV), Video On-Demand (VoD), Voice over IP (VoIP), Audio On-Demand (AoD), Bandwidth On-Demand (BoD), remote education, video conferencing services, interactive gaming, and Virtual Private LAN services. BSNL has said that its optic fiber network provides fixed access to deliver high-speed Internet up to 300 Mbit/s.
==== Bharat Net ====
With effect to the government of India's policy decision to provide state-owned BSNL with another revival package worth 1.64 lakh crore rupees, the struggling PSU was merged with the Government's special purpose vehicle BBNL. This gave the struggling PSU a boost and an additional advantage of additional 5.67 lakh kilometers of optical fiber which has been laid across 1.85 lakh village panchayats in the country using the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Currently, it has an optical fibre cable network of over 6.83 lakh kilometres.
==== BSNL 4G ====
BSNL is the first telecom operator in India which started rolling out 4G service by using Mobile Broadband in 2009. In 2010 BWA auction, BSNL was allocated with 4G spectrum under 2300MHz Bandwidth (in all 20 telecom circles in India except Delhi & Mumbai because it is administered under MTNL network but MTNL also allocated with the same) which is also known as BWA or Broadband Wireless Access spectrum. It is initially used for WiMAX and later same is used for LTE service. BSNL was allocated with the spectrum by without participating in the BWA auction why because it is a state owned entity owing to which it has been provided with Auction Exception, So in order to acquire the spectrum, BSNL has to pay the equivalent amount that private telecom players paid for the same Bandwidth in the Auction to the Government. So, BSNL has provided 8,500 crores to the Government for this spectrum. MTNL also provided 1120 crores to the Government for the same. In the meanwhile other telecom players were using LTE technology to provide 4G services, BSNL alone used WiMAX technology to provide 4G service. But WiMAX technology is not accepted globally due to which the technology got failed to prove. So BSNL returned back all the 4G WiMAX technologies to the Government and brought back the investment amount due to heavy financial debt incurred at the time. Reason behind the financial burden is because of its Legacy Systems and increasing pension to retired employees. Later in 2017-18 period BSNL provided 4G services in Few areas of India under Spectrum Reframing despite being not a proper 4G service. Under Make in India initiative, C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telemarics) developed the 4G core network for India. But the assembly segment was developed by Tejas Network (which was later brought by TATA) and the Government owned entity ITI (Indian Telephone Industries Limited).
BSNL started 4G service in some parts of India such as Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh in January 2019, but it is limited to a few cities and towns. Most of its 4G services are currently available in Southern India. However, BSNL is trying to launch pan India 4G services up to September 2022. The telecom minister said that BSNL will launch its 4G services all over India on the 75th Independence Day of India along with various other projects. BSNL is using 700 MHz and 2100 MHz bands to roll out the 4G services which can be upgraded to 5G in the future. BSNL has installed more than 40,000 plus 4G enabled and 5G ready towers. On September 27, 2025, PM Narendra Modi launched BSNL's Swadeshi 4G Network and commissioned 97500 towers developed indigenously.
==== BSNL 5G ====
On behalf of the government of India, the Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the State-Owned Telco would start its 5G operations by 15 August 2023. He also added that the 4G and 5G network of the state-owned BSNL would be a completely home-grown indigenous 4G and 5G network technology; thus, emphasizing more on Govt. of India's Atmanirbhar Bharat.
==== Direct-to-Device ====
In November 2024, BSNL introduced and made a trial of the new Direct-to-Device technology for the first time in India in partnership with VIASAT. This technology enables users to communicate without transversing a Base Station or Core Network. This technology is used in direct interaction between 5G-enabled devices to connect seamlessly to both terrestrial and satellite coverage.
=== IP & cloud services ===
==== BSNL Managed Cloud Services ====
On 28 May 2013, BSNL launched "Internet Data Centre – Managed Cloud Services". This includes computation, software, data access and storage services for individuals as well as enterprises.
Services include:
Cloud compute
Cloud Storage
Hosted Exchange
Hosted Virtual Desktop Infra (VDI)
Hosted Gateway
Hosted Email filter
Hosted web filter
Hosted backup and restore
Hosted DR
Hosted communication Services
Hosted Database
==== BSNL Wings Services ====
On 16 August 2018, BSNL launched "BSNL Wings Services" in 22 telecom circles, in which there is no need for a SIM card or FTTH as it is a VoIP service through an app. It offers unlimited free calling for one year throughout India.
== Administrative units ==
=== BSNL vertical divisions ===
BSNL is primarily divided into three vertical divisions:
BSNL — Consumer Fixed Access (CFA), wire line and broadband business.
BSNL — Consumer Mobility (CM), wireless business, primarily 3G/4G GSM services, WLL-M services. WLL-M
BSNL — Enterprise Business, Enterprise customers on turnkey basis.
Other than these three vertical divisions, there are electrical wings and civil wings, which take care of real estate monetization.
=== BSNL horizontal divisions ===
Horizontally, BSNL is divided into several administrative units, variously known as telecom circles, metro districts, project circles and specialized units. It has 24 telecom circles, two metro districts, six project circles, four maintenance regions, five telecom factories, three training institutions and four specialized telecom units. Each circle is headed by a Chief General Manager (CGM) who is an officer of Indian Telecom Service (ITS).
The organizational structure of BSNL is as follows: Chief General Manager being the head of the Circle who is the officer of HAG+ level, assisted by three or four Principal General Manager (PGM) who are the officer of grade HAG. The districts over a circle is being headed by the designations as General Manager officer of grade of SAG who looks over around two to four districts, while where the connections are less and the smaller district is being headed by Telecom District Manager (TDM) Officer of the grade of JAG and Telecom Divisional Engineer (TDE) officer of STS grade, all the officers above the post of TDE (including TDE) are of Group A, and they are the officers of grade of Indian Telecom Service (ITS) directly or promotive. Then the Group B consists of Additional Divisional Engineer, Sub Divisional Engineer and Junior Telecom officer and then the organization has Group C and D employees.
== Merger and acquisitions ==
On 24-October-2019, the Government of India announced a revival package for BSNL and MTNL which includes monetizing assets, raising funds, TD-LTE spectrum, and a voluntary retirement scheme for employees. Apart from the package, the Ministry of Communications has decided to merge MTNL with BSNL. Pending this, MTNL will be a wholly owned subsidiary of BSNL.
On 24-October-2019, the Government of India announced a revival package for BSNL and has given its agreement to an in-principle merger (operational merger, i.e., only the operations of MTNL and BSNL would be merged, and they would be managed by BSNL) for MTNL and BSNL
On 27-July-2022, the Government of India announced another revival package for the state-owned BSNL, for providing 4G and 5G services making the PSU more viable and vibrant and turning it into a profit making organization; under this policy decision the government also merged BBNL with BSNL.
== Controversies ==
=== Website hacking ===
In 2012 Nikhil Thakur, a hacker and Internet activist, broke into the Madhya Pradesh BSNL website and later on hacked the India BSNL website.
=== Cyberattack ===
In July 2017, BSNL suffered a cyberattack, in Karnataka, when malware affected the telco's broadband network using modems with default passwords. The virus reportedly affected 60,000 modems and blocked their internet connectivity. Later, BSNL issued an advisory notice to its broadband customers, urging them to change their default router username and passwords.
== See also ==
Government of India
BSNL Broadband
BSNL Mobile
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
Telecommunications in India
List of telecom companies in India
List of mobile network operators
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samac%C3%A1 | Samacá | Samacá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. It borders Cucaita, Tunja and Ventaquemada in the east, Ráquira in the west, Sáchica, Sora and Cucaita in the north and Ventaquemada, Ráquira and Guachetá, Cundinamarca in the south.
== Etymology ==
Samacá's original name came from the Chibcha native language of the area. Samacá was a small village before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. Sa is a noble title; Ma is a proper name; Cá means a sovereign enclosure.
== History ==
Samacá began as a settlement of a large lagoon which was known by the native name of "Lake of Cansicá" or "Valley of the Lake" (la laguna de Cansicá). Around the lagoon were three native settlements called Patagüy, Foacá and Sáchica. Samacá was ruled by the zaque of nearby Hunza and the modern town was founded on January 1, 1556 by Juan de los Barrios.
== Economy ==
The most important activities are farming, cattle, and mining. Samacá produces potatoes, peas, corn, and beet. Coal mining is the largest industry and most of the production of coal is exported. Samacá has a potential for growth; in the last decade the economy has risen tremendously. Samacá is open to international investment.
== Born in Samacá ==
Pedro Saúl Morales, former professional cyclist
Jorge Perry, Colombia's first olympic competitor
== Climate ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Tate | Andrew Tate | Emory Andrew Tate III (born 1 December 1986) is an American and British social media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer who gained notoriety for promoting various highly controversial positions in the manosphere. His commentary has resulted in his expulsion from various social media platforms and concern that he promotes misogynistic views to his audience. A divisive influencer, Tate has amassed 10.7 million followers on Twitter as of June 2025 and was the third-most googled person in 2023. He has been dubbed the "king of toxic masculinity", has called himself a misogynist, and is politically described as both right-wing and far-right. As of March 2025, Tate is facing six legal investigations—four criminal and two civil—in Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
From 2005, Tate began his kickboxing career in England, winning several kickboxing titles in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2016, he appeared on the British reality series Big Brother, but was removed, as he was the suspect in an open rape investigation in the United Kingdom. The investigation was later dropped, but Tate was subject to an extradition request for rape charges in 2024. After his kickboxing career, Tate and his brother, Tristan, began operating a webcam model business, then sold online courses. With his audience from his courses, he became prominent as an internet celebrity promoting a hyper-macho view of masculinity. Tate's courses include Hustler's University, which gained 100,000 subscribers and was later relaunched as The Real World, and the secretive group named The War Room, which the BBC has accused of coercing women into sex work and teaching violence against women. In August 2023, it was estimated that Tate's online ventures generated US$5 million in revenue monthly.
In December 2022, Tate and his brother, Tristan, were arrested in Romania, along with two women. In June 2023, all four were charged with rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. Soon after, accusers reportedly went into hiding after a campaign of online harassment, and the Tate brothers filed a defamation lawsuit, claiming $5 million in damages. In March 2024, British police obtained an arrest warrant for the Tate brothers. In July 2024, a civil case in the UK was brought against the brothers and a third person for alleged tax evasion. In August 2024, Romanian police raided four properties Tate owns and expanded its investigation to include trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering and attempting to influence witnesses. Tate and his brother have denied all charges and allegations. In May 2025, the United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service brought multiple charges against Tate and his brother Tristan including for rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.
== Early life ==
Emory Andrew Tate III was born on 1 December 1986 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is multiracial; his African American father, Emory Tate (1958–2015), was a chess international master, while his White English mother, Eileen Tate, worked as a catering assistant. He has a younger brother, Tristan, and a younger sister, Janine. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois, and Goshen, Indiana. In 1997, after his parents divorced, his mother took him and his brother to Luton in Bedfordshire, England. They "lived on Marsh Farm, an infamously rough council estate which Tate has described as the 'worst area of the worst town.'" He was educated at Halyard High School and Luton Sixth Form College.
== Kickboxing career ==
Tate started practising boxing and other martial arts in 2005, and worked in the television advertising industry to support himself. Tate started his career in Full contact kickboxing and gained recognition after defeating former super cruiserweight British champions Ollie Green and Mo Kargbo which got him ranked the seventh-best light heavyweight kickboxer in the United Kingdom by the International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) in November 2008.
In 2009, Tate fought and defeated Paul Randall to capture the English ISKA Full Contact Cruiserweight Championship and beat Daniel Hughes for the International Kickboxing Federation Full Contact Cruiserweight British Title receiving the top rank in his division across Europe. Tate's kickboxing nickname was "King Cobra". In 2010 Tate defeated Jamie Bates by knockout.
In 2011, Tate won his first International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) full contact world title in a rematch against Jean-Luc Benoît via knockout, having previously lost to Benoît by decision. The weight was set at light heavyweight 81.5 kg. In August 2011, Tate made his K-1 Rules debut and fought in the Enfusion 3: Trial of the Gladiators tournament to determine the world's Number one kickboxer in the 85 kg category. Tate qualified for the tournament, stopping Sammy Masa by second-round KO and Adnan Omeragić by first-round KO. The tournament was later resumed in December 2012. In November 2011 Tate moved up to 85 kg to challenge Vincent Petitjean for the Nuit des Champions(NDC) full contact title. Tate lost by decision.
In 2012 after scoring a knockout win over Joe McCgovan, Tate would get the opportunity to fight Sahak Parparyan for his It's Showtime 85MAX Championship and would lose by unanimous decision. On 2 December 2012, Tate returned to the Enfusion 3: Trial of the Gladiators tournament to determine the world's Number one kickboxer in the 85 kg category. Tate managed to score a victory in the semi-finals, knocking out Ritchie Hocking with punches in the first round, but lost in the final via a first-round flying knee KO from Franci Grajš who after the fight got named the best in the 85 Max weight division. Before his loss, he was ranked second-best 85 max light-heavyweight kickboxer in the world behind Sahak Parparyan.
In 2013, Tate returned to full contact kickboxing and won his second ISKA world title in a 12-round match against Vincent Petitjean in the Light Cruiserweight division, making him world champion in two weight classes. Tate returned to K-1 rules and managed to score four victories in the Enfusion ring during 2013 over David Radeff, Marino Schouten, Marlon Hunt, and Laszlo Szabo in the middleweight division.
Tate participated in a four-man tournament to determine the Enfusion 85 kg middleweight World Champion, alongside Miroslav Cingel, Jiří Žák, and Rustam Guseinov. Held in Žilina, Slovakia, on 26 April 2014, Tate lost in the semi-finals to local fighter and tournament winner, Miroslav Cingel, via unanimous decision. Tate defended the ISKA Full Contact Light Cruiserweight World Title against Cyril Vetter winning by knockout, won his first K-1 Rules World Title by defeating Wendell Roche to capture the Enfusion 90 kg Belt in 2014, making him a four-time world champion before he retired with 31 recorded fights.
In January 2015 Tate fought in K-1 in the event K-1 China vs. USA against Liang Ling. Tate won by decision. In March 2015 Tate returned to full contact kickboxing and faced Jean Luc Benoît in a trilogy fight to settle the score. Tate won by decision making the rivalry 2–1 in favor of Tate.
In December 2016, Tate returned to kickboxing to fight for the Enfusion 90 kg world title against Ibrahim El Boustati who was originally scheduled to face Marc de Bonte, however tragic events led to de Bonte's passing. Tate would lose by tko in round one due to an eye injury. Tate was later then forced into an early retirement due to his eye sustaining damage through his combat sport career which first began at just 23, when Tate experienced his first eye injury, with detached retinas in both eyes that required surgical repair. By the age of 30, when the condition resurfaced against Ibrahim, Tate then chose to retire from professional kickboxing. In 2020 Tate returned to kickboxing after a long layoff and competed in Romania against low level kickboxers scoring knockout wins over Miralem Ahmeti, Iulian Strugariu and Cosmin Lingurar.
Tate would retire again with a 76-9-1 record in kickboxing in the styles of k-1 rules and full contact. In k-1 rules, Tate managed to hold the Enfusion 90 kg world title, fought mainly in full contact achieving 3 ISKA world titles in 84.6 kg and 81.5 kg, making him a 4 time kickboxing world champion, while his brother Tristan claimed the ISKA British light cruiserweight title twice in k-1 rules and freestyle kickboxing who would also retire early with a 43–9 record due to sustaining a bad shoulder injury in a car accident preventing him from competing in kickboxing.
In 2023 Enfusion chose to establish a new label called T8KO which means Tate KO, Andrew Tate was initially scheduled to serve as a media partner alongside his brother Tristan. However, after Tate's arrest, Enfusion announced on Instagram that, "In consultation with the Dutch Fight Sports Authority, it has been decided that the Tate brothers will not be involved with the new label while the criminal investigation is still ongoing." Additionally, the Fight Sports Authority required Enfusion to rename their new brand, resulting in the name 8TKO.
== Big Brother ==
Tate gained widespread attention in 2016 when he appeared on the British reality television series Big Brother's 17th series. In the series, Tate was a member of a secret second house, part of a group called "The Others." While appearing on the show, he came under scrutiny for previously having made homophobic and racist posts on Twitter. He was removed from the show after six days, with producers saying that it was because of events outside the house and Tate saying that it was about a video which appeared to show him striking a woman with a belt on the show. Producers also said that he was not let go because of the uncovered tweets. Tate and the woman said that they were friends and that the actions in the video were consensual. Vice later reported that Tate was removed because the show's producers became aware of an ongoing police investigation by Hertfordshire Constabulary into him for rape, which closed in 2019 with no charges filed.
== Online ventures ==
Tate's website offers training courses on accumulating wealth and "male–female interactions". According to the site, he also operated a webcam studio using his girlfriends as employees. Tate and his brother, Tristan, started the webcam business, employing as many as 75 webcam models to sell "fake sob stories" to male callers, claiming to have made millions of dollars doing so. According to Mary McNamara, Tate has called himself "a pimp", and The Guardian wrote of his transition from a kickboxer to "a webcam pimp". Tate later acknowledged that the business model was a "total scam". In August 2023, it was estimated that The Real World and The War Room generated US$5 million monthly from subscriptions.
=== Hustler's University ===
Tate operated Hustler's University, a proprietary platform where members paid a US$49.99 monthly membership fee to receive instruction on ways to make money outside traditional employment, such as cryptocurrency, copywriting, and e-commerce, which was facilitated by prerecorded videos and a Discord server. The site employed an affiliate marketing program, where members received a commission for recruiting others to the platform.
Tate became prominent in 2022 by encouraging members of Hustler's University to post videos of him to social media platforms, in an effort to maximise engagement. An investigation by The Observer described "a network of copycat accounts on TikTok" that artificially amplified his content, with the social media platform appearing to allow the content to spread. Hustler's University was subsequently rebranded as Hustler University 2.0 and then Hustler University 3.0. The Irish-American financial services company Stripe pulled out of processing subscriptions for the platform, and Hustler's University shut down its affiliate marketing program. Paul Harrigan, a marketing professor at the University of Western Australia, said the affiliate programme was a social media pyramid scheme. Tate described the claim that Hustler's University's operated as a pyramid scheme as false.
=== The Real World ===
After Hustler's University shut down, Tate relaunched another version of the product named "The Real World" in October 2022. The name references Tate's idea that the world as normally perceived resembles "the Matrix" to which he offers an alternative.
The Real World primarily targets male teenagers. Former Real World students have described the programme as having a "cult-like atmosphere." The Real World has been described by a lawyer for former members as the male version of the Tate brothers' "digital grooming". Members refer to each other as "G" with Tate being the "Top G". The group is centred on Tate's "41 Tenets for men." The Real World course offering included cryptocurrency, e-commerce, and drop shipping.
In 2023, Google and Apple removed The Real World's associated app, the Real World Portal, from their app stores. In January 2024, analysis from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found The Real World official YouTube channel had received 450 million video views, and according to the researchers, a third party's channel had gained nearly 300 million views reposting The Real World content. The researchers suggested that YouTube had earned up to £2.4m in revenue from advertisements on these two channels, and criticised the company for not banning similar third party channels sooner. YouTube responded by describing the estimate as "wildly inaccurate and overinflated".
In May 2024, the website for The Real World leaked the personal data of 968,447 user accounts due to a misconfigured database. Leaked information included email addresses and account passwords. In addition, 22 million messages sent by users on the platform were also openly accessible. In November, the website suffered a cyberattack which leaked the usernames of 794,000 former and current members, 324,382 registered email addresses, as well as the contents of 221 public and 395 private chat servers.
=== The War Room ===
Advertised by Tate and costing $8,000, The War Room is described as "a global network in which exemplars of individualism work to free the modern man from socially induced incarceration", stating it teaches men "physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial development". A senior member of the group, Miles Sonkin, also known as Iggy Semmelweiss, is the supposed leader of the group according to a BBC investigation. Semmelweiss reportedly met Tate in 2018, with the group established in 2019. The investigation in August 2023 led by Matt Shea documented evidence of women groomed into online sex work by members of the group, described as an all-male secretive society.
The group chat, featuring 12,000 pages of encrypted messages, indicated that the group taught a "Pimpin' Hoes Degree" course, abbreviated to PhD, using techniques to "romantically seduce, emotionally manipulate and socially isolate women before luring them into performing on webcams". A legal expert in human trafficking from Bucharest described the course as using all the practices of the "Lover Boy" strategy. A deleted description of the defunct course on the website that prosecutors in Romania have since used in the case against Tate read:My job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she's quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she'd do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together,Evidence suggested violence against women was also taught and discussed. Victims said sex was used as a manipulation technique. Members of the group believed they were performing "Pavlovian conditioning" on the women, with submission tests such as receiving tattoos on their bodies of members' initials. A whistleblower, who claimed to be former head of sales and marketing, described the group as a cult he had been "brainwashed" by. As of August 2022, there were 434 members and 45 potential victims, based on the leaked chat logs.
=== Meme coins ===
In 2024 Tate launched a meme coin called DADDY. It soon reached a market capitalisation of $217 million. The name is meant to be a play on Iggy Azalea's meme coin $MOTHER, with Tate saying that the coin was "for the patriarchy" and "We're bringing the Gs back make me a f***ing sandwich females." He has encouraged those who hold the coin to join The Real World and has promoted the coin heavily on his social media.
In October 2024 Andrew Tate was sent a series of questions by the YouTube channel Coffeezilla about his meme coin DADDY. In response Tate doxxed Coffeezilla and encouraged his supporters to email abusive content to Coffeezilla with Tate specifically requesting that they call him "gay".
== Other ventures ==
=== Boxing ===
In August 2025, sports journalist Ariel Helwani broke that news that Tate was in advanced talks with Misfits Boxing to compete in a heavyweight bout by the end of the year. However, a day later BBC Sport contacted DAZN and were informed that Tate was in fact not in negotiations with Misfits despite the earlier reports, Misfits declined to comment. On 15 October Daily Mirror reported that Tate was set to make his face reality star Chase DeMoor for the MFB heavyweight title, with the bout set to take place on 20 December at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, UAE. On 19 October, Misfits formally announced the event with a promotional video that featured a cobra wrapping around a Christmas tree, a subtle nod to Tate's fighting alias. On 30 October, the bout between Tate and DeMoor was announced to headline Misfits Mania – The Fight Before Christmas, accompanied with a promotional video that claimed Tate had replaced KSI as the CEO of Misfits.
== Views ==
=== Manosphere ===
Tate is an influencer in the manosphere and "alpha male" community, described as both right-wing and far-right. According to The Conversation, he is a recognised "thought leader" in the online manosphere who mobilises his supporters to spread his ideas to a broader audience. He otherwise identifies as a libertarian and has been dubbed the "king of toxic masculinity". American conservatives such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have platformed Tate as a proponent of "traditional views on men in the culture war raging over gender".
=== Women ===
Tate has been criticised for saying that women "belong in the home", "can't drive", and are "given to the man and belong to the man" as "a man's property". Tate has also said that men prefer dating 18- and 19-year-old women, because they are "likely to have had sex with fewer men", in order to "make an imprint" on teenagers, and that women who do not stay home are "hoes".
=== Sexual harassment ===
In 2017 Tate received attention for his tweets describing his view of what qualifies as sexual harassment amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases, and for tweeting several times that sexual assault victims share responsibility for their assaults. Tate came out in support of Russell Brand after multiple women accused Brand of sexual assault.
=== Far-right ideologies ===
Tate is associated with far-right ideologies and individuals, including the British activist Tommy Robinson. Before 2022, Tate became known among the online far-right through his appearances on InfoWars and acquaintances including Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, and Paul Joseph Watson. He attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2019. Hope not Hate accuses Tate of a "long history of racist statements, homophobia and links to the organised far-right". In February 2023, Thierry Baudet, founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy, called Tate an "outspoken political dissident" and "courageous critic", tabling a motion in the Dutch parliament regarding his detention in Romania. The Conversation called Tate "not explicitly far right" but otherwise as a figure who has promoted far-right propaganda, including the great replacement conspiracy theory.
Tate has questioned whether the Nazis were really the "bad guy" in World War II. Tate has performed Nazi salutes, and advocated "bring[ing] the Nazi salute back". In January 2025, after Elon Musk made a salute interpreted by many as a Nazi salute, Tate responded by saying, "we're so back".
=== Life discipline ===
In a June 2023 interview with the BBC, Tate said that he was "acting under the instruction of God to do good things" and that "I preach hard work, discipline. I'm an athlete, I preach anti-drugs, I preach religion, I preach no alcohol, I preach no knife crime."
=== Other views ===
Tate has said that depression "isn't real." Tate stated that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is a hero. In March 2024, after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Maryland, Tate falsely claimed the ship that collided with the bridge "was cyber-attacked". Tate was accused of inciting online hate after becoming one of the first influencers to amplify misinformation about the Southport stabbing, leading to the far-right riots in the UK.
In the context of the Gaza war, Tate has accused Israel of "genociding" Palestinians and said that the October 7 attacks was as "an eye for an eye". In response to the killing of Yahya Sinwar, he stated, "I can only pray for a death as heroic as Yahya Sinwar". Mother Jones reported that Tate also promoted an antisemitic conspiracy saying that "'the Matrix' is really just the Jewish mafia." With respect to Adolf Hitler and Holocaust denial, Tate stated, "stop crying over the Hitler crap" and "if they lied to us about Gaza and Israel … Do you think they lied about [the Second World War]?"
== Reception and influence ==
Beginning in 2022, Tate's views and their influence on teenage boys and young men have become a particular concern of parents, teachers and mental health experts in much of the world, including North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The New York Times has described his views as "brainwashing a generation", due to his influence in British schools, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) considers Tate's misogyny mainstream. The ADL reported that Tate "teaches his acolytes that women are inferior and morally deficient beings [...] who deserve to be physically, sexually and emotionally abused", equating his philosophy to that of pickup artists.
In August 2022, the White Ribbon Campaign, a nonprofit organisation opposing male-on-female violence, called Tate's commentary "extremely misogynistic" and its possible long-term effects on his young male audience "concerning". Hope not Hate asserted that Tate's social media presence might present a "dangerous slip road into the far-right" for his audience and criticised his ties to the far right. The Rape Crisis England and Wales said it is "unacceptable that such a blatant display of misogyny is being given a platform". The Centre for Countering Digital Hate called Tate's videos "extreme misogyny" after uncovering videos viewed millions of times referencing leaving an imprint on young women. In response to these criticisms, Tate said that his content includes "many videos praising women" and mainly aims to teach his audience to avoid "toxic and low-value people as a whole". He added that he plays a "comedic character" and that people believe "absolutely false narratives" about him.
In February 2023, Tim Squirrell of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said Tate posed "a risk of radicalising young men into misogynist extremism". In May, Hope not Hate's director of policy called Tate a "legitimising force" for misogynistic views and the End Violence Against Women Coalition's director said it is "hugely concerning" that "Tate continues to wield influence on a significant proportion of younger men, who say they agree with his views on women, masculinity and how to be a man." According to interviews by The Conversation in mid–2023, teachers explicitly identified Tate's influence on students in reference to a dramatic increase in "sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment" in Australian classrooms. In October, UK domestic abuse charity Women's Aid called Tate's content a proxy for misogyny and sexism, saying, "the popularity of Tate is not a phenomenon in and of itself and, instead, is a current representation of existing misogyny".
In a 2024 interview with Empire magazine, the actor James McAvoy said that his character Paddy in the movie Speak No Evil was inspired by Tate.
=== Response ===
In February 2023, courses for teachers in the United Kingdom on how to address Tate's views sold out. Of what was called violent misogyny and other forms of extremist content that Tate distributes online, the head of UK counter-terror policing has said, "I'm concerned about the effect of that kind of rhetoric in the minds of young boys". In April 2023, the Department for Education (DfE) discouraged discussion of Tate, with many citing his influence regarding sexual harassment and misogynistic incidents. The co-founder of the charity Diversify expressed frustration over the refusal to provide any resources or training for teachers.
In October 2023, the Australian government allocated AUD$3.5 million (£1.8 million) to counter "harmful gender stereotypes perpetuated online" in response to young fans of Tate who have been described as "increasingly bringing misogynist views into Australian schools". According to researchers at Monash University Tate and other manosphere influencers have shaped the way boys treat women and girls and led students to openly espouse "male supremacist" views, to the extent that some Australian teachers have quit their jobs.
In February 2024, the shadow education secretary in the UK, Bridget Phillipson, said the Labour Party wanted to use male role models to counter the misogyny of influencers such as Tate. The proposal would implement "peer-to-peer mentoring" programs for school staff in order to directly address the impact of Tate and others. The general secretary of the National Education Union, Daniel Kebede, welcomed the plans, saying, "schools would welcome more support on how to respond to the online sexism and sexual harassment".
=== Surveys ===
In January 2023, a survey by "The Man Cave" of 500 teenage Australian boys found that 28 per cent looked up to Tate and 36 per cent found him relatable. Of 24 schools, half said they were "seeing a significant and negative impact of his influence on our boys". The next month, a survey by Hope not Hate found that eight in ten British males aged 16–17 had viewed Tate's content, with 45 per cent of British males aged 16–24 having a positive view of him, compared to 1 per cent of British females aged 16 and 17.
In September 2023, YouGov data found that 26 per cent of men aged 18–29 and 28 per cent of men aged 30–39 agreed with Tate's views on women. Of the 63 per cent of British adults who had heard of Tate, 6 per cent held a positive view, with men making up 12 per cent and women 3 per cent of views, while about half had a negative view.
In October 2023, a survey by Women's Aid and ORB International found that 40 per cent of 7–18 year-olds had heard of Tate, including 21 per cent of 7–11 year-olds and 43–53 per cent of 11–18 year-olds. The report found a correlation between being exposed to Tate's content and having harmful perceptions of relationships, with children exposed to such content being "five times more likely to think hurting people is OK".
In February 2024, research by King's College London, the Center for Women's Global Leadership, and Ipsos found that one in five men aged 16–29 who had heard of Tate held a favourable view, compared to 7 per cent of women in the same age group. Based on the survey of over 3,700 respondents aged 16 and over, only 6 per cent held a favourable view, while more than three out of four held an unfavourable view. One in seven agreed with his views on male identity and gender roles and 61 per cent disagreed.
=== Social media ===
An early YouTube channel Andrew and Tristan made was called the Hateful Tates. Tate became widely known in mid-2022 and was searched on Google more times than both Donald Trump and COVID-19 that July. In August, The Guardian reported that videos of Tate on TikTok had been viewed 11.6 billion times. In December 2023, Tate had over 8.5 million followers on X (Twitter), an increase of 5 million since December 2022. As of August 2024, Tate has 9.9 million followers on X. He was the third-most googled person in 2023, and his Wikipedia article was ranked among the top 25 English Wikipedia articles in 2023.
In December 2022, Tate addressed the environmentalist Greta Thunberg in a tweet extolling his carbon-emitting automobiles and asked for her email address to give her more information. Thunberg replied with the fake, satirical email address "smalldickenergy@getalife.com". The exchange received substantial attention on Twitter, with Thunberg's retort quickly becoming one of the most-liked tweets ever.
Tate gained notoriety on social media for promoting a "hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle" and a "hyper-macho image". According to The Guardian in February 2023, Tate is popular among British teenage boys, who mimic his phrases and philosophies. It reported that "virtually every parent in Britain" had heard of him, and that parents and schoolteachers expressed concern that he was influencing boys to exhibit misogynistic and aggressive behaviour. In the UK and Australia, increased sexual harassment in schools has been attributed to Tate's influence.
In January 2023 the BBC reported that Tate and his brother had used social media to contact various young women in an attempt to get them to join their webcam business. A year later, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that YouTube had earned up to £2.4 million in advertising revenue from Tate's content and accused YouTube of being "happy to continue to turn a blind eye". YouTube called the figure "wildly inaccurate and overinflated", highlighting that most channels are not monetised for such revenue.
==== Deplatforming ====
Three of Tate's Twitter accounts have been suspended at different times. In 2021, an account he created to evade his previous ban was verified by Twitter, contrary to its policies. The account was subsequently permanently banned, and Twitter said the verification occurred in error.
In August 2022, after an online campaign to deplatform him, Tate was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram, losing 4.7 million followers from the latter. Their parent company, Meta, said he had violated its policy on "dangerous organizations and individuals". TikTok, where videos featuring Tate's name as a hashtag have been viewed over 13 billion times, also removed his account after determining that it violated their policies on "content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanises an individual or a group". Shortly thereafter, YouTube suspended his channel, which had 760,000 subscribers, citing multiple violations, including hate speech and COVID-19 misinformation. Tate later deleted his own Twitch channel, which had 50,000 subscribers. In November 2022, after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, Tate's Twitter account was reinstated.
Tate responded to the bans by saying that, while most of his comments were taken out of context, he took responsibility for how they were received. The YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul denounced Tate's sexism but characterised the bans as censorship. Tate's content continues to circulate on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok via fan accounts. After the bans, Tate moved to the alt-tech platforms Gettr and Rumble, causing the latter to briefly become the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store.
=== Political party launch ===
In 2025, Tate stated he launched a new political party, the BRUV (Britain Restoring Underlying Values) Party, which was reported to be part of his plan to become prime minister. The party's official website stated, "This is a war to reclaim Britain. No excuses, no compromises, no second chances. We will defend our borders, crush crime, purge corruption, and restore pride to a nation under siege."
The party launch was widely ridiculed on social media, with one Twitter user describing its manifesto as a "mix of North Korea and homoeroticism" while another described the party as the "very worst idea in the history of British politics". Some speculated that it was only a PR stunt, but Tate dismissed the claims, stating, "I am 100% serious. I am in the next election".
The Twitter handle for the political party was suspended. However, after Tate made a complaint to Elon Musk, the account was restored.
== Personal life ==
In 2017 Tate and his brother moved from the United Kingdom to Romania, where they run multiple businesses. Tate said that he moved because he liked "living in countries where corruption is accessible for everybody" and believed he would be less likely to face rape charges in Romania. He said that Romanian police ask women reporting rapes for "evidence" or "CCTV proof", whereas in the Western world during the #MeToo movement any woman "at any point in the future can destroy your life". Tate reportedly has a number of children living in Romania whom he occasionally visits.
Tate was raised Christian but later became an atheist. By early 2022, he identified as a Christian again, and said that he tithed £16,000 to the Romanian Orthodox Church monthly. After a video of him praying at a mosque in Dubai went viral in October 2022, he announced on his Gettr account that he had converted to Islam. Scholars of the faith, such as Mufti Menk, have publicly commended his decision, with Menk stating in a recorded interview that Tate "seems like a very sincere brother" in response to it.
In March 2023, while incarcerated in Romania, Tate's legal team said that "he has a dark spot on his lung, most likely a tumor" following a medical consultation in Dubai, sparking online rumours about whether he has lung cancer. Tate later denied on Twitter that he had cancer.
In June 2025, it was revealed that Tate had received citizenship of Vanuatu through the country's citizenship by investment scheme in December 2022. A spokesperson for Vanuatu's government later stated that they were "definitely looking into" revoking Tate's citizenship.
== Criminal investigations and civil cases ==
=== 2010s ===
Tate was first arrested in Britain in July 2015 after two women filed complaints accusing him of rape and assault and was again arrested on suspicion of rape in December 2015. In 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service declined to file charges for any of the allegations.
==== 2018 ====
Canadian alt-right YouTuber and political activist Lauren Southern wrote in her 2025 memoir that she had met Tate in Romania in 2018. She said in the book that, after he had taken her from a nightclub to her hotel room, "He kissed me. I wasn't expecting it, and I wasn't looking for it, but I kissed him back briefly and then told him I wanted to sleep." She said that, after he insisted in touching her and she tried to fight back, he "put his arm around my neck and began strangling me unconscious. I tried to fight back…. I'd prefer not to share the rest. It's pretty obvious."
=== 2020s ===
==== 2022 ====
In April 2022, the US embassy received a report that an American citizen was being held against her will in a property the Tate brothers own in Pipera, Romania. Romanian police raided the home and a nearby webcam studio belonging to the Tates, where they discovered four women. Two of them, the American and another Romanian woman, told the police they were being held against their will, sparking an in-rem investigation into human trafficking and rape by DIICOT, the Romanian anti-organised crime agency. Later in December, police arrested the Tates and two women. All four were suspected of human trafficking and forming an organised crime group, and one of them is suspected of rape. Romanian authorities seized 29 assets, including cars, properties, watches, and money, totalling almost US$4 million.
==== 2023 ====
In June 2023, DIICOT adjusted the charges from human trafficking to "human trafficking in continued form", a more serious charge, with seven victims identified. The four accused were indicted on charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. They continue to deny all charges and remain under investigation for money laundering and trafficking of minors. That same month, the Tate brothers filed a defamation lawsuit against one of the accusers, their parents and two other people, in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, seeking $5 million in damages. The Tates claim the five conspired to falsely accuse them of human trafficking and rape, costing them their freedom as well as income from social media and business ventures.
==== 2024 ====
In January 2024, the Romanian criminal case was heard in the preliminary chamber before a trial date was set, and three months later, the Bucharest Tribunal decided that the case against Tate "met the legal criteria". That same month, US District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg dismissed another of the brothers' defamation lawsuits. They had sued a former United States Marine Corps sergeant who reported Tate to the US Embassy in Romania and military officials, leading to his arrest by Romanian authorities.
In March 2024, Westminster Magistrates' Court issued a European arrest warrant against Andrew and Tristan Tate. According to Tate's representative, the charges are based on allegations of sexual aggression from 2012 to 2015. The Tate brothers "categorically reject all charges". In July, Devon and Cornwall Police began civil proceedings against Tate, Tristan, and a third person, for tax evasion with their online businesses. Two months later, the three women involved in the British investigation, along with a fourth British woman, brought a civil case against Tate.
In August 2024, Romanian police expanded their investigation against Tate to include trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering and attempting to influence witnesses. Prosecutors said the new investigation involves 35 alleged victims, including a woman who was a minor at the time. The Tate brothers, among the six detained the next day, denied all the allegations.
In December 2024, the Westminster Magistrates' Court ruled in favour of the Devon and Cornwall Police, allowing them to seize £2.8 million worth of unpaid taxes from the Tate brothers' online businesses.
==== 2025 ====
In February 2025, Alison Hernandez, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall in the UK, announced that the force had received around £1.2 million and she hoped that the funds would be used to support the victims of violence against women and girls. In the US, following pressure from the Trump administration on Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions, Tate left Romania by private jet for the United States and arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he had become the subject of a statewide criminal investigation.
In March 2025, Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, initiated a criminal investigation into the affairs of Tate upon his arrival in the state. Tate's ex-girlfriend, Brianna Stern, has accused him of choking and beating her at The Beverly Hills Hotel on 10 March, and Stern claims she was later diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. She subsequently filed a lawsuit against Tate accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. Tate has denied her accusations.
In May 2025, the UK Crown Prosecution Service brought 21 charges against Tate and his brother Tristan including for rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.
== Kickboxing record ==
== Mixed martial arts record ==
=== Professional record ===
=== Amateur record ===
== MF–Professional boxing record ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Andrew Tate at BoxRec (registration required)
Andrew Tate at Sherdog
Andrew Tate at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Dimitrov#:~:text=While%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union%2C%20Dimitrov%20married%20his%20second%20wife%2C%20the%20Czech%2Dborn%20Roza%20Yulievna%20Fleishmann%20(1896%E2%80%931958)%2C%20who%20gave%20birth%20to%20his%20only%20son%2C%20Mitya%2C%20in%201936. | Georgi Dimitrov | Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; Bulgarian: Георги Димитров Михайлов) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (Russian: Георгий Михайлович Димитров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 to 1949, and the first leader of the Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 to 1949. From 1935 to 1943, he was the General Secretary of the Communist International.
Born in western Bulgaria, Dimitrov worked as a printer and trade unionist during his youth. He was elected to the Bulgarian parliament as a socialist during the First World War and campaigned against his country's involvement in the conflict, which led to his brief imprisonment for sedition. In 1919, he helped found the Bulgarian Communist Party. Two years later, he moved to the Soviet Union and was elected to the executive committee of Profintern. In 1923, Dimitrov led a failed communist uprising against the government of Aleksandar Tsankov and was subsequently forced into exile. He lived in the Soviet Union until 1929, at which time he relocated to Germany and became head of the Comintern operations in central Europe.
Dimitrov rose to international prominence in the aftermath of the 1933 Reichstag fire trial. Accused of plotting the arson, he refused counsel and mounted an eloquent defence against his Nazi accusers, in particular Hermann Göring, ultimately winning acquittal. After the trial he relocated to Moscow and was elected head of Comintern.
In 1946, Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria after 22 years in exile and was elected prime minister of the newly founded People's Republic of Bulgaria. He negotiated with Josip Broz Tito to create a federation of Southern Slavs, which led to the 1947 Bled accord. The plan ultimately fell apart over differences regarding the future of the joint country as well as the Macedonian question, and was completely abandoned following the fallout between Stalin and Tito. Dimitrov died after a short illness in 1949 in Barvikha near Moscow. His embalmed body was housed in the Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum in Sofia until its removal in 1990; the mausoleum was demolished in 1999.
== Early life ==
The first of eight children, Dimitrov was born in Kovachevtsi, in present-day Pernik Province, to refugee parents from Ottoman Macedonia (a mother from Bansko and a father from Razlog). His father was a rural craftsman, forced by industrialisation to become a factory worker. His mother, Parashkeva Doseva, was a Protestant Christian, and his family is sometimes described as Protestant. The family moved to Radomir and then to Sofia. Several of Georgi's siblings engaged in leftist political activities. His brother Nikola moved to Russia and joined the Bolsheviks in Odessa. In 1908, Nikola was arrested and exiled to Siberia where he died in 1916. Georgi's brother Konstantin became a trade union leader but was killed in the First Balkan War in 1912. One of his sisters, Lena, married a future communist leader, Valko Chervenkov.
Dimitrov was sent to Sunday school by his mother, who wanted him to be a pastor, but he was expelled at age 12. He then trained as a compositor, and became active in the labor movement in the Bulgarian capital. By age 15, he was an active trade union member. By age 18 in 1900, he was secretary of the Sofia branch of the printers' union.
== Career ==
Dimitrov joined the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party in 1902. The following year he allied himself with Dimitar Blagoev and the faction that formed the Social Democratic Labour Party of Bulgaria ("The Narrow Party", or tesniaks). In 1919, this party became the Bulgarian Communist Party when it affiliated with Bolshevism and the Comintern. From 1904 to 1923, Dimitrov was Secretary of the General Trade Unions Federation, which the Narrows controlled.
In 1911, he spent a month in prison for libeling an official of the rival Free Federation of Trade Unions, whom he accused of strike-breaking. In 1913, he was elected to the Bulgarian Parliament. He opposed government policies in the Balkan Wars and World War I. In 1915, he voted against awarding new war credits and denounced Bulgarian nationalism, for which he received short prison sentences. In summer 1917, after he intervened in defense of wounded soldiers who were being ordered by an officer to clear out of a first-class railway carriage, Dimitrov was charged with incitement to mutiny, stripped of his parliamentary immunity, and imprisoned on 29 August 1918. Released in 1919, he went underground and made two failed attempts to visit Russia, finally reaching Moscow in February 1921. He returned to Bulgaria later in 1921, but then travelled again to Moscow and was elected in December 1922 to the Executive Bureau of Profintern, the communist trade union international.
In June 1923, when Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski was deposed through a coup d'état, Dimitrov and Khristo Kabakchiev, the leading communists in Bulgaria at the time, resolved not to take sides, a decision condemned by the Comintern as a "political capitulation" brought on by the party's "dogmatic-doctrinaire approach". After Vasil Kolarov had been sent from Moscow to impose a change in the Bulgarian party line, Dimitrov accepted the Comintern's authority. In September 1923, he and Kolarov led the failed uprising against the regime of Aleksandar Tsankov, which cost the lives of possibly five thousand communist supporters during the fighting and the reprisals which followed. Despite its failure, the attempt was approved by the Comintern, and secured the positions of Kolarov and Dimitrov – who escaped via Yugoslavia to Vienna – as the joint leaders of the Bulgarian CP.
The political struggle in Bulgaria intensified in 1925. Dimitrov's only surviving brother, Todor, was arrested and killed that year by royal police. After the April 1925 St Nedelya Church assault, which was a terrorist bomb attack carried out by members of the Bulgarian CP, Dimitrov was tried in absentia in May 1926 and sentenced to death, although he had not approved the attack. Living under pseudonyms, he remained in the Soviet Union until 1929, when he was ousted from his Bulgarian CP leadership role by a faction of younger, more left-wing activists. Dimitrov then relocated to Germany where he was given charge of the Central European section of the Comintern. In 1932, he was appointed Secretary General of the World Committee Against War and Fascism, replacing Willi Münzenberg.
== Leipzig trial ==
Dimitrov was living in Berlin in early 1933 when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took power. On the night of 27 February, the German parliament building, the Reichstag, was severely damaged in an arson attack. A Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was found near the scene of the crime and presumed to be the culprit. Hitler quickly blamed a Communist conspiracy for the arson, and the Nazis proceeded to make mass arrests. On 9 March, Dimitrov was arrested based on the evidence of a waiter who claimed to have seen "three Russians" (in reality, Dimitrov and two other Bulgarians, Vasil Tanev, and Blagoy Popov, both of whom were members of the faction that had supplanted Dimitrov in the Bulgarian Communist Party) talking in a cafe with Van der Lubbe. Dimitrov would remain in Nazi detention until the following February. His diary entries during this period tended to be "dry and elliptical, and occasionally obscure" since he knew they would be subject to examination by his captors.
The Reichstag fire trial lasted from September to December 1933. Because it occurred at the Reich Supreme Court in Leipzig, it is often referred to as the Leipzig Trial. Dimitrov decided to refuse counsel and defend himself against his Nazi accusers, most famously Hermann Göring. Dimitrov used the trial as an opportunity to defend the Communist ideology. Explaining why he chose to speak in his own defense, Dimitrov said:
I admit that my tone is hard and grim. The struggle of my life has always been hard and grim. My tone is frank and open. I am used to calling a spade a spade. I am no lawyer appearing before this court in the mere way of his profession. I am defending myself, an accused Communist. I am defending my political honor, my honor as a revolutionary. I am defending my Communist ideology, my ideals. I am defending the content and significance of my whole life. For these reasons every word which I say in this court is a part of me, each phrase is the expression of my deep indignation against the unjust accusation, against the putting of this anti-Communist crime, the burning of the Reichstag, to the account of the Communists.
Dimitrov's calm conduct of his defence, and the accusations he directed at his prosecutors, won him world renown. In Europe, a popular saying spread across the Continent: "There is only one brave man in Germany, and he is a Bulgarian." Among those impressed with Dimitrov was the noted U.S. attorney Arthur Garfield Hays, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hays attended the Leipzig Trial and devoted a chapter to it in his 1942 autobiography. In an oft-quoted passage, Hays wrote of Dimitrov:I have never seen such a magnificent exhibition of moral courage. The man was not only brave but reckless, and selflessly so. Whenever he got to his feet, he would by force of his personality place the court, the prosecutors, the German audience, and the Nazis on the defensive. This striking characterization was cited in multiple American newspaper reviews of Hays' book and helped introduce Dimitrov's name throughout the U.S.
On 23 December 1933, the verdicts were read. While Van der Lubbe was found guilty and sentenced to death, the judge acquitted Dimitrov, Tanev, and Popov because of insufficient evidence to connect them to what the judge was convinced was a conspiracy to burn down the Reichstag. The three Bulgarians were expelled from Germany and sent to the USSR.
== Head of Comintern ==
When Dimitrov arrived in Moscow on 28 February 1934, he was encouraged by Joseph Stalin to end the practice of denouncing Social Democrats as 'social fascists', practically indistinguishable from actual fascists, and to instead promote "united front" tactics against the threat of European fascism. In April, as Dimitrov's fame grew in the wake of the Leipzig Trial, he was appointed a member of the Executive of Comintern and of its political secretariat, in charge of the Anglo-American and Central European sections. He was being groomed to take control of the Comintern from two of the so-called "Old Bolsheviks", Iosif Pyatnitsky and Wilhelm Knorin, who had held the position since 1923. Finally, in 1934, Stalin chose Dimitrov to head the international organization. At this point, Tzvetan Todorov writes, Dimitrov "became part of the Soviet leader's inner circle."
From 25 July to 20 August 1935, the 7th World Congress of the Communist International met in Moscow. Dimitrov was the dominant presence; he was elected the Comintern's General Secretary. His impassioned anti-fascist speeches at the Congress were transcribed and published in a September 1935 pamphlet, The United Front Against Fascism, which went through numerous editions over the ensuing years.
During the Great Purge in the Soviet Union, Dimitrov knew about the mass arrests, but did almost nothing. In November 1937, he was told by Stalin to lure the German communist Willi Münzenberg to the USSR so that he could be arrested. Dimitrov did not object and did as he was told. He noted in his diary when Julian Leszczyński, Henryk Walecki, and several members of his staff were arrested, but again did nothing, though he did raise questions when the NKVD representative in Comintern, Mikhail Trilisser, was arrested.
== Leader of Bulgaria ==
In 1946, Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria after 22 years in exile. After a referendum abolished the monarchy in September, Bulgaria was declared a people's republic. Later that year, he succeeded Kimon Georgiev as Prime Minister, though Dimitrov had already been the most powerful man in the country since the monarchy was abolished two months earlier. He retained his Soviet citizenship.
One of Dimitrov's first acts as Prime Minister was to negotiate with Josip Broz Tito on the creation of a Federation of the Southern Slavs. The Bulgarian and Yugoslav Communist leaderships had been discussing this matter since November 1944. The idea was based on the fact that Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were the only two homelands of the Southern Slavs, and were separated from the rest of the Slavic world. The idea eventually resulted in the 1947 Bled accord, signed by Dimitrov and Tito, which called for abandoning frontier travel barriers, arranging for a future customs union, and having Yugoslavia unilaterally forgive Bulgarian war reparations. The preliminary plan for the federation included the incorporation of the Blagoevgrad Region ("Pirin Macedonia") into the People's Republic of Macedonia and the return of the Western Outlands from Serbia to Bulgaria. In anticipation of this, Bulgaria accepted teachers from Yugoslavia who started to teach the newly codified Macedonian language in the schools in Pirin Macedonia, and also issued an order that the Bulgarians of the Blagoevgrad Region should claim а Macedonian identity.
However, differences soon emerged between Dimitrov and Tito with regard to both the future joint country and the Macedonian question. Whereas Dimitrov envisaged a state where Yugoslavia and Bulgaria would be placed on an equal footing and Macedonia would be more or less attached to Bulgaria, Tito saw Bulgaria as a seventh republic in an enlarged Yugoslavia tightly ruled from Belgrade. Their differences also extended to the national character of the Macedonians; whereas Dimitrov considered them to be an offshoot of the Bulgarians, Tito regarded them as an independent nation of people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Bulgarians. The initial tolerance for the Macedonization of Pirin Macedonia gradually grew into outright alarm.
By January 1948, Tito's plans to annex Bulgaria and Albania had become an obstacle to policy of the Cominform and the other Eastern Bloc countries. In December 1947, Enver Hoxha and an Albanian delegation were invited to a high-level meeting in Bulgaria. Dimitrov was aware of the subversive activity of Koçi Xoxe and other pro-Yugoslav Albanian officials. He told Enver Hoxha during the meeting: "Look here, Comrade Enver, keep the Party pure! Let it be revolutionary, proletarian and everything will go well with you!"
After the initial rupture, Stalin invited Dimitrov and Tito to Moscow regarding the recent incident. Dimitrov accepted the invitation, but Tito refused, and sent his close associate Edvard Kardelj instead. The resulting rift between Stalin and Tito in 1948 gave the Bulgarian Government an eagerly-awaited opportunity of denouncing Yugoslav policy in Macedonia as expansionistic, and of revising its policy on the Macedonian question. The ideas of a Balkan Federation and a United Macedonia were abandoned, the Macedonian teachers were expelled and the teaching of Macedonian throughout the province was discontinued. At the 5th Congress of the Bulgarian Workers' Party (Communists), Dimitrov accused Tito of "nationalism" and hostility towards the internationalist communists, specifically the Soviet Union. Despite the fallout, Yugoslavia did not reverse its position on renouncing Bulgarian war reparations, as defined in the 1947 Bled accord.
== Personal life ==
In 1906, Dimitrov married his first wife, Serbian emigrant milliner, writer and socialist Ljubica Ivošević, with whom he lived until her death in 1933. While in the Soviet Union, Dimitrov married his second wife, the Czech-born Roza Yulievna Fleishmann (1896–1958), who gave birth to his only son, Mitya, in 1936. The boy died at age seven of diphtheria. While Mitya was alive, Dimitrov adopted Fani, a daughter of Wang Ming, the acting General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 1931. He and his wife adopted another child, Boiko Dimitrov, born 1941.
== Death ==
Dimitrov died on 2 July 1949 in the Barvikha sanatorium near Moscow. The speculation that he had been poisoned has never been confirmed, although his health seemed to deteriorate quite abruptly. The supporters of the poisoning theory claim that Stalin did not like the "Balkan Federation" idea of Dimitrov and his closeness with Tito.
After the funeral, Dimitrov's body was embalmed and placed on display in Sofia's Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum. After the end of Communist rule in Bulgaria, his body was buried in Sofia's central cemetery in 1990. His mausoleum was demolished in 1999.
== Legacy ==
=== Armenia ===
A statue in the village of Dimitrov, named in his honour in 1949.
=== Benin ===
A large painted statue of Dimitrov survives in the centre of Place Bulgarie in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, decades after the country abandoned Marxism–Leninism and the colossal statue of Vladimir Lenin was removed from Place Lenine.
=== Bulgaria ===
Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria
Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum 1949–1999
=== Cambodia ===
There is also an avenue (#114) named for him in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
=== Cuba ===
A main avenue in the Nuevo Holguin neighborhood, which was built during the 1970s and 1980s in the city of Holguín is named after him.
Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias Jorge Dimitrov in Bayamo is named after him.
IPUEC Jorge Dimitrov (Ceiba 7) school in Caimito
Primary School Escuela Primaria Jorge Dimitrov in Havana
=== East Germany ===
In then-East Berlin's Pankow district, a street that since 1874 had been named Danziger Straße — after the formerly German city Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) — was in 1950 renamed Dimitroffstraße (Dimitrov Street) by the Communist East German regime. It also lent its name to an U-Bahn station. After German unification, the Berlin Senate in 1995 restored the street's name to Danziger Straße, and the U-Bahn station was renamed Eberswalder Straße.
=== England ===
In July 1982, there was a centennial celebration of Dimitrov's birth held at Mahatma Gandhi Hall in London. A lecture from the event was printed in the pamphlet, Georgi Dimitrov: Fighter Against Fascism.
=== Greece ===
In 1974, the song Mavra Korakia along with 20 songs of album "Antartika" (The Guerilla [Songs]) were published by Notis Mavroudis and Petros Pandis, as part of the return of KKE in Greece during the Metapolitefsi. The song is a glorification of the Leipzig Trial of Dimitrov, Tanev and Popov, emphasising Dimitrov's ability to avoid hanging. It is widely sung in the left-wing circles of Greek society.
=== Hungary ===
The square Fővám tér and the street Máriaremetei út in Budapest, Hungary were named after Dimitrov between 1949 and 1991. In the square, a bust of him was erected in 1954, replaced by a full-length statue in 1983, which was then relocated to the eponymous street a year later. Both sculptures are exhibited since 1992 in the Memento Park.
Szentlőrincpuszta, part of Érsekvadkert was called Dimitrovpuszta (Dimitrov Plains) between 1955 and the late 1990s.
=== Italy ===
There is a Georgi Dimitrov street in the city of Reggio Emilia, Emilia Romagna administrative region.
=== Nicaragua ===
The Sandinista government of Nicaragua renamed one of Managua's central neighbourhoods "Barrio Jorge Dimitrov" to commemorate him during that country's revolution in the 1980s.
=== Romania ===
In Bucharest, a boulevard was named after him (Bulevardul Dimitrov). In 1990, following the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, this boulevard was renamed in honor of the former Romanian King Ferdinand I (Bulevardul Ferdinand).
=== Russia ===
Dimitrovgrad, Russia
In Novosibirsk a large street leading to a bridge over the Ob River are both named after him. The bridge was opened in 1978.
=== Serbia ===
Dimitrovgrad, Serbia (see below)
=== Slovakia ===
During the times of the communist rule, an important chemical factory in Bratislava was called "Chemické závody Juraja Dimitrova" (colloquially Dimitrovka) in his honour. After the Velvet Revolution, it was renamed Istrochem.
=== Ukraine ===
Dymytrov, now Myrnohrad in Ukraine was named Dymytrov between 1972 and 2016.
=== Yugoslavia ===
After the 1963 Skopje earthquake, Bulgaria joined the international reconstruction effort by donating funds for the construction of a high school, which opened in 1964. In order to honor the donor country's first post-World War II president, the high school was named after Georgi Dimitrov, a name it still bears today.
The town of Caribrod (Цариброд) in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia, FPRY was renamed in 1950 to Dimitrovgrad (Димитровград) to honor the late Bulgarian leader, despite the Tito-Stalin split. The name has been kept since, although in recent years the local city council has tried to restore the old name (most recently in 2019), and some people prefer the older name to avoid confusion with the Dimitrovgrad in Bulgaria.
== Works ==
== References ==
== Sources ==
Banac, Ivo, ed. (2003). The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933–1949. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300097948.
== Further reading ==
Dallin, Alexander; Firsov, Fridrikh Igorevich, eds. (2000). Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934–1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300080212.
Stankova, Marietta (2010). Georgi Dimitrov: A Life (Communist Lives). London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1845117283.
== External links ==
Georgi Dimitrov Internet Archive at Marxists Internet Archive.
Selected Works in English (Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3) in PDF format, published in Bulgaria in 1972.
Stella Blagoeva, George Dimitroff, International Publishers, 1943.
Georgi Dimitrov: 90th Birth Anniversary, containing biographical information.
Video A Better Tomorrow: The Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum from UCTV (University of California)
Newspaper clippings about Georgi Dimitrov in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_for_England_and_Wales | Attorney General for England and Wales | His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales (Welsh: Twrnai Cyffredinol Lloegr a Chymru) is the chief legal adviser to the Sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales as well as the highest ranking amongst the Law officers of the Crown. The Attorney general is the leader of the Attorney General's Office and currently attends (but is not a member of) the Cabinet. Unlike in other countries employing the Common law legal system, the attorney general does not govern the Administration of justice; that function is carried out by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. The incumbent is also concurrently the Advocate General for Northern Ireland.
The position of Attorney General dates back to at least 1243, when records indicate that a professional attorney was appointed to represent the King's interests in court. The position first took on a political role in 1461 when the holder of the office was summoned to the House of Lords to advise the Government there on legal matters. In 1673, the attorney general officially became the Crown's adviser and representative in legal matters, although still specialising in litigation rather than advice. The beginning of the 20th century saw a shift away from litigation and more towards legal advice. Today, prosecutions are carried out by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and most legal advice to government departments is provided by the Government Legal Department, both under the supervision of the attorney general.
Additional duties include superintending the Serious Fraud Office, HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, Service Prosecuting Authority, and other government lawyers with the authority to prosecute cases. The attorney general advises the government, individual government departments, and individual government ministers on legal matters, answering questions in Parliament and bringing "Unduly lenient" sentences and points of law to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. As per the Law Officers Act 1997, duties can be delegated to the Solicitor General, and any actions are treated as if they came from the attorney general.
The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales, who scrutinises the work of the attorney general alongside the Justice Select Committee.
== History ==
The origins of the office are unknown, but the earliest record of an "attorney of the crown" is from 1243, when a professional attorney named Laurence Del Brok was paid to prosecute cases for the king, who could not appear in courts where he had an interest. During the early days of the office the holder was largely concerned with representing the Crown in litigation, and held no political role or duties. Although a valuable position, the attorney general was expected to work incredibly hard; although Francis North (1637–1685) was earning £7,000 a year as attorney general he was pleased to give up the office and become Chief Justice of the Common Pleas because of the smaller workload, despite the heavily reduced pay. The office first took on a political element in 1461, when the holder was summoned by writ to the House of Lords to advise the government on legal matters. This was also the first time that the office was referred to as the office of the "Attorney General". The custom of summoning the attorney general to the Lords by writ when appointed continues unbroken to this day, although until the appointment of Lord Williams of Mostyn in 1999, no attorney general had sat in the Lords since 1700, and no attorney general had obeyed the writ since 1742.
During the 16th century, the attorney general was used to pass messages between the House of Lords and House of Commons, although he was viewed suspiciously by the Commons and seen as a tool of the Lords and the king. In 1673 the attorney general began to take up a seat in the House of Commons, and since then it has been convention to ensure that all attorneys general are members of the House of Commons or House of Lords, although there is no requirement that they be so. During the constitutional struggle centred on the Royal Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 and 1673 the attorney general officially became the Crown's representative in legal matters.
In 1890, the ability of an attorney general to continue practising privately was formally taken away, turning the office-holder into a dedicated representative of the government. Since the beginning of the twentieth century the role of the attorney general has moved away from representing the Crown and government directly in court, and it has become more of a political and ministerial post, with the attorney general serving as a legal adviser to both the government as a whole and individual government departments. Despite this change, until the passing of the Homicide Act 1957 the attorney general was bound to prosecute any and all poisoning cases.
However, in recent times the attorney general has exceptionally conducted litigation in person before the courts, for instance before the House of Lords in A and Others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, where the legality of the government's detention of terrorist suspects at Belmarsh was at issue.
== Role and duties ==
The attorney general is currently not a cabinet minister, but is designated as also attending Cabinet. The rule that no attorney general may be a cabinet minister is a political convention rather than a law, and for a short period of time the attorney general did sit in cabinet, starting with Sir Rufus Isaacs in 1912 and ending with Douglas Hogg in 1928. There is nothing that prohibits attorneys general from attending meetings of the Cabinet, and on occasion they have been asked to attend meetings to advise the government on the best course of action legally. Despite this, it is considered preferable to exclude attorneys general from cabinet meetings so as to draw a distinct line between them and the political decisions on which they are giving legal advice. As a government minister, the attorney general is directly answerable to Parliament.
The attorney general is also the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government, and has the primary role of advising the government on any legal repercussions of their actions, either orally at meetings or in writing. As well as the government as a whole, they also advise individual departments. Although the primary role is no longer one of litigation, the attorney general still represents the Crown and government in court in some select, particularly important cases, and chooses the Treasury Counsel who handle most government legal cases. By convention, they represent the government in every case in front of the International Court of Justice. The attorney general also superintends the Crown Prosecution Service and appoints its head, the Director of Public Prosecutions. Decisions to prosecute are taken by the Crown Prosecution Service other than in exceptional cases i.e. where the attorney general's consent is required by statute or in cases relating to national security. An example of a consent case is the Campbell Case, which led to the fall of the first Labour government in 1924.
The attorney general also superintends the Government Legal Department and the Serious Fraud Office. The attorney general also has powers to bring "unduly lenient" sentences and points of law to the Court of Appeal, issue writs of nolle prosequi to cancel criminal prosecutions, supervise other prosecuting bodies (such as DEFRA) and advise individual ministers facing legal action as a result of their official actions. They are responsible for making applications to the court restraining vexatious litigants, and may intervene in litigation to represent the interests of charity, or the public interest in certain family law cases. They are also officially the leader of the Bar of England and Wales, although this is merely custom and has no duties or rights attached to it. The attorney general's duties have long been considered strenuous, with Sir Patrick Hastings saying that "to be a law officer is to be in hell". Since the passing of the Law Officers Act 1997, any duties of the attorney general can be delegated to the Solicitor General for England and Wales, with their actions pertaining to the attorney general's supposed duties treated as coming from the attorney general himself.
== List of attorneys general ==
=== 13th century ===
William of Boneville (1277–1278)
William de Giselham (1278–1279)
Gilbert de Thornton (1279–1280)
Alanus of Walkingham (1280–1281)
John le Fawconer (1281–1284)
William of Selby (1284–1286)
Gilbert de Thornton (1286–1286)
William Inge (1286–1289)
John de Bosco (1289–1290), also called John de Boys
William Inge and Hugo de Louther (1291–1293)
John de Mutford (1293–1299)
Nicholas de Warwick (1299)
=== 14th century ===
John de Cestria (1300–1301)
John de Mutford (1301–1308)
Matthew de Scacarrio (1308–1312)
John de Norton (1312–1315)
William de Langley (1315–1318)
Adam de Fyneham (1318–1320)
Galfridus de Scrope (1320–1322)
Galfridus de Fyngale (1322–1324)
Adam de Fyneham (1324–1327)
William of Merston (26 February 1327 – 1327)
Alexander de Hadenham and Adam de Fyneham (1327–1328)
Richard of Aldeburgh (1329–1334)
Simon of Trewythosa (c. 1334)
William of Hepton (1334–1338)
John of Lincoln (28 May 1338 – 4 August 1338)
John of Clone (4 August 1338 – 1338)
William of Merington (1338–1339)
John of Clone (1339–1342)
William of Thorpe (1342–1343)
John of Lincoln (1343–1343)
John of Clone (1343–1349)
Simon of Kegworth (1349–1353)
Henry of Greystok (1353–1356)
John of Gaunt (1356 – 4 May 1360)
Richard of Fryseby (4 May 1360 – 1362)
William (or possibly Robert) of Pleste (1362–1363)
William of Nessefield (1363 – 9 November 1366)
Thomas of Shardelow (9 November 1366 – 20 May 1367)
John of Ashwell (20 May 1367 – 1367)
Michael Skilling (1367–1378)
Thomas of Shardelow (1378–1381)
William Ellis (1381–1381)
Laurence Dru (1381–1384)
William of Horneby (1384–1386)
Edmund Brudnell (1386–1398)
Thomas Coveley (1398 – 30 September 1399)
William of Lodington (30 September 1399 – 1401)
=== 15th century ===
Thomas Coveley (1401 – 13 July 1407)
Thomas Dereham (13 July 1407 – 17 August 1407)
Roger Hunt (17 August 1407 – 1410)
Thomas Tickhill (1410 – 16 January 1414)
William Babington (16 January 1414 – 1420)
William Babthorpe (1420 – 28 October 1429)
John Vampage (28 October 1429 – 30 June 1452)
William of Nottingham (30 June 1452 – 12 August 1461)
John Herbert (12 August 1461 – 1461)
Henry Sothill (1461 – 16 June 1471)
William Hussey (16 June 1471 – 7 May 1481)
William Huddesfield (7 May 1481 – 28 May 1483)
Morgan Kidwelly (28 May 1483 – 20 September 1485)
William Hody (20 September 1485 – 3 November 1486)
James Hobart (3 November 1486 – April 1509)
=== 16th century ===
John Ernley (April 1509 – 26 January 1518)
John Fitz-James (26 January 1518 – February 1522)
John Roper (February 1522 – 1 April 1524)
Ralph Swillington (1 April 1524 – August 1525)
Richard Lyster (August 1525 – 3 June 1529)
Christopher Hales (3 June 1529 – 10 July 1535)
Sir John Baker (10 July 1535 – 8 November 1540)
William Whorwood (8 November 1540 – 8 June 1545)
Henry Bradshaw (8 June 1545 – 21 May 1552)
Edward Griffin (21 May 1552 – 22 January 1559)
Gilbert Gerard (22 January 1559 – 1 June 1581)
John Popham (1 June 1581 – 2 June 1592)
Thomas Egerton (2 June 1592 – 10 April 1594)
Edward Coke (10 April 1594 – 4 July 1606)
=== 17th century ===
Henry Hobart (4 July 1606 – 27 October 1613)
Francis Bacon (27 October 1613 – 12 March 1617)
Henry Yelverton (12 March 1617 – 11 January 1621)
Thomas Coventry (11 January 1621 – 31 October 1625)
Sir Robert Heath (31 October 1625 – 27 October 1631)
William Noy (27 October 1631 – 27 September 1634)
John Bankes (27 September 1634 – 29 January 1641)
Edward Herbert (29 January 1641 – 3 November 1645)
Thomas Gardiner (royalist) (3 November 1645 – 1649)
Oliver St John (parliamentary) (May 1644 – 10 January 1649)
William Steele (commonwealth) (10 January 1649 – 9 April 1649)
Edmund Prideaux (commonwealth) (9 April 1649 – 1659)
Robert Reynolds (commonwealth) (1659 – 31 May 1660)
Edward Herbert (in exile) (1649–1653)
Geoffrey Palmer (31 May 1660 – 10 May 1670)
Heneage Finch (10 May 1670 – 12 November 1673)
Francis North (12 November 1673 – 25 January 1675)
William Jones (25 January 1675 – 27 October 1679)
Creswell Levinz (27 October 1679 – 24 February 1681)
Robert Sawyer (24 February 1681 – 13 December 1687)
Thomas Powys (13 December 1687 – December 1688)
Henry Pollexfen (March 1689 – 4 May 1689)
George Treby (4 May 1689 – 3 May 1692)
John Somers (3 May 1692 – 30 March 1693)
Edward Ward (30 March 1693 – 8 June 1695)
Thomas Trevor (8 June 1695 – 28 June 1701)
=== 18th century ===
Edward Northey (28 June 1701 – 26 April 1707)
Simon Harcourt (26 April 1707 – 22 October 1708)
James Montagu (22 October 1708 – 19 September 1710)
Simon Harcourt (19 September 1710 – 19 October 1710)
Edward Northey (19 October 1710 – 18 March 1718)
Nicholas Lechmere (18 March 1718 – 7 May 1720)
Robert Raymond (7 May 1720 – 1 February 1724)
Philip Yorke (1 February 1724 – January 1734)
John Willes (January 1734 – 28 January 1737)
Dudley Ryder (28 January 1737 – May 1754)
William Murray (May 1754 – 3 November 1756)
Robert Henley (3 November 1756 – 1 July 1757)
Charles Pratt (1 July 1757 – 25 January 1762)
Charles Yorke (25 January 1762 – 16 December 1763)
Fletcher Norton (16 December 1763 – 17 September 1765)
Charles Yorke (17 September 1765 – 6 August 1766)
William de Grey (6 August 1766 – 26 January 1771)
Edward Thurlow (26 January 1771 – 11 June 1778)
Alexander Wedderburn (11 June 1778 – 21 July 1780)
James Wallace (21 July 1780 – 18 April 1782)
Lloyd Kenyon (18 April 1782 – 2 May 1783)
James Wallace (2 May 1783 – November 1783) (died in office)
John Lee (22 November 1783 – 19 December 1783)
Lloyd Kenyon (26 December 1783 – 31 March 1784)
Richard Arden (31 March 1784 – 28 June 1788)
Archibald Macdonald (28 June 1788 – 14 February 1793)
John Scott (14 February 1793 – 18 July 1799)
John Mitford (18 July 1799 – 14 February 1801)
=== 19th century ===
Colour key (for political parties):
Conservative Liberal
Edward Law (14 February 1801 – 15 April 1802)
Spencer Perceval (15 April 1802 – 12 February 1806)
Arthur Piggott (12 February 1806 – 1 April 1807)
Vicary Gibbs (1 April 1807 – 26 June 1812)
Thomas Plumer (26 June 1812 – 4 May 1813)
William Garrow (4 May 1813 – 7 May 1817)
Samuel Shepherd (7 May 1817 – 24 July 1819)
Robert Gifford (24 July 1819 – 9 January 1824)
John Singleton Copley (9 January 1824 – 20 September 1826)
Charles Wetherell (20 September 1826 – 27 April 1827)
James Scarlett (27 April 1827 – 19 February 1828)
Charles Wetherell (19 February 1828 – 29 June 1829)
James Scarlett (29 June 1829 – 19 November 1830)
Thomas Denman (24 November 1830 – 26 November 1832)
William Horne (26 November 1832 – 1 March 1834)
John Campbell (1 March 1834 – 14 November 1834)
Frederick Pollock (17 December 1834 – 8 April 1835)
John Campbell (30 April 1835 – 3 July 1841)
Thomas Wilde (3 July 1841 – 30 August 1841)
Frederick Pollock (6 September 1841 – 15 April 1844)
William Webb Follett (15 April 1844 – 29 June 1845)
Frederic Thesiger (29 June 1845 – 27 June 1846)
Thomas Wilde (7 July 1846 – 17 July 1846)
John Jervis (17 July 1846 – 11 July 1850)
John Romilly (11 July 1850 – 28 March 1851)
Alexander Cockburn (28 March 1851 – 21 February 1852)
Frederic Thesiger (27 February 1852 – 17 December 1852)
Alexander Cockburn (28 December 1852 – 15 November 1856)
Richard Bethell (15 November 1856 – 21 February 1858)
Fitzroy Kelly (21 February 1858 – 11 June 1859)
Richard Bethell (18 June 1859 – 4 July 1861)
=== 20th century ===
Colour key (for political parties): Conservative Labour Liberal Liberal Unionist National Labour Irish Unionist
=== 21st century ===
Colour key (for political parties): Conservative Labour
== See also ==
Solicitor General for England and Wales
Attorney General for Northern Ireland (held by Attorney General for England and Wales from 1970 to 2010)
Advocate General for Scotland
Attorney-General for Ireland
== References ==
== Works cited ==
Attorney General's Office (2007). The governance of Britain: a consultation on the role of the Attorney General. The Stationery Office. ISBN 9780101719223.
Carroll, Alex (2007). Constitutional and Administrative Law (4th ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-1231-3.
Cooley, Rita (1958). "Predecessors of the Federal Attorney General: The Attorney General in England and the American Colonies". The American Journal of Legal History. 2 (4). Temple University: 304–312. doi:10.2307/844539. ISSN 0002-9319. JSTOR 844539.
Dickens, Bernard (1972). "The Attorney-General's Consent to Prosecutions". The Modern Law Review. 35 (4). Blackwell Publishing: 347–361. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.1972.tb02353.x.
Elliott, Catherine; Francis Quinn (2008). English Legal System (9th ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-5941-7.
Jones, Elwyn (1969). "The Office of Attorney-General". The Cambridge Law Journal. 27 (1). Cambridge University Press: 43–53. doi:10.1017/S0008197300088899. ISSN 0008-1973. S2CID 145400357.
== External links ==
Media related to Attorneys General for England and Wales at Wikimedia Commons
Texts on Wikisource:
"Attorney-General". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (9th ed.). 1878. p. 887.
"Attorney-General". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 63. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuta,_Boyac%C3%A1 | Tuta, Boyacá | Tuta is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Central Boyacá Province. Tuta is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at a distance of 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the department capital Tunja. It borders Paipa, Pesca and Firavitoba in the east, Cómbita in the west, Sotaquirá and Paipa in the north and Chivatá, Toca and Oicatá in the south.
== History ==
The area of Tuta before the Spanish conquest was inhabited by the Tuta tribe who belonged to the Muisca who were organized in their loose Muisca Confederation. Ruler of the northern territories was the zaque of Hunza, modern day Tunja, who also reigned over Tuta. The Muisca spoke Chibcha and in that now extinct language Tuta means "Borrowed farmlands" or "Property of the Sun".
Modern Tuta was properly founded on June 4, 1776, by Miguel Sánchez and Juan Rodríguez Parra.
== Economy ==
The economy of Tuta is centered on agriculture, livestock farming and mining. Agricultural products are potatoes, barley, beans, maize, peas, onions and fruits. Mining consists of gypsum, coal, oil, kaolin, iron ore and sulphur. On the Alto de Ginua hill emeralds were discovered.
== Born in Tuta ==
Miguel Samacá, former professional cyclist
Miguel Ángel Sanabria, former professional cyclist
Raúl Sánchez Niño, artist and folkloric music author.
== Gallery ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Tamil_Thisai | Hindu Tamil Thisai | Hindu Tamil Thisai (colloquially known as The Hindu Tamil) is a Tamil daily newspaper headquartered at Chennai. It is published by The Hindu Group. The first issue was published on 16 September 2013. It is printed in seven centres including Chennai. The printing centres are at Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and Tirupathi. The Tamil newspaper covers news related to business, education, knowledge, sports, quiz, environment, literature and entertainment. The daily has extensive regional, national and international news coverage.
== References ==
== External links ==
Hindu Tamil website
The Hindu pdf |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Jamal_(cricketer)#:~:text=Ahmed%20Jamal%20(born%203%20September,for%20Sui%20Southern%20Gas%20Company. | Ahmed Jamal (cricketer) | Ahmed Jamal (born 3 September 1988) is a Pakistani first-class cricketer who plays for Sui Southern Gas Company. He is a six feet four inches (193 cm) tall right-arm pace bowler. In October 2017, he took nine wickets for 50 runs for Sui Southern Gas Corporation against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited in the 2017–18 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, his career-best figures.
Jamal is noted for winning Pakistan’s “King of Speed” competition in 2013, registering a bowling speed of 143 km/h.
== References ==
== External links ==
Ahmed Jamal at ESPNcricinfo |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Nawaz_Khokhar | Mohammad Nawaz Khokhar | Haji Muhammad Nawaz Khokhar was a Pakistani politician from Islamabad, Pakistan.
== Early life and career ==
Nawaz Khokhar was elected as MNA thrice from his constituency NA-35 (Islamabad) in 1985–1988, 1990–1993 and 1993–1996.
He was elected the deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1999 and also served as Minister of Science and Technology. He was one of the most notorious politicians. He was brother of late Imtiaz Khokhar also known as Taji Khokhar. He died on 9 January 2021 due to cardiac arrest.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocklyon#:~:text=Gaelscoil%20Chnoc%20Liamhna%20is%20an,September%201996%20with%2036%20pupils. | Knocklyon | Knocklyon (Irish: Cnoc Lín) is a suburb of the city of Dublin, located in South Dublin, Ireland. Unlike many Dublin suburbs, Knocklyon was not developed around a village; rather it largely consists of modern housing, with a number of old cottages and farmhouses along Knocklyon Road attesting to the area's rural past.
== Etymology ==
The area has been known historically in 14th-century scrolls as Cnoclín, literally 'flax mountain'. Until recently, roadsigns in Knocklyon had an incorrect "reverse anglicised" translation, giving Lyon's hill or Cnoc Liamhna, so for example, the Irish-language wording on signs for Knocklyon Road showed Bóthar Chnoc Liamhna. The local authority have updated their translation based on recommendations from the Irish Placenames Commission.
== Location and housing estates ==
Knocklyon is a suburb on the southwest of Dublin city, in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains and immediately south of the River Dodder. It is bordered to the west by Firhouse and Ballycullen, to the east and south by Rathfarnham and Ballyboden, and to the north, across the River Dodder, by Templeogue.
Knocklyon was divided when the M50 motorway was constructed, with most of the suburb today lying east of the motorway. Housing estates to the east include Idrone, Green Acre Court, Knocklyon Avenue, Beverly, Dargle Wood, Coolamber, Knockcullen, Lansdowne, Delaford, Knockaire in the old Knocklyon townland, whilst Orlagh, Scholarstown Park and Templeoran are within the townland of Scholarstown. To the west of the M50 are estates such as Castlefield, Glenlyon, Dalriada, Glenvara and Woodstown. The western and eastern portions of the suburb are linked by the Firhouse Road, by the motorway flyover at Junction 12 of the M50, and by a foot bridge close to where the Old Knocklyon Road formerly met Ballycullen Road.
== Population ==
The population figure cannot be isolated from published census data as Knocklyon is composed of Firhouse-Knocklyon electoral division (ED) (population 39,602 in 2011), plus fractions of Ballyboden ED (57,085) and Firhouse-Ballycullen ED (77,773), not divided and published distinctly.
== Amenities ==
Knocklyon Shopping Centre contains a supermarket and other retail outlets. There are also two smaller shopping sites, in the Orlagh and Woodstown estates, each anchored by a convenience store, and with takeaway food shops, beauty salons and other outlets. There is also a local public house.
A division of the voluntary St. John Ambulance was established in 2010, and provides first aid training in the community. The Rutland Centre, a private addiction rehabilitation facility, is located on the Knocklyon Road.
Knocklyon has a number of open spaces within its residential estates and along the River Dodder, including the home ground and playing pitches for both a Gaelic Athletic Association club, Ballyboden St. Enda's GAA, and a soccer club, Knocklyon United Football Club.
As well as the Roman Catholic Iona Centre, which hosts community organisations, there is Knocklyon Community Centre, which is available for sports and social organisations.
=== Schools ===
St. Colmcille's national school opened in September 1976. The school is the largest primary school in Ireland and one of the largest primary schools in Europe. It educates 1,600 students and employs 80 teachers, 23 special needs assistants, and 11 ancillary staff. Gaelscoil Chnoc Liamhna is an Irish language primary school that teaches over 200 children. It was established in September 1996 with 36 pupils.
St. Colmcille's Community School (formerly Knocklyon Community School) has around 700 secondary students and opened in September 2000.
== Religion ==
The Catholic Parish of Knocklyon was established in October 1974 under the patronage of Saint Colmcille. It forms part of the Dublin Archdiocese and was delegated by it to the Carmelite Order until 2022, and since 2023, is in the care of the Divine Word Missionaries. The parish church opened in April 1980.
The Iona Pastoral Centre, which opened in 2000, hosts prayer groups and social activities (such as pilates, mother and baby groups, knitting and bridge), as well as a chapter of St Vincent de Paul, AA meetings and GROW Mental Health Movement.
The Catholic parish publishes the Knocklyon News magazine, which has been in continuous publication since 1982 and includes article from the wide and varied community groups of Knocklyon, as well as faith-based content, and news from the parish and the diocese. The Knocklyon News is published three to four times per year, and has a print run of 5,000.
Church of Ireland residents of Knocklyon attend Rathfarnham Parish Church. The Knocklyon Church of Christ is an autonomous Christian congregation with premises on Knocklyon Road, near Gaelscoil Chnoc Liamhna.
== Transport ==
Knocklyon is served by the following Dublin Bus routes: 15, 49, 65b, S6 and S8.
== Sport and leisure ==
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is represented in Knocklyon by Ballyboden St. Enda's GAA Club while association football is organised locally by Knocklyon United F.C. The local Brothers Pearse Athletics Club was founded in 1956. The district is also served by Knocklyon Junior Badminton Club and Knocklyon Social Badminton, which operate from the Knocklyon Community Centre.
A branch of Scouting Ireland and the South Dublin Model Railway Club each operate from their own premises. There is also a brass band and music school, the Knocklyon Concert Band, operating for over 20 years.
Local businesses and community groups are supported and promoted by Knocklyon Network, an active networking organisation.
== Notable people ==
Chloe Agnew, singer-songwriter, best known for being an original member of Celtic Woman
Brian Gartland, professional footballer
Dane Massey, professional footballer
Andrew Moran, professional footballer and Republic of Ireland international
Darragh Nugent, professional footballer
Caitríona Perry, Irish journalist
Alisha Weir, actress and singer, grew up in Knocklyon
== References ==
== External links ==
St. Colmcille's Community School
Knocklyon Parish |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Federation_of_Engineering_Organizations | World Federation of Engineering Organizations | The World Federation of Engineering Organizations (French: Federation Mondiale des Organisations d'Ingenieurs; WFEO) is an international, non-governmental organization representing the engineering profession worldwide.
Founded in 1968 by a group of regional engineering organizations, under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) in Paris, WFEO is a non governmental international organization that brings together national engineering organizations from over 90 nations and represents some 20 million engineers from around the world.
WFEO is part of the United Nations system as an NGO in official relations with UNESCO (associate status) since its foundation, and as taking part in the work of its main bodies, mainly the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its specialized agencies, notably the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme. At the UN ECOSOC, WFEO co-organizes with the International Science Council the Scientific and Technological Community Major Group.
In 2019, based on proposal by WFEO, the UNESCO's General Conference approved the creation of the UNESCO World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development, to be celebrated on 4 March of each year. Since then, WFEO has been coordinating the related celebrations around the world, through its membership and partnering institutions.
== Structure, membership, activities ==
The governing body of WFEO is the General Assembly. Between meetings of the General Assembly the affairs of the Federation are directed by the Executive Council. The business of the Federation is dealt with by the Executive Board, supported by the Executive Director. Actions the General Assembly, Executive Council, or Executive Board are by majority vote.
WFEO's membership comprises a hundred member institutions, including national members representing a country, and international members representing either a global region or continent, or representing a branch of the engineering profession at the global scale.
=== Standing Technical Committees / Policy Implementation Committees ===
WFEO's main activities in specialized fields of engineering is carried out by its committees, which are hosted by national members for a four-year term.
Anti-corruption
Disaster Risk Management
Education in Engineering
Energy
Information & Communication
Engineering & the Environment
Engineering Capacity Building
Engineering for Innovative Technology
Water
Women in Engineering
Young Engineers / Future Leaders
=== Conferences ===
WFEO body meets annually for the General Assembly or Executive Council, and the Committees' meetings. These meetings are framed by a conference, where non affiliated engineers can join. In general these meetings and conferences are held in November.
=== Presidents ===
WFEO's President is elected by the General Assembly for a two-years term, in the context of an immediate past president/president/president-elect system.
== International members ==
Commonwealth Engineers Council (CEC)
Federation of Arab Engineers (FAE)
Federation of African Engineering Organizations (FAEO)
European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI)
Federation of Engineering Institutions of South and Central Asia (FEISCA)
Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP)
International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE)
International Federation of Municipal Engineers (IFME)
Pan American Federation of Engineers Society (UPADI)
Union of Scientific and Engineering Societies (USEA)
World Council of Civil Engineers (WCCE)
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_state_symbols#Delhi | List of Indian state symbols | This is a list of the symbols of the states and union territories of India. Each state and union territory has a unique set of official symbols, usually a state emblem, an animal, a bird, a flower and a tree. A second animal (fish, butterfly, reptile, aquatic animal or heritage animal) sometimes appears, as do fruits and other plants, and there are some state songs and state mottos.
== States ==
=== Andhra Pradesh ===
=== Arunachal Pradesh ===
=== Assam ===
=== Bihar ===
=== Chhattisgarh ===
=== Goa ===
=== Gujarat ===
=== Haryana ===
=== Himachal Pradesh ===
=== Jharkhand ===
=== Karnataka ===
=== Kerala ===
=== Madhya Pradesh ===
=== Maharashtra ===
=== Manipur ===
=== Meghalaya ===
=== Mizoram ===
=== Nagaland ===
=== Odisha ===
=== Punjab ===
=== Rajasthan ===
=== Sikkim ===
=== Tamil Nadu ===
=== Telangana ===
=== Tripura ===
=== Uttar Pradesh ===
=== Uttarakhand ===
=== West Bengal ===
== Union territories ==
=== Andaman and Nicobar Islands ===
=== Chandigarh ===
=== Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu ===
=== Delhi ===
=== Jammu and Kashmir ===
=== Ladakh ===
=== Lakshadweep ===
=== Puducherry ===
== Autonomous administrative divisions ==
Some of the autonomous administrative divisions established by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India have also adopted official symbols.
=== Bodoland Territorial Region ===
== See also ==
National symbols of India
List of Indian state flags
List of Indian state emblems
List of Indian state mottos
List of Indian state songs
List of Indian state foundation days
List of Indian state animals
List of Indian state birds
List of Indian state flowers
List of Indian state trees
== References ==
== Sources ==
Sunil Kothari; Avinash Pasricha (2001). Kuchipudi. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 978-81-7017-359-5.
Reginald Massey (2004). India's Dances: Their History, Technique, and Repertoire. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 978-81-7017-434-9.
Ragini Devi (1990). Dance Dialects of India. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0674-0.
Farley P. Richmond; Darius L. Swann; Phillip B. Zarrilli (1993). Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0981-9.
Williams, Drid (2004). "In the Shadow of Hollywood Orientalism: Authentic East Indian Dancing" (PDF). Visual Anthropology. 17 (1). Routledge: 69–98. doi:10.1080/08949460490274013. S2CID 29065670. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
=== General references ===
102-Journal de Kanpur Vol-3/ year 2018
GSV Journalism Research Center.India.Kanpur
== External links ==
Knowindia.gov.in: States and Union Territories Symbols |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades | Pleiades | The Pleiades ( PLEE-ə-deez, PLAY-, PLY-), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an asterism of an open star cluster containing young B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light-years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the nearest Messier object to Earth, being the most obvious star cluster to the naked eye in the night sky. It contains the reflection nebulae NGC 1432, an HII region, and NGC 1435, known as the Merope Nebula. Around 2330 BC the Pleiades marked the vernal point. Due to the brightness of its stars, the Pleiades is viewable from most areas on Earth, even in locations with significant light pollution.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be leftover material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.
Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that once resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for approximately another 250 million years, after which the clustering will be lost due to gravitational interactions with the galactic neighborhood.
Together with the open star cluster of the Hyades, the Pleiades form the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic. The Pleiades have been said to "resemble a tiny dipper," and should not be confused with the "Little Dipper," or Ursa Minor.
== Origin of name ==
The name, Pleiades, comes from Ancient Greek: Πλειάδες. It probably derives from plein (πλεῖν 'to sail') because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: "the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising". In Classical Greek mythology the name was used for seven divine sisters called the Pleiades. In time, the name was said to be derived from that of a mythical mother, Pleione, effectively meaning "daughters of Pleione". In reality, the ancient name of the star cluster related to sailing almost certainly came first in the culture, naming of a relationship to the sister deities followed, and eventually appearing in later myths, to interpret the group name, a mother, Pleione.
== Astronomical role of M45 in antiquity ==
The M45 group played an important role in ancient times for the establishment of many calendars thanks to the combination of two remarkable elements. The first, which is still valid, is its unique and easily identifiable appearance on the celestial vault near the ecliptic. The second, essential for the ancients, is that in the middle of the third millennium BC, this asterism (a prominent pattern or group of stars that is smaller than a constellation) marked the vernal point. (2330 BC with ecliptic latitude about +3.5° according to Stellarium)
The importance of this asterism is also evident in northern Europe. The Pleiades cluster is displayed on the Nebra sky disc that was found in Germany and is dated to around 1600 BC. On the disk the cluster is represented in a high position between the Sun and the Moon.
This asterism also marks the beginning of several ancient calendars:
In ancient India, it constitutes, in the Atharvaveda, compiled around 1200-1000 BC, the first nakṣatra (Sanskrit name for lunar stations), which is called Kṛttikā (क्रृत्तिका), a revealing name since it literally means 'the Cuttings', i.e. "Those that mark the break of the year". This is so before the classic list lowers this nakṣatra to third place, henceforth giving the first to the star couple β Arietis and γ Arietis, which, notably in Hipparchus, at that time, marks the equinox.
In Mesopotamia, the MUL.APIN compendium, the first known Mesopotamian astronomy treatise, discovered at Nineveh in the library of Assurbanipal and dating from no later than 627 BC, presents a list of deities [holders of stars] who stand on "the path of the Moon", a list which begins with mul.MUL.
In Greece, the Pleiádes (Πλειάδες) are a group whose name is probably functional before having a mythological meaning, as André Lebœuffle points out, who has his preference for the explanation by the Indo-European root *pe/ol-/pl- that expresses the idea of 'multiplicity, crowd, assembly'.
Similarly, the Ancient Arabs begin their old parapegma type calendar, that of the anwāʾ, with M45 under the name of al-Thurayyā (الثريّا). And this before their classic calendar, that of the manāzil al-qamar or 'lunar stations', also begins with the star couple β Arietis and γ Arietis whose name, al-Sharaṭān (الشرطان), is literally "the Two Marks [of entering the equinox]" Although M45 is no longer at the vernal point, the asterism still remains important, both functionally and symbolically. In addition to the changes in the calendars based on the lunar stations among the Indians and the Arabs, consider the case of an ancient Yemeni calendar in which the months are designated according to an astronomical criterion that caused it to be named Calendar of the Pleiades: the month of khams, literally 'five', is that during which the Sun and al-Thurayyā, i.e. the Pleiades, deviate from each other by five movements of the Moon, i.e. five times the path that the Moon travels on average in one day and one night, to use the terminology of Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi.
== Nomenclature and mythology ==
The Pleiades are a prominent sight in winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and are easily visible from mid-southern latitudes. They have been known since antiquity to cultures all around the world, including the Celts (Welsh: Tŵr Tewdws, Irish: Streoillín); pre-colonial Filipinos (who called it Mapúlon, Mulo‑pulo or Muró‑púro, among other names), for whom it indicated the beginning of the year; Hawaiians (who call them Makaliʻi), Māori (who call them Matariki); Indigenous Australians (from several traditions); the Achaemenid Empire, whence in Persians (who called them Parvīn پروین or Parvī پروی); the Arabs (who call them al-Thurayyā; الثريا); the Chinese (who called them mǎo; 昴); the Quechua (who call them Qullqa or the storehouse); the Japanese (who call them Subaru; 昴); the Maya; the Aztec; the Sioux; the Kiowa; and the Cherokee. In Hinduism, the Pleiades are known as Kṛttikā; कृत्तिका and are scripturally associated with the war deity Kartikeya(कार्त्तिकेय) and are also identified or associated with the Saptamatrika(s) (Seven Mothers). Hindus celebrate the first day (new moon) of the month of Kartik (month) as Diwali, a festival of abundance and lamps. The Pleiades are also mentioned three times in the Bible, using the constellation's Hebrew name Kimah; כִּימָה.
The earliest known depiction of the Pleiades is likely a Northern German Bronze Age artifact known as the Nebra sky disk, dated to approximately 1600 BC. The Babylonian star catalogues name the Pleiades MULMUL (𒀯𒀯), meaning 'stars' (literally 'star star'), and they head the list of stars along the ecliptic, reflecting the fact that they were close to the point of the vernal equinox around the twenty-third century BC. The Ancient Egyptians may have used the names "Followers" and "Ennead" in the prognosis texts of the Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days of papyrus Cairo 86637. Some Greek astronomers considered them to be a distinct constellation, and they are mentioned by Hesiod's Works and Days, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and the Geoponica. The Pleiades was the most well-known "star" among pre-Islamic Arabs and so often referred to simply as "the Star" (an-Najm; النجم). Some scholars of Islam suggested that the Pleiades are the "star" mentioned in Surah An-Najm ('The Star') in the Quran.
On numerous cylinder seals from the beginning of the first millennium BC, M45 is represented by seven points, while the Seven Gods appear, on low-reliefs of Neo-Assyrian royal palaces, wearing long open robes and large cylindrical headdresses surmounted by short feathers and adorned with three frontal rows of horns and a crown of feathers, while carrying both an ax and a knife, as well as a bow and a quiver.
As noted by scholar Stith Thompson, the constellation was "nearly always imagined" as a group of seven sisters, and their myths explain why there are only six. Some scientists suggest that these may come from observations as far back as 100,000 BC when Pleione was farther from Atlas and hence, more visible as a separate star to the unaided eye.
=== Subaru ===
In Japan, the cluster is mentioned under the name Mutsuraboshi ("six stars") in the eighth-century Kojiki. The cluster is now known in Japan as Subaru, from the intransitive verb subaru, meaning "to cluster together".
The Subaru Telescope, the 8.2-meter (320 in) flagship telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on the island of Hawaii, was named after the cluster. It had the largest monolithic primary mirror in the world from its commissioning in 1998 until 2005.
It also was chosen as the brand name of Subaru automobiles to reflect the origins of the firm as the joining of five companies, and is depicted in the firm's six-star logo.
=== Tolkien's Legendarium ===
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, where The Lord of the Rings is set, Pleiades is referred to as Remmirath, the netted stars, as are several other celestial bodies, such as the constellation Orion as Menelvagor, swordsman of the Sky.
== Observational history ==
Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to view the Pleiades through a telescope. He thereby discovered that the cluster contains many stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye. He published his observations, including a sketch of the Pleiades showing 36 stars, in his treatise Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610.
The Pleiades have long been known to be a physically related group of stars rather than any chance alignment. John Michell calculated in 1767 that the probability of a chance alignment of so many bright stars was only 1 in 500,000, and so surmised that the Pleiades and many other clusters must consist of physically related stars. When studies were first made of the proper motions of the stars, it was found that they are all moving in the same direction across the sky, at the same rate, further demonstrating that they were related.
Charles Messier measured the position of the cluster and included it as "M45" in his catalogue of comet-like objects, published in 1771. Along with the Orion Nebula and the Praesepe cluster, Messier's inclusion of the Pleiades has been noted as curious, as most of Messier's objects were much fainter and more easily confused with comets—something that seems scarcely possible for the Pleiades. One possibility is that Messier simply wanted to have a larger catalogue than his scientific rival Lacaille, whose 1755 catalogue contained 42 objects, and so he added some bright, well-known objects to boost the number on his list.
Edme-Sébastien Jeaurat then drew in 1782 a map of 64 stars of the Pleiades from his observations in 1779, which he published in 1786.
== Distance ==
The distance to the Pleiades can be used as a key first step to calibrate the cosmic distance ladder. As the cluster is relatively close to the Earth, the distance should be relatively easy to measure and has been estimated by many methods. Accurate knowledge of the distance allows astronomers to plot a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for the cluster, which, when compared with those plotted for clusters whose distance is not known, allows their distances to be estimated. Other methods may then extend the distance scale from open clusters to galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and a cosmic distance ladder may be constructed. Ultimately astronomers' understanding of the age and future evolution of the universe is influenced by their knowledge of the distance to the Pleiades. Yet some authors argue that the controversy over the distance to the Pleiades discussed below is a red herring, since the cosmic distance ladder can (presently) rely on a suite of other nearby clusters where consensus exists regarding the distances as established by the Hipparcos satellite and independent means (e.g., the Hyades, the Coma Berenices cluster, etc.).
Measurements of the distance have elicited much controversy. Results prior to the launch of the Hipparcos satellite generally found that the Pleiades were approximately 135 parsecs (pc) away from Earth. Data from Hipparcos yielded a surprising result, namely a distance of only 118 pc, by measuring the parallax of stars in the cluster—a technique that should yield the most direct and accurate results. Later work consistently argued that the Hipparcos distance measurement for the Pleiades was erroneous: In particular, distances derived to the cluster via the Hubble Space Telescope and infrared color–magnitude diagram fitting (so-called "spectroscopic parallax") favor a distance between 135 and 140 pc; a dynamical distance from optical interferometric observations of the inner pair of stars within Atlas (a bright triple star in the Pleiades) favors a distance of 133 to 137 pc. However, the author of the 2007–2009 catalog of revised Hipparcos parallaxes reasserted that the distance to the Pleiades is ~120 pc and challenged the dissenting evidence. In 2012, Francis and Anderson proposed that a systematic effect on Hipparcos parallax errors for stars in clusters would bias calculation using the weighted mean; they gave a Hipparcos parallax distance of 126 pc and photometric distance of 132 pc based on stars in the AB Doradus, Tucana-Horologium and Beta Pictoris moving groups, which are all similar in age and composition to the Pleiades. Those authors note that the difference between these results may be attributed to random error.
More recent results using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) (August 2014), and preliminary solutions using Gaia Data Release 1 (September 2016) and Gaia Data Release 2 (August 2018), determine distances of 136.2 ± 1.2 pc, 134 ± 6 pc and 136.2 ± 5.0 pc, respectively. The Gaia Data Release 1 team were cautious about their result, and the VLBI authors assert "that the Hipparcos-measured distance to the Pleiades cluster is in error".
The most recent distance estimate of the distance to the Pleiades based on the Gaia Data Release 3 is 135.74±0.10 pc.
== Composition ==
The cluster core radius is approximately 8 light-years and tidal radius is approximately 43 light-years. The cluster contains more than 1,000 statistically confirmed members, not counting the number that would be added if all binary stars could be resolved. Its light is dominated by young, hot blue stars, up to 14 of which may be seen with the naked eye, depending on local observing conditions and visual acuity of the observer. The brightest stars form a shape somewhat similar to that of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The total mass contained in the cluster is estimated to be approximately 800 solar masses and is dominated by fainter and redder stars. An estimate of the frequency of binary stars in the Pleiades is approximately 57%.
The cluster contains many brown dwarfs, such as Teide 1. These are objects with less than approximately 8% of the Sun's mass, insufficient for the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to start in their cores and become proper stars. They may constitute up to 25% of the total population of the cluster, although they contribute less than 2% of the total mass. Astronomers have made great efforts to find and analyze brown dwarfs in the Pleiades and other young clusters, because they are still relatively bright and observable, while brown dwarfs in older clusters have faded and are much more difficult to study.
== Brightest stars ==
The brightest stars of the cluster are named the Seven Sisters in early Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone. Later, they were assigned parents, Pleione and Atlas. As daughters of Atlas, the Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades.
The following table gives details of the brightest stars in the cluster:
== Age and future evolution ==
Ages for star clusters may be estimated by comparing the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for the cluster with theoretical models of stellar evolution. Using this technique, ages for the Pleiades of between 75 and 150 million years have been estimated. The wide spread in estimated ages is a result of uncertainties in stellar evolution models, which include factors such as convective overshoot, in which a convective zone within a star penetrates an otherwise non-convective zone, resulting in higher apparent ages.
Another way of estimating the age of the cluster is by looking at the lowest-mass objects. In normal main-sequence stars, lithium is rapidly destroyed in nuclear fusion reactions. Brown dwarfs can retain their lithium, however. Due to lithium's very low ignition temperature of 2.5 million K, the highest-mass brown dwarfs will burn it eventually, and so determining the highest mass of brown dwarfs still containing lithium in the cluster may give an idea of its age. Applying this technique to the Pleiades gives an age of about 115 million years.
The cluster is slowly moving in the direction of the feet of what is currently the constellation of Orion. Like most open clusters, the Pleiades will not stay gravitationally bound forever. Some component stars will be ejected after close encounters with other stars; others will be stripped by tidal gravitational fields. Calculations suggest that the cluster will take approximately 250 million years to disperse, because of gravitational interactions with giant molecular clouds and the spiral arms of our galaxy hastening its demise.
== Reflection nebulosity ==
With larger amateur telescopes, the nebulosity around some of the stars may be easily seen, especially when long-exposure photographs are taken. Under ideal observing conditions, some hint of nebulosity around the cluster may be seen even with small telescopes or average binoculars. It is a reflection nebula, caused by dust reflecting the blue light of the hot, young stars.
It was formerly thought that the dust was left over from the formation of the cluster, but at the age of approximately 100 million years generally accepted for the cluster, almost all the dust originally present would have been dispersed by radiation pressure. Instead, it seems that the cluster is simply passing through a particularly dusty region of the interstellar medium.
Studies show that the dust responsible for the nebulosity is not uniformly distributed, but is concentrated mainly in two layers along the line of sight to the cluster. These layers may have been formed by deceleration due to radiation pressure as the dust has moved toward the stars.
== Possible planets ==
Analyzing deep-infrared images obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope and Gemini North telescope, astronomers discovered that one of the stars in the cluster, HD 23514, which has a mass and luminosity a bit greater than that of the Sun, is surrounded by an extraordinary number of hot dust particles. This could be evidence for planet formation around HD 23514.
== Videos ==
== Star chart ==
== See also ==
Australian Aboriginal astronomy § Seven Sisters
Stozhary
Matrikas
The Seven Sages
== References ==
== External links ==
The Pleiades on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images
Information on the Pleiades from SEDS |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Yanfei_Bao | Kidnapping of Yanfei Bao | On 19 July 2023, Harcourts real estate agent Yanfei Bao went missing in Christchurch's Wigram suburb. The New Zealand Police mounted a missing person's search in the Christchurch area. On the 24th of July 2023, Tingjun Cao was charged with her kidnapping after attempting to flee to China on the 22nd of July 2023. On 26 July 2023, the Police launched a homicide investigation into Bao's disappearance. More than a year later after her disappearance, Yanfei Bao's remains were found in a shallow grave by police on rural farmland near Lincoln on 30 July 2024.
Following a seven week trial, Cao was convicted of murdering Bao in early December 2024. On 13 June, Cao was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years for Bao's murder.
== Background ==
Yanfei Bao had recently joined the real estate company Harcourts as a real estate agent, having a prior background in sales.
== Disappearance ==
Bao was last seen in the suburb of Hornby, Christchurch, New Zealand on the morning of 19 July 2023. It has been reported that she was due to show a potential buyer through a property on Trevor Street. Later in the morning she rang her friend Jin Tian and had a four-minute conversation with her. During the conversation, Bao asked Tian how someone she was working with could transfer NZ$600,000 from China to pay cash for a house.
== Search and investigation ==
Bao was reported missing after she failed to collect her daughter from after school care later that day. Her car was found that evening in the suburb of Wigram. Her cellphone was found two days after her disappearance on the Christchurch Southern Motorway, several kilometres away from where she had last been seen.
52-year-old Tingjun Cao was charged of kidnapping Yanfei Bao and arrested at Christchurch Airport after booking a one-way international plane ticket to China on 22 July 2023. Following his arrest, Cao was interrogated by Detective Sergeant Caroline Johnson, with Detective Constable Wei (David) Zhu providing translation advice. Cao told police that he had lost his job a month earlier and had been traveling around in his car looking for a job at the time of Yanfei Bao's disappearance. Cao said that he had decided to leave New Zealand on the day that Bao disappeared. During the interview, Cao told police that he did not "really" know Bao and had poor eyesight.
On 26 July 2023 the New Zealand Police said that they had launched a homicide investigation into Bao's disappearance.
On 31 July 2023, Police temporarily suspended their search due to high water levels in the Halswell River and Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora. By that time, police had received over 200 pieces of information related to Bao's disappearance and searched three properties as part of "Operation Helo." Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves also told the public they were looking for a silver Mitsubishi sedan, and continued to ask the public for any sightings of one.
On 7 August 2023, police shifted their search to roads and farmland near Christchurch's Greenpark suburb. On 8 August, Reeves confirmed that police had recovered more items of interest.
On 6 September 2023, police confirmed that they were searching several new areas in Christchurch and Rolleston. Authorities continued to focus on the Halswell River and Greenpark area in October. Police asked for public help locating clothing related to the disappearance and a roughly 1 metre long flat-bottomed spade.
On 19 January 2024, Reeves reiterated that police were still searching for Bao. She stated that police were interested in a silver Mitsubishi 380 with the registration DPH101 and sightings in the wider Christchurch area beyond Lake Ellesmere.
On 19 July 2024, Reeves confirmed that the police investigation into Bao's disappearance was still "very active" and that staff were in the process of finalising evidence ahead of the trial. She reaffirmed the police's commitment to recovering Bao's remains in order to provide closure for her family. By July 2024, the police investigation team had been reduced to eight investigators. Reeves confirmed that a new investigative lead had led police to re-establish search activity in a previously-searched area and a newly identified area. Reeves also confirmed that police had searched Christchurch's Greenpark neighbourhood about three weeks previously but failed to find anything relevant to their investigation.
On 30 July 2024, police announced that remains believed to be that of Yanfei Bao were found at a rural property in Greenpark a Neighbourhood in Lincoln. The remains were said to be in a shallow grave just 15cm deep along the treeline at the property. Over 60 police officers were involved in the Tuesday search taking 90 minutes to locate the grave. In a statement Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves said "new information that had come to light that had given us quite a specific direction for a location of we needed to be". Harcourts Gold Chief Executive Operations Manager Jason Wills extended his condolences on behalf of Harcourts.
On 31 July 2024 a post-mortem autopsy took place and on 2 August 2024, police confirmed the remains found on the Greenpark property were that of Yanfei Bao. During the announcement Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves stated, "This news brings to a close a key aspect of our investigation and Yanfei will now be returned to her family". Police confirmed a scene examination had taken place on the involved property.
== Legal proceedings ==
On 15 August 2023, police charged the 52 year old man accused of Bao's kidnapping with a single murder charge. Police also confirmed they were seeking information from the public about a tracksuit, top, and spade. That same day, the suspect pleaded not guilty to the murder charge through his lawyer. The accused was remanded into custody until 1 September 2023.
On 1 September 2023, the murder suspect was identified as Tingjun Cao. His lawyer no longer sought interim name suppression. Cao appeared before the Christchurch High Court via audio-visual link. He was remanded in custody, reappearing at the high court by audio-visual 10 November while his lawyer was granted additional time for preparation. Police custody was continued until his next court appearance in December 2023.
A tentative trial date was set for 24 October 2024, the trial started early on 21 October 2024. Cao opted for a jury trial.
On 23 August 2024, now 53 year old Tingjun Cao appeared via video link before Justice Rob Osborne at the Christchurch High Court. Tingjun Cao's lawyer Joshua Macleod said in a statement, "From our perspective everything is still on track”.
== Trial ==
On 21 October 2024, ahead of schedule the murder trial of Yanfei Bao began with the selection of a jury of six men and six women. The trial was set for six weeks with Justice Lisa Preston presiding at the Christchurch High Court. The court heard from 80 witness including Bao's husband Paul Gooch, family, friends, police officers, forensic experts and medical professionals. Since the defendant Tingjun Cao only spoke Chinese, the court utilised the services of a translator to translate the court proceedings from English into Chinese, and vice versa.
The Crown was represented by prosecutors Cameron Stuart and Pip Currie. Cao was initially represented by defence lawyers Colin Eason and Joshua Macleod. During the third week of the trial, Tingjun Cao sacked his defence team and decided to represent himself during the trial. Justice Preston appointed Eason and Macleod as standby counsel.
=== Opening arguments ===
During the first day, Cao pleaded not guilty through an interpreter. Stuart delivered the Crown's opening address, arguing that Cao had stabbed Yanfei Bao inside a Trevor St property he had intended to buy before putting her body into a car and hiding it on farmland. He said there was possible sexual motive behind Cao's murder of Bao, citing a deleted photo found on the defendant's phone. Stuart also said that forensic evidence confirmed that Bao's blood was found inside the property and that CCTV footage, phone polling and geolocation data were used to track Cao's movements. Stuart also explained that Police had been able to unlock Bao's phone in May 2024, allowing them to use the cellphone data to find Bao's remains and track Cao's movements following her disappearance.
MacLeod delivered the defence's opening address, stating that Cao denied murdering Bao and that the defence position was that the evidence did not support a guilty verdict. He claimed that the evidence was "much muddier than the Crown would lead you to believe" and urged the jury not to let emotions "cloud their judgment." MacLeod also questioned the scope of the Police investigation.
=== Crown testimony and evidence ===
The Crown presented several witnesses including Detective Constable Andrew Calder, Bao's partner Paul Gooch builder Mervin Boclot, several of Bao's colleagues, friends, and relatives, "Home and Castle Hardware and Stuff hardware store" owner Dennis Shrimpton, and Cao's former employer Chun-Chieh (Jason) Li. The Crown also submitted footage of Bao entering the Home and Castle Hardware and Stuff hardware store in New Brighton and buying a spade on the same day that Bao was murdered. In addition, Police detective inspector Joel Syme told the Court that Police were able to track Bao's cellphone movements around Halswell Village and Tai Tapu cell tower.
Other Crown witnesses included Senior Constable Dean Stevenson, Police digital forensic analyst Joshua Locke (who analysed Bao's phone messages), Detective Constables Andrew Calder, Grace Schurgers, Constable Duncan Fosbender, During the court proceedings, Judge Preston warned Cao several times for repeatedly asking the witnesses irrelevant questions, previously-asked questions and questions that were beyond the witnesses' scope. and Detective Leanne Benjamin. ESR forensic scientist Wendy Janes testified about forensic evidence found at the Hornby property that Bao visited prior to her death. The Court also heard testimony regarding Bao's car and injuries from constables Abigail Howe, Clayton Davison and detective Geoff Reid. In addition, the Crown presented a six hour Police interview of Cao following his arrest on 22 July 2023.
=== Defence testimony ===
On 29 November, Cao testified in his own defence. He admitted going to Trevor Street on the day that Bao went missing but claimed that the victim was not inside the property. While walking back to his car, Cao said that he met a stranger called Mr Tang, who asked to test drive his car. Cao allowed Mr Tang to drive the car and even lent him his shoes. Cao also claimed that his phone was in the car while Tang drove.
On 2 December, Tingjun Cao continued his testimony, claiming that Mr Tang communicated with him via a walkie talkie since he had Cao's phone. During his testimony, Cao said he was not suggesting that Tang murdered Yanfei Bao. Cao claimed that he could verify Tang existed because a forensic examination of his shoes showed DNA belonging to more than one person. During cross-examination, Currie challenged the veracity of Cao's testimony, describing it as "completely fictitious and made up." She also referred to Cao's police interview where he had confirmed that he was the only one using the car during the period of Bao's disappearance. She also submitted evidence that Cao had admitted ownership of his cellphone and argued that the defendant had led the victim to the Trevor Street property under false pretenses. Cao accused the Police of planting evidence incriminating him. He also alleged that he had been mistreated and denied sleep by Police following his arrest.
=== Closing arguments ===
On 3 December, Currie delivered the Crown's closing address. She argued that Cao had lured Bao to the Trevor Street property under the pretext of viewing and possibly purchasing it. Currie said that Cao had attacked the victim before transporting her into the boot of his car to MacArtneys Road, where he murdered her. After buying a spade from a hardware store in New Brighton, the defendant buried Bao's remains in a shallow grave at a farm in the Greenpark area. Currie said that the Crown's evidence was supported by an overwhelming amount of video, social media, eyewitness, forensic and cellular phone evidence.
=== Verdict ===
On 4 December, Justice Preston outlined the Crown's case to the jury, who retired to consider their verdict. She told the jury not to infer anything from the Cao's earlier courtroom behaviour and that the burden of proof lay with the Crown. Preston also outlined Cao's case that the Crown had falsified the evidence against him and that another man named Tang had murdered Bao, taken a graphic photo of her with Cao's phone and used Cao's car to dispose of her remains.
That same day, Cao was found guilty of murdering Yanfei Bao by the Christchurch High Court jury, who had deliberated for one and a half hours. Bao's partner Paul Gooch welcomed the verdict and criticised Cao for his lack of remorse and humanity during the trial proceedings.Gooch also thanked the New Zealand Police for bringing Cao to justice and his stepdaughter's school "for helping her navigate the incredibly traumatic experience." Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves also welcomed the resolution of Bao's murder case and expressed empathy with Bao's family. Cao was remanded in custody for sentencing, scheduled for 7 March 2025.
=== Sentencing ===
On 13 June 2025, Cao's sentencing hearing took place at the Christchurch High Court, with Judge Lisa Preston presiding. Cao was removed from the courtroom and sent to another room with a video link after disrupting court proceedings. Cao's lawyer Colin Eason explained that he did not understand it was a sentencing hearing and that he wanted to appeal his conviction. Though Cao had sacked his lawyers, they remained in court to represent him. Cao has maintained his innocence and alleged that a fictional Mr Tang had murdered Bao.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard victim impact statements from Bao's 11 year old daughter, her husband Paul Gooch, her father-in-law David Gooch and Bao's 74-year old father (who spoke via video link from China). Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves also paid tribute to Bao and her family. Crown prosecutor Cameron Stuart had sought a maximum sentence of life imprisonment of 18 years, citing the "brutal" nature of the crime and Cao's "callous" conduct in the aftermath of the killing. Eason asked Judge Preston to consider "mitigating factors" such as Cao's profound sense of isolation in prison due to his lack of English language skills and his isolation from his wife and teenage sons. He sought a minimum term of 17 years. Judge Preston criticised Cao for sexually violating Bao during the assault and for his lack of remorse. She imposed a life sentence with a minimum non-parole term of 17 years and five months.
== Aftermath ==
By 31 July 2023, a Givealittle fundraising page was established by Bao's friend Vani Liu and by the time it had ended in August 2023, over NZ$50,000 was raised to help her immediate family, and relatives from China.
On 18 November 2024, a public memorial service for Yanfei Bao was held at Our Lady of Victories Church in Sockburn. Bao's partner Paul Gooch, father and sister delivered eulogies during the memorial service.
== See also ==
List of kidnappings
List of solved missing person cases: 2020s
Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh – 1986 disappearance of woman in London
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_Player_of_the_Month | Premier League Player of the Month | The Premier League Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best adjudged Premier League player each month of the season. The winner is chosen by a combination of an online public vote, which contributes to 10% of the final tally, a panel of experts, and the captain of each Premier League club. It has been called the Carling Premiership Player of the Month (1994–2001), the Barclaycard Premiership Player of the Month (2001–2004) and the Barclays Player of the Month (2004–2016); it is currently known as the EA Sports Player of the Month.
The Premier League was formed in 1992, when the members of the First Division resigned from the Football League. These clubs set up a new commercially independent league that negotiated its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The Premier League introduced new Manager of the Month and Manager of the Season awards for the 1993–94 season, supplementing the existing Football Writers' Association and Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year awards. For the 1994–95 season, the Premier League introduced the Player of the Month award, which is presented alongside the Manager of the Month award. The first Player of the Month was awarded to Tottenham Hotspur player Jürgen Klinsmann for his performances in August 1994.
Sergio Agüero, Harry Kane, and Mohamed Salah have been Player of the Month the most with seven awards each. Nine players have won the award in consecutive months: Robbie Fowler, Dennis Bergkamp, Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Mohamed Salah, Bruno Fernandes, İlkay Gündoğan, and Marcus Rashford. Only Mohamed Salah and Marcus Rashford have won the award three times in a single season. Fernandes is the first player to win four awards in one calendar year. Nineteen individuals have won two awards in a season: Robbie Fowler, Dennis Bergkamp, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ashley Young, Peter Odemwingie, Robin van Persie, Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suárez, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Sergio Agüero, Son Heung-min, Bruno Fernandes, Erling Haaland, and Mohamed Salah. Robbie Keane has won the award while playing for three clubs, while twelve players have won the award playing for two clubs: Alan Shearer, Dion Dublin, David Ginola, Dwight Yorke, Tim Flowers, Teddy Sheringham, Danny Murphy, Andrew Johnson, Nicolas Anelka, Dimitar Berbatov, Scott Parker and Robin van Persie.
The award has been shared on six occasions: by Blackburn Rovers's Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton in November 1994, Liverpool's Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore in January 1996, Southampton's Kevin Davies and Manchester United's Andy Cole in November 1997, Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp and Edu in February 2004, Tottenham Hotspur's Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane in April 2007 and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Luis Suárez in April 2014. More than four in ten of the Player of the Month awards have gone to English players, and almost a quarter of foreign winners have been French or Dutch. Michail Antonio became the first player to win the award with different nationalities, winning in July 2020 as an Englishman and in August 2021 as a Jamaican. Manchester United have had more Player of the Month awards than any other club.
As of November 2025, the latest winner is Brentford forward Igor Thiago.
== List of winners ==
=== Key ===
Players marked † shared the award with another player.
Position key: GK – Goalkeeper; DF – Defender; MF – Midfielder; FW – Forward.
== Multiple winners ==
The following table lists the number of awards won by players who have won at least two Player of the Month awards.
Players in bold are still active in the Premier League. Players in italics are still active in professional football outside of the Premier League.
As of November 2025 award
== Awards won by nationality ==
As of November 2025 award
== Awards won by position ==
As of November 2025 award
== Awards won by club ==
As of November 2025 award
== See also ==
Premier League Player of the Season
Premier League Manager of the Month
Premier League Goal of the Month
Premier League Save of the Month
== Notes ==
== References ==
General
"Premier League Awards". Premier League. Retrieved 17 March 2020. Individual seasons accessed via drop-down list.
Specific |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Rail_PR43C | Progress Rail PR43C | The Progress Rail PR43C was a 4,300 hp (3,210 kW) C-C genset diesel-electric locomotive built by Progress Rail Services Corporation. It was the result of a conversion of existing EMD SD50 locomotives. This involved replacing the original EMD 645 prime mover with a pair of Caterpillar engines, a 3,600 hp (2,680 kW) 12 cylinder C175 engine and a 700 hp (522 kW) C18 engine. The locomotive was jointly designed by Progress Rail and Norfolk Southern Railway. Development began in 2008.
Three locomotives were built; they were manufactured at Progress Rail's Mayfield, Kentucky factory. Two operated in revenue freight service on Norfolk Southern, while a third operated as a demonstrator unit for Progress Rail. At one time Norfolk Southern had four more PR43Cs on order. The locomotives operated by Norfolk Southern worked on freight trains in central Illinois, leading to speculation that they were being tested, as Caterpillar's headquarters are located in Peoria, Illinois.
The process of converting an SD50 to a PR43C altered the external appearance of the locomotive; the original radiator section was replaced with a larger one similar in appearance to that of an EMD SD70ACe or SD70M-2.
As a result of repeated failures, the locomotives were retired in 2017, and all were cut up for scrap in 2018. Prior to retirment, they were renumbered to avoid number conflicts with the AC44C6Ms.
== References ==
== External links ==
Progress Rail PR43C on Flickr |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_World_1966 | Miss World 1966 | Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss International, and Miss Earth, it is one of the Big Four beauty pageants.
The current Miss World is Suchata Chuangsri of Thailand who was crowned on 31 May 2025 in Hyderabad, India.
== History ==
=== 20th century ===
In 1951 Eric Morley organised a bikini contest as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations that he called the Festival Bikini Contest. The event was popular with the press, which dubbed it "Miss World". The swimsuit competition was intended as a promotion for the bikini, which had only recently been introduced to the market and was still widely regarded as immodest. When the 1951 Miss World pageant winner, Kerstin "Kiki" Hakansson from Sweden, was crowned in a bikini, it added to the controversy.
The pageant was originally planned as a Pageant for the Festival of Britain, but Morley decided to make the Miss World pageant annual. He registered the "Miss World" name as a trademark, and all future pageants were held under that name. But because of the controversy arising from Håkansson's crowning in a bikini, countries with religious traditions threatened not to send delegates to future events, and the bikini was condemned by the Pope. Objection to the bikini led to its replacement in all future pageants with more modest swimwear, and from 1976 swimsuits were replaced by evening gowns for the crowning. Håkansson remains the only Miss World crowned in a bikini. In Miss World 2013 all participants wore a one-piece swimsuit plus a traditional sarong below the waist as a compromise with local culture.
Morley announced the Miss World winners in the order No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1. This was intended to keep the tension up, and avoid the anticlimax if Nos. 2 and 3 are announced after the winner.
In 1959 the BBC began to broadcast the pageant. Its popularity grew with the advent of television. During the 1960s and 1970s, Miss World was among the most watched programs of the year on British television. In 1970, the contest in London was disrupted by women's liberation protesters armed with flour bombs, stink bombs, and water pistols loaded with ink. The 1970 contest was also controversial when South Africa sent two contestants (one black and one white). Henceforth, South Africa was banned from the contest until apartheid was abolished. More than 18 million people watched the pageant at its peak during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In the 1980s the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan "Beauty With a Purpose", with added tests of intelligence and personality. In 1984, BBC1 controller Michael Grade announced that the corporation would cease to broadcast beauty pageants the next January, after it had shown Miss Great Britain, saying, "I believe these contests no longer merit national air time." He added, "They are an anachronism in this day and age of equality and verging on the offensive." Thames Television broadcast Miss World between 1980 and 1988, when ITV dropped it.
During the early 1990s mainstream television broadcasts of the event declined in popularity after it became "increasingly unfashionable" in the late 1980s. The pageant returned on satellite channel Sky One in 1997, before moving to Channel 5 for three years (1998–2000).
Eric Morley died in 2000, and his wife, Julia, succeeded him as chair of the Miss World organisation.
=== 21st century ===
The first black African Miss World winner, Agbani Darego of Nigeria, was crowned in 2001. As part of its marketing strategy, Miss World came up with a "Vote For Me" television special during that edition, featuring the delegates behind the scenes and on the beach, and allowing viewers to phone in or vote online for their favourites. It also sells broadcasters its Talent, Beach Beauty and Sports events as television specials. ITV broadcast the 2001 pageant from South Africa on digital channel ITV2, with the special airing a week earlier on the main ITV channel.
In 2002, the pageant was slated to host its final in Abuja, Nigeria. This choice was controversial, as a northern Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was awaiting death by stoning for adultery under Sharia law there, but Miss World used the publicity surrounding its presence to bring greater global awareness and action to Lawal's plight. No British channel agreed to broadcast the event, and there were objections to the contest.
Former Miss World Aishwarya Rai attended the Miss World 2014 ceremony with her husband Abhishek Bachchan, daughter Aaradhya and mother Brinda Rai. The pageant has been broadcast on local TV channel London Live since 2014.
== Miss World Organization ==
The Miss World Organization owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the world's biggest. Since its launch in 1951, the Miss World organisation has raised more than £1 billion for children's charities that help disabled and underprivileged children. Miss World is franchised in more than 100 countries.
=== 1970s–1990s ===
The Miss World pageant has been the target of many controversies since its inception.
In 1970, feminist protesters threw flour bombs during the live event at London's Royal Albert Hall, momentarily alarming the host, Bob Hope.
The 1973 winner, Marjorie Wallace, was stripped of her title on 8 March 1974 because she had failed to fulfill the basic requirements of the job. Miss World's organizers did not elect someone to serve in her place.
In 1976, several countries boycotted the pageant because it included both a white and a black contestant from South Africa.
The 1980 winner, Gabriella Brum of Germany, resigned one day after winning. A few days later it emerged that she had been forced to resign after it was discovered that she had posed naked for a magazine.
=== Nigeria 2002 ===
In the year leading up the finals in Nigeria, several European title holders lobbied their governments and the EU parliament to support Amina Lawal's cause. A number of contestants followed the lead of Kathrine Sørland of Norway in boycotting the contest (despite the controversy, Sørland became a semi-finalist in both the Miss World and Miss Universe contests), while others, such as Costa Rica, were instructed by their national governments and parliaments not to attend. Among the other boycotting nations were Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Panama, Belgium and Kenya. Lawal asked that contestants not suspend their participation in the contest, saying that it was for the good of her country and that they could, as the representative of Sweden had earlier remarked, make a much stronger case for her on the ground in Nigeria.
Despite the increasing international profile the boycott was garnering in the world press, the contest proceeded in Nigeria after being rescheduled to avoid taking place during Ramadan, with many prominent nations sending delegates. Osmel Sousa of Venezuela, one of the world's most influential national directors, said, "there is no question about it [the participation of Miss Venezuela in the contest]." But the trouble did not end there. A ThisDay (Lagos, Nigeria) newspaper editorial suggesting that Muhammad would probably have chosen one of his wives from among the contestants had he been alive to see it resulted in inter-religious riots that started on 22 November in which over 200 people were killed in the city of Kaduna and many houses of worship were burned by religious zealots. Because of these riots, the 2002 pageant was moved to London, following widely circulated reports that Canada's and Korea's representatives had withdrawn from the contest and returned to their respective countries out of safety concerns. A fatwa urging the beheading of the woman who wrote the offending words, Isioma Daniel, was issued in Nigeria, but was declared null and void by the relevant Saudi Arabian authorities. Upon the pageant's return to Britain, many of the boycotting contestants chose to attend, including Miss Norway, Kathrine Sørland, who was ironically tipped in the last few days as the favourite for the crown she had previously boycotted.
The eventual winner of the pageant was Azra Akın of Turkey.
=== Indonesia 2013 ===
In Miss World 2013, protests by Islamic groups began a few weeks before the contest began, resulting in the pageant's finale and all pre-pageant activities being isolated to Hindu-majority Bali.
=== China 2015 ===
Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada, was not given a visa to travel in China and hence missed the official deadline of 20 November 2015 for entry to the 2015 pageant, and was declared persona non grata by the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa for openly criticizing China's human rights violations. The Miss World Organization later allowed her to compete at Miss World 2016.
=== Thailand 2020 and cancellation ===
After the 2019 pageant, the organization chose Thailand as the host country of Miss World 2020, to be held in Phuket. But due to the spread of COVID-19, most national organizations and the Miss World organization agreed to cancel the 2020 pageant to assure the delegates' safety.
=== Puerto Rico 2021 and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic ===
The edition was originally scheduled for the end of 2020 but postponed indefinitely due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 March 2021, the date was set for 16 December 2021. The threat of the Omicron variant had already been detected in some parts of the world during the pre-pageant activities, as the disease started swept across the island. On 14 December, Miss World Indonesia Carla Yules tested positive for COVID-19. As a precaution, her roommate Miss World India Manasa Varanasi and five others were classified as suspected cases. Miss World Organization chair Julia Morley confirmed that the delegates were isolated and quarantined and would not be onstage for the final show if they did not produce a negative PCR test. On 15 December, the Puerto Rico Department of Health confirmed 17 positive cases for COVID-19 related to the Miss World pageant activities, including contestants and technical personnel. On 16 December, it was announced that Miss World Malaysia Lavanya Sivaji had tested positive for COVID-19. She was required to be isolated for 10 days and not permitted onstage during the finals. The finale, originally slated for 16 December, was postponed. During a 16 December Puerto Rico Department of Health press conference, epidemiologist Melissa Marzán confirmed 15 staff and 23 contestant positive cases associated with Miss World. She added that pageant organizers, not the island's authorities, decided to postpone. The rescheduled 70th Miss World pageant took place on 16 March 2022, at Puerto Rico's Coca-Cola Music Hall.
== Recent titleholders ==
=== Winners gallery ===
== Fast-track events ==
Fast-track events of Miss World is a set of competition to decide the semi-finalist or the placement of Miss World. Fast-track events was one of deciding factor to choose semi-finalist beside Preliminary Interview by combining those rounds with using points system table. Prior to 2016 the winner of the fast-track events received huge amount of points but not securing semi-finalist spot, however since 2016 the points system table in fast-track were abolished. Since then the winners of the "fast-track" competitions automatically make it to the quarter- or semi-finals. The Miss World fast-track categories are: Beauty With a Purpose, Multimedia Challenge, Sports Challenge, Talent, and Top Model. Miss World Talent added in 2001, Miss World Sports added in 2003, Miss World Top Model added in 2004, Miss World Beauty With a Purpose added in 2005, and Miss World Multimedia added in 2012. There was a fast-track named Miss World Beach Beauty (2003–2015) but it is a discontinued event due to dissatisfaction and cons in many conservative countries, this event was replacing Miss World Best in Swimsuit.
=== Miss World Beauty With a Purpose ===
The Beauty with a Purpose is an event established in 1972 that is celebrated before the Miss World pageant. It awards the contestant with the most relevant and important charity project in her nation. The first winner of Beauty With a Purpose was Miss World Korea 2005 Oh Eun-young. Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar is the first and only Beauty With a Purpose recipient to win Miss World.
=== Miss World Top Model ===
The Miss World Top Model is a modeling fast-track competition. It was first held in 2004, but not in 2005–2006. It has been held since 2007; since 2016 the winner of the competition automatically qualifies for the semi-finals.
=== Miss World Talent ===
Miss World Talent is a talent or fast-track competition in which contestants show their abilities in singing, dancing, poetry, etc. Introduced in Miss World 1978, the winner of the event automatically makes it into the semi-finals starting 2016. The award returned at Miss World 2001.
=== Miss World Sports Challenge ===
Miss World Sports or Sportswoman is a title and award given to the winner of a sports event at Miss World. It is a fast-track or preliminary event, giving the winner automatic entry into the semi-finals. In 2005, there was no Miss Sports winner because it was held as a continental team competition. Starting in 2006, the individual competition returned.
=== Multimedia Award (Social Media Award) ===
Miss World Multimedia or Social Media Award is a title and award given to the winner of a Multimedia Challenge. It is a fast-track or preliminary event, giving the winner automatic entry into the semi-finals. The score is based on the contestant's likes on Mobstar and Facebook.
=== Miss World Beach Beauty (Discontinued Event) ===
Miss World Beach Beauty was a swimsuit or fast-track competition. The Beach Beauty event started in 2003, when the Miss World Organization first held fast-track events to automatically give a semi-final spot to some of the delegates. This event allowed the Miss World delegates (over 100) to have a chance to be in the semi-finals. The winner made the semi-finals automatically. The Beach Beauty event showcased different swimsuits designed by Miss World 1975, Wilnelia Merced. In 2013,The Beach Beauty event replaced swimsuit with Balinese sarong. While in 2015, the organisation eliminated the swimsuit competition from the pageant.
== Miss World hosts and artists ==
The following is a list Miss World hosts and invited artists through the years.
== See also ==
Beauty with a Purpose – a registered charity and nonprofit organisation associated with Miss World that raises money and participates in humanitarian projects across the world
Big Four international beauty pageants
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Hunters, Story (16 May 2016). "Miss World: Old-fashioned, sexist beauty contest or advancing feminism's cause?". ABC News. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Doodle#:~:text=On%20March%207,to%20make%20music. | Google Doodle | A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City, Nevada, and was designed by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Early marketing employee Susan Wojcicki then spearheaded subsequent Doodles, including an alien landing on Google and additional custom logos for major holidays. Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor, cartoonist Ian David Marsden until 2000, when Page and Brin asked public relations officer Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day. Since then, a team of employees called Doodlers have organized and published the Doodles.
Initially, Doodles were neither animated nor hyperlinked—they were simply images with tooltips describing the subject or expressing a holiday greeting. Doodles increased in both frequency and complexity by the beginning of the 2010s. On October 31, 2000, the first animated Doodle celebrated Halloween. On May 21, 2010, the first interactive Doodle appeared later celebrating Pac-Man, and hyperlinks also began to be added to Doodles, usually linking to a search results page for the subject of the Doodle. By 2014, Google had published over 2,000 regional and international Doodles throughout its homepages, often featuring guest artists, musicians, and personalities. By 2024, the Doodlers team had created over 5,000 Doodles for Google's homepages around the world.
== Overview ==
In addition to celebrating many well-known events and holidays, Google Doodles celebrate artists and scientists on their birthdays. The featuring of Lowell's logo design coincided with the launch of another Google product, Google Maps. Doodles are also used to depict major events at Google, such as the company's own anniversary. The celebration of historic events is another common topic of Google Doodles including a Lego brick design in celebration of the interlocking Lego block's 50th anniversary. Some Google Doodles are limited to Google's country-specific home pages while others appear globally.
=== Common themes ===
Since the first Thanksgiving Doodle in 1998, many Doodles for holidays, events and other celebrations have recurred annually. These include:
Gregorian New Year's Day (2000–present)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (2003; 2006–present)
Lunar New Year (2001; 2003–present)
Valentine's Day (2000–present; partial exception during certain Olympic years)
International Women's Day (2005; 2009–present)
Saint Patrick's Day (2000–2021; 2023–present)
Earth Day (2001–present)
Mother's Day (2000–present)
Father's Day (2000–present)
Juneteenth (2020–present)
U.S. Independence Day (2000–present)
Bastille Day (2000–present)
German Unity Day (2002–2003; 2006–2008; 2010–present)
Swiss National Day (2001–present)
Olympic Games (2000–present; partial exception in 2014)
Halloween (1999–present)
Hinamatsuri (2009–2012; 2014–2023)
U.S. Thanksgiving Day (1998–present)
Christmas Day (1999–present)
New Year's Eve (1999; 2011–present)
== Doodlers ==
Doodlers is Google's name for the illustrators, engineers and artists who design the Doodles. They have included artists like Ekua Holmes, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Lynnette Haozous, and Eric Carle.
== Notable doodles ==
In May 2010, on the 30th anniversary of the 1980 arcade game Pac-Man, Google unveiled worldwide their first interactive logo, a playable Pac-Man Google Doodle, created in association with Namco. Anyone who visited Google could play Pac-Man on the logo, which featured the letters of the word Google on the Pac-Man maze. The logo also mimicked the sounds the original arcade game made. The I'm Feeling Lucky button was replaced with an Insert Coin button. Pressing this once enabled the user to play the Pac-Man logo. Pressing it again added a second player, Ms. Pac-Man, enabling two players to play at once, controlled using the W, A, S, D keys, instead of the arrows as used by Player 1. Pressing it for a third time performed an I'm Feeling Lucky search. It was then removed on May 23, 2010, initially replacing Pac-Man with the normal logo. Later on that day, Google released a permanent site to play Google Pac-Man (accessed by clicking on top icon), due to the popular user demand for the playable logo. Pac-Man Doodle drew an estimated 1 billion players worldwide.
Since that time, Google has continued to post occasional interactive and video doodles:
=== 2010s ===
On June 8, 2010, composer Robert Schumann was celebrated with a Google Doodle for his 200th birthday.
On September 4, 2010, the Google logo was changed to an interactive Buckyball to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its discovery. The Buckyball, also known as Buckminsterfullerene C60, is a molecule made entirely of carbon and shaped like a geodesic dome.
On September 6, 2010, Google launched its fourth interactive Google Doodle. Google Instant – Particle Logo replaced its static logo with a JavaScript-based particle movement simulator where dynamic colored balls can be manipulated with the movement of the mouse cursor over the logo, or by shaking of the browser window. Unlike some other Google Doodles, this one is unclickable.
On September 7, 2010, another Google Instant family logo known as Keystroke Logo was released. A grayed-out colorless logo lit up with the standard Google colors as the first six letters of a search query were entered.
On October 8, 2010, Google ran its first video doodle, a short animation set to the music of "Imagine" to mark what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. Similarly, Freddie Mercury's would-be 65th birthday was celebrated on September 5, 2011, with an animated clip set to "Don't Stop Me Now".
On April 15, 2011, Google sported the first live-action video doodle, in commemoration of Charlie Chaplin's 122nd birthday. This doodle was a black and white YouTube video that, when clicked upon, started playing before redirecting to the usual Google search featuring the doodle's special occasion. All parts in this short film were played by the Google Doodle team, and special behind-the-scenes footage was to be found on the Google blog.
Google displayed an interactive electric guitar doodle starting June 9, 2011, to commemorate the 96th birthday of Les Paul (d. 2009). Apart from being able to hover the cursor over the doodle to strum the strings just like one of Les Paul's Gibson guitars, there was also a keyboard button, which when enabled allowed interaction with the doodle via the keyboard. The doodle still maintained some resemblance to the Google logo. In the U.S., the doodle also allowed the user to record a 30-second clip, after which a URL is created and can be sent to others. The doodle remained on the site an extra day due to popularity in the U.S. It now has its own page linked to the Google Doodles archives.
On January 18, 2012, for users in the United States, Google placed a censor bar on top of their logo to protest SOPA and PIPA.
On May 23, 2012, for what would have been instrument inventor and synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog's 78th birthday, the Doodle team pulled off their own feat of engineering: a fully playable and recordable Google logo resembling a vintage Minimoog Model D synthesizer. Electronic analog Moog Synthesizer timbre and tones would come to define a generation of music, featuring heavily in songs by The Beatles, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk and many others. Much like the musical machines Bob Moog created, this doodle was synthesized from a number of smaller components to form a unique instrument. Mouse or computer keyboard was used to control the mini-synthesizer's keys and knobs and fiddle with oscillators and envelopes. Synthesizer doodle patched the keyboard into a 4-track tape recorder that could share songs.
On April 9, 2012, motion picture pioneer Eadweard Muybridge was celebrated in a Google doodle.
On June 21, 2012, Google celebrated what would have been Soviet singer-songwriter Viktor Tsoi's 50th birthday with a Google Doodle that shared resemblance with the Tsoi Wall.
On June 23, 2012, in commemoration of Alan Turing's 100th birthday, Google's logo became an interactive Turing Machine.
On August 8, 2012, Google displayed an interactive Basketball game for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
On September 13, 2012, Google created a doodle for Clara Schumann to commemorate her 193rd birthday.
On December 10, 2012, Google celebrated computing pioneer Ada Lovelace.
On January 2, 2013, Maurice Sendak was celebrated in a Google doodle inspired by his Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen.
On November 23, 2013, Google's logo changed to a playable Doctor Who game in honor of the show's 50th anniversary.
On May 19, 2014, for the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube, Google made an interactive virtual Rubik's Cube that people could try to solve.
On April 14, 2015, for the 155th anniversary of the Pony Express, Google made a playable 2D side-scrolling doodle game in which the player collects mail, avoids obstacles, and delivers up to 100 letters from California to Missouri.
On October 1, 2015, Annie Besant's 168th birthday was commemorated with a Doodle.
On December 17, 2015, a Google Doodle was featured honoring the 245th anniversary of Beethoven's date of birth. It features an interactive game to match the musical writing in correct order as it featured 4 levels.
On January 22, 2016, for the 151st birthday of Wilbur Scoville, creator of the Scoville Scale, Google made a playable doodle game in which the player plays as an ice cream cone throwing ice cream scoops at a variety of peppers to neutralize their heat. Gameplay is based on the timing of a mouse click or space bar press which rapidly increases in difficulty. The game includes 5 levels, each featuring a different type of pepper (Bell Pepper, Jalapeño Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Ghost Pepper, and Trinidad Moruga scorpion) and a fun fact about the peppers along with their measured Scoville Heat Units.
On August 5, 2016, for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the Google app received an update for Android and iOS devices to include 7 mini games called Doodle Fruit Games featuring Strawberry, Blueberry, Coconut, Pineapple, and more. It lasted until August 21, with a new mini game every day. The game was accessible on the Google app by clicking on a play button.
On October 30, 2016, for Halloween, Google added a game series called Magic Cat Academy, featuring a cat named Momo fighting ghosts. To play, users had to click on a play button, and "draw" to kill the ghosts.
On February 11, 12, 13 and 14, 2017, for Valentine's Day, Google added a game featuring the endangered pangolin, an African and Asian mammal, that goes through four levels (one released each day), while collecting objects, and avoiding obstacles.
On 28 February 2017, Google celebrated humanitarian Edhi with a Google Doodle hailing his "super-efficient" ambulance service.
On May 9, 2017, a Google Doodle was featured honoring the 181st birthday of Ferdinand Monoyer. He was a French ophthalmologist who in 1872 introduced the dioptre, the reciprocal of focal length in metres, as a unit for lens power. Its use greatly simplifies calculations when combining lenses. He devised an eye chart where every row represents a different lens power, from smallest to largest. A close look at the Doodle may reveal to the reader a tribute to Monoyer: his name, hidden in the chart.
On June 22, 2017, to commemorate the 117th birthday of animator Oskar Fischinger, Google released an interactive fullscreen Doodle that let users create their own animations by tapping on the screen. The user could then choose to share it to social media. The game was accessible by tapping on 2 play buttons.
On August 11, 2017, the 44th anniversary of DJ Kool Herc's pioneering use of the hip hop break, the Google Doodle allowed users to use a double turntable to act as a hip-hop DJ.
On September 4, 2017, to commemorate the 83rd birthday of Russian baritone singer Eduard Khil, Google added a video doodle that featured an animated Eduard Khil singing "I am very glad, as I'm finally returning back home", known globally as the "Trololo" song.
On December 4, 2017, Google celebrated 50 years of kids' coding languages with an Interactive Doodle.
On December 8, 2017, Google commemorated the 287th birthday of biologist Jan Ingenhousz with a Doodle.
On January 29, 2018, Google celebrated Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng on what would have been her 65th birthday.
On May 3, 2018, Google celebrated the work of Georges Méliès by making a doodle that encompassed his famous work like A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage. The doodle is also the first google doodle that was shown in 360-degrees format, with the viewer being able to rotate the video to give them different points of view.
On May 16, 2018, Google celebrated Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka.
On June 10, 2018, Google celebrated the history of garden gnomes by releasing an interactive Doodle where the player can use a catapult to launch their clay gnomes into the furthest reach of their garden.
On September 15, 2018, for India, Google commemorated Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya's 158th Birthday, on which day India celebrates Engineer's day.
On September 21, 2018, a stop-motion video Google doodle celebrating Fred Rogers was created in collaboration with Fred Rogers productions, The Fred Rogers center, and BixPix entertainment.
On October 30, 2018, for Halloween, Google added a multiplayer game called Great Ghoul Duel, featuring two teams of ghosts racing to collect spirits and steal them from the other team. Games can support up to 8 players, and users could create custom invite links or match with random users across the globe. Great Ghoul Duel was the first Doodle to support multiplayer over the internet.
On November 6, 2018, for the United States elections, Google changed their logo to Go Vote.
On November 11, 2018, Google celebrated the 58th posthumous birthday of Christy Essien-Igbokwe, who was a Nigerian musician and actress.
On March 7, 2019, Google celebrated Olga Ladyzhenskaya, a Russian mathematician.
On March 21, 2019, Google celebrated German composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach by creating the first Doodle that uses artificial intelligence to make music. When a button is pressed, the Doodle uses machine learning to harmonize a user-created melody into Bach's signature music style (or alternatively into a Bach 80s rock style hybrid if an amp on the right side is clicked).
On July 16–20, 2019, Google celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing by NASA where Neil Armstrong became the first man on the Moon.
On August 12, 2019, for India, Google commemorated Vikram Sarabhai's 100th birthday. He is internationally regarded as the Father of the Indian Space Program.
On December 9–10, 2019, the interactive Google doodle game celebrated the Mexican card game Lotería.
=== 2020s ===
On March 20, 2020, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google honored Ignaz Semmelweis for pioneering the practice of hand washing. The Doodle animation specifically showcased how to properly and thoroughly wash one's hands.
Google also released several doodles in the following weeks thanking various industry workers who assisted people during the pandemic.
Some games were re-released for people staying at home during lockdown to play.
On April 22, 2020, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a Doodle game was created in partnership with the Honeybee Conservancy, wherein a honeybee is guided by the player to pollinate flowers, while facts about the honeybee and its impact are shared between levels.
On May 20, 2020, Google celebrated the 61st birthday of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, who is best known for his rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
On May 21–22, 2020, the interactive Doodle celebrated the mbira as Zimbabwe's culture week begins.
On June 30, 2020, Google celebrated Marsha P. Johnson with a Google Doodle.[2]
On September 1, 2020, Google honored Jackie Ormes, known for being the first African-American woman cartoonist, along with being the creator of the Torchy Brown comic strip and the Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger panel. The Doodle animation showcased a slideshow of her career.
On October 30, 2020, a second installment to the Magic Cat Academy was made for Halloween. It had a similar gameplay, but a different setting (underwater) and focused on sea creatures such as the immortal jellyfish and the anglerfish.
On December 10, 2020, Google celebrated St Lucian economist, professor, and author W. Arthur Lewis.
On December 20, 2020, Google remembered the last surviving male Northern white rhinoceros, Sudan.
On December 30, 2020, Google celebrated Alaska native civil rights champion Elizabeth Peratrovich, who played an instrumental role in the 1945 passage of the first anti-discrimination law in the United States.
On January 15, 2021, Google honored James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. The Doodle animation showcases a person making a basket.
On March 10, 2021, Google honored Wu Lien-teh, depicting Wu Lien-teh assembling surgical masks and distributing them to reduce the risk of disease transmission.
On April 20, 2021, Google celebrated Luther Vandross on his 70th birthday with an animated Google Doodle that plays Vandross's song "Never Too Much".
On June 9, 2021, Google honored Shirley Temple with an animated depiction of her during her career as a child actress alongside her later service as a diplomat.
On July 23, 2021, Google released an RPG-style game called Doodle Champion Island Games, with artwork by Studio 4°C, to celebrate video gaming, Japanese folklore, and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
On August 14, 2021, Google made a doodle of Derawar Fort to celebrate Pakistan's 75 Independence Day. According to Google, the fort symbolizes Pakistani adaptability and antiquity.
On September 2, 2021, Google made a doodle celebrating the 138th birthday of the Polish biologist Rudolf Weigl, known for developing the epidemic typhus vaccine.
On September 5, 2021, Olivia When made a doodle celebrating the 107th birthday of the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra, being visible in 15 countries, including Chile.
On September 6, 2021, Google made a doodle celebrating the 100th birthday of the Spanish writer Carmen Laforet, in which she appears reading a book on a balcony.
On September 8, 2021, Google made an 80-second illustrated video celebrating the 32nd birthday of Swedish DJ Tim Bergling, in which many people are enjoying his song "Wake Me Up".
On September 15, 2021, Google made five doodles celebrating independence day in various Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Panama was not included, because its independence date was not September 15.
On September 16, 2021, Magdiel Herrera made a doodle known as à la Mexicana celebrating Mexican independence day. It shows a china poblana, a pozole, a bell, a hat with a zarape, a cactus and an Aztec musician.
On September 17, 2021, Google did a doodle celebrating the birth of Michiyo Tsujimura, a Japanese biochemist known for her research on green tea and its nutritional benefits.
On September 18, 2021, Google made a doodle from the Chilean National Holidays shows in the center to a huemul, an animal representative of both the country and the national shield.
On September 25, 2021, Google celebrated American actor and activist Christopher Reeve.
On October 1, 2021, Roxie Vizcarra created a slideshow doodle celebrating US Chicano educator, boxer, poet, and activist Rodolfo Gonzales.
On November 1, 2021, Google celebrated Zuni native American fiber artist, weaver, and potter the late We'wha with an interactive doodle.
On November 4, 2021, Google celebrated Chinese-born, British American physicist and educator Charles K. Kao.
On November 8, 2021, Google celebrated Indian cell biologist Kamal Ranadive on her 104th birthday.
On November 12, 2021, Google celebrated Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, who painted the Girl with a Pearl Earring in 1665.
On November 14, 2021, Google celebrated the 216th birthday of German pianist and composer Fanny Hensel.
On November 20, 2021, Google celebrated Creole classical musician and composer Edmond Dede.
On December 2, 2021, pioneering pointillist painter Georges Seurat was celebrated in a Google doodle.
On December 17, 2021, Google celebrated the 315th birthday of French mathematician, translator and physicist Émilie du Châtelet.
In January 2022, Google created a special Doodle that appears when one searches for the term Wordle, based on the online game which had risen to popularity the previous month. The Doodle mimics playing the game Wordle on the name Google.
On January 8, 2022, Google celebrated English cosmologist, author, and physicist Stephen Hawking.
On January 17, 2022, Google celebrated what would have been Betty White's 100th birthday (she died just weeks earlier on December 31, 2021) by having rose petals fall from the top of the screen and the phrase thank you for being a friend appear at the bottom when the user searches for her name, both references to her popular television role on The Golden Girls.
On January 26, 2022, Google celebrated the 124th birthday of Russian born, Polish avant-garde sculptor and art theoretician Katarzyna Kobro.
On February 9, 2022, Google celebrated athlete Toni Stone in honor of Black History Month.
On February 17, 2022, Google celebrated Dr. Michiaki Takahashi's 94th birthday with a doodle showing first the research phase, then a boy with chickenpox, a doctor giving the chickenpox vaccine, and ending with bottles of medicine and dots giving a graphical representation of the declining number of cases due to the vaccine.
On March 16, 2022, Google celebrated the 200th birthday of French painter Rosa Bonheur.
On April 12, 2022, Google celebrated Montserrat Caballe's 89th birthday.
On April 29, 2022, Google hit all the right notes by celebrating Toots Thielemans on what would be his 100th birthday.
On April 30, 2022, Google took you to U.S. Route 66 with a video doodle.
On May 2, 2022, Google celebrated the birthday of the black Canadian American engineer and inventor Elijah McCoy.
On May 19, 2022, Google celebrated Stacey Milbern and her legacy with a doodle in honor of Asian Pacific American heritage month on what would have been her 35th birthday.
On May 22, 2022, Google celebrated The Great Gama in honor of his 144th birthday.
On June 4, 2022, Google celebrated the inspiring life of Kiyoshi Kuromiya and the legacy of activism he left behind.
On June 6, 2022, Google celebrated Angelo Moriondo, the man who invented the espresso machine.
On June 17, 2022, Google celebrated British composer, teacher, and opera singer Amanda Aldridge.
On June 25, 2022, Google honored German diarist Anne Frank with a slideshow doodle.
On July 6, 2022, Google celebrated the 71st birthday of Native American stand-up comedian Charlie Hill.
On July 18, 2022, Google celebrated what would have been the 112th birthday of electronic music producer and physicist Oskar Sala.
On July 26, 2022, Google celebrated the steelpan with a video doodle.
On July 31 – August 1, 2022, the interactive Google doodle game celebrated petanque, a beloved French outdoor game played around the world.
On August 23, 2022, Google celebrated the 104th birthday of physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani.
On September 8, 2022, the date of Queen Elizabeth II's death, Google established a specialized grayscale Doodle in the United Kingdom and certain other Commonwealth nations, which comprised simply a colorless Google logo and a hyperlink to Queen Elizabeth II in honor of the late monarch. A dedicated page was established for the Doodle on Google's Doodle archive site, but it was not displayed in the normal listing.
For the date of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral on September 19, Google changed the aforementioned grayscale Doodle to black. This Doodle, as with the grayscale one established on her date of death, was also not displayed in the normal archive listing on Google's Doodle archive site.
On October 11, 2022, Google celebrated the musician and entertainer Tito Puente.
On October 30–31, 2022, Google re-released the Great Ghoul Duel multiplayer Doodle from 2018 with additional maps and achievements. The game was originally scheduled to be released 2021, but it was delayed due to server and designing difficulties.
On November 1, 2022, Google celebrated Indigenous North American stickball in honor of Native American heritage month.
On November 4, 2022, Google celebrated the West African dish jollof rice.
On November 21, 2022, Google celebrated the life of Marie Tharp with an interactive doodle.
On November 23, 2022, Google celebrated Mexican American actress Myrtle Gonzalez.
On December 1–2, 2022, the interactive Google doodle game celebrated the 82nd birthday of Jerry Lawson, one of the fathers of modern gaming.
On December 12, 2022, Google celebrated the life and innovative work of Maria Telkes, one of the first pioneers of solar energy.
On December 17, 2022, Google celebrated Ana Mercedes Hoyos, a distinguished Colombian artist.
On December 19, 2022, Google celebrated 17th century painter Judith Leyster's work.
On January 29–30, 2023, the interactive Google Doodle game celebrated bubble tea, also known as boba tea and pearl milk tea.
On February 8, 2023, Google celebrated Haitian American model and disability rights advocate Mama Cax.
On March 15, 2023, Google celebrated adobo, a way of cooking and a favorite Filipino dish.
On March 19, 2023, Google celebrated the 80th birthday of Mexican chemist Mario Molina.
On March 22, 2023, Google celebrated French mime artist Marcel Marceau.
On March 24, 2023, Google celebrated the 77th birthday of Kitty O'Neil, once crowned the fastest woman in the world.
On March 28, 2023, Google celebrated Justine Siegemund, a midwife who dared to challenge patriarchal attitudes in the 17th century.
On April 30, 2023, to commemorate 36 years since his first leading role in theatre, Google celebrated the life of British actor Alan Rickman.
On May 5, 2023, Google celebrated the life and work of Chinese American photographer, journalist, and activist Corky Lee.
On May 7, 2023, Google celebrated the 190th birthday of German composer and pianist Johannes Brahms.
On May 20–21, 2023, the interactive Google doodle celebrated Lake Xochimilco, a natural lake near Mexico City, Mexico.
On May 22, 2023, Google celebrated Barbara May Cameron, a photographer, poet, writer, and activist.
On June 9, 2023, the Google doodle video celebrated Willi Ninja, an iconic dancer and choreographer known as the Godfather of Voguing.
On June 10, 2023, Google celebrated scones, an afternoon tea treat in the United Kingdom.
On June 20, 2023, Google celebrated the Polish sculptor and artist Magdalena Abakanowicz.
On July 12–13, 2023, the interactive Google doodle game celebrated the Indian street food Panipuri, also widely known as golgappa.
On July 16, 2023, Google celebrated Indian American artist and printmaker Zarina Hashmi.
On July 17, 2023, Google celebrated the 204th birthday of American scientist and women's rights activist Eunice Newton Foote with a slideshow doodle.
On August 4, 2023, Google celebrated the life of Altina Schinasi, an American artist, designer, and inventor.
On September 15, 2023, Google celebrated Guatemalan American labor organizer, journalist, and activist Luisa Moreno.
On September 27, 2023, Google celebrated its 25th anniversary by showing a unique doodle that chronicles the evolution of the Google logo from 1997 to the present, ending with the current logo having the two "o"s in the logo turning into the numbers 25 in reference to Google's 25th anniversary, stylized as G25gle.
On September 29, 2023, Google celebrated the 89th birthday of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
On September 30, 2023, Google celebrated deaf French educator and intellectual Ferdinand Berthier.
On October 2, 2023, Google celebrated the Appalachian trail with a slideshow doodle.
On October 17, 2023, Google celebrated the 118th birthday of Mexican American media pioneer, broadcaster, and community activist Raoul A. Cortez.
On October 20, 2023, Google celebrated the 122nd birthday of jazz singer Adelaide Hall in honor of UK black history month.
On October 31, 2023, Google celebrated Halloween by showcasing a Halloween slideshow poem.
On November 3, 2023, Google celebrated Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter, and book illustrator Allan Houser.
On November 21, 2023, Google celebrated Chinese Australian surgeon Victor Chang.
On March 7, 2024, Google celebrated what would have been Mexican singer Lola Beltrán's 92nd birthday in an animated doodle.
On March 11, 2024, Google celebrated the flat white, a beloved coffee drink of steamed milk poured over a shot of espresso.
On April 8, 2024, Google celebrated the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024.
On April 15, 2024, Google celebrated the life and legacy of Lebanese American writer Etel Adnan.
On April 20, 2024, Google celebrated the start of the 2024 NBA playoffs.
On May 1, 2024, Google celebrated Indian American poet Meena Alexander.
On May 14, 2024, Google celebrated the start of the 28th WNBA season.
On May 16, 2024, Google celebrated the 81st birthday of activist Hank Adams.
On May 23, 2024, Google celebrated chilaquiles, the beloved Mexican dish that has made its way into homes around the world.
On June 6, 2024, Google celebrated Chicana activist, feminist, and author Jeanne Cordova in honor of pride month.
On June 10, 2024, Google celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival.
On June 20, 2024, Google kicked off the Conmebol Copa America 2024 as the 48th installment of the Copa América Series.
On August 19, 2024, Google celebrated Welsh poet and deaf activist Dorothy Miles.
On September 9, 2024, Google celebrated S'more with a slideshow doodle.
On September 19, 2024, Google celebrated Cuban American silent film actor and activist Emerson Romero in honor of Hispanic heritage month. The doodle was canceled on September 15, 2024.
On September 25–26, 2024, the interactive Google Doodle game celebrated popcorn.
On October 19, 2024, Google celebrated the staurikosaurus, one of the oldest dinosaurs ever discovered
On October 24, 2024, the interactive Google Doodle game celebrated October's final half moon phase.
On October 30–31, 2024, a third installment to the Magic Cat Academy was made for Halloween. It also had similar gameplay, but a different setting (space) and focused across the layers of the atmosphere.
On November 15, 2024, Google celebrated the kayak in honor of Native American heritage month.
On November 21, 2024, the interactive Google Doodle game celebrated November's final half moon phase.
On November 28, 2024, Google celebrated the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
On December 16, 2024, Google celebrated the Independence Day of Kazakhstan.
On December 22, 2024, the interactive Google Doodle game celebrated December's final half moon phase.
On January 23, 2025, the interactive Google Doodle game celebrated January's final half moon phase.
On February 1, 2025, Google celebrated house music in honor of Black History Month.
On February 6, 2025, Google celebrated gumbo, a dish that might blur the lines between soup and stews, but has become a staple in Louisiana's cuisine.
On June 1, 2025, Google celebrated hyperpop in honor of pride month.
On September 15, 2025, Google celebrated salsa music in honor of Hispanic heritage month.
On September 27, 2025, Google celebrated its 27th anniversary with a doodle that uses the 1998 version of the Google logo in place of the current logo.
On October 30–31, 2025, the night before Halloween, a doodle featuring the Pac-Man game was revealed, but this time with Halloween motifs.
On November 1, 2025, a Google doodle was made celebrating Native American flutes during Native American heritage month.
== "Doodle 4 Google" competitions ==
Google holds competitions for school students to create their own Google doodles, referred to as Doodle 4 Google. Winning doodles go onto the Doodle4Google website, where the public can vote for the winner, who wins a trip to the Googleplex and the hosting of the winning doodle for 24 hours on the Google website.
The competition originated in the United Kingdom, and has since expanded to the United States and other countries. The competition was also held in Ireland in 2008. Google announced a Doodle 4 Google competition for India in 2009 and the winning doodle was displayed on the Google India homepage on November 14. A similar competition held in Singapore based on the theme "Our Singapore" was launched in January 2010 and the winning entry was chosen from over 30,000 entries received. The winning design was shown on Singapore's National Day on Google Singapore's homepage. It was held again in 2015 in Singapore and was themed "Singapore: The next 50 years".
== Controversy and criticism ==
On September 13, 2007, Google posted a doodle honoring author Roald Dahl on the anniversary of his birth, but this date coincided with the first day of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and Google was immediately criticized by members of the Jewish community for this decision, mainly because Dahl has been accused of anti-Semitism. Google removed the Doodle by 2:00 p.m. that day, and there remains no evidence of its existence in Google's official Doodle archive to this date.
In 2007, Google was also criticized for not featuring Doodles for American patriotic holidays, such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day. In that year, Google featured a logo commemorating Veterans Day.
In 2014, Google received some criticism for not honoring the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion with a Doodle and instead honoring Japanese Go player Honinbo Shusaku. In response to the criticism, Google removed that logo from their homepage and added a series of links to images of the invasion of Normandy.
On May 19, 2016, Google honored Yuri Kochiyama, an Asian-American activist and member of the Maoist-based black nationalist group Revolutionary Action Movement, with a Doodle on its main American homepage. This choice was criticized by conservative commentators due to some Kochiyama's controversial opinions, such as admiration for Osama bin Laden and Mao Zedong. U.S. Senator Pat Toomey called for a public apology from Google. Not like the anteriorly cited times, Google did not respond to any criticism, nor did it alter the presentation of the Doodle on its homepage or on the Doodle's dedicated page.
=== Gender and race ===
In 2014, a report published by SPARK Movement, an activist organization, stated that there was a large gender and race imbalance in the number of Doodles shown by Google, and that most Doodles were honoring white males. The report was widely reported in the media, and Google made a commitment to increase the proportion of women and racial minorities.
=== Religious holidays ===
Google typically abstains from referencing or celebrating religious holidays specifically in Doodles, or in cases when they do, religious themes and iconography are avoided. Google has acknowledged this as an official policy, stating in April 2018 that they "don't have Doodles for religious holidays", according to "current Doodle guidelines". Google further explained that Doodles may appear for some "non-religious celebrations that have grown out of religious holidays", citing Valentine's Day (Christianity), Holi (Hinduism), and Tu B'Av (Judaism) as examples, but the company does not include "religious imagery or symbolism" as part of those Doodles.
Google has been criticized for what has been perceived as its inconsistency regarding the implementation of its religious holiday policy, notably its lack of Doodles for major Christian holidays. Critics have pointed to its yearly recognition of the Jewish and Hindu festivals of Tu B'av and Holi, while Easter only received an official Doodle once in 2000 (and a themed homepage in 2019). Christmas is not specifically celebrated by name, although a Doodle with a seasonally festive and/or winter theme has always been present on December 25 since 1999. Since the mid-2010s, Google has also repeated their December 25 doodle on January 7, which is the date for Christmas in the Eastern Orthodox Church, but the word "Christmas" has never explicitly been used; the terminology "holidays" and "Eastern Europe" are used instead of "Christmas" or "Eastern Orthodox Church".
==== Easter ====
Google first created a Doodle for Easter in 2000, and did not acknowledge the holiday on its homepage again until 2019. In March 2013, Google was criticized for celebrating American activist Cesar Chavez on Easter Sunday with a Doodle instead of Easter.
In 2019, after an 18-year hiatus, Google presented an atypical "Doodle" for Easter, for the desktop version of their homepage only. Unlike what is seen in virtually all other Doodles, the Google logo itself was unaltered in the presentation of the Doodle, and users had to click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button where "Lucky" is replaced with an anthropomorphic Easter egg, which triggered a falling array of Easter-themed items such as eggs, bunnies, and hot cross buns. Some of these items were hyperlinked, leading to a detailed page about Easter customs. Google's official Doodle archive page originally contained an unlisted entry for the 2019 Easter Doodle, which has since been removed. Notably, the 2019 Easter-themed homepage was not visible from mobile devices unless the "Desktop mode" option was triggered on the mobile browser, leading to the majority of users not ever seeing the "Doodle". Danny Sullivan, technologist with Google involved with the Easter-themed homepage, responded to an inquiry about its absence on mobile by saying it was "hard to do the interactivity dependably [on mobile]".
In 2020, Google once again celebrated Easter atypically on its homepage, but not as a Doodle. An Easter egg was placed below the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons, with hovertext indicating "Happy Easter". When clicked, the egg led to a search results page for "Easter". This is similar to how Memorial Day and Remembrance Day have been recognized by the company in the US.
== See also ==
Brand management
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official Website
Google Doodle's channel on YouTube
Google Doodle on Twitter |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_pinifolia#:~:text=In%201865%2C%20George%20Bentham%20changed%20the%20name%20to%20Pimelea%20pinifolia%20in%20Journal%20of%20the%20Linnean%20Society%2C%20Botany | Darwinia pinifolia | Darwinia pinifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a low, spreading to prostrate shrub with linear leaves and dense heads of erect, red to purple flowers.
== Description ==
Darwinia pinifolia is a low, spreading to prostrate shrub that typically grows to height of 10–50 cm (3.9–19.7 in) and has many branches. Its leaves are linear, more or less round to triangular in cross-section, about 12 mm (0.47 in) long and more or less sessile. The flowers are erect, red to purple, arranged in dense heads on the ends of branches, surrounded by egg-shaped or spatula-shaped bracteoles that are shorter than the flowers. The sepal tube is nearly 6.5 mm (0.26 in) long with broadly egg-shaped lobes about as long as the petals. Flowering occurs from September to February.
== Taxonomy ==
This species was first formally described in 1839 by John Lindley who gave it the name Hedaroma pinifolium in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony. In 1865, George Bentham changed the name to Pimelea pinifolia in Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany. The specific epithet (pinifolia) means "pine-leaved".
== Distribution and habitat ==
Darwinia pinifolia is typically found in sandy soils in winter-wet areas in the Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Carty_Award_for_the_Advancement_of_Science | John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science | The John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for noteworthy and distinguished accomplishments in any field of science within the charter of the Academy". Established by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) and first awarded in 1932, the medal has been awarded in specific fields since 1961. The recipient is awarded a $25,000 prize.
It is named after John J. Carty, an American electrical engineer who worked at AT&T.
== Recipients ==
Source: National Academy of Sciences
2022 Barney S. Graham For his groundbreaking work on vaccine and monoclonal antibody development for COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, HIV, and other emerging viruses.
2020 Carolyn R. Bertozzi For her invention of bioorthogonal chemistry—a broadly applicable class of processes for scalable production of novel biomaterials. Her innovative technologies have been extensively translated to commercial settings for therapeutic and diagnostics discovery. She also employs these tools for glycobiology studies and tuberculosis research.
2018 David M. Kreps, Paul Milgrom, and Robert B. Wilson (economics), For making fundamental advances to game theory by showing how incomplete information alters equilibrium outcomes
2016 Michael Goddard and Theodorus Meuwissen (agricultural sciences), For the development of genomic selection - uniting quantitative genetic theory with genomics technology - revolutionizing the genetic improvement of livestock and crops. Their research also invigorated genomic prediction, which has far ranging implications for fields from human medicine to conservation biology
2014 Joseph DeRisi (genome biology), for pioneering efforts to develop new genomic technologies and using the technologies to make discoveries in virology that are of fundamental and practical importance
2012 Michael I. Posner ( cognitive science), for outstanding contributions to the understanding of spatial attention and for pioneering investigations of the neural basis of cognition using non-invasive functional brain imaging methods.
2010 Andre Geim (physics), for his experimental realization and investigation of graphene, the two-dimensional form of carbon.
2009 Joseph Felsenstein (evolution), for revolutionizing population genetics, phylogenetic biology, and systematics by developing a sophisticated computational framework to deduce evolutionary relationships of genes and species from molecular data.
2008 Thomas Eisner (ecology), for pathbreaking studies of the myriad ways that organisms utilize chemistry to mediate ecological interactions and providing a foundation for the field of chemical ecology.
2007 Joseph R. Ecker (plant science), for contributions in the areas of ethylene signal transduction and Arabidopsis genomics that have paved the way for a revolution in modern agriculture.
2006 Russell F. Doolittle (computational science), for contributing seminal insights and methods for using computers as an aid to characterizing protein function, in comparing amino acid sequences, and for phylogenetic reconstructions.
2005 Robert J. Cava (materials), for his outstanding contributions in the synthesis and characterization of many new materials that display interesting and important superconducting, dielectric, magnetic, or thermal properties.
2004 Elinor Ostrom (social/political science), for her exceptional contributions to the study of social institutions, research that has greatly advanced our understanding of resource management, and the governance of local public economies.
2003 David A. Freedman (statistics), for his profound contributions to the theory and practice of statistics, including rigorous foundations for Bayesian influence and trenchant analysis of census adjustment.
2000 Donald Lynden-Bell (astronomy/astrophysics), for his outstanding work in theoretical astrophysics, and especially for the originality of his contributions to our understanding of the collective dynamic effects within stellar systems.
1997 Patrick V. Kirch (anthropology), for the unique breadth of his distinguished anthropological accomplishments, spanning many Pacific islands and joining their archeology with ethnobotany, ethnobiohistory, historical linguistics, and human biology.
1994 Marina Ratner (mathematics), for her striking proof of the Raghunathan conjectures.
1992 Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (physics), for developing pulsar timing experiments with exquisite accuracy to make fundamental studies of gravitation, including gravitational radiation and high-order tests of general relativity.
1987 Motoo Kimura (evolutionary biology), "for demonstrating the role of stochastic processes in inducing and maintaining most allelic diveristy [sic] in nature, thereby unifying molecular biology with evolutionary theory, strengthening both fields".
1984 Robert H. Burris (agricultural sciences), for his penetrating studies of the biochemistry of nitrogen fixation have enriched the agricultural sciences by deed and example.
1981 Shing-Tung Yau (mathematics)
1978 John N. Mather (pure mathematics)
1975 J. Tuzo Wilson (earth science)
1971 James D. Watson (molecular biology)
1968 Murray Gell-Mann (theoretical physics)
1965 Alfred H. Sturtevant (biochemistry)
1963 Maurice Ewing (geophysics)
1961 Charles H. Townes (physics)
1953 Vannevar Bush
1950 Irving Langmuir
1947 Ross G. Harrison
1945 William F. Durand
1943 Edwin G. Conklin
1939 Sir William Bragg
1936 Edmund B. Wilson
1932 John J. Carty
== See also ==
List of general science and technology awards
List of awards named after people
== References ==
== External links ==
John J. Carty Award National Academy of Sciences web site |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Bathildis_of_Anhalt-Dessau | Princess Bathildis of Anhalt-Dessau | Princess Bathildis of Anhalt-Dessau (German: Prinzessin Bathildis Amalgunde von Anhalt-Dessau; 29 December 1837 – 10 February 1902) was a Princess of Anhalt-Dessau and member of the House of Anhalt by birth. As the wife of Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe, she was a Princess of Schaumburg-Lippe by marriage.
== Early life ==
Bathildis was born at Dessau, Anhalt-Dessau, as the second child of Prince Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau (son of Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Anhalt-Dessau and Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Homburg) and his wife Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, (daughter of Landgrave William of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Charlotte of Denmark).
She was the younger sister of Grand Duchess Adelaide of Luxembourg.
== Marriage ==
On 30 May 1862 at Dessau, Bathildis married Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe, seventh child and third son of George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and his wife, Princess Ida of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
They had eight children:
Princess Charlotte of Schaumburg-Lippe (10 October 1864 – 16 July 1946), married in 1886 to William II of Württemberg, no issue.
Prince Franz Joseph of Schaumburg-Lippe (8 October 1865 – 4 September 1881)
Prince Frederick of Schaumburg-Lippe (30 January 1868 – 12 December 1945), married in 1896 to Princess Louise of Denmark, had issue.
Prince Albrecht of Schaumburg-Lippe (24 October 1869 – 25 December 1942), married in 1897 to Duchess Elsa of Württemberg, had issue.
Prince Maximilian of Schaumburg-Lippe (13 March 1871 – 1 April 1904), married in 1898 to Duchess Olga of Württemberg, had issue.
Princess Bathildis of Schaumburg-Lippe (21 May 1873 – 6 April 1962), married in 1895 to Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, had issue.
Princess Adelaide of Schaumburg-Lippe (22 September 1875 – 27 January 1971), married in 1898 to Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, had issue, divorced in 1920.
Princess Alexandra of Schaumburg-Lippe (9 June 1879 – 5 January 1949)
== Later life ==
Princess Bathildis died on 10 February 1902 at Náchod Castle, Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), aged 64.
Her body was buried, alongside her husband Friedrich, in a Waldeck family Crypt in Rhoden, Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
== Ancestry ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromeOS#:~:text=In%20August%202011%2C%20Netflix%20announced,and%20TV%20shows%20via%20Netflix. | ChromeOS | ChromeOS (sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS) is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS operating system (which itself is derived from Gentoo Linux), and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interface.
Google announced the project in July 2009, initially describing it as an operating system where applications and user data would reside in the cloud. ChromeOS was used primarily to run web applications. The operating system first shipped with Chromebooks in 2011. It is also offered since 2020 as an installable Linux distribution as ChromeOS Flex.
ChromeOS supports progressive web applications, Android apps from Google Play and Linux applications.
In 2025, Google confirmed that ChromeOS will switch from the Linux kernel to the Android kernel. The reworked operating system will result in ChromeOS's development merging with that of Android.
== History ==
In 2006, Jeff Nelson, a Google employee, created the concept of what would become ChromeOS, initially codenamed "Google OS" as a Linux distribution focused on speed. Early versions of the Google operating system used Firefox as Chrome had not been released, though it switched to Chrome sometime in 2007 due to internal betas being passed around Google.
To ascertain marketing requirements, developers relied on informal metrics, including monitoring the usage patterns of 200 machines used by Google employees. Developers also noted their own usage patterns.
Google requested that its hardware partners use solid-state drives "for performance and reliability reasons" as well as the lower capacity requirements inherent in an operating system that accesses applications and most user data on remote servers. In November 2009, Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for the ChromeOS, announced that ChromeOS would only support solid-state storage (i.e. not mechanical hard-disks), and noted that ChromeOS only required one-sixtieth as much drive space as Windows 7. Ten years later, in 2019, the recovery images Google provided for ChromeOS were still only between 1 and 3 GB in size.
On November 19, 2009, Google released ChromeOS's source code as the ChromiumOS project. At a November 19, 2009 news conference, Sundar Pichai–at the time Google's vice president overseeing Chrome–demonstrated an early version of the operating system. He previewed a desktop which looked very similar to the desktop Chrome browser, and in addition to the regular browser tabs also had application tabs, which take less space and can be pinned for easier access. At the conference, the operating system booted up in seven seconds, a time Google said it would work to reduce. Additionally, Chris Kenyon, vice president of OEM services at Canonical Ltd, announced that Canonical was under contract to contribute engineering resources to the project with the intent to build on existing open-source components and tools where feasible.
Canonical was an early engineering partner on the project, and initially ChromiumOS could only be built on an Ubuntu system. In February 2010, the ChromiumOS development team switched to Gentoo Linux because Gentoo's package management system Portage was more flexible. The ChromiumOS build environment is no longer restricted to any particular distribution, but installation and quick-start guides use Debian's (and thus also Ubuntu's) apt syntax.
=== Early Chromebooks (2010) ===
In 2010, Google released the unbranded Cr-48 Chromebook in a pilot program. The launch date for retail hardware featuring ChromeOS was delayed from late 2010 until the next year.
On May 11, 2011, Google announced two Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung at Google I/O. The Samsung model was released on June 15, 2011, and the Acer model in mid-July. In August 2011, Netflix announced official support for ChromeOS through its streaming service, allowing Chromebooks to watch streaming movies and TV shows via Netflix. At the time, other devices had to use Microsoft Silverlight to play videos from Netflix. Later in that same month, Citrix released a client application for ChromeOS, allowing Chromebooks to access Windows applications and desktops remotely. Dublin City University became the first educational institution in Europe to provide Chromebooks for its students when it announced an agreement with Google in September 2011.
=== Expansion (2012) ===
By 2012, demand for Chromebooks had begun to grow, and Google announced a new range of devices, designed and manufactured by Samsung. In so doing, they also released the first Chromebox, the Samsung Series 3, which was ChromeOS' entrance into the world of desktop computers. Although they were faster than the previous range of devices, they were still underpowered compared to other desktops and laptops of the time, fitting in more closely with the Netbook market. Only months later, in October, Samsung and Google released a new Chromebook at a significantly lower price point ($250, compared to the previous Series 5 Chromebooks' $450). It was the first Chromebook to use an ARM processor, one from Samsung's Exynos line. To reduce the price, Google and Samsung also reduced the memory and screen resolution of the device. An advantage of using the ARM processor, however, was that the Chromebook did not require a fan. Acer followed quickly after with the C7 Chromebook, priced even lower ($199), but containing an Intel Celeron processor. One notable way Acer reduced the cost of the C7 was to use a laptop hard disk rather than a solid-state drive.
In April 2012, Google made the first update to ChromeOS's user interface since the operating system had launched, introducing a hardware-accelerated window manager called "Aura" along with a conventional taskbar. The additions marked a departure from the operating system's original concept of a single browser with tabs and gave ChromeOS the look and feel of a more conventional desktop operating system. "In a way, this almost feels as if Google is admitting defeat here", wrote Frederic Lardinois on TechCrunch. He argued that Google had traded its original version of simplicity for greater functionality. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, and may just help ChromeOS gain more mainstream acceptance as new users will surely find it to be a more familiar experience." Lenovo and HP followed Samsung and Acer in manufacturing Chromebooks in early 2013 with their own models. Lenovo specifically targeted their Chromebook at students, headlining their press release with "Lenovo Introduces Rugged ThinkPad Chromebook for Schools".
When Google released Google Drive, they also included Drive integration in ChromeOS version 20, released in July 2012. While ChromeOS had supported Adobe Flash since 2010, by the end of 2012 it had been fully sandboxed, preventing issues with Flash from affecting other parts of ChromeOS. This affected all versions of Chrome including ChromeOS.
=== Chromebook Pixel (2013) ===
Prior to 2013, Google had never made their own ChromeOS device. ChromeOS devices were designed, manufactured, and marketed by third-party manufacturers, with Google controlling the software side. This changed in February 2013 when Google released the Chromebook Pixel. The Chromebook Pixel was entirely Google-branded, and contained an Intel Core i5 processor, a high-resolution (2,560 × 1,700) touchscreen display, and a price competitive with business laptops.
=== 2013–2025 ===
By the end of 2013, analysts were undecided on the future of ChromeOS. Although there had been articles predicting the demise of ChromeOS since 2009, ChromeOS device sales continued to increase substantially year-over-year. In mid-2014, Time magazine published an article titled "Depending on Who's Counting, Chromebooks are Either an Enormous Hit or Totally Irrelevant", which detailed the differences in opinion. This uncertainty was further spurred by Intel's announcement of Intel-based Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, and an all-in-one offering from LG called the Chromebase.
Seizing the opportunity created by the end of life for Windows XP, Google pushed hard to sell Chromebooks to businesses, offering significant discounts in early 2014.
ChromeOS devices outsold Apple Macs worldwide for the year 2020.
Since July 2021, ChromeOS's embedded controller was changed to be based on a Google maintained fork of Zephyr, a real time operating system.
=== Pwnium competition ===
In March 2014, Google hosted a hacking contest aimed at computer security experts called "Pwnium". Similar to the Pwn2Own contest, they invited hackers from around the world to find exploits in ChromeOS, with prizes available for attacks. Two exploits were demonstrated there, and a third was demonstrated at that year's Pwn2Own competition. Google patched all of the issues within a week.
=== Material Design and app runtime for Chrome ===
Although the Google Native Client has been available on ChromeOS since 2010, there originally were few Native Client apps available, and most ChromeOS apps were still web apps. However, in June 2014, Google announced at Google I/O that ChromeOS would both synchronise with Android phones to share notifications and begin to run Android apps, installed directly from Google Play. This, along with the broadening selection of Chromebooks, laid the groundwork for future ChromeOS development.
At the same time, Google was also moving towards the then-new Material Design design language for its products, which it would bring to its web products as well as Android Lollipop. One of the first Material Design items to come to ChromeOS was a new default wallpaper. Google's Material Design experiment for ChromeOS were added to the stable version with Chrome 117.
=== Merger with Android ===
After some rumors, Google confirmed in July 2025 that ChromeOS will "merge" with Android under one unified platform. It was formally announced at the Snapdragon Summit in September 2025. Internally, it is known as codename Aluminium OS.
The existing Linux-based ChromeOS will be replaced by a desktop-optimized Android-based operating system. The same Android software would run on desktop and mobile and be adapted for the different display sizes. Like ChromeOS, the desktop version of Aluminium will work on both ARM and x86 processors. The latter port is expected be the first mainline maintained x86 architecture version of Android.
== Features ==
=== Functionality for small and medium businesses and Enterprise ===
==== Chrome Enterprise ====
Chrome Enterprise, launched in 2017, includes ChromeOS, Chrome Browser, Chrome devices and their management capabilities intended for business use. Businesses can access the standard ChromeOS features and unlock advanced features for business with the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade. Standard features include the ability to sync bookmarks and browser extensions across devices, cloud or native printing, multi-layered security, remote desktop, and automatic updates. Advanced features include Active Directory integration, unified endpoint management, advanced security protection, access to device policies and Google Admin console, guest access, kiosk mode, and whitelisting or blacklisting third-party apps managed on Google Play.
The education sector was an early adopter of Chromebooks, ChromeOS, and cloud-based computing. Chromebooks are widely used in classrooms and the advantages of cloud-based systems have been gaining an increased share of the market in other sectors as well, including financial services, healthcare, and retail. "The popularity of cloud computing and cloud-based services highlights the degree to which companies and business processes have become both internet-enabled and dependent." ICT managers cite a number of advantages of the cloud that have motivated the move. Among them are advanced security, because data is not physically on a single machine that can be lost or stolen. Deploying and managing cloud-native devices is easier because no hardware and software upgrades or virus definition updates are needed, and patching of OS and software updates are simpler. Simplified and centralized management decreases operational costs.
Employees can securely access files and work on any machine, increasing the shareability of Chrome devices. Google's Grab and Go program with Chrome Enterprise allows businesses deploying Chromebooks to provide employees access to a bank of fully charged computers that can be checked out and returned after some time.
==== From Chromebooks to Chromebox and Chromebase ====
In an early attempt to expand its enterprise offerings, Google released Chromebox for Meetings in February 2014. Chromebox for Meetings is a kit for conference rooms containing a Chromebox, a camera, a unit containing both a noise-cancelling microphone and speakers, and a remote control. It supports Google Hangouts meetings, Vidyo video conferences, and conference calls from UberConference.
Several partners announced Chromebox for Meetings models with Google, and in 2016 Google announced an all-in-one Chromebase for Meetings for smaller meeting rooms. Google targeted the consumer hardware market with the release of the Chromebook in 2011 and Chromebook Pixel in 2013, and sought access to the enterprise market with the 2017 release of the Pixelbook. The second-generation Pixelbook was released in 2019. In 2021 there are several vendors selling all-in-one Chromebase devices.
==== Enterprise response to Chrome devices ====
Google has partnered on Chrome devices with several leading OEMs, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung. In August 2019, Dell announced that two of its popular business-focused laptops would run ChromeOS and come with Chrome Enterprise Upgrade. The Latitude 5300 2-in-1 Chromebook Enterprise and Latitude 5400 Chromebook Enterprise were the result of a two-year partnership between Dell and Google. The machines come with a bundle of Dell's cloud-based support services that would enable enterprise ICT managers to deploy them in environments that also rely on Windows. The new laptop line "delivers the search giant's ChromeOS operating system in a form tailored for security-conscious organizations." Other OEMs that have launched devices with Chrome Enterprise Upgrade include Acer and HP.
With a broader range of hardware available, ChromeOS became an option for enterprises wishing to avoid a migration to Windows 10 before Windows 7 support was discontinued by Microsoft.
== Hardware ==
Laptops running ChromeOS are known collectively as "Chromebooks". The first was the CR-48, a reference hardware design that Google gave to testers and reviewers beginning in December 2010. Retail machines followed in May 2011. A year later, in May 2012, a desktop design marketed as a "Chromebox" was released by Samsung. In March 2015 a partnership with AOPEN was announced and the first commercial Chromebox was developed.
In early 2014, LG Electronics introduced the first device belonging to the new all-in-one form factor called "Chromebase". Chromebase devices are essentially Chromebox hardware inside a monitor with a built-in camera, microphone and speakers.
The Chromebit is an HDMI dongle running ChromeOS. When placed in an HDMI slot on a television set or computer monitor, the device turns that display into a personal computer. The first device, announced in March 2015 was an Asus unit that shipped that November and which reached end of life in November 2020.
Chromebook tablets were introduced in March 2018 by Acer with their Chromebook Tab 10. Designed to rival the Apple iPad, it had an identical screen size and resolution and other similar specifications, a notable addition was a Wacom-branded stylus that does not require a battery or charging.
ChromeOS supports multi-monitor setups on devices with a video-out port, USB 3.0 Standard-A or USB-C, the latter being preferable.
On February 16, 2022, Google announced a development version of ChromeOS Flex—a distribution of ChromeOS that can be installed on conventional PC hardware to replace other operating systems such as Windows and macOS. It is similar to CloudReady, a distribution of ChromiumOS whose developers were acquired by Google in 2020.
== Software ==
ChromeOS automatic updates are available for 10 years for all Chromebook models manufactured in 2019 and onwards, these updates are for the operating system, browser and hardware. Google maintains a web page with their Auto Update policy and the end date for all ChromeOS devices manufactured.
Previously the automatic update period was 8 years, and shorter prior to that although the earlier models had continued to receive updates for longer.
== Applications ==
Initially, ChromeOS was a pure thin client operating system that relied primarily on servers to host web applications and related data storage. Google gradually began encouraging developers to create "packaged applications", and later, Chrome Apps by employing HTML5, CSS, Adobe Shockwave, and JavaScript to provide a user experience closer to a native application.
In September 2014, Google launched App Runtime for Chrome (ARC), which allowed certain ported Android applications to run on ChromeOS. Runtime was launched with four Android applications: Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words, and Vine. In 2016, the second version, ARC++, was introduced, using Linux kernel features cgroups and namespaces to make containers that can run Android apps in an isolated environment. As ARC++ removed the need to recompile apps, Google made Google Play available for ChromeOS, making most Android apps available for supported ChromeOS devices. ARC++ was introduced with Android Marshmallow and upgraded to Android Nougat and Android Pie. ARCVM launched in 2021 with Android 11 and runs on Android 13 starting with ChromeOS 117. ARCVM uses virtual machines to enhance the isolation of the Android environment in order to improve security and maintainability.
In 2018, Google announced plans for Linux on ChromeOS, also known as Crostini, allowing for desktop Linux applications. This capability was released to the stable channel (as an option for most machines) with Chrome 69 in October 2018, but was still marked as beta. This feature was officially released with Chrome 91.
In 2023, with version 119, Google released Valve Corporation's Steam for Chromebook (Beta) for playing video games on Chromebooks meeting minimum hardware requirements. Steam for Chromebook was developed under the codename Borealis, building off work for SteamOS for the Steam Deck, similarly built using a modified version of Arch Linux, running as a virtual machine. In August 2025, Google announced that they will end Steam for Chromebook support in January 2026.
=== Chrome Apps ===
From 2013 until January 2020, Google encouraged developers to build not just conventional Web applications for ChromeOS, but Chrome Apps (formerly known as Packaged Apps). In January 2020, Google's Chrome team announced its intent to phase out support for Chrome Apps in favor of "progressive web applications" (PWA) and Chrome extensions instead. In March 2020, Google stopped accepting new public Chrome Apps for the web store. According to Google, general support for Chrome Apps on ChromeOS will remain enabled, without requiring any policy setting, through June 2022.
From a user's perspective, Chrome Apps resemble conventional native applications: they can be launched outside of the Chrome browser, are offline by default, can manage multiple windows, and interact with other applications.
==== Integrated media player, file manager ====
Google integrated a media player into both ChromeOS and the Chrome browser, enabling users to play back MP3s, view JPEGs, and handle other multimedia files without connectivity. The integration also supports DRM videos.
ChromeOS also includes an integrated file manager, resembling those found on other operating systems, with the ability to display directories and the files they contain from both Google Drive and local storage, as well as to preview and manage file contents using a variety of Web applications, including Google Docs and Box. Since January 2015, ChromeOS can also integrate additional storage sources into the file manager, relying on installed extensions that use the File System Provider API.
==== Remote application access and virtual desktop access ====
In June 2010, Google's software engineer Gary Kačmarčík wrote that ChromeOS would access remote applications through a technology unofficially called "Chromoting", which would resemble Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection. The name has since been changed to "Chrome Remote Desktop", and is like "running an application via Remote Desktop Services or by first connecting to a host machine by using RDP or VNC". Initial roll-outs of ChromeOS laptops (Chromebooks) indicate an interest in enabling users to access virtual desktops.
=== Android applications ===
At Google I/O 2014, a proof of concept showing Android applications, including Flipboard, running on ChromeOS was presented. In September 2014, Google introduced a beta version of the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC), which allows selected Android applications to be used on ChromeOS, using a Native Client-based environment that provides the platforms necessary to run Android software. Android applications do not require any modifications to run on ChromeOS, but may be modified to better support a mouse and keyboard environment. At its introduction, ChromeOS support was only available for selected Android applications.
In 2016, Google introduced the ability to run Android apps on supported ChromeOS devices, with access to Google Play in its entirety. The previous Native Client-based solution was dropped in favor of a container containing Android's frameworks and dependencies (initially based on Android Marshmallow), which allows Android apps to have direct access to the ChromeOS platform, and allow the OS to interact with Android contracts such as sharing. Engineering director Zelidrag Hornung explained that ARC had been scrapped due to its limitations, including its incompatibility with the Android Native Development Toolkit (NDK), and that it was unable to pass Google's own compatibility test suite.
=== Linux apps ===
All Chromebooks made since 2018, and some earlier models, can run Linux apps. As with Android apps, these apps can be installed and launched alongside other apps. Google maintains a list of devices that were launched before 2019 which support Linux apps.
Since 2013, it has been possible to run Linux applications in ChromeOS through the use of Crouton, a third-party set of scripts that allows access to a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu. However, in 2018 Google announced that desktop Linux apps were officially coming to ChromeOS. The main benefit claimed by Google of their official Linux application support is that it can run without enabling developer mode, keeping many of the security features of ChromeOS. It was noticed in the ChromiumOS source code in early 2018. Early parts of Crostini were made available for the Google Pixelbook via the dev channel in February 2018 as part of ChromeOS version 66, and it was enabled by default via the beta channel for testing on a variety of Chromebooks in August 2018 with version 69.
==== Architecture ====
Google's project for supporting Linux applications in ChromeOS is called Crostini, named for the Italian bread-based starter, and as a pun on Crouton. Crostini runs a virtual machine through a virtual machine monitor called crosvm, which uses Linux's built-in KVM virtualization tool. Although crosvm supports multiple virtual machines, the one used for running Linux apps, Termina, contains a basic ChromeOS kernel based on Gentoo, in which it runs containers based on LXD. In the interest of stability and recovery, no Linux apps run on the virtual machine itself; any installed Linux userland ecosystem runs in an isolated container, all of which are deployed and managed by the virtual machine. A Debian container with host system integration is provided by default. Users can install programs to this installation by using tools like APT within the container, or may grant access to .deb files stored on ChromeOS itself, which are copied and installed to the container. Users may also individually grant access to individual files or USB devices. Other distributions can be added using LXD, although not by default integrated with the Host System.
== Architecture ==
ChromeOS is built on top of the Linux kernel. Originally based on Ubuntu, its base was changed to Gentoo Linux in February 2010. For Project Crostini, as of ChromeOS 121, Debian 12 (Bookworm) is the default container base image. In preliminary design documents for the ChromiumOS open-source project, Google described a three-tier architecture: firmware, browser and window manager, and system-level software and userland services.
The firmware contributes to fast boot time by not probing for hardware, such as floppy disk drives, that are no longer common on computers, especially netbooks. The firmware also contributes to security by verifying each step in the boot process and incorporating system recovery.
System-level software includes the Linux kernel that has been patched to improve boot performance. Userland software has been trimmed to essentials, with management by Upstart, which can launch services in parallel, re-spawn crashed jobs, and defer services in the interest of faster booting.
The window manager handles user interaction with multiple client windows (much like other X window managers).
=== Shell access ===
ChromeOS includes the Chromium Shell, or "crosh", which documents minimal functionality such as ping at crosh start-up.
In developer mode, a full-featured bash shell (which is supposed to be used for development purposes) can be opened via VT-2, and is also accessible using the crosh command shell. It is also accessible via the key shortcut crtl+alt+t. To access full privileges in shell (e.g. sudo) a root password is requested. For some time the default was "chronos" in ChromeOS and "facepunch" in ChromeOS Vanilla and later the default was empty, and instructions on updating it were displayed at each login.
=== Open source ===
ChromeOS is partially developed under the open-source ChromiumOS project. As with other open-source projects, developers can modify the code from ChromiumOS and build their own versions, whereas ChromeOS code is only supported by Google and its partners and only runs on hardware designed for the purpose. Unlike ChromiumOS, ChromeOS is automatically updated to the latest version.
=== ChromeOS on Windows ===
On Windows 8, exceptions allow the default desktop web browser to offer a variant that can run inside its full-screen "Metro" shell and access features such as the Share charm, without necessarily needing to be written with Windows Runtime. Chrome's "Windows 8 mode" was previously a tablet-optimized version of the standard Chrome interface. In October 2013, the mode was changed on Developer channel to offer a variant of the ChromeOS desktop.
== Design ==
Early in the project, Google provided publicly many details of ChromeOS' design goals and direction, although the company has not followed up with a technical description of the completed operating system.
=== User interface ===
Design goals for ChromeOS' user interface included using minimal screen space by combining applications and standard Web pages into a single tab strip, rather than separating the two. Designers considered a reduced window management scheme that would operate only in full-screen mode. Secondary tasks would be handled with "panels": floating windows that dock to the bottom of the screen for tasks like chat and music players. Split screens were also under consideration for viewing two pieces of content side by side. ChromeOS would follow the Chrome browser's practice of leveraging HTML5's offline modes, background processing, and notifications. Designers proposed using search and pinned tabs as a way to quickly locate and access applications.
==== Version 19 window manager and graphics engine ====
On April 10, 2012, a new build of ChromeOS offered a choice between the original full-screen window interface and overlapping, resizable windows, such as found on Microsoft Windows and Apple's macOS. The feature was implemented through the Ash window manager, which runs atop the Aura hardware-accelerated graphics engine. The April 2012 upgrade also included the ability to display smaller, overlapping browser windows, each with its own translucent tabs, browser tabs that can be "torn" and dragged to new positions or merged with another tab strip, and a mouse-enabled shortcut list across the bottom of the screen. One icon on the task bar shows a list of installed applications and bookmarks. Writing in CNET, Stephen Shankland argued that with overlapping windows, "Google is anchoring itself into the past" as both iOS and Microsoft's Metro interface are largely or entirely full-screen. Even so, "ChromeOS already is different enough that it's best to preserve any familiarity that can be preserved".
=== Printing ===
In 2016, Google included "Native CUPS Support" in ChromeOS as an experimental feature that became stable in 2020. With CUPS support turned on, it becomes possible to use most printers even if they do not support Google Cloud Print.
Google Cloud Print was a Google service that helps any application on any device to print on supported printers. While the cloud provides virtually any connected device with information access, the task of "developing and maintaining print subsystems for every combination of hardware and operating system—from desktops to netbooks to mobile devices—simply isn't feasible." The cloud service required the installation of a piece of software called proxy, as part of the ChromeOS. The proxy registered the printer with the service, managed the print jobs, provided the printer driver functionality, and gave status alerts for each job.
Google announced that Google Cloud Print would no longer be supported after December 31, 2020, and that the online service would not be available as of January 1, 2021.
=== Link handling ===
ChromeOS was designed to store user documents and files on remote servers. Both ChromeOS and the Chrome browser may introduce difficulties to end-users when handling specific file types offline; for example, when opening an image or document residing on a local storage device, it may be unclear whether and which specific Web application should be automatically opened for viewing, or the handling should be performed by a traditional application acting as a preview utility. Matthew Papakipos, ChromeOS engineering director, noted in 2010 that Windows developers have faced the same fundamental problem: "Quicktime is fighting with Windows Media Player, which is fighting with Chrome."
=== Release channels and updates ===
ChromeOS uses the same release system as Google Chrome: there are three distinct channels: Stable, Beta, and Developer preview (called the "Dev" channel). The stable channel is updated with features and fixes that have been thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, and the Beta channel is updated approximately once a month with stable and complete features from the Developer channel. New ideas get tested in the Developer channel, which can be very unstable at times. A fourth canary channel was confirmed to exist by Google Developer Francois Beaufort and hacker Kenny Strawn, by entering the ChromeOS shell in developer mode, typing the command shell to access the bash shell, and finally entering the command update_engine_client -channel canary-channel -update. It is possible to return to the verified boot mode after entering the canary channel, but the channel updater disappears and the only way to return to another channel is using the "powerwash" factory reset. In 2022 2 New channels were added called LTC (Long-term support candidate) and LTS (Long-term support) Only available for Enterprise admins .LTC is for 3 months of support and then switched to LTS automatically
== Security ==
In March 2010, Google software security engineer Will Drewry discussed ChromeOS security. Drewry described ChromeOS as a "hardened" operating system featuring auto-updating and sandbox features that would reduce malware exposure. He said that ChromeOS netbooks would be shipped with Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and include both a "trusted boot path" and a physical switch under the battery compartment that activates a "developer mode". That mode drops some specialized security functions but increases developer flexibility. This switch is also reversible. Drewry also emphasized that the open-source nature of the operating system would contribute greatly to its security by allowing constant developer feedback.
At a December 2010 press conference, Google declared that ChromeOS would be the most secure consumer operating system due in part to a verified boot ability, in which the initial boot code, stored in read-only memory, checks for system compromises.
ChromeOS devices ship with full disk encryption by default, which cannot be disabled. The decryption password is stored in the device's TPM. Google allows the TPM to be updated manually via the settings. Updating the TPM will reset the device to factory defaults.
=== Login ===
ChromeOS devices utilize a user's Google Account password as the default sign-in method. To enhance security, users can implement additional authentication measures such as PINs, passwords, fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, or smart unlock (via a paired phone). These supplementary measures mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to the user's Google account via shoulder surfing, even if an attacker possesses the user's Google email address.
If multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled on the associated Google Account, the user may be prompted to use it during the initial setup of their ChromeOS device. By default, the device will be designated as "trusted," exempting it from MFA requirements for subsequent logins. For enhanced security, MFA can be mandated for each sign-in by utilizing hardware tokens (such as YubiKeys) linked to the Google Account.
== Reception ==
At its debut, ChromeOS was viewed as a competitor to Microsoft, both directly to Microsoft Windows and indirectly the company's word processing and spreadsheet applications—the latter through ChromeOS' reliance on cloud computing. But ChromeOS engineering director Matthew Papakipos argued that the two operating systems would not fully overlap in functionality because ChromeOS is intended for netbooks, which lack the computational power to run a resource-intensive program like Adobe Photoshop.
Some observers claimed that other operating systems already filled the niche that ChromeOS was aiming for, with the added advantage of supporting native applications in addition to a browser. Tony Bradley of PC World wrote in November 2009: We can already do most, if not all, of what ChromeOS promises to deliver. Using a Windows 7 or Linux-based netbook, users can simply not install anything but a web browser and connect to the vast array of Google products and other web-based services and applications. Netbooks have been successful at capturing the low-end PC market, and they provide a web-centric computing experience today. I am not sure why we should get excited that a year from now we'll be able to do the same thing, but locked into doing it from the fourth-place web browser.
In 2016, Chromebooks were the most popular computer in the US K–12 education market.
In 2020, Chromebooks became the second most-popular end-user oriented OS (growing from 6.4% in 2019 to 10.8% in 2020). The majority of growth came at Windows' expense (which fell from 85.4% in 2019 to 80.5% in 2021).
=== Relationship to Android ===
Google's offer of several open-source operating systems, of which Android and ChromeOS are the best known, has attracted some criticism, despite the similarity between this situation and that of Apple Inc.'s two operating systems, macOS and iOS. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO at the time, accused Google of not being able to make up its mind. Steven Levy wrote that "the dissonance between the two systems was apparent" at Google I/O 2011. The event featured a daily press conference in which each team leader, Android's Andy Rubin and Chrome's Sundar Pichai, "unconvincingly tried to explain why the systems weren't competitive". Google co-founder Sergey Brin addressed the question by saying that owning two promising operating systems was "a problem that most companies would love to face". Brin suggested that the two operating systems "will likely converge over time". The speculation over convergence increased in March 2013 when ChromeOS chief Pichai replaced Rubin as the senior vice president in charge of Android, thereby putting Pichai in charge of both.
The relationship between Android and ChromeOS became closer at Google I/O 2014, where developers demonstrated native Android software running on ChromeOS through a Native Client-based runtime. In September 2014, Google introduced a beta version of the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC), which allows selected Android applications to be used on ChromeOS, using a Native Client-based environment that provides the platforms necessary to run Android software. Android applications do not require any modifications to run on ChromeOS, but may be modified to better support a mouse and keyboard environment. At its introduction, ChromeOS support was only available for selected Android applications. In October 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that ChromeOS would be folded into Android so that a single OS would result by 2017. The resulting OS would be Android, but it would be expanded to run on laptops. Google responded that while the company has "been working on ways to bring together the best of both operating systems, there's no plan to phase out ChromeOS".
In 2016, Google introduced the ability to run Android apps on supported ChromeOS devices, with access to Google Play in its entirety. The previous Native Client-based solution was dropped in favor of a container containing Android's frameworks and dependencies (initially based on Android Marshmallow), which allows Android apps to have direct access to the ChromeOS platform, and allows the OS to interact with Android contracts such as sharing. Engineering director Zelidrag Hornung explained that ARC had been scrapped due to its limitations, including its incompatibility with the Android Native Development Toolkit (NDK), and that it was unable to pass Google's own compatibility test suite.
On November 18, 2024, Android Authority reported that Google is planning to completely merge ChromeOS into Android.
== See also ==
Comparison of operating systems
Fuchsia (operating system)
Light-weight Linux distribution
List of operating systems
QWERTY § ChromeOS for information on typing diacritics (accents) and special symbols
Timeline of operating systems
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Official blog
Release blog
ChromiumOS project page
Official announcement
Google Chrome OS Live Webcast; November 19, 2009
ChromeOS Flex |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalit_Mohan_Sharma#Legal_career | 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/Ellen_Kuzwayo#:~:text=She%20married%20Ernest%20Moloto%20when%20in%20her%20late%20twenties%2C%20and%20the%20couple%20had%20two%20sons | Ellen Kuzwayo | Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo (29 June 1914 – 19 April 2006) was a South African women's rights activist and politician, who was a teacher from 1938 to 1952. She was president of the African National Congress Youth League in the 1960s. In 1994, she was elected to the first post-apartheid South African Parliament. Her autobiography, Call Me Woman (1985), won the CNA Literary Award.
== Early years ==
=== Family background ===
Born Nnoseng Ellen Serasengwe, in Thaba 'Nchu, Orange Free State, Kuzwayo came from an educated, politically active family. Her maternal grandfather, Jeremaiah Makgothi, was taken by his mother from the Orange Free State to the Cape to attend the Lovedale Institute, circa 1875. He qualified as a teacher and also worked as a court interpreter and a Methodist lay preacher. Makgothi was the only layman to work with Robert Moffat on the translation of the Bible into Setswana.1
Both Makgothi and Kuzwayo's father, Philip S. Mefare, were active in politics. Makgothi was secretary of the Orange Free State branch of the South African Native National Congress, Mefare a member of its successor, the African National Congress.
=== Education and career ===
Kuzwayo began her schooling at the school built by Makgothi on his farm in Thabapatchoa, about 12 miles from Tweespruit, Orange Free State. She attended Adams College, Amanzimtoti, and then undertook a teacher training course at Lovedale College in Fort Hare, graduating at the age of 22 and beginning a teaching career. She married Ernest Moloto when in her late twenties, and the couple had two sons, but the marriage was not a happy one, and after suffering abuse from her husband she fled to Johannesburg. She had a part as a shebeen queen, alongside Sidney Poitier in the 1951 film Cry, the Beloved Country. After her first marriage was dissolved, she married Godfrey Kuzwayo in 1950. She worked as a teacher in the Transvaal until 1952, giving up teaching on the introduction of the Bantu Education Act, 1953, which cut back opportunities for black education. She then trained as a social worker (1953–55).
In the 1940s, she served as secretary of the ANC Youth League.
After the 1976 Soweto uprising, she was the only woman on the committee of 10 set up to organise civic affairs in Soweto, and her activities led to her detention for five months in 1977–78 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. She would recount her arrest in her 1996 testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her other community activism included serving as the president of the Black Consumer Union of South Africa and the Maggie Magaba Trust.
On the 1985 publication of her autobiography, Call Me Woman, in which she described being beaten by her husband, Kuzwayo became the first black writer to win South Africa's leading literary prize, the CNA Award.
After Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South African president in 1994, Kuzwayo became a member of the country's first multiracial Parliament, aged 79, and served for five years until June 1999, when she was South Africa's longest-serving parliamentarian.
With director Betty Wolpert, Kuzwayo was involved in making the documentary films Awake from Mourning (1982) and Tsiamelo –– A Place of Goodness (1983), which drew on the story of the dispossession of her family's farmland.
Kuzwayo died in Johannesburg, aged 91, of complications from diabetes, survived by her sons, Bobo and Justice Moloto, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
== Awards and recognition ==
In 1979, Ellen Kuzwayo was named Woman of the Year by the Johannesburg newspaper The Star, and was nominated again in 1984. In 1987, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws from the University of the Witwatersrand, the first black woman to receive an honorary degree from the university. She also awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Natal and the University of Port Elizabeth. She was awarded the Order of Meritorious Service by Nelson Mandela in 1999.
A South African marine research ship was named after her, the Ellen Khuzwayo, launched in 2007.
== Works ==
Call Me Woman. London: The Women's Press (1985). ISBN 1-879960-09-5, reprinted Aunt Lute Books, 1992
Sit Down and Listen: Stories from South Africa, London: The Women's Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0704342309
== References ==
== External links ==
"Another Milestone for Ellen Kuzwayo", City of Johannesburg website, 7 December 2004.
Kuzwayo, Ellen. "Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo". African National Congress. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2007. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chief_ministers_of_Jammu_and_Kashmir | List of chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir | The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir is the title given to the head of government of Jammu and Kashmir. As per the Constitution of India, the lieutenant governor is the union territory's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the lieutenant governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government. The lieutenant governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly.Chief Minister also serves as Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly.
The post was established after the 6th amendment to the state's constitution (effective 6 June 1965) abolished the title of Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the then prime minister, Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq, was sworn in as the first chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. The State of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated and reorganised as a union territory on 31 October 2019.
The office of the chief minister became vacant on 20 June 2018. Until 19 December 2018, the state was under governor's rule, and then under president's rule until 30 October 2019. After the state was reorganised into a union territory in October 2019, the president's rule was discharged via the lieutenant governor. The lieutenant governor served as the head of government of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir until a new chief minister was in place following the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election.
== List ==
=== Prime ministers (Jammu & Kashmir) ===
=== Prime ministers of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (1947–1965) ===
Colour key for parties
=== Chief ministers of State of Jammu and Kashmir (1965–2019) ===
=== Chief Ministers of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (2019-present) ===
== Statistics ==
=== Prime Minister/Chief Minister of State/Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir ===
== See also ==
Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
Government of Jammu and Kashmir
== Notes ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patiala_and_East_Punjab_States_Union | Patiala and East Punjab States Union | The Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) was a State of India, uniting eight princely states between 1948 and 1956. The capital and principal city was Patiala. The state covered an area of 26,208 km2. Kasauli, Kandaghat and Chail was also part of PEPSU.
== History ==
=== Princely states union ===
It was created by combining eight princely states (7 Punjab States & 1 Punjab Hill State), which maintained their native rulers :
Six Salute states
Patiala, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 17 guns (19-guns local)
Jind, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 13 guns (15-guns personal and local)
Kapurthala, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 13 guns (15-guns personal and local)
Nabha, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 13 guns (15-guns local):
Faridkot, title Raja, Hereditary salutes of 11 guns
Malerkotla, title Nawab, Hereditary salute of 11 guns
and two Non-salute states
Kalsia, title Raja (till 1916 Sardar)
Nalagarh, title Raja.
The state was inaugurated on 15 July 1948 and formally became a state of India in 1950.
=== Successor states ===
On 1 November 1956, PEPSU was merged mostly into Punjab State under the States Reorganisation Act.
A part of the former state of PEPSU, including the present day Jind district (Jind & Narwana), area of Pinjore in north Haryana, as well as the Charkhi Dadri, Bawal and Mahendragarh Narnaul in south-west Haryana, presently lie within the state of Haryana, which was separated from Punjab on 1 November 1966. Some other areas that belonged to PEPSU, notably (Kandaghat etc.) Solan and Nalagarh, now lie in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
== Rajpramukh and Uparajpramukh ==
== Chief Ministers ==
Color key
Other keys
d Died in Office
pd Position Dissolved
R Resigned
== Institutions ==
=== Heads of state and government ===
When the state was formed, the then-Maharaja of Patiala, Yadavindra Singh, was appointed its Rajpramukh (equivalent to Governor). He remained in office during the entire length of the state's short existence. The then Maharaja of Kapurthala, Jagatjit Singh, served as Uparajpramukh (lieutenant-governor).
Gian Singh Rarewala was sworn in on 13 January 1949 as the first Chief Minister of PEPSU. Col. Raghbir Singh became the next Chief Minister on 23 May 1951, and Brish Bhan the Deputy Chief Minister.
The state elected a 60-member state legislative assembly on 6 January 1952. The Congress Party won 26 seats and the Akali Dal won 19 seats.
On 22 April 1952, Gian Singh Rarewala again became Chief Minister, this time an elected one. He led a coalition government, called the "United Front", formed by the Akali Dal and various independents. On 5 March 1953 his government was dismissed and President's rule was imposed on the state. In the mid-term poll that followed, the Congress party secured a majority and Raghbir Singh became Chief Minister on 8 March 1954. Upon his death, Brish Bhan became the Chief Minister on 12 January 1955 and remained in office as last incumbent.
== Administration ==
Initially, in 1948, the state was divided into the following 8 districts & 25 sub-districts (tehsils):
Patiala - Patiala, Nabha, Rajpura
Kapurthala - Kapurthala, Phagwara
Bathinda - Bathinda, Mansa, Faridkot
Fatehgarh Sahib - Sirhand, Payal, Amloh
Barnala - Barnala, Phul, Dhuri, Malerkotla
Sangrur - Sangrur, Sunam, Narwana, Jind
Kohistan - Kandaghat, Nalagarth, Dera Bassi
Mohindergarh - Mohindergarh, Narnaul, Dadri
In 1953, the number of districts in PEPSU was reduced from eight to five. Fatehgarh Sahib and Kohistan districts were dissolved and merged with Patiala district. Amloh and Payal tehsils of Fatehgarh Sahib were merged with Sirhind tehsil, while Dera Bassi tehsil of Kohistan district was merged with Rajpura tehsil. Barnala district was also abolished. It had four tehsils: Phul, Dhuri, Malerkotla, and Barnala. Dhuri, Malerkotla, Barnala, and part of Phul tehsil were transferred to Sangrur district, while the remaining portion of Phul tehsil was merged with Bhatinda district.
There were four Lok Sabha constituencies in this state. Three of them were single-seat constituency: Mohindergarh, Sangrur and Patiala. The Kapurthala-Bhatinda Lok Sabha constituency was a double-seat constituency.
== Demography ==
The state had a population of 3,493,685 (1951 census), of which 19% was urban. The population density was 133/km2. The state had 64 towns and 5,708 villages.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Singh, Gursharan (1991). History of PEPSU, India: Patiala and East Punjab States Union, 1948-1956, Delhi: Konark Publishers, ISBN 81-220-0244-7. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Stark | Ned Stark | Eddard "Ned" Stark is a fictional character in the 1996 high fantasy novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. In the storyline, Ned is the lord of Winterfell, an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional continent of Westeros. Though the character is established as the main character in the novel and the first season of the TV adaptation, the plot twist of Ned’s execution near the end of the novel and the end of the first season shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series.
Ned is portrayed by veteran English actor Sean Bean in the first season of Game of Thrones, as a child by Sebastian Croft in the sixth season, and as a young adult by Robert Aramayo in the sixth and seventh seasons. Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role. He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011.
== Character ==
=== Description ===
In A Game of Thrones (1996), Ned Stark is introduced as the virtuous and honorable patriarch of House Stark of Winterfell, the lord paramount and warden family of the North. He is happily married to Lady Catelyn Tully and is father to five trueborn children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon and a bastard son Jon Snow, as well as guardian to a ward boy Theon Greyjoy. He is a lifelong friend of King Robert Baratheon, the ruling monarch of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, who personally visits Winterfell to invite and persuade Ned to become the new Hand of the King at the beginning of the novel.
As the moral compass of the story, Ned is content to remain far from courtly intrigues and is unwavering in his view of loyalty and honor. His family name, Stark, is a word play that both emphasizes the resilience of his noble family and serves as an indication of his personal resistance to moral compromise. Still, his boundaries are increasingly tested over the course of the novel. Finding himself a key player in the escalating political intrigue of King's Landing, Ned struggles as his own sense of honor draws him into corrupt goings-on at court. As the story progresses, he begins to see the importance of moral and practical compromises to achieve a just end. He is ultimately forced to choose between his family's safety and doing what is right.
Sean Bean said of the character, "He's a good man trying to do his best in the middle of this corruption, he's a fish out of water, he's used to being up north in Winterfell where people are pretty straight and pragmatic, and he comes down to a place where people are playing games and backstabbing... he's a principled man who tries to hold things together. This is a journey that he makes where ultimately his loyalty causes his downfall."
=== Development and overview ===
Publishers Weekly noted in 1996 that, despite the honest Ned Stark's intervention in court politics, "no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control." From his very first introduction, Ned is portrayed as a noble hero and set up to be the heart of the story. With fifteen chapters devoted to his point of view, more than any other single character in the novel, he is presented as a primary character in the series, and the main storyline of A Game of Thrones, the drama in King's Landing, is told almost entirely from his perspective. In the London Review of Books, John Lanchester writes that everything about Ned is designed to gain audience sympathy, from his strong sense of honor and moral compass to his compassion towards his wife and children. Readers are led to believe that Ned will be the main character of the series, but ultimately he is, from a literary perspective, a classic decoy protagonist. After struggling to keep himself and the kingdom on a moral path for the entire novel, the only option that remains to save his family is to put aside his honor; he does so, but is betrayed anyway. Calling Ned's execution "shocking", The New York Times noted in 2011 that the novel was "famous for dispatching a thoroughly admirable major character with whom readers have been identifying for most of the book". In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, author George R. R. Martin commented on this misdirection:
I knew it almost from the beginning. Not the first day, but very soon. I've said in many interviews that I like my fiction to be unpredictable. I like there to be considerable suspense. I killed Ned in the first book and it shocked a lot of people. I killed Ned because everybody thinks he's the hero and that, sure, he's going to get into trouble, but then he'll somehow get out of it.
David Benioff, executive producer and writer of the HBO adaptation, told Entertainment Weekly that when he read the novel:
I was in shock. From your training in seeing so many movies and reading books, you know your hero is going to be saved ... Someone has something planned, because they're not really going to chop off his head—right up until the moment when they chopped off his head. I was shocked, and then admiring of George's ruthlessness. It's a tough thing to build up a character and make somebody as memorable and impressive as Ned and then get rid of him. But at the same time it leads to a story that is so much more suspenseful because you truly have no idea what is going to happen and who is going to survive.
In a review of the Game of Thrones TV episode "Baelor", James Poniewozik wrote in Time that "the execution of Eddard Stark is crucial to the story and its themes and everything that follows, but it's also a meta-message to the reader: don't take anything for granted here". James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly stated that tricking the audience into thinking Ned is the hero and then killing him makes the series' story better. Writing that "the big twist here isn't that Ned Stark dies, but who the true protagonists of Game of Thrones are", Hibberd pointed out that the series' focus proves to be the "new generation" of leaders, in particular the Stark children as well as Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister. He noted:
Ned Stark doesn't die in vain ... It takes the Stark kids—who are all too young to face these responsibilities—and thrusts them into a struggle where they're forced to quickly grow as characters. Martin busts many cliches in his writing, but this move is traditional Heroes Journey stuff if you consider the kids to be the true protagonists of this story—only by sacrificing the fatherly mentor figure can our heroes come into their own.
== Storylines ==
=== Background ===
As established in A Game of Thrones, Eddard "Ned" Stark is the second son of Rickard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell. Years before the events of the novel, the quiet and shy young Ned is fostered in the Vale by Lord Jon Arryn. During this time Ned becomes close friends with Robert Baratheon, heir to the Stormlands and another ward of Arryn's. Robert is eventually betrothed to Ned's sister Lyanna, but before he can marry her, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen absconds with Lyanna. Ned's father and older brother Brandon go to King Aerys II Targaryen and demand that Lyanna be freed, only to be both sadistically executed by the so-called "Mad King". When King Aerys demands the killing of both Ned and Robert, Lord Arryn rises in revolt along with House Baratheon and Stark, and secures the support of House Tully through Ned’s marriage to Brandon's betrothed, Catelyn Tully. Ned leaves for war the very next morning after consummating the marriage with Catelyn.
At the decisive Battle of the Trident, the rebels scatter the Targaryen army and Robert kills Prince Rhaegar in single combat. Robert being injured, Ned takes over command and marches on the capital King's Landing. Upon arrival, Ned finds that House Lannister — who has previously posed neutrality — has already sacked the city and murdered King Aerys and the entire Targaryen royal family. Disgusted by the dishonorable massacre and Robert's tolerance of it, Ned departs in anger to lift the siege of the Baratheon stronghold Storm's End, and later attempts to rescue Lyanna, only to find her dying in "a bed of blood"; her last words are "Promise me, Ned". Ned returns to Winterfell with an infant boy Jon Snow, whom he claims to be his own bastard son but refuses to elaborate on the boy's maternal parentage. Meanwhile, Catelyn has delivered Ned's son and heir, Robb, conceived on their wedding night, and Ned raises Jon alongside Robb and his subsequent children.
Six years after the end of Robert's Rebellion, Balon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands, declares independence from the Iron Throne. Ned aids now-King Robert in putting down the Greyjoy Rebellion. Balon surrenders, and his sole surviving son, Theon, is taken back to Winterfell as Stark's ward and a de facto political hostage. Ned rules the North with justice and praise for nine more years before the events of the novel.
=== A Game of Thrones ===
At the beginning of A Game of Thrones, Ned's entourage discover an orphaned litter of direwolf pups and he decides to allow his children to adopt them, although his men suspect the appearance of direwolves to be a bad omen of a long, harsh winter. Later, Catelyn informs Ned that his mentor Jon Arryn, who has been serving as the Hand of the King, has died suddenly of illness, and that King Robert intends to offer Ned the position of Hand. Content to be far from court intrigue, Ned is reluctant to accept the offer until he receives a letter from Arryn's widow, who believes that her husband was poisoned by the Lannisters. Ned agrees to the appointment to protect Robert, and travels south to King's Landing with his daughters Sansa and Arya. Catelyn later comes to the capital in secret, under the protection of her childhood friend Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, to tell Ned of an assassination attempt on their crippled young son Bran. Ned's longstanding mistrust of the Lannisters is further fueled by Littlefinger's claim that the dagger used by the would-be assassin once belonged to Tyrion Lannister. Increasingly disgusted by the political intrigues at court, Ned finally resigns his position when Robert insists on having Aerys' only surviving child, the young Daenerys Targaryen, assassinated in exile. Meanwhile, Catelyn has impulsively taken Tyrion prisoner, and in retaliation Tyrion’s brother Jaime attacks and seriously injures Ned in the street before he and his daughters can depart King's Landing. Visiting the wounded Ned, Robert reappoints him as Hand.
Ned eventually concludes that all of Robert's heirs with his wife Cersei Lannister are illegitimate products of incest with her twin brother Jaime. Further, Ned suspects that Arryn was poisoned to conceal the truth, as both Arryn and Robert's brother Stannis have been searching for Robert's other bastard children. In private, Ned confronts Cersei and offers her the chance to escape safely with her children and live in exile. Before Ned can tell the king, Robert is fatally wounded while boar hunting and names Ned as regent until his "son" Joffrey comes of age. With the palace in chaos, Ned rebuffs multiple offers to increase his own power, instead opting to support Stannis as king. Cersei, however, outmaneuvers Ned after being informed by Sansa (who is still infatuated with her betrothal to Prince Joffrey); and the duplicitous Littlefinger betrays Ned and orders the City Watch to arrest him instead of Cersei. With all of his entourage and guards slaughtered, Ned is charged with treason. A secret deal is struck through the spymaster Varys that Ned will be spared and sent to the penal Night's Watch if he declares Joffrey the rightful king. Fearing for Sansa (who is now a hostage) and Arya (who has escaped alone and is missing), Ned makes a public confession of his "treason", but the sadistic Joffrey has Ned executed anyway for his own amusement and forces Sansa to view Ned's severed head mounted on a spike.
=== Later novels ===
In the follow-up novel A Clash of Kings, Ned's execution sparks an all-out conflict between House Stark and House Lannister, with other houses and pretenders also joining in against the crown, leading to a major civil war later called the War of the Five Kings. After Tyrion Lannister is sent to King's Landing to salvage the political mess, he returns Ned's remains to his widow Catelyn, who sends them north to be finally laid in House Stark's ancestral crypt, but it is not confirmed whether it has ever arrived at Winterfell as the road back to the North has been cut off by Ironborn invaders. Lady Barbrey Dustin of Barrowton, who holds past grudges against Ned, later claims that she personally will never let Ned's bones to be returned and laid to rest in Winterfell's crypt if they are found on her fief.
Ned is mentioned in a flashback along with his friend Robert Baratheon and also repeatedly by other characters in the subsequent novels A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons, including the surviving Stark children (who all remember him fondly), Stannis Baratheon, Jorah Mormont (who both affirm respect to his honor), House Manderly and numerous members of the Northern mountain clans (who all continue to hold great love to his name). The mountain clansmen, in particular, only join Stannis' march on the Bolton-controlled Winterfell in honor of Ned's legacy.
In A Feast for Crows, when Queen Dowager Cersei is sentenced to the walk of atonement by the Faith of the Seven, she is frequently haunted by the imaginary vision of Ned silently mocking her in the crowd.
=== Family tree of House Stark ===
== TV adaptation ==
In January 2007 HBO secured the rights to adapt Martin's series for television. When the pilot went into production in 2009, one of the first casting announcements was Sean Bean as the "lead" Eddard Stark. As the show premiered in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called Bean's Ned "the strong and brooding headliner of the series".
As in the source novel, Ned is beheaded in the ninth episode of season 1, "Baelor". Though praising the character's demise for its role in propelling the story, James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly later noted that:
This is probably the first time a U.S. drama series has ever killed off its main character in the first season as part of its master creative plan … it's just … not done. You don't cast a star, put him on bus stops and magazine ads marketing the show, get viewers all invested in his story, and then dump him nine episodes later just because it arguably makes the story a bit more interesting.
Hibberd echoed the show's producers' statement that "the move lays down a dramatic precedent for the show: Nobody is safe". He called it a "risky" move that would probably lose the show viewers who had tuned in for Bean, but would hopefully attract others impressed by the boldness of it. Executive producer and writer D. B. Weiss told Entertainment Weekly in 2011 that when he and Benioff pitched the series to HBO, the fact that "main character" Ned was slated to die "was a selling point for them". Noting that the network has killed off characters in other successful series, he said that this sense of jeopardy "completely ups the ante for any moment when a character is in a dire situation if you know another character didn't survive a similar situation". HBO programming president Sue Naegle concurred, saying that Ned's death made the show creatively more attractive, adding that "The book series was filled with unexpected twists and turns. I loved this idea we'd bring together the group of characters, then once you started to believe all the tropes of heroes, you pull the rug out from under them. It's the opposite of feeling manipulated". Noting that the story and world of the series is bigger than any one character, Naegle said, "Sean brings a giant following, but Thrones is not just about the promise you're going to see one of your favorite actors week in and week out. The star is the story". Bean noted that Ned's death "was as much a surprise to me as anyone" and called it "a very courageous move for a television company".
The image of Bean as Ned Stark sitting in the Iron Throne is featured on the covers of the 2011 Season 1 DVD and Blu-ray Disc sets, released in March 2012.
The character makes a return in the sixth season, under a recurring capacity, via flashback visions of his youth and childhood seen by Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven using Greensight.
=== Storylines ===
==== Season 1 ====
In season 1, King Robert Baratheon travels to Winterfell and asks his old friend and closest ally Eddard "Ned" Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, to assume the position of Hand of the King after the sudden death of their mentor, Jon Arryn. Not interested in politics or the intrigues of the court, Ned accepts out of duty, as well as to discover how Arryn died. Ned travels to King's Landing with his daughters Arya and Sansa, the latter of which is betrothed to Robert's eldest son, Prince Joffrey. Meanwhile, Ned's wife Catelyn has Tyrion Lannister captured, believing he was responsible for sending an assassin to kill Bran and that the Lannisters also killed Jon Arryn. Ned and Robert soon find themselves at odds regarding Daenerys Targaryen, and Ned steps down as Hand in defiance against Robert's wishes to have her killed. Soon after, Ned and his guards are attacked by Tyrion's brother Jaime Lannister; Ned is injured and his men are murdered. Robert reappoints Ned as Hand and commands him to have Catelyn release Tyrion and make peace with the Lannisters. While Robert departs for a boar hunt, Ned discovers that Tywin Lannister and his forces are laying siege to the Riverlands, the homeland of his wife's house, the Tullys. He demands Tywin present himself in King's Landing and sends a force to bring his bannermen to justice.
Robert is killed just as Ned discovers that his three children by Cersei were actually fathered by the queen's twin, Jaime. Before Ned is able to neutralize Cersei and place Robert's brother Stannis on the throne, he is betrayed by Littlefinger, and the queen has him imprisoned for treason. Ned's eldest son Robb calls in his father's banners and marches an army south in an attempt to rescue his father. Ned makes a public confession to save his daughters from Cersei's wrath, but Joffrey has Ned beheaded anyway.
==== Seasons 6 and 7 ====
In the season 6 episode "Home", Bran sees a vision of Ned (Sebastian Croft) as a child with his sister and brother, Lyanna and Benjen. In the following episode, "Oathbreaker", Bran witnesses the battle between a young Ned (Robert Aramayo) and the knight Ser Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy. In the episode "The Door", Bran watches Ned bid Benjen and his father, Rickard, farewell as he departs for his fosterage at the Vale. In the following episode, "Blood of My Blood", Bran briefly glimpses Ned's hand amongst someone's blood, revealed in the season finale, "The Winds of Winter", as belonging to Lyanna (Aisling Franciosi), dying of childbirth in the tower. She makes him swear to protect her son - Jon Snow. Bran revisits this moment in the season 7 finale, "The Dragon and the Wolf", where Lyanna whispers Jon's true name to Ned - Aegon Targaryen.
=== Recognition and awards ===
Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television, a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor, and an EWwy Award for Best Actor, Drama for the role. IGN named Ned its Best TV Hero of 2011, and Bean won the Portal Award for Best Actor.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Van_Vechten | Carl Van Vechten | Carl Van Vechten (; June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel Nigger Heaven. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult years, Van Vechten engaged in numerous affairs with other men during his lifetime.
== Life and career ==
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he was the youngest child of Charles Duane Van Vechten and Ada Amanda Van Vechten (née Fitch). Both of his parents were well educated. His father was a wealthy, prominent banker. His mother established the Cedar Rapids Public Library and had great musical talent. As a child, Van Vechten developed a passion for music and theatre. He graduated from Washington High School in 1898.
After high school, Van Vechten was eager to take the next steps in his life, but found it difficult to pursue his passions in Iowa. He described his hometown as "that unloved town". To advance his education, he decided in 1899 to study at the University of Chicago, where he studied a variety of topics including music, art and opera. As a student, he became increasingly interested in writing and wrote for the college newspaper, the University of Chicago Weekly.
After graduating from college in 1903, Van Vechten accepted a job as a columnist for the Chicago American. In his column "The Chaperone", Van Vechten covered many different topics through a style of semi-autobiographical gossip and criticism. During his time with the Chicago American, he was occasionally asked to include photographs with his column. This was the first time he is thought to have experimented with photography, which later became one of his greatest passions. Van Vechten was fired from his position with the Chicago American because of what was described as an elaborate and complicated style of writing. Some commentators jokingly described his contributions to the paper as "lowering the tone" of the lowbrow and sensationalist Hearst papers. In 1906, he moved to New York City. He was hired as the assistant music critic at The New York Times. His interest in opera had him take a leave of absence from the paper in 1907 to travel to Europe and explore opera.
While in England, he married Anna Snyder, his longtime friend from Cedar Rapids. He returned to his job at The New York Times in 1909, where he became the first American critic of modern dance. Through the guidance of his mentor, Mabel Dodge Luhan, he became engrossed in the avant garde. He began to frequently attend groundbreaking musical premieres at the time when Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, and Loie Fuller were performing in New York City. He also attended premieres in Paris where he met American author and poet Gertrude Stein in 1913. He became a devoted friend and champion of Stein and was considered to be one of Stein's most enthusiastic fans. They continued corresponding for the remainder of Stein's life, and, at her death, she appointed Van Vechten her literary executor; he helped to bring into print her unpublished writings. A collection of the letters between Van Vechten and Stein has been published.
Van Vechten wrote a piece called "How to Read Gertrude Stein" for the arts magazine The Trend. In his piece, Van Vechten attempted to demystify Stein and bring clarity to her works. Van Vechten came to the conclusion that Stein can be best understood when one has been guided through her work by an "expert insider". He writes that "special writers require special readers".
The marriage to Anna Snyder ended in divorce in 1912, and he wed actress Fania Marinoff in 1914. Van Vechten and Marinoff were known for ignoring the social separation of races during the times and for inviting black people to their home for social gatherings. They were also known to attend public gatherings for black people and to visit black friends in their homes.
Although Van Vechten's marriage to Fania Marinoff lasted for 50 years, they often argued about Van Vechten's affairs with men. Van Vechten kept a circle of handsome young men around him, including Donald Angus, Jimmie Daniels, Max Ewing, and Prentiss Taylor. Van Vechten was also known to have romantic and sexual relationships with men, especially Mark Lutz. Lutz (1901–1968) grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and was introduced to Van Vechten by Hunter Stagg in New York in 1931. Lutz was a model for some of Van Vechten's earliest experiments with photography. The friendship lasted until Van Vechten's death. At Lutz's death, as per his wishes, the correspondence with Van Vechten, amounting to 10,000 letters, was destroyed. Lutz donated his collection of Van Vechten's photographs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Several books of Van Vechten's essays on various subjects, such as music and literature, were published between 1915 and 1920, and Van Vechten also served as an informal scout for the newly formed Alfred A. Knopf. Between 1922 and 1930, Knopf published seven novels by him, starting with Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works and ending with Parties. His sexuality is most clearly reflected in his intensely homoerotic portraits of working-class men.
As an appreciator of the arts, Van Vechten was extremely intrigued by the explosion of creativity that was occurring in Harlem. He was drawn towards the tolerance of Harlem society and the excitement it generated among black writers and artists. He also felt most accepted there as a gay man. Van Vechten promoted many of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Ethel Waters, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and Wallace Thurman. Van Vechten's controversial novel Nigger Heaven was published in 1926. His essay "Negro Blues Singers" was published in Vanity Fair in 1926. Biographer Edward White suggests Van Vechten was convinced that African American culture was the essence of America.
Van Vechten played a critical role in the Harlem Renaissance and helped to bring greater clarity to the African-American movement. However, for a long time he was also seen as a very controversial figure. In Van Vechten's early writings, he claimed that black people were born to be entertainers and sexually "free". In other words, he believed that black people should be free to explore their sexuality and singers should follow their natural talents such as jazz, spirituals and blues. Van Vechten wrote about his experiences of attending a Bessie Smith concert at the Orpheum Theatre in Newark, New Jersey, in 1925.
In Harlem, Van Vechten often attended opera and cabarets. He was credited for the surge in white interest in Harlem nightlife and culture as well as involved in helping well-respected writers such as Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen to find publishers for their early works.
In 2001, Emily Bernard published Remember Me to Harlem, a collection of letters that documents the long friendship between Van Vechten and Langston Hughes, who publicly defended Nigger Heaven. Bernard's 2010 book Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White explores the messy and uncomfortable realities of race, and the complicated tangle of black and white in America.
His older brother Ralph Van Vechten died on June 28, 1927; when Ralph's widow Fannie died in 1928, Van Vechten inherited $1 million invested in a trust fund, which was unaffected by the stock market crash of 1929 and provided financial support for Carl and Fania.
By 1930, at the age of 50, Van Vechten was finished with writing and took up photography, using his apartment at 150 West 55th Street as a studio, where he photographed many notable people.
Van Vechten died in 1964 at the age of 84 in New York City. His ashes were scattered over the Shakespeare garden in Central Park. He was the subject of a 1968 biography by Bruce Kellner, Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades, as well as Edward White's 2014 biography, The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America. In the 2015 HBO film Bessie, about blues singer Bessie Smith, Van Vechten is portrayed by Oliver Platt and is shown discussing his novel Nigger Heaven.
== Works ==
At the age of 40, Van Vechten wrote the book Peter Whiffle (1922), which established him as a respected novelist. This novel was recognized as contemporary and an important work to the collection of Harlem Renaissance history. In his novel, autobiographical facts were arranged into a fictional form. In addition to Peter Whiffle, Van Vechten wrote several other novels. One is The Tattooed Countess, a disguised manipulation of his memories of growing up in Cedar Rapids. His book The Tiger in the House explores the quirks and qualities of Van Vechten's most beloved animal, the cat.
One of his more controversial novels, Nigger Heaven, was received with both controversy and praise. Van Vechten called this book "my Negro novel". He intended for this novel to depict how African Americans were living in Harlem and not about the suffering of Black people in the South who were dealing with racism and lynchings. Although many encouraged Van Vechten to reconsider giving his novel such a controversial name, he could not resist having an incendiary title. Some worried that his title would take away from the content of the book. In one letter, his father also cautioned him: "Whatever you may be compelled to say in the book," he wrote, "your present title will not be understood & I feel certain you should change it."
Many black readers were divided over how the novel depicted African Americans. Some felt that it depicted black people as "alien and strange", and others valued the novel for its representation of African Americans as everyday people, with complexity and flaws just like typical white characters. The novel's supporters included Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes and Gertrude Stein, who all defended the novel for bringing Harlem society and racial issues to the forefront of America.
His supporters also sent him letters to voice their opinions of the novel. Alain Locke sent Van Vechten a letter from Berlin citing his novel Nigger Heaven and the excitement surrounding its release as his primary reason for making an imminent return home. Gertrude Stein sent Van Vechten a letter from France writing that the novel was the best thing he had ever written. Stein also played an important role in the development of the novel.
Well known critics of this novel included African American scholar W. E. B. Du Bois and black novelist Wallace Thurman. Du Bois dismissed the novel as "cheap melodrama". Decades after the book was published, novelist and literary critic Ralph Ellison remembered Van Vechten as a bad influence, an unpleasant character who "introduced a note of decadence into Afro-American literary matters which was not needed". In 1981, David Levering Lewis, historian and author of a classic study of the Harlem Renaissance, called Nigger Heaven a "colossal fraud", a seemingly uplifting book with a message that was overshadowed by "the throb of the tom-tom". He viewed Van Vechten as being driven by "a mixture of commercialism and patronizing sympathy".
== Archives and museum collections ==
Most of Van Vechten's personal papers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. The Beinecke Library also holds a collection titled "Living Portraits: Carl Van Vechten's Color Photographs of African Americans, 1939–1964", a collection of 1,884 color Kodachrome slides.
The Library of Congress has a collection of approximately 1,400 photographs which it acquired in 1966 from Saul Mauriber (May 21, 1915 – February 12, 2003). There is also a collection of Van Vechten's photographs in the Prentiss Taylor collection in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, and a Van Vechten collection at Fisk University. The Museum of the City of New York's collection includes 2,174 of Carl Van Vechten's photographs. Brandeis University's department of Archives & Special Collections holds 1,689 Carl Van Vechten portraits. Van Vechten also donated materials to Fisk University to form the George Gershwin Memorial Collection of Music and Musical Literature.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art currently holds one of the largest collection of photographs by Van Vechten in the United States. The collection began in 1949 when Van Vechten made a gift of sixty of his photographs to the museum. In 1965, Mark Lutz made a gift to the museum of more than 12,000 photographs by Van Vechten from his personal collection. Included in the collection are images from extensive portrait sessions with figures of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Cab Calloway; artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Gaston Lachaise, Joan Miró, and Frida Kahlo; and countless other actors, musicians, and cultural figures. Also included in the Mark Lutz gift is an extensive body of photographs Van Vechten took at the 1939 New York World's Fair as well as a large number of photographs depicting scenes across Western Europe and Northern Africa taken during Van Vechten's travels in 1935–1936.
In 1980, concerned that Van Vechten's fragile 35 mm nitrate negatives were fast deteriorating, photographer Richard Benson, in conjunction with the Eakins Press Foundation, transformed 50 of the portraits into handmade gravure prints. The album 'O, Write My Name': American Portraits, Harlem Heroes was completed in 1983. That year, the National Endowment for the Arts transferred the Eakins Press Foundation's prototype albums to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The National Portrait Gallery, London, holds 17 of Van Vechten's portraits of leading creative talents of his era.
More than 3,000 Van Vechten portraits, most of which come from the Library of Congress collection, are included in Wikimedia Commons. His public domain photographs illustrate countless Wikipedia entries on mid-century (mostly American) notables. See examples in the gallery below.
Carl Van Vechten Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Carl Van Vechten Papers Relating to African American Arts and Letters. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Guide to the Carl Van Vechten papers, 1833–1965. Manuscripts and Archives, New York Public Library.
Carl Van Vechten collection of papers, 1911–1964. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library.
Carl Van Vechten theatre photographs, 1932–1943, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Carl Van Vechten photographs, 1932–1964 at Brandeis University's Archives & Special Collections, contains 1,689 Van Vechten portraits.
Images by Carl Van Vechten in the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York
Living Portraits: Carl Van Vechten's Color Photographs of African Americans, 1939–1964, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, features a searchable database of 1,884 rare color Kodachrome slides
Portraits by Carl Van Vechten at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten at the Library of Congress
Carl Van Vechten's Portraits from the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University: more than 9,000 black-and-white prints
Postcards from Manhattan: The Portrait Photography of Carl Van Vechten at Marquette University: hundreds of portrait postcards sent by Van Vechten to Wisconsin artist Karl Priebe from 1946 to 1956.
Guide to the Carl Van Vechten Photograph Collection 1932–1956 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
The Rose McClendon Memorial Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Negroes by Carl Van Vechten at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Carl Van Vechten Papers at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
== Gallery ==
== References ==
=== Notes ===
=== Sources ===
== External links ==
Works by Carl Van Vechten at Project Gutenberg
Works by Carl Van Vechten at Faded Page (Canada)
Works by or about Carl Van Vechten at the Internet Archive
Works by Carl Van Vechten at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Extravagant Crowd: Carl Van Vechten's Portraits of Women, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
Booknotes interview with Emily Bernard on Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925–1964, April 22, 2001.
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: "Carl Van Vechten: American Portraitist" exhibit materials, 1992 (curated by Deborah Willis)
Carl Van Vechten theatre photographs, 1932–1943, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_Dance | Stars Dance | Stars Dance is the debut solo album by American singer Selena Gomez. It was released on July 19, 2013, by Hollywood Records. Gomez began planning the project in 2012, at which time she announced that her band Selena Gomez & the Scene would be taking an indefinite hiatus. Stars Dance is an EDM and electropop album, incorporating elements of dubstep, techno, disco, electro house and worldbeat. Gomez worked on the album through March 2013 with producers such as Rock Mafia and the Cataracs.
Upon its release, Stars Dance received generally mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom complimented Gomez's maturing image and the album's content both lyrically and vocally, but criticized the electronic-heavy production style. It marked her first album to debut at number 1 on the Billboard 200. The album sold 97,000 copies domestically in its first week of release. This achievement was surpassed by its successor, Revival (2015), which sold 117,000 units in its first week. Stars Dance became her fourth Top 20 entry in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 14. Elsewhere, Stars Dance topped the charts in Canada, Norway, Mexico, Taiwan and China. By 2017, the album had sold an estimated 410,000 copies in the United States.
The album's lead single, "Come & Get It" featured heavy electronic and worldbeat themes, and became Gomez's first Top 10 entry in the United States, entering the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada, among others. It was also successful on pop radio, reaching number 2 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. The second single, "Slow Down", reached the Top 30 in the United States. It was met with success on pop radio, reaching the Top 10 of the Mainstream Top 40 chart. Gomez promoted the album through a number of high-profile performances, such as the 2013 Billboard Music Awards. She embarked on the Stars Dance Tour (2013) to further promote the release.
== Background ==
Selena Gomez & the Scene's third studio album, When the Sun Goes Down (2011), was musically rooted in electropop and dance-pop, similar to the group's second album, A Year Without Rain (2010). Although reviews from contemporary music critics were mixed, the album was a commercial success. In January 2012, Gomez announced that she would put her music career on hold to focus on her acting career, and that the band would be taking a hiatus: "my band and I are going our separate ways for a while. This year is all about films and acting and I want my band to play music wherever with whoever. We will be back but, it will be a good while." Despite her earlier statements, Gomez first confirmed in October 2012 that work had begun on an upcoming album, and later said it would be her solo debut album, rather than her band's fourth album. Gomez announced in March that the album's lead single would be released the following month, and that the album would follow that summer. On April 15, Gomez revealed plans of her first world tour, known as the Stars Dance Tour. Gomez officially confirmed on June 3 that the album would be titled Stars Dance, and also revealed the album's track listing and cover art.
On her return to music, Gomez stated "I miss it. I want to be able to write about things I've never talked about before and tell a story with this album, because I've never actually had time to go in and do that." For the album, Gomez made it with production team The Cataracs, as well as the Norwegian Stargate. Gomez also worked with Rock Mafia on numerous tracks on the album, having previously worked with them on previous singles with The Scene. For Stars Dance, Gomez attempted to have more creative control over her music, stating "It's definitely the hardest I have ever worked on a record, that's for sure. I wanted to have more creative control over the album's direction." Jason Evigan, who worked with Gomez on the album, said "She's not a little girl anymore. She wants to be like that and be respected like the great pop artists out there [...] And I think she is. I think this album is really gonna blossom her into a new realm of electronic pop dance artist." Prior to the album's release, Gomez announced she would be taking a musical hiatus after Stars Dance, commenting "I've been saying that I worked really hard on this record and I feel like it might be my last one for a while [...] I definitely love acting and I love film and I don't feel like I've done enough of that."
Following the album's announcement, numerous sources began claiming that the majority of the album was written about Gomez's relationship with Canadian singer Justin Bieber. These rumors continued to rise in popularity following the release of "Come & Get It", and prompted Gomez to confirm that the song was not about Bieber. She later said, however, that the song "Love Will Remember" is about her relationship with Bieber; an early version that leaked online just prior to the release of the album included a voicemail at the start of the song by Bieber himself that was removed from the final track. She revealed the song was "the most personal track on the record", and added "I think it's a sweet way of releasing it. It's not an aggressive approach to what people are probably expecting. I'm sure he'll love mikey too." The song "Birthday" was the first song recorded for the album. Gomez has listed "Forget Forever" as one of her favorite tracks on the album saying, "It's a really beautiful song. It has meaning behind it and it was a really special time in the studio. I got to be with the writers and just enjoy being in that moment. That was a really fun emotional song for me to sing but then I just kind of wanted to dance after I released it because it felt like I got to release this feeling that I had and it's a beautiful song." She later spoke of "Forget Forever" by stating "It's forgetting all the troubles, about the past, just enjoying everything else." Recording artist Jennifer Lopez wanted to record the song "Save the Day" for her 2013 album, but failed to get it from Gomez. "Come & Get It" was initially recorded by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna for her sixth studio album Talk That Talk (2011), however, she decided against using the song.
== Musical style and themes ==
Musically, Stars Dance is an album rooted stylistically in EDM and pop, this later specifically showcased as electropop while also containing strong elements of dubstep, techno, disco and worldbeat. Jocelyn Vena of MTV News described the music on Stars Dance as "dance-song-heavy" dubstep, that contains "wobbly synths, loopy vocals, fist-pumping beats and crunchy breakdowns". The album contains a highly diverse musical composition, highlighted by Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian as "darting efficiently from EDM to Bollywood". The majority of the album contains dubstep breakdowns, requisite stabs of synths, and according to Jim Farber of New York Daily News, "features a frisson of sex previously absent from this good-girl singer's work." Jason Evigan said of the album's musical style, "She's got some really cool like ethnic influence, kind of tribally dance drums and stuff like that", stating that it was similar to music by Jennifer Lopez. August Brown of the Los Angeles Times called Stars Dance a "sassy" pop-EDM album, noting its composition included "oxygen-sucking" sub-bass, trap snares. Brown noted the influence of Spring Breakers on the album, saying that Gomez wasn't ready to leave the "neon-splattered emotional hellscape of Spring Breakers just yet". He further went on to say: "Stars Dance is exactly the kind of album one makes in 2013 if you want to keep the pop sugar of the Disney tween cabal but mix in some broken glass and a club bathroom nosebleed. Its productions are rooted in today's pop-EDM default mode, but as that stuff goes, 'Slow Down' is pretty capable, and the bhangra-appropriating 'Come & Get It' is guilelessly silly enough to work."
The album's title track was described by Gomez as being "kind of sensual", while "Like a Champion" is said to feature Jamaican and reggae influences. When talking about the song "Save the Day", Gomez stated "Do you ever have moments where you don't ever want them to end? I've had those moments. It's about saving those moments and never wanting it to go away." The song "Write Your Name" is about the feeling of falling in love. Gomez described B.E.A.T. by saying "The song is cool and the lyrics are great, but it was more, 'I can't wait to perform this song onstage because I love the way I feel when I hear this song.' It's just dope." Gomez later stated that "Undercover" was her favorite song on the album, commenting "I've never had the confidence to do different licks and melody changes. I messed up a lot [while recording] that one." The album's lead single, "Come & Get It", has been described as featuring "Bollywood" influences, as well as tribal music.
On-air personality Peter Dee noted that the song featured various electropop elements. "Slow Down" is noted as featuring various dubstep influences, while the song's lyrics speak of taking a relationship slowly rather than rushing into things. Gomez has listed Britney Spears and Janet Jackson as some of the album's biggest influences, and later cited Skrillex, Taylor Swift, and Christina Aguilera as major influences on the record. She listed dubstep producer Skrillex as an influence to the album, with him having previously worked on the soundtrack for Gomez's film Spring Breakers. She later stated "Doing Spring Breakers was really fun, because Skrillex and Cliff Martinez did the soundtrack, and [Skrillex] kind of inspired me with a baby dubstep, because I have a few songs that have that." In an interview with Teen Vogue, Gomez mentioned electropop singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, while she described the sound of the record, stating: "they are all really fun, pop songs-a little Ellie Goulding-ish, a little island-y feel. It's a really fun pop record."Jim Farber of New York Daily News noted influences of Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and Janet Jackson, although going on to say "Gomez's writer and producers have aped other stars' tricks gamely enough to create a pretty good time. It helps that Gomez boasts a far richer voice than her idols, Britney, J.Lo and Janet."
== Songs and lyrical content ==
The album opens with "Birthday", an electropunk song which contains sparse drums, trap snares and vocal chants and has been described by Julia Rubin of Headlines and Global News as a "candy-coated, clap-happy club anthem with plenty of girl power and sex appeal, much like a bubblegum version of Rihanna's 'Cockiness (Love It)'." "Slow Down" is a high-octane, uptempo dance-pop and EDM song, that has been described as "wobbly club thumper" by Robert Copsey of Digital Spy. It features a dubstep chorus, funk guitars, a four on the floor beat, and a spoken word outro. Lyrically, the song speaks of "slowing down the song" so the party doesn't end. "Stars Dance", the album's title track, is a "breathy and sultry" dubstep song, which contains an orchestral-dubstep beat. According to Rubin, "Gomez's soft voice takes center stage over sexy synth-beats, icy choruses and wallowing melodies." "Stars Dance" has also received comparisons to the works of Britney Spears. "Like a Champion" is a dancehall song, with influences of funk, reggae, and soca music, and features Gomez singing the song in a Bajan accent. The song has received heavy comparisons to the works of Rihanna, with critics noting the song's breezy and carefree vocal delivery. "Come & Get It" is a tribal electropop and popstep song, which contains a Bhangra beat, sonic drops, and influences of Indian music. Lyrically, the song is about female lover's attempts to rekindle a previously ended romance.
"Forget Forever" is a dance-pop and synthpop song which contains an EDM beat and house music breakdowns. Lyrically, the song is about a breakup. Sam Lansky of Idolator said the song is an "electrifying dance-pop banger with a monolithically great chorus and a storming, anthemic beat, plus a big house break." Nate Jones of Popdust called the song "bright and expansive", going onto say that Gomez's vocals "fly over an EDM beat that can't help getting us ready for summer." "Save the Day" is a "thumping" Latin pop and house music song "B.E.A.T." is a "sexy" urban hip-hop song described by Jon O'Brien of Yahoo! Music as "minimal spoken word electro". Christina Drill of Popdust said the song was "infectious and definitely racier than usual for Selena (the chorus: 'It's a big bad world but I'm not ashamed / I like the lights in my hand and the beat in my face')". "Write Your Name" has been described as an "exotic" sounding electronic dance and house music song. The song contains a rap verse by Gomez, as well as elements of dubstep. O'Brien of Yahoo! Music said that: "Forget Forever' and 'Write Your Name' both manage to tiptoe into 'hands in the air' territory without succumbing to the usual Guetta-style bombast."
== Promotion ==
Gomez promoted the album through a number of interviews and televised live performances. She appeared on On Air with Ryan Seacrest on April 8, 2013, to promote "Come & Get It". She gave her first televised performance of the song at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards on April 14, 2013. The appearance saw Gomez in an "all-red, 'earthy'" outfit, and received a generally positive reception. She appeared on Dancing with the Stars on April 16 to perform "Come & Get It". On April 18, she performed the song again on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Gomez donned a bindi for these performances, and later came under fire by the Universal Society of Hinduism for her use of the religious symbol. Gomez appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on April 25, where she performed "Come & Get It". On April 27, she performed the song yet again at the 2013 Radio Disney Music Awards. She did not perform the song again until May 19, when she performed at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards. Days later, she performed "Come & Get It" on The Graham Norton Show.
Gomez appeared at the MuchMusic Headquarters on May 30, where she performed "Slow Down" for the first time. On July 4, Gomez performed both "Come & Get It" and "Slow Down" at the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular. Gomez appeared on This Morning in the United Kingdom to perform "Come & Get It". To coincide with the release of Stars Dance, Gomez performed "Come & Get It", "Slow Down", and "Birthday" on Good Morning America. In September, Gomez appeared on Live! With Kelly and Michael to perform "Birthday". Following the release of "Slow Down", Gomez appeared on The View to perform the song. She performed the song again on The Late Show with David Letterman. She performed "Slow Down" on The X Factor in the United States. Gomez was selected to be the halftime performer during the Dallas Cowboys vs. Oakland Raiders game held on Thanksgiving. For the show, Gomez performed a medley of "Like a Champion", "Slow Down", and "Come & Get It". The tour was further promoted through her worldwide Stars Dance Tour (2013), which visited countries such as the United States and Asia. The tour became making over $36 million at the box office. Originally meant to feature dates in Australia and Japan, the tour was cancelled due to personal issues.
== Singles ==
"Come & Get It", was released as the lead single from the album on April 7, 2013. As of July 2013, the song became one of Gomez's most successful singles, peaking at number 6 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian Hot 100 as well as being certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA. The music video premiered on MTV on May 7, 2013 and was directed by Anthony Mandler.
"Slow Down", was released as a promomotinal single on June 3, 2013. via an instant digital download with the pre-order of the album on iTunes, and was co-produced by The Cataracs and David Kuncio. It was later released as the album's official second single on August 13, 2013. It peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. The official video was uploaded to YouTube on July 19, 2013.
== Critical reception ==
Stars Dance received mixed reviews from music critics. Positive remarks went toward the overall production of the album, as well as its lyrics and Gomez's vocals. Mixed reviews went towards her inability to create her own musical identity; she was compared to singer Rihanna on several occasions. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 59, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Tim Sendra from Allmusic awarded the album three-and-a-half stars out of five. As he pointed out "Slow Down", "Save the Day" and "Undercover" as highlights, he said "Selena's reliably strong vocals and the variety of sounds, it adds up to be another fine entry in her catalog and just another example of why Selena Gomez is one of the best pop stars making music in 2013." Stephen Unwin from Express.co.uk compared the new effort to Vanessa Hudgens and said "Both [Gomez and Hudgens] have now turned their attention to themes of a more adult nature, this new album of Selena's being one of them and she's just about pulled it off."
Two Guardian reviews were issued. The first, observed by Kitty Empire, awarded the album three stars out of five. Conversely, the second Guardian review, observed by Hermione Hoby, was mixed and awarded it two stars out of five. She clarified that "if she really wants to be considered a grown-up pop star, Selena Gomez is going to have to find some better hit-makers." She compared the work, including "Like a Champion", to Rihanna. August Brown from the Los Angeles Times found that the album was "the kind of album one makes in 2013 if you want to keep the pop sugar of the Disney tween cabal but mix in some broken glass and a club bathroom nosebleed. Its productions are rooted in today's pop-EDM default mode [...]" Natalie Palmer from Entertainmentwise took perspective of other critics and commentators, saying the album should have been praised for "trying something new". She discussed "'Stars Dance' isn't what you would expect from a girl who was once a Disney princess. Many often go for the bubblegum pop or the angry rock chick but the 21-year-old has opted for an edgier genre and a unique sound."
Matthew Horton from Virgin Media awarded the album two stars. He criticized her "lack of personality" in most songs and felt her vocal abilities on the album "doesn't help". He concluded saying "It's all too identikit, [and] could be anyone with a grasp of average dance-pop". Simon Price from The Independent awarded one star out of the five, criticizing the lack of effort saying that "Even given these facts, it's a pop record, which means one killer track would redeem everything. Predictably enough, it never comes." Ron Harris from The Huffington Post felt the album did not live up to expectations, citing Gomez as a "vibrant young woman of Disney pedigree [who] simply punched the clock and worked through an already cooked musical plot foisted upon her. Gomez might be an incredibly talented and interesting person with much to offer artistically, but we'll never find out at this rate." He also found the album to have less personality than her previous records with The Scene.
== Commercial performance ==
Stars Dance debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 97,000 copies in its first week of release. This made it Gomez's first album to reach the top of the chart, as well as her highest first sales week for an album, until surpassed by her second release Revival, which sold 117,000 its first week. The album fell to number eight on the chart during its second week, selling an additional 31,000 copies. These sales were a 68% drop from the previous week's sales. In its third week, the album fell to number thirteen. The album continued to decline on the chart the following week, landing at number eighteen. In its fifth week, the album fell to number twenty-five. The album rose to number twenty-four on the chart following this. Following this rise, the album had a 23% increase in sales, selling 17,213 copies and reaching number twenty-one. Despite this, the album dropped to number thirty-three the following week, selling just over 7,000 copies. Stars Dance spent a total of twenty-five weeks on the Billboard 200, with its last appearance being on the week ending January 25, 2014.
The album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, with sales of 16,500 copies in its first week. It was her first number one in the country, and sold more than 5,000 in its first week than her previous effort. On August 27, 2013, the album received a Gold certification from the CRIA, for sales exceeding 40,000. Stars Dance had its first chart entry on the New Zealand Albums Chart, entering in the top five at number five itself. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted and peaked at number fourteen; it spent a total of four weeks on the chart. It peaked at number nine in Ireland, and spent a total of six weeks on the chart. The record peaked at number eight in Australia. The album was more successful in international territories. In Mexico, the album debuted at number one on the Mexican Albums Chart, and later went on to be certified Gold in the country for selling 30,000 copies. Stars Dance reached number two in Portugal, and was certified Platinum in the country. The album peaked at number eight in Brazil, and also received a Platinum certification in the country.
== Track listing ==
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes
Notes
^[a] signifies a producer and vocal producer
^[b] signifies a vocal producer
^[c] signifies a co-producer
^[d] signifies an additional producer
^[e] signifies an executive producer
^[f] signifies an additional vocal producer
The Amazon MP3 digital edition includes the bonus remix track "Come & Get It" (DJ Laszlo Club Remix).
The Overseas special digital edition includes the bonus remix track "Come & Get It" (Cosmic Dawn Club Mix).
The US Walmart edition includes a bonus DVD which features Selena Gomez live at Walmart Soundcheck.
The Japanese digital edition includes the bonus remix track "Come & Get It" (Dave Audé Radio Remix), while the Japanese physical edition replaces the bonus track with "Come & Get It (Jump Smokers Radio Remix)" that also appears on the Japanese deluxe edition.
The Japanese deluxe edition also includes a bonus DVD which features the music videos of all singles, and a track by track interview.
Sampling credits
"Like a Champion" samples the composition entitled "Champion" by Buju Banton.
"Come & Get It" samples "Dachee" by Bollywood Sounds.
"Nobody Does It Like You" samples elements of "Hello" by Martin Solveig.
== Personnel ==
Credits
Chris Gehringer – mastering
Mio Vukovic – A&R
Sarah Yeo – A&R [Coordination]
Jeri Heiden – Art Direction
Dave Snow – Creative Director
Nick Steinhardt – Design
Brian Teefey – Management
Mandy Teefey – Management
Lincoln Wheeler – Management [Marketing]
Diego Uchitel – Photography By
== Charts ==
== Certifications and sales ==
== Release history ==
== See also ==
List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2013
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thabo_Makgoba#:~:text=Makgoba%20graduated%20with%20a%20PhD,to%20study%20for%20his%20doctorate. | Thabo Makgoba | Thabo Cecil Makgoba KStJ (born 15 December 1960) is the South African Anglican archbishop of Cape Town. He had served before as bishop of Grahamstown.
== Biography ==
Makgoba graduated from Orlando High, Soweto, and completed his BSc degree at Wits University before going to St Paul's College, Grahamstown, to study for the Anglican ministry. He married Lungelwa Manona. Since then he obtained an MEd degree in Educational Psychology at Wits, where he also lectured part-time from 1993 to 1996. He was made bishop of Queenstown (a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Grahamstown) on 25 May 2002 and became the diocesan bishop of Grahamstown (in Makhanda) in 2004.
Until he moved to the Diocese of Grahamstown as bishop suffragan, Makgoba's ministry had been spent in the Diocese of Johannesburg, first as a curate at St Mary's Cathedral, Johannesburg, and then as the Anglican chaplain at Wits University. After that he was made rector of St Alban's Church, Ferrairasdorp, Johannesburg, and later of Christ the King, Sophiatown. He became archdeacon of Sophiatown in 1999. He became archbishop of Cape Town on 31 December 2007, the youngest person ever to be elected to this position. He was a Procter Fellow of the Episcopal Divinity School in the United States in 2008.
As of 2012, Makgoba is currently the chancellor of the University of the Western Cape.
Makgoba graduated with a PhD degree from the University of Cape Town in December 2009. He was awarded the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Scholarship to study for his doctorate. He is also an Associate at the Allan Gray School for Values at UCT.
== Views ==
Makgoba believes that 'We must each ask, "Who is my neighbour?" and then treat every individual and our whole global community in ways that uphold the sanctity of life, the dignity of humanity in all our differences, and the integrity of creation. These are our touchstones as we follow God's call for social justice here and now.'
Makgoba is open to discussions on the orthodox Anglican stance on homosexuality. The Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, after a Synod held in Cape Town, on 20–22 August 2009, passed a resolution calling the Anglican Church in Southern Africa bishops to give pastoral guidelines for homosexual couples living in "covenanted partnerships". At the same time, it was approved an amendment for the resolution which provided that the guidelines "due regard of the mind of the Anglican Communion." Makgoba stated that the resolution was "an important first step to saying: 'Lord, how do we do ministry in this context?' I'm a developmental person. I don't believe in big bangs. If you throw a little pebble into water, it sends out concentric circles and hopefully that way change comes from that." He also said that "South Africa has laws that approve a civil union in this context, but not in the other countries within our province. In central Africa and north Africa, both the Anglican Church and the state say 'no'" and "The reason for this resolution was because we have these parishioners, and the law provides for them to be in that state, so how do we pastorally respond to that?"
In 2016 Makgoba stated he was "pained" after a church synod rejected a proposal to allow bishops to license gay and lesbian clergy who are in same sex civil marriages to minister in parishes and rejected a motion to provide for prayers of blessing to be offered for those in same sex civil marriages. After the synod, which covered churches from Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, St Helena, and Swaziland, Makgoba advised "our lesbian sisters and gay brothers: I was deeply pained by the outcome of the debate". In 2023, after the Synod of bishops rejected a proposal to bless same-sex unions, the bishops voted for Makgoba's proposal to draft prayers that can be said pastorally with same-sex couples. In 2024, Makgoba supported the blessing of same-sex couples in civil unions and spoke in favour of two such proposals at the Provincial Synod; after the Synod rejected the two proposals, Makgoba said, "I had hoped that we would take a decision to incorporate all God's people, regardless of their sexuality."
== Political statements ==
Like his predecessors, he has used his position to make political statements about current affairs. In October 2009, he supported Bishop Rubin Phillip's condemnation of the violence at Kennedy Road informal settlement in which a local militia "acted with the support of the local ANC structures".
== Awards ==
Cross of St Augustine in 2008, the second highest international award for outstanding service to the Anglican Communion, by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Seven honorary doctorates in divinity, from the General Theological Seminary (2009) and Huron University College ( 2013). Sewanee: The University of the South (2015). Honorary doctorate in literature from Witwatersrand University (2016). Received the Chancellor's medal University of Pretoria (2015). Honorary doctorate in Divinity University of Stellenbosch (2018). Honorary degree in divinity from Amherst College (2019). Honorary degree in divinity from Berkeley Divinity School (2021).
Knight of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John
== Works ==
Faith and Courage- Praying with Nelson Mandela (2018)
Workplace Spirituality (2012)
Connectedness (2005)
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
The Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Development Trust
Public blog |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%9322_Premier_League#Awards | 2021–22 Premier League | The 2021–22 Premier League was the 30th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 1992, and the 123rd season of top-flight English football overall. The start and end dates for the season were released on 25 March 2021, and the fixtures were released on 16 June 2021.
Manchester City successfully defended their title, winning for the second consecutive year, securing a sixth Premier League title and eighth English league title overall on the last day of the campaign; it was also the club's fourth title in the last five seasons.
== Summary ==
Manchester City were the defending champions, having won their fifth Premier League title during the previous season.
This season saw the return of full attendance, after the final third of the 2019–20 and the entirety of the 2020–21 seasons were held with limited or no attendance due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This season was the second season to feature a winter break, with no Premier League matches scheduled between 23 January and 7 February 2022.
=== The race for first place ===
The early title race was dominated by Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, who were separated by two points by early December. By December, Chelsea led the way following a run of just one defeat in 14 matches until a shock defeat to West Ham United gave City the edge. A run of 12 consecutive victories, concluding in a victory over Chelsea that essentially ended their title hopes, gave Manchester City a 13-point lead by January (though Liverpool had two games in hand due to COVID-19 postponements). Liverpool then went on a 10-game winning run, including both their games in hand, helped by a costly 2–3 home loss for City to Tottenham Hotspur in February, to cut City's lead to a single point ahead of their meeting at the Etihad on 10 April. A 2–2 draw retained City's narrow lead going into the final weeks of the season.
=== Newcastle takeover ===
On 7 October, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund purchased an 80% stake and completed the £300m takeover of Newcastle United, ending the 14-year ownership of Mike Ashley. On 12 October 2021, an emergency meeting was convened by the other 19 Premier League clubs between themselves and the Premier League, where they voiced their anger at the league's decision to ratify the takeover; Newcastle United were the only Premier League club to be excluded from attending the meeting. On 18 November 2021, Premier League clubs voted to tighten the Premier League's financial controls in order to limit Newcastle United's spending power.
At the time of the takeover, Newcastle were in 19th position having failed to win any of their first seven games. The new ownership announced the departure of Steve Bruce and hired Eddie Howe; while Newcastle did not win a game until the 15th attempt, their form improved dramatically after five signings in the January transfer window. A run of 12 wins in their final 18 games secured an 11th place finish.
=== COVID-19 outbreaks force postponements ===
In December 2021, multiple matches were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreaks in multiple clubs, with many clubs calling for the league to shut down until 2022. Following a meeting on 20 December involving all 20 Premier League clubs, a decision was made to fulfil the fixtures over the Christmas period "where it is safe to do so". Clubs were advised that if they had 13 fit players, plus a goalkeeper, then they should fulfil their fixtures.
=== Abramovich sanctions ===
On 2 March, Roman Abramovich announced that he planned to sell Chelsea, stating his intent to donate all proceeds of the sale to the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the following days, numerous reports about interested buyers surfaced including Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers shareholder Todd Boehly, Pakistani businessman Javed Afridi, and other unnamed parties.
On 10 March, the British government froze all of Roman Abramovich's assets due to his close personal ties with Vladimir Putin, leaving Chelsea unable to sell tickets or merchandise, buy or sell players, and negotiate contracts. The UK government issued Chelsea a licence that allowed the club to continue footballing activities, ensured that employees continued to be paid, and allowed season-ticket holders to continue to attend games.
=== Final day climax ===
Going into the last day of the season, the title race, Champions League, Europa League, Conference League qualifications, and the relegation battle were all decided on the final day for the first time in Premier League history.
==== Title ====
With a one point advantage over Liverpool, Manchester City needed to match or better Liverpool's result to clinch back-to-back titles. Liverpool needed to win and hope that Manchester City dropped points to Aston Villa, managed by former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.
Liverpool went behind to Wolves in the 3rd minute, but quickly equalised. Aston Villa took a shock 2–0 lead after 63 minutes thanks to goals from Matty Cash and Philippe Coutinho. Manchester City then scored three goals (from substitute Ilkay Gundogan and Rodri) in under six minutes to take the lead in the match. Two late goals from Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson meant they won their game 3–1, but their result was irrelevant as City's 3–2 comeback win over Villa confirmed City as champions for the fourth time in five seasons.
This season is mainly remembered for the great quality of play expressed by Manchester City and Liverpool, which gave rise to a fantastic title fight (as was the case in the 2018–2019 season that also ended with the Citizens' victory) but it is also true that VAR in its third season in England caused various problems, often due to a "high bar" that forced and twisted the protocol and made VAR intervene on very few occasions, the goal was to intervene in a targeted manner as UEFA did at EURO 2020, but despite the good will, some mistakes were made, among the most glaring being the failure to award a penalty in Everton-Manchester City in favour of the home team due to a handball of Rodri, an episode that affected the title race.
==== Relegation ====
Norwich City, who were promoted from the Championship last season, suffered relegation with four games to spare following a 10th loss in 12 matches, against Aston Villa. Norwich also recorded the worst goal difference since Derby County in 2007–08. The next weekend Watford, who were also promoted, were the second to go down after defeat to Crystal Palace.
The final relegation spot was contested by Everton, Burnley and Leeds United, all of whom spent time in the bottom three in the final months of the season. Everton endured a run of just three wins between October and April, but victories against Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester City meant that victory over Crystal Palace in their final home game of the season would secure safety. Although they went 2–0 down at half time, Dominic Calvert-Lewin's goal in the 85th minute to put Everton 3–2 ahead had fans invading the pitch. Fans stormed the pitch again at full time, after avoiding what would have been the club's first relegation since 1951 and prolonging their top-flight status for a 69th year running.
Burnley and Leeds went into the final day level on 35 points, with Burnley having the edge over Leeds due to a superior goal difference. Burnley fell behind 2–0 to Newcastle, while a Raphinha penalty put Leeds ahead against Brentford in the 54th minute. A 78th minute equaliser from Brentford and a Maxwel Cornet goal gave Burnley hope of survival, but an added time winner from Jack Harrison confirmed safety for Leeds and relegated Burnley after six consecutive seasons in the Premier League.
==== Champions League, Europa League and Conference League spots ====
With Chelsea securing a top-four finish for a fourth straight season, only Tottenham and Arsenal were in the hunt for the final Champions League spot. Arsenal were in 4th with three games remaining, but Arsenal's defeats against Tottenham in the North London derby and Newcastle in their final away game combined with Tottenham victory against Burnley in their final home game saw Tottenham leapfrog them with one game remaining. Spurs just needed a point against already relegated Norwich on the final day to secure Champions League qualification for the first time in three years, and won 5–0 with two goals from Son Heung-min, who secured a joint Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah. Arsenal failed to qualify for the Champions League for a sixth season, despite beating Everton 5–1.
Manchester United suffered another difficult season, culminating in the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjær on 21 November 2021, which followed a humiliating 4–1 defeat to Watford. Ralf Rangnick would be appointed as interim manager for the rest of the season. The club ultimately finished the season in 6th, with a goal difference of zero and their worst points tally in the Premier League era, at just 58, as well as losing on the final day. United still managed to qualify for the Europa League, as West Ham's 3–1 defeat at Brighton prevented them from qualifying for back-to-back Europa League spots; they instead had to settle for a spot in the Europa Conference League.
=== Other teams ===
Brentford manager Thomas Frank had a promising first season in the Premier League. Thanks to January signing Christian Eriksen, the team won seven out of their last 11 games of the season, which included a 4–1 victory against Chelsea. The Dane guided the Bees to a 13th place finish, 11 points above the relegation zone and not spending a single week in the relegation zone.
Brighton had their best season in the top-flight with Graham Potter's side finishing ninth with a total of 51 points, despite their poor home record. Their 4–0 win against Manchester United was another new high for them, as it was also their biggest top-flight win.
== Teams ==
Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams were Norwich City, Watford (who both returned to the top flight after a year's absence) and Brentford (who returned to the top flight after a seventy-four year absence). This was also Brentford's first season in the Premier League. They replaced Fulham, West Bromwich Albion (both teams relegated to the Championship after just one year in the top flight) and Sheffield United (relegated after a two-year top flight spell).
=== Stadiums and locations ===
Note: Table lists in alphabetical order. Source:
=== Personnel and kits ===
a.^ Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was club captain at Arsenal until 14 December 2021, when he was stripped of the captaincy following a disciplinary breach; he was later let go by the club on 1 February. Alexandre Lacazette served as the de facto captain until early February, when he was officially named to the role.
b.^ Troy Deeney was club captain at Watford at the start of the season, but left the club on 30 August. Moussa Sissoko was named the captain following Deeney's departure.
c. ^ Three and Hyundai suspended their sponsorships of Chelsea in response to sanctions imposed on the club and Roman Abramovich following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The former does however remain on the club's shirt and will at least until a new kit is released the following season. Should the sponsorship be put back on hold, Three will remain Chelsea's shirt sponsor.
=== Managerial changes ===
== League table ==
== Results ==
== Season statistics ==
=== Top scorers ===
==== Hat-tricks ====
Notes
4 Player scored 4 goals(H) – Home team(A) – Away team
=== Clean sheets ===
=== Discipline ===
==== Player ====
Most yellow cards: 11
Junior Firpo (Leeds United)
Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa)
James Tarkowski (Burnley)
Most red cards: 2
Raúl Jiménez (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa)
==== Club ====
Most yellow cards: 101
Leeds United
Most red cards: 6
Everton
== Awards ==
=== Monthly awards ===
=== Annual awards ===
== Attendances ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino | Corazon Aquino | María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (Tagalog: [kɔɾaˈsɔn kɔˈhwaŋkɔ aˈkino]; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was the 11th president of the Philippines, serving from 1986 to 1992. The first female president in Philippine history, Aquino was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People Power Revolution, which ended the two-decade rule of President Ferdinand Marcos and led to the establishment of the current democratic Fifth Philippine Republic. She has been regarded by media outlets as the "Mother of Democracy".
Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., a prominent critic of President Marcos. The couple have five children, including 15th president Benigno Aquino III and entertainer Kris Aquino. After the assassination of her husband on August 21, 1983, she emerged as leader of the opposition against the president. In late 1985, Marcos called for a snap election, and Aquino ran for president with former Senator Salvador Laurel as her running mate for vice president. After the February 7, 1986, presidential election, the Batasang Pambansa proclaimed Marcos and his running mate Arturo Tolentino as the winners, which prompted allegations of electoral fraud and Aquino's call for massive civil disobedience actions. Subsequently, the People Power Revolution, a non-violent mass demonstration movement, took place from February 22 to 25. With support from the Philippine Catholic Church and defections from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the People Power Revolution ousted Marcos, and Aquino, with no prior political experience, was sworn in to the presidency on February 25, 1986.
As president, Aquino spearheaded the development of the 1987 Constitution, which limited the powers of the presidency and re-established the bicameral Congress, removing the previous dictatorial government structure. Her economic policies focused on forging good economic standing amongst the international community as well as disestablishing Marcos-era crony capitalist monopolies, emphasizing the free market and responsible economy. Her administration pursued peace talks to resolve the Moro conflict, and the result of these talks was creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Aquino was criticized for the Mendiola Massacre, which resulted in the shooting deaths of at least 12 peaceful protesters by Philippine state security forces. The Philippines faced various natural calamities in the latter part of Aquino's administration, such as the 1990 Luzon earthquake, 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption and Tropical Storm Thelma. Several coup attempts were made against her government. She left office in 1992 and remained active in political activities. Aquino was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2008 and died the following year. Her funeral was the subject of global media coverage, and monuments and public landmarks in the country were named in her honor.
== Early life and education ==
María Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco was born on January 25, 1933, in Paniqui, Tarlac. She was born to the prominent Cojuangco family. Her father was José Cojuangco, a prominent Tarlac businessman and former congressman, and her mother was Demetria Sumulong, a pharmacist. Both of Aquino's parents were from prominent political families. Aquino's grandfather from her father's side, Melecio Cojuangco, was a member of the historic Malolos Congress, and Aquino's mother belonged to the politically influential Sumulong family of Rizal province, which included Juan Sumulong, who ran against Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon in 1941 and Senator Lorenzo Sumulong, who was later appointed by Aquino in the Constitutional Commission. Aquino was the sixth of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Her siblings were Pedro, Josephine, Teresita, Jose Jr., and Maria Paz.
Aquino spent her elementary school days at St. Scholastica's College in Manila, where she graduated at the top of her class as valedictorian. She transferred to Assumption Convent, then also in Manila, to pursue high school studies. After her family moved to the United States, she attended the Assumption-run Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia. She then transferred to Notre Dame Convent School in New York City, where she graduated from in 1949. During her high school years in the United States, Aquino volunteered for the campaign of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey against Democratic incumbent U.S. President Harry S. Truman during the 1948 United States presidential election. After graduating from high school, she pursued her college education at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York, graduating in 1953 with a major in French and minor in mathematics.
== Wife of Benigno Aquino Jr. ==
After graduating from college, she returned to the Philippines and studied law at Far Eastern University in 1953. While attending, she met Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino Jr., who was the son of the late Speaker Benigno S. Aquino Sr. and a grandson of General Servillano Aquino. She discontinued her law education and married Benigno at the Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Pasay, Rizal on October 11, 1954. The couple had five children: Maria Elena ("Ballsy"; born 1955), Aurora Corazon ("Pinky"; born 1957), Benigno Simeon III ("Noynoy"; 1960–2021), Victoria Elisa ("Viel"; born 1961) and Kristina Bernadette ("Kris"; born 1971).
Aquino had initially had difficulty adjusting to provincial life when she and her husband moved to Concepcion, Tarlac in 1955. Aquino found herself bored in Concepcion, and welcomed the opportunity to have dinner with her husband inside the American military facility at nearby Clark Field. Afterwards, the Aquino family moved to a bungalow in suburban Quezon City.
Throughout her life, Aquino was known to be a devout Roman Catholic.
Corazon Aquino was fluent in French, Japanese, Spanish, and English aside from her native Tagalog and Kapampangan.
Ninoy Aquino, a former Nacionalista turned Liberal, rose to become the youngest governor in the country in 1961 and then the youngest senator ever elected to the Senate of the Philippines in 1967. For most of her husband's political career, Aquino remained a housewife who raised their children and hosted her spouse's political allies who would visit their Quezon City home. She would decline to join her husband on stage during campaign rallies, instead preferring to be in the back of the audience and listen to him. Unbeknownst to many at the time, Corazon Aquino sold some of her prized inheritance to fund the candidacy of her husband.
As Ninoy emerged as a leading critic of the government of President Ferdinand Marcos, he became seen as a strong candidate for president to succeed Marcos in the 1973 elections. However, Marcos, who was barred by the 1935 Constitution to seek a third term, declared martial law on September 21, 1972 and later abolished the constitution, thereby allowing him to remain in office. Ninoy Aquino was among the first to be arrested at the onset of martial law, and was later sentenced to death. During her husband's incarceration, Corazon Aquino stopped going to beauty salons or buying new clothes and prohibited her children from attending parties, until a priest advised her and her children to try to live as normal lives as possible.
Despite Corazon's initial opposition, Ninoy decided to run in the 1978 Batasang Pambansa elections from his prison cell as party leader of the newly created LABAN. Corazon Aquino campaigned on behalf of her husband and delivered a political speech for the first time in her life during this political campaign. In 1980 Ninoy suffered a heart attack, and Marcos allowed Senator Aquino and his family to leave for exile in the United States upon intervention from U.S. president Jimmy Carter so that Aquino could seek medical treatment.
On August 21, 1983, Ninoy ended his stay in the United States and returned without his family to the Philippines, where he was immediately assassinated on a staircase leading to the tarmac of Manila International Airport. The airport is now named Ninoy Aquino International Airport, renamed by the Congress in his honor in 1987. Corazon Aquino returned to the Philippines a few days later and led her husband's funeral procession, in which more than two million people participated.
== 1986 presidential campaign ==
Following her husband's assassination in 1983, Corazon Aquino became active in various demonstrations held against the Marcos regime. She began to assume the mantle of leadership left by her husband and became a figurehead of the anti-Marcos political opposition. On November 3, 1985, during an interview with American journalist David Brinkley on This Week with David Brinkley, Marcos suddenly announced snap elections that would be held within three months to dispel doubt against his regime's legitimate authority, an action that surprised the nation. The election was later scheduled to be held on February 7, 1986. A petition was organized to urge Aquino to run for president, headed by former newspaper publisher Joaquin Roces. On December 1, the petition of 1.2 million signatures was publicly presented to Aquino in an event attended by 15,000 people, and on December 3, Aquino officially declared her candidacy. United Opposition (UNIDO) party leader Salvador Laurel was chosen as Aquino's running mate as candidate for vice president.
During the campaign, Marcos attacked Corazon Aquino on her husband's previous ties to communists, characterizing the election as a fight "between democracy and communism". Aquino refuted Marcos' charge and stated that she would not appoint a single communist to her cabinet. Marcos also accused Aquino of playing "political football" with the United States in regards to the continued United States military presence in the Philippines at Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. Another point of attack for Marcos was Aquino's inexperience in public office. Marcos' campaign was characterized by sexist attacks, such as remarks by Marcos that Aquino was "just a woman" and that a woman's remarks should be limited to the bedroom.
The snap election was held on February 7, 1986, and was marred by massive electoral fraud, violence, intimidation, coercion, and disenfranchisement of voters. On February 11, while votes were still being tabulated, former Antique Governor Evelio Javier, who had been director of Aquino's campaign in Antique, was assassinated. During the tallying of votes conducted by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), 30 poll computer technicians walked out to contest the alleged election-rigging being done in favor of Marcos. Years later it was claimed that the walkout of computer technicians was led by Linda Kapunan, wife of Lt Col Eduardo Kapunan, a leader of Reform the Armed Forces Movement that plotted to attack the Malacañang Palace and kill Marcos and his family, leading to a partial reevaluation of the walkout event.
On February 15, 1986, the Batasang Pambansa, which was dominated by Marcos' ruling party and its allies, declared President Marcos as the winner of the election. However, NAMFREL's electoral count showed that Corazon Aquino had won. Aquino claimed victory according to NAMFREL's electoral count and called for a rally dubbed "Tagumpay ng Bayan" (People's Victory Rally) the following day to protest the declaration by the Batasang Pambansa. Aquino also called for boycotts against products and services from companies controlled or owned by individuals closely allied with Marcos. The rally was held at the historic Rizal Park in Luneta, Manila and drew a pro-Aquino crowd of around two million people. The dubious election results drew condemnation from both domestic and foreign powers. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines issued a statement strongly criticizing the conduct of the election, describing the election as violent and fraudulent. The United States Senate likewise condemned the election. Aquino rejected a power-sharing agreement proposed by the American diplomat Philip Habib, who had been sent as an emissary by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to help defuse the tension.
=== Accession as president ===
On February 22, 1986, disgruntled and reformist military officers led by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and General Fidel V. Ramos surprised the nation and the international community by the announcement of their defection from the Marcos government, citing a strong belief that Aquino was the real winner in the contested presidential election. Enrile, Ramos, and the rebel soldiers then set up operations in Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary, across Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). Cardinal Sin appealed to the public in a broadcast over Church-run Radyo Veritas, and millions of Filipinos gathered to the part of Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue between the two camps to give their support and prayers to the rebels. At that time, Aquino was meditating in a Carmelite convent in Cebu. Upon learning of the defection, Aquino and Cardinal Sin appeared on Radyo Veritas to rally behind Enrile and Ramos. Aquino then flew back to Manila to prepare for the takeover of the government.
Aquino was sworn in as the eleventh president of the Philippines on February 25, 1986. An hour after Aquino's inauguration, Marcos held his own inauguration ceremony at the Malacañang Palace. Later that same day, Ferdinand E. Marcos fled from the Philippines to Hawaii.
== Presidency (1986–1992) ==
Corazon Aquino's accession to the presidency marked the end of authoritarian rule in the Philippines. Aquino is the first female president of the Philippines and is still the only president of the Philippines to have never held any prior political position. Aquino is regarded as the first female president in Asia.
=== Transitional government and creation of new constitution ===
On February 25, 1986, the first day of her administration, Aquino issued Proclamation No. 1, which announced an intention to reorganize the government and called on all officials appointed by Marcos to resign, starting with members of the Supreme Court. On March 25, 1986, President Aquino issued Proclamation No. 3, which announced a transitional government into a democratic system. She abolished the 1973 Constitution that was in force during the martial law era, and by decree issued the provisional 1986 Freedom Constitution, pending the ratification of a more formal and comprehensive charter. This constitutional allowed her to exercise both executive and legislative powers during the period of transitional government.
After the issuance of Proclamation No. 1, all 15 members of the Supreme Court submitted their resignations. Aquino then reorganized the membership of the Supreme Court with the stated purpose of restoring its judicial independence. On May 22, 1986, in the case Lawyers League v. President Aquino, the reorganized Supreme Court declared the Aquino government as "not merely a de facto government but in fact and law a de jure government", and affirmed its legitimacy.
Aquino appointed all 48 members of the 1986 Constitutional Commission ("Con-Com"), led by retired activist and former Supreme Court Associate Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, which was tasked with writing a new constitution. The Commission completed its final draft of the Constitution in October 1986.
On February 2, 1987, the Constitution of the Philippines was ratified by nationwide plebiscite. It remains the constitution of the Philippines to the present day. The Constitution established a bill of rights and a three-branch government consisting of the executive department, the legislative department, and the judicial department. The Constitution restored the bicameral Congress, which in 1973 had been abolished by Marcos and replaced with first the Batasang Bayan and later the Batasang Pambansa. The ratification of the new Constitution was soon followed by the election of senators and the election of House of Representatives members on May 11, 1987, as well as local elections on January 18, 1988.
=== Legal reforms ===
After the ratification of the constitution, Aquino promulgated two landmark legal codes, namely, the Family Code of 1987, which reformed the civil law on family relations, and the Administrative Code of 1987, which reorganized the structure of the executive department of government. Another landmark law that was enacted during her tenure was the 1991 Local Government Code, which devolved national government powers to local government units (LGUs). The new Code enhanced the power of LGUs to enact local taxation measures and assured them of a share in the national revenue.
During Aquino's tenure, vital economic laws such as the Built-Operate-Transfer Law, Foreign Investments Act, and the Consumer Protection and Welfare Act were also enacted.
=== Socio-economic policies ===
The economy posted a positive growth of 3.4% during Aquino's first year in office, and continued to grow at an overall positive rate throughout her tenure for an average rate of 3.4% from 1986 to 1992. Real GDP growth suffered a 0.4% decrease in 1991 in the aftermath of the 1989 coup attempt by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, which shook international confidence in the Philippine economy and hindered foreign investment.
Aquino made fighting inflation one of her priorities after the nation suffered from skyrocketing prices during the last years of the Marcos administration. The last six years of the Marcos administration recorded an average annual inflation rate of 20.9%, which peaked in 1984 at 50.3%. From 1986 to 1992, the Philippines recorded an average annual inflation rate of 9.2%. During the Aquino administration, the annual inflation rate peaked at 18.1% in 1991; a stated reason for this increase was panic buying during the Gulf War. Overall, the economy under Aquino had an average growth of 3.8% from 1986 to 1992.
==== De-monopolization ====
One of Aquino's first actions as president was to seize Marcos' multi-billion dollar fortune of ill-gotten wealth. On February 28, 1986, four days into her presidency, Aquino formed the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which was tasked with retrieving Marcos' domestic and international fortune.
After his declaration of martial law in 1972 and his consolidation of authoritarian power, President Ferdinand Marcos issued various government decrees that awarded monopoly or oligopoly power over entire industries to various close associates, in a scheme later regarded as crony capitalism. President Aquino pursued a market liberalization agenda to combat this problem. President Aquino particularly targeted the sugar industry and the coconut industry for de-monopolization.
==== Debt ====
Throughout the tenure of President Ferdinand Marcos, government foreign debt had ballooned from less than $3 billion in 1970 to $28 billion by the end of his administration, through privatization of bad government assets and deregulation of many vital industries. The debt had badly tarnished the international credit standing and economic reputation of the country.
President Aquino inherited the debt of the Marcos administration and weighed all options on what to do with the debt, including not paying the debt. Aquino eventually chose to honor all the debts that were previously incurred in order to clear the country's economic reputation. Her decision proved to be unpopular but Aquino defended it, saying that was the most practical move. Beginning in 1986, the Aquino administration paid off $4 billion of the country's outstanding debts to improve its international credit ratings and attract the attention of foreign investors. This move also ensured lower interest rates and longer payment terms for future loans. During the Aquino administration, the Philippines acquired an additional $9 billion debt, increasing the net national debt by $5 billion within six years due to the need to infuse capital and money into the economy. The Aquino administration was able to reduce the Philippines' external debt-to-GDP ratio by 20.1 percent, from 87.9 percent at the start of the administration to 67.8 percent in 1991.
==== Agrarian reform ====
President Aquino envisioned agrarian and land reform as the centerpiece of her administration's social legislative agenda. However, her family background and social class as a privileged daughter of a wealthy and landed clan became a lightning rod of criticisms against her land reform agenda.
After the Mendiola Massacre and in response to calls for agrarian reform, President Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229 on July 22, 1987, which outlined her land reform program, including sugar lands. In 1988, with the backing of Aquino, the new Congress of the Philippines passed Republic Act No. 6657, more popularly known as the "Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law" (CARP), which paved the way for the redistribution of agricultural lands from landowners to tenant-farmers. Landowners were paid in exchange by the government through just compensation, and were also not allowed to retain more than five hectares of land. The law also allowed corporate landowners to "voluntarily divest a proportion of their capital stock, equity or participation in favor of their workers or other qualified beneficiaries", in lieu of turning over their land to the government for redistribution. Despite the flaws in the law, the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 1989, declaring that the implementation of CARP was "a revolutionary kind of expropriation".
Corazon Aquino herself was subject to a controversy that centered on Hacienda Luisita, a 6,453-hectare estate located in the province of Tarlac which she and her siblings inherited from her father José Cojuangco. Instead of land distribution, Hacienda Luisita reorganized itself into a corporation and distributed stock. As such, ownership of agricultural portions of the hacienda was transferred to the corporation, which in turn, gave its shares of stocks to farmers. Critics argued that Aquino bowed to pressure from relatives by allowing stock redistribution in lieu of land redistribution under CARP.
The stock redistribution scheme was revoked in 2006, when the Department of Agrarian Reform ordered the mandatory redistribution of land to tenant-farmers of Hacienda Luisita. The Department of Agrarian Reform had looked into its revocation since 2004, when violence erupted in the hacienda over the retrenchment of workers, leaving seven people dead.
=== Coup attempts on Aquino government ===
From 1986 to 1990 numerous coup attempts were enacted on the Aquino administration and the new Philippine government. Many of these attempts were conducted by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, who attempted to establish a military government, while other attempts were conducted by loyalists to former President Marcos.
=== Mendiola massacre and cabinet infighting ===
On January 22, 1987, during the era of transition government and shortly before the nationwide plebiscite to ratify the Constitution, 12 citizens were killed and 51 were injured in the Mendiola Massacre. The incident was initially a peaceful protest by agrarian workers and farmers who had marched to the historic Mendiola Street near the Malacañan Palace to demand genuine land reform. The massacre occurred when Marines fired at farmers who tried to go beyond the designated demarcation line set by the police. The massacre resulted in several resignations from Aquino's cabinet, including Jose W. Diokno, head of the Presidential Committee on Human Rights, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and chairman of the government panel in charge of negotiations with rebel forces resigned from his government posts. His daughter Maris said, "It was the only time we saw him near tears."
In September 1987, Vice President Doy Laurel resigned as secretary of foreign affairs. In his resignation letter to Aquino, Laurel stated, "the past years of Marcos are now beginning to look no worse than your first two years in office. And the reported controversies and scandals involving your closest relatives have become the object of our people's outrage. From 16,500 NPA regular when Marcos fell, the communists now claim an armed strength of 25,200. From city to countryside, anarchy has spread. There is anarchy within the government, anarchy within the ruling coalesced parties and anarchy in the streets."
Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin, who had successfully advocated for paying external debt incurred during Marcos' administration, was dismissed by Aquino in September 1987 and later died in an apparent suicide in December 1987. His widow stated that he had been depressed due to infighting in Aquino's cabinet and lack of significant change since the People Power Revolution.
Soon after the Mendiola Massacre, the Aquino administration and Congress worked to pass significant agrarian reform, which culminated in the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARP).
=== Peace talks with Moro and communist insurgencies ===
President Aquino conducted peace talks with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), an armed Moro Muslim insurgency group that sought to establish an independent Moro state within Mindanao. Aquino met with MNLF leader Nur Misuari and various MNLF groups in Sulu. In 1989, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was created under Republic Act No. 6734 or the ARMM Organic Act, which established the Moro majority areas in the Mindanao island group as an autonomous region with its own government. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao lasted from 1989 to 2019, after which it was succeeded by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was opposed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a militant splinter group from the MNLF that sought to secede from the Philippines to establish an Islamic state in Mindanao. Peace talks with MILF began in 1997 under President Fidel Ramos and violent insurgency officially continued until 2014, when peace accords were formally signed between MILF and the administration of President Benigno Aquino III that would lead to the creation of the BARMM.
The establishment of the ARMM also led to the establishment of Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group founded in 1989 by Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani and composed of radical former members of the MNLF. Terrorist attacks by Abu Sayyaf would start in 1995 and continue to the present day, including the 2004 bombing of the MV Superferry 14 that resulted in the deaths of 116 people.
Shortly after becoming president, Aquino ordered the release of hundreds of political prisoners imprisoned during the Marcos era, including communist insurgents belonging to the Communist Party of the Philippines. These releases included leaders such as Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison and New People's Army founder Bernabe Buscayno, which the military strongly resisted. Preliminary peace talks with the CPP ended after the Mendiola Massacre on January 22, 1987, during which at least 12 farmers were killed at a protest rally.
=== Closing of United States military bases ===
Soon after Aquino took office, several Philippine senators declared that the presence of U.S. military forces in the Philippines was an affront to national sovereignty. The senators called for the United States military to vacate U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay and Clark Air Base, and Aquino opposed their demand. The United States objected by stating that they had leased the property and that the leases were still in effect. The United States stated that the facilities at Subic Bay were unequaled anywhere in Southeast Asia and a U.S. pullout could make all of that region of the world vulnerable to an incursion by the Soviet Union or by a resurgent Japan. Another issue with the demand was that thousands of Filipinos worked at these military facilities and they would lose their jobs if the U.S. military moved out. Aquino opposed the Senate's demand and believed that the bases should have remained. Aquino organized a protest against the pullout, which only gathered between 100,000 and 150,000 supporters, far short of the 500,000 to 1 million that had been originally expected.
The matter was still being debated when Mount Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, covering the entire area with volcanic ash. Despite attempts to continue the Subic Base, Aquino finally conceded. In December 1991, the government served notice that the U.S. had to close the base by the end of 1992.
=== Natural disasters and calamities ===
On December 20, 1987, the MV Doña Paz sank after a collision with the oil tanker MV Vector. The final death toll exceeded 4,300 people, and the sinking has been called the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster of the 20th century. In the aftermath, Aquino addressed the incident as "a national tragedy of harrowing proportions".
The 1990 Luzon earthquake was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Luzon. It left an estimate of 1,621 people dead and massive property damage.
In 1991, a volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo, then thought to be dormant, killed around 800 people and caused widespread long-term devastation of agricultural lands in Central Luzon. Around 20,000 residents had to be evacuated and around 10,000 people were left homeless by the event. It was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century.
On November 1, 1991 Tropical Storm Thelma (also known as Typhoon Uring) caused massive flooding in Ormoc City, leaving around 5,000 dead in what was then considered to be the deadliest typhoon in Philippine history. On November 8, Aquino declared all of Leyte a disaster area.
=== Electrical power grid inadequacy ===
During Aquino's presidency, electric blackouts became common in Manila. The city experienced 7–12 hours-long blackouts, which severely affected its businesses. By the departure of Aquino in June 1992, businesses in Manila and nearby provinces had lost nearly $800 million since the preceding March.
Corazon Aquino's decision to deactivate the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), which was built during the Marcos administration, contributed to further electricity crises in the 1990s, as the 620 megawatts capacity of the plant would have been enough to cover the shortfall at that time. Critics of the BNPP had stated that the power plant was unsafe, and cited the millions of dollars in bribes paid to President Marcos to allow its construction. The administration had failed to provide for an adequate replacement for the plant before her term had completed, and President Corazon Aquino ended her term in 1992 with the country reeling under a severe power shortage crisis.
=== Influence in 1992 presidential election ===
The 1987 Constitution limited the president to a single six-year term with no possibility of re-election. As the end of her presidency drew near, close advisers and friends told Aquino that since she was not inaugurated under the 1987 Constitution, her term beginning 1986, she was still 'eligible' to seek the presidency again in the upcoming 1992 elections, the first presidential elections held under normal and peaceful circumstances since 1965. However, Aquino firmly declined the requests for her to seek reelection, citing her strong belief that the presidency was not a lifetime position.
Initially, she named Ramon V. Mitra, Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives who had been a friend of her husband, as her preferred candidate for the 1992 presidential elections. However, she later backtracked and instead supported the candidacy of General Fidel V. Ramos, who was her defense secretary and a key figure in the EDSA Revolution. Ramos had consistently stood by her government during the various coup attempts that were launched against her administration. Her sudden change of mind and withdrawal of support from Mitra drew criticism from her supporters in the liberal and social democratic sectors. Her decision also drew criticism from the Catholic Church, which questioned her support of Ramos due to his being a Protestant. General Ramos won the 1992 elections with 23.58% of the total votes in a wide-open campaign.
On June 30, 1992, Corazon Aquino formally and peacefully handed over power to Fidel Ramos. On that day, Fidel V. Ramos was inaugurated as the twelfth president of the Philippines. After the inauguration, Aquino left the ceremony in a simple white Toyota Crown she had purchased, rather than the lavish government-issued Mercedes-Benz in which she and Ramos had ridden on the way to the ceremonies, to make the point that she was once again an ordinary citizen.
=== Administration and cabinet ===
== Post-presidency (1992–2009) ==
=== Domestic ===
During Aquino's retirement and stay as a private citizen, she remained active in the Philippine political scene. Aquino would voice her dissent to government actions and policies that she deemed threats to the democratic foundations of the country.
In 1997, Aquino, together with Cardinal Jaime Sin, led a rally opposing President Fidel Ramos' attempt to extend his term through his proposal to amend the 1987 Constitution's restriction on presidential term limits. Ramos' proposed charter change would fail, leaving term limits and the presidential system in place.
During the 1998 Philippine presidential election, Aquino endorsed the candidacy of former police general and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim who is the Liberal nominee for president. Lim would lose to Vice President Joseph Estrada, who won by a landslide. In 1999, Aquino and Cardinal Jaime Sin again worked together to oppose a second plan to amend the Constitution to remove term limits, this time under President Estrada. President Estrada stated that his plan to amend the Constitution was intended to lift provisions that 'restrict' economic activities and investments, and Estrada denied that it was an attempt to extend his stay in office. Estrada's proposed charter change would also fail.
In 2000, Aquino joined the mounting calls for Estrada to resign from office, amid a series of corruption scandals, including strong allegations of bribery charges and gambling kickbacks. Estrada was impeached by the House of Representatives in November 2000 but acquitted by the Senate in December, which in January 2001 led to the Second EDSA Revolution, which ousted Estrada. During the Second EDSA Revolution, Aquino enthusiastically supported the ascendancy of Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the position of president. In the subsequent trial of Joseph Estrada, Estrada was acquitted of perjury but found guilty of plunder and sentenced to reclusion perpetua with the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from public office and forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth on September 12, 2007. Estrada was pardoned by President Macapagal-Arroyo on October 26, 2007.
In 2005, after a series of revelations and exposes that implicated President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in rigging the 2004 presidential elections, Aquino called on Arroyo to resign in order to prevent bloodshed, violence and further political deterioration. Aquino once again led massive street-level demonstrations, this time demanding the resignation of President Arroyo.
During the 2007 senatorial elections, Aquino actively campaigned for her only son, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, who went on to win his race. Less than a year after Corazon Aquino's death in 2009, Benigno Aquino III won the 2010 Philippine presidential election and served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016.
In December 2008, Corazon Aquino publicly expressed regret for her participation in the 2001 Second EDSA Revolution, which installed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president. She apologized to former President Joseph Estrada for the role she played in his ouster in 2001. Aquino's apology drew criticisms from numerous politicians. In June 2009, two months before her death, Aquino issued a public statement in which she strongly denounced and condemned the Arroyo administration's plans of amending the 1987 Constitution, calling it a "shameless abuse of power".
=== International ===
Shortly after leaving the presidency, Aquino traveled abroad, giving speeches and lectures on issues of democracy, development, human rights, and women empowerment. At the 1994 meeting of the UNESCO World Commission on Culture and Development in Manila, Aquino delivered a speech urging the unconditional release of Burmese democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi from detention. She petitioned for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aquino was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international organization of former and current female heads of state, from the group's inception in 1996 to her death.
In 1997, Aquino attended the wake and funeral of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom she met during the latter's visit in Manila in 1989. In 2005, Aquino joined the international community in mourning the death of Pope John Paul II.
In 2002, Aquino became the first woman named to the Board of Governors at the Asian Institute of Management, a leading graduate business school and think tank in the Asia Pacific region. She served on the Board until 2006.
=== Charitable and social initiatives ===
After her term as president, Aquino was involved in several charitable activities and socio-economic initiatives. From 1992 until her death, Aquino was chairperson of the Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Foundation, which she set up in her husband's honor after his assassination in 1983. Aquino supported the Gawad Kalinga social housing project for the poor and homeless. In 2007, Aquino helped establish the PinoyME Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to provide microfinancing programs and projects for the poor. Aquino also painted and would occasionally give away her paintings to friends and family or auction her paintings and donate the proceeds to charity. She never sold her art for her own profit.
== Illness and death ==
On March 24, 2008, Aquino's family announced that the former president had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Upon her being earlier informed by her doctors that she had only three months to live, she pursued medical treatment and chemotherapy. A series of healing Masses for Aquino, who was a devout Catholic, were held throughout the country for her recovery. In a public statement during one healing Mass on May 13, 2008, Aquino said that her blood tests indicated that she was responding well to treatment, although her hair and appetite loss were apparent.
By July 2009, Aquino was reported to be suffering from loss of appetite and in very serious condition. At that time she was confined to Makati Medical Center. It was later announced that Aquino and her family had decided to stop chemotherapy and other medical interventions for her.
Aquino died in the Makati Medical Center at 3:18 a.m. on August 1, 2009, due to cardiorespiratory arrest at the age of 76.
=== Wake and funeral ===
On the day of Aquino's death, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced a 10-day mourning period for the former president and issued Administrative Order No. 269 detailing the necessary arrangements for a state funeral. Arroyo was on a state visit to the United States at the time of Aquino's death and returned to the Philippines on August 5, cutting her visit short to pay her last respects to Aquino. Aquino's children declined Arroyo's offer of a state funeral for their mother.
All churches in the Philippines celebrated requiem masses simultaneously throughout the country and all government offices flew the Philippine flag at half-mast. Hours after her death, Aquino's body lay in repose for public viewing at the La Salle Green Hills campus in Mandaluyong. On August 3, 2009, Aquino's body was transferred from La Salle Green Hills to the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, during which hundreds of thousands of Filipinos lined the streets to view and escort the former leader's body. On the way to the cathedral, Aquino's funeral cortege passed along Ayala Avenue in Makati, stopping in front of the monument to her husband Ninoy, where throngs of mourners gathered and sang the patriotic protest anthem "Bayan Ko". Aquino's casket was brought inside the cathedral by mid-afternoon that day. Following her death, all Roman Catholic dioceses in the country held Requiem Masses.
On August 4, 2009, Bongbong Marcos and Imee Marcos, two prominent children of late former President Ferdinand Marcos, paid their last respects to Aquino in spite of the two families' longstanding feud. The Marcos siblings were received by Aquino's daughters María Elena, Aurora Corazon, and Victoria Elisa.
A final Requiem Mass was held on the morning of August 5, 2009, with Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, Bishop of Balanga Socrates B. Villegas, and other high-ranking clergymen concelebrating. Aquino's daughter Kris spoke on behalf of her family towards the end of the Mass. Aquino's flag-draped casket was escorted from the cathedral to Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque, where she was interred beside her husband in her family mausoleum. Aquino's funeral procession took more than eight hours to reach the burial site, as tens of thousands of civilians lined the route to pay their respects. Philippine Air Force UH-1 helicopters showered the procession with yellow confetti and ships docked at Manila's harbor blared their sirens to salute the late president.
=== Reaction ===
Both local and international leaders showed respect for Aquino's achievements in the process of democratization in the Philippines.
==== National reaction ====
Various politicians across the political spectrum expressed their grief and praise for the former Philippine leader. President Arroyo, once an ally of Aquino, remembered the sacrifices she made for the country and called her a "national treasure". Former President Estrada said that the country had lost its mother and guiding voice with her sudden death. He also described Aquino as the "Philippines' most loved woman". Although they were at one time political foes, Aquino and Estrada had reconciled and joined forces in opposing President Arroyo.
Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison joined in mourning Aquino's death, saying his relationship with her was "exceptional". Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who had been Aquino's defense minister and later a fierce critic of Aquino, asked the public to pray for her eternal repose. Although former Aquino interior minister and Senate minority floor leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. revealed that he had "mixed feelings" about Aquino's death, he also said that the country "shall be forever indebted to Cory for rallying the nation behind the campaign to topple dictatorial rule and restore democracy".
Filipino citizens throughout the country wore either yellow shirts or held masses to pay tribute to Aquino. Yellow ribbons, which were a symbol of support for Aquino after the 1986 election and during the People Power Revolution, were tied along major national roads as a sign of solidarity and support for Aquino and her grieving family. On popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Filipinos posted yellow ribbons on their accounts as tribute. Following her death, Filipino Catholics called on the Church to have Aquino canonized and declared as a saint. Days after her funeral, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced that it supported calls to put the former president on the 500-Peso banknote alongside Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., her deceased husband. The bill had previously featured a portrait of only Benigno Aquino Jr. since 1987.
==== International reaction ====
Messages of sympathy were sent by various national heads of state and international leaders.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his letter to Archbishop Rosales, recalled Aquino's "courageous commitment to the freedom of the Filipino people, her firm rejection of violence and intolerance" and called her a woman of courage and faith.
U.S. President Barack Obama, through White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, said that "her courage, determination, and moral leadership are an inspiration to us all and exemplify the best in the Filipino nation". U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed sadness over the death of Aquino, to whom she had sent a personal letter of best wishes for recovery while she was still in hospital in July 2009. Clinton said that Aquino was "admired by the world for her extraordinary courage" in leading the fight against dictatorship.
South African President Jacob Zuma called Aquino "a great leader who set a shining example of peaceful transition to democracy in her country".
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, through the British Ambassador in Manila, sent a message to the Filipino people which read: "I am saddened to hear of the death of Corazon 'Cory' Aquino the former president of the Republic of the Philippines". She also added, "I send my sincere condolences to her family and to the people of the Philippines. Signed, Elizabeth R".
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated in a telegram to President Arroyo that "the name of Corazon Aquino is associated with a period of profound reforms and the democratic transformation of Filipino society". Medvedev also lauded Aquino's sympathy to Russian people and her contribution to the improvement of Russian-Filipino relations.
Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta and Wan Azizah, wife of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, came to the Philippines to express their sympathies and attend Aquino's funeral.
Soon after her 2010 release from her two-decade prison sentence, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar publicly cited Aquino as one of her inspirations. She also expressed her good wishes for Aquino's son, then-incumbent president of the Philippines Benigno S. Aquino III.
== In popular culture ==
In 2008, a musical play about Aquino entitled Cory, the Musical was staged at the Meralco Theater. It was written and directed by Nestor Torre Jr. and starred Isay Alvarez as Aquino. The musical featured a libretto of 19 original songs composed by Lourdes Pimentel, wife of Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
== Legacy and honors ==
After her peaceful accession to the presidency and the ousting of President Marcos, Aquino was named Time magazine's Woman of the Year in 1986. In August 1999, Aquino was chosen by Time as one of the 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th century. Time also cited her as one of 65 great Asian Heroes in November 2006.
In 1994, Aquino was cited as one of 100 Women Who Shaped World History in a reference book written by Gail Meyer Rolka.
In 1996, she received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding from the Fulbright Association.
In 1998, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in recognition of her role in peaceful revolution to attain democracy.
Since her death in 2009, the legacy of Corazon Aquino has prompted various namings of public landmarks and creations of memorials. Among these are as follows:
From 2009 to the first print run of New Generation Currency Series on November 2010 in preparation for its release to the public on December 16, 2010, Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) approved the production and release of newly designed 500-peso banknotes that feature both Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. and Corazon Aquino. The New Design/BSP Series featured only Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. and had been in circulation from August 21, 1987 to January 3, 2018 (although Corazon's signature was featured on NDS 500-peso banknotes that were printed from the said date of August 1987 to June 30, 1992).
On November 30, 2009, Aquino's name was enshrined at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, a monument dedicated to individuals who fought for the restoration of Philippine democracy and opposed the Marcos dictatorship. Her husband Ninoy was among the first to be enshrined at the monument's Wall of Remembrance.
On August 1, 2010, the first anniversary of her death, a 200 ft by 250 ft photo mosaic of Aquino was unveiled near the Quirino Grandstand at the Luneta Park in the presence of her son, President Benigno Aquino III, and her supporters. It was submitted to Guinness World Records to be certified as the largest photo mosaic in the world, and the record was later certified by the World Record Academy.
On October 9, 2010, Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim inaugurated a public market in Baseco, Port Area known as the President Corazon C. Aquino Public Market.
On February 13, 2013, the Corazon Aquino Democratic Space was launched at the De La Salle University, alongside the formal inauguration of the new Henry Sy, Sr. Hall.
On July 28, 2014, the Republic Act No. 10663, which named a circumferential road in Iloilo City to President Corazon C. Aquino Avenue, was signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III.
In 2015, the new Corazon C. Aquino Hospital in Barangay Biasong, Dipolog was opened to the public.
On December 10, 2015, the Republic Act No. 10716, which renamed Batasan Hills High School (BHES) into "President Corazon C. Aquino Elementary School" in Batasan Hills, Quezon City, was signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III.
On June 29, 2018, Republic Act No. 11045, which renamed the Kay Tikling-Antipolo-Teresa-Morong National Road to Corazon C. Aquino Avenue, was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte. Corazon C. Aquino Avenue is a road traversing from Taytay to Morong in Rizal (including the segment of Ortigas Avenue Extension from Taytay to Antipolo).
In 2018, Aquino, along with her late husband Ninoy Aquino and 126 other individuals were recognized by the Human Rights Victims Claims Board as a motu proprio human rights violations victim of the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. dictatorship.
== Awards and achievements ==
=== National ===
Philippines
Chief Commander of the Philippine Legion of Honor
Grand Collar of the Order of Sikatuna
=== Foreign honors ===
Argentina
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
France
Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit
Italy
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 1st class
Japan
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
Pakistan
Order of Pakistan
Thailand
Knight Grand Order of Order of the White Elephant (declined)
=== Recognition ===
1986 Time Woman of the Year
1986 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award
1986 United Nations Silver Medal
1986 Canadian International Prize for Freedom
1986 International Democracy Award from the International Association of Political Consultants
1987 Prize For Freedom Award from Liberal International
1993 Special Peace Award from the Aurora Aragon Quezon Peace Awards Foundation and Concerned Women of the Philippines
1995 Path to Peace Award
1996 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding from the U.S. Department of State
1998 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding
1998 Pearl S. Buck Award
1999 One of Time magazine's 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century
2001 World Citizenship Award
2005 David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Awards
2005 One of the World's Elite Women Who Make a Difference by the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame
2006 One of Time magazine's 65 Asian Heroes
2008 One of A Different View's 15 Champions of World Democracy
EWC Asia Pacific Community Building Award
Women's International Center International Leadership Living Legacy Award
Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize
United Nations Development Fund for Women Noel Foundation Life Award
=== Honorary doctorates ===
Doctor of International Relations, honoris causa, from:
Boston University in Boston
Eastern University in St. David, Pennsylvania
Fordham University in New York
Waseda University in Tokyo
Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa, from:
Far Eastern University (59th Commencement Exercises, March 1987)
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from:
University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City
University of Santo Tomas in Manila
University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong
Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from:
Ateneo de Manila University
College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York
Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro
Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa, from:
Bicol University (Posthumous) in Legazpi
San Beda College in Manila
Seattle University
Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts
University of Oregon
Doctor of Public Administration, honoris causa, from:
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila)
== See also ==
List of Filipino Nobel laureates and nominees
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
Aquino, Cory (2020). To Love Another Day: The Memoirs of Cory Aquino. Independently published. ISBN 979-8677358920.
Baker, Anni P. (2004). American Soldiers Overseas: The Global Military Presence. London: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0275973549.
Bernas, Joaquin G. (1995). The Intent of the 1986 Constitution Writers. Manila: Rex Bookstore. ISBN 9789712319341.
Crisostomo, Isabelo T. (1987). Cory, Profile of a President: The Historic Rise to Power of Corazon. Philippines: Branden Books. ISBN 9780828319133 – via Internet Archive.
Hooke, Norman (1997). Maritime Casualties, 1963-1996. Virginia: LLP. ISBN 9781859781104.
Penson-Juico, Margie (2009). Cory: An Intimate Portrait. Anvil Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-9712721823.
Penson-Juico, Margie (2010). Cory: An Intimate Portrait II. Anvil Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-9712723711.
Kalaw-Tirol, Lorna (2004). Asia's New Crisis: Renewal Through Total Ethical Management. United States: Wiley. ISBN 9780470821299.
Richter, Frank-Jürgen (2014). Public Faces, Private Lives. Germany: Policy Press. ISBN 9781447316374.
Skard, Torild (2014). Public Faces, Private Lives. Great Britain: Policy Press. ISBN 9781447316374.
== External links ==
Official website of Corazon Aquino – maintained by the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation
Time Woman of the Year: Corazon "Cory" Aquino
Aquino's historic speech before the U.S. Congress on YouTube
New York Times obituary
President Aquino in Time magazine's year ender
World Socialist Web Site obituary: part one and part two
Appearances on C-SPAN |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristi_Noem#Conflict_of_interest_action_to_professionally_benefit_daughter | Kristi Noem | Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem ( NOHM; née Arnold; born November 30, 1971) is an American politician serving as the 8th United States secretary of homeland security since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 33rd governor of South Dakota from 2019 to 2025 and represented South Dakota's at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019.
Born in Watertown, South Dakota, Noem began her political career in the South Dakota House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 2011. Noem was elected as the first female governor of South Dakota in 2018 with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. She gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for opposing statewide mask mandates and advocating voluntary measures. Noem has conservative positions on most domestic issues, particularly gun rights, abortion, and immigration.
Noem is a farmer, rancher, and member of the Civil Air Patrol. She has published two autobiographies, Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland (2022) and No Going Back (2024), the latter of which sparked controversy for its account of her killing a young family dog and inaccurate claims about meeting with foreign leaders. Donald Trump nominated her for Secretary of Homeland Security in his second cabinet. She was confirmed in January 2025 by a Senate vote of 59–34.
== Early life ==
Noem was born Kristi Lynn Arnold to Ron and Corinne Arnold on November 30, 1971, in Watertown, South Dakota, and raised with her siblings on the family ranch and farm in Hazel, South Dakota. She has Norwegian ancestry and is a descendant of Ephraim Wilson, who fought in the American Revolutionary War. In 1990, Noem graduated from Hamlin High School in Hayti, South Dakota, and was crowned South Dakota Snow Queen.
Noem attended Northern State University from 1990 to 1994 but did not graduate. In March 1994, her father was killed in a grain bin accident and Noem left college early to run the family farm. Her daughter, Kassidy, was born weeks later, on April 21, 1994. She added a hunting lodge and restaurant to the family property. Her siblings also moved back to help expand the businesses.
Noem subsequently took classes at the Watertown campus of Mount Marty College and at South Dakota State University, and online classes from the University of South Dakota. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science from South Dakota State University in 2012 while serving as a U.S. representative. The Washington Post dubbed her Capitol Hill's "most powerful intern" for receiving college intern credits from her position as a member of Congress.
== South Dakota House of Representatives (2007–2011) ==
In 2006, Noem won a seat as a Republican in the South Dakota House of Representatives, representing the 6th district, comprising parts of Beadle, Clark, Codington, Hamlin, and Kingsbury counties. In 2006, she won with 39% of the vote. In 2008, she was reelected with 41% of the vote.
Noem served for four years, from 2007 to 2010. She was an assistant majority leader during her second term. During her tenure, Noem was the prime sponsor of 11 bills that became law, including several property tax reforms and two bills to increase gun rights in South Dakota. In 2009, she served as vice chair of the Agriculture Land Assessment Advisory Task Force. Senator Larry Rhoden chaired the task force, and later served as her lieutenant governor. During her tenure, she joined the Civil Air Patrol as a "state legislative member". She holds the rank of lieutenant colonel.
== U.S. House of Representatives (2011–2019) ==
In 2010, Noem ran for South Dakota's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She won the Republican primary and defeated incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in the general election. Noem was reelected three times, serving in Congress until 2019.
=== Tenure ===
The 2011 House Republican 87-member freshman class elected Noem as liaison to the House Republican leadership, making her the second woman member of the House GOP leadership. According to The Hill, her role was to push the leadership to make significant cuts to federal government spending and to help Speaker John Boehner manage the expectations of the freshman class. In March 2011, Republican Representative Pete Sessions of Texas named Noem one of the 12 regional directors for the National Republican Congressional Committee during the 2012 election campaign.
On March 8, 2011, she announced the formation of a leadership political action committee, KRISTI PAC. Former South Dakota Lieutenant Governor Steve Kirby is its treasurer. Noem was among the top freshman Republicans in PAC fundraising in the first quarter of 2011, raising $169,000 from PACs.
==== Abortion ====
Noem co-sponsored legislation that would federally ban abortion. In 2015, she co-sponsored a bill to amend the 14th Amendment to define human life and personhood as beginning at fertilization, federally banning abortion from the moment of fertilization. She also voted for a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
==== Energy and environment ====
Noem denies the scientific consensus on climate change. In 2022 she said she believes "the science has been varied on it, and it hasn't been proven to me that what we're doing is affecting the climate."
Noem has said that the U.S. needs an "all-of-the-above energy approach" that includes renewables like wind and ethanol while still realizing the need for a "balanced energy mix" that ends American dependence on foreign oil.
Noem supported the Keystone XL Pipeline and supports offshore oil drilling. She co-sponsored three bills that she argued would reduce American dependence on foreign oil by ending the 2010 United States deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico and reopening sales on oil leases in the Gulf and off the coast of Virginia. In 2011, she sponsored a measure to block Environmental Protection Agency funding for tighter air pollution standards for coarse particulates.
Noem opposed a bill introduced by South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson that would designate over 48,000 acres (190 km2) of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland as protected wilderness. She supports the designation of the land as a national grassland. She said the land is already managed as roadless areas similar to wilderness and argued that changing the land's designation to wilderness would further limit leaseholder access to the land and imperil grazing rights.
==== Foreign affairs ====
From 2013 to 2015, Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee, where she worked on the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. Her appointment to the committee was seen as a benefit to South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base. In March 2011, Noem was critical of President Barack Obama's approach to the NATO-led military intervention in the 2011 Libyan civil war, calling on him to provide more information about the U.S.'s role in the conflict, and characterizing his statements as vague and ambiguous.
==== Health care ====
Noem opposes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and has voted to repeal it. Having unsuccessfully sought to repeal it, she sought to defund it while retaining measures such as the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the provision allowing parents to keep their children on their health insurance plan into their 20s, and the high-risk pools. Noem wanted to add such provisions to federal law as limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and allowing patients to buy health insurance plans from other states. She supported cuts to Medicaid funding proposed by Republican Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan. A study found that this action would reduce benefits for South Dakota Medicaid recipients by 55 percent.
==== Immigrants and refugees ====
Noem supported President Donald Trump's 2017 Executive Order 13769, that suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and banned all travel to the U.S. by nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days. She said she supported a temporary ban on accepting refugees from "terrorist-held" areas, but "did not address whether she supports other aspects of the order, which led to the detention of legal U.S. residents such as green-card holders, and people with dual citizenship as they reentered the country" in the aftermath of the order's issuance.
In 2019, Noem consented to South Dakota's participation in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program following a Trump executive order that allowed state and local governments to opt out.
==== In-vitro fertilization and embryonic stem-cell research ====
In August 2010, while running for Congress, Noem responded to a questionnaire from the Christian Coalition voter guide indicating that she would vote to ban embryonic stem-cell research. In 2015, she co-sponsored legislation to amend the 14th Amendment to define human life and personhood as beginning at the moment of fertilization, without exceptions for in-vitro fertilization or embryonic stem-cell research.
==== Taxes ====
In 2017, Noem was on the conference committee that negotiated the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which she touted as giving the average South Dakota family a $1,200 tax cut.
In 2018, Noem was reported to have "pitched the idea to members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus" to attach her online sales tax bill to the government funding package as part of an omnibus. A court case under consideration in the South Dakota Supreme Court involved requiring "certain out-of-state retailers to collect its sales taxes." Noem said that South Dakota businesses (and by extension businesses nationwide) "could be forced to comply with 1,000 different tax structures nationwide without the tools necessary to do so", adding that her legislation "provides a necessary fix."
Noem has called the budget deficit one of the most important issues facing Congress. She cosponsored H. J. Res. 2, which would require that total spending for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts. She cited the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Medicaid, high-speed rail projects, cap-and-trade technical assistance, and subsidies for the Washington Metro rapid transit system as examples of federal programs where she would like to see cuts.
In 2011, Noem indicated that she would vote to raise the federal debt ceiling, but only if "tied to budget reforms that change the way we spend our dollars and how Washington, D.C., does business. It won't just be a one-time spending cut." She ultimately voted for S. 365, The Budget Control Act of 2011, which allowed Obama to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts to be decided by a bipartisan committee. She also said she wanted to eliminate the estate tax, lower the corporate tax rate, and simplify the tax code. She said she would not raise taxes to balance the budget.
Committee assignments
Committee on Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Human Resources
Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures
Caucus memberships
Republican Study Committee
Congressional Arts Caucus
Afterschool Caucuses
Congressional Western Caucus
== Governor of South Dakota (2019–2025) ==
=== Elections ===
==== 2018 ====
In November 2016, Noem announced she would run for governor of South Dakota in 2018 rather than seek reelection to Congress. She defeated South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley in the June Republican primary, 56 to 44 percent, and Democratic nominee Billie Sutton in the general election, 51 to 48 percent.
==== 2022 ====
In November 2021, Noem announced she was running for reelection as governor. State Representative Steven Haugaard, a Republican, announced he was running against Noem. In February 2022, House Democratic Minority Leader Jamie Smith announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination.
In the Republican primary in June, Noem defeated Haugaard, 76% to 24%. In the general election, she defeated Smith, 62% to 35%. Despite predictions of a competitive race, Noem flipped 17 counties that had previously voted Democratic and set a record for the most votes received by a candidate for governor in South Dakota.
=== Tenure ===
Noem was sworn in as governor on January 5, 2019, the first woman in that office in the state.
==== Abortion ====
Noem is anti-abortion. She has been lauded by the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List and said she intends to maintain her 100% anti-abortion voting record.
In 2019, Noem signed bills restricting abortion, saying they would "crack down on abortion providers in South Dakota" and that a "strong and growing body of medical research provides evidence that unborn babies can feel, think, and recognize sounds in the womb. These are people, they must be given the same basic dignities as anyone else."
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, South Dakota became one of the first states to enact trigger laws banning abortions. Noem defended South Dakota's abortion ban, which only allows exceptions in cases in which the mother's life is in danger. When asked about the case of the 10-year-old child abuse victim who traveled from Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion, Noem said she would not support changing the law to allow exceptions for rape victims, explaining that she did not "believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy".
Noem proclaimed 2024 the "Freedom for Life Year", promoting anti-abortion laws. In April 2024, she announced that she had reversed her support for a federal ban on abortion, saying she believed abortion law should be determined at the state level, and continued to support South Dakota's law banning abortion except to save the life of the pregnant patient, without exceptions for rape or incest.
==== Early childhood education ====
Noem is a vocal opponent of subsidized child care. Her administration rejected $7.5 million in federal funding for free summer meal programs for low-income residents and defeated multiple attempts to provide school lunches for eligible students. In 2023, Noem said, "I just don't think it's the government's job to pay or to raise people's children for them".
==== Access to public records ====
While running for governor in 2018, Noem made government transparency part of her platform. In her first State of the State address she pledged to "work toward building the most transparent administration South Dakota has ever seen".
Throughout her tenure, news outlets and government transparency advocates sued Noem for failing to provide the transparency she advocated. Complaints included denial of immediate access to a state-funded report about the alleged presence of critical race theory and "divisive concepts" in South Dakota schools; denial of access to pardon records; not releasing the cost of the governor's security team; whipping votes against a bill to make public records of the cost of the governor's security; and attempts to seal records on an ethics investigation involving her daughter.
==== Anti-protest legislation ====
In response to protests against the Keystone Pipeline, Noem's office collaborated with the energy company TransCanada Corporation to develop anti-protest legislation, which Noem signed into law in 2019. The law created a fund to cover the costs of policing pipeline protests. Another law was passed to raise revenue for the fund by creating civil penalties for advising, directing, or encouraging participation in rioting. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation banned Noem from their grounds as a result. The Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club, and other groups challenged the laws in suits, arguing that they violated First Amendment rights by incentivizing the state to sue protesters. In 2020, after a federal court struck down sections of the legislation as unconstitutional, Noem brought legislation to repeal sections of the previous bill and clarify the definition of "incitement to riot".
==== China ====
Noem has called China "an enemy" of the U.S. In 2022, she issued an order banning TikTok from state-owned devices, saying the "Chinese Communist Party uses information it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people". In 2023, she signed an order prohibiting the downloading or use of any application or visiting of any site owned by the Chinese company Tencent, including WeChat, on state-owned devices. In 2024, she signed a bill prohibiting the governments of six countries—China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela—and entities from those countries from buying agricultural land in South Dakota.
==== Conflict of interest action to professionally benefit daughter ====
In 2020, after Noem's 26-year-old daughter, Kassidy Peters, was denied a real estate appraisal license, Noem summoned to her office Sherry Bren, a state employee who had directed South Dakota's Appraiser Certification Program for 30 years. Attendees included Peters, Noem's chief of staff Tony Venhuizen, Department of Labor Attorney Amber Mulder and Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman.
By telephone, the group was joined by the governor's general counsel, Tom Hart, and a lawyer from the state's Department of Labor and Regulation, Graham Oey. A week later, Hultman demanded Bren's resignation. Bren repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, tried to resolve the issues short of resigning, eventually filing an age discrimination complaint. She received a $200,000 settlement as part of a nondisclosure agreement to withdraw her complaint and leave her position. Noem's spokesperson characterized the allegations as an example of how Noem cut through "bureaucratic red tape".
After the Associated Press published a story about the incident, the State Senate's Government Operations and Audit Committee was delegated to investigate. In October 2021, the Committee invited Hultman and Bren to come before it to discuss the appraisal program in light of the controversy. On December 14, 2021, Bren testified before the Government Operations and Audit Committee. She said that Peters received an Agreed Disposition around March/April 2020. Around July 20, 2020, Peters received a letter and/or Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law when she failed to meet the requirements of the Agreed Disposition. Bren said that on July 26, Department of Labor attorney Amber Mulder told her to be prepared to discuss "what is the definition of a serious deficiency; what criteria do you use for denials; how many are denied each year; how many are approved; are we saying that Kassidy can take certain classes and resubmit".
Bren said she felt "very nervous" and "intimidated" when meeting with Noem and attorneys and Labor Secretary Hultman. Bren mentioned during the meeting at the mansion some appraisal classes that she thought would be helpful to Peters. Bren said that Noem was upset that she was just now hearing about the classes. Bren testified that the decision to depart from recognized upgrade procedures and offer a third opportunity would be Hultman's. Bren said this was beyond the recognized procedures and "not normal."
On November 1, 2021, the Government Accountability Board set an agenda to discuss this issue and another issue based on complaints brought by Ravnsborg. On December 15, 2021, the Government Accountability Board referred one of the two complaints to Noem for a response and sent the other back to the complainant for further information. On February 3, 2022, the Government Accountability Board referred the second complaint to Noem for a response and gave her until April 15, 2022, to answer both pending complaints.
On February 24, 2022, Republican State Representative John Mills introduced House Resolution 7004, "Addressing the Governor's unacceptable actions in matters related to the appraiser certification program", against Noem. On March 1, the resolution was debated and failed by a margin of 29 to 38 with three excused, including Noem's primary opponent Steven Haugaard and U.S. House candidate Taffy Howard.
==== Conflict with Native American tribes ====
In 2024, it was reported that all nine tribes of South Dakota banned Noem from entering any tribal lands, prohibiting her from entering almost 20% of South Dakota. Other media reported that one of the nine tribes, the Yankton Sioux, had not officially banned Noem. The Oglala Sioux banned Noem in February, followed by the Cheyenne River Sioux, the Standing Rock Sioux, and the Rosebud Sioux in April, and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, the Crow Creek Sioux, and the Flandreau Santee Sioux in May.
The tribes took action after demanding that Noem apologize for her comments about them. In January 2024, Noem said that an "invasion is coming over the southern border" of the United States, and the "enemy is the Mexican drug cartels", which are "perpetrating violence in each of our states, even here in South Dakota ... The cartels are using our reservations to facilitate the spread of drugs throughout the Midwest." In March 2024, Noem said there were "some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there", but gave no evidence, and that there were people "who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, 'Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared.'" She added: "they live with 80% to 90% unemployment. Their kids don't have any hope. They don't have parents who show up and help them."
Around January 2025, Noem apologized to the tribes for the misunderstanding between them, and the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe dissolved its order banning Noem from its land. The tribe said, "the Governor has shown us that she is committed to protecting the people of South Dakota including the citizens of the nine Tribal Nations, who share mutual borders with the state", and expressed its support for her nomination as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
==== COVID-19 pandemic ====
During the COVID-19 pandemic in South Dakota, Noem was at first open to containment strategies. Over the following months, she segued to a hands-off approach. In November 2020, Noem used pandemic relief funds to promote tourism during a surge in cases in the state. She did not implement face mask mandates, raised doubts about the efficacy of mask-wearing, encouraged large gatherings without social distancing or mask-wearing, and questioned public health experts' advice.
As of December 2020, Noem was one of few governors who had not maintained statewide stay-at-home orders or face-mask mandates. Her response mirrored Trump's rhetoric and handling of COVID-19. She was rewarded for her COVID-19 response with a speech at the August 2020 Republican National Convention, which elevated her national profile. The Argus Leader called the RNC speech a "defining moment in her political career".
Early in the pandemic, Noem requested that the legislature pass a bill giving the state health secretary and county officials the power to close businesses and other entities. The House rejected the bill. On March 13, 2020, Noem ordered K-12 schools to close, and on April 6, she extended that order for the remainder of the school year. Also on April 6, Noem ordered businesses and local governments to practice social distancing and other CDC guidelines.
Early on, Noem also emphasized South Dakota's role in evaluating hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that Trump had touted as a cure for COVID-19. It was never shown to be useful in treating COVID-19 but can produce fatal cardiac arrhythmia.
In early 2020 one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S. occurred in South Dakota. The Smithfield Foods production plant in Sioux Falls had four deaths, with nearly 1,300 workers and their family members testing positive. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar misinformed a group of legislators that meatpacking plants employees were unlikely to be infected at work, but that their "home and social" habits were spreading the contagion. Noem may have been the first officeholder to publicly express that view.
On April 13, 2020, of an outbreak where hundreds of workers had tested positive at a Smithfield pork plant, she told Fox News, "We believe that 99 percent of what's going on today wasn't happening inside the facility". The industry didn't explain the deaths from COVID-19 of USDA food-safety inspectors from three plants. Almost 200 inspectors contracted symptomatic COVID-19.
In the pandemic's early days, the Food Safety and Inspection Service did not provide protective equipment to its monitors, forbidding them from wearing masks in the slaughterhouses as it feared that might accentuate the risks. On April 9, 2020, the agency said its inspectors would be allowed to wear masks if the meatpacking plants' owners gave the federal employees permission to do so. Inspectors were expected to supply their own masks. A month later, after publication of the risk of spreading the virus, the USDA started giving its inspectors masks. Noem had said that the plant was in full operation as an essential food manufacturing facility. Forty-eight of Smithfield's workers were hospitalized. On April 6, 2020, Noem issued an executive order that said people "shall" follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; she also ordered everyone over age 65 in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties to stay home for three weeks.
Noem did not mandate social distancing or the wearing of face masks at a July 3, 2020, event at Mount Rushmore with Trump present. Health experts warned that large gatherings without social distancing or mask-wearing posed a risk to public health. Noem publicly doubted scientific recommendations on the usefulness of masks. In an opinion piece in the Rapid City Journal, she defended her views, citing analysis by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group known for promoting pseudoscience. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons had called vaccination the equivalent of "human experimentation."
COVID cases increased drastically in South Dakota after the 2020 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, in which Noem participated. COVID-19 patients hospitalized in South Dakota on October 22, 2020, reached a record high of 355, including 75 in Intensive Care Units. South Dakota's two largest hospital systems rescheduled elective procedures to increase available space and personnel to accommodate the surge. In the absence of a statewide mask mandate, hospital systems urged people to wear masks while in the company of those outside their own households. Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken advised his constituents, "Wear a dang mask."
Sixteen weeks after Trump's 2020 executive order that provided enhanced weekly unemployment benefits of $300 as part of the U.S. federal government response to the pandemic, Noem opted out of the program, citing a low state unemployment rate. South Dakota was the only state to refuse the assistance. Its jobless rate in June was 7.2%, up from 3.1% in March, though down from 10.9% in April. Acceptance of the funding required the state to augment the benefit by $100 unless other jobless assistance allowed the match to be waived.
From 2020 to 2021, the following events took place:
Noem supported the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August 2020, despite warnings from experts that it could spread COVID-19. Nearly 500,000 bikers attended the event. Public health notices were issued for saloons and other businesses in the Sturgis area. By the end of August, dozens of cases linked to attendance at the event were reported in several states.
In September 2020, amid a surge of new cases, Noem announced that she would spend $5 million of relief funding on a state tourism campaign. She used $819,000 of those funds to have the state's Department of Tourism run a 30-second Fox News commercial she had narrated during the 2020 Republican National Convention.
During September 2020, over 550 students became infected at South Dakota universities; 200 more cases were reported in K–12 schools.
In October 2020, as South Dakota reported the country's second-highest number of new COVID-19 cases per capita and hospitals began to prioritize treatment of severe COVID-19 cases over lesser ones, Noem said the higher case numbers were because of more testing, despite the positive test rate and hospitalization rate also increasing.
In February 2021, Noem signed a bill limiting civil liability for certain exposures to COVID-19. The bill exempted healthcare providers and other businesses, including those selling personal protective equipment, from lawsuits unless COVID-19 exposure resulted from gross negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct.
Also in February 2021, Noem announced her opposition to a bill prohibiting schools and universities from requiring students to get vaccinated. In May, she signed an executive order prohibiting government facilities from requiring proof of vaccination to access services, a policy she called "un-American". In August, Noem opposed legislation proposed by Republican state legislators Jon Hansen and Scott Odenbach that would prohibit businesses from requiring vaccinations as a condition for employment.
In July 2021, Noem criticized other Republican governors for enacting mandatory measures against COVID-19 and trying to "rewrite history" about it. She argued that South Dakota had effectively combated the pandemic by, instead, testing and isolating cases. South Dakota had the 10th-highest death rate and third-highest case rate at that time.
==== Department of Corrections ====
In July 2021, Noem placed Secretary of the Department of Corrections Mike Liedholt on administrative leave, and fired South Dakota State Penitentiary Warden Darin Young and Deputy Warden Jennifer Dreiske, after receiving an anonymous note with complaints regarding pay, medical coverage and instances of sexual harassment. Liedholt later announced his retirement. Later that month, after meeting with prison employees, despite lingering COVID-19 cases, Noem ended the prison's mask mandate.
In August 2021, Noem announced that the CGL Group, a California-based company, was hired for $166,410 to comprehensively review the Department of Corrections operations. At the same time, the director of the prison work program was fired, and two other DOC employees relieved of their duties.
The prison work program director, Stephany Bawek, subsequently filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that she was retaliated against for reporting sexual harassment by Young. On March 14, 2022, Bawek filed a lawsuit in federal district court alleging that she was fired for reporting incidents of sexual harassment in the workplace.
==== Deployment of South Dakota National Guard to southern border (2021) ====
In June 2021, Noem announced that she was sending members of the South Dakota National Guard to Texas's border with Mexico. Tennessee billionaire Willis Johnson said he would donate the money necessary for the deployment. On September 22, 2021, the Center for Public Integrity sued the South Dakota National Guard and the U.S. Department of Defense in the federal district court in the District of Columbia to obtain documents about the deployment and the donation. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act banned National Guard members from crossing state borders to perform duties paid for by private donors.
==== Fireworks at Mount Rushmore lawsuit (2021) ====
In 2021, Noem sued U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, seeking to have fireworks at Mount Rushmore for Independence Day. Fireworks displays had been halted at the site in 2009 by the National Park Service due to fire risks and other reasons. Noem hired the private Washington D.C. law firm Consovoy McCarthy to bring the case, with South Dakota state taxpayer money paying for the suit. The U.S. District Court dismissed the suit, with Judge Roberto Lange finding that four of the five reasons given by the NPS and Secretary Haaland were valid. On July 13, Noem filed an appeal with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
On March 14, 2022, the National Park Service again denied Noem's application for a permit to have fireworks at Mount Rushmore for the 4th of July, citing opposition from Native American groups and the possibility of wildfires.
==== Governor's mansion spending ====
In May 2019, Noem proposed to build a fence around the governor's mansion, estimated to cost approximately $400,000, but retracted the proposal. In 2020, the 2019 project was revived; a senior Noem advisor told the media that the decision was based on the recommendations of Noem's security team. In late November 2021, it was reported that Noem spent $68,000 of taxpayer dollars on imported rugs from India, chandeliers and a sauna for the mansion.
==== Guns ====
In 2019, Noem signed a bill into law abolishing South Dakota's permit requirement to carry a concealed handgun. In 2022, she sought to build a gun range in Meade County with government funds, but the legislature rejected it.
At a 2023 NRA forum in Indiana, Noem said that her two-year-old granddaughter had a shotgun, a rifle, and a "little pony named Sparkles".
==== LGBTQ rights ====
Noem opposes same-sex marriage. In 2015, she said she disagreed with Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court's ruling that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional.
On March 8, 2021, Noem announced on Twitter that she would sign into law H.B. 1217, the Women's Fairness in Sports Bill, which bans transgender athletes from playing on or against women's school and college sports teams. Some critics of the bill said they were worried it might turn away business and cost the state money. On March 19, Noem issued a style and form veto to H.B. 1217 that substantially altered the bill, not just correcting grammar and spelling mistakes. She defended her position on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
On March 29, the South Dakota House rejected Noem's veto, 67–2. The bill was returned to Noem for reconsideration, and she vetoed it again. The House failed to override her veto, by a vote of 45–24. 47 votes were needed to override. Many conservative commentators criticized Noem for vetoing the bill.
In December 2021, Noem and her office signaled their support for a bill called "An Act to Protect Fairness in women's sports." The bill would require young athletes to join teams that align with their sex assigned at birth.
In 2021, Noem signed a religious refusal bill into law. The legislation amended the state RFRA to allow business owners to cite religious beliefs as a basis to deny products or services to people based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The legislation, S.B. 124, was criticized by civil rights groups who said it would enable discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, women, and members of minority faiths. This bill was the first major state RFRA law signed into law in six years, and resembles the 2015 bill signed into law by Indiana Governor Mike Pence.
==== "Meth. We're on It" campaign ====
On November 18, 2019, Noem released a meth awareness campaign named "Meth. We're on It". The campaign was widely mocked and Noem was criticized for spending $449,000 of public funds while hiring an out-of-state advertising agency from Minnesota to lead the project. She defended the campaign as successful in raising awareness.
==== Opposition to cannabis legalization ====
In 2020, Noem opposed two ballot measures to legalize cannabis for medical use and recreational use in South Dakota, saying, "The fact is, I've never met someone who got smarter from smoking pot. It's not good for our kids. And it's not going to improve our communities." After both measures passed, she and two police officers filed a lawsuit seeking a court decision against the measure legalizing recreational use, Amendment A.
On February 8, 2021, circuit court judge Christina Klinger struck down the amendment as unconstitutional. After the ruling, she also sought to delay the implementation of the medical marijuana initiative for a year. Ultimately, her efforts failed and medical marijuana became legal on July 1, 2021.
Noem has opposed the cultivation of industrial hemp, vetoing a bill that passed the South Dakota House and Senate in 2019 to legalize hemp cultivation. She said, "There is no question in my mind that normalizing hemp, like legalizing medical marijuana, is part of a larger strategy to undermine enforcement of the drug laws and make legalized marijuana inevitable."
==== RV park in Custer State Park proposal ====
In 2022, Noem sought to locate a government-paid RV park in Custer State Park. The proposal was met with significant opposition to include government competing with private business and disturbing the pristine nature of the park. The House Agricultural and Natural Resources deferred the bill to the 41st day, effectively killing it, by a vote of 9–3.
==== School prayer bill ====
In 2022, Noem sought to have prayer put back in school after mentioning it in a speech in Iowa. On January 21, 2022, the "prayer bill", HB 1015, was defeated in the House Education Committee by a vote of 9–6. An aide to Noem admitted to the committee that no schools were consulted about the proposal.
==== Staff ====
On November 19, 2021, Noem named her fifth chief of staff, Mark Miller, to replace outgoing chief of staff Aaron Scheibe. Scheibe served as chief of staff from May 1 to November 19, 2021. Tony Venhuizen preceded Scheibe from March 2, 2020, to April 23, 2021. Josh Shields preceded Venhuizen from October 1, 2019, to January 1, 2020. Herb Jones was Noem's first chief of staff, and served from January 5 to October 1, 2019.
==== Trade ====
In February 2019, she said that the Trump administration's trade wars with China and the European Union had devastated South Dakota's economy, particularly the agricultural sector, "by far" the state's largest industry.
==== Supplemental income from political donations ====
In 2023, while serving as South Dakota's governor, Noem funneled $80,000 in fees from a nonprofit, American Resolve Policy Fund, into her personal company. She failed to disclose this payment in her federal ethics filings upon joining DHS, which ethics experts say violates disclosure rules.
== Secretary of Homeland Security (2025–present) ==
=== Nomination and confirmation ===
On November 12, 2024, President-elect Trump selected Noem to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security in his second term. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a confirmation hearing for her on January 17, 2025. The committee advanced her nomination in a 13–2 vote on January 20. On January 25, the Senate confirmed Noem by a vote of 59–34, with seven Democrats voting to confirm.
=== Tenure ===
After resigning as governor of South Dakota, Noem was sworn in on January 25, 2025, by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as Secretary of Homeland Security, with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry holding the Bible.
In the early morning of January 28, Noem joined multiple federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, to lead a raid on illegal immigrants in New York City. Her department posted a video of the raid on X that showed an apparent arrest.
After the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision, Noem deployed U.S. Coast Guard resources for search and rescue efforts.
One of Noem's first acts in office was to rescind an 18-month extension of temporary protected status for about 600,000 Venezuelans who had fled Nicolás Maduro's authoritarian regime. In March, she revoked legal protections for 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who had settled in the U.S. since 2022.
In February, CNN host Dana Bash interviewed Noem about the new administration's policies and the Department of Homeland Security, including the use of Guantanamo Bay to detain migrants, which Noem said would be temporary. Noem also told Bash that she was comfortable with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) having access to sensitive data, saying that it was identifying waste, fraud, and abuse. She added, "information he [Elon Musk] has is looking at programs, not focusing on personal data and information."
In April, The Washington Post reported that Noem and acting Social Security Administration commissioner Leland Dudek had instructed the Social Security Administration to falsely list over 6,000 living immigrants in its database of dead people.
On the evening of April 20, Noem's purse was stolen from a D.C. burger restaurant. The purse contained important items, like her government access badge, apartment keys, $2,000–3,000 in cash, her passport, and blank checks. The incident raised various concerns, including about her Secret Service detail presence.
The Trump administration has claimed that around 140,000 people had been deported as of April 2025, though some estimates put the number at roughly half that.
During a May 20 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the Department of Homeland Security's budget for fiscal year 2026, Noem incorrectly defined habeas corpus as "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country" in response to a question from Senator Maggie Hassan. In actuality, habeas corpus is the constitutional right for a detainee to request that a court review the lawfulness of their detention, which would require the government to justify the detention. After being corrected on the definition, Noem said that the American president "has the authority under the Constitution to" choose to suspend habeas corpus. In fact, the constitutional clause on the suspension of habeas corpus, which reads "Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it", is in Article One of the United States Constitution on the powers of Congress, not Article Two of the United States Constitution on the powers of the executive branch.
On May 22, Noem attempted to revoke the Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification for Harvard University (see Education policy of the second Donald Trump administration).
During a news conference in Los Angeles on June 12, Noem failed to recognize the senior U.S. Senator from California, Alex Padilla, who was present at the news conference. When Padilla attempted to ask Noem a question, he was forcibly removed from the room, pushed to the ground, and handcuffed by FBI and Secret Service agents.
In June 2025, ProPublica reported that Noem failed to disclose past income from a dark money group in her federal ethics filings upon joining DHS, which ethics experts say violates disclosure rules. ProPublica announced in November 2025 that a firm tied to Noem had received $200 million in DHS ad contracts during the government shutdown. The firm, Strategy Group has multiple ties with Noem and her political career.
In August 2025, Noem announced that 1.6 million unauthorized immigrants had left the United States since January of that year.
== Electoral history ==
== Presidential politics ==
=== 2020 presidential election ===
In 2020, the Trump-Pence ticket carried South Dakota, receiving 261,043 votes to 150,471 for the Biden-Harris ticket. Noem was initially designated to be one of Trump's three presidential electors for South Dakota, but later withdrew.
Noem has claimed that the 2020 presidential election, in which Biden defeated Trump, was marred by widespread voter fraud; no evidence supports this claim. On December 8, 2020, Noem tacitly acknowledged the outcome of the election when she referred to a "Biden administration" during her annual state budget address, but even after Biden was inaugurated in January, she still refused to accept that the election was "free and fair".
After the U.S. Capitol was attacked by a pro-Trump mob on January 6, 2021, disrupting the counting of the electoral votes formalizing Biden's victory, Noem spoke out against the violence, saying: "We are all entitled to peacefully protest. Violence is not a part of that." One day after calling for peace and reconciliation in the aftermath of the assault on the Capitol, Noem called the two newly elected Democratic senators from Georgia, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, "communists" in an op-ed for The Federalist, prompting criticism from South Dakota Democrats.
=== 2024 presidential election ===
Noem endorsed Trump in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries in September 2023, at a rally hosted for him in Rapid City, South Dakota. Trump invited her to appear with him at a March 2024 rally in Vandalia, Ohio.
During Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, commentators suggested that Noem was a potential running mate for Trump. In September 2023, when asked on Newsmax if she would agree to serve as Trump's running mate, Noem responded that she would "in a heartbeat". At the February 2024 CPAC conference, Noem tied with Vivek Ramaswamy as attendees' top choice for Trump's running mate, with each receiving 15% of the vote in a straw poll. Also that month, Trump acknowledged that Noem was one of the names on his shortlist to be his running mate. In March 2024, CNN reported that Noem was one of four people Trump had shown increased interest in selecting as his running mate.
In April 2024, insiders said that her odds of being selected as Trump's running mate had waned due to her stance on abortion and the revelation in her book No Going Back that she shot and killed her pet dog and a goat. It was noted that "additions, subtractions and the emergence of dark-horse candidates remain possible", but on June 5, NBC News reported that Noem was no longer on Trump's shortlist of running mates.
== Personal life ==
She married Bryon Noem in 1992, in Watertown, South Dakota. They have three children. In 2011, when Noem moved to Washington to take her congressional office, her family continued to live on a ranch near Castlewood, South Dakota.
Noem is a Protestant. As of 2018, her family attended a Foursquare Church in Watertown, South Dakota. She is a grandmother.
In September 2021, conservative media outlet American Greatness reported that Noem was having an extramarital affair with political operative Corey Lewandowski. Noem called the report a "disgusting lie", saying, "these old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can't achieve anything without a man's help." In September 2023, the New York Post and the Daily Mail published similar reports about Noem and Lewandowski, which Noem's spokesman denied. In September 2025, New York reported that the romantic relationship between Noem and Lewandowski is ongoing, and that Lewandowski plays a significant role in running the Department of Homeland Security, acting as Noem's "de facto chief of staff".
In March 2024, Noem shared a video in which she identified herself as the South Dakota governor and promoted a cosmetic dentist business that she said helped her after she lost her front teeth in a biking accident years before: "I love my new family at Smile Texas!" Noem has since become one of the most prominent examples of so-called "Mar-a-Lago face", a cosmetic surgery trend among conservative women, and what has been called Republican makeup.
In August 2024, Noem and her sister, Cindy Grantham, were inducted into the Daughters of the American Revolution by State Regent Katherine Tarrell at the South Dakota State Fair.
=== No Going Back ===
In April 2024, pre-release excerpts of Noem's second autobiography, No Going Back, received broad criticism and condemnation. In a chapter titled "Bad Day to Be a Goat", Noem recounts that she brought her family's 14-month-old female wirehaired pointer, Cricket, along for a pheasant hunt with guests at her family's hunting lodge. Expecting Cricket to emulate the older, trained, dogs on the hunt, Noem instead felt that Cricket ruined the hunt by "chasing all those birds and having the time of her life". After the dog killed several chickens on the same day, Noem decided Cricket was "dangerous" and "untrainable", and shot the dog dead in a gravel pit. Noem then killed her family's male goat, which she said was "disgusting, musky, rancid".
Noem initially responded that "tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm", and subsequently said the incident occurred 20 years ago, and that "the fake news ... put the worst spin" on the story, as Cricket was a "working dog" that "came to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive ... a responsible owner does what they need to do". The story led to bipartisan criticism of Noem and doubt about the likelihood of her selection as Trump's vice presidential running mate intensified. A fundraising dinner for Noem in Colorado scheduled for May 4 was canceled after the group and the hotel hosting the event received death threats.
Later in the memoir, Noem wrote of imagining herself becoming president in 2025, taking over from Biden, and that the first thing she would do would be to "make sure Joe Biden's dog was nowhere on the grounds ('Commander, say hello to Cricket for me')", in an apparent suggestion that Commander be killed. Months earlier, Commander had been moved out of the White House after having bitten Secret Service agents and others on over a dozen occasions. In an interview, Noem said that Biden was "accountable" and called for Biden to "make a decision" on "what to do" about Commander.
Noem also wrote “I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I'm sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I'd been a children's pastor, after all). Dealing with foreign leaders takes resolve, preparation, and determination.” Her spokesperson said the claim was an error and would be expunged from the book's future editions. Separately, Noem claimed in the book that she was once "slated to meet with French president Emmanuel Macron", but called off the meeting because he made a "very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press"; the French government responded that it had neither invited Noem nor had any record of a scheduled meeting with her.
The Washington Post's literary critic Ron Charles wrote that the "description of Cricket's Last Stand is the one time in this howlingly dull book that Noem demonstrates any sense of setting, character, plot and emotional honesty. Otherwise, it's mostly a hodgepodge of worn chestnuts and conservative maxims".
=== Health ===
On June 17, 2025, Noem was hospitalized for an unspecified allergic reaction. She was released that night.
== Autobiographies ==
Noem, Kristi (2022). Not My First Rodeo. New York: Twelve. ISBN 978-1538707050.
Noem, Kristi (2024). No Going Back. Nashville: Center Street. ISBN 978-1546008163.
== See also ==
List of female governors in the United States
Women in conservatism in the United States
Women in the United States House of Representatives
== References ==
== External links ==
Official site of the Governor of South Dakota
Kristi Noem for Governor
Appearances on C-SPAN
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 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Hlavat%C3%BD | Václav Hlavatý | Václav Hlavatý (27 January 1894 – 11 January 1969) was a noted Czech-American mathematician, who wrote on the theory of relativity and corresponded extensively with Albert Einstein on the subject. In particular, Hlavatý solved some very difficult equations relating to Einstein's Unified field theory, which was featured in the news media as one of the great scientific achievements of 1953. Einstein himself was reported to have said that if anyone could solve the equations it would be Professor Hlavatý, which proved to be the case.
He was born in Louny, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic) and died in Bloomington, Indiana. He obtained his PhD in 1921 at the Charles University in Prague and during World War II participated in the Prague uprising, but his academic career was mainly at Indiana University, which he joined in 1948, and where he became Professor, later Emeritus, of Mathematics. A special book of mathematical essays was published in his honour. In 1958, he became the first President of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences established in Washington DC by intellectuals of Czech and Slovak origin.
He was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1928 in Bologna and in 1936 in Oslo.
In 1931 he married Olga Neumannova, and they had a daughter, Olga.
== Some publications ==
=== Articles ===
Hlavatý, V (1952). "The Elementary Basic Principles of the Unified Theory of Relativity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 38 (3): 243–247. Bibcode:1952PNAS...38..243H. doi:10.1073/pnas.38.3.243. PMC 1063539. PMID 16589086.
Hlavatý, V (1952). "The Einstein Connection of the Unified Theory of Relativity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 38 (5): 415–419. Bibcode:1952PNAS...38..415H. doi:10.1073/pnas.38.5.415. PMC 1063575. PMID 16589114.
Hlavatý, V (1952). "The Schrödinger Final Affine Field Laws". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 38 (12): 1052–1058. Bibcode:1952PNAS...38.1052H. doi:10.1073/pnas.38.12.1052. PMC 1063709. PMID 16589224.
Hlavatý, V (1953). "The Spinor Connection in the Unified Einstein Theory of Relativity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 39 (6): 501–506. Bibcode:1953PNAS...39..501H. doi:10.1073/pnas.39.6.501. PMC 1063813. PMID 16589296.
Hlavatý, V (1953). "Connections Between Einstein's Two Unified Theories of Relativity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 39 (6): 507–510. Bibcode:1953PNAS...39..507H. doi:10.1073/pnas.39.6.507. PMC 1063814. PMID 16589297.
=== Books ===
Hlavatý, V. (1939). Differentialgeometrie der Kurven und Flächen und Tensorrechnung. Groningen: Noordhoff.
Hlavatý, V. (1953). Differential line geometry. Translated by H. Levy. Groningen: Noordhoff.
Hlavatý, V. (1957). Geometry of Einstein's Unified Field Theory. Groningen: Noordhoff.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) Reprinted as ISBN 978-1-178-77017-9.
== References ==
== External links ==
Václav Hlavatý at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
Václav Hlavatý biography (in Czech)
Václav Hlavatý Archived 2012-02-14 at the Wayback Machine biography (in Czech) includes photograph |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Baschenis | Giovanni Baschenis | Giovanni Baschenis (1471 – 1503) was an Italian painter whose name is combined with that of his brother Battista, also a painter.
== Biography ==
Giovanni Baschenis was the son of Antonio belonging to the dynasty of the Lanfranco family and nephew of Angelo. Some paintings created by Giovanni Baschenis were also linked to the name of Battista, who was probably the brother with the sole duties of assistant.
Giovanni began his artistic activity in Trentino with his brother, but upon returning to Bergamo he continued his activity independently.
In Trentino the two painters signed the frescoes for the chapel of San Valerio in Castel Valer in Tassullo, those of the Church of Santi Filippo and Giacomo in Segonzone (in the municipality of Campodenno) and those always present in Val di Non in the church of Sant'Udalrico in Corte Inferiore (Noise); here, the fresco dated 1471 of the'Last Supper has the writing Joha[n]nes et Baptista de Averaria pinxeru[n]t 1471.
Giovanni returned to the Bergamo area, his homeland, frescoing the Casa Volpi in Fuipiano al Brembo. The fresco Christ on the tomb between Mary and John has the writing Ritius filius quodam Zani hoc opus fieri and die 4 novembris 1486 in the upper part. The work depicts a red tomb, with Christ supported by the Mother on the right, and Saint John praying on the left. The upper part has a long writing with instructions for obtaining the indulgence. The cartouche reports an error in the indication of the years of the indulgence named in twenty-two thousand years. At the bottom he signs Johannes de Avaia pixit.
A second fresco is the Madonna and Child among the Saints. The fresco lacks that plasticity that would make the work Renaissance in orientation, the cloak of the Madonna with the printed flowers gives solemnity to the whole work.
In the sacristy of the church in the Alino hamlet of San Pellegrino Terme there is the fresco signed and dated 1478 depicting the Original Sin which presents us with Eve who, with the apple in her hand, covers herself and reveals herself naked, and Adam in 'act of touching your throat as if to feel the Adam's apple grow. In the sacristy there is a further fresco Theory of the Saints which is the depiction of five saints: John the Baptist, Saint Blaise, Mary Magdalene, Saint Defendente and the central image of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the act of being crowned by two angels. The work is dated 1470 and was attributed to Giovanni Baschenis by Luigi Angelini.
The frescoes depicting San Defendente housed in the apse of the Church of San Defendente in the locality Roncola date back to 1482. In 1490 he frescoed the church of San Lorenzo of Cunevo.
== See also ==
Averara
Baschenis
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
AA.VV. (September 2020). Giovanni Valagussa (ed.). I pittori Baschenis Itinerari bergamaschi. Bergamo: Corponove.
AA.VV. Virginia Ceruti (2004). Baschenis. Provincia di Bergamo.
William Belli (2008). Itinerari dei Baschenis. Giudicarie, Val Rendena, Val di Non e Val di Sole. Trento: Provincia Autonoma di Trento. Assessorato alla Cultura.
Mara Collini, Corredo documentario relativo alle vicende genealogiche dei pittori Baschenis, in «Libri e Documenti», 8, fasc. I, 1982, pp. 8-32. (online)
Silvana Milesi (1993). La stirpe dei Bascheris:sguardi sul Quattrocento e sul seicento. Bergamo: Carpanove editrice.
Antonio Morassi, I pittori Baschenis nel Trentino, in «Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche», 8, 1927, pp. 201-224. (online)
Claudia Paternoster, La Cappella di San Valerio a Castel Valér e gli affreschi di Giovanni e Battis
ta Baschenis del 1473, in «Studi trentini di scienze storiche. Sezione seconda», 79, 2000, pp. 9-48. (online)
AA.VV. (September 2020). Giovanni Valagussa (ed.). The Baschenis painters Bergamo itineraries. Bergamo: Corponove. ISBN 9788899219949.
AA.VV. Virginia Ceruti (2004). Baschenis. Province of Bergamo.
William Belli (2008). Itineraries of the Baschenis. Giudicarie, Val Rendena, Val di Non and Val di Sole. Trento: Autonomous Province of Trento. Department of Culture.
Mara Collini, Documentary kit relating to the genealogical events of the Baschenis painters, in «Books and Documents», 8, fasc. I, 1982, pp. 8-32. (online)
Silvana Milesi (1993). La stirpe dei Bascheri: scorci sui secoli XV e XVII. Bergamo: Carpanove editrice.
Antonio Morassi, The Baschenis painters in Trentino, in «Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche», 8, 1927, pp. 201-224. (online)
Claudia Paternoster, The Chapel of San Valerio in Castel Valér and the frescoes of Giovanni and Battista Baschenis from 1473, in «Trentino studies of historical sciences. Second section», 79, 2000, pp. 9-48. (online)
== External links ==
Angelini, Luigi (1970). "Baschenis". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 7: Bartolucci–Bellotto. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-88-12-00032-6. Retrieved 25 August 2025. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores,_Abra | Dolores, Abra | Dolores, officially the Municipality of Dolores (Ilocano: Ili ti Dolores; Filipino: Bayan ng Dolores), is a municipality in the province of Abra, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 11,967 people.
== Etymology ==
Formerly named as Bucao but in 1885, it was renamed Dolores in honor of the town's patron saint Dolores.
== History ==
The place was called Bucao, named after the first Tingguian (Itneg) chieftain who settled in the place long before Spanish colonization. It used to be part of the Municipality of Tayum. In 1882, upon the recommendation of the parish priest of Tayum, Fr. Pío Mercado, and the Teniente Bazar of Bucao, Don Ignacio Eduarte, Bucao was created as a separate pueblo. In 1885, Bucao was renamed Dolores, to honor its patron saint, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady Of Sorrows). The first gobernadorcillo of the town was Don Rosalio Eduarte.
== Geography ==
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Municipality of Dolores has a land area of 47.45 square kilometres (18.32 sq mi) constituting 1.14% of the 4,165.25-square-kilometre- (1,608.21 sq mi) total area of Abra. It is located at 17°39′N 120°43′E.
Dolores is situated 17.42 kilometres (10.82 mi) from the provincial capital Bangued, and 423.27 kilometres (263.01 mi) from the country's capital city of Manila.
=== Barangays ===
Dolores is politically subdivided into 15 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
=== Climate ===
== Demographics ==
In the 2020 census, Dolores had a population of 11,512. The population density was 240 inhabitants per square kilometre (620/sq mi).
== Economy ==
Poverty incidence of Dolores
Source: Philippine Statistics Authority
== Government ==
=== Local government ===
Dolores, belonging to the lone congressional district of the province of Abra, is governed by a mayor designated as its local chief executive and by a municipal council as its legislative body in accordance with the Local Government Code. The mayor, vice mayor, and the councilors are elected directly by the people through an election which is being held every three years.
=== Elected officials ===
== Education ==
The Dolores Schools District Office governs all educational institutions within the municipality. It oversees the management and operations of all private and public, from primary to secondary schools.
=== Primary and elementary schools ===
=== Secondary school ===
Rosalio Eduarte National High School
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website of the municipal government of Dolores
Philippine Standard Geographic Code |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_women%27s_cricket | History of women's cricket | The history of women's cricket can be traced back to a report in The Reading Mercury on 15 Aug 1745 and a match that took place between the villages of Bramley and Hambledon near Guildford in Surrey.
The Mercury reported:
"The greatest cricket match that was played in this part of England was on Friday, the 26th of last month, on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white. The Bramley maids had blue ribbons and the Hambledon maids red ribbons on their heads. The Bramley girls got 119 notches and the Hambledon girls 127. There was of bothe sexes the greatest number that ever was seen on such an occasion. The girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that game."
== Early years in England ==
Early matches were not necessarily gentil affairs. A match, on 13 July 1747, held at the Artillery Ground between a team from Charlton and another from Westdean and Chilgrove in Sussex spilled over into the following day after it was interrupted by crowd trouble. Contemporary records show that women's matches were played on many occasions between villages in Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey. Other matches, often held in front of large crowds with heavy betting on the side, pitted single women against their married counterparts. Prizes ranged from barrels of ale to pairs of lace gloves. The first county match was held in 1811 between Surrey and Hampshire at Ball's Pond in Middlesex. Two noblemen underwrote the game with 1,000 guineas, and its participants ranged in age from 14 to 60.
Originally, cricket deliveries were bowled underarm. Legend has it that the roundarm bowling action was pioneered in the early 19th century by Christiana Willes, sister of John Willes, to avoid becoming ensnared in her skirts. In fact, roundarm was devised by Tom Walker in the 1790s.
The first women's cricket club was formed in 1887 at Nun Appleton in Yorkshire and named the White Heather Club. In 1890, a team known as the Original English Lady Cricketers, toured England, playing in exhibition matches to large crowds. The team was highly successful until its manager absconded with the profits, forcing the ladies to disband. James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual for 1890 has a photograph of the team and short article on women's cricket. "As an exercise, cricket is probably not so severe as lawn tennis, and it is certainly not so dangerous as hunting or skating; and if, therefore, the outcome of the present movement is to induce ladies more generally to play cricket, we shall consider that a good result has been attained."
The Women's Cricket Association was founded in 1926. The England team first played against The Rest at Leicester in 1933 and undertook the first international tour to Australia in 1934–35, playing the first Women's Test match between England and Australia in December 1934. After winning two tests and drawing one. England travelled on to New Zealand where Betty Snowball scored 189 in the first Test in Christchurch.
== Early years in Australia ==
Barbara Rae was the founder, captain, and top scorer of the winning team in Australia's first recorded women's cricket match, held on 7 April 1874 in Bendigo, Victoria.
The founding mother of women's cricket in Australia was the young Tasmanian, Lily Poulett-Harris, who captained the Oyster Cove team in the league she created in 1894. Lily's obituary, from her death a few years later in 1897, states that her team was almost certainly the first to be formed in the colonies [1] [2]. Following this, the Victoria Women's Cricket Association was founded in 1905 and the Australian Women's Cricket Association in 1931. The current competition is run by the Women's National Cricket League.
== The spread to other countries ==
The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1958 to coordinate women's cricket which was now being played regularly in Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, Denmark and the Netherlands. Test cricket has now been played by Australia, England, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. 131 women's Test matches have been played to date, the majority featuring England or Australia. Originally these were three-day matches, but since 1985 most have been played over four days. England have played 87 Test matches since their first in 1934, winning 19, losing 11 and drawing 57. Australia have played 67 in the same period, winning 18, losing nine and drawing 40.
The highest total is Australia's 569 for six declared against England Women in 1998, and the highest individual score is the 242 recorded by Kiran Baluch for Pakistan Women against West Indies Women at the National Stadium, Karachi in 2003/04. Five other women have scored double centuries. Neetu David of India took eight wickets in an innings against England in 1995/56 and seven wickets have fallen to the same bowler on ten occasions. The best match figures, 13 for 226 were recorded by Shaiza Khan for Pakistan Women against West Indies Women in Karachi in 2003/04. Three English batsmen, Janet Brittin with 1935 runs at 49.61, Charlotte Edwards, 1621 at 49.09 and Rachel Heyhoe-Flint with 1594 at 45.54, head the all-time run scoring lists while six other women have scored more than 1,000 Test runs. Mary Duggan of England took 77 Test wickets at 13.49 while Australia's Betty Wilson took 68 at 11.8. Seven other women have 50 or more victims to their name [3] Archived 16 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
Betty Wilson was the first player, male or female, to record a century and ten wickets in a Test match, against England at the MCG in 1958. In a remarkable match Australia were bowled out for 38 but gained a first innings lead of three in dismissing England for 35 in reply, with Wilson taking seven for seven. 35 remains the lowest total ever recorded in a women's Test. Australia, thanks to Wilson's century, set England 206 to win but the visitors held on for a draw. In 1985, Australia's Under-21 National Women's Cricket Championship was renamed the Betty Wilson Shield in her honour. Another phenomenal club performance saw right-hander Jan Molyneaux make a record 298 for Olympic v Northcote in Melbourne's A grade final in 1967. Molyneaux also made 252 not out on a separate occasion in a 477 run partnership with Dawn Rae, again for Olympic.
== Women's cricket in the modern era ==
Club and county cricket in England has undergone constant evolution. There is currently a National Knock-Out Cup and a league structure culminating in a Northern and Southern Premier league. The major county competition is the LV Women's County Championship, while Super Fours, featuring teams named after precious stones, bridges the gap for the elite players between domestic and international competition.
In April 1970, MCC's traditional Easter coaching classes at Lord's were attended by Sian Davies and Sally Slowe of Cheltenham Ladies' College (see photo in Wisden at Lord's, page 129) breaking the 'gender barrier'. The first Women's Cricket World Cup was held in England in 1973, funded in part by businessman Jack Hayward, and won by the hosts at Lords in front of Princess Anne. Enid Bakewell and Lynne Thomas, making their international debuts for England, scored unbeaten hundreds against an International XI in Brighton in a stand of 246, a record which stood for a quarter of a century [4]. Lord's staged its first women's Test match in 1979, between England and Australia.
One-Day International cricket has been played by Australia, Denmark, England, India, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand. Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies while Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and International XIs have played in World Cups. 707 ODIs have been played up to the end of the 2009 World Cup. The 455 for 5 smashed by New Zealand Women against Pakistan Women at Hagley Oval, Christchurch in 1996/97 remains the highest team score while the Netherlands Women were bowled out for just 22 against West Indies Women at Sportpark Het Schootsveld in Deventer in 2008.
The Women's Cricket Association handed over the running of women's cricket in England to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 1998. In 2005, after the eighth Women's World Cup, the International Women's Cricket Council was officially integrated under the umbrella of the International Cricket Council, and an ICC Women's Cricket Committee was formed to consider all matters relating to women's cricket. The 2009 World Cup, the first held under the auspices of the ICC was won by England, the first English team of either sex to win an ICC competition.
Women have beaten male teams to several milestones in one-day cricket. They were the first to play an international Twenty/20 match, England taking on New Zealand at Hove in 2004. The first tie in a one-day international was also between Women's teams, hosts New Zealand tying the first match of the World Cup in 1982 against England, who went on to record another tie against Australia in the same competition. Female wicket keepers were the first to record 6 dismissals in a one-day international, New Zealand's Sarah Illingworth and India's Venkatacher Kalpana both accounting for 6 batsman on the same day in the 1993 World Cup and Belinda Clark, the former Australian captain, is the only female player to have scored a double hundred in an ODI, recording an unbeaten 229 in the 1997 World Cup against Denmark. Pakistan's Sajjida Shah is the youngest player to appear in international cricket, playing against Ireland four months after her 12th birthday. She also holds the record for the best bowling figures in a one-day international, taking 7 wickets for just 4 runs against Japan Women at the Sportpark Drieburg in Amsterdam in 2003. Fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick of Australia took 180 wickets in her one-day international career.
In 2009 England batsman Claire Taylor was named one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year [5], the first woman to be honoured with the award in its 120-year history.
Since at least 2017 the England and Wales Cricket Board has promoted a short-form variant known as women's softball cricket, which is played in several county leagues in England. The traditional game is sometimes referred to as "women's hardball cricket" where a distinction needs to be made.
== See also ==
Lily Poulett-Harris – founder of women's cricket in Australia
== Notes ==
== External links ==
"Early Cricket - from Guildford to Lord's". A detailed article about women's cricket before 1800.
Cricinfo Women
Cricketwoman portal
ICC Women's Cricket
A History of Women's cricket
== Further reading == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._S._Subbulakshmi | M. S. Subbulakshmi | Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (16 September 1916 – 11 December 2004) was an Indian Carnatic singer. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour and also the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award in 1974. She was the first Indian to perform at the United Nations General Assembly in 1966.
== Biography ==
=== Early years ===
Subbulakshmi (Kunjamma to her family) was born on 16 September 1916 in Madurai, Madras Presidency, to veena player Shanmukavadiver Ammal and Subramania Iyer. Her grandmother Akkammal was a violinist.
She started learning Carnatic music at an early age and trained in Carnatic music under the tutelage of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and subsequently in Hindustani music under Pandit Narayanrao Vyas.
Her mother, from the devadasi community, was a music exponent and a regular stage performer, and Subbulakshmi grew up in an environment very conducive to musical learning. Her musical interests were also shaped by regular interactions with Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, Mazhavarayanendal Subbarama Bhagavathar and Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.
Subbulakshmi gave her first public performance, at the age of eleven, in the year 1927, in the 100-pillar hall inside the Rockfort Temple, Tiruchirappalli; with Mysore Chowdiah on the violin and Dakshinamurthy Pillai on the mridangam. This was organised by the Tiruchirappalli-based Indian National Congress leader F. G. Natesa Iyer.
=== Move to Madras ===
In 1936 Subbulakshmi moved to Madras (now Chennai). She also made her film debut in Sevasadan in 1938. Her debut to the world of cinema was again opposite F. G. Natesa Iyer.
== Musical style and performance ==
=== Singing career ===
M.S. Subbulakshmi began her Carnatic classical music training under her mother Shanmukhavadivu; and later in Hindustani classical training under Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. Subbulakshmi first recording was released when she was 10 years old.
Subbalakshmi gave her first performance at the prestigious Madras Music Academy in 1929, when she was 13 years old. The performance consisted of singing bhajans (Hindu hymns). The academy was known for its discriminating selection process, and they broke tradition by inviting a young girl as a key performer. Her performance was described as spellbinding and earned her many admirers and the moniker of musical genius from critics. Soon after her debut performances, Subbulakshmi became one of the leading Carnatic vocalists.
By the age of seventeen, Subbulakshmi was giving concerts on her own, including major performances at the Madras Music Academy.
She travelled to London, New York, Canada, the Far East, and other places as India's cultural ambassador. Her concerts at Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama in 1963; Carnegie Hall, New York; the UN General Assembly on UN day in 1966; Royal Albert Hall, London in 1982; and Festival of India in Moscow in 1987 were significant landmarks in her career.
In 1969 she was accompanied by Indian Railways Advisor SN Venkata Rao to Rameswaram, where she sang several songs in front of each idol in the Ramanathaswamy Temple. She shared a very cordial relation with Sree Ramaseva Mandali at Bengaluru for whom she performed 36 concerts.
After the death of her husband Kalki Sadasivam in 1997, she stopped all her public performances. Her last performance was in 1997, before her retirement from public concerts.
M. S. Subbulakshmi died on 11 December 2004, at her home in Kotturpuram, Chennai.
=== Films ===
M.S. also acted in a four Tamil films in her youth. Her first movie, Sevasadanam, was released on 2 May 1938. F.G. Natesa Iyer was the lead actor, opposite Subbulakshmi, in this film, directed by K. Subramanyam. It was a critical and commercial success. Ananda Vikatan favourably reviewed the film on 8 May 1938:
We should always expect something from Subramaniam's direction – for instance depiction of social ills. If we have to say only two words about this talkie based on Premchand's story it is – Go see (it).
Sevasadanam is one of the early Tamil films to be set in a contemporary social setting and to advocate reformist social policies. The film is an adapted version of Premchand's novel Bazaar-e-Husn. Veteran Marxist leader N. Sankaraiah, has described Sevasadanam as an "unusual film" for choosing the subject of marriages between young girls and old men (which had social sanction). According to him, the film successfully broughtout the "sufferings of the girl" (Subbalakshmi) and the "mental agony of the aged husband" (F.G. Natesa Iyer). Tamil film critic and historian Aranthai Narayanan observes in his book, Thamizh Cinemavin Kathai (The Story of Tamil Cinema) that "Seva Sadhanam proved a turning point in the history of Tamil cinema. In the climax, the aged husband, now a totally changed man, was shown as casting aside with utter contempt his 'sacred thread', which symbolises his Brahmin superiority. It came as a stunning blow to the then Brahmin orthodoxy."
MS Subbulakshmi also played the male role of Narada in Savitri (1941) to raise money for launching Kalki, her husband's nationalist Tamil weekly. Her title role of the Rajasthani saint-poetess Meera in the eponymous 1945 film gave her national prominence. This movie was re-made in Hindi in 1947.
== Filmography ==
== Awards and honours ==
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had this to say about M.S. Subbulakshmi- "Who am I, a mere Prime Minister before a Queen, a Queen of Music". While Lata Mangeshkar called her Tapaswini (the Renunciate), Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan termed her Suswaralakshmi (the goddess of the perfect note), and Kishori Amonkar labelled her the ultimate eighth note or Aathuvaan Sur, which is above the seven notes basic to all music. The great national leader and poet Sarojini Naidu called her "Nightingale of India". Her many famous renditions of bhajans include the chanting of Meenakshi Pancharatnam, Bhaja Govindam, Vishnu sahasranama (1000 names of Vishnu), Hari Tuma Haro and the Venkateswara Suprabhatam (musical hymns to awaken Lord Balaji early in the morning).
She was widely honoured, praised and awarded. Some of the popular ones include:
Padma Bhushan in 1954
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1956
Sangita Kalanidhi in 1968
Ramon Magsaysay Award (often considered Asia's Nobel Prize) in 1974
Padma Vibhushan in 1975
Sangeetha Kalasikhamani in 1975 by The Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai
Kalidas Samman in 1988
Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1990
Bharat Ratna in 1998
She was honoured as a resident artist Asthana Vidhwan of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) has installed a bronze statue of M.S. Subbulakshmi at the Poornakumbham circle in the temple town. It was unveiled by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy on 28 May 2006.
The Kancheepuram Saree shade known as MS Blue was named after her by the well-known Congress party member and philanthropist, Sri Muthu Chettiyar when they met at the residence of Sri R. Aiyadurai and Smt. Thangam Aiyadurai at Lady Desikachari Road, Madras, who were close friends of MS and Sadasivam.
A commemorative postage stamp on her was issued on 18-December-2005. United Nations decided to issue the stamp to mark the birth centenary of M.S. Subbulakshmi. She was bestowed with enormous prize money along with the awards, most of which she donated to charity. She has given more than 200 charity concerts and raised well over Rs. 10,000,000. She was awarded honorary degrees from several Universities. She was an ardent devotee of Kanchi Mahaswamigal and she rendered his composition "Maithreem Bhajatha" (O World! Cultivate peace) in her concert at the UN in 1966. She made a 20-minute recording of "Venkatesa Suprabhatam" for His Master's Voice, the royalty from which goes to the Veda Patasala run by the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam. She donated many of the royalties on several best sold records to many charity organisations.
== References ==
== Further reading ==
M.S. Subbulaksmi, the Voice Divine (79 pages) by V. Gangadhar.
MS – A Life in Music, T. J. S. George. 2004, HarperCollins. ISBN 978-81-7223-527-7
Gowri Ramnarayan (18–31 December 2004), "Cover Story: The M.S. phenomenon", Frontline, vol. 21, no. 26, archived from the original on 29 November 2009
MS & Radha – Saga of Steadfast Devotion – by Gowri Ramnarayan – http://www.msstribute.org/
Of Gifted Voice, The Life and Art of M.S. Subbulakshmi Keshav Desiraju HarperCollins. ISBN 978-93-9032-754-6
== External links ==
"Artists: M.S.Subbulakshmi, Nat Geo Music". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 14 November 2006.
Biography at the official site of Ramon Magsaysay award
M.S. Subbulakshmi at IMDb
Photo of MS, Sadhasivam and Ellis R. Dungan Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
M.S. Subbulakshmi: Portraits of a diva – The Hindu |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibal_Corpse | Cannibal Corpse | Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, now based in Tampa, Florida.
The band has released sixteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radio or television exposure throughout its existence, although a cult following began to build with the releases of their early albums, including Butchered at Birth (1991) and Tomb of the Mutilated (1992). As of 2015, they achieved worldwide sales of two million units for combined sales of all their albums. Cannibal Corpse received its best "first week" sales of all-time and first Top 10 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart with their fifteenth studio album Violence Unimagined (2021), which entered at No. 6 with 14,000 copies sold.
Cannibal Corpse has seen several lineup changes throughout its run, with bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz being the only constant members. The band's current lineup includes Mazurkiewicz, Webster, vocalist George Fisher, and guitarists Rob Barrett and Erik Rutan.
== History ==
=== Formation and self-titled demo (1988–1989) ===
Cannibal Corpse was formed in December 1988 when members from recently disbanded Buffalo-area death metal bands Beyond Death (Alex Webster and Jack Owen) and Tirant Sin (Paul Mazurkiewicz, Chris Barnes, Bob Rusay) started jamming and writing music together. Mazurkiewicz, Barnes and Rusay knew each other from high school, and met Webster and Owen while attending area shows. Webster recalled, "when we got going, there were only a few other bands that you’d really call death metal".
Bassist Alex Webster came up with the name Cannibal Corpse. The band played its first show at Buffalo's River Rock Cafe in March 1989, shortly after recording a five-song self-titled demo tape, which is now commonly known as A Skull Full of Maggots. The band's first live performance was opening for thrash metal band Dark Angel at a sold-out show in a small club. The band promoted the show by printing off thousands of posters in multiple colors, and handing them out at a Metallica concert. Afterward, the band gained traction in the Buffalo area, going as far to receive mentions by The Buffalo News. During this time, the band also opened for Bloodfeast, The Accüsed, Death and Kreator. Cannibal Corpse would also often play shows with Malevolent Creation, as the latter were local to Buffalo as well. The band signed to Metal Blade Records in July 1989. Mike Faley at Metal Blade wanted to sign the band immediately after reading the song titles in their tracklist. He heard the demo tape after having had it sent to him by the manager of the record store in which Barnes was working. Metal Blade president Brian Slagel recalled: "I thought it was really interesting and cool. Plus, 'A Skull Full of Maggots' is one of the greatest song titles ever." Mazurkiewicz said: "It was unbelievable; it was a dream come true. When we signed the contract with Metal Blade, we were only a band for eight months. And here we are having to finish off writing material and record a record."
=== Eaten Back to Life and Butchered at Birth (1990–1991) ===
The band's debut album, Eaten Back to Life, was released in August 1990. The band played several local area shows to support the album. Inspired by and seeking the new commercial and recording opportunities of the then-emerging Florida death metal scene, the band relocated to Tampa. The band released its second album Butchered at Birth on July 1, 1991. Webster recalled: "We went over to Europe in '91 for Butchered at Birth and saw this great reaction from all these people on the other side of the ocean. We were like, 'Wow, all these people know who we are!' We were getting two or three hundred people a night at these shows, which was really great for a band with only two albums out. It was a great surprise." The band members quit their day jobs and dropped out of college during this time.
Friction arose between the band members while touring in support of Butchered at Birth. According to Webster, Barnes was managing a tour by himself for the first time, and there were uncertainties regarding how the tour's finances were being handled. The band privately dissolved and split into two separate camps during this time, and Owen claims to have been "in the middle" of the situation. Mazurkiewicz and Webster moved into an apartment just four doors down from the band's practice space, and composed the music to "Hammer Smashed Face" as a means to vent their frustrations with Barnes.
Cannibal Corpse soon reformed and toured Europe with Atheist and Gorguts in early 1992. That same year, the band toured with Obituary, Malevolent Creation and Agnostic Front on the Complete Control Tour. Cannibal Corpse and Malevolent Creation shared a tour bus during this tour, and the latter of which future Cannibal Corpse guitarist Rob Barrett was playing with. Barrett said: "We were like one big family, and I am pretty sure that is why I got the call to join with them the next year."
=== Tomb of the Mutilated and dismissal of Bob Rusay (1992–1993) ===
The band released their third album Tomb of the Mutilated on September 22, 1992, which was said to have showcased "some of the sickest album art and song titles of all time." Vincent Jeffries of AllMusic said: "the band's attention-getting tactics worked perfectly and record sales soared. Cannibal Corpse then became one of the biggest names in the death metal genre -- just as the group's discs and live performances were being banned all over the world."
In February 1993, founding guitarist Bob Rusay was fired from the group and was replaced by Malevolent Creation guitarist Rob Barrett, which the band emphasized as "definitely a professional decision and nothing personal."The band has since stated that Rusay, whose musical background was in punk rock, was struggling to adapt to the band's increasingly technical musical approach. Owen recalled: "We tried to be professional. We were under the microscope. The budgets were getting bigger. He wasn't tight. It's not where we were at. It goes back to Butchered." Owen stated that he had outright refused to take it upon himself to deliver the news to Rusay out of fear for his own safety. He recalled: "I really thought he'd kill me. Bob was a badass." According to Webster: "Bob was the tough guy in the band, for sure. He was in great physical condition and was really into martial arts. When you're young, you tend to solve your problems that way instead of talking it out. That was something to think about. He could have found us if he wanted."
The task of firing Rusay was ultimately assumed by Webster. Rusay was attending a party in celebration of the Buffalo Bills winning the Conference Championship Game when Webster phoned him to notify him of his dismissal. Webster was not a sports fan, and was unaware he had timed the actioning of the band's decision poorly. Webster recounted that Rusay hung up on him. Barnes has since stated that he and Owen did not agree with the decision to relieve Rusay of his duties, and expressed regret for having not called him afterward. However, by Webster's account, the decision to dismiss Rusay was unanimous.
The band has stated that Rusay was deeply hurt by his dismissal, and has made no effort to contact them since. Despite his dismissal from the band, Mazurkiewicz commended Rusay in the Centuries of Torment documentary, calling him "monumental". Barnes credited Rusay for having composed some of the most important songs of the band's early career. Rusay subsequently withdrew from the music scene wholesale, and has since become a golf instructor.
The band fired Rusay weeks before they were scheduled to leave for a US tour. Rusay's replacement, Rob Barrett, learned the entire setlist in two weeks prior to the tour. In an interview at Milwaukee Metalfest in 1993, Barrett said: "The kids in Europe were disappointed about [Rusay's departure], 'cause [they were like], 'What happened to Bob?! He was the brutal-est!' So I kind of had my work cut out for me, you know?"
=== Ace Ventura cameo and The Bleeding (1994) ===
Shortly following Rusay's dismissal, Cannibal Corpse had a cameo appearance in the 1994 Jim Carrey film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, performing an abridged version of their song "Hammer Smashed Face".
The band released their fourth studio album The Bleeding on April 12, 1994. According to Paul Mazurkiewicz, “The Bleeding had begun a process of change in the band. We were developing musically, and the aim was to really take things to the next level. I believe this was obvious with the music that the four of us were coming up with at the time.”
After The Bleeding's touring cycle had concluded, Barrett convinced the rest of the band to relocate to Florida. Barnes stated in a 2025 interview that he was not given a say in this decision.
=== Dismissal of Chris Barnes and Vile (1995–1996) ===
In 1995, during recording sessions for their fifth album Vile, singer Chris Barnes was dismissed from the band while on tour with Six Feet Under, which was at the time his side project. Barnes and the rest of the band members have since stated the split was due to creative and personal differences within the group that had been mounting for years. The band members have since admitted some semblance of jealousy towards Barnes on their part, partially due to media attention regarding his vocals and lyrical content, which often eclipsed attention towards the band's instrumentation and songwriting. Barnes stated "things just kept getting weirder and weirder between us at that point," and has gone as far as to allude to a "fist fight" with another band member that occurred during this time.
In 2025, Barnes said: "There was always tension on a personal level in that band when I was in the band, and probably mostly my fault [laughs], so I'll be the first to admit it."
Barnes was replaced by Monstrosity singer George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. According to Paul Mazurkiewicz: "George was the only person we ever considered. We believed he could do what we wanted. If he had declined, or hadn’t have worked out, I’m not sure what would have happened. It may have been the end of Cannibal Corpse. It was as serious as that." Webster commented: "I feel that certain people at our record label [Metal Blade] were making it sound like our careers would be over without Chris. And if the only good thing about our band was Chris Barnes, then we weren’t much of a band then, were we?" Mazurkiewicz said, “I’ll admit that Brian Slagel, the head of [Metal Blade Records], wasn’t at all pleased. That was understandable. For any band to fire their vocalist is a really risky step. But we had complete faith in what George had done, and thankfully the fans’ reaction was almost totally positive."According to producer Scott Burns: "I thought Barnes was irreplaceable. I had no idea who could take his place, but occasionally, amid the drama and confusion, Rob Barrett would speak up and say, 'Let's bring in George.' Rob was the easiest to get on board with the decision. I'll stress this: The decision to remove Barnes was ultimately the band's. Alex and the guys knew I didn't think Barnes's performance was up to par, but kicking out a band member was not my territory. I wasn't thinking about George at the time. I worried about getting the album done and didn't see how we would do it without Barnes. I remember the Cannibal guys saying they didn't care if Metal Blade dropped them. They wanted to make one record where they were as happy with the vocals as the music. It took a lot of courage to make that call."
The band released their fifth album Vile in 1996. Mazurkiewicz said: "At first I think everybody was a little reluctant. [...] They loved Barnes, but we knew we were bettering the band and were just like, 'Wait until you hear it.' And I think, for the most part, everybody shut up after that. As soon as we put the album out, we went out on the road, and it was 'Barnes who?' at that point."
The band toured North America with Misfits, Anthrax and Life of Agony in 1996.
Barnes went on to perform with the band Six Feet Under as his main project and later, Torture Killer. Barnes designed the original Cannibal Corpse logo, which was changed following his dismissal from the band. There has been speculation regarding whether Barnes had legal ownership rights to the logo. Mazurkiewicz clarified: "He didn’t legally own it, [...] but Chris did draw the thing in the first place. We needed a logo when the band started out, and he came up with something suitable. But once we’d fired him, then he started asking for payment on all CDs and merchandise we sold that carried his logo. Therefore, we decided to come up with a new one for the Vile release, which also marked a new era for us. So, it really did the job on two levels."
=== Gallery of Suicide, Bloodthirst and Gore Obsessed (1997–2003) ===
In February 1997, Rob Barrett left Cannibal Corpse due to musical differences and rejoined his previous bands Malevolent Creation, Solstice, and HatePlow. Pat O'Brien replaced Barrett on guitar. He had been recommended to the band by their soundperson, as well as by Steve Tucker, who had been playing with Morbid Angel at that time. Webster recalled: "When Rob left, we’d written about three songs for the new album. We carried on writing and took a couple of months before we chose another guitar player. This was one change that we didn’t have to make in a hurry, for once!" The band started recording new material in October 1997. Fisher shared a house with Mazurkiewicz and another friend during this time. He recalled: "it was a crazy time. We were slobs and just partying!"
The band's sixth studio album, Gallery of Suicide, was released on April 21, 1998. It was O'Brien's first studio appearance with the band. The album proved popular with fans of black metal, and Cannibal Corpse would ultimately tour with Swedish bands Marduk and Dark Funeral during this time. Webster stated: "Black and death metal come from the exact same roots, from mid-80s stuff like Sodom, Kreator, Celtic Frost and Possessed, so there was no reason why they couldn’t tour together, and that worked out really well."
The band's seventh studio album, Bloodthirst, was released on October 19, 1999. Steve Huey of AllMusic opined: "It's rather remarkable how little the band's sound has changed over the course of an entire decade."
The band's first live album, Live Cannibalism, was released on September 26, 2000.
The band's eighth studio album, Gore Obsessed, was released on February 26, 2002.
The band toured the US during the winter of 2004 with Hypocrisy, Exhumed and Vile.
=== The Wretched Spawn, departure of Jack Owen and return of Rob Barrett (2004–2005) ===
The band's ninth studio album The Wretched Spawn was released on February 24, 2004.
Founding guitarist Jack Owen left Cannibal Corpse in 2004 to spend more time on his second band, Adrift, and also joined Deicide in late 2004. Jeremy Turner of Origin substituted on guitar for the band's 2004 tour of Mexico in support of their album The Wretched Spawn, after being referred to the band by Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal (who would later join the band himself in 2019). The band also played Wacken Open Air and toured the US that year. Turner stated that he believes he played approximately 90 shows with the band over a six-month. The band ultimately did not hire him as a permanent replacement for Owen due to his locality in Kansas; although Turner said that he would have been willing to relocate to join the band, the band in the long run did not feel comfortable "uprooting" him from his family and life. Rob Barrett re-joined the band for a concert at the Northwest Deathfest in Washington in 2005, before ultimately reassuming guitar duties permanently following several months of deliberation. Barrett's mother stated in the Centuries of Torment documentary that she discouraged his decision to leave the band in the first place.
=== Kill and Evisceration Plague (2006–2011) ===
The band's tenth studio album Kill was released on March 21, 2006, and was considered a turning point in the band's career.
The band participated in the Sounds of the Underground Tour in 2006, which also featured Behemoth and In Flames. The band also embarked on a headlining tour alongside Necrophagist and Dying Fetus in late 2006.
Writing for the follow-up to Kill began in November 2007, as indicated in an interview with bassist Alex Webster. Evisceration Plague, Cannibal Corpse's eleventh studio album, was released on February 3, 2009, to a highly positive response from fans. They also released a live DVD in 2011 entitled Global Evisceration.
The band toured with Children of Bodom to promote the album. The band then participated in Mayhem Festival 2009 along with Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Behemoth, Job For a Cowboy and The Black Dahlia Murder. The band then toured on the Decimation Of The Nation 2 tour along with Hatebreed, Unearth, Born of Osiris and Hate Eternal. Throughout 2010, the band played various festivals in Europe such as Wacken Open Air, Full Force and Bloodstock Festival. Following these festival appearances, the band toured the US during the spring of 2010 with Norwegian black metal band 1349 and thrash metal band Skeletonwitch. The band toured the US during the fall of 2010 with Dying Fetus, Vital Remains, and Devourment.
=== Torture, A Skeletal Domain and Red Before Black (2012–2019) ===
Cannibal Corpse released its twelfth studio album, Torture, in March 2012. Two early bands of the members reunited for one respective benefit concert each for Tony Lorenzo of the group Sons Of Azrael in January 2012. The band toured the US from late 2012 into early 2013 with Misery Index and Hour of Penance.
In February 2014, Cannibal Corpse announced that they had begun recording their thirteenth album, A Skeletal Domain, which was released on September 16. "Sadistic Embodiment" was released as a single in July. All the song titles of the forthcoming album were announced on the same day. The same month, Metal Blade announced the publication of the band's authorized biography Bible Of Butchery, written by the British author Joel McIver.
In an August 2016 interview, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz stated that Cannibal Corpse would likely begin recording a new album in 2017. In September 2017, the band announced their fourteenth studio album Red Before Black, which was released on November 3.
On December 10, 2018, guitarist Pat O'Brien was arrested for assault and battery; his bail was set at $50,000. On the eve of the news of his arrest, Cannibal Corpse was announced as one of the supporting acts for Slayer's final North American tour, which would take place in the spring of 2019 and also be supported by Lamb of God and Amon Amarth. On January 18, 2019, Cannibal Corpse announced that Hate Eternal frontman and former Morbid Angel guitarist Erik Rutan would fill-in for O'Brien on their future tours. The band toured the US with Thy Art is Murder in the fall of 2019.
=== Violence Unimagined and Chaos Horrific (2020–present) ===
Cannibal Corpse entered the studio in June 2020 to begin recording their fifteenth studio album. On February 1, 2021, the band announced that the album, Violence Unimagined, would be released on April 16. They released a music video for the song "Inhumane Harvest" from the album in February. The music video was largely inspired by the Saw movie franchise. The band also announced that live guitarist Erik Rutan has officially joined the band full-time.
In early 2022, the band toured the US with Whitechapel and Revocation. In fall of 2022, the band toured the US with Dark Funeral, Immolation and Black Anvil.
By January 2023, Cannibal Corpse had begun working on their sixteenth studio album, which was listed by Revolver magazine as one of the "55 Most Anticipated Albums" of the year. On June 22, 2023, the band released a new single "Blood Blind" and announced their next record, Chaos Horrific, would be released on September 22, 2023.
In 2023, the band toured the US on a co-headlining tour with Mayhem, along with Gorguts and Blood Incantation. The band toured Europe in the fall of 2024 with Municipal Waste and Immolation. During this tour, Erik Rutan's house suffered "catastrophic" damage from Hurricane Helene, which forced him to leave the tour early. The band completed the tour with Barrett assuming all guitar duties.
The band toured the US with Meshuggah and Carcass during the spring of 2025. In April, a couple made headlines after getting married during Cannibal Corpse's set on the Pittsburg stop of this tour.
The band announced a headlining tour of the US for the fall of 2025 with support from Municipal Waste and Fulci. Full of Hell was later added to the tour. Rob Barrett did not participate in the tour, and was substituted by former The Black Dahlia Murder guitarist Brandon Ellis.
== Artistry ==
=== Musical style and influences ===
Cannibal Corpse is a death metal band. Various publications have also classified the band as brutal death metal and old school death metal.
Founding guitarist Jack Owen described the band's first four albums: "Eaten is thrashy, Butchered is overwritten but in a good way, Tomb is abrasive and violent, and then The Bleeding was like 'okay slow it down and concentrate." He also said,:"You can hear everyone’s writing style in their own songs." Despite the increasing technical proficiency and polish on the band's studio releases throughout its career, the overall style has remained relatively unchanged, "in other words, zero chance of [any] stylistic experimentation," according to Greg Prato of AllMusic. According to former guitarist Pat O'Brien: "There are certain areas where we're not going to be able to go where other bands have gone. But we don't want to; we're Cannibal Corpse and we're just gonna do what we do." In an interview with Invisible Oranges, Webster stated: "Unless you’re an experimental metal band by nature, people don’t really want that experimentation, I don’t think. They want us to try and out-do what we’ve done – I don’t think people want us to stand still and put out the same album again and again but I think what they want is something stylistically consistent and hopefully even a little better than the last album. When bands go too far away from their style it’s generally not well received in the metal community. Consistency is a big part of our genre." In an interview with Guitar World, he said: "Some of the side projects I’ve done have allowed me to stretch out a little bit more [in terms of style], but Cannibal is really about being a big, heavy rhythm machine, and stepping out too much might detract from that." Mazurkiewicz is quoted saying: “I always hated when bands [...] changed their style, something happened. You’re so into the sound of a band and then all of a sudden – ‘wait, what happened? Why did they have to go in that direction? What’d they do?’ And you were let down big time. We never wanted to be that band, you know?”
The members of the band were originally inspired by thrash metal bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Testament, Dark Angel, S.O.D., Sadus, Sodom, Kreator, D.R.I. and Sacrifice, and early death metal bands such as Deicide, Possessed, Autopsy, Napalm Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel and Death. Both former vocalist Chris Barnes and current vocalist George Fisher have cited late Death vocalist Chuck Schuldiner as a major influence in their development as vocalists. Jack Owen also stated that he was influenced by Bay Area thrash bands such as Exodus in the beginning, and also stated that the band was influenced by Napalm Death and Sepultura. Webster has stated that the band was fond of early black metal bands such as Venom and Bathory in its early days as well, and Owen cited Celtic Frost as an early influence. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz said: "Nothing inspired me other than what we were doing. We were narrow-minded in those days. If it wasn't death metal, we weren't listening to it." On Tomb of the Mutilated, the band began drawing more technical and progressive influences from Florida death metal acts such as Atheist and Cynic. On the Hammer Smashed Face EP, the band paid tribute to English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, covering the song "Zero the Hero" from their 1983 album Born Again. In addition to Black Sabbath, the members of Cannibal Corpse have cited hard rock and metal bands such as AC/DC, Accept, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Mercyful Fate, Motörhead, Rush and Van Halen as their influences and inspirations.
=== Instrumentation and vocals ===
The band's sound is characterized by what is described as a "wall of sound", and its songwriting is described as "brutally aggressive but melodic." Guitarist Rob Barrett said "You can be melodic without having it sound happy or triumphant. We try to go for the more uglier sounding stuff." Many of the band's melodies make use of atonality. Guitarist Pat O'Brien said, “a lot of stuff that we have to put solos over is not in a particular key, or doesn’t fit in a particular scale pattern. [...] It’s totally free, it’s almost like jazz in a lot of ways, because you can get as crazy and as 'out there' as you want. [...] That’s why I like it. It’s not limited.” He also stated the band uses scales that "sound evil," such as the diminished and Hungarian minor scales. The band's early releases are recognized for their rawness, and have been described as being "live sounding." Bassist Alex Webster said: "I guess there’s little things I’d consider mistakes on [the early albums], but that captures something -- It gives them that live feel." A great deal of the band's early material was composed by original guitarist Bob Rusay, including tracks such as "Skull Full of Maggots," "Post-Mortal Ejaculaton," and "Beyond the Cemetery." His musical background was in punk rock, and his writing style was described by his bandmates as abrasive, unorthodox, and "offbeat." The guitar tone on early Cannibal Corpse releases, such as Butchered at Birth, has been characterized as a "beehive-wall of white noise." The band's later releases are generally considered to be more rhythmically and melodically complex, which was partially the result of Alex Webster's desire to explore the "technical side of music," beginning with Tomb of the Mutilated. According to Joel McIver of MusicRadar: "Behind the horrible song titles, lyrics and artwork lies a band of unexpected subtlety and skill."
The band's early releases are described as "a progressively over-the-top approach to gore-themed death metal that pushed the envelope in every imaginable way, from cover art to song titles to the music itself." In reviews of early albums, critics have made note of the unintelligible, "thundering," "grunting" death growls of vocalist Chris Barnes, who was called "one of the best growlers in the business". The writing process for the band's early releases were largely collaborative efforts. However, by the time of the writing for Tomb of the Mutilated, the band members began composing more material on their own, and beginning with Vile, songwriting credits began being attributed to individual band members.
The band's songwriting incorporates hooks into its lyrics, and vocal cadences and guitar riffs. VICE News assessed that the band's third album, Tomb of the Mutilated "sounds like death metal as pop – the genre stripped to its basics." Webster said: "We want the songs to be memorable, as long as there is no sacrifice in the level of heaviness. [...] Those two things should not have to be exclusive. I think you can have really catchy things that are all really heavy. I mean if we can manage to write some lyrics that are going to make you want to remember them and sing along to them each time they come around, then mission accomplished I think right?"
Chris Barnes' vocals on early Cannibal Corpse albums have been described as "indecipherable growls," while opting for a more intelligible style on The Bleeding. Barnes' vocals were generally characterized by a slower, groovier delivery style, while current vocalist George Fisher is noted for his highly intelligible, rapid-fire vocal delivery on later Cannibal Corpse releases, such as Vile and Kill.
According to Guitar World: "Webster’s galloping three-finger technique unlocks speed and accuracy that other bassists can only dream of; remarkably, he achieves great attack and clarity without the need for a pick."
=== Lyrical themes ===
The band's lyrics and song titles draw heavily on horror fiction, horror films and true crime. In the early years of the Florida death metal scene, the group was considered one of the most shocking and "least subtle" for its transgression of taste with its depiction of torture, murder, and mutilation, often in highly sexual, misogynistic and sadistic terms. According to Alex Webster: "We saw that a lot of bands in Florida seemed to have more of a darker, anti-religion thing going on, so we decided to do the gore thing with the art and lyrics." The band's lyrics have been characterized as "parading a revolting fascination with the human body," drawing comparisons to British extreme metal band Carcass, albeit "with a vividly cinematic perspective." Loudwire wrote that "it's hard to think of any other band so hyper-focused on tales of people getting killed in gruesome ways." George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher stated that the band does not sing about religion or politics, and described the band's songs as "short stories" that could be converted into horror films. He said: "We like gruesome, scary movies, and we want the lyrics to be like that." According to Webster: "Just by watching the news you can find plenty of inspiration – and then on top of that, you’ve got all the great horror movies and novels out there. There’s an unlimited amount of bad things happening in the world, real and imagined, so it’s not too hard for us to come up with stuff." Guitarist Rob Barrett has expressed his belief that the lyrical possibilities in death metal are "endless," and that limitations within the artform are nonexistent. He joked that "there's all [sorts of] new ways to talk about maming and killing and torturing."
The lyrics of original vocalist Chris Barnes have been described as "ludicrously over the top." Examples of macabre song titles from the band's early releases include “Entrails Ripped From a Virgin’s Cunt,” “Fucked With a Knife,” "Addicted to Vaginal Skin," "Meat Hook Sodomy" and “Post Mortal Ejaculation.” According to sociologist Natalie J. Purcell: "the lyrics of these songs contain terrifying lines describing morbid urges to slaughter and sexually exploit others, particularly the weak. Perhaps these songs are especially disturbing because they relate such tales from the perspective of the perpetrator." In his review of The Bleeding, Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic said that "it's worth noting for novices that this stuff isn't for the lighthearted and shouldn't be taken too seriously, even if songs titles like 'She Was Asking for It' perhaps go too far, even for this genre." Webster stated: "We’re not trying to make a happy story; we’re trying to make a negative, frightening story, and that requires sometimes very disturbing imagery. Chris never wanted to limit [himself], and he didn’t. You can see it in the lyrics that he wrote. He had no limits and some of it is really disturbing for that reason, but it’s what he felt he needed to do."
The lyrics on later releases by the band are considered to be less extreme and more mature than those written by Barnes. According to Joel McIver of The Quietus: "The band have evolved away from the blunt shock/splatter approach that they took in their earlier years. Nowadays the horrors that they write about are more streamlined and precise, the equivalent of graduating from whacking a person on the head with a stick to dissecting someone with a scalpel."
The band has stated that many of their song titles are made first, with the lyrical pieces being written around them.
== Impact and legacy ==
Alex Distefano of OC Weekly said Cannibal Corpse are "hands down, the undisputed kings of death metal." Quentin Thane Singer of Forbes said Cannibal Corpse are "by and large the face of the death metal sub-genre" and "one of metal’s most notorious and celebrated bands." Cannibal Corpse has been called "one of metal's goriest, most vile outfits." MusicRadar included the band on the site's list of the "scariest" bands or artists. Greg Prato of AllMusic said: "For the most part, as far as the genre of death metal goes, there is Cannibal Corpse, and there is a bunch of copycats." Bands known for emulating the band's sound during the 1990s have been dubbed "Cannibal Clones" by some publications. According to Chris Dick of Decibel: "I used to get a lot of demos back then and 9 out of 10 bands clearly had listened to Tomb of the Mutilated." Cannibal Corpse has been cited as an influence by extreme metal and heavy metal bands of numerous subgenres, including The Black Dahlia Murder, Disgorge, Whitechapel, All Shall Perish, Suicide Silence, Carnifex, Slipknot, As I Lay Dying, All That Remains and Escape the Fate.
Jordan Blum of Loudwire named Cannibal Corpse as one of the "Big Four" of death metal along with Death, Morbid Angel and The Black Dahlia Murder, and said the band were "perhaps the most widely memed group in [the genre]."
According to Jon Weiderhorn of Loudwire, Cannibal Corpse was influential in the development of the "even more extreme" style of death metal, goregrind.
In 2023, readers of Revolver voted Cannibal Corpse the "most brutal band of all time."
== Controversy and censorship ==
Cannibal Corpse's lyrics, song titles, album covers and merchandise artwork frequently feature transgressive and macabre imagery, including depictions of extreme violence. Throughout their career, the band has consistently defended the violent imagery in their work as simply artistic expression that is clearly fictional. Joel McIver of The Quietus wrote: "Almost as depressing as the song themes is the regularity with which the members of Cannibal Corpse have been forced to explain that a) no, they don't take their violent lyrics seriously, b) no, they don't advise that anyone tries these things at home and c) no, they themselves are not violent or in any way generally extreme as human beings." Bassist Alex Webster said: "Most Western music is people singing from the heart — singing to a girlfriend, so a lot of people are freaked out by our songs". The band's album covers are watercolor paintings (most often done by comic book artist Vincent Locke) that draw heavily on horror fiction and horror films, and are highly controversial. At various points in the band's career, several countries, such as Germany and Russia, have banned the group from performing within their borders, or have banned the sale and display of original Cannibal Corpse album covers.
Webster recalled: "It got to the point where it entered global politics. That's something I never imagined, and I never heard [Senator] Joe Lieberman actually say these words, but he said this about us: "[Cannibal Corpse] is deplorable. They have a song about having sex with a severed head." I wish I could have heard him say that shit. I'd love that sound bite." Vocalist George Fisher recalled: "people were bitching us out on TV but it was like ‘cool, you’re not hurting us and you’re telling millions of people who we are’ – good job." Original vocalist Chris Barnes, who wrote the lyrics to the band's first four albums, said: "I never did anything for controversy. That was more a nuisance. I wanted to just write something that was exciting to me. Controversy was secondary." According to Metal Blade Records president Brian Slagel: "There were times in Europe that were really scary, to the point where the local government said if they played their songs then [they] would arrest them immediately." Webster stated: "I think for our band in particular, a lot of the reason we have so much trouble is [because] we're so visible. I mean, there's a lot of great gore death metal bands out there that have lyrics that are even worse than what we do – which therefore means they're better – but they're just not as well known as us, so we catch a lot more heat."
Current vocalist George Fisher has stated that death metal is best understood as "art" and claims that far more violent art can be found at the Vatican; he expressed his belief that such depictions of violence are arguably more transgressive – as they actually happened. On the same topic, George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher stated the band does not sing about religion or politics, and that the band's songs are simply "short stories" that could be converted into horror films: "Really, that's all it is. We like gruesome, scary movies, and we want the lyrics to be like that. Yeah, it's about killing people, but it's not promoting it at all. Basically these are fictional stories, and that's it. And anyone who gets upset about it is ridiculous." Webster also said: "It's not like we're maniacs. People from outside the death metal scene get a little spooked sometimes because they just don't understand we're just doing this for entertainment. It's really ugly entertainment, but if we enjoy it, and it's harmless, why not?"
Some journalists have opined that some of the band's more extreme lyrics have not aged well within the context of a modern political climate. Brad Sanders of Stereogum wrote in 2021: "Some of Cannibal Corpse’s lyrics and artwork are, in fact, a little beyond the pale. Every song in the band’s discography depicts extreme violence, but few are interested in excavating its trauma, which means the less cartoonish the lyrics, the ickier they feel. That’s not an argument for censorship, but it is a fair warning that diving deep with Cannibal Corpse’s catalog is going to mean seeing and hearing some things that don’t necessarily hold up in 2021."
In response to accusations that his band's lyrics desensitize people to violence, Alex Webster argued death metal fans enjoy the music only because they know the violence depicted in its lyrics is not real: "If you really saw someone get their brains bashed in right in front of you, I think it would have a pretty dramatic impact [...] you'd react to it, no matter how many movies you've watched or how much gore metal you've listened to [...] even though we've got crazy entertainment now, our social realities are actually a bit more civilized than they were back then [...] we're not hanging people or whipping them in the street and I think that's positive improvement for any society". He also believes the violent lyrics can have positive value, saying "it's good to have anger music as a release."
George Fisher has dismissed the notion that extreme music "[undermines] the youth," sarcastically saying: "Yeah, because we want people to get arrested and not come to our shows. We want regular jobs – great plan!” He further stated: "There's nothing ever serious [in the lyrics]. We're not thinking of anybody in particular that we're trying to kill, or harm or anything." When pressed on his personal feelings in regard to performing some of Barnes' more extreme lyrics, being the father of two daughters, he stated: "If one of my daughters went to college and was raped or something [...] would I then want to play those songs on stage? I don’t know. I’d have to cross that bridge. I can understand how some people would be like, 'If it’s happening with you and your daughters, you should feel that uncomfortable with everybody,' and I don't have a problem with at least listening to people's opinions about it."
=== United States ===
In May 1995, then-US Senator Bob Dole accused Cannibal Corpse—along with hip hop acts including the Geto Boys and 2 Live Crew—of undermining the national character of the United States. A year later, the band came under fire again, this time as part of a campaign by William Bennett, Senator Joe Lieberman, then-Senator Sam Nunn, and National Congress of Black Women chair C. Delores Tucker to get major record labels—including Time Warner, Sony, Thorn-EMI, PolyGram and Bertelsmann—to "dump 20 recording groups [...] responsible for the most offensive lyrics".
=== Australia ===
As of October 23, 1996, the sale of any Cannibal Corpse audio recording then available was banned in Australia and all copies of such had been removed from music shops. At the time, the Australian Recording Industry Association and the Australian Music Retailers Association were implementing a system for identifying potentially offensive records, known as the "labelling code of practice".
All ten of Cannibal Corpse's albums, the live album Live Cannibalism, the boxed set 15 Year Killing Spree, the EP Worm Infested, and the single "Hammer Smashed Face" were re-released in Australia between 2006 and 2007, finally classified by ARIA and allowed for sale in Australia. However, they are all "restricted" and only sold to those over 18 years of age. Some are sold in "censored" and "uncensored" editions, which denotes the change of cover art. Despite this, when displayed in some stores, even the "uncensored" editions are censored manually.
After discussion of banning them from touring, Australian comedy act The Chaser did a lounge music version of their song "Rancid Amputation" on their show The Chaser's War on Everything, arguing that being able to perform the same song as lounge music on television proves that the music, and not the lyrics, is the problem.
=== Germany ===
In Germany, numerous albums have been indexed by the Federal Agency for Child and Youth Protection in the Media, which means that these albums may only be offered and sold to adults and must disappear from regular retail outlets.
Eaten Back to Life (1990), on the index since August 1995
Tomb of the Mutilated (1992), on the index since November 1995
Hammer Smashed Face EP (1993), on the index since November 1995
Worm Infested EP (2003), on the index since January 2005
Evisceration Plague (2009), on the index since April 2010
The indexed songs may only be played in front of an adult audience and the organizer must ensure that no minors attend the event by means of an age check.
Some albums have even been confiscated by the courts and may no longer even be sold to adults.
Butchered at Birth (1991), on the index since October 1991, confiscated since 1994
Created to Kill (2000, a bootleg release consisting of demo recordings), on the index since August 2011, confiscated since November 2012
Torture (2012), on the index since December 2012, confiscated since December 2013
Vile (1996), on the index since September 2015, confiscated since July 2017
In a 2004 interview, George Fisher attempted to recall what originally provoked the ban: "A woman saw someone wearing one of our shirts, I think she is a schoolteacher, and she just caused this big stink about it. So [now] we can't play anything from the first three records. And it really sucks because kids come up and they want us to play all the old songs — and we would — but they know the deal. We can't play 'Born in a Casket' but can play 'Dismembered and Molested'."
In a 2019 interview with Christa Jenal, the teacher behind the numerous banning proceedings, spoke about the band: "I have been dealing with the potential for brutalization in society for decades. In this context, I came across the band around 25 years ago because, as a teacher, I saw pupils wearing T-shirts depicting babies on grappling hooks. They were freely available on the market at the time. I've been educating people ever since. Cannibal Corpse is not the only band, but I see it as symptomatic of how far things can go when state institutions turn a blind eye.
=== Russia ===
Six of the eight planned shows from the band's 2014 Russian tour were canceled after protests from local Orthodox activists. A month before the tour, religious activist Dimitry Tsorionov said Cannibal Corpse's music was punishable under Russian law because it "incites religious division." He commented unfavorably on the lyrics, saying they promoted "death, violence, as well as various kinds of sexual perversion." The gig in Nizhny Novgorod was stopped halfway through the set, after police conducted a search for drugs at the venue. The concert in Saint Petersburg was canceled at the last minute because of unspecified "technical reasons", OMON arrived shortly after and arrested eighteen concertgoers. Cannibal Corpse members stated that Russian authorities threatened to detain the members if they performed because they did not have the correct work visas.
== Band members ==
Timeline
Recording timeline
== Discography ==
Studio albums
Eaten Back to Life (1990)
Butchered at Birth (1991)
Tomb of the Mutilated (1992)
The Bleeding (1994)
Vile (1996)
Gallery of Suicide (1998)
Bloodthirst (1999)
Gore Obsessed (2002)
The Wretched Spawn (2004)
Kill (2006)
Evisceration Plague (2009)
Torture (2012)
A Skeletal Domain (2014)
Red Before Black (2017)
Violence Unimagined (2021)
Chaos Horrific (2023)
== See also ==
Cannabis Corpse
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Cannibal Corpse discography at Discogs |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Mehretu#Exhibitions | Julie Mehretu | Julie Mehretu (born November 28, 1970) is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urban sociopolitical changes.
== Early life and education ==
Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1970, the first child of an Ethiopian college professor of geography and a Jewish American Montessori teacher. They fled the country in 1977 to escape political turmoil and moved to East Lansing, Michigan, for her father's teaching position in economic geography at Michigan State University.
A graduate of East Lansing High School, Mehretu received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and did a junior year abroad at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal, then attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1997. She was chosen for the CORE program at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, a residency that provided a studio, a stipend, and an exhibition at the museum.
== Art career ==
Mehretu's canvases incorporate elements from technical drawings of various urban buildings and linear illustrations of urban efficiency, including city grids and weather charts. The pieces do not contain any formal, consistent sense of depth, instead utilizing multiple points of view and perspective ratios to construct flattened re-imaginings of city life. Her drawings are similar to her paintings, with many layers forming complex, abstracted images of social interaction on a global scale. The relatively smaller-scale drawings are opportunities for exploration made during the time between paintings.
In 2002, Mehretu said of her work:
I think of my abstract mark-making as a type of sign lexicon, signifier, or language for characters that hold identity and have social agency. The characters in my maps plotted, journeyed, evolved, and built civilizations. I charted, analysed, and mapped their experience and development: their cities, their suburbs, their conflicts, and their wars. The paintings occurred in an intangible no-place: a blank terrain, an abstracted map space. As I continued to work I needed a context for the marks, the characters. By combining many types of architectural plans and drawings I tried to create a metaphoric, tectonic view of structural history. I wanted to bring my drawing into time and place.
Emperial Construction, Istanbul (2004) exemplifies Mehretu's use of layers in a city's history. Arabic lettering and forms that reference Arabic script scatter around the canvas. In Stadia I, II, and III (2004) Mehretu conveys the cultural importance of the stadium through marks and layers of flat shape. Each Stadia contains an architectural outline of a stadium, abstracted flags of the world, and references to corporate logos.
Mogamma: A Painting in Four Parts (2012), the collective name for four monumental canvases that were included in dOCUMENTA (13), relates to 'Al-Mogamma', the name of the all purpose government building in Tahrir Square, Cairo, which was both instrumental in the 2011 revolution and architecturally symptomatic of Egypt's post-colonial past. The word 'Mogamma', however, means 'collective' in Arabic and historically, has been used to refer to a place that shares a mosque, a synagogue and a church and is a place of multi faith. A later work, The Round City, Hatshepsut (2013) contains architectural traces of Baghdad, Iraq, itself – its title referring to the historical name given to the city in ancient maps. Another painting, Insile (2013) built up from a photo image of Believers' Palace amid civilian buildings, activates its surface with painterly ink gestures, blurring and effacing the ruins beneath.
In 2007, the investment bank Goldman Sachs gave Mehretu a $5 million commission for a lobby mural. The resulting work Mural was the size of a tennis court and consisted of overlaid financial maps, architectural drawings of financial institutions, and references to works by other artists. Calvin Tomkins of the New Yorker called it "the most ambitious painting I've seen in a dozen years", and another commentator described it as "one of the largest and most successful public art works in recent times".
While best known for large-scale abstract paintings, Mehretu has experimented with prints since graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was enrolled in the painting and printmaking program in the mid-1990s. Her exploration of printmaking began with etching. She has completed collaborative projects at professional printmaking studios across America, among them Highpoint Editions in Minneapolis, Crown Point Press in San Francisco, Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, and Derrière L'Étoile Studios and Burnet Editions in New York City.
Mehretu was a resident of the CORE Program, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, (1997–98) and the Artist-in-Residence Program at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2001). During a residency at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in 2003, she worked with thirty high school girls from East Africa. In the spring of 2007 she was the Guna S. Mundheim Visual Arts Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Later that year, she led a monthlong residency program with 40 art students from Detroit public high schools.
During her residency in Berlin, Mehretu was commissioned to create seven paintings by the Deutsche Guggenheim; titled Grey Area (2008–2009), the series explores the urban landscape of Berlin as a historical site of generation and destruction. The painting Vanescere (2007), a black-and-white composition that depicts what appears to be a maelstrom of ink and acrylic marks, some of which are sanded away on the surface of the linen support, propelled a layering process of subtraction in the Grey Area series. Parts of Fragment (2008–09) and Middle Grey (2007–09) feature this erasing technique. Another in the series that was painted in Berlin, Berliner Plätze (2008–09), holds a phantom presence of overlapped outlines of nineteenth-century German buildings that float as a translucent mass in the frame. The art historian Sue Scott has this to say of the Grey Area series: "In these somber, simplified tonal paintings, many of which were based on the facades of beautiful nineteenth-century buildings destroyed in World War II, one gets the sense of buildings in the process of disappearing, much like the history of the city she was depicting." As Mehretu explains in Ocula Magazine, "The whole idea of 20th-century progress and ideas of futurity and modernity have been shattered, in a way. All of this is what is informing how I am trying to think about space."
In 2017, Mehretu collaborated with jazz musician and interdisciplinary artist Jason Moran to create MASS (HOWL, eon)]. Presented at Harlem Parish as part of the Performa 17 biennial, MASS (HOWL, eon) took the audience on an intensive tour of Mehretu's canvas while musicians played the composition by Moran.
Mehrhtu's first work in painted glass was installed in 2024. The 85 foot (26 m) tall artwork, Uprising of the Sun, is inspired by a quote from Barack Obama delivered in a speech at a memorial ceremony for the civil-rights-era
Selma marches. It was installed as a window in the museum tower of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.
Mehretu is a member of the Artists Committee of Americans for the Arts.
Mehretu has created the 20th BMW art car (BMW M Hybrid V8) in 2024. The car bore the number 20 for the 24h of Le Mans in 2024 and crashed early in the race. It was repaired overnight and finished.
== Recognition ==
In 2000, Mehretu was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. She was the recipient of the 2001 Penny McCall Award and one of the 2005 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the "genius grant."
In 2013, Mehretu was awarded the Barnett and Annalee Newman Award, and in 2015, she received the US Department of State Medal of Arts from Secretary of State John Kerry. In 2020, Time magazine included Mehretu in its list of the 100 most influential people. In 2023, German automaker BMW selected Mehretu to paint its annual "art car" for entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
Art critic for The Australian newspaper Christopher Allen described Mehretu's work as "the last feeble gasp of an overhyped and exhausted New York art market".
Mehretu is included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020. The following year, The New York Times described her as a "rare example of a contemporary Black female painter who has already entered the canon."
In 2023, she was one of two women artists whose work was among the top ten in contemporary auction sale price.
== Notable works in public collections ==
In 2016, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art commissioned Mehretu to create a diptych, with each massive painting flanking the staircase in the atrium which is accessible and free to the public. HOWL, eon (I, II) (2016-2017) was first exhibited to the public on September 2, 2017. To facilitate the creation of the scale of the diptych, Mehretu used a decommissioned church in Harlem as her studio to create. Throughout the creation of her piece, she collaborated with jazz pianist Jason Moran. HOWL, eon (I, II) is a political commentary on the history of the western United States' landscape, including the San Francisco Bay Area. The foundation of each work contains digitally abstracted photos from recent race riots, street protests, and nineteenth-century images of the American West.
== Exhibitions ==
In 2001, Mehretu participated in the exhibition Painting at the Edge of the World at the Walker Art Center. She later was one of 38 artists whose work was exhibited in the 2004-5 Carnegie International: A Final Look. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including one at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (2000). Her work has appeared in Freestyle exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2001); The Americans at the Barbican Gallery in London (2001); White Cube gallery in London (2002), the Busan Biennale in Korea (2002); the 8th Baltic Triennial in Vilnius, Lithuania (2002); and Drawing Now: Eight Propositions (2002) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Mehretu's work was also included in the "In Praise of Doubt" exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in the summer of 2011 as well as dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel in 2012. In 2014, she participated in The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami.
In 2021, the Whitney Museum of American Art devoted an entire floor to a retrospective of Mehretu's career. Mehretu's work is included in Every Sound Is a Shape of Time, a 2024 collections-based exhibition organized by the Pérez Art Museum Miami and curated by Franklin Sirmans, the museum director.
The first exhibition dedicated to Mehretu in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, titled A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory, was held by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, from November 2024 to April 2025.
== Art market ==
Mehretu's painting Untitled 1 (2001) sold for $1.02 million at Sotheby's in September 2010. Its estimated value had been $600–$800,000. At Art Basel in 2014, White Cube sold Mehretu's Mumbo Jumbo (2008) for $5 million. In 2023, Michael Ovitz sold Mehretu's Walkers With the Dawn and Morning (2008) for $10.7 million, setting a new record both for the artist herself and any artist born in Africa.
In 2005, Mehretu's work was the object of the Lehmann v. The Project Worldwide case before the New York Supreme Court, the first case brought by a collector regarding their right to secure primary access to contemporary art. The case involved legal issues over her work and the right of first refusal contracts between her then-gallery and a collector. In return for a $75,000 loan by the collector Jean-Pierre Lehmann to the Project Gallery, made in February 2001, the gallery was to give Lehmann a right of first refusal on any work by any artist the gallery represented, and at a 30 per cent discount until the loan was repaid. Lehmann saw this loan as direct access to Mehretu's work, however, there were four other individuals who were also given right of first choice from the gallery's represented artists. The gallery sold 40 works by Mehretu during the period of the contract, with some offered for discounts of up to 40 percent. Lehmann saw that several Mehretu pieces available in the catalog of the Walker Art Center had been sold to collector Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and suspected that the agreement was not being kept. He subsequently wrote Haye demanding $17,500, and, after no offer of Mehretu pieces was made, he filed suit. The case, eventually won by Lehmann, revealed to a wider public precisely what prices and discounts galleries offer various collectors on paintings by Mehretu and other contemporary artists – information normally concealed by the art world.
In October 2023, Mehretu broke the auction record for an African artist at Sotheby's Hong Kong, with her piece Untitled (2001), which sold for $9.32 million.
== Personal life ==
Mehretu lives in a two-story house in Harlem. She married artist Jessica Rankin in 2008, with whom she has two children, Cade Elias (born 2005) and Haile (born 2011); her mother-in-law is author and poet Lily Brett. The couple separated in 2014.
Mehretu maintains a studio in Chelsea near the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2004, she co-founded – together with Lawrence Chua and Paul Pfeiffer – Denniston Hill, an artist residency on a 200-acre campus in Sullivan County, New York. She also worked from an old arms factory in Berlin in 2007 and the former St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem from 2016 to 2017.
In October 2024, The Whitney Museum announced that Mehretu had donated more than two million dollars to its "Free 25 and Under" program that provides free access to museum guests under the age of twenty-five.
== References ==
== External links ==
Website of her gallery carlier | gebauer including CV and works Archived February 28, 2024, at the Wayback Machine
Julie Mehretu at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis
Julie Mehretu at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Julie Mehretu interviewed for Ethiopian Passages Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
2010 article including an image of Untitled 1 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon%27s_psychedelic_Rolls-Royce#Exhibitions | John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce | John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce is an art car created in 1967 and later displayed in many museums.
After previously owning a used Rolls-Royce, John Lennon of the Beatles ordered a new bespoke Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine in December 1964. Originally painted matte black, the car was delivered six months later in June 1965. When Lennon was in Spain filming How I Won the War in 1966, the car was damaged, including scuffing of its finish. Lennon decided to have the car repainted bright yellow and decorated with motifs from Romany decorative arts. Artist Steve Weaver embellished the car with elaborate, bright swirls and floral motifs in the psychedelic style associated with the Beatles in that era, and the vehicle became a sensation.
Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono donated it to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum for a tax deduction in 1977, and it has been widely exhibited ever since. When sold in 1985, it was the most expensive automobile ever to be auctioned at that time. The limousine is now owned by the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, British Columbia.
== Background ==
The Beatles were formed in Liverpool in 1960, and by 1962, their line-up was solidified when Ringo Starr joined the band. Beatlemania began in the United Kingdom in 1963, and rapidly spread to the United States and then worldwide in 1964, and all the members of the band quickly became very wealthy.
John Lennon purchased a used black and maroon Rolls-Royce limousine in July 1964. By December, he decided to buy a new one.
== Original purchase ==
In December 1964, Lennon ordered the Phantom V from R.S. Mead Ltd, a dealer located in Maidenhead. The Phantom V was the most expensive Rolls-Royce model at that time. The chassis was built in Crewe, Cheshire, and the carriage work was done by Mulliner Park Ward, a Rolls-Royce subsidiary in Willesden.
The finished car was delivered 3 June 1965, at R.S. Mead. It is nineteen feet ten inches (6.05 m) long, six feet seven inches (2.01 m) wide, and weighs almost three metric tons (3.0 long tons; 3.3 short tons). "Traditional amenities" included "the 6.23-litre V8 engine, black leather upholstery, cocktail cabinet with fine wood trim, writing table, reading lamps, a seven-piece his-and-hers black-hide luggage set, and a Perdio portable television." Unusual features included a refrigerator in the trunk (boot) and tinted windows. All exterior parts of the vehicle were painted matte black, except for the distinctive chrome Rolls-Royce grille, which the company was not willing to produce in black. Lennon did not have a driving licence when he ordered the car but got it within a few months. He was a poor driver, though, and hired Les Anthony as his driver and bodyguard. The Beatles rode the limousine to Buckingham Palace on 26 October 1965, to receive their MBE honours from Queen Elizabeth II.
== First renovation in December 1965 ==
In December 1965, Lennon wrote a seven-page memo describing various modifications to the Rolls-Royce that he wanted. A new back seat was installed that could be converted into a double bed, and large ashtrays were installed in the armrests. A Philips "floating" record player was installed, that had a suspension system "that prevented the needle from jumping when the car was in use." A Philips 8-track tape player, an upgraded Sony TV set and a bulky radio telephone were also installed. Lennon was particularly fond of the new public address system, which allowed him to shout out to passersby, and play various sound effects.
== Second renovation, April–May 1967 ==
In late 1966, Lennon spent six weeks acting in the film How I Won the War, much of which was filmed on location in Almería, Spain. Les Anthony drove the Rolls-Royce to and from Spain. While in Spain, Lennon frequently spent extended periods of spare time sitting in the back of the car, smoking marijuana and working on the song that became the hit single "Strawberry Fields Forever". Roads in the area were in poor condition and very sandy. As a result, the car's exhaust pipes, undercarriage and matte black paint job were damaged. The structural damage was repaired quickly, but Lennon devoted more time to planning the repainting, which was inspired in part by the artwork associated with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Accounts differ as to who gave Lennon the idea, with some crediting Ringo Starr and others Dutch designer of psychedelic art, Marijke Koger. Koger and her associates in the design collective "The Fool" had previously repainted a gypsy caravan that Lennon purchased as a birthday gift for his young son Julian.
On 8 April 1967, Lennon visited J.P. Fallon Ltd. to make design decisions. The car was sprayed bright yellow using latex paint. Steve Weaver was the artist who painted the ornate decorations. Weaver charged £290 (equivalent to £6,649 in 2023) for the job, and the car was ready to be picked up on 25 May, the day before
the release of the widely acclaimed album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The driver Anthony said, "The first time I drove it, I was followed by hordes of photographers and Pathé news".
The car's inaugural voyage was on 28 May, when Lennon and eight friends were driven to an album release and housewarming party at the new home of Brian Epstein, where the Sgt. Pepper's album was played interspersed with Procol Harum and their hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", which had been released two weeks earlier.
Lennon delighted in telling an anecdote about how an older woman had lost her temper upon seeing the psychedelic Rolls-Royce, saying, according to Lennon, "You swine! How dare you do that to a Rolls-Royce!", and how she had struck the car with her umbrella.
In 1968, Lennon purchased another Phantom V, this one painted white. In 1970, Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono, moved the car from London to New York.
The car appeared at Lennon's 31st birthday party in Syracuse, New York, in October 1971, and was loaned out to other musicians including Elton John and Bob Dylan and members of bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Moody Blues.
== Critical reception ==
Rolling Stone described the design as a "lurid Romany floral/zodiac hybrid", adding that the design consisted of "red, orange, green and blue art nouveau swirls, floral side panels and Lennon's astrological symbol, Libra, on the roof" painted on a background that the Daily Mail described as "shrieking yellow". The Royal BC Museum described the design as "Romany Gypsy style, with elements of the psychedelic era." British GQ called its base "a shade of not-so-mellow yellow" and finished with "a combo of Romany swirls, floral motifs and a zodiac sign for good measure." Montecristo magazine in Vancouver described "its bright chrome yellow body and floral side panels of dahlias and delphiniums", adding "Its bonnet and boot are decorated with colourful curlicue scrollwork, and its roof sports a stylized symbol of Libra, the zodiac sign of its first owner."
CTV News called it a "classic car of epic proportions" and "art on wheels"
describing its "bright, Romany-inspired floral design" and quoted a museum curator calling it a "magical object". HotCars in Quebec called it "probably one of the most famous art cars ever made".
== Donation, auction and subsequent ownership ==
In December 1977, Lennon and Ono donated the limousine to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, a Manhattan branch of the Smithsonian Institution, for a $250,000 tax credit. Lennon was murdered by an obsessed fan in New York in December 1980. As late as 1987, Ono and the estate of John Lennon were disputing the size of the tax credit with the Internal Revenue Service, which repeatedly claimed that the car was worth no more than $100,000 when it was donated.
In June 1985, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum decided to sell the car, which was auctioned by Sotheby's in New York, and it was purchased by Canadian businessman Jim Pattison for US$2,299,000. According to Sotheby's, this was the highest auction price for a car at that time. Pattison used it to promote Expo 86 in Vancouver. In 1987, Pattison donated the car to the Province of British Columbia, where it was exhibited at the Transportation Museum of British Columbia until 1993. It was then transferred to the Royal British Columbia Museum, and has remained the property of that institution ever since.
== Exhibitions ==
The vehicle was briefly displayed at the National Museum of History and Technology, now known as the National Museum of American History, in 1978. The car was then shown at the "Ornament in the 20th Century" exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, held from October 1978 to January 1979.
After Pattison bought the car in 1985, he showed it at several Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museums that he owned, and then displayed it at Expo 86. He then donated the vehicle to the Province of British Columbia.
The vehicle was exhibited from March 2013 to March 2014 in Montréal, at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, as part of an exhibition called "The Beatles in Montréal".
In 2015, it was shown at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver for the "Magical Mystery Tour: A Beatles Memorabilia Exhibition". In July and August 2017, Lennon's psychedelic limousine was part of "The Great Eight Phantoms", an exhibition of Rolls-Royces at Bonhams in London.
Except when it is loaned out for exhibits elsewhere, the car is often displayed by the Royal British Columbia Museum.
== Maintenance ==
The yellow base coat applied to the car is a common latex house paint as opposed to an automotive-grade paint. As a result, the paint is very fragile, and museum curators are very cautious when caring for the vehicle. They never use polishing cloths on the painted surfaces, and touch up any minor paint losses with tiny brushes. According to the Royal British Columbia Museum, "in order to maintain the moving parts, the Royal BC Museum must run the vehicle at least once a year. Each time the vehicle is moved, doors and hoods opened or closed, and the engine vibrates, the paint is put at risk. Care for the John Lennon Rolls-Royce has been a delicate balancing act between keeping the moving parts in order and preserving the delicate paint."
The car had been stored for long periods without proper maintenance, which resulted in old fuel clogging the carburetors. After the fuel system was cleaned and some electrical and brake system work was completed in 2020, "it purrs like a kitten in a creamery now", according to a mechanic who helps maintain it.
== References ==
== External links ==
Bonhams – Preliminary artwork by Steve Weaver |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Azad#:~:text=Biography-,Early%20life,come%20to%20India%20from%20Herat. | Maulana Azad | Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958), better known as Maulana Azad and sometimes referred as Abul Kalam Azad, was an Indian writer, activist of the Indian independence movement and statesman. A senior leader of the Indian National Congress, following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.
As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu, as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. After the failure of the Khilafat Movement, he became closer to the Congress. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.
In October 1920, Azad was elected as a member of foundation committee to establish Jamia Millia Islamia at Aligarh in U. P. without taking help from British colonial government. He assisted in shifting the campus of the university from Aligarh to New Delhi in 1934. The main gate (Gate No. 7) to the main campus of the university is named after him.
Azad was one of the main organizers of the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, and emerged as one of the most important national leaders of the time, prominently leading the causes of Hindu–Muslim unity as well as espousing secularism and socialism. He served as Congress president from 1940 to 1945, during which the Quit India rebellion was launched. Azad was imprisoned, together with the entire Congress leadership. He also worked for Hindu–Muslim unity through the Al-Hilal newspaper.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Azad was born on 11 November 1888 in Mecca, then a part of the Ottoman Empire, now a part of Saudi Arabia. His real name was Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin, but he eventually became known as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Azad's forefathers had come to India from Herat. His father was a Muslim scholar who lived in Delhi with his maternal grandfather, as his father had died at a very young age. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, he left India and settled in Mecca. His father Muhammad Khairuddin bin Ahmed Al Hussaini wrote twelve books, had thousands of disciples, and claimed noble ancestry, while his mother was Sheikha Alia bint Mohammad, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad bin Zaher AlWatri, himself a reputed scholar from Medina who had a reputation that extended even outside of Arabia.
Azad settled in Calcutta with his family in 1890.
=== Education and influences ===
Azad was home-schooled by the teachers hired by his family. Following fluency in Arabic as a first language, Azad began to master several other languages including Bengali, Hindustani, Persian, and English. He was also trained in the Madhabs of Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali fiqh, Shariat, mathematics, philosophy, world history, and science by tutors hired by his family. An avid and determined student, the precocious Azad was running a library, a reading room, and a debating society before he was twelve; wanted to write on the life of Al-Ghazali at twelve; was contributing learned articles to Makhzan (a literary magazine) at fourteen; was teaching a class of students, most of whom were twice his age, when he was fifteen; and completed the traditional course of study at the age of sixteen, nine years ahead of his contemporaries, and brought out a magazine at the same age. At the age of thirteen, he was married to a young Muslim girl, Zulaikha Begum. Azad compiled many treatises interpreting the Qur'an, the Hadis, and the principles of Fiqh and Kalam.
=== Early journalistic career ===
Azad began his journalistic endeavours at an early age. In 1899 at the age of eleven he started publishing a poetical journal Nairang-e-Aalam at Calcutta and was already an editor of a weekly Al-Misbah in 1900. He contributed articles to Urdu magazines and journals such as Makhzan, Ahsanul Akhbar, and Khadang e Nazar.
In 1903, he brought out a monthly journal, Lissan-us-Sidq. It was published between December 1903 to May 1905 until its closure due to shortage of funds. He then joined Al-Nadwa, the Islamic theological journal of the Nadwatu l-Ulama on Shibli Nomani's invitation. He worked as editor of Vakil, a newspaper from Amritsar from April 1906 to November 1906. He shifted to Calcutta for a brief period where he was associated with Dar-ul-Saltunat. He returned to Amritsar after few months and resumed the editorship of Vakil, continuing to work there until July 1908.
=== Struggle for Indian Independence ===
In 1908, he took a trip of Egypt, Syria, Turkey and France where he came into contact with several revolutionaries such as followers of Kamal Mustafa Pasha, members of Young Turk Movement and Iranian revolutionaries. Azad developed political views considered radical for most Muslims of the time and became a full-fledged Indian nationalist. In his writing, Azad proved to be a fierce critic of both the British government and Muslim politicians; the former for its racial discrimination and refusal to provide for the needs of the Indian public, and the later for focusing on communal issues before matter of common-self interest (Azad pointedly rejected the All-India Muslim League's communal separatism). However, his views changed considerably when he met ethnically oriented Sunni revolutionary activists in Iraq and was influenced by their fervent anti-imperialism and Arab nationalism. Against common Muslim opinion of the time, Azad opposed the partition of Bengal in 1905 and became increasingly active in revolutionary activities, to which he was introduced by the prominent Hindu revolutionaries Aurobindo Ghosh and Shyam Sundar Chakravarty. Azad initially evoked surprise from other revolutionaries, but Azad won their praise and confidence by working secretly to organise revolutionaries activities and meetings in Bengal, Bihar and Bombay (now called Mumbai).
==== Al-Hilal and Khilafat movement ====
He established an Urdu weekly newspaper in 1912 called Al-Hilal from Calcutta, and openly attacked British policies while exploring the challenges facing common people. Espousing the ideals of Indian nationalism, Azad's publications were aimed at encouraging young Muslims into fighting for independence and Hindu-Muslim unity. With the onset of World War I, the British stiffened censorship and restrictions on political activity. Azad's Al-Hilal was consequently banned in 1914 under the Press Act.
In 1913, he was founding member of the Anjuman-i-Ulama-i-Bangala, which would become the Jamiat Ulema-e-Bangala branch of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1921. His work helped improve the relationship between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal, which had been soured by the controversy surrounding the partition of Bengal and the issue of separate communal electorates.
In this period Azad also became active in his support for the Khilafat agitation to protect the position of the Sultan of Ottoman Turkey, who was considered the Caliph or Khalifa for Muslims worldwide. The Sultan had sided against the British in the war and the continuity of his rule came under serious threat, causing distress amongst Muslim conservatives. Azad saw an opportunity to energise Indian Muslims and achieve major political and social reform through the struggle.
Azad started a new journal, the Al-Balagh, which also got banned in 1916 under the Defence of India Regulations Act and he was arrested. The governments of the Bombay Presidency, United Provinces, Punjab and Delhi prohibited his entry into the provinces and Azad was moved to a jail in Ranchi, where he was incarcerated until 1 January 1920.
==== Non-co-operation Movement ====
Upon his release, Azad returned to a political atmosphere charged with sentiments of outrage and rebellion against British rule. The Indian public had been angered by the passage of the Rowlatt Acts in 1919, which severely restricted civil liberties and individual rights. Consequently, thousands of political activists had been arrested and many publications banned. The killing of unarmed civilians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13 April 1919 had provoked intense outrage all over India, alienating most Indians, including long-time British supporters, from the authorities. The Khilafat struggle had also peaked with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the raging Turkish War of Independence, which had made the caliphate's position precarious. India's main political party, the Indian National Congress came under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, who had aroused excitement all over India when he led the farmers of Champaran and Kheda in a successful revolt against British authorities in 1918. Gandhi organised the people of the region and pioneered the art of Satyagraha— combining mass civil disobedience with complete non-violence and self-reliance.
Taking charge of the Congress, Gandhi also reached out to support the Khilafat struggle, helping to bridge Hindu-Muslim political divides. Azad and the Ali brothers – Maulana Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali – warmly welcomed Congress support and began working together on a programme of non-co-operation by asking all Indians to boycott British-run schools, colleges, courts, public services, the civil service, police and military. Non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity were universally emphasised, while the boycott of foreign goods, especially clothes were organised. Azad joined the Congress and was also elected president of the All India Khilafat Committee. Although Azad and other leaders were soon arrested, the movement drew out millions of people in peaceful processions, strikes and protests.
This period marked a transformation in Azad's own life. Along with fellow Khilafat leaders Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan and others, Azad grew personally close to Gandhi and his philosophy. The three men founded the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi as an institution of higher education managed entirely by Indians without any British support or control. Both Azad and Gandhi shared a deep passion for religion and Azad developed a close friendship with him. He adopted the Islamic prophet Muhammad's ideas by living simply, rejecting material possessions and pleasures. Becoming deeply committed to ahimsa (non-violence) himself, Azad grew close to fellow nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das and Subhas Chandra Bose. He strongly criticised the continuing suspicion of the Congress amongst the Muslim intellectuals from the Aligarh Muslim University and the Muslim League.
In 1921, he started the weekly Paigham which was also banned by December 1921. He along with the editor of Paigham, Abdul Razzak Mahilabadi was arrested by the government and sentenced to one year imprisonment.
During the course of 1922, both the Khilafat and the non cooperation movement suffered blow while Azad and other leaders like the Ali brothers were in jail. The movement had a sudden decline with rising incidences of violence; a nationalist mob killed 22 policemen in Chauri Chaura in 1922. Fearing degeneration into violence, Gandhi asked Indians to suspend the revolt and undertook a five-day fast to repent and encourage others to stop the rebellion. Although the movement stopped all over India, several Congress leaders and activists were disillusioned with Gandhi. By 1923, Ali brothers grew distant and critical of Gandhi and the Congress. Azad's close friend Chittaranjan Das co-founded the Swaraj Party, breaking from Gandhi's leadership. Despite the circumstances, Azad remained firmly committed to Gandhi's ideals and leadership.
In 1923, he became the youngest man to be elected Congress president. Azad led efforts to organise the Flag Satyagraha in Nagpur. Azad served as president of the 1924 Unity Conference in Delhi, using his position to work to re-unite the Swarajists and the Khilafat leaders under the common banner of the Congress. In the years following the movement, Azad travelled across India, working extensively to promote Gandhi's vision, education and social reform.
==== Congress leader ====
Azad served on the Congress Working Committee and in the offices of general secretary and president many times. The political environment in India re-energised in 1928 with nationalist outrage against the Simon Commission appointed to propose constitutional reforms. The commission included no Indian members and did not even consult Indian leaders and experts. In response, the Congress and other political parties appointed a commission under Motilal Nehru to propose constitutional reforms from Indian opinions. In 1928, Azad endorsed the Nehru Report, which was criticised by the Ali brothers and Muslim League politician Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Azad endorsed the ending of separate electorates based on religion, and called for an independent India to be committed to secularism. At the 1928 Congress session in Guwahati, Azad endorsed Gandhi's call for dominion status for India within a year. If not granted, the Congress would adopt the goal of complete political independence for India. Despite his affinity for Gandhi, Azad also drew close to the young radical leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Bose, who had criticised the delay in demanding full independence. Azad developed a close friendship with Nehru and began espousing socialism as the means to fight inequality, poverty and other national challenges. Azad decided the name of Muslim political party Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam. He was also a friend of Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, founder of All India Majlis-e-Ahrar. When Gandhi embarked on the Dandi Salt March that inaugurated the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, Azad organised and led the nationalist raid, albeit non-violent on the Dharasana salt works to protest the salt tax and restriction of its production and sale. The biggest nationalist upheaval in a decade, Azad was imprisoned along with millions of people, and would frequently be jailed from 1930 to 1934 for long periods of time. Following the Gandhi–Irwin Pact in 1931, Azad was amongst millions of political prisoners released. When elections were called under the Government of India Act 1935, Azad was appointed to organise the Congress election campaign, raising funds, selecting candidates and organising volunteers and rallies across India. Azad had criticised the Act for including a high proportion of un-elected members in the central legislature, and did not himself contest a seat. He again declined to contest elections in 1937, and helped head the party's efforts to organise elections and preserve co-ordination and unity amongst the Congress governments elected in different provinces.
At the 1936 Congress session in Lucknow, Azad was drawn into a dispute with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari regarding the espousal of socialism as the Congress goal. Azad had backed the election of Nehru as Congress president, and supported the resolution endorsing socialism. In doing so, he aligned with Congress socialists like Nehru, Subhash Bose and Jayaprakash Narayan. Azad also supported Nehru's re-election in 1937, at the consternation of many conservative Congressmen. Azad supported dialogue with Jinnah and the Muslim League between 1935 and 1937 over a Congress-League coalition and broader political co-operation. Less inclined to brand the League as obstructive, Azad nevertheless joined the Congress's vehement rejection of Jinnah's demand that the League be seen exclusively as the representative of Indian Muslims.
==== Quit India Movement ====
In 1938, Azad served as an intermediary between the supporters of and the Congress faction led by Congress president Subhash Bose, who criticised Gandhi for not launching another rebellion against the British and sought to move the Congress away from Gandhi's leadership. Azad stood by Gandhi with most other Congress leaders, but reluctantly endorsed the Congress's exit from the assemblies in 1939 following the inclusion of India in World War II. Nationalists were infuriated that Viceroy Lord Linlithgow had entered India into the war without consulting national leaders. Although willing to support the British effort in return for independence, Azad sided with Gandhi when the British ignored the Congress overtures. Azad's criticism of Jinnah and the League intensified as Jinnah called Congress rule in the provinces as "Hindu Raj", calling the resignation of the Congress ministries as a "Day of Deliverance" for Muslims. Jinnah and the League's separatist agenda was gaining popular support amongst Muslims. Muslim religious and political leaders criticised Azad as being too close to the Congress and placing politics before Muslim welfare. As the Muslim League adopted a resolution calling for a separate Muslim state (Pakistan) in its session in Lahore in 1940, Azad was elected Congress president in its session in Ramgarh. Speaking vehemently against Jinnah's Two-Nation Theory—the notion that Hindus and Muslims were distinct nations—Azad lambasted religious separatism and exhorted all Muslims to preserve a united India, as all Hindus and Muslims were Indians who shared deep bonds of brotherhood and nationhood. In his presidential address, Azad said:
"Full eleven centuries have passed by since then. Islam has now as great a claim on the soil of India as Hinduism. If Hinduism has been the religion of the people here for several thousands of years, Islam also has been their religion for a thousand years. Just as a Hindu can say with pride that he is an Indian and follows Hinduism, so also we can say with equal pride that we are Indians and follow Islam. I shall enlarge this orbit still further. The Indian Christian is equally entitled to say with pride that he is an Indian and is following a religion of India, namely Christianity."
In face of increasing popular disenchantment with the British across India, Gandhi and Patel advocated an all-out rebellion demanding immediate independence. Azad was wary and sceptical of the idea, aware that India's Muslims were increasingly looking to Jinnah and had supported the war. Feeling that a struggle would not force a British exit, Azad and Nehru warned that such a campaign would divide India and make the war situation even more precarious. Intensive and emotional debates took place between Azad, Nehru, Gandhi and Patel in the Congress Working Committee's meetings in May and June 1942. In the end, Azad became convinced that decisive action in one form or another had to be taken, as the Congress had to provide leadership to India's people and would lose its standing if it did not.
Supporting the call for the British to "Quit India", Azad began exhorting thousands of people in rallies across the nation to prepare for a definitive, all-out struggle. As Congress president, Azad travelled across India and met with local and provincial Congress leaders and grass-roots activists, delivering speeches and planning the rebellion. Despite their previous differences, Azad worked closely with Patel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad to make the rebellion as effective as possible. On 7 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank in Mumbai, Congress president Azad inaugurated the struggle with a vociferous speech exhorting Indians into action. Just two days later, the British arrested Azad and the entire Congress leadership. While Gandhi was incarcerated at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, Azad and the Congress Working Committee were imprisoned at a fort in Ahmednagar, where they would remain under isolation and intense security for nearly four years. Outside news and communication had been largely prohibited and completely censored. Although frustrated at their incarceration and isolation, Azad and his companions attested to feeling a deep satisfaction at having done their duty to their country and people.
Azad occupied the time playing bridge and acting as the referee in tennis matches played by his colleagues. In the early mornings, Azad began working on his classic Urdu work, the Ghubhar-i-Khatir. Sharing daily chores, Azad also taught the Persian and Urdu languages, as well as Indian and world history to several of his companions. The leaders would generally avoid talking of politics, unwilling to cause any arguments that could exacerbate the pain of their imprisonment. However, each year on 26 January, which was then considered Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) Day, the leaders would gather to remember their cause and pray together. Azad, Nehru and Patel would briefly speak about the nation and the future. Azad and Nehru proposed an initiative to forge an agreement with the British in 1943. Arguing that the rebellion had been mistimed, Azad attempted to convince his colleagues that the Congress should agree to negotiate with the British and call for the suspension of disobedience if the British agreed to transfer power. Although his proposal was overwhelmingly rejected, Azad and a few others agreed that Gandhi and the Congress had not done enough. When they learnt of Gandhi holding talks with Jinnah in Mumbai in 1944, Azad criticised Gandhi's move as counter-productive and ill-advised.
==== Partition of India ====
With the end of the war, the British agreed to transfer power to Indian hands. All political prisoners were released in 1946 and Azad led the Congress in the elections for the new Constituent Assembly of India, which would draft India's constitution. He headed the delegation to negotiate with the British Cabinet Mission, in his sixth year as Congress president. While attacking Jinnah's demand for Pakistan and the mission's proposal of 16 June 1946 that envisaged the partition of India, Azad became a strong proponent of the mission's earlier proposal of 16 May. The proposal advocated a federal system with a limited central government and autonomy for the provinces. The central government would have Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication while the provinces would win all other subjects unless they voluntarily relinquished selected subjects to the Central Government. Additionally, the proposal called for the "grouping" of provinces on religious lines, which would informally band together the Muslim-majority provinces in the West as Group B, Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Assam as Group C and the rest of India as Group A. While Gandhi and others expressed scepticism of this clause, Azad argued that Jinnah's demand for Pakistan would be buried and the concerns of the Muslim community would be assuaged. Under Azad and Patel's backing, the Working Committee approved the resolution against Gandhi's advice. Azad also managed to win Jinnah's agreement to the proposal citing the greater good of all Indian Muslims.
Azad had been the Congress president since 1939, so he volunteered to resign in 1946. He nominated Nehru, who replaced him as Congress president and led the Congress into the interim government. Azad was appointed to head the Department of Education. However, Jinnah's Direct Action Day agitation for Pakistan, launched on 16 August sparked communal violence across India. Thousands of people were killed as Azad travelled across Bengal and Bihar to calm the tensions and heal relations between Muslims and Hindus. Despite Azad's call for Hindu-Muslim unity, Jinnah's popularity amongst Muslims soared and the League entered a coalition with the Congress in December, but continued to boycott the constituent assembly. Later in his autobiography, Azad indicated Patel having become more pro-partition than the Muslim League, largely due to the League's not co-operating with the Congress in the provisional government on any issue.
Azad had grown increasingly hostile to Jinnah, who had described him as the "Muslim Lord Haw-Haw" and a "Congress Showboy." Muslim League politicians accused Azad of allowing Muslims to be culturally and politically dominated by the Hindu community. Azad continued to proclaim his faith in Hindu-Muslim unity:
"I am proud of being an Indian. I am part of the indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me this splendid structure is incomplete. I am an essential element, which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim."
Amidst more incidences of violence in early 1947, the Congress-League coalition struggled to function. The provinces of Bengal and Punjab were to be partitioned on religious lines, and on 3 June 1947 the British announced a proposal to partition India on religious lines, with the princely states free to choose between either dominion. The proposal was hotly debated in the All India Congress Committee, with Muslim leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan expressing fierce opposition. Azad privately discussed the proposal with Gandhi, Patel and Nehru, but despite his opposition was unable to deny the popularity of the League and the unworkability of any coalition with the League. Faced with the serious possibility of a civil war, Azad abstained from voting on the resolution, remaining silent and not speaking throughout the AICC session, which ultimately approved the plan.
Azad, committed to a united India until his last attempt, was condemned by the advocates of Pakistan, especially the Muslim League.
=== Post-Independence career ===
India's partition and independence on 15 August 1947 brought with it a scourge of violence that swept the Punjab, Bihar, Bengal, Delhi and many other parts of India. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly created Pakistan for India, and millions of Muslims fled for West Pakistan and East Pakistan, created out of East Bengal. Violence claimed the lives of an estimated one million people, almost entirely in Punjab. Azad took up responsibility for the safety of Muslims in India, touring affected areas in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and the Punjab, guiding the organisation of refugee camps, supplies and security. Azad gave speeches to large crowds encouraging peace and calm in the border areas and encouraging Muslims across the country to remain in India and not fear for their safety and security. Focusing on bringing the capital of Delhi back to peace, Azad organised security and relief efforts, but was drawn into a dispute with the Deputy prime minister and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel when he demanded the dismissal of Delhi's police commissioner, who was a Sikh accused by Muslims of overlooking attacks and neglecting their safety. Patel argued that the commissioner was not biased, and if his dismissal was forced it would provoke anger amongst Hindus and Sikhs and divide the city police. In Cabinet meetings and discussions with Gandhi, Patel and Azad clashed over security issues in Delhi and Punjab, as well as the allocation of resources for relief and rehabilitation. Patel opposed Azad and Nehru's proposal to reserve the houses vacated by Muslims who had departed for Pakistan for Muslims in India displaced by the violence. Patel argued that a secular government could not offer preferential treatment for any religious community, while Azad remained anxious to assure the rehabilitation of Muslims in India, secularism, religious freedom and equality for all Indians. He supported provisions for Muslim citizens to make avail of Muslim personal law in courts.
Azad remained a close confidante, supporter and advisor to prime minister Nehru, and played an important role in framing national policies. Azad masterminded the creation of national programmes of school and college construction and spreading the enrolment of children and young adults into schools, to promote universal primary education. He was elected to the lower house of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha in 1952 from Rampur Lok Sabha seat. In 1957 he re-contested Rampur and also dually contested the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in Punjab (modern-day Haryana), where he won on both seats. Gurgaon had a significant Muslim Meo population making it a safe seat for Azad.
Azad supported Nehru's socialist economic and industrial policies, as well as the advancing social rights and economic opportunities for women and underprivileged Indians. In 1956, he served as president of the UNESCO General Conference held in Delhi. Azad spent the final years of his life focusing on writing his book India Wins Freedom, an exhaustive account of India's freedom struggle and its leaders. About 30 of the pages of this book were published about 30 years after Azad's death in 1988 as per his own wish.
As India's first Minister of Education, he emphasised on educating the rural poor and girls. As Chairman of the Central Advisory Board of Education, he gave thrust to adult literacy, universal primary education, free and compulsory for all children up to the age of 14, girl's education, and diversification of secondary education and vocational training.
Addressing the conference on All India Education on 16 January 1948, Maulana Azad emphasised,
We must not for a moment forget, it is a birthright of every individual to receive at least the basic education without which he cannot fully discharge his duties as a citizen.
He oversaw the setting up of the Central Institute of Education, Delhi, which later became the Department of Education of the University of Delhi as "a research centre for solving new educational problems of the country". Under his leadership, the Ministry of Education established the first Indian Institute of Technology in 1951 and the University Grants Commission in 1953., He also laid emphasis on the development of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Faculty of Technology of the Delhi University. He foresaw a great future in the IITs for India:I have no doubt that the establishment of this Institute will form a landmark in the progress of higher technological education and research in the country.
== Literary works ==
Azad wrote many books including India Wins Freedom, Ghubar-e-Khatir, and Tazkirah Tarjumanul Quran (Urdu تذکرہ ترجمان القُران).
=== Ghubar-e-Khatir ===
Ghubar-e-Khatir (Sallies of Mind), (Urdu: غُبارِخاطِر) is one of the most important works of Azad, written primarily during 1942 to 1946 when he was imprisoned in Ahmednagar Fort in Maharashtra by British Raj while he was in Bombay (now Mumbai) to preside over the meeting of All India Congress Working Committee.
The book is basically a collection of 24 letters he wrote addressing his close friend Maulana Habibur Rahman Khan Sherwani. These letters were never sent to him because there was no permission for that during the imprisonment and after the release in 1946, he gave all these letters to his friend Ajmal Khan who let it published for the first time in 1946.
Although the book is a collection of letters but except one or two letters, all other letters are unique and most of the letters deal with complex issues such as existence of God, the origin of religions, the origin of music and its place in religion, etc.
The book is primarily an Urdu language book; however, there are over five hundred of couplets, mostly in Persian and Arabic languages. It is because, Maulana was born in a family where Arabic and Persian were used more frequently than Urdu. He was born in Mekkah, given formal education in Persian and Arabic languages but he was never taught Urdu.
It is often said that his book India Wins Freedom is about his political life and Ghubar-e-Khatir deals with his social and spiritual life.
== Legacy and influence ==
The Ministry of Minority Affairs of the central Government of India set up the Maulana Azad Education Foundation in 1989 on the occasion of his birth centenary to promote education amongst educationally backward sections of the Society. The Ministry also provides the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad National Fellowship, an integrated five-year fellowship in the form of financial assistance to students from minority communities to pursue higher studies such as M.Phil. and PhD In 1992 government of India honoured by giving posthumously Bharat Ratna.
Numerous institutions across India have also been named in his honour. Some of them are the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology in Bhopal, the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad, Maulana Azad Centre for Elementary and Social Education (MACESE Delhi University), the Maulana Azad College, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology in West Bengal, Maulana Azad College of Engineering and Technology in Patna, Bab – e – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Gate No. 7), Jamia Millia Islamia, a central (minority) university in New Delhi, the Maulana Azad Library in the Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh and Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. His home housed the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies earlier, and is now the Maulana Azad Museum. The National Education Day, an annual observance in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India, who served from 15 August 1947 until his death on 22 February 1958. The National Education Day of India is celebrated on 11 November every year in India.
He is celebrated as one of the founders and greatest patrons of the Jamia Millia Islamia. Azad's tomb is located next to the Jama Masjid in Delhi. In recent years great concern has been expressed by many in India over the poor maintenance of the tomb. On 16 November 2005 the Delhi High Court ordered that the tomb of Maulana Azad in New Delhi be renovated and restored as a major national monument. Azad's tomb is a major landmark and receives large numbers of visitors annually.
Jawaharlal Nehru referred to him as Mir-i-Karawan (the caravan leader), "a very brave and gallant gentleman, a finished product of the culture that, in these days, pertains to few". Mahatma Gandhi remarked about Azad by counting him as "a person of the calibre of Plato, Aristotle and Pythagorus".
Azad was portrayed by actor Virendra Razdan in the 1982 biographical film, Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough.
A television series, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, aired on DD National in the 1990s and starred Mangal Dhillon in the title role. DD Urdu aired Seher Hone Tak, a docudrama television series by Lavlin Thadani based on his life and political career, with Aamir Bashir portraying the role of Azad. It was later shortened and re-released as the film Aashiq-e-Vatan - Maulana Azad. Woh Jo Tha Ek Massiah Maulana Azad, a 2019 biographical film about Azad was directed by Rajendra Gupta Sanjay and Sanjay Singh Negi, with Linesh Fanse playing the title role.
His birthday, 11 November is celebrated as National Education Day in India.
Commemorative stamps released by India Post (by year):
== See also ==
Cyrus the Great as Dhul-Qarnayn, a theory proposed by Azad
Indian Council for Cultural Relations, international cultural promotion organization founded by Azad
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Cited sources ==
Gandhi, R (1990). Patel: A Life. Navajivan, Ahmedabad.
Pant, Vijay Prakash (2010). "MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD: A Critical Analysis Life and Work". The Indian Journal of Political Science. 71 (4): 1311–1323. ISSN 0019-5510. JSTOR 42748956.
Qaiyoom, Nishat (2012). "Maulana Azad's Journalistic Crusade Against Colonialism". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 73: 678–685. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44156263.
Douglas, Ian Henderson (1993). Abul Kalam Azad: An Intellectual and Religious Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-563279-8.
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
Abul Kalam Azad at Encyclopædia Britannica
APJ Abdul Kalam Scholarship Archived 30 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
Azad's Careers – Roads taken and roads not taken – Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Contemporary South Asia By Aijaz Ahmad
An Introduction to Abul Kalam Azad & collection of his quotes – Eminent Indian freedom fighters Vol2 Chapter 11 p. 310 By S.K. Sharma
Abu'l Kalam Azad, Chapter 44, pp. 325–333, Modernist Islam, 1840–1940: a sourcebook By Charles Kurzman
National Education Day 2012 Celebrated at Sangam University Bhilwara Rajasthan
Some Rare Speeches of Maulana Azad in the Audio Archives of Bhatkallys.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa | Maria Theresa | Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position in her own right. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Slavonia, Mantua, Milan, Moravia, Galicia and Lodomeria, Dalmatia, Austrian Netherlands, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, Austrian Silesia, Tyrol, Styria and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress.
Maria Theresa started her 40-year reign when her father, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, died on 20 October 1740. Charles VI paved the way for her accession with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and spent his entire reign securing it through international diplomacy. He neglected the advice of Prince Eugene of Savoy, who believed that a strong military and a rich treasury were more important than mere signatures. Eventually, Charles VI left behind a weakened and impoverished state, particularly due to the War of the Polish Succession and the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739). Moreover, upon his death, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiated the sanction they had recognised during his lifetime. Frederick II of Prussia (who became Maria Theresa's greatest rival for most of her reign) promptly invaded and took the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia in the eight-year conflict known as the War of the Austrian Succession. In defiance of the grave situation, she managed to secure the vital support of the Hungarians for the war effort. During the course of the war, Maria Theresa successfully defended her rule over most of the Habsburg monarchy, apart from the loss of Silesia and a few minor territories in Italy. Maria Theresa later unsuccessfully tried to recover Silesia during the Seven Years' War.
Although she was expected to cede power to her husband, Emperor Francis I, and her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa ruled as an autocratic sovereign with the counsel of her advisers. She promulgated institutional, financial, medical, and educational reforms, with the assistance of Wenzel Anton of Kaunitz-Rietberg, Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, and Gerard van Swieten. She also promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and reorganised Austria's ramshackle military, all of which strengthened Austria's international standing. A pious Catholic, she despised Freemasons, Jews and Protestants, and on certain occasions she ordered their expulsion to remote parts of the realm. She also advocated for the Catholic Church.
== Birth and early life ==
The second and eldest surviving child of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Archduchess Maria Theresa was born on 13 May 1717 in Vienna, six months after the death of her elder brother, Archduke Leopold Johann, and was baptised on that same evening. The dowager empresses, her aunt Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg and grandmother Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, were her godmothers. Most descriptions of her baptism stress that the infant was carried ahead of her cousins, Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia, the daughters of Charles VI's elder brother and predecessor, Joseph I, before the eyes of their mother, Wilhelmine Amalia. It was clear that Maria Theresa would outrank them, even though their grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, had had his sons sign the Mutual Pact of Succession, which gave precedence to the daughters of the elder brother. Her father was the only surviving male member of the House of Habsburg and hoped for a son who would prevent the extinction of his dynasty and succeed him. Thus, the birth of Maria Theresa was a great disappointment to him and the people of Vienna; Charles never managed to overcome this feeling.
Maria Theresa replaced Maria Josepha as heir presumptive to the Habsburg realms the moment she was born; Charles VI had issued the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 which had placed his nieces behind his own daughters in the line of succession. Charles sought the other European powers' approval for disinheriting his nieces. They exacted harsh terms: in the Treaty of Vienna (1731), Great Britain demanded that Austria abolish the Ostend Company in return for its recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction. In total, Great Britain, France, Saxony, United Provinces, Spain, Prussia, Russia, Denmark, Sardinia, Bavaria, and the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire recognised the sanction. France, Spain, Saxony, Bavaria, and Prussia later reneged.
Little more than a year after her birth, Maria Theresa was joined by a sister, Maria Anna, and another one, named Maria Amalia, was born in 1724. The portraits of the imperial family show that Maria Theresa resembled Elisabeth Christine and Maria Anna. The Prussian ambassador noted that she had large blue eyes, fair hair with a slight tinge of red, a wide mouth and a notably strong body. Unlike many other members of the House of Habsburg, neither Maria Theresa's parents nor her grandparents were closely related to each other.
Maria Theresa was a serious and reserved child who enjoyed singing and archery. She was barred from horse riding by her father, but she would later learn the basics for the sake of her Hungarian coronation ceremony. The imperial family staged opera productions, often conducted by Charles VI, in which she relished participating. Her education was overseen by Jesuits. Contemporaries thought her Latin to be quite good, but in all else, the Jesuits did not educate her well. Her spelling and punctuation were unconventional and she lacked the formal manner and speech which had characterised her Habsburg predecessors. Maria Theresa developed a close relationship with Countess Marie Karoline von Fuchs-Mollard, who taught her etiquette. She was educated in drawing, painting, music and dancing – the disciplines which would have prepared her for the role of queen consort. Her father allowed her to attend meetings of the council from the age of 14 but never discussed the affairs of state with her. Even though he had spent the last decades of his life securing Maria Theresa's inheritance, Charles never prepared his daughter for her future role as sovereign.
== Marriage ==
The question of Maria Theresa's marriage was raised early in her childhood. Leopold Clement of Lorraine was first considered to be the appropriate suitor, and he was supposed to visit Vienna and meet the Archduchess in 1723. These plans were forestalled by his death from smallpox that year. Leopold Clement's younger brother, Francis Stephen, was invited to Vienna. Even though Francis Stephen was his favourite candidate for Maria Theresa's hand, the Emperor considered other possibilities. Religious differences prevented him from arranging his daughter's marriage to the Protestant prince Frederick of Prussia. In 1725, he betrothed her to Charles of Spain and her sister, Maria Anna, to Philip of Spain. However, other European powers compelled him to renounce the pact he had made with the Queen of Spain, Elisabeth Farnese, and the betrothal to Charles was broken off. Maria Theresa, who had become close to Francis Stephen, was relieved.
Francis Stephen remained at the imperial court until 1729, when he ascended the throne of Lorraine, but was not formally promised Maria Theresa's hand until 31 January 1736, during the War of the Polish Succession. Louis XV of France demanded that Maria Theresa's fiancé surrender his ancestral Duchy of Lorraine to accommodate his father-in-law, Stanisław I, who had been deposed as king of Poland. Francis Stephen was to receive the Grand Duchy of Tuscany upon the death of childless Grand Duke Gian Gastone de' Medici. The couple were married on 12 February 1736 at the Augustinian Church in Vienna. The Duchess of Lorraine's love for her husband was strong and possessive. The letters she sent to him shortly before their marriage expressed her eagerness to see him; his letters, on the other hand, were stereotyped and formal. She was very jealous of her husband and his infidelity was the greatest problem of their marriage, with Maria Wilhelmina, Princess of Auersperg, as his best-known mistress.
Upon Gian Gastone's death on 9 July 1737, Francis Stephen ceded Lorraine and became grand duke of Tuscany. In 1738, Charles VI sent the young couple to make their formal entry into Tuscany. The Triumphal Arch of the Lorraine was erected at the Porta Galla in celebration, where it remains today. Their stay in Florence was brief. Charles VI soon recalled them, as he feared he might die while his heiress was miles away in Tuscany. In the summer of 1738, Austria suffered defeats during the ongoing Russo-Turkish War. The Turks reversed Austrian gains in Serbia, Wallachia, and Bosnia. The Viennese rioted at the cost of the war. Francis Stephen was popularly despised, as he was thought to be a cowardly French spy. The war was concluded the next year with the Treaty of Belgrade.
== Accession ==
Charles VI died on 20 October 1740, probably of mushroom poisoning. He had ignored the advice of Prince Eugene of Savoy who had urged him to concentrate on filling the treasury and equipping the army rather than on acquiring signatures of fellow monarchs. The Emperor, who spent his entire reign securing the Pragmatic Sanction, left Austria in an impoverished state, bankrupted by the recent Turkish war and the War of the Polish Succession; the treasury contained only 100,000 florins, which were claimed by his widow. The army had also been weakened due to these wars; instead of the full number of 160,000, the army had been reduced to about 108,000, and they were scattered in small areas from the Austrian Netherlands to Transylvania, and from Silesia to Tuscany. They were also poorly trained and discipline was lacking. Later Maria Theresa even made a remark: "as for the state in which I found the army, I cannot begin to describe it."
Maria Theresa found herself in a difficult situation. She did not know enough about matters of state and she was unaware of the weakness of her father's ministers. She decided to rely on her father's advice to retain his counselors and to defer to her husband, whom she considered to be more experienced, on other matters. Both decisions later gave cause for regret. Ten years later, Maria Theresa recalled in her Political Testament the circumstances under which she had ascended: "I found myself without money, without credit, without army, without experience and knowledge of my own and finally, also without any counsel because each one of them at first wanted to wait and see how things would develop."
She dismissed the possibility that other countries might try to seize her territories and immediately started ensuring the imperial dignity for herself; since a woman could not be elected Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresa wanted to secure the imperial office for her husband, but Francis Stephen did not possess enough land or rank within the Holy Roman Empire. In order to make him eligible for the imperial throne and to enable him to vote in the imperial elections as king of Bohemia (which she could not do because of her sex), Maria Theresa made Francis Stephen co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands on 21 November 1740. It took more than a year for the Diet of Hungary to accept Francis Stephen as co-ruler, since they asserted that the sovereignty of Hungary could not be shared. Despite her love for him and his position as co-ruler, Maria Theresa never allowed her husband to decide matters of state and often dismissed him from council meetings when they disagreed.
The first display of the new queen's authority was the formal act of homage of the Lower Austrian Estates to her on 22 November 1740. It was an elaborate public event which served as a formal recognition and legitimation of her accession. The oath of fealty to Maria Theresa was taken on the same day in the Ritterstube of the Hofburg.
== War of the Austrian Succession ==
Immediately after her accession, a number of European sovereigns who had recognised Maria Theresa as heir broke their promises. Queen Elisabeth of Spain and Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria, married to Maria Theresa's deprived cousin Maria Amalia and supported by Empress Wilhelmine Amalia, coveted portions of her inheritance. Maria Theresa did secure recognition from King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, who had not accepted the Pragmatic Sanction during her father's lifetime, in November 1740.
In December, Frederick II of Prussia invaded the Duchy of Silesia and requested that Maria Theresa cede it, threatening to join her enemies if she refused. Maria Theresa decided to fight for the mineral-rich province. Frederick even offered a compromise: he would defend Maria Theresa's rights if she agreed to cede to him at least a part of Silesia. Francis Stephen was inclined to consider such an arrangement, but the Queen and her advisers were not, fearing that any violation of the Pragmatic Sanction would invalidate the entire document. Maria Theresa's firmness soon assured Francis Stephen that they should fight for Silesia, and she was confident that she would retain "the jewel of the House of Austria". The resulting war with Prussia is known as the First Silesian War. The invasion of Silesia by Frederick was the start of a lifelong enmity; she referred to him as "that evil man".
As Austria was short of experienced military commanders, Maria Theresa released Marshal Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg, who had been imprisoned by her father for his poor performance in the Turkish War. Neipperg took command of the Austrian troops in March. The Austrians suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Mollwitz in April 1741. France drew up a plan to partition Austria between Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Spain: Bohemia and Upper Austria would be ceded to Bavaria, whose elector would become emperor, whereas Moravia and Upper Silesia would be granted to the Electorate of Saxony, Lower Silesia and Glatz to Prussia, and the entire Austrian Lombardy to Spain. Marshal Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle joined Frederick at Olmütz. Vienna was in a panic, as none of Maria Theresa's advisors had expected France to betray them. Francis Stephen urged Maria Theresa to reach a rapprochement with Prussia, as did Great Britain. Maria Theresa reluctantly agreed to negotiations.
Contrary to all expectations, the young Queen gained significant support from Hungary. Her coronation as queen of Hungary suo jure took place in St. Martin's Cathedral, Pressburg (today's Bratislava), on 25 June 1741. She had spent months honing the equestrian skills necessary for the ceremony and negotiating with the Hungarian Diet. To appease those who considered her gender to be a serious obstacle, Maria Theresa assumed masculine titles. Thus, in nomenclature, Maria Theresa was archduke and king; normally, however, she was styled as queen.
By July, attempts at conciliation had completely collapsed. Maria Theresa's ally, Augustus III of Poland, now became her enemy, and George II declared the Electorate of Hanover to be neutral. Therefore, she needed troops from Hungary in order to support the war effort. Although she had already won the admiration of the Hungarians, the number of volunteers was only in the hundreds. Since she required them in thousands or even tens of thousands, she decided to appear before the Hungarian Diet on 11 September 1741 while wearing the Holy Crown of Hungary. She began addressing the Diet in Latin, and she asserted that "the very existence of the Kingdom of Hungary, of our own person and children, and our crown, are at stake. Forsaken by all, we place our sole reliance in the fidelity and long-tried valor of the Hungarians." The response was rather boorish, with the Queen being questioned and even heckled by members of the Diet; someone cried that she "better apply to Satan than the Hungarians for help." However, she managed to show her gift for theatrical displays by holding her son and heir, Joseph, while weeping, and she dramatically consigned the future king to the defense of the "brave Hungarians". This act managed to win the sympathy of the members, and they declared that they would die for Maria Theresa.
In 1741, the Austrian authorities informed Maria Theresa that the Bohemian populace would prefer Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, to her as sovereign. Maria Theresa, desperate and burdened by pregnancy, wrote plaintively to her sister: "I don't know if a town will remain to me for my delivery." She bitterly vowed to spare nothing and no one to defend her kingdom when she wrote to the Bohemian chancellor, Count Philip Kinsky: "My mind is made up. We must put everything at stake to save Bohemia." On 26 October, the Elector of Bavaria captured Prague and declared himself king of Bohemia. Maria Theresa, then in Hungary, wept on learning of the loss of Bohemia. Charles Albert was unanimously elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VII on 24 January 1742, which made him the only non-Habsburg to be in that position since 1440. The Queen, who regarded the election as a catastrophe, caught her enemies unprepared by insisting on a winter campaign; the same day he was elected emperor, Austrian troops under Ludwig Andreas von Khevenhüller captured Munich, Charles Albert's capital.
The Treaty of Breslau of June 1742 ended hostilities between Austria and Prussia. With the First Silesian War at an end, the Queen soon made the recovery of Bohemia her priority. French troops fled Bohemia in the winter of the same year. On 12 May 1743, Maria Theresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia in St. Vitus Cathedral suo jure.
Prussia became anxious at Austrian advances on the Rhine frontier, and Frederick again invaded Bohemia, beginning a Second Silesian War; Prussian troops sacked Prague in August 1744. The French plans fell apart when Charles VII died in January 1745. The French overran the Austrian Netherlands in May.
Francis Stephen was elected Holy Roman Emperor on 13 September 1745. Prussia recognised Francis as emperor, and Maria Theresa once again recognised the loss of Silesia (with the exception of Austrian Silesia by the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745, ending the Second Silesian War). The wider war dragged on for another three years, with fighting in northern Italy and the Austrian Netherlands; however, the core Habsburg domains of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia remained in Maria Theresa's possession. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), which concluded the eight-year conflict, recognised Prussia's possession of Silesia, and Maria Theresa ceded the Duchy of Parma to Philip of Spain. France had successfully conquered the Austrian Netherlands, but Louis XV, wishing to prevent potential future wars with Austria, returned them to Maria Theresa.
== Seven Years' War ==
Frederick of Prussia's invasion of Saxony in August 1756 began a Third Silesian War and sparked the wider Seven Years' War. Maria Theresa and Prince Kaunitz wished to exit the war with possession of Silesia. Before the war started, Kaunitz had been sent as an ambassador to Versailles from 1750 to 1753 to win over the French. Meanwhile, the British rebuffed requests from Maria Theresa to aid her in reclaiming Silesia, and Frederick II himself managed to secure the Treaty of Westminster (1756) with them. Subsequently, Maria Theresa sent Georg Adam, Prince of Starhemberg, to negotiate an agreement with France, and the result was the First Treaty of Versailles of 1 May 1756. Thus, the efforts of Kaunitz and Starhemberg managed to pave a way for a Diplomatic Revolution; previously, France was one of Austria's archenemies together with Russia and the Ottoman Empire, but after the agreement, they were united by a common cause against Prussia. However, historians have blamed this treaty for France's devastating defeats in the war, since Louis XV was required to deploy troops in Germany and to provide subsidies of 25 – 30 million pounds a year to Maria Theresa that were vital for the Austrian war effort in Bohemia and Silesia.
On 1 May 1757, the Second Treaty of Versailles was signed, whereby Louis XV promised to provide Austria with 130,000 men in addition to 12 million florins yearly. They would also continue the war in Continental Europe until Prussia could be compelled to abandon Silesia and Glatz. In return, Austria would cede several towns in the Austrian Netherlands to the son-in-law of Louis XV, Philip of Parma, who in turn would grant his Italian duchies to Maria Theresa.
Maximilian von Browne commanded the Austrian troops. Following the indecisive Battle of Lobositz in 1756, he was replaced by Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Maria Theresa's brother-in-law. However, he was appointed only because of his familial relations; he turned out to be an incompetent military leader, and he was replaced by Leopold Joseph von Daun, Franz Moritz von Lacy and Ernst Gideon von Laudon. Frederick himself was startled by Lobositz; he eventually re-grouped for another attack in June 1757. The Battle of Kolín that followed was a decisive victory for Austria. Frederick lost one third of his troops, and before the battle was over, he had left the scene. Subsequently, Prussia was defeated at Hochkirch in Saxony on 14 October 1758, at Kunersdorf in Brandenburg on 12 August 1759, and at Landeshut near Glatz in June 1760. Hungarian and Croat light hussars led by Count Hadik raided Berlin in 1757. Austrian and Russian troops even occupied Berlin for several days in August 1760. However, these victories did not enable the Habsburgs to win the war, as the French and Habsburg armies were destroyed by Frederick at Rossbach in 1757. After the defeat in Torgau on 3 November 1760, Maria Theresa realised that she could no longer reclaim Silesia without Russian support, which vanished after the death of Empress Elizabeth in early 1762. In the meantime, France was losing badly in America and India, and thus they had reduced their subsidies by 50%. Since 1761, Kaunitz had tried to organise a diplomatic congress to take advantage of the accession of George III of Great Britain, as he did not really care about Germany. Finally, the war was concluded by the Treaty of Hubertusburg and Paris in 1763. Austria had to leave the Prussian territories that were occupied. Although Silesia remained under the control of Prussia, a new balance of power was created in Europe, and Austrian position was strengthened by it thanks to its alliance with the Bourbons in Madrid, Parma and Naples. Maria Theresa herself decided to focus on domestic reforms and refrain from undertaking any further military operations.
== Family life ==
=== Childbearing ===
Maria Theresa gave birth to sixteen children in nineteen years from 1737 to 1756. Thirteen survived infancy, but only ten survived into adulthood. The first child, Maria Elisabeth (1737–1740), was born a little less than a year after the wedding. The child's sex caused great disappointment and so would the births of Maria Anna, the eldest surviving child, and Maria Carolina (1740–1741). While fighting to preserve her inheritance, Maria Theresa gave birth to a son, Joseph, named after Saint Joseph, to whom she had repeatedly prayed for a male child during the pregnancy. Maria Theresa's favourite child, Maria Christina, was born on her 25th birthday, four days before the defeat of the Austrian army at Chotusitz. Five more children were born during the war: (the second) Maria Elisabeth, Charles, Maria Amalia, Leopold and (the second) Maria Carolina (b. & d. 1748). During this period, there was no rest for Maria Theresa during pregnancies or around the births; the war and child-bearing were carried on simultaneously. Five children were born during the peace between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War: Maria Johanna, Maria Josepha, (the third) Maria Carolina, Ferdinand and Maria Antonia. She delivered her last child, Maximilian Francis, during the Seven Years' War, aged 39. Maria Theresa asserted that, had she not been almost always pregnant, she would have gone into battle herself.
=== Illnesses and deaths ===
Four of Maria Theresa's children died before reaching adolescence. Her eldest daughter Maria Elisabeth died from stomach cramps at the age of three. Her third child, the first of three daughters named Maria Carolina, died shortly after her first birthday. The second Maria Carolina was born feet first in 1748. As it became evident that she would not survive, preparations were hastily made to baptize her while still living; according to traditional Catholic belief, unbaptized infants would be condemned to eternity in limbo. Maria Theresa's physician Gerard van Swieten assured her that the infant was still living when baptized, but many at court doubted this.
Maria Theresa's mother, Empress Elisabeth Christine, died in 1750. Four years later, Maria Theresa's governess, Marie Karoline von Fuchs-Mollard, died. She showed her gratitude to Countess Fuchs by having her buried in the Imperial Crypt along with the members of the imperial family.
Smallpox was a constant threat to members of the royal family. Maria Theresa's daughter Maria Christina survived a bout of the disease in July 1749, as did Maria Theresa's eldest son Joseph in January 1757. In January 1761, the disease killed her second son Charles at the age of fifteen. In December 1762, her twelve-year-old daughter Johanna likewise died in agony from the disease. In November 1763, Joseph's first wife, Isabella of Parma, died from the disease. Joseph's second wife, Maria Josepha of Bavaria, likewise caught the disease in May 1767 and died a week later. Maria Theresa ignored the risk of infection and embraced her daughter-in-law before the sick chamber was sealed to outsiders.
Maria Theresa in fact contracted smallpox from Maria Josepha. Throughout the city prayers were made for her recovery, and the sacrament was displayed in all churches. Joseph slept in one of his mother's antechambers and hardly left her bedside. On 1 June, Maria Theresa was given the last rites. When the news came in early June that she had survived the crisis, there was huge rejoicing at the court and amongst the populace of Vienna.
In October 1767, Maria Theresa's sixteen-year-old daughter Josepha also showed signs of the disease. It was assumed that she had caught the infection when she went with her mother to pray in the Imperial Crypt next to the unsealed tomb of Empress Maria Josepha. Archduchess Josepha started showing smallpox rash two days after visiting the crypt and soon died. Maria Carolina was to replace her as the pre-determined bride of King Ferdinand IV of Naples. Maria Theresa blamed herself for her daughter's death for the rest of her life because, at the time, the concept of an extended incubation period was largely unknown and it was believed that Josepha had caught smallpox from the body of the late empress. The last in the family to be infected with the illness was the twenty-four-year-old Elisabeth, Maria Theresa's sixth child. Although she recovered, she was badly scarred with pock marks from the illness. Maria Theresa's losses to smallpox, especially in the epidemic of 1767, were decisive in her sponsoring trials to prevent the illness through inoculation, and subsequently insisting on members of the imperial family receiving inoculation.
=== Dynastic marriage policy ===
Shortly after giving birth to the younger children, Maria Theresa was confronted with the task of marrying off the elder ones. She led the marriage negotiations along with the campaigns of her wars and the duties of state. She used them as pawns in dynastic games and sacrificed their happiness for the benefit of the state. A devoted but self-conscious mother, she wrote to all of her children at least once a week and believed herself entitled to exercise authority over her children regardless of their age and rank.
In April 1770, Maria Theresa's youngest daughter, Maria Antonia, married Louis, Dauphin of France, by proxy in Vienna. Maria Antonia's education was neglected, and when the French showed an interest in her, her mother went about educating her as best she could about the court of Versailles and the French. Maria Theresa kept up a fortnightly correspondence with Maria Antonia, now called Marie Antoinette, in which she often reproached her for laziness and frivolity and scolded her for failing to conceive a child.
Maria Theresa was not just critical of Marie Antoinette. She disliked Leopold's reserve and often blamed him for being cold. She criticized Maria Carolina for her political activities, Ferdinand for his lack of organization, and Maria Amalia for her poor French and haughtiness. The only child she did not constantly scold was Maria Christina, who enjoyed her mother's complete confidence, though she failed to please her mother in one aspect – she did not produce any surviving children.
One of Maria Theresa's greatest wishes was to have as many grandchildren as possible, but she had only about two dozen at the time of her death, of which all the eldest surviving daughters were named after her, with the exception of Princess Carolina of Parma, her eldest granddaughter by Maria Amalia.
== Religious views and policies ==
Like all members of the House of Habsburg, Maria Theresa was a Catholic, and a devout one. She believed that religious unity was necessary for a peaceful public life and explicitly rejected the idea of religious toleration. She even advocated for a state church and contemporary travelers criticized her regime as bigoted, intolerant and superstitious. However, she never allowed the church to interfere with what she considered to be prerogatives of a monarch and kept Rome at arm's length. She controlled the selection of archbishops, bishops and abbots. Overall, the ecclesiastical policies of Maria Theresa were enacted to ensure the primacy of state control in church-state relations. She was also influenced by Jansenist ideas. One of the most important aspects of Jansenism was the advocacy of maximum freedom of national churches from Rome. Although Austria had always stressed the rights of the state in relation to the church, Jansenism provided new theoretical justification for this.
Maria Theresa promoted the Greek Catholics and emphasized their equal status with Latin Church Catholics. Although Maria Theresa was a very pious person, she also enacted policies that suppressed exaggerated display of piety, such as the prohibition of public flagellantism. Furthermore, she significantly reduced the number of religious holidays and monastic orders.
=== Jesuits ===
Her relationship with the Jesuits was complex. Members of this order educated her, served as her confessors, and supervised the religious education of her eldest son. The Jesuits were powerful and influential in the early years of Maria Theresa's reign. However, the Queen's ministers convinced her that the order posed a danger to her monarchical authority. Not without much hesitation and regret, she issued a decree that removed them from all the institutions of the monarchy, and carried it out thoroughly. She forbade the publication of Pope Clement XIII's Apostolicum pascendi bull, which was in favour of the Jesuits, and promptly confiscated their property when Pope Clement XIV suppressed the order.
=== Jews ===
Maria Theresa regarded both the Jews and Protestants as dangerous to the state and actively tried to suppress them. She was probably the most anti-Jewish monarch of her time, having inherited the traditional prejudices of her ancestors and acquired new ones. This was a product of commonplace antisemitism and was not kept secret in her time. In 1777, she wrote of the Jews: "I know of no greater plague than this race, which on account of its deceit, usury and avarice is driving my subjects into beggary. Therefore as far as possible, the Jews are to be kept away and avoided." Her hatred was so deep that she was willing to tolerate Protestant businessmen and financiers in Vienna, such as the Swiss-born Johann von Fries, since she wanted to break free from the Jewish financiers.
In December 1744, she proposed to her ministers the expulsion of around 10,000 Jews from Prague amid accusations that they were disloyal at the time of the Bavarian-French occupation during the War of the Austrian Succession. The order was then expanded to all Jews of Bohemia and major cities of Moravia. Her first intention was to deport all Jews by 1 January, but having accepted the advice of her ministers, had the deadline postponed. The expulsion was executed only for Prague and only retracted in 1748 due to economic considerations and pressures from other countries, including Great Britain.
In the third decade of her reign, Maria Theresa issued edicts that offered some state protection to her Jewish subjects. She forbade the forcible conversion of Jewish children to Christianity in 1762, and in 1763 she forbade Catholic clergy from extracting surplice fees from her Jewish subjects. In 1764, she ordered the release of those Jews who had been jailed for a blood libel in the village of Orkuta. Notwithstanding her continuing strong dislike of Jews, Maria Theresa supported Jewish commercial and industrial activity in Austria. There were also parts of the realm where the Jews were treated better, such as Trieste, Gorizia and Vorarlberg.
=== Protestants ===
In contrast to Maria Theresa's efforts to expel the Jews, she aimed to convert the Protestants (whom she regarded as heretics) to Catholicism. Commissions were formed to seek out secret Protestants and intern them in workhouses, where they would be given the chance to subscribe to approved statements of Catholic faith. If they accepted, they were to be allowed to return to their homes. However, any sign of a return to Protestant practice was treated harshly, often by exile. Maria Theresa exiled Protestants from Austria to Transylvania, including 2,600 from Upper Austria in the 1750s. Her son and co-ruler Joseph regarded his mother's religious policies as "unjust, impious, impossible, harmful and ridiculous". Despite her policies, practical, demographic and economic considerations prevented her from expelling the Protestants en masse. In 1777, she abandoned the idea of expelling Moravian Protestants after Joseph, who was opposed to her intentions, threatened to abdicate as emperor and co-ruler. In February 1780, after a number of Moravians publicly declared their faith, Joseph demanded a general freedom to worship. However, Maria Theresa refused to grant this for as long as she lived. In May 1780, a group of Moravians who had assembled for a worship service on the occasion of her birthday were arrested and deported to Hungary. Freedom of religion was granted only in the Patent of Toleration issued by Joseph immediately after Maria Theresa's death.
=== Eastern Orthodox Christians ===
The policies of Maria Theresa's government toward their Eastern Orthodox subjects were marked by special interests, relating not only to complex religious situations in various southern and eastern regions of the Habsburg monarchy, inhabited by Eastern Orthodox Christians, mainly Serbs and Romanians, but also regarding the political aspirations of the Habsburg court toward several neighbouring lands and regions in Southeastern Europe still held by the declining Ottoman Empire and inhabited by an Eastern Orthodox population.
Maria Theresa's government confirmed (1743) and continued to uphold old privileges granted to their Eastern Orthodox subjects by previous Habsburg monarchs (emperors Leopold I, Joseph I and Charles VI), but at the same time, new reforms were enforced, establishing much firmer state control over the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Karlovci. Those reforms were initiated by royal patents, known as Regulamentum privilegiorum (1770) and Regulamentum Illyricae Nationis (1777), and finalized in 1779 by the Declaratory Rescript of the Illyrian Nation, a comprehensive document that regulated all major issues relating to the religious life of their Eastern Orthodox subjects and the administration of the Serbian Metropolitanate of Karlovci. Maria Theresa's rescript of 1779 was kept in force until 1868.
== Reforms ==
=== Institutional ===
Maria Theresa was as conservative in matters of state as in those of religion, but she implemented significant reforms to strengthen Austria's military and bureaucratic efficiency. She employed Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, who modernised the empire by creating a standing army of 108,000 men, paid for with 14 million florins extracted from crown lands. The central government was responsible for funding the army, although Haugwitz instituted taxation of the nobility, who had never before had to pay taxes. Moreover, after Haugwitz was appointed the head of the new central administrative agency, dubbed the Directory, (Directorium in publicis et cameralibus) in 1749, he initiated a radical centralization of state institutions down to the level of the District Office (Kreisamt). Thanks to this effort, by 1760 there was a class of government officials numbering around 10,000. However, the Duchy of Milan, the Austrian Netherlands and Hungary were almost completely untouched by this reform. In the case of Hungary, Maria Theresa was particularly mindful of her promise that she would respect the privileges in the kingdom, including the immunity of nobles from taxation.
In light of the failure to reclaim Silesia during the Seven Years' War, the governing system was once again reformed to strengthen the state. The Directory was transformed into the United Austrian and Bohemian Chancellery in 1761, which was equipped with a separate, independent judiciary and separate financial bodies. She also refounded the Hofkammer in 1762, which was a ministry of finances that controlled all revenues from the monarchy. In addition to this, the Hofrechenskammer, or exchequer, was tasked with the handling of all financial accounts. Meanwhile, in 1760, Maria Theresa created the Council of State (Staatsrat), composed of the state chancellor, three members of the high nobility and three knights, which served as a committee of experienced people who advised her. The council of state lacked executive or legislative authority; nevertheless, it showed the difference between the form of government employed by Maria Theresa and that of Frederick II of Prussia. Unlike the latter, Maria Theresa was not an autocrat who acted as her own minister. Prussia would adopt this form of government only after 1807.
Maria Theresa doubled the state revenue from 20 to 40 million florins between 1754 and 1764, though her attempt to tax clergy and nobility was only partially successful. These financial reforms greatly improved the economy. After Kaunitz became the head of the new Staatsrat, he pursued a policy of "aristocratic enlightenment" that relied on persuasion to interact with the estates, and he was also willing to retract some of Haugwitz's centralization to curry favour with them. Nonetheless, the governing system remained centralised, and a strong institution made it possible for Kaunitz to increase state revenues substantially. In 1775, the Habsburg monarchy achieved its first balanced budget, and by 1780, the Habsburg state revenue had reached 50 million florins.
=== Medicine ===
After Maria Theresa recruited Gerard van Swieten from the Netherlands, he also employed a fellow Dutchman named Anton de Haen, who founded the Viennese Medicine School (Wiener Medizinische Schule). Maria Theresa also banned the creation of new burial grounds without prior government permission, thus countering wasteful and unhygienic burial customs.
After the smallpox epidemic of 1767, she promoted inoculation, which she had learned of through her correspondence with Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony (who in turn probably knew of it through her own correspondence with Frederick the Great). After unsuccessfully inviting the Sutton brothers from England to introduce their technique in Austria, Maria Theresa obtained information on current practices of smallpox inoculation in England. She overrode the objections of Gerard van Swieten (who doubted the effectiveness of the technique), and ordered that it be tried on thirty-four newborn orphans and sixty-seven orphans between the ages of five and fourteen years. The trial was successful, establishing that inoculation was effective in protecting against smallpox, and safe (in the case of the test subjects). The Empress therefore ordered the construction of an inoculation centre, and had herself and two of her children inoculated. She promoted inoculation in Austria by hosting a dinner for the first sixty-five inoculated children in Schönbrunn Palace, waiting on the children herself. Maria Theresa was responsible for changing Austrian physicians' negative view of inoculation.
In 1770, she enacted a strict regulation of the sale of poisons, and apothecaries were obliged to keep a poison register recording the quantity and circumstances of every sale. If someone unknown tried to purchase a poison, that person had to provide two character witnesses before a sale could be effectuated. Three years later, she prohibited the use of lead in any eating or drinking vessels; the only permitted material for this purpose was pure tin.
=== Law ===
The centralization of the Habsburg government necessitated the creation of a unified legal system. Previously, various lands in the Habsburg realm had their own laws. These laws were compiled and the resulting Codex Theresianus could be used as a basis for legal unification. In 1769, the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana was published, and this was a codification of the traditional criminal justice system since the Middle Ages. This criminal code allowed the possibility of establishing the truth through torture, and it also criminalised witchcraft and various religious offenses. Although this law came into force in Austria and Bohemia, it was not valid in Hungary.
Maria Theresa is credited, however, in ending the witch hunts in Zagreb, opposing the methods used against Magda Logomer (also called Herrucina), who was the last prosecuted witch in Zagreb following her intervention.
She was particularly concerned with the sexual morality of her subjects. Thus, she established a Chastity Commission (Keuschheitskommission) in 1752 to clamp down on prostitution, homosexuality, adultery and even sex between members of different religions. This Commission cooperated closely with the police, and the Commission even employed secret agents to investigate private lives of men and women with bad reputations. They were authorised to raid banquets, clubs, and private gatherings, and to arrest those suspected of violating social norms. The punishments included whipping, deportation, or even the death penalty.
In 1776, Austria outlawed torture, at the particular behest of Joseph II. Much unlike Joseph, but with the support of religious authorities, Maria Theresa was opposed to the abolition of torture. Born and raised between Baroque and Rococo eras, she found it difficult to fit into the intellectual sphere of the Enlightenment, which is why she only slowly followed humanitarian reforms on the continent.
From an institutional perspective, in 1749, she founded the Supreme Judiciary as a court of final appeal for all hereditary lands.
=== Education ===
Throughout her reign, Maria Theresa made the promotion of education a priority. Initially this was focused on the wealthier classes. She permitted non-Catholics to attend university and allowed the introduction of secular subjects (such as law), which influenced the decline of theology as the main foundation of university education. Furthermore, educational institutions were created to prepare officials for work in the state bureaucracy: the Theresianum was established in Vienna in 1746 to educate nobles' sons, a military school named the Theresian Military Academy was founded in Wiener Neustadt in 1751, and an Oriental Academy for future diplomats was created in 1754.
In the 1770s, reform of the schooling system for all levels of society became a major policy. Stollberg-Rilinger notes that the reform of the primary schools in particular was the most long-lasting success of Maria Theresa's later reign, and one of the few policy agendas in which she was not in open conflict with her son and nominal co-ruler Joseph II. The need for the reform became evident after the census of 1770–1771, which revealed the widespread illiteracy of the populace. Maria Theresa thereupon wrote to her rival Frederick II of Prussia to request him to allow the Silesian school reformer Johann Ignaz von Felbiger to move to Austria. Felbiger's first proposals were made law by December 1774. Austrian historian Karl Vocelka observed that the educational reforms enacted by Maria Theresa were "really founded on Enlightenment ideas," although the ulterior motive was still to "meet the needs of an absolutist state, as an increasingly sophisticated and complicated society and economy required new administrators, officers, diplomats and specialists in virtually every area."
Maria Theresa's reform established secular primary schools, which children of both sexes from the ages of six to twelve were required to attend. The curriculum focused on social responsibility, social discipline, work ethic and the use of reason rather than mere rote learning. Education was to be multilingual; children were to be instructed first in their mother tongue and then in later years in German. Prizes were given to the most able students to encourage ability. Attention was also given to raising the status and pay of teachers, who were forbidden to take on outside employment. Teacher training colleges were established to train teachers in the latest techniques.
The education reform was met with considerable opposition. Predictably, some of this came from peasants who wanted the children to work in the fields instead. Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of all those opposed. However, much of the opposition came from the imperial court, particularly amongst aristocrats who saw their power threatened by the reformers or those who feared that that greater literacy would expose the population to Protestant or Enlightenment ideas. Felbiger's reforms were nevertheless pushed through, as a result of the consistent support of Maria Theresa and her minister Franz Sales Greiner. The reform of the primary schools largely met Maria Theresa's aim of raising literacy standards, as evidenced by the higher proportions of children who attended school; this was particularly the case in the Archdiocese of Vienna, where school attendance increased from 40% in 1780 to a sensational 94% by 1807. Nevertheless, high rates of illiteracy persisted in some parts of Austria, half of the population was illiterate well into the 19th century, The teacher training colleges (in particular the Vienna Normal School) produced hundreds of new teachers who spread the new system over the following decades. However, the number of secondary schools decreased, since the quantity of new schools founded failed to make up for the numbers of Jesuit schools abolished. As a result, secondary schooling became more exclusive.
=== Censorship ===
Her regime was also known for institutionalising censorship of publications and learning. English author Sir Nathaniel Wraxall once wrote from Vienna: "[T]he injudicious bigotry of the Empress may chiefly be attributed the deficiency [in learning]. It is hardly credible how many books and productions of every species, and in every language, are proscribed by her. Not only Voltaire and Rousseau are included in the list, from the immoral tendency or licentious nature of their writings; but many authors whom we consider as unexceptionable or harmless, experience a similar treatment." The censorship particularly affected works that were deemed to be against the Catholic religion. Ironically, for this purpose, she was aided by Gerard van Swieten who was considered to be an "enlightened" man.
=== Economy ===
Maria Theresa endeavoured to increase the living standards and quality of life of the people, since she could see a causal link between peasant living standards, productivity and state revenue. The Habsburg government under her rule also tried to strengthen its industry through government interventions. After the loss of Silesia, they implemented subsidies and trade barriers to encourage the move of Silesian textile industry to northern Bohemia. In addition, they cut back guild privileges, and internal duties on trade were either reformed or removed (such as the case for the Austrian-Bohemian lands in 1775).
In the late part of her reign, Maria Theresa undertook reform of the system of serfdom, which was the basis for agriculture in eastern parts of her lands (particularly Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary and Galicia). Although Maria Theresa had initially been reluctant to meddle in such affairs, government interventions were made possible by the perceived need for economic power and the emergence of a functioning bureaucracy. The census of 1770–1771 gave the peasants opportunity to express their grievances directly to the royal commissioners and made evident to Maria Theresa the extent to which their poverty was the result of the extreme demands for forced labour (called "robota" in Czech) by the landlords. On some estates, the landlords demanded that the peasants work up to seven days per week in tilling the nobles' land, so that the only time available for the peasants to till their own land was at night.
An additional prompt to reform was the famine which afflicted the empire in the early 1770s. Bohemia was particularly hard hit. Maria Theresa was increasingly influenced by the reformers Franz Anton von Blanc and Tobias Philipp von Gebler, who called for radical changes to the serf system to allow the peasants to make a living. In 1771–1778, Maria Theresa issued a series of "Robot Patents" (i.e. regulations regarding forced labour), which regulated and restricted peasant labour only in the German and Bohemian parts of the realm. The goal was to ensure that peasants not only could support themselves and their family members, but also help cover the national expenditure in peace or war.
By late 1772, Maria Theresa had decided on more radical reform. In 1773, she entrusted her minister Franz Anton von Raab with a model project on the crown lands in Bohemia: he was tasked to divide up the large estates into small farms, convert the forced labour contracts into leases, and enable the farmers to pass the leaseholds onto their children. Raab pushed the project through so successfully that his name was identified with the program, which became known as Raabisation. After the success of the program on the crown lands, Maria Theresa had it also implemented on the former Jesuit lands, as well as crown lands in other parts of her empire.
However, Maria Theresa's attempts to extend the Raab system to the great estates belonging to the Bohemian nobles were fiercely resisted by the nobles. They claimed that the crown had no right to interfere with the serf system, since the nobles were the original owners of the land and had allowed the peasants to work it on stipulated conditions. The nobles also claimed that the system of forced labour had no connection with the peasants' poverty, which was a result of the peasants' own wastefulness and the increased royal taxes. Somewhat surprisingly, the nobles were supported by Maria Theresa's son and co-ruler Joseph II, who had earlier called for the abolition of serfdom. In a letter to his brother Leopold, of 1775, Joseph complained that his mother intended to "abolish serfdom entirely and arbitrarily destroy the centuries-old property relations." He complained that "no consideration was being taken for the landlords, who were threatened with the loss of more than half their income. For many of them, who are carrying debts, this would mean financial ruin." By 1776, the court was polarized: on one side was a small reform party (including Maria Theresa, Raab, Blanc, Gebler and Greiner); on the conservative side were Joseph and the rest of the court. Joseph argued that it was difficult to find a middle way between the interests of the peasants and nobles; he suggested instead that the peasants negotiate with their landlords to reach an outcome. Joseph's biographer Derek Beales calls this change of course "puzzling". In the ensuing struggle, Joseph forced Blanc to leave the court. Because of the opposition, Maria Theresa was unable to carry out the planned reform and had to settle on a compromise. The system of serfdom was only abolished after Maria Theresa's death, in the Serfdom Patent (1781) issued (in another change of course) by Joseph II as sole ruler.
== Late reign ==
Emperor Francis died on 18 August 1765, while he and the court were in Innsbruck celebrating the wedding of his second surviving son, Leopold. Maria Theresa was devastated. Their eldest son, Joseph, became Holy Roman Emperor. Maria Theresa abandoned all ornamentation, had her hair cut short, painted her rooms black and dressed in mourning for the rest of her life. She completely withdrew from court life, public events, and theater. Throughout her widowhood, she spent the whole of August and the eighteenth of each month alone in her chamber, which negatively affected her mental health. She described her state of mind shortly after Francis's death: "I hardly know myself now, for I have become like an animal with no true life or reasoning power."
Upon his accession to the imperial throne, Joseph ruled less land than his father had in 1740, since he had given up his rights over Tuscany to Leopold, and thus he only controlled Falkenstein and Teschen. Believing that the Emperor must possess enough land to maintain his standing as emperor, Maria Theresa, who was used to being assisted in the administration of her vast realms, declared Joseph to be her new co-ruler on 17 September 1765. From then on, mother and son had frequent ideological disagreements. The 22 million florins that Joseph inherited from his father was injected into the treasury. Maria Theresa had another loss in February 1766 when Haugwitz died. She gave her son absolute control over the military following the death of Leopold Joseph von Daun.
According to Austrian historian Robert A. Kann, Maria Theresa was a monarch of above-average qualifications but intellectually inferior to Joseph and Leopold. Kann asserts that she nevertheless possessed qualities appreciated in a monarch: warm heart, practical mind, firm determination and sound perception. Most importantly, she was ready to recognise the mental superiority of some of her advisers and to give way to a superior mind while enjoying support of her ministers even if their ideas differed from her own. Joseph, however, was never able to establish rapport with the same advisers, even though their philosophy of government was closer to Joseph's than to Maria Theresa's.
The relationship between Maria Theresa and Joseph was not without warmth but was complicated and their personalities clashed. Despite his intellect, Maria Theresa's force of personality often made Joseph cower. Sometimes, she openly admired his talents and achievements, but she was also not hesitant to rebuke him. She even wrote: "We never see each other except at dinner ... His temper gets worse every day ... Please burn this letter ... I just try to avoid public scandal." In another letter, also addressed to Joseph's companion, she complained: "He avoids me ... I am the only person in his way and so I am an obstruction and a burden ... Abdication alone can remedy matters." After much contemplation, she chose not to abdicate. Joseph himself often threatened to resign as co-regent and emperor, but he, too, was induced not to do so. Her threats of abdication were rarely taken seriously; Maria Theresa believed that her recovery from smallpox in 1767 was a sign that God wished her to reign until death. It was in Joseph's interest that she remained sovereign, for he often blamed her for his failures and thus avoided taking on the responsibilities of a monarch.
Joseph and Prince Kaunitz arranged the First Partition of Poland despite Maria Theresa's protestations. Her sense of justice pushed her to reject the idea of partition, which would hurt the Polish people. She even once argued, "What right have we to rob an innocent nation that it has hitherto been our boast to protect and support?" The duo argued that it was too late to abort now. Besides, Maria Theresa herself agreed with the partition when she realised that Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine II of Russia would do it with or without Austrian participation. Maria Theresa claimed and eventually took Galicia and Lodomeria; in the words of Frederick, "the more she cried, the more she took".
A few years after the partition, Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). Following the signing of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774 that concluded the war, Austria entered into negotiations with the Sublime Porte. Thus, in 1775, the Ottoman Empire ceded the northwestern part of Moldavia (subsequently known as Bukovina) to Austria. Subsequently, on 30 December 1777, Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria died without leaving any children. As a result, his territories were coveted by ambitious men, including Joseph, who tried to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands. This alarmed Frederick II of Prussia, and thus the War of the Bavarian Succession erupted in 1778. Maria Theresa very unwillingly consented to the occupation of Bavaria, and a year later she made peace proposals to Frederick II despite Joseph's objections. Although Austria managed to gain the Innviertel area, this "Potato War" caused a setback to the financial improvement that the Empress had made. The 500,000 florins in annual revenue from 100,000 inhabitants of Innviertel were not comparable to the 100,000,000 florins that were spent during the war.
It is unlikely that Maria Theresa ever completely recovered from the smallpox attack in 1767, as 18th-century writers asserted. She suffered from shortness of breath, fatigue, cough, distress, necrophobia and insomnia. She later developed edema.
Maria Theresa fell ill on 24 November 1780. Her physician, Dr. Störk, thought her condition serious, although her son Joseph was confident that she would recover in no time. By 26 November, she asked for the last rites, and on 28 November, the doctor told her that the time had come. On 29 November, she died surrounded by her remaining children. Her body is buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna next to her husband in a coffin she had inscribed during her lifetime.
Her longtime rival Frederick the Great, on hearing of her death, said that she had honored her throne and her sex, and although he had fought against her in three wars, he never considered her his enemy. With her death, the House of Habsburg died out and was replaced by the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Joseph II, already co-sovereign of the Habsburg dominions, succeeded her and introduced sweeping reforms in the empire; Joseph produced nearly 700 edicts per year (or almost two per day), whereas Maria Theresa issued only about 100 edicts annually.
== Legacy ==
Maria Theresa understood the importance of her public persona and was able to simultaneously evoke both esteem and affection in her subjects; a notable example was how she projected dignity and simplicity to awe the people in Pressburg before she was crowned as Queen (Regnant) of Hungary. Her 40-year reign was considered to be very successful when compared to other Habsburg rulers. Her reforms had transformed the empire into a modern state with a significant international standing. She centralised and modernised its institutions, and her reign was considered as the beginning of the era of "enlightened absolutism" in Austria, with a brand new approach toward governing: the measures undertaken by rulers became more modern and rational, and thoughts were given to the welfare of the state and the people. Many of her policies were not in line with the ideals of the Enlightenment (such as her support of torture), and she was still very much influenced by Catholicism from the previous era. Vocelka even stated that "taken as a whole the reforms of Maria Theresa appear more absolutist and centralist than enlightened, even if one must admit that the influence of enlightened ideas is visible to a certain degree." Despite being among the most successful Habsburg monarchs and remarkable leaders of the 18th century, Maria Theresa has not captured the interest of contemporary historians or media, perhaps due her hardened nature.
=== Memorials and honours ===
A number of streets and squares were named after her throughout the empire as well as statues and monuments built. In Vienna a large bronze monument was built in her honour at Maria-Theresien-Platz in 1888. The Maria Theresia Garden Square (Uzhhorod) was constructed in her memory as recently as 2013.
The city of Subotica was renamed in her honor in 1779, as Maria-Theresiapolis, sometimes spelled as Maria-Theresiopel or Theresiopel.
A number of her descendants were named in her honour. These include:
Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1762–1770),
Maria Theresa of Austria (1767–1827),
Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily,
Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, Queen of Sardinia,
Marie Thérèse of France,
Maria Theresa of Austria (1801–1855),
Maria Teresa of Savoy (1803–1879),
Maria Theresa of Austria (1816–1867),
Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1817–1886),
Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1849–1919),
Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1867–1909), and
Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1862–1933). Her granddaughter Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily became Holy Roman Empress as well in 1792.
The Imperial and Royal Navy ship SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was laid down in 1891.
The Military Order of Maria Theresa was founded by her in 1757 and remained in existence until after World War I.
The Theresianum was founded by her in 1746 and is one of Austria's finest schools.
The Maria Theresa thaler was issued during her reign but was continued to be struck afterwards and became legal tender as far as the Persian Gulf region and Southeast Asia. The Austrian Mint continues to issue it.
Asteroid 295 Theresia was named in her honour in 1890.
The garrison town of Terezín (Theresienstadt) in Bohemia was constructed in 1780 and named after her.
A crystal chandelier with Bohemian crystal glass was named in her honour and is known as the Marie Therese chandelier.
22nd Volunteer Cavalry Division 'Maria Theresa' (1943–1945)
The Maria Theresa Room (Maria-Theresien-Zimmer) in the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg palace is named in her honour and a large state portrait of her by Martin van Meytens's school from 1741 depicting her in the Hungarian coronation dress hangs in the centre. All oath of allegiance ceremonies of a newly elected government of Austria are conducted in this room with the signing taking place underneath her portrait.
The Maria Theresa Room is a room in the Sándor Palace, Budapest, the official residence of the President of Hungary. It has a portrait of the Queen dressed for her coronation, alongside a portrait of her husband Emperor Francis I on the other side. The room was especially tailored in memory of the reconciliation between the monarch and the government and is used for official state reception's.
=== In media ===
She has appeared as the main figure in a number of films and series such as the 1951 Maria Theresa and Maria Theresia, an Austria-Czech television miniseries from 2017. In the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, Marianne Faithfull portrayed Maria Theresa opposite Kirsten Dunst in the title role.
Years before, she appeared as a minor character in the 1938 film Marie Antoinette, starring Norma Shearer, in which she was portrayed by Alma Kruger.
She has appeared in the German documentary Die Deutschen season 1, episode 6 Preußens Friedrich und die Kaiserin in 2008.
== Titles, styles, honours, and arms ==
=== Titles and styles ===
Her title after the death of her husband was:
"Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Maria Theresa, by the Grace of God, Dowager Empress of the Romans, Queen of Hungary, of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, etc.; Archduchess of Austria; Duchess of Burgundy, of Styria, of Carinthia and of Carniola; Grand Princess of Transylvania; Margravine of Moravia; Duchess of Brabant, of Limburg, of Luxemburg, of Guelders, of Württemberg, of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Milan, of Mantua, of Parma, of Piacenza, of Guastalla, of Auschwitz, of Zator; Princess of Swabia; Princely Countess of Habsburg, of Flanders, of Tyrol, of Hainault, of Kyburg, of Gorizia and of Gradisca; Margravine of Burgau, of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Countess of Namur; Lady of the Wendish Mark and of Mechlin; Dowager Duchess of Lorraine and Bar, Dowager Grand Duchess of Tuscany, etc."
=== Coat of Arms ===
== Issue ==
== Ancestry ==
== See also ==
Kings of Bohemia family tree
Kings of Hungary family tree
List of people with the most children
== References ==
=== Footnotes ===
=== Citations ===
=== Sources ===
== External links ==
Maria Theresa (Catholic Encyclopaedia)
Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria Archived 25 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
Maria Theresa, (1717–1780) Archduchess of Austria (1740–1780) Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740–1780) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Pakistan | Constitution of Pakistan | The Constitution of Pakistan (Urdu: آئینِ پاکستان, romanized: Ā'īn-e-Pākistān; also known as the 1973 Constitution) is the supreme law of Pakistan. The document guides Pakistan's law, political culture, and system. It sets out the state's outline, the fundamental rights of the population, the state's law and orders, and also the structure and establishment of the institutions and the armed forces. Drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, with additional assistance from the country's opposition parties, it was unanimously approved by the 5th Parliament on 10 April and ratified on 14 August 1973. The first three chapters establish the rules, mandate, and separate powers of the three branches of the government: a bicameral legislature; an executive branch governed by the prime minister as chief executive; and an apex federal judiciary headed by Supreme Court. The Constitution designates the president of Pakistan as a ceremonial Head of State who is to represent the unity of the state. The first six articles of the constitution outline the political system as a federal parliamentary republic system; as well as Islam as its state religion. The Constitution also encapsulates provisions stipulating the legal system's compliance with Islamic injunctions contained in the Quran and Sunnah.
The Parliament cannot make any laws which may be repugnant or contrary to the Constitution; however, the Constitution itself may be amended by a two-thirds majority in both the houses of the bicameral Parliament, unlike the previous legal documents of 1956 and 1962. It has been amended over time, and most recent impulses for political upgrades and reforms has been amended. Although enforced in 1973, Pakistan, however, celebrates the adoption of the constitution on 23 March—when the first set was promulgated in 1956 each and every year as Republic Day.
Technically there are 26 amendments but 23 amendments were made in constitution and three were not passed by the parliament as the three amendments collapsed.
Currently the promulgated Constitution of Pakistan, in its amended form, stands as the 7th lengthiest constitution of the world with a word count of 56,240 Words.
== Origins and historical background ==
In a radio talk addressed to the people of Pakistan, broadcast in February 1948, Jinnah expressed his views regarding Pakistan's constitution-to-be in the following way:
The Constitution of Pakistan is yet to be framed by the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, I do not know what the ultimate shape of the constitution is going to be, but I am sure that it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam. Today these are as applicable in actual life as these were 1300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fair play to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan.
Pakistan was founded in 1947 as a Dominion (an independent realm or kingdom) within the British Commonwealth. The same was true in independent India. During its first few years of existence the British monarch was also Pakistan's head of state, as is still the case in Canada, Australia etc. Before writing a constitution, a Constituent Assembly passed the Objectives Resolution, on the insistence of the ulama and Jamaat-e-Islami, in March 1949 to define the basic directive principles of the new state and to declare state recognition of the sovereignty of Allah over the universe. The Objectives Resolution affirmed the role of democracy and contained religious provisions to enable society to adhere to the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah. The Objectives Resolution has henceforth been inserted as a preamble into each of Pakistan's subsequent constitutions.
The country became a republic when its first constitution was approved in 1956 but this was abrogated in 1958 after a military Coup d'état. Pakistan's second constitution was approved in 1962. It granted executive power to the president and abolished the office of the prime minister. It also institutionalised the intervention of military in politics by providing that for twenty years, the president or the defence minister must be a person who had held a rank not lower than that of lieutenant-general in the army. The 1962 constitution was suspended in 1969 and abrogated in 1972.
The 1973 constitution was the first in Pakistan to be framed by elected representatives. Unlike the 1962 constitution it gave Pakistan a parliamentary democracy with executive power concentrated in the office of the prime minister, and the formal head of state—the president—limited to acting on the advice of the prime minister.
The Constitution states that all laws are to conform with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah. The 1973 Constitution also created certain institutions such as the Shariat Court and the Council of Islamic Ideology to channel the interpretation and application of Islam.
After another coup d'état in 1977, the constitution was held in abeyance until it was "restored" in 1985 but with an amendment (the Eighth) shifting power from the parliament and Prime Minister to the president. Another Amendment (Seventeenth) in 2004 continued this shift, but in 2010, the Eighteenth amendment reduced presidential powers, returning the government to a parliamentary republic.
=== Previous legislation as source ===
The successful independence movement led the establishment of Pakistan, independent from the British Raj in 1947. The British Empire divided the Raj into two parts, India and Pakistan.
The provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, had greatly influenced the state and served as its basic legal document until 1956. In 1950, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan authored the first annexe that would pave a path to the drafting of the Constitution. Elected in 1947, the first Constituent Assembly drafted and adopted its first constitution in 1956.
==== 1956 Constitution ====
Following the adoption of a constitution in India in 1950, Pakistan's lawmakers were incentified to work on their constitution. Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali and his government officials worked with the opposition parties in the country to formulate a constitution for Pakistan.
Finally, the joint work led to the promulgation of the first set of the constitution on 23 March 1956—a day when Pakistan celebrates its Republic Day over the adoption of the constitution. The constitution provided for parliamentary form of government with a unicameral legislature. It officially adopted Pakistan as "Islamic Republic" and the principle of parity was introduced. Its features were:
Islamic Republic of Pakistan – Official name of the country was adopted
Objectives Resolution – The objective resolution was included as preamble by the constitution.
System of government – Parliamentary with a prime minister as head of government.
Unicameral Legislature – A single house, only a National Assembly that would consist of 300 members; 150 members from each East and West Pakistan
President – Required to be a Muslim and ceremonial head of state. In case of internal or external danger she/he could declare a state of emergency in the country.
Islamic law – No law would be passed against the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah.
Independent Judiciary – The Supreme Court as an apex court – a final arbitrator of all the decisions.
Fundamental rights included freedoms of movement, speech and, profession and profess religion, right to life, liberty, and property.
Language – English, Urdu and Bengali were made national languages.
By the Constitution, Iskander Mirza assumed the presidency but his constant personal involvement in national affairs, contrary to the Constitution, resulted in the dismissal of four elected prime ministers in two years. On 7 October 1958 Mirza staged a coup d'état, imposed Martial law, abrogated the Constitution, and appointed the army chief General Ayub Khan as the Chief Martial Law Administrator. Shortly afterwards on 27 October 1958, General Ayub Khan deposed Mirza and declared himself president.
==== 1962 Constitution ====
General Ayub Khan appointed a Constitution Commission to draft another part of the constitution under Chief Justice Muhammad Shahabuddin. Submitted its considerations on 6 May 1961, Ayub Khan altered the entire version of the constitution which was entirely different from the one recommended by Chief Justice Muhammad Shahabuddin. It was promulgated on 8 June 1962. Main feature of this set was the introduction of the presidential system and more consolidated powers to the President. No further changes were carried out to oppose the 1956 document. Its features includes:
More powers to the President of Pakistan.
Strengthening of the Islamic Ideology Council.
==== 1970 Legal Framework Order ====
President Ayub Khan invited Chief of Army Staff General Yahya Khan to enforce the martial law in the country. On assuming the presidency, General Yahya Khan acceded to popular demands by abolishing the one-unit system in West Pakistan and ordered general elections on the principle of one man, one vote.
The military government and President Yahya himself made no efforts to frame a constitution, aside from issuing the extrajudicial order in 1970. Across the country, the expectations were that a National Assembly would be set up by holding a free and fair election. To hold the proposed elections, President Yahya promulgated a Legal Framework Order on 30 March 1970 that also spelled out the fundamental principles of the proposed constitution and the structure and composition of the national and provincial assemblies.
In December 1970, nationwide general elections were held simultaneously for both the national and five provincial assemblies. The nationalist Awami League (AL) secured the mandate of East Pakistan but failed to perform in any four provinces of Pakistan. The socialist Pakistan People's Party (PPP) under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gained a mandate in Punjab and Sindh but failed in East Pakistan, NWFP and Balochistan.
==== 1970 constitutional crisis ====
Constitutional crisis grew further when the AL refused to make concessions over its six points to draft the constitution and instead maintaining that the AL was able to frame a constitution and to form a central government on its own.
The PPP was not willing to dilute the authority of the federal government in spite of assuring full provincial autonomy for all the provinces of Pakistan. Negotiations on framing the work on constitution were held between January and March 1971 between leaders of the PPP, the AL, and the military government of Yahya Khan, which turned out to be a failure. Under the LFO, the President was to decide when the National Assembly was to meet. By 13 February 1971, the President Yahya announced that the National Assembly was to meet at Dhaka on 3 March 1971. By this time the differences between the main parties to the conflict had already crystallized. Over the six-point issue, the PPP was convinced that a federation based on the six points would lead to a feeble confederation in name only and was part of a larger Indian plan to break up and destroy Pakistan. These fears were evidently shared by the military leaders in the west, including President Yahya Khan who had publicly described Sheikh Mujibur Rehman as the 'future Prime Minister of Pakistan' on 14 January 1971. Bhutto announced on 15 February that his party would not attend the National Assembly unless there was 'some amount of reciprocity' from the Awami League. Sheikh Mujib replied at a press conference on 21 February, asserting that "Our stand is absolutely clear. The constitution will be framed on the basis of the six points".
Such an announcement led the PPP to demand the removal of the National Assembly session, or the opening session to be postponed. The PPP threatened to stage a large scale general strike all over the country. Under pressure by the PPP, President Yahya postponed the National Assembly session on 25 March which came as a shattering disillusionment to the AL and their supporters throughout East Pakistan. It was seen as a betrayal and as proof of the authorities of Pakistan to deny them the fruits of their electoral victory. This resulted in the outbreak of violence in East Pakistan. The Awami League launched a non-cooperation movement as they virtually controlled the entire province. Due to disturbances in East Pakistan, no National Assembly session was called and the military moved into East Pakistan and executed Operation Searchlight. The civil disobedience movement turned into an armed liberation movement backed by India.
With India successfully intervening in the conflict, the Pakistan military surrendered to the Indian military and almost 93,000 military personnel were taken as prisoners of war on 16 December 1971. Demoralized, gaining notoriety in the country, and finding himself unable to control the situation, President Yahya ultimately handed over the national power to the PPP, whose leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sworn in on 20 December 1971 as President and as the (first civilian) Chief Martial Law Administrator.
== Constitutional convention ==
After Bangladesh was formed in 1971, the PPP formed the government and partially enacted the 1962 constitution. President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto called for a constitutional convention and invited the leaders of the all political parties to meet him on 17 April 1972. Leaders and constitutional experts of the Islamic political parties, conservative parties, socialists and communist parties were delegated to attend the constitutional convention in 1972.
=== Drafting and ratification ===
The law experts, constitutional analysts, and country's reputed clergymen worked on formulating a constitution that they hoped would represent the will and desire of people. Unlike earlier attempts, the convention was not meant for new laws or piecemeal alterations, but for the "sole and express purpose of revising the 1956 articles." Also, the convention was not limited to the religion, exigencies of government and the preservation of the State; rather it was intended to maintain delicacy in commerce, finances, issue of loans to federation, and Separation of powers. Several key ideas of the philosophy of John Locke and Islamic provisions on civil rights were interchanged in the Constitution.
The Constitution ultimately established a bicameral Parliament, with the National Assembly as the lower house and the Senate as the upper house. It also established the parliamentary form of government with Prime Minister as its head of government; the elected National Assembly genuinely representing the will of the people. The Constitution truly maintained a delicate balance between traditionalists and modernists and reflected heavy compromises on fundamental religious rights in the country. The fundamental rights, freedoms of speech, religion, press, movement, association, thought, and intellectual, life, liberty and property and right to bear arms were introduced in the new Constitution. Islam was declared as the State religion of Pakistan. Geography and border statue of the country was redefined and "Pakistan was to be a Federation of Four Provinces." The Constitution was written in the point of representing the conservative Islam as well as reflecting a heavy compromise over the religious rights and humanism ideas, advocated by the PPP.
On 20 October 1972, the draft was revived by all leaders of the political parties and signed the declaration of adopting the Constitution in the National Assembly on 2 February 1973. Ratified unanimously on 19 April 1973, the Constitution came into full effect on 14 August 1973. On the same day, the successful vote of confidence movement in the Parliament endorsed Zulfikar Bhutto as the elected Prime Minister after later relinquishing the presidency after appointing Fazal-i-Ilahi to that office.
== Structure ==
=== Fundamental rights ===
Contrary to Constitution of 1956 and Constitution of 1962, several ideas in the Constitution were new, and guaranteed security to each citizen of Pakistan. First part of the Constitution introduced the definition of State, the idea of life, liberty and property, individual equality, prohibition of slavery, preservation of languages, right to fair trial, and provided safeguard as to arrest and detention as well as providing safeguards against discrimination in services.
The due process clause of the Constitution was partly based on the British Common law, as many founding fathers and legal experts of the country had followed the British legal tradition. The fundamental rights are supreme in the Constitution and any law that is ultra vires the fundamental rights can be struck down by the Apex Courts in their constitutional jurisdiction vested on them under Article 199 of the Constitution.
=== Provisions ===
In contrast to the constitutions of India and Bangladesh, the Constitution reflected a heavy compromise over several issues to maintain a delicate balance of power among the country's institutions. The Constitution defined the role of Islam; Pakistan was to be a Federation of Four Provinces and shall be known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; introduction of check and balances, separation of powers, and provided the federal system under which the government should govern.
The Constitution established a "Bicameral Parliament" as a legislative authority that consists of the Senate as Upper house (providing equal provincial representation), and National Assembly as Lower house (providing the will and representation of people). The Constitution put stipulation on the eligibility of becoming President and Prime Minister that only "Muslim" of not less than forty-five years of age and is qualified for becoming the Prime Minister. No law repugnant to Islam shall be enacted and the present laws shall also be Islamised. The Constitution also introduced a new institution known as the "Council of Common Interests" consisting of Chief Minister of each four provinces and an equal number of Cabinet ministers of the Government nominated by the Prime Minister. The Council could formulate and regulate the policy in the Part II of the Legislative List. In case of complaint of interference in water supply by any province the Council would look into the complaint.
Another major innovative introduction in the Constitution is the establishment of the National Finance Commission (NFC) consisting of the Provincial and Finance Ministers and other members to advice on distribution of revenues between the federation and the provinces. The Constitution's first parts introduce the Islamic way of life, promotion of local government, full participation of women in national life, protection of minorities, promotion of social and economic well being of the people, and strengthening the bonds with the Muslim world and to work for international peace.
Under the Constitution, the Fundamental Rights include security of person, safeguards as to arrest and detention, prohibition of slavery and forced labour, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom to profess religion and safeguards to religious institutions, non-discrimination in respect of access to public places and in service, preservation of languages, script and culture. The judiciary enjoys full supremacy over the other organs of the state. About national languages, Urdu was declared as national languages, and English as official language; all other languages were preserved by the Constitution.
=== Islamic introduction ===
Many key ideas on regarding the role of Islam in the State that were mentioned in 1956 Articles were made part of the Constitution:
=== Parts ===
The individual Articles of the Constitution are grouped together into the following Parts:
=== Schedule ===
Schedules are lists in the Constitution that categorise and tabulate bureaucratic activity and policy of the Government.
First Schedule – Laws exempted from the operation of Article 8(1), 8(2), 8(3b), and 8(4)
Second Schedule – Election of President" Article 41(3)
Third Schedule: – Oaths of Office: Article 42, Article 91(5)–92(2), Article 53(2)–61,
Fourth Schedule: – Legislative Lists
Fifth Schedule: – Remuneration and Terms and Conditions of Service of Judges: [Article 205]
== Amendments ==
Unlike the previous documents, the Constitution cannot be changed, instead constitutional amendments are passed; altering its effect. Amendments to the Constitution are made through the Parliament, where a Two-thirds majority and voting is required in both houses for a constitutional amendment to take its effect, in accordance to the Constitution. In addition to this, certain amendments which pertain to the federal nature of the Constitution must be ratified by a majority of provincial legislatures.
As of 2019, 25 amendments have been made to the Constitution. Among the most important of these are the Eighth (1985) and Seventeenth Amendments (2004), which changed the government from a parliamentary system to a semi-presidential system. By far the largest change to the Constitution was the Eighteenth Amendment made in 2010 which reversed these expansions of presidential powers, returning the government to a parliamentary republic, and also defined any attempt to subvert, abrogate, or suspend the constitution as an act of high treason. Another significant amendment was the second amendment which declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. It was unanimously passed by parliament in 1974.
In these amendments, the Twenty-Fifth amendment incorporated the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In 2017 the Constitution (Twenty-seventh Amendment) Act, 2017 was proposed to the Constitution of Pakistan. It aimed to implement recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms. It never secured the required constitutional majorities or presidential assent, so it was never adopted and is not part of the Constitution.
In 2024, the Twenty-Sixth Constitutional Amendment Act was enacted on 21 October, introducing landmark reforms to Pakistan's judicial system, with a focus on the Supreme Court and High Courts.
In 2025, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment Bill focused mostly on the military structure and the civil-military relations. It proposed changes to Article 243, continuing decades of shifts in civil-military authority. The 1985 Revival of the Constitutional Order gave the president control over military appointments, the 13th Amendment restored this power to the prime minister, the 17th Amendment reversed it, and the 18th in 2010 again empowered the prime minister. The 27th Amendment proposed to abolish the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and make the Chief of Army Staff, who'd be subject to life-long constitutional immunities, the Chief of Defence Forces with critics arguing that the move further consolidates military authority. Additionally, the amendment proposed giving prime minister the power to appoint or remove the judges of the supreme court and establishment of a Federal Constitutional Court which, analysts claim, would reduce the power of the supreme court. With the passing of the bill in November, two senior judges of the Supreme Court, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah resigned in protest, citing 'crippled judicial independence.'
== Original text ==
=== Preamble ===
Whereas sovereignty over the entire Universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust;
And whereas it is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order :-
Wherein the State shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people;
Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed;
Wherein the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and Sunnah;
Wherein adequate provision shall be made for the minorities freely to profess and practise their religions and develop their cultures;
Wherein the territories now included in or in accession with Pakistan and such other territories as may hereafter be included in or accede to Pakistan shall form a Federation wherein the units will be autonomous with such boundaries and limitations on their powers and authority as may be prescribed;
Therein shall be guaranteed fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject to law and public morality;
Wherein adequate provision shall be made to safeguard the legitimate interests of minorities and backward and depressed classes;
Wherein the independence of the judiciary shall be fully secured;
Wherein the integrity of the territories of the Federation, its independence and all its rights, including its sovereign rights on land, sea and air, shall be safeguarded;
So that the people of Pakistan may prosper and attain their rightful and honoured place amongst the nations of the World and make their full contribution towards international peace and progress and happiness of humanity :
Now, therefore, we, the people of Pakistan,
Cognisant of our responsibility before Almighty Allah and men;
Cognisant of the sacrifices made by the people in the cause of Pakistan;
Faithful to the declaration made by the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, that Pakistan would be a democratic State based on Islamic principles of social justice;
Dedicated to the preservation of democracy achieved by the unremitting struggle of the people against oppression and tyranny;
Inspired by the resolve to protect our national and political unity and solidarity by creating an egalitarian society through a new order;
Do hereby, through our representatives in the National Assembly, adopt, enact and give to ourselves, this Constitution.
== Signatories ==
All MNAs from West Pakistan elected in the 1970 general election signed the Constitution except Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri (PPP MNA from Lahore-III constituency) Abdul Hayee Baloch (NAP(W) MNA from Kalat-I constituency), Abdul Khaliq Khan (PPP MNA from Mardan constituency), Haji Ali Ahmed Khan (PPP MNA from Hyderabad-IV constituency), and Nizamuddin Haider (CML MNA from Bahawalpur-I constituency). Sahibzada Muhammad Nazeer Sultan (MJUP MNA from Jhang-III constituency) was the last serving member of the National Assembly who was also elected as the Member of National Assembly in the 1970 elections & was one of the last signatories of 1973 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Unlike the Constitution of 1956 (in whose creation 23 Hindus - 20 from East Bengal, 2 from West Punjab, 1 from Sindh, 2 Christians - Peter Paul Gomez from East Bengal & Cecil Edward Gibbon from West Pakistan & 2 women - Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah from East Bengal and Shah Nawaz Begum Jahan Ara from West Punjab were involved), the Constitution of 1973 had no representation from the minorities & women.
== See also ==
History of Pakistan
Politics of Pakistan
Constitution Day (Pakistan)
Constitution of Pakistan of 1956
Constitution of Pakistan of 1962
Constitutional economics
Constitutionalism
History of democracy
List of national constitutions
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Sources ===
== External links ==
Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, including Fundamental Rights
Full Text of the Constitution Archived 9 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine via Law and Justice Commission
Full Text and Case Law Archived 3 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine via Zain Sheikh & Associates
Urdu text via National Assembly
Laws & Order, 2002 (Updated Version)
Immense Power, the new definition in the Constitution of Pakistan, Saeed, Abu Hayyan, Immense Power, the new definition in the Constitution of Pakistan (November 20, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5786402 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5786402 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PTL_Club | The PTL Club | The PTL Club, also known as The Jim and Tammy Show, was a Christian television program that was first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, running from 1974 to 1989. The program was later known as PTL Today and as Heritage Today. During its final years, The PTL Club, which adopted a talk show format, was the flagship television program of the Bakkers' PTL Satellite Network.
== History ==
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker had been in the ministry with the Assemblies of God denomination since the early 1960s prior to joining Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), then based in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1965. The Bakkers launched a children's show called Come On Over where the couple entertained viewers with songs, stories, and puppets. In 1966, Jim Bakker became the host of The 700 Club, a religious talk program that evolved from a telethon. The 700 Club would become the flagship program of CBN, which expanded from its original Hampton Roads station to include outlets in Atlanta and Dallas–Fort Worth by 1973.
Beginning in 1972, the Bakker-hosted 700 Club was launched in a dozen test markets, including then-independent station WRET-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, the Bakkers departed CBN in 1973 and relocated to Southern California for a brief period, where they assisted Paul and Jan Crouch in launching Trinity Broadcasting Network before eventually starting their own television ministry in North Carolina. When WRET-TV dropped The 700 Club in 1973, the station's then-owner Ted Turner approached Bakker about buying two hours a day on the outlet, which Bakker accepted; this edition of the show was launched in a small studio at WRET-TV. (The 700 Club moved to then-ABC affiliate WCCB in Charlotte.) Bakker, looking to differentiate himself from the Crouches and their TBN program Praise the Lord, called his new show The PTL Club.
The PTL Club continued being produced at WRET and in November 1974, the show expanded to a few other stations such as WGGS-TV in Greenville, South Carolina; WHMB-TV in Indianapolis; WHCT in Hartford, Connecticut; and KHOF-TV in the Los Angeles area, among a few others. The show launched nationally in 1975, with two editions offered: one was the full two-hour edition, which tended to air on Christian stations and smaller independent stations, and the other was a one-hour edition which tended to air on stronger independent stations, as well as network affiliates.
By 1976, the Bakkers moved their studio to the site of a former furniture store in Charlotte. With The PTL Club program as its centerpiece, the Bakkers and their staff built what became known as the PTL Television Network, broadcasting worldwide. In a Tonight Show-type format, the program featured many well-known ministers and Christian recording artists. In the beginning, Henry "Uncle Henry" Harrison, who had worked with Bakker at CBN, was Bakker's co-host and sidekick (much like Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson), and when Tammy Faye took over as co-host, Harrison became the announcer.
The program was later broadcast from Bakker's Heritage Village ministry headquarters and complex on Park Road in Charlotte, and then moved to studios constructed at the ministry's new 2500-acre mixed-use family theme park and resort in Fort Mill, South Carolina, known as Heritage USA. Bakker's conspicuous consumption and prosperity gospel preaching led critics to claim that PTL stood for "Pass The Loot".
As time went on and as more stations had additional programming commitments by 1980, many opted to only run an hour of the PTL Club. In the fall of 1981, the show was cut to an hour, at which length it remained until its cancellation.
=== Scandal and subsequent demise ===
Due to his involvement in highly publicized financial and sexual scandals, Jim Bakker resigned on March 19, 1987. He turned all ministry assets over to Lynchburg, Virginia–based pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell, who became CEO of the parent organization, Heritage Village Church and Missionary Fellowship, Inc. and assumed control of Heritage USA, the cable network, and of its flagship program. Falwell's involvement was deemed newsworthy, as the PTL ministries were a part of the Assemblies of God denomination and Falwell was a Southern Baptist. Ministry supporters questioned Falwell's intentions and attributed his interest solely to maintaining control of the lucrative cable-television empire owned by PTL to broadcast his own ministry programming.
One commentator noted that "Bakker arranged for Falwell to take over PTL in March in an effort to avoid what he called a 'hostile takeover' of the television ministry by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter he admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary Jessica Hahn." According to Hahn, on the afternoon of December 6, 1980, when she was a 21-year-old church secretary, Bakker and another preacher, John Wesley Fletcher drugged and raped her for "about 15 minutes". Hahn stated she overheard Bakker say afterward to another PTL staffer, "Did you get her too?"
A federal grand jury indicted Bakker for diverting millions of dollars of church funds to personal use. Much of the nation watched the court case to see the outcome of the $165 million in donations.
The PTL Club continued as a television program for a considerable time after this, first with Falwell as its host and PTL personality Doug Oldham as co-host. Falwell later brought in Christian singer Gary McSpadden as the show's co-host, along with PTL musical talent Ron Aldridge. The show was renamed PTL Today, then—in an effort to distance the show from the PTL name—Heritage Today. Aldridge continued as co-host alongside another PTL singer, Brenda Davis, after Falwell suddenly resigned from the now-bankrupt PTL ministry. McSpadden and Oldham subsequently left the show out of support for Falwell's decision to resign his position with the ministry.
With Falwell's resignation, Sam Johnson, a member of the PTL ministry team, assumed leadership and incorporated a new entity known as Heritage Ministries to run the television program and associated ministry functions. As Heritage USA and PTL assets were now tied up in bankruptcy reorganization, the new ministry and the television program had to move from their longtime Heritage USA broadcast studios to newly bought property on Nations Ford Road in Charlotte that was named Heritage Place.
The program remained on the air as late as September 1988, when Johnson faced problems with the IRS.
In 1989, evangelist Morris Cerullo purchased the network out of bankruptcy. As of 2012, it operates as INSP from broadcast facilities in Charlotte, with headquarters in nearby Indian Land, South Carolina.
On August 23, 1991, after the second and final day of his re-sentencing hearing, the court reduced Bakker's original 45-year sentence to 18 years, five of which he actually served before being released.
In February 2009, Atlanta, Georgia investment-banker Ben Dyer announced his intention to auction off over 15,000 hours of videotaped episodes of The PTL Club on March 27, 2009. A friend of Jim Bakker's purchased the programs. The master library of PTL programming has been returned to Jim Bakker and the old tapes are being digitally remastered and restored. Restored programs are being run on the new PTL Television Network on Roku and online at the PTL Television Network's website.
== References ==
== External links ==
The PTL Club at IMDb
PTL Television Network |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzfest_lineups_by_year | Ozzfest lineups by year | Over the years, a variety of bands have made up the yearly lineups of Ozzfest, a yearly heavy metal music festival that usually tours the United States in summer.
== Ozzfest 1996 ==
=== Line-up ===
=== Tour dates ===
== Ozzfest 1997 ==
=== Line-up ===
Main stage
Black Sabbath
Ozzy Osbourne
Marilyn Manson (Added to the line-up on June 15)
Pantera
Type O Negative
Fear Factory
Machine Head - were on second stage at the East Rutherford show and got cut off by Black Sabbath intro
2nd stage
Powerman 5000
Slo Burn
Drain STH
downset.
Neurosis
Vision of Disorder
Coal Chamber
"That whole tour was like the Morbid Tour – it was a funeral on wheels," quipped Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. "Every band was wearing black." "I'd have liked to have done a long set, as opposed to fifty minutes or an hour," remarked guitarist Tony Iommi. "For me it didn't feel like we'd done enough."
=== Tour dates ===
The Columbus show was cancelled when Osbourne lost his voice. "They wanted me to go on and announce that Ozzy wasn't going to be there," Tony Iommi recalled. "I said, 'You've got no chance of that!' There was no way I'm walking out there saying we're not playing… Pantera were a particularly great bunch of guys and they went out and jammed away. Ozzy's band as well – they were nice people. When they [the audience] were told that we weren't going to be playing at the end and Ozzy wasn't going to be showing up, they just fucking wrecked the place… We had to reschedule it [for July 1]."
== Ozzfest 1998 ==
=== United Kingdom line-up ===
=== United States line-up ===
==== Line-up ====
=== Tour dates ===
==== Information ====
The concert on July 18, 1998, at Float Rite Park was merged with Warped Tour 1998. Some 39,000 fans were at the 12-hour, six-stage, 48-band event.
== Ozzfest 1999 ==
=== Line-up ===
=== Tour dates ===
== Ozzfest 2000 ==
=== Line-up ===
Just before the tour, Soulfly took the place of Ministry amidst a management changeover. The lineup on the Main Stage and 2nd Stage changed further shortly after the tour began when Crazy Town was pulled from the tour by the band's manager. Disturbed was moved to open the Main Stage.
=== Tour dates ===
== Ozzfest 2001 ==
=== United Kingdom ===
=== United States ===
Streetwise Stage
Godhead (last show on June 30)
Otep (last show on July 13)
No One (Started on July 14) (replaced by Project Wyze on July 24)
Pure Rubbish
Beautiful Creatures
Pressure 4-5 (Started July 14)
=== Tour dates ===
== Ozzfest 2002 ==
=== Germany & Belgium line-ups ===
=== England ===
=== Ireland ===
=== Poland & Czech Republic ===
=== Netherlands ===
=== United States ===
=== Tour dates ===
== Ozzfest 2003 ==
== Ozzfest 2004 ==
Main stage:
Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual, Black Label Society
Second stage:
Slipknot, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Bleeding Through, Lacuna Coil, Every Time I Die, Unearth, God Forbid, Otep, Devildriver, Magna-Fi, Throwdown, Darkest Hour
== Ozzfest 2005 ==
=== UK (Download Festival) ===
The Saturday (11 June) of the Download Festival at Donington Park was dubbed "Ozzfest Day", featuring Black Sabbath, Velvet Revolver, HIM, Anthrax, Alter Bridge, A, Bowling for Soup, The Mad Capsule Markets, The Dwarves and Trivium.
=== United States ===
Main stage:
Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden (from July 15 – August 20), Mudvayne, Shadows Fall, Black Label Society, In Flames, Velvet Revolver (from August 23 – September 4), Slipknot (July 31 and August 20 only), Drowning Pool (August 25 only),
Second stage:
Rob Zombie, Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Mastodon, A Dozen Furies, The Haunted, Arch Enemy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Bury Your Dead, It Dies Today, Soilwork, Gizmachi, Wicked Wisdom, Trivium
== Ozzfest 2006 ==
Main stage:
Ozzy Osbourne (on select dates), System of a Down, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold (cancelled August 13), Hatebreed (cancelled August 9 and 13), Lacuna Coil, DragonForce
Second stage:
Ozzy Osbourne (on select dates), Black Label Society, Atreyu, Unearth, Bleeding Through, Norma Jean
Second Stage (rotating slots):
A Life Once Lost, The Red Chord, Walls of Jericho, Strapping Young Lad, All That Remains, Full Blown Chaos, Between the Buried and Me, Bad Acid Trip
== Ozzfest 2007 ==
Main stage
Ozzy Osbourne, Lamb of God, Static-X, Lordi, Black Tide (started August 10)
Second stage
Hatebreed, Behemoth, Nick Oliveri and the Mondo Generator (July 12–22), DevilDriver (started August 2), Egypt Central (August 2–8)
Second stage (rotating slots)
Nile, Ankla, The Showdown, 3 Inches of Blood, DÅÅTH, In This Moment, Chthonic, Circus Diablo
== Ozzfest 2008 ==
Main stage
Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Serj Tankian, Hellyeah, Jonathan Davis, Cavalera Conspiracy, Shadows Fall, Apocalyptica, In This Moment, All Star Dimebag Darrell Tribute
Second stage
Sevendust, DevilDriver, Kingdom of Sorrow, Soilent Green, Witchcraft, Goatwhore
Texas stage
The Sword, Drowning Pool, Rigor Mortis, The Destro, Within Chaos, Debri, Black Tooth
== Ozzfest 2010 ==
=== United States ===
Main stage
Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, Halford, Devildriver, Nonpoint
Second stage
Black Label Society (cancelled August 22 and August 24), Drowning Pool (cancelled August 24), Kingdom of Sorrow (cancelled August 14)
Second stage (rotating slots):
Goatwhore (cancelled August 21), Skeletonwitch, Saviours, Kataklysm (cancelled August 24), Exodus (August 14 only), California Wildebeest (August 14 only), and Immune (August 14 only)
=== United Kingdom ===
Main stage
Ozzy Osbourne, Korn, Murderdolls, Steel Panther, Skindred
Second stage
Paradise Lost, Black Spiders, Revoker, Jettblack
=== Israel ===
Main stage
Ozzy Osbourne, Korn, Soulfly and Betzefer.
Second stage
Almana Shchora, Behind the Sun and Tal Friedman and his band the Krayot.
== Ozzfest Japan 2013 ==
May 11
Slipknot, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Fade, Deftones, Maximum the Hormone, Man with a Mission, Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Treatment, Namba 69, crossfaith, Galneryus, Momoiro Clover Z, Knock Out Monkey, and Artema
May 12
Black Sabbath, Tool, Stone Sour, Dir En Grey, Anthem, coldrain, Steel Panther, Mucc, AA=, Ningen Isu, Head Phones President, and fade
== Ozzfest Japan 2015 ==
November 21
Korn, Evanescence, Bullet for My Valentine, Noisemaker, VAMPS, ONE OK ROCK, Crossfaith, Corey Taylor,
MEANING, Crystal Lake, and SiM
Opening acts: Wrong City, NoisyCell, The Winking Owl, Unveil Raze
November 22
Ozzy and Friends, Jane's Addiction, Hatebreed, A Day to Remember, Black Label Society, Babymetal, Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas, 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Her Name in Blood, Ningen Isu, and OLDCODEX
Opening acts: Animetal the Second, A Crowd of Rebellion, Kanojo in the Display, SALTY DOG
== Ozzfest Meets Knotfest 2016 ==
=== Ozzfest ===
Lemmy Stage
Black Sabbath, Disturbed, Megadeth, Opeth, Black Label Society, Rival Sons
Monster Energy Stages 1 and 2
Suicidal Tendencies, Hatebreed, DevilDriver, Goatwhore, Huntress
Nuclear Blast stage
Municipal Waste, Kataklysm, The Shrine, Still Rebel, Allegaeon, Brujeria
=== Knotfest ===
Lemmy Main Stage
Slipknot, Slayer, Amon Amarth, Anthrax, Trivium, Motionless in White
Rockstar Stages 1 and 2
Sabaton, Suicide Silence, Overkill, Emmure, Butcher Babies, Man with a Mission
Nuclear Blast Stage
Whitechapel, Combichrist, Death Angel, Carnifex, Loathe, SiM, ONI
== Ozzfest Meets Knotfest 2017 ==
=== Ozzfest ===
Main Stage
Ozzy Osbourne, Prophets of Rage, Deftones, Children of Bodom, Orange Goblin
Second Stage
Kreator, Baroness, High on Fire, Iron Reagan, 1349, Havok, Kyng, Tombs, Night Demon, Thrown Into Exile
Nuclear Blast stage
Possessed, Suffocation, Fallujah, Rings of Saturn
=== Knotfest ===
Main Stage
Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Stone Sour, Eighteen Visions, Prayers
Second Stage
Testament, Life of Agony, The Black Dahlia Murder, Upon a Burning Body, Goatwhore, Death Angel, Code Orange, Oni, Stitched Up Heart, Ded
Nuclear Blast Stage
Sid Wilson, Repulsion, Exhumed, Warbringer, Ghoul
== Ozzfest 2018 ==
=== Line-up ===
== Guest appearances ==
Ron Jeremy – introduced Coal Chamber before their set in 1996. Can be seen on the Ozzfest Live VHS (discontinued).
Phil Anselmo – performed the song "Kill All The White People" with Type O Negative in 1997 at the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, CA.
Henry Rollins – preceded the main stage with a spoken-word performance in 1997.
Benji Webbe (ex-Dub War/Skindred) – appeared with Soulfly at their UK dates in 1998.
Kerry King (Slayer) Performed Thunderkiss with Rob Zombie on June 16, 1999, at the Meadows Music Theater in Hartford Connecticut.
Buckethead – played a few songs with Primus during their set on the Main stage in 1999, and did various stunts such as doing the "robot" and swinging around nunchaku.
Evan Seinfeld – sang with Pantera on "Walk" in 2000 at the PNC Bank Arts Center.
Verne Troyer – actor who played Mini Me, appeared onstage with Pantera at Pine Knob (now DTE Energy Music Theater) in Clarkston, Mi on July 12, 2000.
Dino Cazares – joined Soulfly to perform "Eye For An Eye" at Ozzfest 2000.
David Draiman – joined Memento to perform "Stare" at Ozzfest 2003 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Corey Taylor – joined Soulfly to perform "Jumpdafuckup" at Ozzfest UK 2001, and also joined SiM to perform a cover of Radiohead's song "Creep" at Ozzfest Japan 2015.
Tom Araya – joined Soulfly to perform "Terrorist" at Ozzfest UK 2001.
John Dolmayan – appeared with Tool in 2002 at the Antwerp and Dublin dates, performing "Triad."
George Oosthoek (ex-Orphanage) – appeared with Within Temptation during "The Other Half (Of Me)" at Nijmegen in 2002.
Dave Lombardo – appeared with Slayer at Nijmegen in 2002 (filling in for Paul Bostaph who had an elbow injury) and also with Tool.
Mike Bordin – performed with Tool at Donington and Nijmegen in 2002.
Zakk Wylde – performed with Soil on "Halo" in 2002.
Kelly Osbourne – performed with Andrew W.K. on "She Is Beautiful" in 2002.
John Tardy and Frank Watkins performed a mini-set of Obituary songs at Ozzfest 2002 in West Palm Beach, Florida with Andrew W.K. and his band. Obituary drummer Donald Tardy was Andrew's touring drummer at the time.
Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul joined Disturbed onstage at Ozzfest 2003 in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin and played guitar and drums respectively for a version of "Walk"
Rob Halford – appeared with Black Sabbath on August 26, 2004, in Camden, replacing an ill Ozzy.
Howard Jones – appeared with Throwdown in 2004.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith – appeared with Bury Your Dead in 2005.
Harry Perry during the 2006 Ozzfests, would play sets with System of a Down. He was also seen playing his guitar with a portable amp around the venues during the second stage performances.
Candace Kucsulain of Walls of Jericho appeared with In This Moment in 2007.
John 5 appeared with Static-X in 2007.
Randy Blythe from Lamb of God joined Hatebreed to perform "Perseverance" and "Doomsayer" at Ozzfest 2007.
Kevin Talley filled in on drums for Devildriver
King Diamond joined Metallica at Ozzfest 2008 and performed a medley of "Evil", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "Satan's Fall", "A Corpse Without a Soul", and "Into the Coven." This medley also appeared on Metallica's Garage Inc. cover album, as the track "Mercyful Fate."
Chester Bennington joined Disturbed in 2001 to perform a cover of Pantera's "Walk".
Buzz Osborne from the Melvins played guitar on a few songs with Tool during their performance in 1998.
Yuto Miyazawa joined Ozzy Osbourne at Ozzfest 2010 for the first 6 shows to play "Crazy Train"
Drowning Pool joined Nonpoint to play "Miracale" and "Bodies" at Ozzfest 2010 on August 24.
Branden Schieppati of Bleeding Through appeared onstage with Avenged Sevenfold at the Chicago date of Ozzfest 2006 to perform their cover of Pantera's "Walk".
Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe joined Rob Zombie & Marilyn Manson at Ozzfest 2018 for a cover of The Beatles Helter Skelter.
Dino Cazares guitarist of Fear Factory performed a song with Slayer right after a set with Fear Factory in San Antonio, Texas at Retama Park July 11, 1999.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_traditions_of_Harvard_commencements#Commencement_speakers | History and traditions of Harvard commencements | What was originally called Harvard
Colledge
(around which Harvard University eventually grew) held its first Commencement in September 1642, when nine degrees were conferred.
Today some 1700 undergraduate degrees, and 5000 advanced degrees from the university's various graduate and professional schools, are conferred each Commencement Day.
As of 2024, each degree candidate attends two ceremonies: the Morning Exercises, at which degrees are conferred verbally en masse; a smaller midday ceremony (at the candidate's professional or graduate school, or undergraduate House) at which diplomas are given in hand.
The ceremonies shifted from late summer to late June in the nineteenth century,
and are now held at the end of May.
A number of unusual traditions have attached to them over the centuries, including the arrival of certain dignitaries on horseback, occupancy by Harvard's president of the Holyoke Chair (a "bizarre" sixteenth-century contraption prone to tipping over) and the welcoming of newly minted bachelors to "the fellowship of educated men and women."
== Commencement week ==
Harvard's Commencement Day, on which degrees are conferred, is the highlight of several days of events such as receptions, dinners, concerts, literary exercises, miscellaneous ceremonies, a baccalaureate service, and Class Day events..
The annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association, long convened on the afternoon of Commencement Day, was moved in 2022 to the week following.
== Class Day ==
The annual Class Day celebration occurs the day before Commencement.
== Daybreak rituals ==
Most upperclass Houses have preliminary rituals of their own. At Lowell House, for example, a perambulating bagpiper alerts seniors at 6:15 am for a 6:30 breakfast in the House dining hall with members of the Senior Common Room, after which all process (along with members of Eliot House, who have been similarly roused) to Memorial Church for a chapel service at 7:45.
== Morning exercises ==
Morning Exercises are held in the central green of Harvard Yard (known as Tercentenary Theatre); the dais is before the steps of Memorial Church, facing Widener Library.
Some 32,000 people attend the event, including university officials, civic dignitaries, faculty, honorees, alumni, family and guests. Degree candidates wear cap and gown or other academic regalia (see Academic regalia of Harvard University).
=== Academic Parade ===
The first to enter are candidates for graduate and professional degrees, followed by alumni and alumnae.
Candidates for undergraduate degrees enter next, traditionally removing headgear as they pass the John Harvard statue en route.
Finally comes the President's Procession, as follows:
=== Holyoke Chair ===
On the dais the President occupies the Holyoke Chair, an uncomfortable and treacherous Elizabethan turned chair reserved for such ceremonies since at least 1770 (when it was already some two hundred years old).
Called "bizarre ... with a complex frame and top-heavy superstructure", its "square framework set on the single rear post makes [it] tip over easily to either side."
A stabilizing "fin" was added at the rear sometime in the 20th century.
"It was just uncomfortable. I don’t know how to describe it," recalled Derek Bok, Harvard's 25th president (1971–1991), whose mother embroidered a "much-needed" cushion for use with it.
Said the Harvard Gazette in 2007:
When the chair holds its robed occupant, onlookers cannot detect the odd geometry by which its triangular seat points toward a square back rippling with knobby dowels and finials. Perhaps by striking their own precarious balance in this strange seat of authority, the successors of Edward Holyoke [Harvard's president 1737–1769] come to sense what the job is all about.
=== Ceremonies ===
At the University Marshal's call ("Mister Sheriff, pray give us order") the Middlesex Sheriff takes to the dais, strikes it thrice with the butt of his staff, and intones, "The meeting will be in order."
Three student speakers (Undergraduate English, Undergraduate Latin, and Graduate English) are introduced and deliver their addresses.
Then, according to the order in which the various graduate and professional schools were created, the dean of each school steps forward to present, en masse, that school's degree candidates.
Each group stands for the President's incantation conferring their degrees, which is followed by a traditional welcome or exhortation:
doctoral graduates, for example, are welcomed "to the ancient and universal company of scholars", while law graduates are reminded to "aid in the shaping and application of those wise restraints that make us free."
Last to be graduated are the bachelor's candidates, who are then welcomed to "the fellowship of educated men and women."
Honorary degrees are then bestowed.
Finally, all rise to sing "The Harvard Hymn",
expressing the hope (Integri sint curatores, Eruditi professores, Largiantur donatores—printed
lyrics are supplied)
that the trustees, faculty and benefactors will manifest (respectively) integrity, wisdom, and generosity.
After a benediction is said, the Middlesex Sheriff declares the ceremony closed and the President's Procession departs.
Once the dais is clear the Harvard Band strikes up and the Memorial Church bell commences to peal, joined by bells throughout Cambridge for most of the following hour.
== Mid-day ceremonies ==
After the Morning Exercises, each graduate or professional school, and each upperclass House, holds a smaller ceremony (with luncheon) at which its member-graduates are called forward by name to receive their diplomas in hand.
== Alumni Association meeting and afternoon addresses ==
For many years, at the afternoon meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association, the President and the Commencement Day speaker delivered their addresses. However, in 2022, the Alumni Association meeting was moved to a week after commencement, as cancellations during COVID "helped lead to the re-thinking about purpose and forums."
US Secretary of State (and former Army general) George C. Marshall's address at the 1947 commencement famously outlined a plan (soon known as the Marshall Plan) for the economic revival of post–World War II Europe.
== Historical notes ==
=== Sheriffs ===
"Our fathers ... closely associated the thirst for learning and that for beer", a 1924 Harvard history observed,
so that (a modern survey continued) the sheriffs' presence at Commencements "has a practical origin. Feasting, drinking, and merrymaking at earlier commencements often got out of hand. Fights were not unheard of",
and commencements in various years have featured two-headed calves, an elephant, and Indians-versus-scholars archery competitions.
Such goings-on were sufficiently common knowledge that in 1749, Bostonian William Douglass explained to a general readership that the siege and capture of Louisbourg had been "carried on in a tumultuary random Manner, and resembled a Cambridge Commencement."
Thus in 1781, For the prevention of Disorders on Commencement day, [the Corporation] voted that the Honble Henry Gardner Esq: and the Honble Abraham Fuller Esq: Justices of the Peace thro' the State, and Loammi Baldwin Esq: Sheriff of the County of Middlesex, be requested to give their attendance on that day ...
Earlier measures had included the 1693 banning of plum cake—the enjoyment of which, officials asserted, was unknown at other universities, "dishonourable to ye Colledge, not gratefull to Wise men, and chargable to [i.e. the fault of] ye Parents".
This was one of many efforts by Increase Mather (Harvard's president from 1692 to 1701) toward "Reformation of those excesses ... [of] Commencement day and weeke at the Colledge, [sic] so that I might [prevent] disorder and profaneness" —for Harvard officials a recurring headache.
=== Sartorial regulations ===
To curb unseemly sartorial displays of wealth and social status the 1807 Laws of Harvard College provided that, on Commencement day,[E]very Candidate for a first degree shall be clothed in a black gown, or in a coat of blue grey, a dark blue, or a black color; and no one shall wear any silk nightgown, on said day, nor any gold or silver lace, cord, or edging upon his hat, waistcoat, or any other part of his clothing, in the College, or town of Cambridge.
=== 2024 Gaza war protest ===
At least several hundred degree candidates and faculty walked out of the 2024 morning exercises to protest the denial of degrees, pending appeal, to thirteen Harvard College seniors; the degrees had been withheld due to the students' conduct during a weeks-long "encampment" in Harvard Yard protesting the Gaza–Israel conflict.
According to the Harvard undergraduate newspaper, The Crimson, the walkout had been "something of a foregone conclusion ... so widely expected by students and administrators alike that it could just as well have been added to the official Commencement program."
== Honorary degrees ==
Several hundred Harvard honorary degrees (which with few exceptions must be accepted in person) have been awarded since the first were awarded in 1692. Notable recipients have included at least 14 U.S. Presidents, as well as numerous writers, artists, and Nobel Prize recipients.
In 1984 the Harvard Corporation decided that no honorary degrees would be granted at the 1986 commencement (marking Harvard's 350th year), ending controversy over whether Ronald Reagan would be awarded a degree. A Harvard official called the decision "the only graceful way out" of the situation; Reagan was nonetheless invited to speak at the ceremony.
=== George Bernard Shaw ===
In 1935 playwright George Bernard Shaw declined nomination for a Harvard honorary degree, urging instead that Harvard celebrate its three-hundredth anniversary by "burning itself to the ground ... as an example to all the other famous old corrupters of youth" such as Yale.
Responding to the prospect of being nominated for an honorary degree on the occasion of Harvard's Tercentenary celebration in 1936, George Bernard Shaw wrote:
Dear Sir, I have to thank you for your proposal to present me as a candidate for an honorary degree of D.L. of Harvard University at its tri-centenary celebration. But I cannot pretend that it would be fair for me to accept university degrees when every public reference of mine to our educational system, and especially to the influence of the universities on it, is fiercely hostile. If Harvard would celebrate its three hundredth anniversary by burning itself to the ground and sowing its site with salt, the ceremony would give me the greatest satisfaction as an example to all the other famous old corrupters of youth, including Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, etc. Under these circumstances I should let you down very heavily if you undertook to sponsor me.
A handwritten postscript read: "I appreciate the friendliness of your attitude."
== Commencement speakers ==
== See also ==
Academic regalia of Harvard University
History of Harvard University
Columbia University commencement
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Harvard University Commencement Office |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Vasnetsov | Viktor Vasnetsov | Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (Russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Васнецо́в; 15 May [O.S. 3 May] 1848 – 23 July 1926) was a Russian painter and draughtsman who specialised in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered a co-founder of Russian folklorist and romantic nationalistic painting, and a key figure in the Russian Revivalist movement.
== Biography ==
=== Childhood (1848–1858) ===
Viktor Vasnetsov was born in the remote village of Lopyal in Vyatka Governorate in 1848, the second of the seven children (his only sister died 4 months after her birth). His father Mikhail Vasilievich Vasnetsov (1823–1870), known to be philosophically inclined, was a member of the priesthood, and a scholar of the natural sciences and astronomy. His grandfather was an icon painter. Two of Mikhail Vasnetsov's six sons, Viktor and Apollinary, became remarkable painters, three becoming schoolteachers and one a Russian folklorist. It was in Lopyal that Viktor started to paint, mostly landscapes and scenes of village life. Recalling his childhood in a letter to Vladimir Stasov, Vasnetsov remarked that he "had lived with peasant children and liked them not as a narodnik but as a friend".
=== Vyatka (1858–1867) ===
From the age of ten, Viktor studied in a seminary in Vyatka, each summer moving with his family to a rich merchant village of Ryabovo. During his seminary years, he worked for a local icon shopkeeper. He also helped an exiled Polish artist, Michał Elwiro Andriolli, to execute frescoes for Vyatka's Alexander Nevsky cathedral.
Having graduated from the seminary, Viktor decided to move to Saint Petersburg to study art. He auctioned his paintings of Woman Harvester and Milk-maid (both 1867) to raise the money required for the trip to the Russian capital.
=== Saint Petersburg (1867–1876) ===
In August 1867 Viktor tried to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts, but failed. He succeeded one year later in August 1868. Already in 1863 a group of fourteen students left the Academy, finding its rules too constraining. This led to the Peredvizhniki movement of realist painters rebelling against Academism. Vasnetsov befriended their leader Ivan Kramskoi during his drawing classes before entering the Academy, referring to him as his teacher. He also became very close to fellow student, Ilya Repin.
Viktor, whose name would subsequently be associated with historical and mythological paintings, initially avoided these subjects at all costs. For his graphic composition of Christ and Pontius Pilate Before the People, the Academy awarded a small silver medal to him. In the early 1870s he completed a large number of engravings depicting contemporary life. Two of them (Provincial Bookseller from 1870 and A Boy with a Bottle of Vodka from 1872) won him a bronze medal at the World Fair in London (1874). During this period he also started producing genre paintings in oil. Such pieces as Peasant Singers (1873) and Moving House (1876) were warmly welcomed by democratic circles of Russian society.
=== Paris (1876–1877) ===
In 1876 Repin invited Vasnetsov to join the Peredvizhniki colony in Paris. While living in France, Viktor studied classical and contemporary paintings, academist and Impressionist alike. During that period, he painted Acrobats (1877), produced prints, and exhibited some of his works at the Salon. It was in Paris that he became fascinated with fairy-tale subjects, starting to work on Ivan Tsarevich Riding a Grey Wolf and The Firebird. Vasnetsov was a model for Sadko in Repin's celebrated painting Sadko. In 1877 he returned to Moscow.
=== Moscow (1877–1884) ===
In the late 1870s Vasnetsov concentrated on illustrating Russian fairy tales and the epic narrative poem Bylinas, executing some of his best known pieces: The Knight at the Crossroads (1878), Prince Igor's Battlefield (1878),
Three princesses of the Underground Kingdom (completed 1884 ), The Flying Carpet (1880), and Alionushka (1881). These works were not appreciated at the time they appeared. Many radical critics dismissed them as undermining the realist principles of the Peredvizhniki. Even such prominent connoisseurs as Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov refused to buy them. The vogue for Vasnetsov's paintings would spread in the 1880s, when he turned to religious subjects and executed a series of icons for Abramtsevo estate of his patron Savva Mamontov.
=== Kiev (1884–1889) ===
In 1884–1889 Vasnetsov was commissioned to paint frescoes in St Vladimir's Cathedral in Kiev. This was a challenging work which ran contrary to both Russian and Western traditions of religious paintings. The influential art critic Vladimir Stasov labelled them a sacrilegious play with religious feelings of the Russian people. Another popular critic, Dmitry Filosofov, referred to these frescoes as "the first bridge over 200 years-old gulf separating different classes of Russian society".
While living in Kiev, Vasnetsov made friends with Mikhail Vrubel, who was also involved in the cathedral's decoration. While they worked together, Vasnetsov taught the younger artist a great deal. It was in Kiev that Vasnetsov finally finished Ivan Tsarevich Riding a Grey Wolf and started his most famous painting, the Bogatyrs. In 1885 the painter travelled to Italy. The same year he worked on stage designs and costumes for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden.
=== Later Years (1890–1926) ===
The following two decades were productive for Vasnetsov. He increasingly turned to other media during this period. In 1897 he collaborated with his brother Apollinary on the theatrical design of another Rimsky-Korsakov premiere, Sadko.
At the turn of the century, Vasnetsov elaborated his hallmark "fairy-tale" style of Russian Revivalist architecture. His first acclaimed design was a church in Abramtsevo (1882), executed jointly with Vasily Polenov. In 1894, he designed his own mansion in Moscow. The Russian pavilion of the World Fair in Paris followed in 1898. Finally, in 1904, Vasnetsov designed the best known of his "fairy-tale" buildings – the façade of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Between 1906 and 1911, Vasnetsov worked on the design of the mosaics for Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Warsaw; he was also involved in the design of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Moscow. In 1912, he was given a noble title by Czar Nicholas II. In 1914, he designed a revenue stamp intended for voluntary collection for victims of World War I.
Even prior to the Russian Revolution, Vasnetsov became active as a regent of the Tretyakov Gallery. He allocated a significant portion of his income to the State Historical Museum, so that a large part of the museum's collection was acquired on Vasnetsov's money. After the October Revolution he advocated removing some of the religious paintings from churches to the Tretyakov Gallery.
In 1915, Vasnetsov participated in the designing of a military uniform for the Victory parade of the Russian army in Berlin and Constantinopole. Vasnetsov is credited with the creation of the budenovka (initially named bogatyrka), a military hat reproducing the style of Kievan Rus' cone-shaped helmets.
Vasnetsov died in Moscow in 1926, he was 78.
== Legacy ==
A minor planet, 3586 Vasnetsov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978, is named after Viktor Vasnetsov and Apollinary Vasnetsov.
In the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Vasnetsov's painting of Ivan the Terrible is anachronistically presented as if it already existed in that Tsar's lifetime, and as being sent by Ivan to England when he offers to marry Queen Elizabeth I.
Vasnetsov's grandson, Andrei Vladimirovich Vasnetsov (1924–2009), was People's Artist of the USSR.
== Works ==
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
A. K. Lazuko Victor Vasnetsov, Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1990, ISBN 5-7370-0107-5
Vasnetsov Gallery
Poem of Seven Fairy Tales Archived 22 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Victor Vasnetsov at Tanais Gallery
== External links ==
Vasnetsov's tomb
St. Vladimir Cathedral interior 360 panorama |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFT_Industrial_Scientist_Award | IFT Industrial Scientist Award | The IFT Industrial Scientist Award was awarded by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) for scientists who made significant technical contributions to advancing the food industry. It was first awarded in 1994, but was not necessarily awarded every year. In 2019, the IFT reorganized its awards program, and no longer offered this award.
Award winners received a USD 3000 honorarium and a plaque from IFT.
== Winners ==
== References ==
== External links ==
List of past winners - Official site |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Battaglia | Roberto Battaglia | Roberto Battaglia (23 June 1909 – 26 August 1986) was an Italian fencer. He won a gold medal in the team épée event at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._M._Sikri | S. M. Sikri | Sarv Mittra Sikri (26 April 1908 – 24 September 1992) was an Indian lawyer and judge who served as the 13th Chief Justice of India.
He previously served as the first Advocate-General for Punjab, before becoming the first judge of the Supreme Court of India, to be directly appointed from the Bar. Additionally, he is the first of only two judges to be CJI, directly from the Bar.
== Biography ==
Sikri was born in Lahore on 26 April 1908. He moved to London to study medicine, but switched to law, studying at Trinity College, Cambridge. Before returning to Lahore in 1930, he served as a barrister-at-law at Lincoln's Inn, in London.
He began his legal practise in the chambers of Jagannath Agarwal, who was a leading advocate in the Lahore High Court and practiced criminal and civil law. Following independence, he was appointed the Assistant Advocate General of Punjab in 1949 and soon as the advocate general in 1951. Held the same position almost entirely until his elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court of India in 1964.
As an advocate, he appeared and practised in various courts, ranging from the Lahore High Court and other courts in Punjab to the Federal Court of India and eventually the Supreme Court of India.
== Notable judgements ==
I.C. Golaknath and Ors. v. State of Punjab and Anrs. had him a part of the thin majority of 6:5, in which the court reversed its earlier decision which had upheld Parliament's power to amend all parts of the Constitution, including Part III related to Fundamental Rights. The judgement left Parliament with no power to curtail Fundamental Rights.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hickinbottom_Award#:~:text=2012,Rachel%20O%27Reilly | Hickinbottom Award | The Hickinbottom Award (also referred to as the Hickinbottom Fellowship) is awarded annually by the Royal Society of Chemistry for contributions in the area of organic chemistry from an early career scientist. The prize winner receives a monetary award and will complete a lecture tour within the UK. The winner is chosen by the awards committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry's organic division.
== Award history ==
The award was established by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1979 following Wilfred Hickinbottom's bequest. Hickinbottom was noted for supporting high standards in experimental chemistry.
Part of the monetary award is the Briggs scholarship, which was funded following a bequest from Lady Alice Lilian Thorpe, William Briggs' daughter.
== Previous recipients ==
The award was first granted in 1981 to Steven Ley and Jeremy Sanders.
Subsequent recipients include:
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi#:~:text=Henry%20Kissinger%20described%20her%20as,associated%20with%20her%20tough%20personality.&text=During%20Nehru's%20premiership%20from%201947,on%20his%20numerous%20foreign%20trips. | Indira Gandhi | Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and only female prime minister as of 2025, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, and the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her as prime minister. Her cumulative tenure of 15 years and 350 days makes her the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.
During her father Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership from 1947 to 1964, Gandhi was his hostess and accompanied him on his numerous foreign trips. In 1959, she played a part in the dissolution of the communist-led Kerala state government as then-president of the Indian National Congress, otherwise a ceremonial position to which she was elected earlier that year. Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had succeeded Nehru as prime minister upon his death in 1964, appointed her minister of information and broadcasting in his government; the same year she was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. After Shastri's sudden death in January 1966, Gandhi defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, in the INC's parliamentary leadership election to become leader and also succeeded Shastri as prime minister. She was the world's second female prime minister after Sirimavo Bandaranaike when she became prime minister of India. She led the Congress to victory in two subsequent elections, starting with the 1967 general election, in which she was first elected to the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha. In 1971, her party secured its first landslide victory since her father's sweep in 1962, focusing on issues such as poverty. But following the nationwide state of emergency she implemented, she faced massive anti-incumbency sentiment causing the INC to lose the 1977 election, which was the first time this happened in the history of India. She even lost her own parliamentary constituency. However, due to her portrayal as a strong leader and the weak governance of the Janata Party, her party won the next election by a landslide and she returned to the premiership.
As prime minister, Gandhi was known for her uncompromising political stances and centralisation of power within the executive branch. In 1967, she headed a military conflict with China in which India repelled Chinese incursions into the Himalayas. In 1971, she went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the independence of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the sole regional power in South Asia. Another military operation against Pakistan, codenamed Operation Meghdoot, occurred during her tenure in 1984, which led to India expanding the territory it effectively controlled in the disputed Kashmir region.
Gandhi also played a crucial role in initiating India's first successful nuclear weapon test in 1974. Her rule saw India grow closer to the Soviet Union by signing a friendship treaty in 1971 to ward off perceived geopolitical threat as a result of the U.S. warming up to China. India received military, financial, and diplomatic support from the Soviet Union during its conflict with Pakistan in the same year. Though India was at the forefront of the Non-Aligned Movement, Gandhi made it one of the Soviet Union's closest allies in Asia, each often supporting the other in proxy wars and at the United Nations.
Responding to separatist tendencies and a call for revolution, she instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977, during which she ruled by decree and basic civil liberties were suspended. More than 100,000 political opponents, journalists and dissenters were imprisoned. She faced the growing Sikh separatism movement throughout her fourth premiership; in response, she ordered Operation Blue Star, which involved military action in the Golden Temple and killed hundreds of Sikhs. On 31 October 1984, she was assassinated by two of her bodyguards, both of whom were Sikh nationalists seeking retribution for the events at the temple.
Gandhi is remembered as one of the most powerful women in the world. Her supporters cite her leadership during victories over geopolitical rivals China and Pakistan, the Green Revolution, a growing economy in the early 1980s, and her anti-poverty campaign that led her to be known as "Mother Indira" (a pun on Mother India) among the country's poor and rural classes. Henry Kissinger described her as an "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her tough personality. Critics note her cult of personality and authoritarian rule of India during the Emergency. In 1999, she was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC. In 2020, she was named by Time magazine among the 100 women who defined the past century as counterparts to the magazine's previous choices for Man of the Year.
== Early life and career ==
Indira Gandhi was born in British ruled India as Indira Nehru, into a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad (present-day Prayagraj) in Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading figure in the Indian movement for independence from British rule, and became the first Prime Minister of the Dominion (and later Republic) of India. Indira was her parents' only surviving child (she had a younger brother who died while young); she grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru, at the Anand Bhavan, a large family estate in Allahabad. In 1930, the Nehru family donated the mansion to the Indian National Congress and renamed it Swaraj Bhavan (meaning abode of freedom). A new mansion was built nearby to serve as the family residence and given the name of the old Anand Bhavan. Indira had a lonely and unhappy childhood. Her father was often away, directing political activities or incarcerated, while her mother was frequently bedridden with illness and later suffered an early death from tuberculosis. Indira had limited contact with her father, mostly through letters.
Indira Nehru was taught mostly at home by tutors and attended school intermittently until matriculation in 1934. She was a student at the Modern School in Delhi, St. Cecilia's and St. Mary's Convent schools in Allahabad, the International School of Geneva in Geneva, the Ecole Nouvelle in Bex in Vaud, Switzerland, and the Pupils' Own School in Poona in Maharashtra and in Bombay, which is affiliated with the University of Mumbai. She and her mother moved to the Belur Math headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission where Swami Ranganathananda was her guardian. Indira then studied at the Vishwa Bharati in Santiniketan, which became Visva-Bharati University in 1951. During an interview with Rabindranath Tagore, he named Indira Priyadarshini, which means "looking at everything with kindness" in Sanskrit and she became known as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru. A year later, however, she had to leave university to attend to her ailing mother in Lausanne, Switzerland. There it was decided that Indira would continue her education at the University of Oxford. After her mother died, Indira attended the Badminton School in Bristol, England for a short time period and then enrolled at Somerville College in Oxford in 1937 to study history. She had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a poor performance in Latin. At Oxford, she excelled in history, political science, and economics but her grades in Latin—a compulsory subject—remained poor. However she was active socially at the university and was a member of the Oxford Majlis Asian Society.
During her time in Europe, Indira Nehru was plagued with ill health and was constantly attended to by doctors. She had to make repeated trips to Switzerland to recover, disrupting her studies. She was there in 1940, when Germany rapidly conquered Europe. Nehru tried to return to England through Portugal but was left stranded for nearly two months. She managed to enter England in early 1941, and from there returned to India without completing her studies at Oxford. The university later awarded her an honorary degree. In 2010, Oxford honoured her further by selecting her as one of the ten Oxasians, illustrious Asian graduates from the University of Oxford. During her stay in Britain, Nehru frequently met her future husband Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi). They were married in Allahabad according to Adi Dharm rituals, although Feroze belonged to a Zoroastrian Parsi family of Gujarat. The couple had two sons, Rajiv Gandhi (born 1944) and Sanjay Gandhi (born 1946).
In September 1942, Indira Gandhi was arrested over her role in the Quit India Movement. She was released from jail in April 1943. "Mud entered our souls in the drabness of prison," she later recalled her time in the jail. She added, "When I came out, it was such a shock to see colors again I thought I would go out of my mind."
In the 1950s, Indira, now Indira Gandhi after her marriage, unofficially served her father as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first prime minister of India. Near the end of the 1950s, Gandhi served as the president of the Congress. In that capacity, she was instrumental in having the communist-led Kerala state government dismissed in 1959. That government was India's first elected communist government. After her father's death in 1964 she was appointed a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and served in Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. In January 1966, after Shastri's death, the Congress legislative party elected her over Morarji Desai as their leader. Congress party veteran K. Kamaraj was instrumental in Gandhi achieving victory. Because she was a woman, other political leaders in India saw Gandhi as weak and hoped to use her as a puppet once elected: Congress President Kamaraj orchestrated Mrs. Gandhi's selection as prime minister because he perceived her to be weak enough that he and the other regional party bosses could control her, and yet strong enough to beat Desai [her political opponent] in a party election because of the high regard for her father... a woman would be an ideal tool for the Syndicate.
== Prime minister (1966–1977) ==
Gandhi's first eleven years serving as prime minister saw her evolve from the perception of Congress party leaders as their puppet, to a strong leader with the iron resolve to split the party over her policy positions, or to go to war with Pakistan to assist Bangladesh in the 1971 liberation war. At the end of 1977, she was such a dominating figure in Indian politics that Congress party president D. K. Barooah had coined the phrase "India is Indira and Indira is India."
=== First year ===
Gandhi formed her government as Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. She is first indian prime minister from Rajya Sabha. At the beginning of her first term as prime minister, she was widely criticised by the media and the opposition as a "Goongi goodiya" (Hindi for a "dumb doll") of the Congress party bosses who had orchestrated her election and then tried to constrain her.
Indira was a reluctant successor to her famed father, although she had accompanied him on several official foreign visits and played an anchor role in bringing down the first democratically elected communist government in Kerala. According to certain sources it was the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia that first derided her personality as the "Goongi Goodiya" that later was echoed by other Congress politicians who were wary of her rise in the party.
One of her first major actions was to crush the separatist Mizo National Front uprising in Mizoram in 1966.
=== 1967–1971 ===
The first electoral test for Gandhi was the 1967 general elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The Congress Party won a reduced majority in the Lok Sabha after these elections owing to widespread disenchantment over the rising prices of commodities, unemployment, economic stagnation and a food crisis. Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Raebareli constituency. She had a rocky start after agreeing to devalue the rupee which created hardship for Indian businesses and consumers. The importation of wheat from the United States fell through due to political disputes.
For the first time, the party also lost power or lost its majority in a number of states across the country. After the 1967 elections, Gandhi gradually began to move towards socialist policies. In 1969, she fell out with senior Congress party leaders over several issues. Chief among them was her decision to support V. V. Giri, the independent candidate rather than the official Congress party candidate Neelam Sanjiva Reddy for the vacant position of president of India. The other was the announcement by the prime minister of Bank nationalisation without consulting the finance minister, Morarji Desai. These steps culminated in party president S. Nijalingappa expelling her from the party for indiscipline. Gandhi, in turn, floated her own faction of the Congress party and managed to retain most of the Congress MPs on her side with only 65 on the side of the Congress (O) faction. The Gandhi faction, called Congress (R), lost its majority in the parliament but remained in power with the support of regional parties such as DMK. The policies of the Congress under Gandhi, before the 1971 elections, also included proposals for the abolition of the Privy Purse to former rulers of the princely states and the 1969 nationalisation of the fourteen largest banks in India.
==== Military conflict with China ====
In 1967, a military conflict alongside the border of the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim, then an Indian protectorate, broke out between India and China. India won by repelling Chinese attacks and forced the subsequent withdrawal of Chinese forces from the region. Throughout the conflict, the Indian losses were 88 killed and 163 wounded while Chinese casualties stood at 340 killed and 450 wounded, according to the Indian Defense Ministry. Chinese sources made no declarations of casualties but alleged India to be the aggressor.
In December 1967, Indira Gandhi remarked these developments that "China continues to maintain an attitude of hostility towards us and spares no opportunity to malign us and to carry on anti-Indian propaganda not only against the Indian Government but the whole way of our democratic functioning." In 1975, Gandhi incorporated Sikkim into India, after a referendum in which a majority of Sikkimese voted to join India. The move was condemned as being a "despicable act of the Indian Government" by China. Chinese government mouthpiece China Daily wrote that "the Nehrus, father and daughter, had always acted in this way, and Indira Gandhi had gone further".
=== 1971–1977 ===
Garibi Hatao (Remove Poverty) was the resonant theme for Gandhi's 1971 political bid. The slogan was developed in response to the combined opposition alliance's use of the two-word manifesto—"Indira Hatao" (Remove Indira). The Garibi Hatao slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi independent national support, based on the rural and urban poor. This would allow her to bypass the dominant rural castes both in and of state and local governments as well as the urban commercial class. For their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight. The programs created through Garibi Hatao, though carried out locally, were funded and developed by the Central Government in New Delhi. The program was supervised and staffed by the Indian National Congress party. "These programs also provided the central political leadership with new and vast patronage resources to be disbursed ... throughout the country."
The Congress government faced numerous problems during this term. Some of these were due to high inflation which in turn was caused by wartime expenses, drought in some parts of the country and, more importantly, the 1973 oil crisis. Opposition to her in the 1973–75 period, after the Gandhi wave had receded, was strongest in the states of Bihar and Gujarat. In Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan, the veteran leader came out of retirement to lead the protest movement there.
==== War with Pakistan ====
Gandhi's biggest achievement following the 1971 election came in December 1971 with India's decisive victory over Pakistan in the India–Pakistan war of 1971. That victory occurred in the last two weeks of the Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to the formation of independent Bangladesh. An insurgency in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) formed in early 1971, with Bengalis and East Pakistanis revolting against authoritarian rule from the central West Pakistan Government. In response, Pakistani security forces launched the infamous Operation Searchlight, in which Pakistan committed genocide among Bengali Hindus, nationalists and intelligentsia. Gandhi's India was initially restrained from intervening in the insurgency but quickly started to support Bengali rebels through the provision of military supplies. Indian forces clashed multiple times with Pakistani forces in the Eastern border. At one point, Indian forces along with Mukti Bahini rebels allied together and attacked Pakistani forces at Dhalai. The attack, supported and later successfully executed by India, was done to stop Pakistani cross-border shelling. The battle occurred more than a month before India's official intervention in December. Gandhi quickly dispatched more troops to the Eastern border with East Pakistan, hoping to support Mukti Bahini rebels and cease any Pakistani infiltration. Indian forces then clashed again with Pakistani forces after Indian forces crossed the border and secured Garibpur after a one-day battle lasting from 20 November 1971 to the 21st. The next day, on 22 November, Indian and Pakistani aircraft engaged in a dogfight over the Boyra Salient, in which thousands of people watched as four Indian Folland Gnats shot down two Pakistani Canadair Sabres and damaged another. Both Pakistani pilots that were shot down were captured as prisoners of war. The Battle of Boyra instantly made the four Indian pilots celebrities and created large-scale nationalism as the Bangladesh Liberation War saw more and more Indian intervention and escalation. Other clashes also happened on the same day but did not receive as much media attention as did the battle of Boyra and Garibpur. On 3 December 1971, the Pakistan Air Force launched Operation Chengiz Khan, which saw Pakistani aircraft attacking Indian airbases and military installations across the Western border in a pre-emptive strike. The initial night-time attack by Pakistani forces was foiled, failing to inflict any major damage on Indian airbases, allowing Indian aircraft to counterattack into West Pakistan. Gandhi quickly declared a state of emergency and addressed the nation on radio shortly after midnight, stating: "We must be prepared for a long period of hardship and sacrifice."
Both countries mobilised for war and Gandhi ordered full-out war, ordering an invasion into East Pakistan. Pakistan's navy had not improved since the 1965 war, while the Pakistani airforce could not launch attacks on the same scale as the Indian airforce. The Pakistan Army quickly attempted major land operations on the Western border, but most of these attacks besides some in Kashmir stalled, and allowed Indian counterattacks to gain land. Pakistan's army lacked wide-scale organisation, contributing to miscommunication and high casualties in the western front.
In the eastern front of the war, Indian generals opted for a lightning war, using mechanised and airborne units to quickly bypass Pakistani opposition and advance rapidly towards the capital of East Pakistan, Dhaka. Jagjit Singh Aurora led the Indian army's Eastern Command. The Indian air force quickly overcame the small contingent of Pakistani aircraft in East Pakistan, achieving air superiority. Indian forces liberated Jessore and several other towns during the Battle of Sylhet between 7 December and 15 December 1971, which saw India conduct its first heliborne operation. India then conducted another airdrop on 9 December, with Indian forces led by Major General Sagat Singh capturing just under 5,000 Pakistani POWs and also crossing the Meghna River towards Dhaka. Two days later, Indian forces conducted the largest airborne operation since World War II. 750 men of the Parachute Regiment landed in Tangail, defeating Pakistani forces and securing a direct route to Dhaka. Few Pakistani soldiers escaped the battle, with only 900 out of 7000 soldiers successfully retreating to Dhaka. By 12 December, Indian forces reached the outskirts of Dhaka and prepared to besiege the capital. Indian heavy artillery arrived by the 14th, and shelled the city.
As surrender became apparent by 14 December 1971, Pakistani paramilitaries and militia roamed the streets of Dhaka during the night, kidnapping, torturing and then executing any educated Bengali who was viewed as someone who could lead Bangladesh once Pakistan surrendered. Over 200 of these people were killed on the 14th. By 16 December, Pakistani morale had reached a low point, with the Indian Army finally encircling Dhaka and besieging the city. On the 16th, Indian forces issued a 30-minute ultimatum for the city to surrender. Seeing that the city's defences paled in comparison to the Mukti Bahini and Indian forces outside the city, Lt-Gen. A.A.K. Niazi (Cdr. of Eastern Command) and his deputy, V-Adm. M.S. Khan surrendered the city without resistance. BBC News captured the moment of surrender as Indian soldiers from the Parachute Regiment streamed into the city. As Indian forces and Mukti Bahini rounded up the remaining Pakistani forces, Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora of India and A.A.K. Niazi of Pakistan signed the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender at 16:31Hrs IST on 16 December 1971. The surrender signified the collapse of the East Pakistan Government along with the end of the war. 93,000 soldiers of the Pakistani security forces surrendered, the largest surrender since World War II. The entire four-tiered military surrendered to India along with its officers and generals. Large crowds flooded the scenes as anti-Pakistani slogans emerged and Pakistani POWs were beaten by the locals. Eventually, Indian officers formed a human-chain to protect Pakistani POWs and Niazi from being lynched by the belligerent locals. Most of the 93,000 captured were Pakistan Army officers or paramilitary officers, along with 12,000 supporters (razakars). Hostilities officially ended on 17 December 1971. 8,000 Pakistani soldiers were killed along with 25,000 wounded; Indian forces suffered only 3,000 dead and 12,000 wounded. India claimed to have captured 3.6k square kilometres of Pakistani land on the Western Front while losing 126 square kilometres of land to Pakistan.
Gandhi was hailed as Goddess Durga by the people as well as the opposition leaders at the time when India defeated Pakistan in the war. In the elections held for State assemblies across India in March 1972, the Congress (R) swept to power in most states riding on the post-war "Indira wave".
==== Verdict on electoral malpractice ====
On 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court declared Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha in 1971 void on the grounds of electoral malpractice. In an election petition filed by her 1971 opponent, Raj Narain (who later defeated her in the 1977 parliamentary election running in the Raebareli constituency), alleged several major as well as minor instances of the use of government resources for campaigning. Gandhi had asked one of her colleagues in government, Ashoke Kumar Sen, to defend her in court. She gave evidence in her defence during the trial. After almost four years, the court found her guilty of dishonest election practices, excessive election expenditure, and of using government machinery and officials for party purposes. The judge, however, rejected the more serious charges of bribery, laid against her in the case.
The court ordered her stripped of her parliamentary seat and banned her from running for any office for six years. As the constitution requires that the Prime Minister must be a member of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, the two houses of the Parliament of India, she was effectively removed from office. However, Gandhi rejected calls to resign. She announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court and insisted that the conviction did not undermine her position. She said, "There is a lot of talk about our government not being clean, but from our experience the situation was very much worse when [opposition] parties were forming governments." She dismissed criticism of the way her Congress Party raised election campaign money, saying all parties used the same methods. The prime minister retained the support of her party, which issued a statement backing her.
After news of the verdict spread, hundreds of supporters demonstrated outside her house, pledging their loyalty. Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Braj Kumar Nehru said Gandhi's conviction would not harm her political career. "Mrs Gandhi has still today overwhelming support in the country," he said. "I believe the prime minister of India will continue in office until the electorate of India decides otherwise".
==== State of Emergency (1975–1977) ====
Gandhi moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. Her Cabinet and government recommended that then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declare a state of emergency because of the disorder and lawlessness following the Allahabad High Court decision. Accordingly, Ahmed declared a State of Emergency caused by internal disorder, based on the provisions of Article 352(1) of the Constitution, on 25 June 1975. At the time of emergency, there was a widespread rumour that Gandhi had ordered her search guards to eliminate firebrand trade unionist and socialist party leader George Fernandes, while he was on a run. Few International organisations and Government officials issued request letters to Indira Gandhi pleading her to relinquish such decrees. Fernandes had called a nationwide railway strike in 1974, that shut the railways for three weeks and became the largest industrial action in Asia. Gandhi had turned furious over him and the strike was massively cracked down.
==== Rule by decree ====
Within a few months, President's rule was imposed on the two opposition party ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu thereby bringing the entire country under direct Central rule or by governments led by the ruling Congress party. Police were granted powers to impose curfews and detain citizens indefinitely; all publications were subjected to substantial censorship by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Finally, the impending legislative assembly elections were postponed indefinitely, with all opposition-controlled state governments being removed by virtue of the constitutional provision allowing for a dismissal of a state government on the recommendation of the state's governor.
Indira Gandhi used the emergency provisions to change conflicting party members:
Unlike her father Jawaharlal Nehru who preferred to deal with strong chief ministers in control of their legislative parties and state party organizations, Mrs. Gandhi set out to remove every Congress chief minister who had an independent base and to replace each of them with ministers personally loyal to her...Even so, stability could not be maintained in the states...
President Ahmed issued ordinances that did not require debate in the Parliament, allowing Gandhi to rule by decree.
==== Rise of Sanjay Gandhi ====
During the emergency Gandhi's younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, entered into Indian politics. He wielded tremendous power during the emergency without holding any government office. According to Mark Tully, "His inexperience did not stop him from using the Draconian powers his mother, Indira Gandhi, had taken to terrorise the administration, setting up what was in effect a police state." It was said that during the emergency Sanjay virtually ran India along with his friends, especially Bansi Lal. It was also quipped that Sanjay had total control over his mother and that the government was run by the PMH (Prime Minister House) rather than the PMO (Prime Minister Office).
== In Opposition (1977–1980) ==
In 1977, after extending the state of emergency twice, Indira Gandhi called elections to give the electorate a chance to vindicate her rule. She may have grossly misjudged her popularity by reading what the heavily censored press wrote about her. She was opposed by the Janata alliance of Opposition parties. The alliance was made up of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Congress (O), The Socialist parties, and Charan Singh's Bharatiya Kranti Dal representing northern peasants and farmers. The Janata alliance, with Jai Prakash Narayan as its spiritual guide, claimed the elections were the last chance for India to choose between "democracy and dictatorship". The Congress Party split during the election campaign of 1977; veteran Gandhi supporters like Jagjivan Ram, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, and Nandini Satpathy were compelled to part ways and form a new political entity, the CFD (Congress for Democracy) due primarily to intra-party politicking and the circumstances created by Sanjay Gandhi. The prevailing rumour was that he intended to dislodge Indira Gandhi, and the trio stood to prevent that. The Gandhi's Congress party was soundly crushed in the elections. The Janata Party's democracy or dictatorship claim seemed to resonate with the public. Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi lost their seats, and Congress was reduced to 153 seats (compared with 350 in the previous Lok Sabha), 92 of which were in the South. The Janata alliance, under the leadership of Morarji Desai, came to power after the State of Emergency was lifted. The alliance parties later merged to form the Janata Party under the guidance of Gandhian leader, Jayaprakash Narayan. The other leaders of the Janata Party were Charan Singh, Raj Narain, George Fernandes, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
After the humiliating defeat in the election, the king of Nepal, through an intermediatory offered to move her and her family to Nepal. She refused to shift herself, but was open to move her two sons Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. However, after consulting with Kao, she declined the offer altogether keeping in view of her future political career.
=== In opposition and return to power ===
Since Indira Gandhi had lost her seat in the election, the defeated Congress party appointed Yashwantrao Chavan as their parliamentary party leader. Soon afterwards, the Congress party split again with Gandhi floating her own Congress faction called Congress(I) where I stood for Indira. She won a by-election in the Chikmagalur Constituency and took a seat in the Lok Sabha in November 1978 after the Janata Party's attempts to have Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar run against her failed when he refused to contest the election saying he wanted to remain apolitical. However, the Janata government's home minister, Charan Singh, ordered her arrest along with Sanjay Gandhi on several charges, none of which would be easy to prove in an Indian court. The arrest meant that Gandhi was automatically expelled from Parliament. The allegations included that she "had planned or thought of killing all opposition leaders in jail during the Emergency". However, the strategy backfired disastrously. In response to her arrest, Gandhi's supporters hijacked an Indian Airlines jet and demanded her immediate release. Her arrest and long-running trial gained her sympathy from many people. The Janata coalition was only united by its hatred of Gandhi (or "that woman" as some called her). The party included right wing Hindu Nationalists, Socialists, and former Congress party members. With so little in common, the Morarji Desai government was bogged down by infighting. In 1979, the government began to unravel over the issue of the dual loyalties of some members to Janata and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—the Hindu nationalist, paramilitary organisation. The ambitious Union finance minister, Charan Singh, who as the Union home minister during the previous year had ordered the Gandhi's' arrests, took advantage of this and started courting Indira and Sanjay. After a significant exodus from the party to Singh's faction, Desai resigned in July 1979. Singh was appointed prime minister, by President Reddy, after Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi promised Singh that Congress (I) would support his government from outside on certain conditions. The conditions included dropping all charges against Indira and Sanjay. Since Singh refused to drop them, Congress (I) withdrew its support and President Reddy dissolved Parliament in August 1979.
Before the 1980 elections Indira Gandhi approached the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid at the time, Syed Abdullah Bukhari and entered into an agreement with him on the basis of 10-point programme to secure the support of the Muslim votes. In the elections held in January, Congress (I) under Gandhi's leadership returned to power with a landslide majority.
== Prime minister (1980–1984) ==
The Congress Party under Gandhi swept back into power in January 1980. In this election, Gandhi was elected by the voters of the Medak constituency. On 23 June, Sanjay Gandhi was killed in a plane crash while performing an aerobatic manoeuvre in New Delhi. In 1980, as a tribute to her son's dream of launching an indigenously manufactured car, Indira Gandhi nationalised Sanjay's debt-ridden company, Maruti Udyog, for Rs. 43,000,000 (4.34 crore) and invited joint venture bids from automobile companies around the world. Suzuki of Japan was selected as the partner. The company launched its first Indian-manufactured car in 1984.
By the time of Sanjay's death, Indira Gandhi trusted only family members, and therefore persuaded her reluctant son, Rajiv, to enter politics. Her PMO office staff included H. Y. Sharada Prasad as her information adviser and speechwriter.
=== Operation Blue Star ===
After the 1977 elections, a coalition led by the Sikh-majority Akali Dal came to power in the northern Indian state of Punjab. In an effort to split the Akali Dal and gain popular support among the Sikhs, Gandhi's Congress Party helped to bring the orthodox religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to prominence in Punjab politics. Later, Bhindranwale's organisation, Damdami Taksal, became embroiled in violence with another religious sect called the Sant Nirankari Mission and he was accused of instigating the murder of Jagat Narain, the owner of the Punjab Kesari newspaper. After being arrested, Bhindranwale disassociated himself from the Congress Party and joined Akali Dal. In July 1982, he led the campaign for the implementation of the Anandpur Resolution, which demanded greater autonomy for the Sikh-majority state. Meanwhile, a small group of Sikhs, including some of Bhindranwale's followers, turned to militancy after being targeted by government officials and police for supporting the Anandpur Resolution. In 1982, Bhindranwale and approximately 200 armed followers moved into a guest house called the Guru Nanak Niwas near the Golden Temple.
By 1983, the Temple complex had become a fort for many militants. The Statesman later reported that light machine guns and semi-automatic rifles were known to have been brought into the compound. On 23 April 1983, the Punjab Police Deputy Inspector General A. S. Atwal was shot dead as he left the Temple compound. The next day, Harchand Singh Longowal (then president of Akali Dal) confirmed the involvement of Bhindranwale in the murder. After several futile negotiations, in June 1984, Gandhi ordered the Indian army to enter the Golden Temple to remove Bhindranwale and his supporters from the complex. The army used heavy artillery, including tanks, in the action code-named Operation Blue Star. The operation badly damaged or destroyed parts of the Temple complex, including the Akal Takht shrine and the Sikh library. It led to the deaths of many Sikh fighters and innocent pilgrims. The number of casualties remains disputed, with estimates ranging from many hundreds to many thousands.
Gandhi was accused of using the attack for political ends. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer stated that she attacked the temple complex to present herself as a great hero in order to win the general elections planned towards the end of 1984. There was fierce criticism of the action by Sikhs in India and overseas. There were also incidents of mutiny by Sikh soldiers in the aftermath of the attack.
== Assassination ==
On 31 October 1984, two of Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, shot her with their service weapons in the garden of the prime minister's residence at 1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi, allegedly in revenge for Operation Blue Star. The shooting occurred as she was walking past a wicket gate guarded by the two men. She was to be interviewed by the British filmmaker Peter Ustinov, who was filming a documentary for Irish television. Beant shot her three times using his side-arm; Satwant fired 30 rounds. The men dropped their weapons and surrendered. Afterwards, they were taken away by other guards into a closed room where Beant was shot dead. Kehar Singh was later arrested for being part of the conspiracy in the attack. Satwant and Kehar were sentenced to death and hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail.
Gandhi was taken to the AIIMS Delhi at 9:30 AM where doctors operated on her. She was declared dead at 2:20 PM. The post-mortem examination was conducted by a team of doctors headed by Tirath Das Dogra. Dogra said that Gandhi had sustained as many as 30 bullet wounds from two sources: a Sten submachine gun and a .38 Special revolver. The assailants had fired 31 bullets at her, of which 30 hit her; 23 had passed through her body while seven remained inside her. Dogra extracted bullets to establish the make of the weapons used and to match each weapon with the bullets recovered by ballistic examination. The bullets were matched with their respective weapons at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) Delhi. Subsequently, Dogra appeared in Shri Mahesh Chandra's court as an expert witness (PW-5); he gave his testimony in several sessions. The cross examination was conducted by Shri Pran Nath Lekhi, the defence counsel. Salma Sultan provided the first news of her assassination on Doordarshan's evening news on 31 October 1984, more than 10 hours after she was shot.
Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition on 3 November near Raj Ghat. The site where she was cremated is known today as Shakti Sthal. Paying homage, Gandhi's body lay in state at Teen Murti House. Thousands of followers strained for a glimpse of the cremation. Her funeral was televised live on domestic and international stations, including the BBC. After her death, the Parade Ground was converted to the Indira Gandhi Park which was inaugurated by her son, Rajiv Gandhi.
Gandhi's assassination dramatically changed the political landscape. Rajiv succeeded his mother as prime minister within hours of her murder and anti-Sikh riots erupted, lasting for several days and killing more than 3,000 Sikhs in New Delhi and an estimated 8,000 across India. Many Congress leaders were believed to be behind the anti-Sikh massacre.
=== International reaction ===
Gandhi's death was mourned worldwide. World leaders condemned the assassination and said her death would leave a 'big emptiness' in international affairs. In Moscow, Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko sent condolences, "The Soviet people learned with pain and sorrow about the untimely death in a villainous assassination of the glorious daughter of the great Indian people, a fiery fighter for peace and security of peoples and a great friend of the Soviet Union". President Ronald Reagan, along with Secretary of State George Shultz, visited the Indian Embassy to sign a book of condolences and expressed his 'shock, revulsion, and grief' over the assassination. 42nd vice president of the United States Walter Mondale called Gandhi 'a great leader of a great democracy' and deplored 'this shocking act of violence'. Asian, African, and European leaders mourned Gandhi as a great champion of democracy and leader of the Non-Aligned Movement expressed its 'deepest grief' and called the killing a 'terrorist' act. South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, said Gandhi's death meant the 'loss of a great leader to the whole world.' Yugoslav President Veselin Đuranović, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, Italian President Sandro Pertini, Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, and French President François Mitterrand condemned the killing. At the United Nations, the General Assembly paused during its work as shocked delegates mourned the death. Assembly President Paul Lusaka of Zambia postponed a scheduled debate and hastily organised a memorial meeting.
== Foreign policy ==
Gandhi is remembered for her ability to effectively promote Indian foreign policy measures.
=== South Asia ===
In early 1971, disputed elections in Pakistan led then East Pakistan to declare independence as Bangladesh. Repression and violence by the Pakistani army led to 10 million refugees crossing the border into India over the following months. Finally, in December 1971, Gandhi intervened directly in the conflict to liberate Bangladesh. India emerged victorious following the war with Pakistan to become the dominant power of South Asia. India had signed a treaty with the Soviet Union promising mutual assistance in the case of war, while Pakistan received active support from the United States during the conflict. U.S. President Richard Nixon disliked Gandhi personally, referring to her as a "bitch" and a "clever fox" in his private communication with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Nixon later wrote of the war: "[Gandhi] suckered [America]. Suckered us ... this woman suckered us." Relations with the U.S. became distant as Gandhi developed closer ties with the Soviet Union after the war. The latter grew to become India's largest trading partner and its biggest arms supplier for much of Gandhi's premiership. India's new hegemonic position, as articulated under the "Indira Doctrine", led to attempts to bring the Himalayan states under India's sphere of influence. Nepal and Bhutan remained aligned with India, while in 1975, after years of campaigning, Sikkim voted to join India in a referendum.
India maintained close ties with neighbouring Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) following the Liberation War. Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman recognised Gandhi's contributions to the independence of Bangladesh. However, Mujibur Rahman's pro-India policies antagonised many in Bangladeshi politics and the military, which feared that Bangladesh had become a client state of India. The Assassination of Mujibur Rahman in 1975 led to the establishment of Islamist military regimes that sought to distance the country from India. Gandhi's relationship with the military regimes was strained because of her alleged support of anti-Islamist leftist guerrilla forces in Bangladesh. Generally, however, there was a rapprochement between Gandhi and the Bangladeshi regimes, although issues such as border disputes and the Farakka Dam remained an irritant to bilateral ties. In 2011, the Government of Bangladesh conferred its highest state award for non-nationals, the Bangladesh Freedom Honour posthumously on Gandhi for her "outstanding contribution" to the country's independence.
Gandhi's approach to dealing with Sri Lanka's ethnic problems was initially accommodating. She enjoyed cordial relations with Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. In 1974, India ceded the tiny islet of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka to save Bandaranaike's socialist government from a political disaster. However, relations soured over Sri Lanka's movement away from socialism under J. R. Jayewardene, whom Gandhi despised as a "western puppet". India under Gandhi was alleged to have supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militants in the 1980s to put pressure on Jayewardene to abide by Indian interests. Nevertheless, Gandhi rejected demands to invade Sri Lanka in the aftermath of Black July 1983, an anti-Tamil pogrom carried out by Sinhalese mobs. Gandhi made a statement emphasising that she stood for the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, although she also stated that India cannot "remain a silent spectator to any injustice done to the Tamil community."
India's relationship with Pakistan remained strained after the Shimla Accord in 1972. Gandhi's authorisation of the detonation of a nuclear device at Pokhran in 1974 was viewed by Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as an attempt to intimidate Pakistan into accepting India's hegemony in the subcontinent. However, in May 1976, she and Bhutto both agreed to reopen diplomatic establishments and normalise relations. After General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq rose to power in Pakistan in 1978, India's relations with its neighbour reached a nadir. Gandhi accused General Zia of supporting Khalistani militants in Punjab. Military hostilities recommenced in 1984 following Gandhi's authorisation of Operation Meghdoot. India was victorious in the resulting Siachen conflict against Pakistan.
In order to keep the Soviet Union and the United States out of South Asia, Gandhi was instrumental in establishing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1983
=== Middle East ===
Gandhi remained a staunch supporter of the Palestinians in the Arab–Israeli conflict and was critical of the Middle East diplomacy sponsored by the United States. Israel was viewed as a religious state, and thus an analogue to India's archrival Pakistan. Indian diplomats hoped to win Arab support in countering Pakistan in Kashmir. Nevertheless, Gandhi authorised the development of a secret channel of contact and security assistance with Israel in the late 1960s. Her lieutenant, P. V. Narasimha Rao, later became prime minister and approved full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.
India's pro-Arab policy had mixed success. Establishment of close ties with the socialist and secular Baathist regimes to some extent neutralised Pakistani propaganda against India. However, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 presented a dilemma for the Arab and Muslim states of the Middle East as the war was fought by two states both friendly to the Arabs. The progressive Arab regimes in Egypt, Syria, and Algeria chose to remain neutral, while the conservative pro-American Arab monarchies in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates openly supported Pakistan. Egypt's stance was met with dismay by the Indians, who had come to expect close co-operation with the Baathist regimes. But, the death of Nasser in 1970 and Sadat's growing friendship with Riyadh, and his mounting differences with Moscow, constrained Egypt to a policy of neutrality. Gandhi's overtures to Muammar Gaddafi were rebuffed. Libya agreed with the Arab monarchies in believing that Gandhi's intervention in East Pakistan was an attack against Islam.
The 1971 war became a temporary stumbling block in growing Indo-Iranian ties. Although Iran had earlier characterised the Indo-Pakistani war in 1965 as Indian aggression, the Shah had launched an effort at rapprochement with India in 1969 as part of his effort to secure support for a larger Iranian role in the Persian Gulf. Gandhi's tilt towards Moscow and her dismemberment of Pakistan was perceived by the Shah as part of a larger anti-Iran conspiracy involving India, Iraq, and the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Iran had resisted Pakistani pressure to activate the Baghdad Pact and draw the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) into the conflict. Gradually, Indian and Iranian disillusionment with their respective regional allies led to a renewed partnership between the nations. She was unhappy with the lack of support from India's Arab allies during the war with Pakistan, while the Shah was apprehensive at the growing friendship between Pakistan and Arab states of the Persian Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia, and the growing influence of Islam in Pakistani society. There was an increase in Indian economic and military co-operation with Iran during the 1970s. The 1974 India-Iranian agreement led to Iran supplying nearly 75 percent of India's crude oil demands. Gandhi appreciated the Shah's disregard of Pan-Islamism in diplomacy.
=== Asia-Pacific ===
One of the major developments in Southeast Asia during Gandhi's premiership was the formation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967. Relations between ASEAN and India were mutually antagonistic. India perceived ASEAN to be linked to the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and, therefore, it was seen as a pro-American organisation. On their part, the ASEAN nations were unhappy with Gandhi's sympathy for the Viet Cong and India's strong links with the USSR. Furthermore, they were also apprehensions in the region about Gandhi's plans, particularly after India played a big role in breaking up Pakistan and facilitating the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign country in 1971. India's entry into the nuclear weapons club in 1974 also contributed to tensions in Southeast Asia. Relations only began to improve following Gandhi's endorsement of the ZOPFAN declaration and the disintegration of the SEATO alliance in the aftermath of Pakistani and American defeats in the region. Nevertheless, Gandhi's close relations with reunified Vietnam and her decision to recognise the Vietnam-installed Government of Cambodia in 1980 meant that India and ASEAN were unable to develop a viable partnership.
On 26 September 1981, Gandhi was conferred with the honorary degree of Doctor at the Laucala Graduation at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
=== Africa ===
Although independent India was initially viewed as a champion of various African independence movements, its cordial relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations and its liberal views of British policies in East Africa had harmed its image as a staunch supporter of various independence movements in the third world. Indian condemnation of militant struggles in Kenya and Algeria was in sharp contrast to China, who had supported armed struggle to win African independence. After reaching a high diplomatic point in the aftermath of Nehru's role in the Suez Crisis, India's isolation from Africa was almost complete when only four nations—Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Libya—supported her during the Sino-Indian War in 1962. After Gandhi became prime minister, diplomatic and economic relations with the states which had sided with India during the Sino-Indian War were expanded. Gandhi began negotiations with the Kenyan government to establish the Africa-India Development Cooperation. The Indian government also started considering the possibility of bringing Indians settled in Africa within the framework of its policy goals to help recover its declining geo-strategic influence. Gandhi declared the people of Indian origin settled in Africa as "Ambassadors of India". Efforts to rope in the Asian community to join Indian diplomacy, however, came to naught, in part because of the unwillingness of Indians to remain in politically insecure surroundings, and because of the exodus of African Indians to Britain with the passing of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act in 1968. In Uganda, the African Indian community suffered persecution and eventually expulsion under the government of Idi Amin.
Foreign and domestic policy successes in the 1970s enabled Gandhi to rebuild India's image in the eyes of African states. Victory over Pakistan and India's possession of nuclear weapons showed the degree of India's progress. Furthermore, the conclusion of the Indo-Soviet treaty in 1971, and threatening gestures by the United States, to send its nuclear-armed Task Force 74 into the Bay of Bengal at the height of the East Pakistan crisis had enabled India to regain its anti-imperialist image. Gandhi firmly tied Indian anti-imperialist interests in Africa to those of the Soviet Union. Unlike Nehru, she openly and enthusiastically supported liberation struggles in Africa. At the same time, Chinese influence in Africa had declined owing to its incessant quarrels with the Soviet Union. These developments permanently halted India's decline in Africa and helped to reestablish its geo-strategic presence.
=== The Commonwealth ===
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of mainly former British colonies. India maintained cordial relations with most of the members during Gandhi's time in power. In the 1980s, she was regarded alongside Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser and Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew as being one of the pillars of the Commonwealth. India under Gandhi also hosted the 1983 Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in New Delhi. Gandhi used the meetings as a forum to put pressure on member countries to cut economic, sports, and cultural ties with apartheid South Africa.
=== The Non-Aligned Movement ===
In the early 1980s under Gandhi, India attempted to reassert its prominent role in the Non-Aligned Movement by focusing on the relationship between disarmament and economic development. By appealing to the economic grievances of developing countries, Gandhi and her successors exercised a moderating influence on the Non-Aligned Movement, diverting it from some of the Cold War issues that marred the controversial 1979 Havana meeting where Cuban leader Fidel Castro attempted to steer the movement towards the Soviet Union. Although hosting the 1983 summit at Delhi boosted Indian prestige within the movement, its close relations with the Soviet Union and its pro-Soviet positions on Afghanistan and Cambodia limited its influence.
=== Western Europe ===
Gandhi spent a number of years in Europe during her youth and had formed many friendships there. During her premiership she formed friendships with many leaders including West German chancellor, Willy Brandt and Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky. She enjoyed a close working relationship with many British leaders including conservative premiers, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher.
=== Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries ===
The relationship between India and the Soviet Union deepened during Gandhi's rule. The main reason was the perceived bias of the United States and China, rivals of the USSR, towards Pakistan. The support of the Soviets with arms supplies and the casting of a veto at the United Nations helped in winning and consolidating the victory over Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. Before the war, Gandhi signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviets. They were unhappy with the 1974 nuclear test conducted by India but did not support further action because of the ensuing Cold War with the United States. Gandhi was unhappy with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but once again calculations involving relations with Pakistan and China kept her from criticising the Soviet Union harshly. The Soviets became the main arms supplier during the Gandhi years by offering cheap credit and transactions in rupees rather than in dollars. The easy trade deals also applied to non-military goods. Under Gandhi, by the early 1980s, the Soviets had become India's largest trading partner.
==== Soviet intelligence in India ====
Soviet intelligence was involved in India during Indira Gandhi's administration, sometimes at Gandhi's expense. In the prelude to Operation Blue Star, by 1981, the Soviets had launched Operation Kontakt, which was based on a forged document purporting to contain details of the weapons and money provided by the ISI to Sikh militants who wanted to create an independent country. In November 1982, Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party and leader of the Soviet Union, approved a proposal to fabricate Pakistani intelligence documents detailing ISI plans to foment religious disturbances in Punjab and promote the creation of Khalistan as an independent Sikh state. Indira Gandhi's decision to move troops into the Punjab was based on her taking seriously the information provided by the Soviets regarding secret CIA support for the Sikhs.
According to the Mitrokhin Archive, the Soviets used a new recruit in the New Delhi residency named "Agent S" who was close to Indira Gandhi as a major channel for providing her disinformation. Agent S provided Indira Gandhi with false documents purporting to show Pakistani involvement in the Khalistan conspiracy. The KGB became confident that it could continue to deceive Indira Gandhi indefinitely with fabricated reports of CIA and Pakistani conspiracies against her. The Soviets persuaded Rajiv Gandhi during a visit to Moscow in 1983 that the CIA was engaged in subversion in the Punjab. When Rajiv Gandhi returned to India, he declared this to be true. The KGB was responsible for Indira Gandhi exaggerating the threats posed by both the CIA and Pakistan. This KGB role in facilitating Operation Bluestar was acknowledged by Subramanian Swamy who stated in 1992 "The 1984 Operation Bluestar became necessary because of the vast disinformation against Sant Bhindranwale by the KGB, and repeated inside Parliament by the Congress Party of India."
A report following the Mitrokhin archive also caused some historiographical controversy about Indira Gandhi. In India, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, L. K. Advani, requested of the Government a white paper on the role of foreign intelligence agencies and a judicial enquiry on the allegations. The spokesperson of the Indian Congress party referred to the book as "pure sensationalism not even remotely based on facts or records" and pointed out that the book is not based on official records from the Soviet Union. L.K Advani raised his voice because the book refers to ex-prime minister Indira Gandhi's (Codenamed VANO) relations with the KGB. The KGB was alleged to be directly link to Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi (code-named Vano). "Suitcases full of banknotes were said to be routinely taken to the Prime Minister's house. Former Syndicate member S. K. Patil is reported to have said that Mrs. Gandhi did not even return the suitcases". An extensive footprint in the Indian media was also described- "According to KGB files, by 1973 it had ten Indian newspapers on its payroll (which cannot be identified for legal reasons) as well as a press agency under its control. During 1972 the KGB claimed to have planted 3,789 articles in Indian newspapers–probably more than in any other country in the non-Communist world." According to its files, the number fell to 2,760 in 1973 but rose to 4,486 in 1974 and 5,510 in 1975. Mitrokhin estimated that in some major NATO countries, "despite active-measures campaigns, the KGB was able to plant a little more than 1 per cent of the articles which it placed in the Indian press."
=== United States ===
When Gandhi came to power in 1966, Lyndon Johnson was the US president. At the time, India was reliant on the US for food aid. Gandhi resented the US policy of food aid being used as a tool to force India to adopt policies favoured by the US. She also resolutely refused to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Relations with the US were strained badly under President Richard Nixon and his favouring of Pakistan during the Bangladesh liberation war. Nixon despised Gandhi politically and personally. In 1981, Gandhi met President Ronald Reagan for the first time at the North–South Summit held to discuss global poverty. She had been described to him as an 'Ogre', but he found her charming and easy to work with and they formed a close working relationship during her premiership in the 1980s.
== Economic policy ==
Gandhi presided over three Five-Year Plans as prime minister, two of which succeeded in meeting their targeted growth.
There is considerable debate whether Gandhi was a socialist on principle or out of political expediency. Sunanda K. Datta-Ray described her as "a master of rhetoric ... often more posture than policy", while The Times journalist, Peter Hazelhurst, famously quipped that Gandhi's socialism was "slightly left of self-interest." Critics have focused on the contradictions in the evolution of her stance towards communism. Gandhi was known for her anti-communist stance in the 1950s, with Meghnad Desai even describing her as "the scourge of [India's] Communist Party." Yet, she later forged close relations with Indian communists even while using the army to break the Naxalites. In this context, Gandhi was accused of formulating populist policies to suit her political needs. She was seemingly against the rich and big business while preserving the status quo to manipulate the support of the left in times of political insecurity, such as the late 1960s. Although in time Gandhi came to be viewed as the scourge of the right-wing and reactionary political elements of India, leftist opposition to her policies emerged. As early as 1969, critics had begun accusing her of insincerity and Machiavellianism. The Indian Libertarian wrote, "it would be difficult to find a more machiavellian leftist than Mrs Indira Gandhi... for here is Machiavelli at its best in the person of a suave, charming and astute politician." J. Barkley Rosser Jr. wrote that "some have even seen the declaration of emergency rule in 1975 as a move to suppress [leftist] dissent against Gandhi's policy shift to the right." In the 1980s, Gandhi was accused of "betraying socialism" after the beginning of Operation Forward, an attempt at economic reform. Nevertheless, others were more convinced of Gandhi's sincerity and devotion to socialism. Pankaj Vohra noted that "even the late prime minister's critics would concede that the maximum number of legislations of social significance was brought about during her tenure... [and that] she lives in the hearts of millions of Indians who shared her concern for the poor and weaker sections and who supported her politics."
In summarising the biographical works on Gandhi, Blema S. Steinberg concludes she was decidedly non-ideological. Only 7.4% (24) of the total 330 biographical extractions posit ideology as a reason for her policy choices. Steinberg notes Gandhi's association with socialism was superficial. She had only a general and traditional commitment to the ideology by way of her political and family ties. Gandhi personally had a fuzzy concept of socialism. In one of the early interviews she gave as prime minister, Gandhi ruminated, "I suppose you could call me a socialist, but you have understand what we mean by that term ... we used the word [socialism] because it came closest to what we wanted to do here–which is to eradicate poverty. You can call it socialism; but if by using that word we arouse controversy, I don't see why we should use it. I don't believe in words at all." Regardless of the debate over her ideology or lack thereof, Gandhi remains a left-wing icon. She has been described by Hindustan Times columnist, Pankaj Vohra, as "arguably the greatest mass leader of the last century." Her campaign slogan, Garibi Hatao ('Remove Poverty'), has become an often used motto of the Indian National Congress Party. To the rural and urban poor, untouchables, minorities and women in India, Gandhi was "Indira Amma or Mother Indira."
=== Green Revolution and the Fourth Five-Year Plan ===
Gandhi inherited a weak and troubled economy. Fiscal problems associated with the war with Pakistan in 1965, along with a drought-induced food crisis that spawned famines, had plunged India into the sharpest recession since independence. The government responded by taking steps to liberalise the economy and agreeing to the devaluation of the currency in return for the restoration of foreign aid. The economy managed to recover in 1966 and ended up growing at 4.1% over 1966–1969. Much of that growth however, was offset by the fact that the external aid promised by the United States government and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), meant to ease the short-run costs of adjustment to a liberalised economy, never materialised. American policy makers had complained of continued restrictions imposed on the economy. At the same time, Indo-US relations were strained because of Gandhi's criticism of the American bombing campaign in Vietnam. While it was thought at the time, and for decades after, that President Johnson's policy of withholding food grain shipments was to coerce Indian support for the war, in fact, it was to offer India rainmaking technology that he wanted to use as a counterweight to China's possession of the atomic bomb. In light of the circumstances, liberalisation became politically suspect and was soon abandoned. Grain diplomacy and currency devaluation became matters of intense national pride in India. After the bitter experience with Johnson, Gandhi decided not to request food aid in the future. Moreover, her government resolved never again to become "so vulnerably dependent" on aid, and painstakingly began building up substantial foreign exchange reserves. When food stocks slumped after poor harvests in 1972, the government made it a point to use foreign exchange to buy US wheat commercially rather than seek resumption of food aid.
The period of 1967–75 was characterised by socialist ascendency in India, which culminated in 1976 with the official declaration of state socialism. Gandhi not only abandoned the short-lived liberalisation programme but also aggressively expanded the public sector with new licensing requirements and other restrictions for industry. She began a new course by launching the Fourth Five-Year Plan in 1969. The government targeted growth at 5.7% while stating as its goals, "growth with stability and progressive achievement of self-reliance." The rationale behind the overall plan was Gandhi's Ten-Point Programme of 1967. This had been her first economic policy formulation, six months after coming to office. The programme emphasised greater state control of the economy with the understanding that government control assured greater welfare than private control. Related to this point were a set of policies that were meant to regulate the private sector. By the end of the 1960s, the reversal of the liberalisation process was complete, and India's policies were characterised as "protectionist as ever."
To deal with India's food problems, Gandhi expanded the emphasis on production of inputs to agriculture that had already been initiated by her father, Jawaharlal Nehru. The Green Revolution in India subsequently culminated under her government in the 1970s. It transformed the country from a nation heavily reliant on imported grains, and prone to famine, to one largely able to feed itself, and becoming successful in achieving its goal of food security. Gandhi had a personal motive in pursuing agricultural self-sufficiency, having found India's dependency on the U.S. for shipments of grains humiliating.
The economic period of 1967–1975 became significant for its major wave of nationalisation amidst increased regulation of the private sector. Some other objectives of the economic plan for that period were providing for the minimum needs of the community through a rural works program and the removal of the privy purses of the nobility. Those and many other goals of the 1967 programme were accomplished by 1974–1975. Nevertheless, the success of the overall economic plan was tempered by the fact that annual growth at 3.3–3.4% over 1969–1974 fell short of the targeted figure.
=== The Fifth Five-Year Plan ===
The Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974–1979) was enacted with the backdrop of the state of emergency and the Twenty Point Program of 1975. It was the economic rationale of the emergency, a political act which has often been justified on economic grounds. In contrast to the reception of Gandhi's earlier economic plan, this one was criticised for being a "hastily thrown together wish list." She promised to reduce poverty by targeting the consumption levels of the poor and enact wide-ranging social and economic reforms. In addition, the government targeted an annual growth rate of 4.4% over the period of the plan.
The measures of the emergency regime was able to halt the economic trouble of the early to mid-1970s, which had been marred by harvest failures, fiscal contraction, and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchanged rates. The resulting turbulence in the foreign exchange markets was accentuated further by the oil shock of 1973. The government was able to exceed the targeted growth figure with an annual growth rate of 5.0–5.2% over the five-year period of the plan (1974–79). The economy grew at the rate of 9% in 1975–76 alone, and the Fifth Plan, became the first plan during which the per capita income of the economy grew by over 5%.
=== Operation Forward and the Sixth Five-Year Plan ===
Gandhi inherited a weak economy when she became prime minister again in 1980. The preceding year—1979–80—under the Janata Party government saw the strongest recession (−5.2%) in the history of modern India with inflation rampant at 18.2%. Gandhi proceeded to abrogate the Janata Party government's Five-Year Plan in 1980 and launched the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980–85). Her government targeted an average growth rate of 5.2% over the period of the plan. Measures to check inflation were also taken; by the early 1980s it was under control at an annual rate of about 5%.
Although Gandhi continued professing socialist beliefs, the Sixth Five-Year Plan was markedly different from the years of Garibi Hatao. Populist programmes and policies were replaced by pragmatism. There was an emphasis on tightening public expenditures, greater efficiency of the state-owned enterprises (SOE), which Gandhi qualified as a "sad thing", and on stimulating the private sector through deregulation and liberation of the capital market. The government subsequently launched Operation Forward in 1982, the first cautious attempt at reform. The Sixth Plan went on to become the most successful of the Five-Year Plans yet; showing an average growth rate of 5.7% over 1980–85.
=== Inflation and unemployment ===
During Lal Bahadur Shastri's last full year in office (1965), inflation averaged 7.7%, compared to 5.2% at the end of Gandhi's first term in office (1977). On average, inflation in India had remained below 7% through the 1950s and 1960s. It then accelerated sharply in the 1970s, from 5.5% in 1970–71 to over 20% by 1973–74, due to the international oil crisis. Gandhi declared inflation the gravest of problems in 1974 (at 25.2%) and devised a severe anti-inflation program. The government was successful in bringing down inflation during the emergency; achieving negative figures of −1.1% by the end of 1975–76.
Gandhi inherited a tattered economy in her second term; harvest failures and a second oil shock in the late 1970s had caused inflation to rise again. During Charan Singh's short time in office in the second half of 1979, inflation averaged 18.2%, compared to 6.5% during Gandhi's last year in office (1984). General economic recovery under Gandhi led to an average inflation rate of 6.5% from 1981–82 to 1985–86—the lowest since the beginning of India's inflation problems in the 1960s.
The unemployment rate remained constant at 9% over a nine-year period (1971–80) before declining to 8.3% in 1983.
== Domestic policy ==
=== Nationalisation ===
Despite the provisions, control and regulations of the Reserve Bank of India, most banks in India had continued to be owned and operated by private persons. Businessmen who owned the banks were often accused of channeling the deposits into their own companies and ignoring priority sector lending. Furthermore, there was a great resentment against class banking in India, which had left the poor (the majority of the population) unbanked. After becoming prime minister, Gandhi expressed her intention of nationalising the banks to alleviate poverty in a paper titled, "Stray thoughts on Bank Nationalisation". The paper received overwhelming public support. In 1969, Gandhi moved to nationalise fourteen major commercial banks. After this, public sector bank branch deposits increased by approximately 800 percent; advances took a huge jump by 11,000 percent. Nationalisation also resulted in significant growth in the geographic coverage of banks. Jayaprakash Narayan, who became famous for leading the opposition to Gandhi in the 1970s, solidly praised her nationalisation of banks.
Having been re-elected in 1971 on a nationalisation platform, Gandhi proceeded to nationalise the coal, steel, copper, refining, cotton textiles, and insurance industries. Most of this was done to protect employment and the interests of organised labour. The remaining private sector industries were placed under strict regulatory control. During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, foreign-owned private oil companies had refused to supply fuel to the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. In response, Gandhi nationalised some oil companies in 1973. However, major nationalisations occurred in 1974 and 1976, forming the oil majors. After nationalisation, the oil majors including the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) had to keep a minimum stock level of oil to be supplied to the military when needed.
=== Administration ===
In 1966, Gandhi accepted the demands of the Akalis to reorganise Punjab on linguistic lines. The Hindi-speaking southern half of Punjab became a separate state, Haryana, while the Pahari speaking hilly areas in the northeast were joined to Himachal Pradesh. By this action she had hoped to ward off the growing political conflict between Hindu and Sikh groups in the region. However, a contentious issue that was considered unresolved by the Akalis was the status of Chandigarh, a prosperous city on the Punjab-Haryana border, which Gandhi declared a union territory to be shared as a capital by both the states.
Victory over Pakistan in 1971 consolidated Indian power in Kashmir. Gandhi indicated that she would make no major concessions on Kashmir. The most prominent of the Kashmiri separatists, Sheikh Abdullah, had to recognise India's control over Kashmir in light of the new order in South Asia. The situation was normalised in the years following the war after Abdullah agreed to an accord with Gandhi, by giving up the demand for a plebiscite in return for a special autonomous status for Kashmir. In 1975, Gandhi declared the state of Jammu and Kashmir as a constituent unit of India. The Kashmir conflict remained largely peaceful if frozen under Gandhi's premiership.
In 1972, Gandhi granted statehood to Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura while the North-East Frontier Agency was declared a union territory and renamed Arunachal Pradesh. The transition to statehood for the territories was successfully overseen by her administration and it was followed by the annexation of Sikkim in 1975.
=== Social reform ===
The principle of equal pay for equal work for both men and women was enshrined in the Indian Constitution under the Gandhi administration.
Gandhi questioned the continued existence of a privy purse for former rulers of princely states. She argued the case for abolition based on equal rights for all citizens and the need to reduce the government's revenue deficit. The nobility responded by rallying around the Jana Sangh and other right-wing parties that stood in opposition to Gandhi's attempts to abolish royal privileges. The motion to abolish privy purses, and the official recognition of the titles, was originally brought before the Parliament in 1970. It was passed in the Lok Sabha but fell short of the two-thirds majority in the Rajya Sabha by a single vote. Gandhi responded by having a Presidential proclamation issued; de-recognising the princes; with this withdrawal of recognition, their claims to privy purses were also legally lost. However, the proclamation was struck down by the Supreme Court of India. In 1971, she again motioned to abolish the privy purse and it was passed successfully as the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India.
Gandhi claimed that only "clear vision, iron will and the strictest discipline" can remove poverty. She justified the imposition of the state of emergency in 1975 in the name of the socialist mission of the Congress. Armed with the power to rule by decree and without constitutional constraints, she embarked on a massive redistribution program. The provisions included rapid enforcement of land ceilings, housing for landless labourers, the abolition of bonded labour and a moratorium on the debts of the poor. North India was at the centre of the reforms. Millions of hectares of land were acquired and redistributed. The government was also successful in procuring houses for landless labourers; According to Francine Frankel, three-fourths of the targeted four million houses was achieved in 1975 alone. Nevertheless, others have disputed the success of the program and criticised Gandhi for not doing enough to reform land ownership. The political economist, Jyotindra Das Gupta, cryptically questioned "whether or not the real supporters of land-holders were in jail or in power?" Critics also accused Gandhi of choosing to "talk left and act right", referring to her concurrent pro-business decisions and endeavours. J. Barkley Rosser Jr. wrote that "some have even seen the declaration of emergency rule in 1975 as a move to suppress dissent against Gandhi's policy shift to the right." Regardless of the controversy over the nature of the reforms, the long-term effects of the social changes gave rise to the prominence of middle-ranking farmers from intermediate and lower castes in North India. The rise of the newly empowered social classes challenged the political establishment of the Hindi Belt in the years to come.
=== Language policy ===
Under the 1950 Constitution of India, Hindi was to be the official national language by 1965. That was unacceptable to many non-Hindi-speaking states which wanted the continued use of English in government. In 1967, Gandhi introduced a constitutional amendment that guaranteed the de facto use of both Hindi and English as official languages. It established the official government policy of bilingualism in India and satisfied the non-Hindi-speaking Indian states. She thus put herself forward as a leader with a pan-Indian vision. Nevertheless, critics alleged that her stance was actually meant to weaken the position of rival Congress leaders from the northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, where there had been strong, sometimes violent, pro-Hindi agitations. Gandhi came out of the language conflicts with the strong support of the south Indian populace.
=== National security ===
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Gandhi had the Indian army crush militant Communist uprisings in the Indian state of West Bengal. The communist insurgency in India was completely suppressed during the state of emergency.
Gandhi considered the north-eastern region important, because of its strategic situation. In 1966, the Mizo uprising took place against the government of India and overran almost the whole of the Mizoram region. She ordered the Indian Army to launch massive retaliatory strikes in response. The rebellion was suppressed with the Indian Air Force carrying out airstrikes in Aizawl; it remains the only instance of India carrying out airstrikes in its own territory. The defeat of Pakistan in 1971 and the secession of East Pakistan as pro-India Bangladesh led to the collapse of the Mizo separatist movement. In 1972, after the less extremist Mizo leaders came to the negotiating table, Gandhi upgraded Mizoram to the status of a union territory. A small-scale insurgency by some militants continued into the late 1970s, but it was successfully dealt with by the government. The Mizo conflict was definitively resolved during the administration of Gandhi's son Rajiv. Today, Mizoram is considered one of the most peaceful states in the north-east.
Responding to the insurgency in Nagaland, Indira Gandhi "unleashed a powerful military offensive" in the 1970s. Finally, a massive crackdown on the insurgents took place during the state of emergency ordered by Gandhi. The insurgents soon agreed to surrender and signed the Shillong Accord in 1975. While the agreement was considered a victory for the Indian government and ended large-scale conflicts, there have since been spurts of violence by rebel holdouts and ethnic conflict amongst the tribes.
=== India's nuclear programme ===
Gandhi contributed to and carried out further, the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru, the former premier of India, to develop its nuclear program. Gandhi authorised the development of nuclear weapons in 1967, in response to Test No. 6 by the People's Republic of China. Gandhi saw the test as Chinese nuclear intimidation and promoted Nehru's views to establish India's stability and security interests independent from those of the nuclear superpowers.
The programme became fully mature in 1974, when Raja Ramanna reported to Gandhi that India had the ability to test its first nuclear weapon. Gandhi gave verbal authorisation for the test, and preparations were made in the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range. In 1974, India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, unofficially code named "Smiling Buddha", near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan. As the world was quiet about this test, a vehement protest came from Pakistan as its prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, described the test as "Indian hegemony" to intimidate Pakistan. In response to this, Bhutto launched a massive campaign to make Pakistan a nuclear power. Bhutto asked the nation to unite and slogans such as "hum ghaas aur pattay kha lay gay magar nuclear power ban k rhe gay" ("We will eat grass or leaves or even go hungry, but we will get nuclear power") were employed. Gandhi directed a letter to Bhutto, and later to the world, claiming the test was for peaceful purposes and part of India's commitment to develop its programme for industrial and scientific use.
In spite of intense international criticism and steady decline in foreign investment and trade, the nuclear test was popular domestically. The test caused an immediate revival of Gandhi's popularity, which had flagged considerably from its heights after the India–Pakistan war of 1971. The overall popularity and image of the Congress Party was enhanced and the Congress Party was well received in the Indian Parliament.
== Electoral history ==
=== Parliament: Lok Sabha ===
=== Rajya Sabha ===
== Personal life ==
She married Feroze Gandhi at the age of 25, in 1942. Their marriage lasted 18 years until he died of a heart attack in 1960. They had two sons—Rajiv and Sanjay. Initially, her younger son Sanjay had been her chosen heir, but after his death in a flying accident in June 1980, Indira Gandhi persuaded her reluctant elder son Rajiv to quit his job as a pilot and enter politics in February 1981. Rajiv took office as prime minister following his mother's assassination in 1984; he served until December 1989. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber working on behalf of LTTE on 21 May 1991.
== Views on women ==
In 1952 in a letter to her American friend Dorothy Norman, Gandhi wrote: "I am in no sense a feminist, but I believe in women being able to do everything... Given the opportunity to develop, capable Indian women have come to the top at once." While this statement appears paradoxical, it reflects Gandhi's complex feelings toward her gender and feminism. Her egalitarian upbringing with her cousins helped contribute to her sense of natural equality. "Flying kites, climbing trees, playing marbles with her boy cousins, Indira said she hardly knew the difference between a boy and a girl until the age of twelve."
Gandhi did not often discuss her gender but she involved herself in women's issues before becoming the prime minister. Before her election as prime minister, she became active in the organisational wing of the Congress party, working in part in the Women's Department. In 1956, she had an active role in setting up the Congress Party's Women's Section. Unsurprisingly, a lot of her involvement stemmed from her father. As an only child, Gandhi naturally stepped into the political light. And, as a woman, she naturally helped head the Women's section of the Congress Party. She often tried to organise women to involve themselves in politics. Although rhetorically Gandhi may have attempted to separate her political success from her gender, she did involve herself in women's organisations. The political parties in India paid substantial attention to Gandhi's gender before she became prime minister, hoping to use her for political gain.
Even though men surrounded her during her upbringing, she still had a female role model as a child. Several books on Gandhi reference her interest in Joan of Arc. In Gandhi's own accounts through her letters, she wrote to her friend Dorothy Norman, in 1952 she wrote: "At about eight or nine I was taken to France; Jeanne d'Arc became a great heroine of mine. She was one of the first people I read about with enthusiasm." Another historian recounts Indira's comparison of herself to Joan of Arc: "Indira developed a fascination for Joan of Arc, telling her aunt, 'Someday I am going to lead my people to freedom just as Joan of Arc did'!" Gandhi's linking of herself to Joan of Arc presents a model for historians to assess Gandhi. As one writer said: "The Indian people were her children; members of her family were the only people capable of leading them."
Gandhi had been swept up in the call for Indian independence since she was born in 1917. Thus by 1947, she was already well immersed in politics, and by 1966, when she first assumed the position of prime minister, she had held several cabinet positions in her father's office. Her advocacy for women's rights began with her help in establishing the Congress Party's Women's Section. In 1956, she wrote in a letter: "It is because of this that I am taking a much more active part in politics. I have to do a great deal of touring in order to set up the Congress Party Women's Section, and am on numerous important committees." Gandhi spent a great deal of time throughout the 1950s helping to organise women. She wrote to Norman in 1959, irritable that women had organised around the communist cause but had not mobilised for the Indian cause: "The women, whom I have been trying to organise for years, had always refused to come into politics. Now they are out in the field." Once appointed president in 1959, she "travelled relentlessly, visiting remote parts of the country that had never before received a VIP... she talked to women, asked about child health and welfare, inquired after the crafts of the region" Her actions throughout her ascent to power clearly reflect a desire to mobilise women. Gandhi did not see the purpose of feminism. She saw her own success as a woman, and also noted that: "Given the opportunity to develop, capable Indian women have come to the top at once."
Gandhi felt guilty about her inability to fully devote her time to her children. She noted that her main problem in office was how to balance her political duties with tending to her children, and "stressed that motherhood was the most important part of her life." At another point, she went into more detail: "To a woman, motherhood is the highest fulfilment ... To bring a new being into this world, to see its perfection and to dream of its future greatness is the most moving of all experiences and fills one with wonder and exaltation." Her domestic initiatives did not necessarily reflect favourably on Indian women. Gandhi did not make a special effort to appoint women to cabinet positions. She did not appoint any women to full cabinet rank during her terms in office. Yet despite this, many women saw Gandhi as a symbol for feminism and an image of women's power.
== Awards and honours ==
=== National honours ===
India:
Bharat Ratna (1971)
=== Foreign honours ===
International Olympic Committee:
Gold Olympic Order (1983)
Soviet Union:
Lenin Peace Prize (1985, posthumous)
Vietnam:
Gold Star Order (1985, posthumous)
Bangladesh:
Bangladesh Freedom Honour (2011, posthumous)
=== Posthumous honours ===
Indian National Congress established the annual Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1985, given in her memory on her death anniversary.
The Lokmanya Tilak National Award was posthumously conferred on her in 1985.
The Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust constituted the annual Indira Gandhi Prize, which was first awarded in 1986.
In 2019, Time created 89 new covers to celebrate women of the year starting from 1920; it chose her for 1976.
The international airport at New Delhi is named Indira Gandhi International Airport in her honour.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University, the largest university in the world, is also named after her.
The southernmost Indira Point (6.74678°N 93.84260°E) is named after Gandhi.
== Legacy ==
American veteran politician Henry A. Kissinger had described Indira Gandhi as being an "Iron lady", a nickname that became associated with her tough personality. After leading India to victory against Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, President V. V. Giri awarded Gandhi with India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. In 2011, the Bangladesh Freedom Honour, Bangladesh's highest civilian award for foreign nationals, was posthumously conferred on Gandhi for her "outstanding contributions" to Bangladesh's Liberation War.
Gandhi's main legacy was standing firm in the face of American pressure to defeat Pakistan and turn East Pakistan into independent Bangladesh. She was responsible for India joining the group of countries with nuclear weapons. Although India being officially part of the Non-Aligned Movement, she gave Indian foreign policy a tilt towards the Soviet bloc. In 1999, Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC. In 2012, she was ranked number seven on Outlook India's poll of the Greatest Indian.
Being at the forefront of Indian politics for decades, Gandhi left a powerful legacy on Indian politics. Similarly, some of her actions have also caused controversies. One of the criticisms concerns her rule to have damaged internal party democracy in the Congress party. Her detractors accuse her of weakening State chief ministers and thereby weakening the federal structure, weakening the independence of the judiciary, and weakening her cabinet by vesting power in her secretariat and her sons. Gandhi is also associated with fostering a culture of nepotism in Indian politics and in India's institutions. She is also almost singularly associated with the period of emergency rule, described by some as a "dark period" in Indian democracy. The Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India which was adopted during the emergency can also be regarded as part of her legacy. Although judicial challenges and non-Congress governments tried to water down the amendment, the amendment still stands.
She was the only woman to occupy the office of the prime minister of India and in 2020, Gandhi was named by Time magazine among the world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century. Shakti Sthal means a place of strength and is a monument to her.
== In popular culture ==
While portrayals of Indira Gandhi by actors in Indian cinema have generally been avoided, with filmmakers using back-shots, silhouettes and voiceovers to give impressions of her character, several films surrounding her tenure, policies or assassination have been made.
These include Aandhi (1975) by Gulzar, Kissa Kursi Ka (1975) by Amrit Nahata, Nasbandi (1978) by I. S. Johar, Maachis (1996) by Gulzar, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003) by Sudhir Mishra, Hawayein (2003) by Ammtoje Mann, Des Hoyaa Pardes (2004) by Manoj Punj, Kaya Taran (2004) by Sashi Kumar, Amu (2005) by Shonali Bose, Kaum De Heere (2014) by Ravinder Ravi, 47 to 84 (2014) by Rajiv Sharma, Punjab 1984 (2014) by Anurag Singh, The Fourth Direction (2015) by Gurvinder Singh, Dharam Yudh Morcha (2016) by Naresh S. Garg, 31 October (2016) by Shivaji Lotan Patil, Baadshaho (2017) by Milan Luthria, Toofan Singh (2017) by Baghal Singh, Sonchiriya (2019) by Abhishek Chaubey, Shukranu (2020) by Bishnu Dev Halder. Aandhi, Kissa Kursi Ka and Nasbandi are notable for having been released during Gandhi's lifetime and were subject to censorship on exhibition during the Emergency.
Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi is a 1970 Indian two-part documentary film by S. Krishnaswamy which traces the history of India from the earliest times of the Indus Valley Civilisation to the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi. The Films Division of India produced Our Indira, a 1973 short documentary film directed by S.N.S. Sastry showing the beginning of her first tenure as PM and her speeches from the Stockholm Conference.
Pradhanmantri (lit. 'Prime Minister'), a 2013 Indian documentary television series which aired on ABP News and covers the various policies and political tenures of Indian PMs, includes the tenureship of Gandhi in the episodes "Indira Gandhi Becomes PM", "Split in Congress Party", "Story before Indo-Pakistani War of 1971", "Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and Birth of Bangladesh", "1975–77 State of Emergency in India", and "Indira Gandhi back as PM and Operation Blue Star" with Navni Parihar portraying the role of Gandhi. Parihar also portrays Gandhi in the 2021 Indian film Bhuj: The Pride of India which is based on the India–Pakistan war of 1971.
The taboo surrounding the depiction of Indira Gandhi in Indian cinema has begun to dissipate in recent years with actors portraying her in films. Notable portrayals include: Sarita Choudhury in Midnight's Children (2012); Mandeep Kohli in Jai Jawaan Jai Kisaan (2015); Supriya Vinod in Indu Sarkar (2017), NTR: Kathanayakudu/NTR: Mahanayakudu (2019) and Yashwantrao Chavan – Bakhar Eka Vaadalaachi (2014); Flora Jacob in Raid (2018), Thalaivi (2021) and Radhe Shyam (2022), Kishori Shahane in PM Narendra Modi (2019), Avantika Akerkar in Thackeray (2019) and 83 (2021), Supriya Karnik in Main Mulayam Singh Yadav (2021), Lara Dutta in Bell Bottom (2021), Fatima Sana Shaikh in Sam Bahadur (2023) and Kangana Ranaut in Emergency (2025).
The phrase "indiragandi" is used in Turkish slang as a way to convey the action of getting money through corruption or otherwise unethical means. This is largely due to the word "indirmek" (English: take down) being used similarly in slang, although the corruption scandal that Indira Gandhi presided over is also a factor.
== Bibliography ==
Book written by Indira Gandhi
My Truth (1980), Orient Paperback, ISBN 978-81-709446-8-3
Books on Indira Gandhi
My Years with Indira Gandhi by P. C. Alexander, Orient Paperbacks, ISBN 978-81-709444-2-3, ISBN 978-81-709444-2-3
Indira Gandhi by H. Y. Sharada Prasad, Penguin India, ISBN 978-01-433328-8-6
Indira Gandhi – Tryst with Power by Nayantara Sahgal, Penguin India, ISBN 978-01-430673-5-1
Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister by Sagarika Ghose, ISBN 978-93-862283-4-5
== Notes ==
== See also ==
List of national presidents of the Indian National Congress
List of assassinated Indian politicians
List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government
List of heads of state and government who suspended the constitution
List of heads of state and government who were assassinated or executed
List of recipients of the Gold Star Order
List of heads of state and government Nobel nominees
== References ==
=== Notes ===
=== References ===
=== Sources ===
== Bibliography ==
== External links ==
Indira Gandhi Meets with Lyndon Baines Johnson from Texas Archive of the Moving Image
The Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust Archived 17 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Works by Indira Gandhi at Open Library
Indira Gandhi at IMDb
Rare pictures of Indira Gandhi
Rare letters by Indira Gandhi Archived 7 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Famous and Historic speeches given by Indira Gandhi Archived 8 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Indira Gandhi on global underprivilege at Encyclopaedia Britannica |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayan_Gopal | Narayan Gopal | Narayan Gopal Gurubacharya (Nepali: नारायण गोपाल गुरबाचार्य) (4 October 1939 – 5 December 1990), known professionally as Narayan Gopal and N. Gopal was a popular singer and composer of Nepali music. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons in Nepal, he is referred to as "Swar Samrat" (Nepali: स्वर सम्राट, meaning: Emperor of Voice) in Nepal. He also sang in Nepal Bhasa.
Owing to his vocal range he was capable of singing songs of every Nepalese genre. Often, his songs were accompanied by the sitar, harmonium and flute. He was also a music director from the 1950s to the 70s and belongs to the first generation of professional Nepali singers. His songs have been showcased in several movies and dramas across the country.
Narayan Gopal released more than 137 songs during his lifetime, his first few songs were composed by his friends Prem Dhoj Pradhan and Manik Ratna. Although several original recordings have been lost over the years, their lyrics and cover versions remain accessible online.
Gopal was one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century and received many awards during his lifetime.
== Early life ==
Narayan Gopal Guruacharya was born on 18 Ashoj 1996 B.S. in Kilagal Tole, Kathmandu, Nepal to Asha Gopal Guruacharya and Ram Devi Guruacharya. He was born into a traditional Newar family and had five brothers and three sisters. He completed the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) in 2016 B.S. and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in humanities from Tri-Chandra College. He also went to the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in India to study Indian classical music but returned to Nepal without completing his studies. He married Pemala Lama in 1971.
Later he joined the Rashtriya Naach Ghar (National Dance Theater) and rose to the post of manager (hakim). He also worked as the editor of the musical journal Bageena for its first three issues. He became the managing director of 'Sanskritik Sansthan (Cultural Center)' and adviser to the Ministry of Communication and he was an associate professor at Lalit Kala Campus. He wrote a musical drama titled Kanchi Masyang (कान्छी मस्याङ)'.
== Early career ==
The potential of his vocal talent was first recognized by his friend "Manik Ratna Sthapit", who lived in the neighboring Pyukha Tole, and Prem Dhoj Pradhan, who lived in Bheda Singh Tole. The three friends would practice singing Hindi songs together at Manik Ratna's house, which had become a de facto music school since his uncle, Siddhi Ratna Sthapit, was an accomplished instrumentalist. After Gopal completed his SLC exams, Prem Dhoj Pradhan took him to Radio Nepal for a voice test. There, Gopal sang "Panchi ko pankha ma dharti ko diyo," a song written by Dr. Ram Man Trishit and composed by Prem Dhoj Pradhan himself. Gopal passed the voice test on his first attempt. His first public musical performance was during the 40th anniversary celebration of Tri Chandra College, where he played the role of a tabla player.
=== First successes ===
By that time Prem-Manik duo had started to sing their own compositions. Following suit, Narayan Gopal composed six original songs written by the contemporary poet Ratna Shumsher Thapa. In that collection four of the songs were for solo vocal ('स्वर्गकी रानी', 'आँखाको भाखा आँखैले', 'भो भो मलाई नछेक', 'मधुमासमा यो दिल') and two were for duet ('बिछोडको पीडा' र 'ए कान्छा ठट्टैमा यो बैंश जानलाग्यो'). All these songs were eventually recorded in Kolkata, India, while he was in that country for his studies. These songs started to attract attention within Nepal and India.
Nepal at the time had recently been liberated from Rana rule. Midst this wave of social and political changes, Narayan Gopal was able to lend his voice to songs related to love, life, hope, and patriotism. While the east–west highway was under construction, he recorded 'जाग, जाग चम्क हे नौजवान हो,' whereas in the fervor of patriotism 'आमा ! तिमीलाई जलभरिका औंलाहरुले चुम्न'. Such songs made him popular among the youths of Nepal. His songs further evolved as he became more selective of songs with the right combination of words, music, and emotions. Along with his contemporaries such as Pushpa Nepali, Bacchu Kailash, Tara Devi, Amber Gurung, Prem Dhoj Pradhan, Nati Kaji, Shiva Shankar, Kiran Pradhan he added a new dimension to modern Nepali music. To broaden his style, he started to hold discussions with his admirers, his competitors, and his critics. It was in this process of development that he visited Darjeeling, India, in March 1965. The visit was fruitful for two reasons: there he met his long-time fan and future wife, Pemala Lama. He also met another young musician Gopal Yonzon, with whom he formed a close friendship as mitjyus, in part because both had Gopal as their names.
== Association acts ==
=== Association with Gopal Yonzon ===
With the partnership of a famous composer and lyricist Gopal Yonzon during the later sixties, Narayan Gopal's music entered a new phase in which he began to sing about love, loss, and tragedy. In the words of Ishwar Bhallav, Narayan Gopal became the singer of the hearts of the Nepali people. Rafi's association with Gopal Yonzon helped Narayan Gopal establish himself as one of the most prominent singers in Nepali music history. It was also at this time that new sounds from the West, such as by the Beatles and Bob Dylan, were entering and influencing the music of Nepal. To confront the influence of Western pop music, a new consciousness and a new style of music were necessary. To meet these challenges, Narayan Gopal in partnership with Gopal Yonjan created songs that continue to be popular in Nepal songs such as बिर्सेर फेरि मलाई नहेर, चिनारी हाम्रो धेरै पुरानो, तिम्रो जस्तो मुटु मेरो पनि, लौ सुन म भन्छु मेरो रामकहानी carved a special niche for Narayan Gopal among the listeners of Nepali music.
=== Association with Dibya Khaling ===
Narayan Gopal in partnership with composer and lyricist Dibya Khaling created some harmonious songs like "Sadhain Nai Ma Hasen Timilai Ruwai", "Bipana Nabhai Banchidine Ma Bhitraka Mera Sapana", "Mayako Aadharma Samjhauta Nai Hunchha", "Jata Hindyo UHeren" Tai Tanne Baimani yo Maya", " Mero Sano Sansar Timilai Atena", " Yo Bhagyale Kasto Khel Manisako Jiwanma Her Kheleko", "Jati Samma Bato Hindisake M Bhanchhu Merai Prayas Ho", "Priyasiko Yaadharu Koriyeko Mutu, Ekantma Aaj Yahan Phookayer Heren", "Timilai Bhulda Ma Eklo Parechhu, Timilai Samjhen Timi Yaad Aayau", and " Ma Ta Laliguraans Bhayechhu".
=== Association with famous poet Bhupi Sherchan ===
Narayan Gopal and famous poet Bhupi Sherchan were close friends. When Narayan Gopal moved to Pokhara for a stay, Bhupi Sherchan invited Narayan Gopal to stay at his house, and Narayan Gopal stayed there for some months. Narayan Gopal sang some of Bhupi Sherchan's lyrics like "Aljhechha Kyare Pachauri, Timro Chiyako Buttama", "Sanai Hurima Bainsako Sapana Shimalko Phool Jhain Jhari Gayo" and " Maile Gayeko Geetma Timrai Hansilo Muhar Chha" and become hit number songs.
=== Association with famous poet Ishwor Ballav ===
Narayan Gopal's partnership with Ishwor Ballav gave hit number songs like "Duita Phool Deuralima, Sathai Rakhyaun jasto Lagchha", "Mero Behoshi Aaaj, Mero Lagi Parda Bho", "Sara Din Arulai Baden, Sayad Yi Raat Mera", "Bihan Nabhai Batasle, Sheet Kina Sukaidinchha", "Malai Jindagi Yo Lagdachha, Timi Bhandachhau, Pyar Ho", and "Yo Kasto Byatha Ho". Poet I.B. wrote a lyrical poem for Narayan Gopal and those songs gave Narayan Gopal new heights in his career.
During this time, he collaborated with established Nepali composers like Nati Kaji, Shiva Sankar, Amber Gurung, and Dharmaraj Thapa. He was starting to be known as the singer of intellect.
During the beginning of the seventies, he married his long-time fan Pemala at the age of thirty-one. After their marriage his residence shifted for some time to Pokhara and later for some time to Hetauda. In Pokhara, he became acquainted with the poet Bhupi Sherchan, while in Hetauda he became acquainted with fellow songwriters and composers Bhim Birag. As a result of the interactions, he composed and sang Bhupi Sherchan's सानै हुरीमा बैँसको सपना and अल्झेछ क्यारे पछ्यौरी तिम्रो चियाको बुट्टामा; and he sang Bhim Birag's तिमीले पनि मजस्तै माया दिएर हेर.
Association with economist Bishwambhar Pyakurel
Narayan Gopal's partnership with Pyakurel led to development of many songs like 'छातीभरीका माया, आखाभरीका कुरा सबै सबै मानुलाई'.
== Later career ==
After his short stay in Hetauda, Narayan Gopal returned to Kathmandu and managed to find a job in Rashtriya Naach Ghar (National Dance Theater) with the help of his friends Manik Ratna and Janardan Sama. He had entered Naach Ghar as a mere instrumentalist, but he slowly rose to the post of a hakim (rector).
At this stage of his life, he found himself confronting a new generation of Nepali youths. Among the young musical talents of that time, his partnership with Dibya Khaling took off; and he started lending his voice to Khalings compositions, thus initiating another phase of his singing career. Songs like सँधै नै म हाँसे तिमीलाई रुवाई, मायाको आधारमा सम्झौता नै हुन्छ, बिपना नभइ helped to revive his popularity. During this stage, he started to collaborate with a new breed of songwriters such as "Khyetra Pratap Adhikari", "Kali Prasad Rijal", "Norden Rumba", "Dinesh Adhikari", and "Bishwambhar Pyaukurel", while his relationship with his old collaborators was neglected. Among the composers of the new generation, he collaborated with the likes of Sambhujit Baskota, "Bhupendra Rayamajhi", and "Shubha Bahadur". In his late stage of his career, he lent his considerable prestige to launch the career of many upcoming musicians. As such, he was willing to compromise his artistry and sing weak songs by new composers and songwriters. He also sang in film songs.
In total his career spanned twenty-eight years, during which he sang in eighteen movies and recorded more than one hundred and fifty-seven songs.
== Death ==
Gopal was urged by friends to quit smoking and drinking in the interests of his health. He quit drinking a few months before he died but was unable to quit cigarettes.
Narayan Gopal died from complications of diabetes on 5 December 1990 (19 Mangsir, 2047 B.S.) in Bir Hospital, at 9 p.m. in Kathmandu, at the age of 51. He had no children.
After the death of Gopal, there were a number of music festivals that were dedicated to Gopal.
=== Legacy ===
To honor the king of Nepalese music, there are celebrations held on the day of his death annually in Nepal. The government has built many statues for Gopal, such as one in Chakrapath, Kathmandu which has flowers that were planted on the 21st death anniversary event of Narayan Gopal held on 5 December 2011. This statue serves as a reminder of his timeless artistry and continues to inspire generations of music lovers. Even though he is no longer with us, his songs and this statue ensure that Narayan Gopal remains alive in the hearts of his admirers. After death of Gopal other artists have said about Gopal's habits, for example famous musician and composer of National anthem of Nepal, Amber Gurung said,
Narayan Gopal used to drink a lot, sing with an open heart and made us laugh. This statue constantly looks in a direction. Doesn't sing, There is no value in this statue of Narayan Gopal. That is why I don't walk this way these days.
== Musical style ==
To Narayan Gopal, the most important part of the art of modern songs were: melody, lyrics, and the singer. This did not rule out other aspects, however. Chords, he said, are required to put life in the music, but the chord progression is part of the arrangement, not something to base the composition of the melody on. When the melody is composed, the arranger will make the progression from the melody. Without a good arrangement, Narayan Gopal said, a song will be like a vegetable dish without salt or other spices.
The aspects of this recipe at work included non-repetitive melodies moving over the accompaniment, in short, repeated rhythmic figures; heterophony, countermelodies, chords, and harmonic progressions; one melody for the refrain, another for the verse, and then—as part of the arrangement—melodies for the instrumental interludes marking off the sung sections.
While recording song for Dakshina, Gopal was talking and joking with the music director when the director said "Why don't we order some ice cream" then he said to another musician, another musician declined the offer since it would mess up their voice than director came to Gopal and said why don't we order 1 kg ice cream than Gopal said yes that's a good idea. After ordering the ice cream he gave to Gopal than Gopal started eating another person in the studio said "Is he crazy, if he eats the ice cream it will mess up his voice" then Gopal came into the studio he sang a song without any retakes, after singing he had gotten cold from the ice cream. Later the director asked to play the song, which sounded amazing.
== Awards and recognitions ==
Narayan Gopal was awarded several national honours which include (all dates in Bikram Sambat):
Best Composition (Radio Nepal) – 2023 B.S.
Best Singer (Radio Nepal) – 2024 B.S.
Ratna Record Award – 2039 B.S.
Gorkha Dakshin Bahu, Fourth – 2033 B.S.
Indra Rajya Laxmi Award – 2040 B.S.
Chhinalata Award – 2044 B.S.
Jagadamba Shree – 2045 B.S.
Urbashi Rang Award – 2047 B.S.
Trishakti Patta, Third – 2048 B.S. (posthumously)
Narayan gopal singing award-1969
Maha Ujwaol Rastradeep awards from the President of Nepal on 2021 (posthumously)
== Filmography ==
Narayan Gopal would hardly sing in films but when he did the film would be a blockbuster.
== Discography ==
== See also ==
Hira Devi Waiba
Navneet Aditya Waiba
Aruna Lama
Yogesh Vaidya
Music of Nepal
Adhunik Geet
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Regional_Transport_Office_districts_in_India#MP%E2%80%94Madhya_Pradesh | List of Regional Transport Office districts in India | This is a list of the Indian Regional Transport Offices and the assigned codes for vehicle registration. These are broken down to states or union territories and their districts. These RTO offices, governed by the respective state and union territory Transport Departments, are led by Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) and are tasked with enforcing the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and its associated rules.
== AP—Andhra Pradesh ==
The Andhra Pradesh state government has decided to issue uniform registration numbers for vehicles across Andhra Pradesh. Since February 2019, all new vehicles in Andhra Pradesh are registered with AP-39 code by default. Andhra Pradesh is the first state to implement the "one state-one code" policy.
In 2023, the state government has launched new series, AP-40.
== AR—Arunachal Pradesh ==
== AS—Assam ==
== BR—Bihar ==
== CG—Chhattisgarh ==
== CH—Chandigarh ==
== DD—Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu ==
== DL—Delhi ==
== GA—Goa ==
== GJ—Gujarat ==
== HP—Himachal Pradesh ==
== HR—Haryana ==
== JH—Jharkhand ==
== JK—Jammu and Kashmir ==
== KA—Karnataka ==
== KL—Kerala ==
== LA—Ladakh ==
== LD—Lakshadweep ==
== MH—Maharashtra ==
== ML—Meghalaya ==
== MN—Manipur ==
== MP—Madhya Pradesh ==
== MZ—Mizoram ==
== NL—Nagaland ==
== OD—Odisha ==
Due to the official respelling of the state name in English (from "Orissa" to "Odisha"), the Transport Department modified the state letter on the plates with OD substituting OR on 1 September 2012.
== PB—Punjab ==
== PY—Puducherry ==
== RJ—Rajasthan ==
== SK—Sikkim ==
== TG—Telangana ==
Note * Part of GHMC Hyderabad but not part of Hyderabad Dist.
The two-letter state code for Telangana Region in Andhra Pradesh was AP until the State Bifurcation and after the formation of Telangana State, the state was chosen as TS. It continued up to May 2024 before it was changed to TG.
The AP and TS codes, however, remain valid.
== TN—Tamil Nadu ==
In Tamil Nadu, specific series are exclusively used for certain type of vehicles
All State Transport Corporation vehicles start the series with 'N' or 'AN'
All Government owned vehicles start the series with 'G', 'AG', 'BG', 'CG' or 'DG', Etc., (all Combination of G)
No RTO is assigned with number that would add up to '8'. There is no 08,17,26,35,44,53,62,71.80.
== TR—Tripura ==
== UK—Uttarakhand ==
== UP—Uttar Pradesh ==
== WB—West Bengal ==
== References ==
"Our Divisions/Field Offices | Transport | Government of Assam, India".
== Sources ==
for India as whole: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (click on "List of RTO's in a State")
for Andhra Pradesh: Government of Andhra Pradesh – Transport Department
for Delhi: Department of Transport
for Gujarat: Transport Department Gujarat
for Himachal Pradesh: Transport Department
for Karnataka: Government of Karnataka – Transport Department
for Kerala: Motor Vehicles Department, Newspaper article in the Hindu: "New Registering Authority Codes from July 1"
for Madhya Pradesh: RTO Offices in MP
for Maharashtra: Motor Vehicle Department
for Orissa: Orissa Commerce & Transport Department
for Punjab: Government of Punjab – Department of Transport
for Tamil Nadu: Department of Transport, State Transport Authority, GIS representation
for Telangana: Telangana Transport Information Portal
for Uttarakhand: Uttarakhand Transport Department.
for India: Vehicle Owner Details. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Skolnik_Award | Herman Skolnik Award | The Herman Skolnik Award is awarded annually by the Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society, "to recognize outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science". As of 2024 the award is of 3,000 US dollars.
It is named for Herman Skolnik (1914-1994), who was a co-founder of the then ACS Division of Chemical Literature in 1948 and a key figure in the Division. The first award was made to him.
== Recipients ==
Source:
=== 1970s ===
1976: Herman Skolnik
1977: Eugene Garfield
1978: Fred A. Tate
=== 1980s ===
1980: William J. Wiswesser
1981: Ben H. Weil
1982: Robert Fugmann
1983: Russell J. Rowlett, Jr.
1984: Montagu Hyams
1986: Dale B. Baker
1987: William Theilheimer
1988: David R. Lide, Jr.
1989: Michael F. Lynch and Stuart Marson
=== 1990s ===
1990: Ernst Meyer
1991: Todd Wipke
1992: Jacques-Emile Dubois
1993: Peter Willett
1994: Alexandru T. Balaban
1995: Reiner Luckenbach and Clemens Jochum
1996: Milan Randic
1997: Johann Gasteiger
1998: Gary D. Wiggins
1999: Stuart M. Kaback
=== 2000s ===
2000: Stephen R. Heller and G. W. A. Milne
2001: Guenter Grethe
2002: Peter Norton
2003: Frank H. Allen
2004: Peter Johnson
2005: Lorrin Garson
2006: Hugo Kubinyi
2007: Robert S. Pearlman
2008: Gerald M. Maggiora
2009: Yvonne Connolly Martin
=== 2010s ===
2010: Anton J. Hopfinger
2011: Alexander Lawson
2012: Peter Murray-Rust and Henry Rzepa
2013: Richard D. Cramer
2014: Engelbert Zass
2015: Jürgen Bajorath
2016: Stephen H. Bryant and Evan Bolton
2017: David Winkler
2018: Gisbert Schneider
2019: Kimito Funatsu
=== 2020s ===
2020: Wendy A. Warr
2023 Patrick Walters
2024 Alexandre Varnek
2025 Matthias Rarey
2026 Antony John Williams
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
List of computer science awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Welding%22_Kumar#:~:text=He%20was%20originally%20known%20as,a%20son%20named%20Sushil%20kumar. | "Welding" Kumar | "Welding" Kumar was an Indian criminal from Chennai, who gained infamy for an attack on a lawyer for which he was sentenced to life in prison. He was later killed in Puzhal Prison during a fight with other inmates.
== Personal life ==
He was born in Navalar Street near Korukkupettai in Chennai. He was originally known as Jeyakumar. He was believed to be about 47 to 48 years old when he died. He started his profession as a welder in Tondiarpet . He was married to Shanthi and has a daughter named Divya and a son named Sushil Kumar.
== Criminal history ==
He was accused in 25 different criminal cases including four murders. Deccan Chronicle described him as the henchman of some Tamil Nadu politicians.
He was accused of killing Radhakrishnan in 1985 and Lambamani in 1992. He attacked Chera inside the court complexes and Veeramani from Ayodhya kuppam. He was involved in an attack against lawyer Vijayan on his way to court. He received life imprisonment for attack against Radhakrishnan and Shanmugasundaram. He resorted to violence even when he was in prison. He attacked John Pandian when he was in Cuddalore jail and V. Mullaivendhan when in Salem jail.
== Advocate Shanmugasundaram case ==
He achieved notoriety in Tamil Nadu after the attack on lawyer R. Shanmugasundaram which happened on 30 May 1995. "Welding" Kumar became a household name when the CBI offered Rs. 3000 for information leading to his arrest. The DMK lawyer R. Shanmugasundaram was preparing a case against the then Chief Minister Jayalalitha in the TANSI land scam case. The attack which left him severely injured infuriated the law community in Tamil Nadu and evoked statewide protests. Kumar was subsequently convicted in that case by a local court and sent to life in prison. The ruling was later confirmed by the High court.
== Death ==
On 10 June 2009, Kumar was attacked and killed by fellow inmates in Puzhal prison. He had been transferred from Coimbatore to Puzhal prison two months before his murder. Puzhal prison officials said that his murder was a result of the hostility created by his taking over of the prison racket in which "well to do" remand prisoners deposited their mobile phones with convicts for a fee.
== References ==
== External links ==
Resource material series by United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Sock_Puppets | Burlington Sock Puppets | The Burlington Sock Puppets are a summer collegiate baseball team of the Appalachian League. They are located in Burlington, North Carolina, and play their home games at Burlington Athletic Stadium, informally nicknamed "Sockville".
== History ==
=== Previous Burlington teams ===
Professional baseball was first played in Burlington, North Carolina, from 1958 to 1964 by the Burlington Indians, who competed in the Carolina League (Class B through 1962; thereafter Class A) as a Cleveland Indians farm club. Twenty-two years later, Cleveland placed the Burlington Indians in the Appalachian League as a Rookie-level affiliate from 1986 to 2006. They were known as the Burlington Royals during an affiliation with the Kansas City Royals from 2007 to 2020.
=== Collegiate summer team ===
In conjunction with a contraction of Minor League Baseball beginning with the 2021 season, the Appalachian League was reorganized as a collegiate summer baseball league, and the Burlington Royals were renamed to the Burlington Sock Puppets in the revamped league designed for rising college freshmen and sophomores. The nickname refers to Burlington's textile heritage.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon | Les Demoiselles d'Avignon | Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon, originally titled The Brothel of Avignon) is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it portrays five nude female prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó, a street in Barcelona, Spain. The figures are confrontational and not conventionally feminine, being rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes, some to a menacing degree. The far left figure exhibits facial features and dress of Egyptian or southern Asian style. The two adjacent figures are in an Iberian style of Picasso's Spain, while the two on the right have African mask-like features. Picasso said the ethnic primitivism evoked in these masks moved him to "liberate an utterly original artistic style of compelling, even savage force" leading him to add a shamanistic aspect to his project.
Drawing from tribal primitivism while eschewing central dictates of Renaissance perspective and verisimilitude for a compressed picture plane using a Baroque composition while employing Velazquez's confrontational approach seen in Las Meninas, Picasso sought to take the lead of the avant-garde from Henri Matisse. John Richardson said Demoiselles made Picasso the most pivotal artist in Western painting since Giotto and laid a path forward for Picasso and Georges Braque to follow in their joint development of cubism, the effects of which on modern art were profound and unsurpassed in the 20th century.
Les Demoiselles was revolutionary, controversial and led to widespread anger and disagreement, even amongst the painter's closest associates and friends. Henri Matisse considered the work something of a bad joke yet indirectly reacted to it in his 1908 Bathers with a Turtle. Georges Braque too initially disliked the painting yet studied the work in great detail. His subsequent friendship and collaboration with Picasso led to the cubist revolution. Its resemblance to Cézanne's The Bathers, Paul Gauguin's statue Oviri and El Greco's Opening of the Fifth Seal has been widely discussed by later critics.
At the time of its first exhibition in 1916, the painting was deemed immoral. Painted in Picasso's studio in the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, Paris, it was seen publicly for the first time at the Salon d'Antin in July 1916, at an exhibition organized by the poet André Salmon. It was at this exhibition that Salmon, who had previously titled the painting in 1912 Le bordel philosophique, renamed it to its current, less scandalous title, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, instead of the title originally chosen by Picasso, Le Bordel d'Avignon. Picasso, who always referred to it as mon bordel ("my brothel"), or Le Bordel d'Avignon, never liked Salmon's title and would have instead preferred the bowdlerization Las chicas de Avignon ("The Girls of Avignon").
== Background and development ==
Picasso came into his own as an important artist during the first decade of the 20th century. He arrived in Paris from Spain around the turn of the century as a young, ambitious painter out to make a name for himself. For several years he alternated between living and working in Barcelona, Madrid and the Spanish countryside, and made frequent trips to Paris.
By 1904, he was fully settled in Paris and had established several studios, important relationships with both friends and colleagues. Between 1901 and 1904, Picasso began to achieve recognition for his Blue Period paintings. In the main these were studies of poverty and desperation based on scenes he had seen in Spain and Paris at the turn of the century. Subjects included gaunt families, blind figures, and personal encounters; other paintings depicted his friends, but most reflected and expressed a sense of blueness and despair.
He followed his success by developing into his Rose Period from 1904 to 1907, which introduced a strong element of sensuality and sexuality into his work. The Rose period depictions of acrobats, circus performers and theatrical characters are rendered in warmer, brighter colors and are far more hopeful and joyful in their depictions of the bohemian life in the Parisian avant-garde and its environs. The Rose period produced two important large masterpieces: Family of Saltimbanques (1905), which recalls the work of Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) and Édouard Manet (1832–1883); and Boy Leading a Horse (1905–06), which recalls Cézanne's Bather (1885–1887) and El Greco's Saint Martin and the Beggar (1597–1599). While he already had a considerable following by the middle of 1906, Picasso enjoyed further success with his paintings of massive oversized nude women, monumental sculptural figures that recalled the work of Paul Gauguin and showed his interest in primitive (African, Micronesian, Native American) art. He began exhibiting his work in the galleries of Berthe Weill (1865–1951) and Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939), quickly gaining a growing reputation and a following amongst the artistic communities of Montmartre and Montparnasse.
Picasso became a favorite of the American art collectors Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo around 1905. The Steins' older brother Michael and his wife Sarah also became collectors of his work. Picasso painted portraits of both Gertrude Stein and her nephew Allan Stein.
Gertrude Stein began acquiring Picasso's drawings and paintings and exhibiting them in her informal Salon at her home in Paris. At one of her gatherings in 1905 he met Henri Matisse (1869–1954), who was to become in those days his chief rival, although in later years a close friend. The Steins introduced Picasso to Claribel Cone (1864–1929), and her sister Etta Cone (1870–1949), also American art collectors, who began to acquire Picasso and Matisse's paintings. Eventually Leo Stein moved to Italy, and Michael and Sarah Stein became important patrons of Matisse, while Gertrude Stein continued to collect Picasso.
== Rivalry with Matisse ==
The Salon d'Automne of 1905 brought notoriety and attention to the works of Henri Matisse and the Les Fauves group. The latter gained their name after critic Louis Vauxcelles described their work with the phrase "Donatello chez les fauves" ("Donatello among the wild beasts"), contrasting the paintings with a Renaissance-type sculpture that shared the room with them. Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), an artist whom Picasso knew and admired and who was not a Fauve, had his large jungle scene The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope also hanging near the works by Matisse and which may have had an influence on the particular sarcastic term used in the press. Vauxcelles' comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in the daily newspaper Gil Blas, and passed into popular usage.
Although the pictures were widely derided—"A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public", declared the critic Camille Mauclair (1872–1945)—they also attracted some favorable attention. The painting that was singled out for the most attacks was Matisse's Woman with a Hat; the purchase of this work by Gertrude and Leo Stein had a very positive effect on Matisse, who was suffering demoralization from the bad reception of his work.
Matisse's notoriety and preeminence as the leader of the new movement in modern painting continued to build throughout 1906 and 1907, and Matisse attracted a following of artists including Georges Braque (1880–1963), André Derain (1880–1954), Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958). Picasso's work had passed through his Blue period and his Rose period and while he had a considerable following his reputation was tame in comparison to his rival Matisse. The larger theme of Matisse's influential Le bonheur de vivre, an exploration of "The Golden Age", evokes the historic "Ages of Man" theme and the potentials of a provocative new age that the twentieth century era offered. An equally bold, similarly themed painting titled The Golden Age, completed by Derain in 1905, shows the transfer of human ages in an even more direct way.
Matisse and Derain shocked the French public again at the March 1907 Société des Artistes Indépendants when Matisse exhibited his painting Blue Nude and Derain contributed The Bathers. Both paintings evoke ideas of human origins (world beginnings, evolution) an increasingly important theme in Paris at this time. The Blue Nude was one of the paintings that would later create an international sensation at the Armory Show of 1913 in New York City.
From October 1906 when he began preparatory work for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, until its completion in March 1907, Picasso was vying with Matisse to be perceived as the leader of Modern painting. Upon its completion the shock and the impact of the painting propelled Picasso into the center of controversy and all but knocked Matisse and Fauvism off the map, virtually ending the movement by the following year. In 1907 Picasso joined the art gallery that had recently been opened in Paris by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884–1979). Kahnweiler was a German art historian and collector who became one of the premier French art dealers of the 20th century. He became prominent in Paris beginning in 1907 for being among the first champions of Picasso, and especially his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Before 1910 Picasso was already being recognized as one of the important leaders of Modern art alongside Henri Matisse, who had been the undisputed leader of Fauvism and who was more than ten years older than he, and his contemporaries the Fauvist André Derain and the former Fauvist and fellow Cubist, Georges Braque.
In his 1992 essay Reflections on Matisse, the art critic Hilton Kramer wrote,
After the impact of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, however, Matisse was never again mistaken for an avant-garde incendiary. With the bizarre painting that appalled and electrified the cognoscenti, which understood the Les Demoiselles was at once a response to Matisse's Le bonheur de vivre (1905–1906) and an assault upon the tradition from which it derived, Picasso effectively appropriated the role of avant-garde wild beast—a role that, as far as public opinion was concerned, he was never to relinquish.
Kramer goes on to say,
Whereas Matisse had drawn upon a long tradition of European painting—from Giorgione, Poussin, and Watteau to Ingres, Cézanne, and Gauguin—to create a modern version of a pastoral paradise in Le bonheur de vivre, Picasso had turned to an alien tradition of primitive art to create in Les Demoiselles a netherworld of strange gods and violent emotions. As between the mythological nymphs of Le bonheur de vivre and the grotesque effigies of Les Demoiselles, there was no question as to which was the more shocking or more intended to be shocking. Picasso had unleashed a vein of feeling that was to have immense consequences for the art and culture of the modern era while Matisse's ambition came to seem, as he said in his Notes of a Painter, more limited—limited that is, to the realm of aesthetic pleasure. There was thus opened up, in the very first decade of the century and in the work of its two greatest artists, the chasm that has continued to divide the art of the modern era down to our own time.
== Influences ==
Picasso created hundreds of sketches and studies in preparation for the final work. He long acknowledged the importance of Spanish art and Iberian sculpture as influences on the painting. The work is believed by critics to be influenced by African tribal masks and the art of Oceania, although Picasso denied the connection; many art historians remain skeptical about his denials. Picasso spent an October 1906 evening closely studying a Teke figure from Congo then owned by Matisse. It was later that night that Picasso's first studies for what would become Les Demoiselles d'Avignon were created. Several experts maintain that, at the very least, Picasso visited the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro (known later as the Musée de l'Homme) in the spring of 1907 where he saw and sought inspiration from African and other arts shortly before completing Les Demoiselles. He had come to this museum originally to study plaster casts of medieval sculptures, then also considered examples of "primitive" art.
=== El Greco ===
In 1907, when Picasso began work on Les Demoiselles, one of the old master painters he greatly admired was El Greco (1541–1614), who at the time was largely obscure and under-appreciated. Picasso's friend Ignacio Zuloaga (1870–1945) acquired El Greco's masterpiece, the Opening of the Fifth Seal, in 1897 for 1000 pesetas. The relation between Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and the Opening of the Fifth Seal was pinpointed in the early 1980s, when the stylistic similarities and the relationship between the motifs and visually identifying qualities of both works were analyzed.
El Greco's painting, which Picasso studied repeatedly in Zuloaga's house, inspired not only the size, format, and composition of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, but also its apocalyptic power. Later, speaking of the work to Dor de la Souchère in Antibes, Picasso said: "In any case, only the execution counts. From this point of view, it is correct to say that Cubism has a Spanish origin and that I invented Cubism. We must look for the Spanish influence in Cézanne. Things themselves necessitate it, the influence of El Greco, a Venetian painter, on him. But his structure is Cubist."
The relationship of the painting to other group portraits in the Western tradition, such as Diana and Callisto by Titian (1488–1576), and the same subject by Rubens (1577–1640), in the Prado, has also been discussed.
=== Cézanne and Cubism ===
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) and Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) were accorded major posthumous retrospective exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne in Paris between 1903 and 1907, and both were important influences on Picasso and instrumental to his creation of Les Demoiselles. According to the English art historian, collector and author of The Cubist Epoch, Douglas Cooper, both of those artists were particularly influential to the formation of Cubism and especially important to the paintings of Picasso during 1906 and 1907. Cooper goes on to say however Les Demoiselles is often erroneously referred to as the first Cubist painting. He explains,
The Demoiselles is generally referred to as the first Cubist picture. This is an exaggeration, for although it was a major first step towards Cubism it is not yet Cubist. The disruptive, expressionist element in it is even contrary to the spirit of Cubism, which looked at the world in a detached, realistic spirit. Nevertheless, the Demoiselles is the logical picture to take as the starting point for Cubism, because it marks the birth of a new pictorial idiom, because in it Picasso violently overturned established conventions and because all that followed grew out of it.
Although not well known to the general public prior to 1906, Cézanne's reputation was highly regarded in avant-garde circles, as evidenced by Ambroise Vollard's interest in showing and collecting his work, and by Leo Stein's interest. Picasso was familiar with much of Cézanne's work that he saw at Vollard's gallery and at the Stein's. After Cézanne died in 1906, his paintings were exhibited in Paris in a large scale museum-like retrospective in September 1907. The 1907 Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne greatly impacted the direction that the avant-garde in Paris took, lending credence to his position as one of the most influential artists of the 19th century and to the advent of Cubism. The 1907 Cézanne exhibition was enormously influential in establishing Cézanne as an important painter whose ideas were particularly resonant especially to young artists in Paris.
Both Picasso and Braque found the inspiration for their proto-Cubist works in Paul Cézanne, who said to observe and learn to see and treat nature as if it were composed of basic shapes like cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones. Cézanne's explorations of geometric simplification and optical phenomena inspired Picasso, Braque, Metzinger, Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Le Fauconnier, Gris and others to experiment with ever more complex multiple views of the same subject, and, eventually to the fracturing of form. Cézanne thus sparked one of the most revolutionary areas of artistic enquiry of the 20th century, one which was to affect profoundly the development of modern art.
=== Gauguin and Primitivism ===
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the European cultural elite were discovering African, Oceanic and Native American art. Artists such as Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Picasso were intrigued and inspired by the stark power and simplicity of styles of those cultures. Around 1906, Picasso, Matisse, Derain and other artists in Paris had acquired an interest in primitivism, Iberian sculpture, African art and tribal masks, in part because of the compelling works of Paul Gauguin that had suddenly achieved center stage in the avant-garde circles of Paris. Gauguin's powerful posthumous retrospective exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1903 and an even larger one in 1906 had a stunning and powerful influence on Picasso's paintings.
In the autumn of 1906, Picasso followed his previous successes with paintings of oversized nude women, and monumental sculptural figures that recalled the work of Paul Gauguin and showed his interest in primitive art. Pablo Picasso's paintings of massive figures from 1906 were directly influenced by Gauguin's sculpture, painting and his writing as well.
According to Gauguin biographer David Sweetman, Pablo Picasso as early as 1902 became an aficionado of Gauguin's work when he met and befriended the expatriate Spanish sculptor and ceramist Paco Durrio, in Paris. Durrio had several of Gauguin's works on hand because he was a friend of Gauguin's and an unpaid agent of his work. Durrio tried to help his poverty-stricken friend in Tahiti by promoting his oeuvre in Paris. After they met Durrio introduced Picasso to Gauguin's stoneware, helped Picasso make some ceramic pieces and gave Picasso a first La Plume edition of Noa Noa: The Tahiti Journal of Paul Gauguin.
Concerning Gauguin's impact on Picasso, art historian John Richardson wrote,
The 1906 exhibition of Gauguin's work left Picasso more than ever in this artist's thrall. Gauguin demonstrated the most disparate types of art—not to speak of elements from metaphysics, ethnology, symbolism, the Bible, classical myths, and much else besides—could be combined into a synthesis that was of its time yet timeless. An artist could also confound conventional notions of beauty, he demonstrated, by harnessing his demons to the dark gods (not necessarily Tahitian ones) and tapping a new source of divine energy. If in later years Picasso played down his debt to Gauguin, there is no doubt that between 1905 and 1907 he felt a very close kinship with this other Paul, who prided himself on Spanish genes inherited from his Peruvian grandmother. Had not Picasso signed himself 'Paul' in Gauguin's honor.
Both David Sweetman and John Richardson point to Gauguin's Oviri (literally meaning 'savage'), a gruesome phallic representation of the Tahitian goddess of life and death intended for Gauguin's grave. First exhibited in the 1906 retrospective, it was likely a direct influence on Les Demoiselles. Sweetman writes,
Gauguin's statue Oviri, which was prominently displayed in 1906, was to stimulate Picasso's interest in both sculpture and ceramics, while the woodcuts would reinforce his interest in print-making, though it was the element of the primitive in all of them which most conditioned the direction that Picasso's art would take. This interest would culminate in the seminal Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
According to Richardson,
Picasso's interest in stoneware was further stimulated by the examples he saw at the 1906 Gauguin retrospective at the Salon d'Automne. The most disturbing of those ceramics (one that Picasso might have already seen at Vollard's) was the gruesome Oviri. Until 1987, when the Musée d'Orsay acquired this little-known work (exhibited only once since 1906) it had never been recognized as the masterpiece it is, let alone recognized for its relevance to the works leading up to the Demoiselles. Although just under 30 inches high, Oviri has an awesome presence, as befits a monument intended for Gauguin's grave. Picasso was very struck by Oviri. 50 years later he was delighted when [Douglas] Cooper and I told him that we had come upon this sculpture in a collection that also included the original plaster of his Cubist head. Has it been a revelation, like Iberian sculpture? Picasso's shrug was grudgingly affirmative. He was always loath to admit Gauguin's role in setting him on the road to primitivism.
=== African and Iberian art ===
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Europe's colonization of Africa led to many economic, social, political, and even artistic encounters. From these encounters, Western visual artists became increasingly interested in the unique forms of African art, particularly masks from the Niger-Congo region. In an essay by Dennis Duerden, author of African Art (1968), The Invisible Present (1972), and a former director of the BBC World Service, the mask is defined as "very often a complete head-dress and not just that part that conceals the face". This form of visual art and image appealed to Western visual artists, leading to what Duerden calls the "discovery" of African art by Western practitioners, including Picasso.
The stylistic sources for the heads of the women and their degree of influence has been much discussed and debated, in particular the influence of African tribal masks, art of Oceania, and pre-Roman Iberian sculptures. The rounded contours of the features of the three women to the left can be related to Iberian sculpture, but not obviously the fragmented planes of the two on the right, which indeed seem influenced by African masks. Lawrence Weschler says that, in many ways, much of the moldering cultural and even scientific ferment that characterized the first decade and a half of the twentieth century and that laid the foundations for much of what we today consider modern can be traced back to ways in which Europe was already wrestling with its bad-faith, often strenuously repressed, knowledge of what it had been doing in Africa. The example of Picasso virtually launching cubism with his 1907 Desmoiselles d'Avignon, in response to the sorts of African masks and other colonial booty he was encountering in Paris's Musee de l'Homme, is obvious.
Private collections and illustrated books featuring African art in this period were also important. While Picasso emphatically denied the influence of African masks on the painting: "African art? Never heard of it!" (L'art nègre? Connais pas!), this is belied by his deep interest in the African sculptures owned by Matisse and his close friend Guiliaume Apollinaire. Since none of the African masks once thought to have influenced Picasso in this painting were available in Paris at the time work was painted, he is thought now to have studied African mask forms in an illustrated volume by anthropologist Leo Frobenius. Primitivism continues in his work during, before and after the painting of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, from spring 1906 through the spring of 1907. Influences from ancient Iberian sculpture are also important. Some Iberian reliefs from Osuna, then only recently excavated, were on display in the Louvre from 1904. Archaic Greek sculpture has also been claimed as an influence.
Contentions about the influence of African sculpture were fueled in 1939 when Alfred Barr said the primitivism of the Demoiselles derived from the art of Côte d'Ivoire and the French Congo. Picasso subsequently insisted his catalogue raissonne's editor Christian Zervos publish a disclaimer in which Picasso certified that he was not aware of African art until after Demoiselles was completed, but that he had instead drawn from Iberian art he had seen a year or so earlier, in particular from the Louvre's Osuna reliefs. Contradictingly, in 1944 Picasso recounted seeing African art and being greatly moved by it during Demoiselles' creation, adding that the experience was revelatory and a pivotal moment in the painting's formulation. To Andre Malraux he said the revelations of African sculpture came to him from visiting to the Ethnographic Museum of the Trocadero. As Picasso recalled, "When I went to the Trocadero, it was disgusting. The flea market, the smell. I was all alone. I wanted to get away, but I didn't leave. I stayed, I stayed. I understood that it was very important. Something was happening to me, right. The masks weren't like any other pieces of sculpture, not at all. They were magic things." Maurice de Vlaminck is often credited with introducing Picasso to African sculpture of Fang extraction in 1904.
Picasso biographer John Richardson recounts in A Life of Picasso, The Cubist Rebel 1907–1916 art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's recollection of his first visit to Picasso's studio in July 1907. Kahnweiler remembers seeing "dusty stacks of canvases" in Picasso's studio and "African sculptures of majestic severity". Richardson comments: "so much for Picasso's story that he was not yet aware of Tribal art.'" A photograph of Picasso in his studio surrounded by African sculptures c.1908, is found on page 27 of that same volume.
Suzanne Preston Blier says that, like Gauguin and several other artists in this era, Picasso used illustrated books for many of his preliminary studies for this painting. In addition to the Frobenius book, his sources included a 1906 publication of a twelfth-century Medieval art manuscript on architectural sculpture by Villiard de Honnecourt and a book by Carl Heinrich Stratz of pseudo-pornography showing photos and drawings of women from around the world organized to evoke ideas of human origins and evolution. Blier suggests that this helps account for the diversity of styles Picasso employed in his image-filled sketchbooks for this painting. These books, and other sources such as cartoons, Blier writes, also offer hints as to the larger meaning of this painting.
=== Mathematics ===
Maurice Princet, a French mathematician and actuary, played a role in the birth of Cubism as an associate of Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Jean Metzinger, Robert Delaunay, Juan Gris and later Marcel Duchamp. Princet became known as "le mathématicien du cubisme" ("the mathematician of cubism").
Princet is credited with introducing the work of Henri Poincaré and the concept of the "fourth dimension" to artists at the Bateau-Lavoir. Princet brought to the attention of Picasso, Metzinger and others, a book by Esprit Jouffret, Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions (Elementary Treatise on the Geometry of Four Dimensions, 1903), a popularization of Poincaré's Science and Hypothesis in which Jouffret described hypercubes and other complex polyhedra in four dimensions and projected them onto the two-dimensional surface. Picasso's sketchbooks for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon illustrate Jouffret's influence on the artist's work.
== Impact ==
Although Les Demoiselles had an enormous and profound influence on modern art, its impact was not immediate, and the painting stayed in Picasso's studio for many years. At first, only Picasso's intimate circle of artists, dealers, collectors and friends were aware of the work. Soon after the late summer of 1907, Picasso and his long-time lover Fernande Olivier (1881–1966) separated. The re-painting of the two heads on the far right of Les Demoiselles fueled speculation that it was an indication of the split between Picasso and Olivier. Although they later reunited for a period, the relationship ended in 1912.
A photograph of the Les Demoiselles was first published in an article by Gelett Burgess entitled "The Wild Men of Paris, Matisse, Picasso and Les Fauves", The Architectural Record, May 1910.
Les Demoiselles would not be exhibited until 1916, and not widely recognized as a revolutionary achievement until the early 1920s, when André Breton (1896–1966) published the work. The painting was reproduced again in Cahiers d'art (1927), within an article dedicated to African art.
Richardson goes on to say that Matisse was irate upon seeing the Demoiselles at Picasso's studio. He let it be known that he regarded the painting as an attempt to ridicule the modern movement; he was outraged to find his sensational Blue Nude, not to speak of Bonheur de vivre, overtaken by Picasso's "hideous" whores. He vowed to get even and make Picasso beg for mercy. Just as the Bonheur de vivre had fueled Picasso's competitiveness, Les Demoiselles now fueled Matisse's.
Among Picasso's closed circle of friends and colleagues there was a mixture of opinions about Les Demoiselles. Georges Braque and André Derain were both initially troubled by it although they were supportive of Picasso. According to William Rubin, two of Picasso's friends, the art critic André Salmon and the painter Ardengo Soffici (1879–1964), were enthusiastic about it while Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) was not. Both the art dealer-collector Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947), and Kahnweiler were more enthusiastic about the painting however.
According to Kahnweiler Les Demoiselles was the beginning of Cubism. He writes:
Early in 1907 Picasso began a strange large painting depicting women, fruit and drapery, which he left unfinished. It cannot be called other than unfinished, even though it represents a long period of work. Begun in the spirit of the works of 1906, it contains in one section the endeavors of 1907 and thus never constitutes a unified whole.
The nudes, with large, quiet eyes, stand rigid, like mannequins. Their stiff, round bodies are flesh-colored, black and white. That is the style of 1906.
In the foreground, however, alien to the style of the rest of the painting, appear a crouching figure and a bowl of fruit. These forms are drawn angularly, not roundly modeled in chiaroscuro. The colors are luscious blue, strident yellow, next to pure black and white. This is the beginning of Cubism, the first upsurge, a desperate titanic clash with all of the problems at once.
== Public view and title ==
From 16 to 31 July 1916 Les Demoiselles was exhibited to the public for the first time at the Salon d'Antin, an exhibition organized by André Salmon titled L'Art moderne en France. The exhibition space at 26 rue d'Antin was lent by the famous couturier and art collector Paul Poiret. The larger Salon d'Automne and Salon des Indépendants had been closed due to World War I, making this the only Cubists' exhibition in France since 1914. On 23 July 1916 a review was published in Le Cri de Paris:
The Cubists are not waiting for the war to end to recommence hostilities against good sense. They are exhibiting at the Galerie Poiret naked women whose scattered parts are represented in all four corners of the canvas: here an eye, there an ear, over there a hand, a foot on top, a mouth below. M. Picasso, their leader, is possibly the least disheveled of the lot. He has painted, or rather daubed, five women who are, if the truth be told, all hacked up, and yet their limbs somehow manage to hold together. They have, moreover, piggish faces with eyes wandering negligently above their ears. An enthusiastic art-lover offered the artist 20,000 francs for this masterpiece. M. Picasso wanted more. The art-lover did not insist.
Picasso referred to his only entry at the Salon d'Antin as his Brothel painting calling it Le Bordel d'Avignon but André Salmon who had originally labeled the work, Le Bordel Philosophique, retitled it Les Demoiselles d'Avignon so as to lessen its scandalous impact on the public. Picasso never liked the title, however, preferring "las chicas de Avignon", but Salmon's title stuck. Leo Steinberg labels his essays on the painting after its original title. According to Suzanne Preston Blier, the word bordel in the painting's title, rather than evoking a house of prostitution (une maison close) instead more accurately references in French a complex situation or mess. This painting, Blier says, explores not prostitution per se, but instead sex and motherhood more generally, along with the complexities of evolution in the colonial multi-racial world. The name Avignon, scholars argue, not only references the street where Picasso once bought his paint supplies (which had a few brothels), but also the home of Max Jacob's grandmother, whom Picasso jocularly identifies as one of the painting's diverse modern day subjects.
The only other time the painting might have been exhibited to the public prior to a 1937 showing in New York was in 1918, in an exhibition dedicated to Picasso and Matisse at Galerie Paul Guillaume in Paris, though very little information exists about this exhibition or the presence (if at all) of Les Demoiselles.
Afterwards, the painting was rolled up and remained with Picasso until 1924 when, with urging and help from Breton and Louis Aragon (1897–1982), he sold it to designer Jacques Doucet (1853–1929), for 25,000 francs.
Between September 1984 and January 1985, Les Demoiselles was displayed in an exhibition entitled "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The exhibition displayed modern pieces by artists such as Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin and Pablo Picasso alongside artifacts from tribal groups from Africa, Oceania and North America in order to reveal how modern artists have interpreted tribal art. The display of this painting among African tribal masks was intended to correlate the masks as the inspiration for the features Picasso painted on the women in Les Demoiselles.
The exhibition's catalogue states that the pejorative ethnographic and political connotations of 'primitivism' were not the lens of the exhibition's curation. Nevertheless, the exhibition was controversial, as some critics believed it exemplified western intrigue with the 'different' and the harmful notion that Western culture is the modern and 'ideal' future. The museum's attempt to remove the implication of the title's vocabulary was critiqued as false innocence by critics who said the exhibition framed tribal culture as foreign and 'different' symbolism and treated tribal objects solely a part of history whose only modern purpose is to serve artistic interpretation.
== Interpretation ==
Picasso drew each of the figures in Les Demoiselles differently. The woman pulling the curtain on the upper right is rendered with heavy paint. Composed of sharp geometric shapes, her head is the most strictly Cubist of all five. The curtain seems to blend partially into her body. The Cubist head of the crouching figure (lower right) underwent at least two revisions from an Iberian figure to its current state. She also seems to have been drawn from two different perspectives at once, creating a confusing, twisted figure. The woman above her is rather manly, with a dark face and square chest. The whole picture is in a two-dimensional style, with an abandoned perspective.
Much of the critical debate that has taken place over the years centers on attempting to account for this multiplicity of styles within the work. The dominant understanding for over five decades, espoused most notably by Alfred Barr, the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and organizer of major career retrospectives for the artist, has been that it can be interpreted as evidence of a transitional period in Picasso's art, an effort to connect his earlier work to Cubism, the style he would help invent and develop over the next five or six years. Suzanne Preston Blier says that the divergent styles of the painting were added intentionally to convey to each women art "style" attributes from the five geographic areas each woman represents.
Art critic John Berger, in his controversial 1965 biography The Success and Failure of Picasso, interprets Les Demoiselles d'Avignon as the provocation that led to Cubism:
Blunted by the insolence of so much recent art, we probably tend to underestimate the brutality of the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. All his friends who saw it in his studio were at first shocked by it. And it was meant to shock...
A brothel may not in itself be shocking. But women painted without charm or sadness, without irony or social comment, women painted like the palings of a stockade through eyes that look out as if at death – that is shocking. And equally the method of painting. Picasso himself has said that he was influenced at the time by archaic Spanish (Iberian) sculpture. He was also influenced – particularly in the two heads at the right – by African masks...here it seems that Picasso's quotations are simple, direct, and emotional. He is not in the least concerned with formal problems. The dislocations in this picture are the result of aggression, not aesthetics; it is the nearest you can get in a painting to an outrage...
I emphasize the violent and iconoclastic aspect of this painting because it is usually enshrined as the great formal exercise which was the starting point of Cubism. It was the starting point of Cubism, in so far as it prompted Braque to begin painting at the end of the year his own far more formal answer to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon...yet if he had been left to himself, this picture would never have led Picasso to Cubism or to any way of painting remotely resembling it...It has nothing to do with that twentieth-century vision of the future which was the essence of Cubism.
Yet it did provoke the beginning of the great period of exception in Picasso's life. Nobody can know exactly how the change began inside Picasso. We can only note the results. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, unlike any previous painting by Picasso, offers no evidence of skill. On the contrary, it is clumsy, overworked, unfinished. It is as though his fury in painting it was so great that it destroyed his gifts...
By painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon Picasso provoked Cubism. It was the spontaneous and, as always, primitive insurrection out of which, for good historical reasons, the revolution of Cubism developed.
Art historian and professor Anna C. Chave agrees with Berger that Les Demoiselles d'Avignon can be taken as the catalyst for the style of Cubism in her 1994 article, New Encounters with Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of Cubism. Chave also gives an interesting new perspective on the piece in her article, that of a woman, which stands in stark contrast to the numerous other reviews of the painting provided by men. Additionally, her article focuses not only on the work itself but also on the critiques and assessments of it that have emerged in the decades since it was initially displayed, prompting readers to think deeply about what reactions to the painting say about viewers and society at large.
In 1972, art critic Leo Steinberg in his essay The Philosophical Brothel posited a wholly different explanation for the wide range of stylistic attributes. Using the earlier sketches—which had been ignored by most critics—he argued that far from evidence of an artist undergoing a rapid stylistic metamorphosis, the variety of styles can be read as a deliberate attempt, a careful plan, to capture the gaze of the viewer. He notes that the five women all seem eerily disconnected, indeed wholly unaware of each other. Rather, they focus solely on the viewer, their divergent styles only furthering the intensity of their glare.
The earliest sketches feature two men inside the brothel; a sailor and a medical student (who was often depicted holding either a book or a skull, causing Barr and others to read the painting as a memento mori, a reminder of death). A trace of their presence at a table in the center remains: the jutting edge of a table near the bottom of the canvas. The viewer, Steinberg says, has come to replace the sitting men, forced to confront the gaze of prostitutes head on, invoking readings far more complex than a simple allegory or the autobiographical reading that attempts to understand the work in relation to Picasso's own history with women. A world of meanings then becomes possible, suggesting the work as a meditation on the danger of sex, the "trauma of the gaze" (to use a phrase of Rosalind Krauss's invention), and the threat of violence inherent in the scene and sexual relations at large.
According to Steinberg, the reversed gaze, that is, the fact that the figures look directly at the viewer, as well as the idea of the self-possessed woman, no longer there solely for the pleasure of the male gaze, may be traced back to Manet's Olympia of 1863. William Rubin (1927–2006), the former director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA wrote that "Steinberg was the first writer to come to grips with the sexual subject of the Demoiselles."
A few years after writing The Philosophical Brothel, Steinberg wrote further about the revolutionary nature of Les Demoiselles:
Picasso was resolved to undo the continuities of form and field which Western art had so long taken for granted. The famous stylistic rupture at right turned out to be merely a consummation. Overnight, the contrived coherences of representational art - the feigned unities of time and place, the stylistic consistencies - all were declared to be fictional. The Demoiselles confessed itself a picture conceived in duration and delivered in spasms. In this one work Picasso discovered that the demands of discontinuity could be met on multiple levels: by cleaving depicted flesh; by elision of limbs and abbreviation; by slashing the web of connecting space; by abrupt changes of vantage; and by a sudden stylistic shift at the climax. Finally, the insistent staccato of the presentation was found to intensify the picture's address and symbolic charge: the beholder, instead of observing a roomfuI of lazing whores, is targeted from all sides. So far from suppressing the subject, the mode of organization heightens its flagrant eroticism.
At the end of the first volume of his four volume Picasso biography: A Life Of Picasso. The Prodigy, 1881–1906, John Richardson comments on Les Demoiselles. Richardson says:
It is at this point, the beginning of 1907, that I propose to bring this first volume to an end. The 25-year-old Picasso is about to conjure up a quintet of Dionysiac Demoiselles on his huge new canvas. The execution of this painting would make a dramatic climax to these pages. However, it would imply that Picasso's great revolutionary work constitutes a conclusion to all that has gone before. It does not. For all that the Demoiselles is rooted in Picasso's past, not to speak of such precursors as the Iron Age Iberians, El Greco, Gauguin and Cézanne, it is essentially a beginning: the most innovative painting since Giotto. As we will see in the next volume, it established a new pictorial syntax; it enabled people to perceive things with new eyes, new minds, new awareness. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is the first unequivocally 20th-century masterpiece, a principal detonator of the modern movement, the cornerstone of 20th-century art. For Picasso it would also be a rite of passage: what he called an exorcism.' It cleared the way for cubism. It likewise banished the artist's demons. Later, these demons would return and require further exorcism. For the next decade, however, Picasso would feel as free and creative and 'as overworked' as God.
Suzanne Preston Blier addresses the history and meaning of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in a 2019 book in a different way, one that draws on her African art expertise and an array of newly discovered sources she unearthed. Blier addresses the painting not as a simple bordello scene but as Picasso's interpretation of the diversity of women from around the world that Picasso encountered in part through photographs and sculptures seen in illustrated books. These representations, Blier argues, are central to understanding the painting's creation and help identify the demoiselles as global figures – mothers, grandmothers, lovers, and sisters, living the colonial world Picasso inhabited. She says that Picasso has reunited these diverse women together in this strange cave-like (and womb-resembling) setting as a kind of global "time machine" – each woman referencing a different era, place of origins, and concomitant artistic style, as part of the broader "ages of man" theme important to the new century, in which core themes of evolution took on an increasingly important role. The two men (a sailor and a doctor) depicted in some of the painting's earlier preparatory drawings, Blier suggests, likely represent the male authors of two of the illustrated books that Picasso employed – the anthropologist Leo Frobenius as sailor, one travels the world to. explore various ports of call and the Vienna medical doctor, Karl Heinrich Stratz who holds a human skull or book consistent with the detailed anatomical studies that he provides.
Blier is able to date the painting to late March 1907 directly following the opening of the Salon des Independents where Matisse and Derain had exhibited their own bold, emotionally charged "origins"-themed tableaux. The large scale of the canvas, Blier says, complements the important scientific and historical theme. The reunion of the mothers of each "race" within this human evolutionary framework, Blier maintains, also constitutes the larger "philosophy" behind the painting's original le bordel philosophique title – evoking the potent "mess" and "complex situation" (le bordel) that Picasso was exploring in this work. In contrast to Leo Steinberg and William Rubin who argued that Picasso had effaced the two right hand demoiselles to repaint their faces with African masks in response to a crisis stemming from larger fears of death or women, an early photograph of the painting in Picasso's studio, Blier shows, indicates that the artist had portrayed African masks on these women from the outset consistent with their identities as progenitors of these races. Blier argues that the painting was largely completed in a single night following a debate about philosophy with friends at a local Paris brasserie.
== Purchase ==
Jacques Doucet had seen the painting at the Salon d'Antin, yet remarkably seems to have purchased Les Demoiselles without asking Picasso to unroll it in his studio so that he could see it again. André Breton later described the transaction:
I remember the day he bought the painting from Picasso, who strange as it may seem, appeared to be intimidated by Doucet and even offered no resistance when the price was set at 25,000 francs: "Well then, it's agreed, M. Picasso." Doucet then said: "You shall receive 2,000 francs per month, beginning next month, until the sum of 25,000 francs is reached.
John Richardson quotes Breton in a letter to Doucet about Les Demoiselles writing:
through it one penetrates right into the core of Picasso's laboratory and because it is the crux of the drama, the center of all the conflicts that Picasso has given rise to and that will last forever....It is a work which to my mind transcends painting; it is the theater of everything that has happened in the last 50 years.
Ultimately, it seems Doucet paid 30,000 francs rather than the agreed price. A few months after the purchase Doucet had the painting appraised at between 250,000 and 300,000 francs. Richardson speculates that Picasso, who by 1924 was on the top of the art world and did not need to sell the painting to Doucet, did so and at that low price because Doucet promised Les Demoiselles would go to the Louvre in his will. However, after Doucet died in 1929 he did not leave the painting to the Louvre in his will, and it was sold like most of Doucet's collection through private dealers.
In November 1937 the Jacques Seligman & Co. art gallery in New York City held an exhibition titled "20 Years in the Evolution of Picasso, 1903–1923" that included Les Demoiselles. The Museum of Modern Art acquired the painting for $24,000. The museum raised $18,000 toward the purchase price by selling a Degas painting and the rest came from donations from the co-owners of the gallery Germain Seligman and Cesar de Hauke.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted an important Picasso exhibition on 15 November 1939 that remained on view until 7 January 1940. The exhibition, entitled Picasso: 40 Years of His Art, was organized by Alfred H. Barr (1902–1981), in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition contained 344 works, including the major 1937 painting Guernica and its studies, as well as Les Demoiselles.
== Legacy ==
In July 2007, Newsweek published a two-page article about Les Demoiselles d'Avignon describing it as the "most influential work of art of the last 100 years". Art critic Holland Cotter argued that Picasso "changed history with this work. He'd replaced the benign ideal of the Classical nude with a new race of sexually armed and dangerous beings."
The painting is prominently featured in the 1993 Steve Martin play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, about a fictional meeting of the young Picasso and Albert Einstein in a Paris cafe, and in the 2018 season of the television series Genius, which focuses on Picasso's life and work.
== Painting materials ==
In 2003, an examination of the painting by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy performed by conservators at the Museum of Modern Art confirmed the presence of the following pigments: lead white, bone black, vermilion, cadmium yellow, cobalt blue, emerald green, and native earth pigments (such as brown ochre) that contain iron.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in the MoMA Online Collection
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon Conserving A Modern Masterpiece
Julia Frey, Anatomy of a Masterpiece, New York Times Review of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon By William Rubin, Helene Seckel and Judith Cousins
Gelett Burgess, The Wild Men of Paris, Matisse, Picasso and Les Fauves, 1910 (PDF)
Pablo Picasso, 1907, Five Nudes (Study for "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"), watercolor on wove paper, 17.5 x 22.5 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_law_in_Saudi_Arabia | Contract law in Saudi Arabia | Contract law in Saudi Arabia is governed by the conservative Wahhabi movement of Sharia law, which adopts a fundamentalist and literal interpretation of the Quran. Any contract that is not specifically prohibited under Sharia law is legally binding, with no discrimination against foreigners or non-Muslims.
The Wahhabis are the most liberal among the Sunnis with respect to the freedom of persons to contract. However, the degree of freedom of contract is governed by the prohibitions in the Quran, and two distinctive doctrines in Sharia law: riba (usury) and gharar (speculation).
Unlike other Sharia law jurisdictions, Sharia law remains uncodified in Saudi Arabia due to the strong literalist view of Wahhabism. There is also no established case reporting in the courts. This has led to much uncertainty and variation in court decisions. Despite being the world's 11th easiest economy to do business in, Saudi Arabia ranks 140th out of 183 economies in terms of enforcement of contracts. (see below: Appendix)
In 2007, King Abdullah initiated legal reforms to modernise the courts and codify Sharia law in Saudi Arabia. The ulama, the religious body, approved a codification of Sharia law in 2010, and a sourcebook of legal principles and precedents was published on January 3, 2018. (see below: Legal Reform)
== Sources of law in Saudi Arabia ==
Saudi Arabia is principally governed by Sharia Law, with royal decrees playing a complementary role.
=== Four sources of Sharia law ===
The Wahhabis acknowledges the following sources of law:
The Quran is a sacred book which contains the divine revelations made to Muhammad by God and is the foundation for Sharia law. Much of the Quran does deal with legal matters, but instead, sets out the goals and aspirations of Muslims, and the general accepted conduct and way of living.
The Sunna (meaning "habitual practice" or "trodden path") is the other primary source of law. It contains the explanations of the Quran and records the sayings, deeds, and approved practices of Muhammad.
Ijma (consensus) is a secondary source of law. There are however, conflicting interpretations as to the meaning of consensus. The Wahhabis prevailing in Saudi Arabia asserts that a legally binding consensus only arises from agreement of Muhammad and his Companions, and not the universal agreement of Muslim authorities today.
Qiyas (reasoning by analogy) is another secondary source of law. Forms of analytical reasoning are categorised as law.
Both ijmas and qiyas constitute fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence based upon scholar opinions amassed over the years.
=== Regulations (lai'hah) and ordinances (nizma) ===
Ordinances (nizam), consisting of royal decrees which address modern legal issues and bureaucratic matters, is another source of law. These royal decrees by the King supplement fiqh. Royal decrees are considered subordinate to Sharia law as only religious law is considered "law" under Sharia law. The courts will apply fiqh over nizam if the legal issue is already considered in Sharia law, or if nizam conflicts with Sharia law.
Other forms of regulations (lai'hah) including Royal Orders, Council of Ministers Resolutions, Ministerial Resolutions and, Ministerial Circulars, are likewise subordinate to Sharia law. While contract law is generally governed under Sharia law, many areas of modern business and commercial activities are not considered under Sharia law and are hence governed by the applicable regulations.
Saudi Arabia also abides by international treaties, which are approved by royal decree. One such example is Royal Decree No.11, dated 16 Rajab 1414, corresponding to 30 December 1993, which declared Saudi Arabia's ascension to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
== Formation of contract ==
A contract of sale (bay’) can be concluded for the exchange of anything regarded as a commodity or property (mal). However, there are certain things that are not included as mal under Sharia and therefore cannot be the subject of a sale. These include: pigs, alcohol, and animals not ritually slaughtered. In accordance to the Quran, there are two exceptions to contract formation: the taking of interest (riba), and the use of speculative contracts.
The rules on conclusion of the contract of sale are stricter than the rules in most modern legal systems. Conclusion of the contract must take place at the same transaction as offer and acceptance. Furthermore, there is a right of withdrawal of the offer even after acceptance.
At common law, auctions, advertisements, displays of goods on shelves, tenders and the like are treated as mere invitations to create an offer. In contrast, Sharia law recognises these as valid offers (Ijab) which, upon being accepted (Qabul), will become binding by law upon the parties involved in the transaction.
Generally, a statement with the description and price of goods constitutes an offer, and a display of goods with the price similarly is an offer. However, advertisers can specify that the advertisement is only an invitation to treat.
=== Offer and acceptance ===
Like the common law, offer and acceptance are among the vital ingredients of a contract in Islamic law. An offer is a proposal, which leads to an agreement when there is an acceptance of the offer. If there is an acceptance, the offeror is bound by law to perform his promise. The offeror has no right to revoke his offer after its acceptance and he must be prepared to complete his promised accordingly.
A statement of an offer has to be made in the past tense (Sighatul-Madhi) to be constituted as a valid offer in Sharia law. Making the statement in past tense signifies the seller's intention of making a valid offer which is capable of being accepted by the buyer. Once the offer has been accepted, the seller has no right to revoke his offer. If he does revoke his offer, it will be considered a breach of promise on his behalf, which is a great sin in Islam as it encourages rivalry and mischief among the people.
Unlike common law, Saudi Arabian law requires acceptance to be made before the parties attempting to contract physically part.
Certain terms must also be stated for a Saudi Arabian contract to be enforceable. These include: the items involved, quantity, price, parties and how payment will be made.
=== Consideration ===
The concept of consideration implies the bargain, or value given in return for value received. Islamic law, unlike common law, does not require consideration. A contract in Saudi Arabia is a bond between the parties and God, hence, the element of consideration is deemed superfluous.
=== Defects of consent and vitiating factors ===
Similar to common law, defects of consent will prevent the formation of a valid agreement.
== Limitations on enforceability of contracts ==
Not all contractual arrangements are condoned in Sharia law. Unless a term is positively allowed by revelation ("in the book of God"), it is invalid.
Classical Sharia law rarely discusses the idea of contractual freedom outside the standard contract types. Instead, it provides for situation where standard contracts can be altered or combined. There are specific prohibitions raised by other hadiths, some important ones prohibiting a loan and a sale, two sales in one, and a sale of what one does not have.
Stipulations are divided into three types:
If the court finds stipulation a void, the contract itself may or may not be void- results vary casuistically.
In particular, concomitant stipulations that coincide with or contradict an entailment of the contract, such as a stipulation that a buyer must never resell the object, are forbidden.
Combinations of contracts conditioned on each other are open to many objections, because they confuse the price of the individual contracts and obstruct meting out fair remedies for breach, thereby opening a door to riba and gharar. There are two major types of contracts that are prohibited in Islamic law: contracts involving usury or uncertainty.
=== Usury (riba) ===
The Quran forbids riba in the strongest terms. Riba is an unjustified enrichment and the principle encompasses a total ban on the charging of interest.
Usurious transactions were classified into three classes:
Riba al-fadl and riba al-nasi'a apply to the exchange of two precious metals (gold or silver) and four commodities (wheat, barley, dates and salt), based on Muhammad's tradition. It was further extended by analogy to the products of these six articles if their present or future exchange could have the smell or taint of riba. Islamic law did not permit exchange of unequal values of these articles and by analogy to a variety of their products. These articles happened to be the basic necessities of life and were a convenient means of exploitation. Promises for future performance were forbidden if goods comprised these articles as the transactions were suspected to contain riba.
The interpretation of riba has continued to be revised under the changing economic setting. By the turn of the century, the leading Islamic scholars Abduh and Rida held the view that riba al-Jahilya was forbidden but it could be deemed lawful under extreme necessity, and that riba al-fadl and riba al nasi'a are under a rebuttable presumption of prohibition.
The ban against interest rates has been circumvented by both parties pretending that a greater amount was lent or that the difference between loan and debt is actually a commission rate.
=== Speculation (Gharar) ===
Gambling is another type of transaction condemned in the Quran.
Intoxicants, games of chance [maysir], [worship of] idols, and [divination by] arrows are but an abomination, Satan's handiwork...
The Sunna takes this prohibition much further; it not only condemns gambling but also sales of gharar (peril, risk or hazard).
The Messenger of God forbade the 'sale of the pebble' [hash, sale of an object chosen or determined by the throwing of a pebble] and the sale of gharar.
Besides this, other transactions that are conditioned on uncertain events are also prohibited. Lack of knowledge about the existence or nonexistence of the subject matter, or concerning its quality, quantity, or date of performance, was held to trigger gharar. The ongoing refinement of the doctrine has been narrowed down to the presence or absence of uncertainty about future performance and not to the existence or non-existence of the subject matter at the time of contract. If the nonexistent article or subject matter is certain to be delivered or performed at a future date the prohibition of gharar does not apply.
== Remedies for breach of contract ==
Rescission is allowed under specific circumstances, such as when the seller fails to perform; the merchandise is defective or the quantity incorrect; the quality of service inferior; or when unforeseen circumstances prevent the completion of the contract.
In accordance with Islamic law, remedies for contract are restricted to direct and actual damages. The courts will not recognize economic loss of chance, interest, potential profits and other speculative awards that normally might be given. Specific performance and injunctive relief are likewise generally unavailable.
Saudi Courts also preclude consequential damages based on anticipated profits. As such, contracts involving relationships over time such as continuous supply of goods will not attract full liability if wrongfully terminated. Courts would only award reparations for immediate damages.
Islamic law fixes the relationship of contracting parties to any object involved in the contract as to liability for loss or damage. A party holds the object either as a 'trustee' (amin) or as a 'guarantor' (damin). A trustee is not liable at all for injury to the object, unless shown to be in breach of trust. A damin, however, bears the same risk of loss as an owner. If an object is destroyed through an act of God or force majeure, the guarantor has no recourse.
== Procedures and prerequisites of contract enforcement ==
Enforcing of a contract consists of three main stages:
=== Filing and service ===
The plaintiff is to ask the defendant for compliance with the contract before filing his summons with the court. Before admitting a plaintiff's summons, a judge will examine it for formal requirements. The summons will be then delivered to a summoning officer for service of process on defendant.
=== Trial and judgment ===
The defendant files a written defense in answer to the plaintiff's claim. The judge will then set a deadline for the plaintiff to answer the defendant's answer with a written pleading. A pre-trial conference will be held where the judge will discuss procedural issues with the parties. At trial, merits of the case will be argued, and cross examination of witnesses, if any, will take place. After receiving the judgment, the plaintiff is to formally notify the defendant of the judgment. The defendant will then be given a choice to appeal before a certain deadline.
=== Enforcement ===
The plaintiff approaches a court enforcement office or private bailiff to request for an enforcement order. The defendant will be requested to voluntarily comply with the judgment. For contracted debt, the judge will call for a public auction for the property to be sold after the attachment of the defendant's movable goods. The proceeds of the public auction are distributed to various creditors according to rules of priority.
== Foreign law contracts ==
Foreign law contracts are generally enforceable so long as they conform to Sharia law. Thus contracts deemed to be usury or dealing with gambling or risk would not be enforceable. Courts and judicial committees in Saudi Arabia also do not recognise the doctrine of conflict of laws. Hence any action based on a foreign law contract can be submitted to the courts even if there are express choice of law provisions.
=== Enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards ===
The Board of Grievances, a statutory tribunal separate from the Sharia courts, is empowered to hear requests for the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards. Article 6 of the Rules of Pleadings and Procedures of the Grievances Board provides that an applicant seeking to enforce foreign judgments or arbitral awards must prove that:
the judgment or award is not contrary to Sharia law or public policy; and
the applicant proves reciprocity of enforcement ie that a Saudi judgment or award would be accepted and enforced in the applicant's country.
Firstly, the judgment or award must not be contrary to Sharia law or public policy; it must not offend the Sharia principles of riba and gharar. Judgments or awards involving conventional insurance, speculative loss of chance, interest and potential profits would not be recognized.
The applicant must also show that a judgment or award by the Saudi Courts would be reciprocally enforced in the applicant's country. In the past, the Board has declined to accept a legal opinion by a foreign lawyer or a letter from the UK government stating that foreign judgments would generally be enforced in the UK. This second requirement applies in the absence of any bilateral or multilateral agreement relating to the reciprocal enforcement of decisions. Despite being a signatory to regional reciprocity agreements and an international convention on the enforcement of arbitral awards, the decision to enforce such foreign judgements or awards is subject to compliance with Sharia law and public policy.
== Legal reform ==
King Abdullah succeeded to the throne in 2005 and since then has implemented various reforms in Saudi Arabia with the aim of modernizing the legal system to improve investor confidence.
The King enacted the Law of Judiciary in 2007 to restructure the judicial system and proposed a codification of unwritten Sharia regulations and principles to ensure certainty and uniformity of judicial decisions. In 2009, the King removed the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council as the ultraconservative cleric was impeding the king's proposed restructuring of the court system. The unseated cleric was also known to oppose codification of Sharia law.
In 2010, the top religious body in Saudi Arabia gave the green light for codification of Sharia law. Nonetheless, it has been commented that such legal reforms will take a considerable period of time to be fully implemented due to lack of well-trained judges and lawyers and the ulama's resistance to modernisation and change.
== Appendix ==
Ease of enforcing contracts among the world's top 15 "easiest to doing business" economies compared (2010 World Bank Data)
== See also ==
Basic Law of Saudi Arabia
Hanafi
Islamic schools and branches
Maliki
Saudi Arabia
Shafi`i
Sources of Islamic law
Sunni
== Notes ==
== References ==
H. Gibb and K. Kramer, Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam 57 ed. 1961
Frank E. Vogel and Samuel L. Hayes (2006), Islamic Law and Finance Religion Risk and Return, Koninklijke Brill NV
Carol Lee Childress (1990), "Saudi-Arabian Contract Law: A Comparative Perspective", St. Thomas L. F.: 70
Mohd Ma'sum Billah (2007), Applied Islamic Law of Trade and Finance, A Selection of Contemporary Practical Issues, Third Edition, Sweet & Maxwell Asia.
N.A. Saleh, Unlawful Gain & Legitimate Profit in Islamic Law, 12-13 (1986).
== Further reading ==
Otto, Jan Michiel (2010). Sharia Incorporated: A Comparative Overview of the Legal Systems of Twelve Muslim Countries in Past and Present. p. 167. ISBN 978-90-8728-057-4.
Kourides, P. Nicholas (1970), "Influence of Islamic Law on Contemporary Middle Eastern Legal Systems: The Formation and Binding Force of Contracts", Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 9.
H. Patrick Glenn (2007), Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law, United States: Oxford University Press.
Seaman, Bryant W (1979–1980), "Islamic Law and Modern Government: Saudi Arabia Supplements the Shari'a to Regulate Development", Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 18.
Gayle E. Hanlon (2009), "International Business Negotiations in Saudi Arabia", in James R Silkenat, Jeffrey M. Aresty & Jacqueline Klosek eds., The ABA Guide to International Business Negotiations, Chicago, Illinois: American Bar Association, pp. 851–229, para. 918, ISBN 978-1-60442-369-3.
Jeanne Asherman (1982), "Doing Business in Saudi Arabia: The Contemporary Application of Islamic Law", International Lawyer.
M.E. Hamid, "Islamic Law of Contract or Contracts," Journal of Islamic and Comparative Law.
James Dorsey (22 December 2010). "Judicial Reform in Saudi Arabia: A Battle of the Fatwas". World Security Network.
"Tentative steps in Saudi Arabia: The king of Saudi Arabia shows some reformist credentials". The Economist. 17 February 2009.
== External links ==
The Riba-Interest Equation and Islam: Reexamination of the Traditional Arguments by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq.
Islamic Contract Law by Saudilegal.
Saudi Sharia Laws Applied in US Courts
Ministry of Justice, Saudi Arabia |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_World_1958 | Miss World 1958 | Miss World 1958 was the eighth edition of the Miss World pageant, held at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, United Kingdom, on 13 October 1958.
At the conclusion of the event, Charles Eade and Bob Russell crowned Penelope Coelen of South Africa as Miss World 1958. This is the first victory of South Africa and the second victory of Africa in the history of the pageant.
Contestants from twenty countries participated in this year's pageant. The pageant was hosted by Bob Russell.
== Background ==
=== Selection of participants ===
Twenty contestants were selected to compete in the pageant. One contestant was appointed to represent her country in this edition after contracting an illness from the previous edition.
==== Replacements ====
Miss Belgium 1958, Michele Gouthals was scheduled to represent her country in this edition. However, she was unable to participate in the competition because her organization appointed Miss Belgium 1957, Jeanne Chandelle to represent Belgium once again because she contracted the Asian Flu during the Miss World 1957 pageant and only showed up on the day of the coronation.
==== Debuts, returns and withdrawals ====
This edition marked the debut of Brazil, and the returns of Turkey, which last competed in 1953, and Norway last competed in 1954.
Hanni Ehrenstrasser of Austria withdrew after winning Miss Europe 1958, making her ineligible to compete at Miss World. Elisabeth Schubel-Auer was set to replace Ehrenstrasser, but did not push through for undisclosed reasons. Leila Saas of Egypt withdrew for financial reasons. Pirkko Mannola of Finland, Hjördís Sigurvinsdóttir of Iceland, Lydie Schmit of Luxembourg, and Denise Orlando of Tunisia withdrew for undisclosed reasons. Australia withdrew after their organization failed to hold a national competition or appoint a candidate.
Janet Ohene-Agyei Boateng of Ghana was supposed to compete, but withdrew due to financial constraints. Krystyna Żyła of Poland was supposed to compete as well, but was barred by her government from competing. She was eventually found dead in December 1958.
== Results ==
== Pageant ==
=== Format ===
The number of placements in this edition has been reduced to six from seven in the previous edition. The six finalists were selected through a preliminary competition held on the day of the final competition consisting of a swimsuit and an evening gown competition.
=== Selection committee ===
Claude Berr – Member of the Miss Europe committee
Cowan Dobson – Scottish portrait artist
Charles Eade – British newspaper editor; Member of the Council of the British Commonwealth Press Union
Taina Elg – Finnish-American actress
Barbara Goalen – British fashion model
Charles Jacobs – American photographer
Stirling Moss – English Formula One racer
Cynthia Oberholzer – South African model
Oscar Santa Maria – former Brazilian politician
Shakuntala Sharma – Indian Princess and fashion designer
== Contestants ==
Twenty contestants competed for the title.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Miss World official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_League_(Denmark) | Communist League (Denmark) | The Communist League (Danish: Kommunistisk Forbund; KF) was a political party in Denmark. KF was founded on 21 January 1973 in Århus, by the "Leninist Fraction" (a name given to them by their opponents) inside the Left Socialists (VS).
The party maintained between 300 and 350 active members from 1973 until it was dissolved in 1980 when its members rejoined VS.
== History ==
The "Leninist Fraction" had emerged in 1970, following the disillusionment of a faction within VS that wanted a stronger focus on labour struggles. The faction was able to push through a new party programme and win leadership of VS at the fourth VS congress in 1971. VS then plunged into factional infighting. The conflicts reached their peak at the fifth congress in November 1972, after which the faction left VS. In fact, the faction was able to gather a majority of the delegates at the 1972 congress, but in spite of this they opted to leave VS and form a new organization on the grounds that it was not possible to build a militant and revolutionary organization cohabitating with hippies and anti-trade union tendencies. Around 300 VS members followed the faction to found KF, leaving VS with just around 300 members.
The Kommunistisk Forbund was established 21 January 1973 in Aarhus. KF was mainly centered on Aarhus and Aalborg, which had been the main bases of the group that had left VS. In Aarhus it had a base among student activists in the 'Students Front'. The Copenhagen branch of KF was quite weak, however. KF established new branches in Odense and Helsingør, and became the leading force in the revolutionary left in Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense. KF started publishing Vejen til Socialismen in 1976 and Arbejderpolitik in 1977.
In 1975, factional conflicts surged within KF. One section, centered in the university environment in Aarhus, emerged as a group called the "Coffee Club" (Kaffeklubben). It proposed certain renewals of the strategy of KF. Ahead of the 1977 congress, a document, based upon the inputs from the Coffee Club, was approved as a strategic document of KF.
In 1977, about 6% of delegates, based in Copenhagen, formed the splinter group Kommunistisk Forbund - politik (KF-p). Members of KF-p were more closely aligned with Leninism than KF, and differed from the party in their position that the 1917 October Revolution was the basis of communist revolution in Denmark. After departing from KF, KF-p attempted to join VS, but were denied entry on grounds of political disagreements.
In 1980 the party was dissolved and its members rejoined VS. During its existence, KF held seven congresses and various annual summer camps.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghulam_Hassan_Sofi | Ghulam Hassan Sofi | Ghulam Hassan Sofi (1932, Srinagar - 2009, Srinagar) was a singer and harmonium player of traditional music of Kashmir, India.
Sofi began his career from Radio Kashmir, local station of All India Radio, in the early 1950s. He also sang for the station Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar, and for the Cultural Academy, besides being part of the staff in the Song and Drama Division from 1967 to 1994. Sofi, who also performed in other states of India, received the lifetime award from the Union Information Ministry and the Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah award from the State Government in 2006. Sofi sang the lyrics of the noted Kashmiri poets Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor, Abdul Ahad Azad, Wahab Khar, Rasool Mir and Rajab Hamid. His own compositions often dwelt on spiritual and mystical themes.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hum_TV | Hum TV | Hum TV HD is a 24-hour Urdu general entertainment TV channel based in Karachi, Pakistan. It was founded by Sultana Siddiqui and Duraid Qureshi in 2005.
It is owned by Hum Network Limited and traded on the Pakistan Stock Exchange as (HUMNL).
Hum Network Limited was known as Eye Television Network Limited prior to 21 January 2011. Hum TV began its transmission on 17 January 2005. In March 2013, Hum Network held its first Hum Awards ceremony. As of 1 May 2018, Hum TV shut down its SD feed and shifted to HD resolution in Pakistan.
Hum TV is one of Pakistan's biggest entertainment networks and regularly is in the top ranks and maintains a loyal fanbase on social media in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and streaming platforms, as well as on television.
== History ==
The channel's drama series Humsafar, broadcast in 2011–2012, has become the most successful program of the channel to date, earning it widespread acclaim and international recognition. Due to its success, critics referred to Pakistani television as a "Golden Age".
At the 1st Hum Awards ceremony, it was awarded the Hum Honorary Phenomenal Serial Award. Hum TV caters to all genres of entertainment. While HUM caters to urban Pakistan, most dramas on Hum TV at the moment are skewed towards a teen/youth audience, with some other serials being aimed at a more mature urban audience.
== Hum TV's Digital Expansion on YouTube ==
Hum Network, a Pakistani media company, is increasingly relying on its YouTube presence for revenue. Historically a traditional broadcaster, Hum TV has seen its digital income, primarily from its official YouTube channel, grow to become a significant part of its business. The channel boasts over 51 million subscribers and 46 billion views, contributing to a substantial rise in digital revenue. While the recent acquisition of Ten Sports has shifted the overall revenue mix, the growth of YouTube as a revenue stream for Hum Network has been a major trend, highlighting the company's successful adaptation to the digital landscape.
== Former programming ==
=== Anthology ===
=== Comedy and sitcoms ===
=== Prime time series ===
=== Daily series ===
=== Horror and supernatural series ===
=== Miniseries ===
=== Telefilms ===
=== Reality shows ===
=== Award shows ===
=== Dubbed series ===
== Production house ==
=== MD Productions ===
The network television serials are primarily produced under production company Momina Duraid Productions or MD Productions, owned by Momina Duraid wife of Siddiqui's youngest Son Duraid Qureshi and she is also a senior producer at channel.
=== Moomal Entertainment ===
The other Hum TV shows are being produced by Moomal Entertainment owned by Moomal Shunaid, wife of Siddiqui's eldest son Shunaid Siddiqui. Moomal Entertainment was founded in 2014.
== See also ==
Hum Masala
Hum Sitaray
Hum Europe
Hum Films
Hum Award
== Other networks ==
List of Pakistani television series
List of television channels in Pakistan
List of programs broadcast by ARY Digital
List of programs broadcast by Geo Entertainment
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Artificial_Intelligence | Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence | The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence (AI). AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of AI, improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions.
== History ==
The organization was founded in 1979 under the name "American Association for Artificial Intelligence" and changed its name in 2007 to "Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence". It has in excess of 4,000 members worldwide. In its early history, the organization was presided over by notable figures in computer science such as Allen Newell, Edward Feigenbaum, Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy. Since July 2022, Francesca Rossi has been serving as president. She will serve as president until July 2024 when president-elect Stephen Smith will begin his term.
== Conferences and publications ==
The AAAI provides many services to the Artificial Intelligence community. The AAAI sponsors many conferences and symposia each year as well as providing support to 14 journals in the field of artificial intelligence. AAAI produces a quarterly publication, AI Magazine, which seeks to publish significant new research and literature across the entire field of artificial intelligence and to help members to keep abreast of research outside their immediate specialties. The magazine has been published continuously since 1980.
AAAI organises the "AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence", which is considered to be one of the top conferences in the field of artificial intelligence.
== Awards ==
In addition to AAAI Fellowship, the AAAI grants several other awards:
=== ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award ===
The ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award is presented to an individual selected for career contributions that have breadth within computer science, or that bridge computer science and other disciplines. This endowed award is accompanied by a prize of $10,000, and is supported by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and by individual contributions.
Past recipients:
Fred Brooks (1994)
Joshua Lederberg (1995)
Carver Mead (1997)
Saul Amarel (1998)
Nancy Leveson (1999)
Lotfi A. Zadeh (2000)
Ruzena Bajcsy (2001)
Peter Chen (2002)
David Haussler and Judea Pearl (2003)
Richard P. Gabriel (2004)
Jack Minker (2005)
Karen Spärck Jones (2006)
Leonidas Guibas (2007)
Barbara J. Grosz and Joseph Halpern (2008)
Michael I. Jordan (2009)
Takeo Kanade (2010)
Stephanie Forrest (2011)
Moshe Tennenholtz and Yoav Shoham (2012)
Jon Kleinberg (2014)
Eric Horvitz (2015)
Jitendra Malik (2016)
Margaret A. Boden (2017)
Henry Kautz (2018)
Lydia Kavraki and Daphne Koller (2019)
Moshe Y. Vardi and Hector J. Levesque (2020)
Carla Gomes (2021)
Stuart Russell and Bernhard Schölkopf (2022)
David Blei (2023)
Peter Stone (2024)
=== AAAI/EAAI Outstanding Educator Award ===
The annual AAAI/EAAI Outstanding Educator Award was created in 2016 to honor a person (or group of people) who has made major contributions to AI education that provide long-lasting benefits to the AI community.
Past recipients:
Peter Norvig and Stuart Russell (2016)
Sebastian Thrun (2017)
Todd W. Neller (2018)
Ashok Goel (2019)
Marie desJardins (2020)
Michael Wooldridge (2021)
AI4K12.org team: David S. Touretzky, Christina Gardner-McCune, Fred G. Martin, and Deborah Seehorn (2022)
Ayanna Howard (2023)
Michael Littman and Charles Isbell (2024)
Subbarao Kambhampati (2025)
=== AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity ===
The AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity is a $1 million award that recognizes the positive impacts of AI to meaningfully improve, protect, and enhance human life.
== Membership grades ==
=== AAAI Senior Members ===
Senior Member status is designed to recognize AAAI members who have achieved significant accomplishments within the field of artificial intelligence. To be eligible for nomination for Senior Member, candidates must be consecutive members of AAAI for at least five years and have been active in the professional arena for at least ten years. Applications should include information that details the candidate's scholarship, leadership, and/or professional service.
== See also ==
List of artificial intelligence journals
List of computer science awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Environment_Programme#:~:text=In%20December%201972%2C%20the%20UN,first%20head%20of%20UN%20Environment. | United Nations Environment Programme | The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations System. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972. Its mandate is to provide leadership, deliver science and develop solutions on a wide range of issues, including climate change, the management of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and green economic development. The organization also develops international environmental agreements; publishes and promotes environmental science and helps national governments achieve environmental targets.
As a member of the United Nations Development Group, UNEP aims to help the world meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. UNEP hosts the secretariats of several multilateral environmental agreements and research bodies, including The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), The Minamata Convention on Mercury, The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, The Convention on Migratory Species and The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), among others.
In 1988, the World Meteorological Organization and UNEP established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). UNEP is also one of several Implementing Agencies for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. UNEP sometimes uses the alternative name UN Environment. The headquarters of the agency is in Nairobi, Kenya.
== History ==
In the 1970s, the need for environmental governance at a global level was not universally accepted, particularly by developing nations. Some argued that environmental concerns were not a priority for nations in poverty. The leadership of Canadian diplomat Maurice Strong convinced many of the developing nations' governments that they needed to prioritize this issue. In the words of Nigerian professor Adebayo Adedeji: "Mr. Strong, through the sincerity of his advocacy, soon made it clear that all of us, irrespective of the stage of our development, have a large stake in the matter."
After developing organizations such as the International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the Stockholm Conference) was convened. In this conference various topics were discussed such as pollution, marine life, protection of resources, environmental change, and disasters relating to natural and biological change. This conference resulted in a Declaration on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration) and the establishment of an environmental management body, which was later named the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). UNEP was established by General Assembly Resolution 2997. Headquarters were established in Nairobi, Kenya, with a staff of 300, including 100 professionals in a variety of fields, and with a five-year fund of more than US$100 million. At the time, US$40 million were pledged by the United States and the remainder by 50 other nations. The 'Voluntary Indicative Scale of Contribution' established in 2002 has the role to increase the supporters of the UNEP. The finances related to all programs of UNEP is voluntarily contributed by Member states of the United Nations. The Environmental Fund, which all nations of UNEP invest in, is the core source of UNEP's programs. Between 1974 and 1986 UNEP produced more than 200 technical guidelines or manuals on environment including forest and water management, pest control, pollution monitoring, the relationship between chemical use and health, and management of industry.
The location of the headquarters proved to be a major controversy, with developed countries preferring Geneva, where several other UN offices are based, while developing countries preferred Nairobi, as that would be the first international organization headquartered in the Global South. At first, Mexico City, New Delhi, and Cairo were also competing to be the headquarters, but they pulled out to support Nairobi. Many of the developing countries were "not particularly supportive of creating a new formal institution for environmental governance", but supported its creation as an act of "Southern solidarity".
In 2000, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, based in Cambridge and sponsored by IUCN, became part of UNEP.
== Governance ==
=== Executive director ===
In December 1972, the UN General Assembly unanimously elected Maurice Strong to be the first head of UN Environment. He was also secretary-general of both the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and the Earth Summit (1992).
The position was then held for 17 years (1975–1992) by Mostafa Kamal Tolba, who was instrumental in bringing environmental considerations to the forefront of global thinking and action. Under his leadership, UN Environment's most widely acclaimed success—the historic 1987 agreement to protect the ozone layer—the Montreal Protocol was negotiated. He was succeeded by Elizabeth Dowdeswell (1992–1998), Klaus Töpfer (1998–2006), Achim Steiner (2006–2016), and Erik Solheim (2016–2018).
UNEP's acting executive director, Joyce Msuya, took office in November 2018 following the resignation of Erik Solheim. Prior to that appointment, she was UNEP's deputy executive director. Inger Andersen was appointed executive director of UNEP by UN secretary-general António Guterres in February 2019.
=== List of executive directors ===
=== Environment Assembly ===
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is UNEP's governing body. Created in 2012 to replace the Governing Council, it currently has 193 members and meets every two years.
The first session of the assembly took place in Nairobi from 23-27 June 2014.
The sixth session (UNEA-6) took place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 26 February to 1 March 2024, and the seventh session (UNEA-7) is scheduled to take place from 8 to 12 December 2025, also in Nairobi. The theme for UNEA-7 is "Advancing sustainable solutions for a resilient planet".
=== Structure ===
UNEP's structure includes eight divisions:
Science Division: aims to provide scientifically credible environmental assessments and information for sustainable development. It reports on the state of the global environment, assesses policies, and aims to provide an early warning of emerging environmental threats. It is responsible for the monitoring and reporting of the environment regarding the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.
Policy and Programme Division: makes the policy and programme of the UNEP. This division ensures other divisions are coordinated.
Ecosystems Division: supports countries in conserving, restoring and managing their ecosystems. It addresses the environmental causes and consequences of disasters and conflicts. It helps countries reduce pollution from land-based activities, increase resilience to climate change, and think about the environment in their development planning.
Economy Division: assists large businesses in their efforts to be more environmentally conscious. It has three main branches: Chemicals and Health, Energy and Climate, and Resources and Markets.
Governance Affairs Office: engages member states and other relevant groups to use UNEP's work. The office serves UNEP's governing body, the United Nations Environment Assembly, and its subsidiary organ, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, and manages their meetings. It helps strengthen the visibility, authority and impact of the Assembly as an authoritative voice on the environment.
Law Division: helps to develop environmental law. Works with countries to combat environmental crime and meet international environmental commitments. The law division aims to improve cooperation between lawmakers around the world who are making environmental laws.
Communication Division: develops and disseminates UNEP's messages. It delivers them to governments and individuals through digital and traditional media channels.
Corporate Services Division: handles UNEP's corporate interests such as management and exposure to financial risk.
== Topic areas ==
UNEP's main activities are related to:
Climate action
Disasters and conflicts ("to minimize the environmental causes and consequences of crises")
Nature Action ("conservation, restoration and the sustainable use of nature")
Global environmental governance (the UNEP website states that "UNEP is committed to supporting countries in developing and implementing integrated environmental policies").
Data collection and reporting (UNEP provides information and data on the global environment to stakeholders including governments, non-governmental organizations and the public for them to engage in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, the UN environment Live Platform and Online Access to Research in Environment (OARE) provide transparent information collected by UNEP.)
Chemicals and waste
Resource efficiency
== Advocacy ==
UNEP uses its position to raise awareness for a range of issues.
=== Climate change ===
Already in 1989, UNEP published a statement predicting that "entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by sea level rise if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000". In 2005, UNEP issued a joint statement with the United Nations University predicting that "50 million people could become environmental refugees by 2010, fleeing the effects of climate change". This was reinforced in 2008, by Srgjan Kerim, President of the UN General Assembly, who estimated that there would be between 50 million and 200 million environmental migrants by 2010.
At the fifth Magdeburg Environmental Forum held in 2008, in Magdeburg, Germany, UNEP and car manufacturer Daimler AG called for the establishment of infrastructure for electric vehicles. At this international conference 250 politicians and representatives of non-government organizations discussed future road transportation under the motto of "Sustainable Mobility–the Post-2012 CO2 Agenda".
=== Various initiatives ===
==== International Environmental Education Programme (1975–1995) ====
For two decades, UNESCO and UNEP led the International Environmental Education Programme (1975–1995), which set out a vision for, and gave practical guidance on how to mobilize education for environmental awareness. In 1976 UNESCO launched an environmental education newsletter Connect as the official organ of the UNESCO-UNEP International Environmental Education Programme (IEEP). Until 2007 it served as a clearinghouse to exchange information on environmental education in general and to promote the aims and activities of the IEEP in particular, as well as being a network for institutions and individuals interested and active in environment education.
==== Circular economy ====
UNEP is the co-chair and a founding partner (along with groups such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation) for the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy, which is a public-private partnership of over 50 global organizations and governments seeking to support the transition to a global circular economy.
==== The Regional Seas Programme ====
Established in 1974, this is the world's only legal programme for the purpose of protecting the oceans and seas at the regional level. More than 143 countries participate in 18 regional programmes established by the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans, with 14 of them underpinned by legally binding international conventions, such as the Helsinki Convention, the Oslo Dumping Convention, the Barcelona Convention or the Bucharest Convention. The RSCAPs include the Caribbean region, East Asian seas, East African region, Mediterranean Basin, Pacific Northwest region, West African region, Caspian Sea, Black Sea region, Northeast Pacific region, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, ROPME Sea Area, South Asian seas, Southeast Pacific region, Pacific region, Arctic region, Antarctic region, Baltic Sea, and Northeast Atlantic region. Each programme consists of countries which share the same sea and manages this sea at the regional level. The programmes are controlled by secretariats or Regional Coordinating Units and Regional Activity Centers. UNEP protects seas by promoting international conventions through education and training.
The Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP) was established in 1975 as the first regional action plan under the Regional Seas Programme.
==== Faith for Earth Initiative ====
Launched in 2017, the initiative's goal is to encourage and collaborate with faith-based organizations to protect the environment and invest in green resources. In 2020, UNEP published a book with the Parliament of the World's Religions Climate Action Program entitled, "Faith for Earth: A Call for Action." The book serves as an educational resource for students, teachers, and leaders across the world and highlights the role that faith-based organizations can play in addressing critical environmental issues.
== Other activities ==
=== Awards programs ===
Several awards programs have been established to recognize outstanding work in the environmental field. The Global 500 Roll of Honour was initiated in 1987 and ended in 2003. Its 2005 successor, Champions of the Earth, and a similar award, Young Champions of the Earth, are given annually to entrepreneurs, scientists, policy leaders, upcoming talent, individuals and organizations who make significant positive impacts on resources and the environment in their areas.
=== International years ===
UN assigns specific years to topics to raise awareness and engagement. The following years pertain to environmental topics:
2007 – International Year of the Dolphin: International Patron of the Year of the Dolphin was H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, with Special Ambassador to the cause being Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys musical group.
2010 – International Year of Biodiversity
2011 – International Year of Forests
2012 – International Year for Sustainable Energy for All
2013 – International Year of Water Cooperation
2014 – International Year of Family Farming
2015 – International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies
2016 – International Year of Pulses
2017 – International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development
2020 – International Year of Plant Health
2021 – International Year of Fruits and Vegetables
See international observance and list of environmental dates.
== Notable achievements ==
UNEP has registered several successes, such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol for limiting emissions of gases blamed for thinning the planet's protective ozone layer, and the 2017 Minamata Convention, a treaty to limit toxic mercury.
UNEP has sponsored the development of solar loan programmes, with attractive return rates, to buffer the initial deployment costs and entice consumers to consider and purchase solar PV systems. The most famous example is the solar loan programme sponsored by UNEP that helped 100,000 people finance solar power systems in India. Success in India's solar programme has led to similar projects in other parts of the developing world, including Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia and Mexico.
In 2001, UNEP alerted about the destruction of the Marshlands when it released satellite images showing that 90 percent of the marsh had been lost. The UNEP "support for environmental management of the Iraqi Marshland" began in 2004, to manage the marshland area in an environmentally sound manner.
UNEP has a programme for young people known as Tunza. Within this programme are other projects like the AEO for Youth.
== Reform ==
Following the 2007 publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, the Paris Call for Action, presented by French president Jacques Chirac and supported by 46 countries, called for the UNEP to be replaced by a new and more powerful "United Nations Environment Organization", to be modeled on the World Health Organization. The 46 countries included the European Union nations, but notably did not include the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China, the top four emitters of greenhouse gases.
In December 2012, following the Rio+20 Summit, a decision by the General Assembly of the United Nations to "strengthen and upgrade" the UNEP and establish universal membership of its governing body was confirmed. In other words, it was reorganized by applying the existing executive member system (58 member states) from 1973 to 2013 to a universal member system (all UN member states). It was implemented in 2014.
== Funding ==
The European Investment Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme created the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) in 2015 to assist a United Nations project dubbed Sustainable Energy for All. Renewable Energy Performance Platform was established with $67 million from the United Kingdom's International Climate Finance initiative, administered by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in 2015, and $128 million in 2018. REPP was established with a five-year goal of improving energy access for at least two million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has so far invested around $45 million to renewable energy projects in 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Solar power and hydropower are among the energy methods used in the projects.
=== Funding complications ===
In September 2018, a series of allegations were made against the executive director of the UNEP, Eric Solheim, at that time, including excessive number of days spent outside the headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. As a result, Eric Solheim resigned. Several donor countries withdrew their donation in the aftermath of the allegation, including the Dutch government who announced it would withhold $8 million in funding to UNEP until nepotism issues were resolved. Sweden and Denmark stopped funding as well. A spokesman for the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs said the freezing of funds was probably unprecedented.
== See also ==
== References ==
=== Sources ===
This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA (license statement/permission). Text taken from Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development, 26, 27, UNESCO.
== Further reading ==
Borowy, Iris. "Before UNEP: who was in charge of the global environment? The struggle for institutional responsibility 1968–72." Journal of Global History 14.1 (2019): 87–106.
United Nations Environment Programme. "Natural Allies: UNEP and Civil Society." Nairobi: United Nations Foundation, 2004.
Paul Berthoud, A Professional Life Narrative, 2008, worked with UNEP and offers testimony from the inside of the early years of the organization.
Dodds, F., Strauss, M., with Strong, M., 2012, Only One Earth: The Long Road via Rio to Sustainable Development. London Earthscan
== External links ==
Official website
UNEP Finance Initiative
Frankfurt School – UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance
United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development
UNEP/GRID-Europe
UNEP GEO Data Portal
Sindrom Kodok Pada Manusia (Indonesia Language)
Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment
UNEP Regional Seas Programme
Resources on United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Archived 2023-07-10 at the Wayback Machine |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Rohde | Leon Rohde | Leon R. Rohde (born 10 May 1995) is a German road and track cyclist, who last for UCI Continental team Santic–Wibatech.
== Major results ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Leon Rohde at UCI
Leon Rohde at Cycling Archives
Leon Rohde at ProCyclingStats
Leon Rohde at Cycling Quotient
Leon Rohde at CycleBase
Leon Rohde at the German Olympic Sports Confederation (in German)
Leon Rohde at Olympedia |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold_Suhle | Berthold Suhle | Berthold Suhle (1 January 1837, Stolp, Province of Pomerania, now Poland – 26 January 1904, Germany) was a German chess master.
Born in Stolp (Słupsk, then Kingdom of Prussia, now Poland), he studied philosophy, philology and nature in Berlin (1855–1857) and Bonn (1857–1859).
He won a match with Bartolomeo Forlico (11.5 : 9.5) at Venice 1858, lost to Adolf Anderssen (+0 –5 =2) at Cologne 1859 and (+13 –27 =8) in Breslau from April to September 1859, won against Bernhard von Guretzky-Cornitz (+6 –1 =3) at Berlin 1860, drew with Anderssen (+3 –3 =2) at Berlin 1864, and beat Philipp Hirschfeld (+7 –0 =2) at Berlin 1865.
He was an author of Der Schachkongress zu London im Jahre 1862 nebst dem Schachkongresse zu Bristol im Jahre 1861 (Berlin 1864, two parts),
and wrote with Gustav Neumann a well-received book on the latest chess theories, Die neueste Theorie und Praxis des Schachspiels seit dem Schachkongress zu New York i.J. 1857. Ein vollständiger Cursus der neuesten Spieleröffnungskunst (Berlin 1865). He also was a co-editor of the Deutsche Schachzeitung. Suhle stopped playing to teach from 1877 to 1901, and was named a professor in 1895.
== Further reading ==
Renette, Hans and Zavatarelli, Fabrizio (2018). Neumann, Hirschfeld and Suhle: 19th Century Berlin Chess Biographies With 711 Games. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1476673790.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
== References ==
== External links ==
Berthold Suhle player profile and games at Chessgames.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paola_Severino | Paola Severino | Paola Severino (born 22 October 1948) is an Italian lawyer, academic and politician.
She served as Minister of Justice in the Monti cabinet from November 2011 to April 2013, being the first woman appointed Minister of Justice in Italian history. On 3 October 2016, she was nominated rector of Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli.
== Early life and education ==
Severino was born in Naples in 1948. She studied law at La Sapienza University of Rome and graduated in 1971.
She is married to former CONSOB executive Paolo Di Benedetto, with whom she had a daughter. Severino is an amputee, having lost her right arm due to an illness.
== Career ==
Severino began her career as a researcher at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Council of Research) in 1972, and worked there until 1975. She then worked as an assistant professor at La Sapienza from 1975 to 1987. Later she began to work at Perugia University and taught penal commercial law at the Faculty of Economics. She was appointed vice president of the Superior Council of Military Magistracy in 1997. She was the first Italian woman appointed this post. Her tenure lasted until 2002. In addition, Severino worked with Giovanni Maria Flick, former President of the Italian Constitutional Court.
She is among top criminal lawyers in Italy. One of her clients was the former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Other prominent individual clients of Severino include Cesare Geronzi and Francesco Caltagirone whom she defended in the Cirio trial. Italian energy giant Eni was another client of Severino.
She served as the head of the department of law at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome from 2003 to 2006. Before her appointment as minister of justice, she was working as a professor of penal law at the School for Carabinieri Officers and a Pro-Rector Vicar at LUISS Guido Carli University.
She was appointed minister of justice on 16 November 2011. Her income in 2011 was more than seven million euros, making her the top rich minister in the Monti cabinet. Her tenure ended in April 2013. Anna Maria Cancellieri replaced her as justice minister.
From 2018 to 2020 she was Special Representative of the President-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for the fight against corruption, a position established by the Italian Presidency of the organization in 2018
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getachew_Reda | Getachew Reda | Getachew Reda Kahsay (Tigrinya and Amharic: ጌታቸው ረዳ ካሕሳይ; born June 1974) is an Ethiopian politician who is serving as the Minister Advisor for East African Affairs. Before this role, he served as the Chief Administrator of the Interim Regional Administration of Tigray, following his appointment by the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia on 23 March 2023. Before assuming power as chief administrator, he was a longtime advisor to the former president of the Tigray Region, Debretsion Gebremichael.
Getachew was also an executive committee member and the spokesperson for the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
Getachew was the Minister of Government Communications Affairs in Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's federal government of Ethiopia until 2016.
== Early life and education ==
Getachew completed his undergraduate studies at Addis Ababa University's School of Law. Between 2001 and 2002, he completed a Master of Law at Alabama University, Tuscaloosa, United States. Before taking a government position in 2009, he served as a professor of law at Mekelle University, located in the capital city of Tigray Region.
== Career ==
=== Tigray War ===
Getachew worked as the political advisor of the President of the Tigray Region, Debretsion Gebremichael, in supporting the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) in their war with the federal government of Ethiopia, Amhara Special Forces, Fano militia and the foreign government of Eritrea. Getachew, in an interview with Tigray TV, urged young people and others in the region to "rise and deploy to battle in tens of thousands." In April 2021, Getachew's Twitter account was verified.
On 28 June 2021, Getachew announced that the TDF had captured Mekelle, causing the ENDF soldiers to retreat entirely from the area. The Ethiopian federal government declared a unilateral ceasefire starting from 28 June 2021 until the farming season ends. On 20 December 2021, Getachew announced that the TDF had withdrawn from both Amhara and Afar regions in an attempt to induce the international community to put pressure on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments and to facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid in the two conflict regions. However Billene Seyoum, the spokesman for Abiy Ahmed, disputed this claim and asserted that the announcement was a cover-up for military setbacks.
On 2 November 2022, Getachew was the Tigray representative present for the signing of the agreement to permanently cease hostilities with the Ethiopian central government.
=== After the Tigray War ===
On 23 March 2023, Getachew's appointment as head of the Interim Regional Administration of Tigray was announced.
In March 2025, The Guardian reported that a faction of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, led by Debretsion Gebremichael, took over several offices in the Tigray regional capital of Mekelle. In what it called a coup, it reported that armed men belonging to the faction patrolled the streets of Mekelle at night, checking people's identification. The Guardian also said that there are some reports suggesting that Eritrean intelligence helped Debretsion's faction assume power. Meanwhile, it reported that Getachew had fled to Addis Ababa. On 11 April 2025, it was announced that Getachew Reda had been appointed as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali's Advisor for East African Affairs.
== References ==
== External links ==
Getachew Reda on Twitter
Addis Ababa backs creation of armed Tigrayan opposition in Afar region, Africa Intelligence, 14 May 2025 (requires free registration) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beilby_Medal_and_Prize#:~:text=%5D%5B13%5D-,2009%20%E2%80%93%20Zhenan%20Bao,-2008%20%E2%80%93%20Neil | Beilby Medal and Prize | The Beilby Medal and Prize is awarded annually to a scientist or engineer for work that has exceptional practical significance in chemical engineering, applied materials science, energy efficiency or a related field. The prize is jointly administered by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industry, who make the award in rotation.
The award is open to members of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industry as well as other scientists and engineers worldwide. The aim of the award is to recognise the achievements of early-career scientists, and nominees should be no older than 39 years of age.
The Beilby Medal and Prize is awarded in memory of Scottish scientist Sir George Thomas Beilby FRS. Born in 1850, he joined the Oakbank Oil Company in 1869 following his studies at the University of Edinburgh. He later became President of all three organisations or their precursor societies, acting as President of the Society of Chemical Industry from 1898–99, The Institute of Chemistry from 1902–12 and the Institute of Metals from 1916-18.
Recipients of the award receive a medal, a certificate and a prize of £1,000. The first award was made in 1930.
== Recipients ==
The Beilby Medal and Prize recipients since 1930 are:
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
List of engineering awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo#:~: | Michelangelo | Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. He was born in the Republic of Florence but was mostly active in Rome from his 30s onwards. His work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era.
Michelangelo achieved fame early. Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before the age of 30. Although he did not consider himself a painter, Michelangelo created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture. At the age of 71, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the Western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death.
Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive. Three biographies were published during his lifetime. One of them, by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that Michelangelo's work transcended that of any artist living or dead, and was "supreme in not one art alone but in all three".
In his lifetime, Michelangelo was often called Il Divino ("the divine one"). His contemporaries admired his terribilità—his ability to instill a sense of awe in viewers of his art. Attempts by subsequent artists to imitate the expressive physicality of Michelangelo's style contributed to the rise of Mannerism, a short-lived movement in Western art between the High Renaissance and the Baroque.
== Early life and career ==
=== Early life, 1475–1488 ===
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese, known today as Caprese Michelangelo, a small town situated in Valtiberina, near Arezzo, Tuscany. For several generations, his family had been small-scale bankers in Florence; but the bank failed, and his father Ludovico briefly took a government post in Caprese. At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was the town's judicial administrator and podestà (local administrator) of Chiusi della Verna. Michelangelo's mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. The Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Matilde di Canossa—a claim that remains unproven, but which Michelangelo believed.
Several months after Michelangelo's birth, the family returned to Florence, where he was raised. During his mother's later prolonged illness, and after her death in 1481 (when he was six years old), Michelangelo lived with a nanny and her husband, a stonecutter, in the town of Settignano, where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm. There the young boy gained his love for marble. As his biographer Giorgio Vasari quotes him:
If there is some good in me, it is because I was born in the subtle atmosphere of your country of Arezzo. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, with which I make my figures.
=== Apprenticeships, 1488–1492 ===
As a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to the city of Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. Michelangelo showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters. Florence was at that time Italy's greatest centre of the arts and learning. Art was sponsored by the Signoria (the town council), the merchant guilds, and wealthy patrons such as the Medici and their banking associates. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence. In the early 15th century, the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, having studied the remains of Classical buildings in Rome, had created two churches, San Lorenzo's and Santo Spirito, which embodied the Classical precepts. The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for 50 years to create the north and east bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as "The Gates of Paradise". The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence: Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the older churches were covered with frescos (mostly in Late Medieval, but also in the Early Renaissance style), begun by Giotto and continued by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, both of whose works Michelangelo studied and copied in drawings.
During Michelangelo's childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence. In 1488, at the age of 13, Michelangelo was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio. The next year, his father persuaded Ghirlandaio to pay Michelangelo as an artist, which was rare for someone that young. When in 1489, Lorenzo de' Medici, de facto ruler of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci.
From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended the Platonic Academy, a Humanist academy founded by the Medicis. There, his work and outlook were influenced by many of the most prominent philosophers and writers of the day, including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano. At this time, Michelangelo sculpted the reliefs Madonna of the Stairs and Battle of the Centaurs, the latter based on a theme suggested by Poliziano and commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici. Michelangelo worked for a time with the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. When he was 17, another pupil, Pietro Torrigiano, struck him on the nose, causing the disfigurement that is conspicuous in the portraits of Michelangelo.
=== Bologna, Florence, and Rome, 1492–1499 ===
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on 8 April 1492 changed Michelangelo's circumstances. He left the security of the Medici court and returned to his father's house. In the following months he carved a polychrome wooden Crucifix (1493), as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, which had allowed him to do some anatomical studies of the corpses from the church's hospital. This was the first of several instances during his career that Michelangelo studied anatomy by dissecting cadavers.
Between 1493 and 1494, Michelangelo bought a block of marble, and carved a larger-than-life statue of Hercules. On 20 January 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero de Medici, commissioned a statue made of snow, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici. In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Savonarola. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna. In Bologna, he was commissioned to carve several of the last small figures for the completion of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church dedicated to that saint. At this time Michelangelo studied the robust reliefs carved by Jacopo della Quercia around the main portal of the Basilica of St Petronius, including the panel of The Creation of Eve, the composition of which was to reappear on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Towards the end of 1495, the political situation in Florence was calmer; the city, previously under threat from the French, was no longer in danger as Charles VIII had suffered defeats. Michelangelo returned to Florence but received no commissions from the new city government under Savonarola. He returned to the employment of the Medici. During the half-year he spent in Florence, he worked on two small statues, a child St. John the Baptist and a sleeping Cupid. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted St. John the Baptist, asked that Michelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he could "send it to Rome ... pass [it off as] an ancient work and ... sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome. This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine situation may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate's invitation.
Michelangelo arrived in Rome on 25 June 1496 at the age of 21. On 4 July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Riario, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god Bacchus. Upon completion, the work was rejected by the cardinal, and subsequently entered the collection of the banker Jacopo Galli, for his garden. In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve a Pietà, a sculpture showing the Virgin Mary grieving over the body of Jesus. The subject, which is not part of the Biblical narrative of the Crucifixion, was common in religious sculpture of medieval northern Europe and would have been very familiar to the Cardinal. The contract was agreed upon in August of the following year. Michelangelo was 24 at the time of its completion. It was soon to be regarded as one of the world's great masterpieces of sculpture, "a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture". Contemporary opinion was summarised by Vasari: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh." Michelangelo's only work known to have been signed, his name on Mary's sash, it is now located in St Peter's Basilica.
=== Florence, 1499–1505 ===
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The Republic was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the gonfaloniere Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of Carrara marble portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of Florence Cathedral. Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippino Lippi, Pietro Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Antonio and Giuliano da Sangallo, Andrea della Robbia, Cosimo Rosselli, Davide Ghirlandaio, Piero di Cosimo, Andrea Sansovino and Michelangelo's dear friend Granacci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Accademia, and in 1910 a marble replica was raised in its place in the square. In the same period of placing the David, Michelangelo may have been involved in creating the sculptural profile on Palazzo Vecchio's façade known as the Importuno di Michelangelo. The hypothesis of Michelangelo's possible involvement in the creation of the profile is based on the strong resemblance of the latter to a profile drawn by the artist, datable to the beginning of the 16th century, now preserved in the Louvre.
With the completion of the David came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint The Battle of Anghiari in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the Battle of Cascina. The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by Rubens and Michelangelo's by Bastiano da Sangallo.
Also during this period, Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to paint a "Holy Family" as a present for his wife, Maddalena Strozzi. It is known as the Doni Madonna and hangs in the Uffizi Gallery, still in its original magnificent frame, which Michelangelo may have designed. He also may have painted the Madonna and Child with John the Baptist, known as the Manchester Madonna and now in the National Gallery, London.
=== Tomb of Julius II, 1505–1545 ===
In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II and commissioned to build the Pope's tomb, which was to include forty statues and be finished in five years. Under the patronage of the pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks.
The commission for the tomb forced the artist to leave Florence with his planned Battle of Cascina painting unfinished. By this time, Michelangelo was established as an artist; both he and Julius II had hot tempers and soon argued. On 17 April 1506, Michelangelo left Rome in secret for Florence, remaining there until the Florentine government pressed him to return to the pope.
Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction. It is located in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and is most famous for the central figure of Moses, completed in 1516. Of the other statues intended for the tomb, two, known as the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, are now in the Louvre.
=== Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1508 –1512 ===
During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512). According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was working on the building of St. Peter's Basilica, resented Michelangelo's commission for the pope's tomb and convinced the pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task. Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament. Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius II to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents elements of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling and contains over 300 figures. At its centre are nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's creation of the earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of Israel, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world. Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Cumaean Sibyl.
=== Florence under Medici popes, 1513 – early 1534 ===
In 1513, Pope Julius II died and was succeeded by Pope Leo X, the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici. From 1513 to 1516, Pope Leo was on good terms with Pope Julius's surviving relatives, so encouraged Michelangelo to continue work on Julius's tomb, but the families became enemies again in 1516 when Pope Leo tried to seize the Duchy of Urbino from Julius's nephew Francesco Maria I della Rovere. Pope Leo then had Michelangelo stop working on the tomb, and commissioned him to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. He spent three years creating drawings and models for the façade, as well as attempting to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta specifically for the project. In 1520, the work was abruptly cancelled by his financially strapped patrons before any real progress had been made. The basilica lacks a façade to this day.
In 1520, the Medici came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. For posterity, this project, occupying the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s, was more fully realised. Michelangelo used his own discretion to create the composition of the Medici Chapel, which houses the large tombs of two of the younger members of the Medici family, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, his nephew. It also serves to commemorate their more famous predecessors, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who are buried nearby. The tombs display statues of the two Medici and allegorical figures representing Night and Day, and Dusk and Dawn. The chapel also contains Michelangelo's Medici Madonna. In 1976, a concealed corridor was discovered with drawings on the walls that related to the chapel itself.
Pope Leo X died in 1521 and was succeeded briefly by the austere Adrian VI, and then by his cousin Giulio Medici as Pope Clement VII. In 1524, Michelangelo received an architectural commission from the Medici pope for the Laurentian Library at San Lorenzo's Church. He designed both the interior of the library itself and its vestibule, a building utilising architectural forms with such dynamic effect that it is seen as the forerunner of Baroque architecture. It was left to assistants to interpret his plans and carry out construction. The library was not opened until 1571, and the vestibule remained incomplete until 1904.
In 1527, Florentine citizens, encouraged by the sack of Rome, threw out the Medici and restored the republic. A siege of the city ensued, and Michelangelo went to the aid of his beloved Florence by working on the city's fortifications from 1528 to 1529. The city fell in 1530, and the Medici were restored to power, with the young Alessandro Medici as the first Duke of Florence. Pope Clement, a Medici, sentenced Michelangelo to death. It is thought that Michelangelo hid for two months in a small chamber under the Medici chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo with light from just a tiny window, making many charcoal and chalk drawings which remained hidden until the room was rediscovered in 1975, and opened to small numbers of visitors in 2023. Michelangelo was eventually pardoned by the Medicis and the death sentence lifted, so that he could complete work on the Sistine Chapel and the Medici family tomb. He left Florence for Rome in 1534. Despite Michelangelo's support of the republic and resistance to the Medici rule, Pope Clement reinstated an allowance that he had previously granted the artist and made a new contract with him over the tomb of Pope Julius.
=== Rome, 1534–1546 ===
In Rome, Michelangelo lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto. It was at this time that he met the poet Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara, who was to become one of his closest friends until her death in 1547.
Shortly before his death in 1534, Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Pope Paul III, was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo began and completed the project, which he laboured on from 1534 to October 1541. The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, showing him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked. He is surrounded by saints, among whom Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell.
Once completed, the depiction of Christ and the Virgin Mary naked was considered sacrilegious, and Cardinal Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) campaigned to have the fresco removed or censored, but the Pope resisted. At the Council of Trent, shortly before Michelangelo's death in 1564, it was decided to obscure the genitals and Daniele da Volterra, an apprentice of Michelangelo, was commissioned to make the alterations. An uncensored copy of the original, by Marcello Venusti, is in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples.
Michelangelo worked on a number of architectural projects at this time. They included a design for the Capitoline Hill with its trapezoid piazza displaying the ancient bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. He designed the upper floor of the Palazzo Farnese and the interior of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in which he transformed the vaulted interior of an Ancient Roman bathhouse. Other architectural works include San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Porta Pia.
=== St Peter's Basilica, 1546–1564 ===
While still working on the Last Judgment, Michelangelo received yet another commission for the Vatican. This was for the painting of two large frescos in the Cappella Paolina depicting significant events in the lives of the two most important saints of Rome, the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Like the Last Judgment, these two works are complex compositions containing a great number of figures. They were completed in 1550. In the same year, Giorgio Vasari published his Vita, including a biography of Michelangelo.
In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. The process of replacing the Constantinian basilica of the 4th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations had been laid to the plans of Bramante. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Michelangelo was persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of Bramante, and developed his ideas for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually. The dome, not completed until after his death, has been called by Banister Fletcher, "the greatest creation of the Renaissance".
As construction was progressing on St Peter's, there was concern that Michelangelo would die before the dome was finished. However, once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, the completion of the design was inevitable.
== Personal life ==
=== Faith ===
Michelangelo was a devout Catholic whose faith deepened at the end of his life. Along with Raphael, he was enrolled in the Secular Franciscan Order.
His poetry includes the following closing lines from what is known as poem 285 (written in 1554): "Neither painting nor sculpture will be able any longer to calm my soul, now turned toward that divine love that opened his arms on the cross to take us in."
=== Personal habits ===
Michelangelo was moderate in his personal life, and once told his apprentice, Ascanio Condivi: "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man." Michelangelo's bank accounts and numerous deeds of purchase show that his net worth was about 50,000 gold ducats, more than many princes and dukes of his time. Condivi said he was indifferent to food and drink, eating "more out of necessity than of pleasure" and that he "often slept in his clothes and ... boots." His biographer Paolo Giovio says, "His nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived posterity of any pupils who might have followed him." This, however, may not have affected him, as he was by nature a solitary and melancholy person, bizzarro e fantastico, a man who "withdrew himself from the company of men."
=== Relationships and poetry ===
Michelangelo wrote more than three hundred sonnets and madrigals. About sixty are addressed to men – "the first significant modern corpus of love poetry from one man to another".
The longest sequence, displaying deep loving feeling, was written to the young Roman patrician Tommaso dei Cavalieri (c. 1509–1587), who was 23 years old when Michelangelo first met him in 1532, at the age of 57. In his Lives of the Artists, Vasari observed: "But infinitely more than any of the others he loved M. Tommaso de' Cavalieri, a Roman gentleman, for whom, being a young man and much inclined to these arts, [Michelangelo] made, to the end that he might learn to draw, many most superb drawings of divinely beautiful heads, designed in black and red chalk; and then he drew for him a Ganymede rapt to Heaven by Jove's Eagle, a Tityus with the Vulture devouring his heart, the Chariot of the Sun falling with Phaëthon into the Po, and a Bacchanal of children, which are all in themselves most rare things, and drawings the like of which have never been seen." Some scholars downplay the relationship between Michelangelo and Cavalieri as one of platonic friendship. The poems to Cavalieri make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another; they predate by 50 years Shakespeare's sonnets to the fair youth:
Cavalieri replied: "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more than I wish for yours." Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until the latter's death.
In 1542, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci who died only a year later, inspiring Michelangelo to write 48 funeral epigrams. Some of the objects of Michelangelo's affections, and subjects of his poetry, took advantage of him: the model Febo di Poggio asked for money in response to a love-poem, and a second model, Gherardo Perini, shamelessly stole from him.
The nature of the poetry has been a source of discomfort to later generations. Michelangelo's grandnephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, published the poems in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed; he also removed words or in other instances insisted that Michelangelo's poems be read allegorically and philosophically, a judgment some modern scholars still repeat today. Anthony Hughes, for example, says that it is impossible to know whether Michelangelo was sexually active and, while acknowledging that it is a reasonable guess that Michelangelo's sexuality was inclined towards men rather than women, insists the letters and poems Michelangelo addressed to Cavalieri cannot be taken as expressions of personal desire, and should be understood in the context of the realities of Italian Renaissance culture.
But since John Addington Symonds translated the poems into English in 1893, restoring the original genders, it has become more accepted that Michelangelo's poems should be understood at face value, that is, as indicating his personal feelings and a preference for young men.
Late in life, Michelangelo nurtured a friendship with the poet and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538 and who was in her late forties at the time. They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died. These sonnets mostly deal with the spiritual issues that occupied them. Condivi, who in his biography was preoccupied with downplaying Michelangelo's attraction to men, alleged Michelangelo said his sole regret in life was that he did not kiss the widow's face in the same manner that he had her hand.
=== Feuds with other artists ===
In a letter from late 1542, Michelangelo blamed the tensions between Julius II and him on the envy of Bramante and Raphael, saying of the latter, "all he had in art, he got from me". According to Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Michelangelo and Raphael met once: the former was alone, while the latter was accompanied by several others. Michelangelo commented that he thought he had encountered the chief of police with such an assemblage, and Raphael replied that he thought he had met an executioner, as they are wont to walk alone.
== Works ==
=== Madonna and Child ===
The Madonna of the Stairs is Michelangelo's earliest known work in marble. It is carved in shallow relief, a technique often employed by the master-sculptor of the early 15th century, Donatello, and others such as Desiderio da Settignano. While the Madonna is in profile, the easiest aspect for a shallow relief, the child displays a twisting motion that was to become characteristic of Michelangelo's work. The Taddei Tondo of 1502 shows the Christ Child frightened by a Bullfinch, a symbol of the Crucifixion. The lively form of the child was later adapted by Raphael in the Bridgewater Madonna. The Madonna of Bruges was, at the time of its creation, unlike other such statues depicting the Virgin proudly presenting her son. Here, the Christ Child, restrained by his mother's clasping hand, is about to step off into the world. The Doni Tondo, depicting the Holy Family, has elements of all three previous works: the frieze of figures in the background has the appearance of a low-relief, while the circular shape and dynamic forms echo the Taddeo Tondo. The twisting motion present in the Madonna of Bruges is accentuated in the painting. The painting heralds the forms, movement and colour that Michelangelo was to employ on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
=== Male figure ===
The kneeling Angel is an early work, one of several that Michelangelo created as part of a large decorative scheme for the Arca di San Domenico in the church dedicated to that saint in Bologna. Several other artists had worked on the scheme, beginning with Nicola Pisano in the 13th century. In the late 15th century, the project was managed by Niccolò dell'Arca. An angel holding a candlestick, by Niccolò, was already in place. Although the two angels form a pair, there is a great contrast between the two works, the one depicting a delicate child with flowing hair clothed in Gothic robes with deep folds, and Michelangelo's depicting a robust and muscular youth with eagle's wings, clad in a garment of Classical style. Everything about Michelangelo's Angel is dynamic. Michelangelo's Bacchus was a commission with a specified subject, the youthful God of Wine. The sculpture has all the traditional attributes, a vine wreath, a cup of wine and a fawn, but Michelangelo ingested an air of reality into the subject, depicting him with bleary eyes, a swollen bladder and a stance that suggests he is unsteady on his feet. While the work is plainly inspired by Classical sculpture, it is innovative for its rotating movement and strongly three-dimensional quality, which encourages the viewer to look at it from every angle.
In the so-called Dying Slave, Michelangelo again utilised the figure with marked contrapposto to suggest a particular human state, in this case waking from sleep. With the Rebellious Slave, it is one of two such earlier figures for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, now in the Louvre, that the sculptor brought to an almost finished state. These two works were to have a profound influence on later sculpture, through Rodin who studied them at the Louvre. The Atlas Slave is one of the later figures for Pope Julius' tomb. The works, known collectively as The Captives, each show the figure struggling to free itself, as if from the bonds of the rock in which it is lodged. The works give a unique insight into the sculptural methods that Michelangelo employed and his way of revealing what he perceived within the rock.
=== Sistine Chapel ceiling ===
The Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted between 1508 and 1512. The ceiling is a flattened barrel vault supported on twelve triangular pendentives that rise from between the windows of the chapel. The commission, as envisaged by Julius II, was to adorn the pendentives with figures of the twelve apostles. Michelangelo, who was reluctant to take the job, persuaded the Pope to give him a free hand in the composition. The resultant scheme of decoration awed his contemporaries and has inspired other artists ever since. The scheme is of nine panels illustrating episodes from the Book of Genesis, set in an architectonic frame. On the pendentives, Michelangelo replaced the proposed Apostles with Prophets and Sibyls who heralded the coming of the Messiah.
Michelangelo began painting with the later episodes in the narrative, the pictures including locational details and groups of figures, the Drunkenness of Noah being the first of this group. In the later compositions, painted after the initial scaffolding had been removed, Michelangelo made the figures larger. One of the central images, The Creation of Adam is one of the best known and most reproduced works in the history of art. The final panel, showing the Separation of Light from Darkness is the broadest in style and was painted in a single day. As the model for the Creator, Michelangelo has depicted himself in the action of painting the ceiling.
As supporters to the smaller scenes, Michelangelo painted twenty youths who have variously been interpreted as angels, as muses, or simply as decoration. Michelangelo referred to them as "ignudi". The figure reproduced may be seen in context in the above image of the Separation of Light from Darkness.
In the process of painting the ceiling, Michelangelo made studies for different figures, of which some, such as that for The Libyan Sibyl have survived, demonstrating the care taken by Michelangelo in details such as the hands and feet. The prophet Jeremiah, contemplating the downfall of Jerusalem, is a self-portrait.
=== Figure compositions ===
Michelangelo's relief of the Battle of the Centaurs, created while he was still a youth associated with the Medici Academy, is an unusually complex relief in that it shows a great number of figures involved in a vigorous struggle. Such a complex disarray of figures was rare in Florentine art, where it would usually only be found in images showing either the Massacre of the Innocents or the Torments of Hell. The relief treatment, in which some of the figures are boldly projecting, may indicate Michelangelo's familiarity with Roman sarcophagus reliefs from the collection of Lorenzo Medici, and similar marble panels created by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, and with the figurative compositions on Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors.
The composition of the Battle of Cascina is known in its entirety only from copies, as the original cartoon, according to Vasari, was so admired that it deteriorated and was eventually in pieces. It reflects the earlier relief in the energy and diversity of the figures, with many different postures, and many being viewed from the back, as they turn towards the approaching enemy and prepare for battle.
In The Last Judgment it is said that Michelangelo drew inspiration from a fresco by Melozzo da Forlì in Rome's Santi Apostoli. Melozzo had depicted figures from different angles, as if they were floating in the Heaven and seen from below. Melozzo's majestic figure of Christ, with windblown cloak, demonstrates a degree of foreshortening of the figure that had also been employed by Andrea Mantegna, but was not usual in the frescos of Florentine painters. In The Last Judgment Michelangelo had the opportunity to depict, on an unprecedented scale, figures in the action of either rising heavenward or falling and being dragged down.
In the two frescos of the Pauline Chapel, The Crucifixion of St. Peter and The Conversion of Saul, Michelangelo has used the various groups of figures to convey a complex narrative. In the Crucifixion of Peter soldiers busy themselves about their assigned duty of digging a post hole and raising the cross while various people look on and discuss the events. A group of horrified women cluster in the foreground, while another group of Christians is led by a tall man to witness the events. In the right foreground, Michelangelo walks out of the painting with an expression of disillusionment.
=== Architecture ===
Michelangelo's architectural commissions included a number that were not realised, notably the façade for Brunelleschi's Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, for which Michelangelo had a wooden model constructed, but which remains to this day unfinished rough brick. At the same church, Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII) commissioned him to design the Medici Chapel and the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici. Pope Clement also commissioned the Laurentian Library, for which Michelangelo also designed the extraordinary vestibule with columns recessed into niches, and a staircase that appears to spill out of the library like a flow of lava, according to Nikolaus Pevsner, "... revealing Mannerism in its most sublime architectural form".
In 1546 Michelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the pavement of the Campidoglio and began designing an upper storey for the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he took on the job of completing St Peter's Basilica, begun to a design by Bramante, and with several intermediate designs by several architects. Michelangelo returned to Bramante's design, retaining the basic form and concepts by simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and unified whole. Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo's model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo della Porta, is more so.
=== Final years ===
In his old age, Michelangelo created a number of Pietàs in which he apparently reflects upon mortality. They are heralded by the Victory, perhaps created for the tomb of Pope Julius II but left unfinished. In this group, the youthful victor overcomes an older hooded figure, with the features of Michelangelo. The Pietà of Vittoria Colonna is a chalk drawing of a type described as "presentation drawings", as they might be given as a gift by an artist, and were not necessarily studies towards a painted work. In this image, Mary's upraised arms and hands are indicative of her prophetic role. The frontal aspect is reminiscent of Masaccio's fresco of the Holy Trinity in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. In the Florentine Pietà, Michelangelo again depicts himself, this time as the aged Nicodemus lowering the body of Jesus from the cross into the arms of Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo smashed the left arm and leg of the figure of Jesus. His pupil Tiberio Calcagni repaired the arm and drilled a hole in which to fix a replacement leg which was not subsequently attached. He also worked on the figure of Mary Magdalene.
The last sculpture that Michelangelo worked on (six days before his death), the Rondanini Pietà, could never be completed because Michelangelo carved it away until there was insufficient stone. The legs and a detached arm remain from a previous stage of the work. As it remains, the sculpture has an abstract quality, in keeping with 20th-century concepts of sculpture.
Michelangelo died in Rome on 18 February 1564, at the age of 88. His body was taken from Rome for interment at the Basilica of Santa Croce, fulfilling the maestro's last request to be buried in his beloved Florence. His heir Lionardo Buonarroti commissioned Vasari to design and build the Tomb of Michelangelo, a monumental project that cost 770 scudi, and took over 14 years to complete. Marble for the tomb was supplied by Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who had also organized a state funeral to honour Michelangelo in Florence.
== Legacy ==
Michelangelo, with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance. Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and eight years older than Raphael. Because of his reclusive nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of them by more than 40 years. Michelangelo took few sculpture students. He employed Granacci, who was his fellow pupil at the Medici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo appears to have used assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of preparing surfaces and grinding colours. Despite this, his works were to have a great influence on painters, sculptors and architects for many generations to come.
While Michelangelo's David is arguably the most famous nude of all time (it is called by the BBC "the world's most famous statue"), some of his other works have had perhaps even greater impact on the course of art. The twisting forms and tensions of the Victory, the Bruges Madonna and the Medici Madonna make them the heralds of the Mannerist art. The unfinished giants for the tomb of Pope Julius II had profound effect on sculptors such as Rodin and Henry Moore.
Michelangelo's vestibule of the Laurentian Library was one of the earliest buildings to use classical forms in a plastic and expressive manner. This dynamic quality was later to find its major expression in his centrally planned St. Peter's, with its giant order, its rippling cornice and its upward-launching pointed dome. The dome of St. Peter's was to influence the building of churches for many centuries, including Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome and St Paul's Cathedral, London, as well as the civic domes of public buildings and state capitals across the United States.
Artists who were directly influenced by Michelangelo include Raphael, whose monumental treatment of the figure in the School of Athens and The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple owes much to Michelangelo, and whose fresco of Isaiah in Sant'Agostino closely imitates the older master's prophets. Other artists, such as Pontormo, drew on the writhing forms of the Last Judgment and the frescoes of the Cappella Paolina.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling was a work of unprecedented grandeur, both for its architectonic forms, to be imitated by many Baroque ceiling painters, and also for the wealth of its inventiveness in the study of figures. Vasari wrote:
The work has proved a veritable beacon to our art, of inestimable benefit to all painters, restoring light to a world that for centuries had been plunged into darkness. Indeed, painters no longer need to seek for new inventions, novel attitudes, clothed figures, fresh ways of expression, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this work contains every perfection possible under those headings.
== In popular culture ==
Vita di Michelangelo (1964)
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), directed by Carol Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo
A Season of Giants (1990)
Michelangelo - Endless (2018), starring Enrico Lo Verso as Michelangelo
Sin (2019), directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
== See also ==
Italian Renaissance sculpture
Italian Renaissance painting
Michelangelo and the Medici
Michelangelo phenomenon
Nicodemite
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Sources ==
Bartz, Gabriele; Eberhard König (1998). Michelangelo. Könemann. ISBN 978-3-8290-0253-0.
Clément, Charles (1892). Michelangelo. Harvard University: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, Ltd.: London. michelangelo.
Condivi, Ascanio; Alice Sedgewick (1999) [First published 1553]. The Life of Michelangelo. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01853-9.
Gayford, Martin (2013). Michelangelo: His Epic Life. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-141-93225-5.
Goldscheider, Ludwig (1962). Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture. Phaidon.
Goldscheider, Ludwig (1953). Michelangelo: Drawings. Phaidon.
Gardner, Helen; Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art through the Ages. Thomson Wadsworth, (2004) ISBN 0-15-505090-7.
Hirst, Michael and Jill Dunkerton. (1994) The Young Michelangelo: The Artist in Rome 1496–1501. London: National Gallery Publications, ISBN 1-85709-066-7
Liebert, Robert (1983). Michelangelo: A Psychoanalytic Study of his Life and Images. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02793-8.
Paoletti, John T. and Radke, Gary M., (2005) Art in Renaissance Italy, Laurence King, ISBN 1-85669-439-9
Tolnay, Charles (1947). The Youth of Michelangelo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
The Digital Michelangelo Project from Stanford University
Works by Michelangelo at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Michelangelo at the Internet Archive
Works by Michelangelo at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
The BP Special Exhibition Michelangelo Drawings – closer to the master from the British Museum |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Fiscus | Jim Fiscus | Jim Fiscus is an American photographer specializing in editorial and advertising photography, including several highly regarded campaigns for the Showtime series Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall. Fiscus, who is based in Athens, Georgia, has won many awards for his work, including at the 2005 International Photo Awards for his portraits of hip-hop and R&B artists Jay-Z, Usher, and Outkast. Also in 2005, he was named International Photographer of the Year at the Lucies, and he is the winner of the 2008 International Aperture Award for his photograph of English chef and best-selling cookbook author Jamie Oliver, commissioned by Channel 4 in the U.K. In 2009, his photographic novella, “The Unfortunate Moment of Misunderstanding,” was displayed at Industrial Color’s M Project Gallery in New York in June 2009.
== Notes ==
== References ==
“Altpick.com Member Spotlight: Jim Fiscus”
Zoom In Online, Photographer Focus: Jim Fiscus, December 22, 2009
Jim Fiscus: The Unfortunate Moment of Misunderstanding,” Communication Arts
Dexter campaign for Showtime
Brotherhood campaign for Showtime
“Unfortunate Moment of Misunderstanding” at Industrial Color
Jay-Z, Usher, Outkast, IPA (International Photo Awards) in 2005
Jim Fiscus named 2005 International Photographer of the Year at the Lucies
Jim Fiscus wins a 2008 International Aperture Award
== External links ==
official site
portfolio
portfolio at Altpick.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_at_the_1964_Winter_Olympics | Italy at the 1964 Winter Olympics | Italy competed at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. They brought 61 competitors, 53 of whom were men and 8 of whom were women. A total of 4 medals were won, including 1 silver and 3 bronze.
== Medalists ==
== Alpine skiing ==
Men
Men's slalom
Women
== Bobsleigh ==
== Cross-country skiing ==
Men
Men's 4 × 10 km relay
== Figure skating ==
Men
Women
== Ice hockey ==
=== First round ===
Winners (in bold) qualified for the Group A to play for 1st-8th places. Teams, which lost their qualification matches, played in Group B for 9th-16th places.
=== Consolation round ===
Italy 6-4 Hungary
Yugoslavia 5-3 Italy
Norway 9-2 Italy
Poland 7-0 Italy
Austria 5-3 Italy
Romania 6-2 Italy
Italy 8-6 Japan
== Luge ==
Men
(Men's) Doubles
Women
== Nordic combined ==
Events:
normal hill ski jumping (Three jumps, best two counted and shown here.)
15 km cross-country skiing
== Ski jumping ==
Athletes performed three jumps, the best two were counted and are shown here.
== Speed skating ==
Men
== References ==
Official Olympic Reports
International Olympic Committee results database
Olympic Winter Games 1964, full results by sports-reference.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman#Art_market | Cindy Sherman | Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
Her breakthrough work is often considered to be the collection Untitled Film Stills, a series of 70 black-and-white photographs of herself evoking typical female roles in performance media (especially arthouse films and popular B-movies).
== Early life and education ==
Sherman was born in 1954, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, the youngest of the five children of Dorothy and Charles Sherman. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to the township of Huntington, Long Island. Her father worked as an engineer for Grumman Aircraft. Her mother taught reading to children with learning difficulties. Sherman has described her mother as good to a fault, and her father as strict and cruel. She was raised Episcopalian.
In 1972, Sherman enrolled in the visual arts department at Buffalo State University, where she majored in painting. During this time, she began to explore the ideas which became a hallmark of her work: She dressed herself as different characters, cobbled together from thrift-store clothing. Frustrated with what she saw as the limitations of painting as a medium of art, she abandoned it and took up photography. "[T]here was nothing more to say [through painting]", she recalled. "I was meticulously copying other art, and then I realized I could just use a camera and put my time into an idea instead." Sherman has said about this time:
"One of the reasons I started photographing myself was that supposedly in the spring one of my teachers would take the class out to a place near Buffalo where there were waterfalls and everybody romps around without clothes on and takes pictures of each other. I thought, 'Oh, I don't want to do this. But if we're going to have to go to the woods I better deal with it early.' Luckily we never had to do that." She spent the remainder of her college education focused on photography. Though Sherman had failed a required photography class as a freshman, she repeated the course with Barbara Jo Revelle, whom she credited with introducing her to conceptual art and other contemporary forms. At college she met Robert Longo, a fellow artist who encouraged her to record her process of "dolling up" for parties. This was the beginning of her Untitled Film Stills series.
In 1974, together with Longo, Charles Clough and Nancy Dwyer, she created Hallwalls, an arts center intended as a space that would accommodate artists from diverse backgrounds. Sherman was also exposed to the contemporary art exhibited at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the two Buffalo campuses of the SUNY school system, Media Studies Buffalo, and the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts, and Artpark, in nearby Lewiston, N.Y.
It was in Buffalo that Sherman encountered the photo-based conceptual works of artists Hannah Wilke, Eleanor Antin, and Adrian Piper. Along with artists like Laurie Simmons, Louise Lawler, and Barbara Kruger, Sherman is considered to be part of the Pictures Generation. She graduated with a BA in 1976.
== Photography ==
Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.
=== Early work ===
Bus Riders (1976–2000) is a series of photographs that feature the artist as a variety of meticulously observed characters. The photographs were shot in 1976 for the Bus Authority for display on a bus. Sherman used costumes and make-up, including blackface, to transform her identity for each image, and the cutout characters were lined up along the bus's advertising strip. Some critiques say that this work showed insensitivity to race through the use of blackface makeup while others state that it was rather with the intention of exposing racism embedded in society. The American theatre critic Margo Jefferson has written, "[The African-American figures] all have nearly the same features, too, while Ms. Sherman is able to give the white characters she impersonates a real range of skin tones and facial features. This didn't look like irony to me. It looked like a stale visual myth that was still in good working order."
Other early works involved cutout figures, such as the Murder Mystery and Play of Selves.
In her landmark photograph series Untitled Film Stills, (1977–80), Sherman appears as B-movie and film noir actresses. When asked if she considers herself to be acting in her photographs, Sherman said, "I never thought I was acting. When I became involved with close-ups I needed more information in the expression. I couldn't depend on background or atmosphere. I wanted the story to come from the face. Somehow the acting just happened."
Many of Sherman's photo series, like the 1981 Centerfolds, call attention to stereotypes of women in society, films, television and magazines. When talking about one of her centerfold pictures Sherman stated, "In content I wanted a man opening up the magazine suddenly look at it with an expectation of something lascivious and then feel like the violator that they would be looking at this woman who is perhaps a victim. I didn't think of them as victims at the time... Obviously I'm trying to make someone feel bad for having a certain expectation".
She explained to The New York Times in 1990, "I feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear." She describes her process as intuitive, and that she responds to elements of a setting such as light, mood, location, and costume, and will continue to change external elements until she finds what she wants. She has said of her process, "I think of becoming a different person. I look into a mirror next to the camera...it's trance-like. By staring into it I try to become that character through the lens ... When I see what I want, my intuition takes over—both in the 'acting' and in the editing. Seeing that other person that's up there, that's what I want. It's like magic."
=== Untitled Film Stills ===
The series Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980), with which Cindy Sherman achieved international recognition, consists of 69 black-and-white photographs. The artist poses in different roles (librarians, hillbillies, and seductresses), and settings (streets, yards, pools, beaches, and interiors), producing a result reminiscent of stills typical of Italian neorealism or American film noir of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Sherman avoided putting titles on the images in order to preserve their ambiguity. She would often pose her heroines as alone, expressionless, and in private. An overarching characteristic of her heroines were those that did not follow conventional ideas of marriage and family; they were rebellious women who either died as that or who were later tamed by society. In this series, the gaze seems to come from another subject – "usually a man" – to highlight the concept of the male gaze.
Modest in scale compared to Sherman's later cibachrome photographs, they are all 8 1/2 by 11 inches, each displayed in identical, simple black frames.
Sherman used her own possessions as props, or sometimes borrowed, as in Untitled Film Still #11 in which the doggy pillow belongs to a friend. The shots were also largely taken in her own apartment.
The Untitled Film Stills fall into several distinct groups:
The first six are grainy and slightly out of focus (e.g. Untitled #4).
The next group was taken in 1978 at Robert Longo's family beach house on the north fork of Long Island. (Sherman met Longo in 1976 and began a relationship with him)
Later in 1978, Sherman began taking shots in outdoor locations around the city. E.g. Untitled Film Still #21
Sherman later returned to her apartment, preferring to work from home. She created her version of a Sophia Loren character from the movie Two Women. (E.g. Untitled Film Still #35 (1979))
She took several photographs in the series while preparing for a road trip to Arizona with her parents. Untitled Film Still#48 (1979), also known as The Hitchhiker, was shot by Sherman's father at sunset one evening during the trip.
The remainder of the series was shot around New York, like Untitled #54, often featuring a blonde victim typical of film noir.
The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan purchased the series for an estimated $1 million in 1995.
Untitled Film Still #21 was listed as one of the 100 influential photographs by TIME Magazine.
=== 1980s ===
In addition to her film stills, Sherman has appropriated a number of other visual forms—the centerfold, fashion photograph, historical portrait, and soft-core sex image. These and other series, like the 1980s Fairy Tales and Disasters sequence, were shown for the first time at the Metro Pictures Gallery in New York City.
It was with her series Rear Screen Projections, 1980, that Sherman switched from black-and-white to color and to clearly larger formats. Centerfolds/Horizontals, 1981, are inspired by the center spreads in fashion and pornographic magazines. The twelve (24 by 48 inches) photographs were initially commissioned — but not used — by Artforum's Editor in Chief Ingrid Sischy for an artist's section in the magazine. She poses either on the floor or in bed, usually recumbent and often supine. About her aims with the self-portraits, Sherman has said: "Some of them I'd hope would seem very psychological. While I'm working I might feel as tormented as the person I'm portraying."
In 1982, Sherman began her Pink Robes series which includes Untitled #97, #98, #99 and #100.
In Fairy Tales, 1985, and Disasters, 1986–1989, Cindy Sherman uses visible prostheses and mannequins for the first time. Provoked by the 1989 NEA funding controversy involving photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, as well as the way Jeff Koons modeled his porn star wife in his "Made in Heaven" series, Sherman produced the Sex series in 1989. For once she removed herself from the shots, as these photographs featured pieced-together medical dummies in flagrante delicto.
Between 1989 and 1990, Sherman made 35 large, color photographs restaging the settings of various European portrait paintings of the fifteenth through early 19th centuries under the title History Portraits.
Rear Screen Projections
Rear Screen Projections is a series of photographs created by Cindy Sherman in 1980. This particular body of work features herself as the model in each image, posing in front of various rear-projected landscape scenes. Sherman appears in various guises, often described as "hitchhiker" or "runaway" types. The use of rear-projected images creates a sense of artifice and theatricality, as Sherman's character seems to be placed within, but not truly a part of, the depicted landscape. The settings range from mundane roadside scenes to more exotic, dreamlike vistas.
The series is seen as a continuation of themes explored in Sherman's earlier work Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), particularly the exploration of female stereotypes and the construction of identity through photography. However, Rear Screen Projections differs in its overt use of artifice, drawing attention to the constructed nature of the image.
This body of work is considered a significant series in Sherman's oeuvre, bridging her early work with her later, more elaborate series. It's recognized for its innovative use of rear projection and its continued exploration of themes of identity, representation, and the constructed nature of reality. [11] The series has been influential on subsequent generations of photographers and artists working with constructed photography and staged self-portraiture.
Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales is a series of photographs created by Cindy Sherman in 1985. The series marks a significant departure from her earlier work, such as the Untitled Film Stills, in its overt engagement with grotesque and abject imagery.
In Fairy Tales, Sherman transforms herself into a cast of disturbing and often repulsive characters, drawing inspiration from classic fairy tales, though not illustrating specific narratives. The photographs feature Sherman in elaborate costumes and makeup, often surrounded by decaying props, discarded objects, and unsettling environments. The images evoke a sense of decay, horror, and psychological distress, subverting the traditional, idealized representations of fairy tale characters.
The series is characterized by its use of vivid color, theatrical staging, and a focus on the grotesque. Sherman employs prosthetics, masks, and other theatrical devices to create monstrous and deformed figures, challenging conventional notions of beauty and femininity.
=== 1990s ===
==== Sex Pictures ====
Sherman uses prosthetic limbs and mannequins to create her Sex Pictures series (1992). Hal Foster, an American art critic, describes Sherman's Sex Pictures in his article Obscene, Abject, Traumatic as "[i]n this scheme of things the impulse to erode the subject and to tear at the screen has driven Sherman [...] to her recent work, where it is obliterated by the gaze."
Reviewer Jerry Saltz told New York magazine that Sherman's work is "[f]ashioned from dismembered and recombined mannequins, some adorned with pubic hair, one posed with a tampon in vagina, another with sausages being excreted from vulva, this was anti-porn porn, the unsexiest sex pictures ever made, visions of feigning, fighting, perversion. ... Today, I think of Cindy Sherman as an artist who only gets better."
Greg Fallis of Utata Tribal Photography describes Sherman's Sex Pictures series and her work as follows: "With her Sex Pictures, Sherman posed medical prostheses in sexualized positions, recreating—and strangely modifying—pornography. An example of this can be seen in her work entitled Untitled,#264. Sherman displays herself with a body made of prosthetic. Her face is the only part of her that shows but is covered by a gas mask meant to emphasize the parts of the female body that tend to be over-sexualized.
=== Society Portraits ===
The Society Portraits is a series of photographs created by Cindy Sherman in 2008. The series features Sherman posing as wealthy, older women.
In Society Portraits, Sherman embodies a range of aging, affluent women. The portraits are characterized by their elaborate costumes, styled hair, and heavy makeup. The women are often adorned with jewelry and designer clothing, and posed in luxurious, though somewhat sterile, settings. Despite the trappings of wealth, the portraits often convey a sense of loneliness, vulnerability, and anxiety. Sherman employs digital manipulation in this series, enhancing wrinkles, sagging skin, and other signs of aging, contributing to the overall effect of unease.
=== 2000s ===
Between 2003 and 2004, Sherman produced the Clowns cycle, where the use of digital photography enabled her to create chromatically garish backdrops and montages of numerous characters. Set against opulent backdrops and presented in ornate frames, the characters in Sherman's 2008 untitled Society Portraits are not based on specific women, but the artist has made them look entirely familiar in their struggle with the standards of beauty that prevail in a youth- and status-obsessed culture.
Her exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 2012 also presented a photographic mural (2010–11) accompanied by films selected by Sherman. In this mural, she photoshopped her face with a decorative backdrop to transform herself into a fictitious environment. Along with other characters, Sherman toys with the idea of reality and fantasy together. Based on a 32-page insert Sherman did for POP using vintage clothes from Chanel's archive, a more recent series of large-scale pictures from 2012 depict outsized enigmatic female figures standing in striking isolation before ominous painterly landscapes the artist had photographed in Iceland during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull and on the isle of Capri.
In 2017, she collaborated on a "selfie" project with W Magazine that was based on the concept of the "plandid", or "the planned candid photograph". Sherman utilized a variety of photo-correction apps to create her Instagram portraits.
From 2019 she showed self-portraits executed as tapestries by a Belgian workshop.
=== Fashion ===
Sherman's career has also included several fashion series, including designs for Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Marc Jacobs. In 1983, fashion designer and retailer Dianne Benson commissioned her to create a series of advertisements for her store, Dianne B., that appeared in several issues of Interview magazine. Untitled #122 from this collection was especially iconic; by working to deemphasise the clothing, she played with the conventions of fashion photography popular at this time. Sherman also created photographs for an editorial in Harper's Bazaar in 1993. In 1994, she produced the Post Card Series for Comme des Garçons for the brand's autumn/winter 1994–95 collections in collaboration with Rei Kawakubo.
In 2006, Sherman created a series of fashion advertisements for designer Marc Jacobs. The advertisements themselves were photographed by Juergen Teller and released as a monograph by Rizzoli. For Balenciaga, Sherman created the six-image series Cindy Sherman: Untitled (Balenciaga) in 2008; they were first shown to the public in 2010. Also in 2010, Sherman collaborated with Anna Hu on a design for a piece of jewelry. She returned to working with Teller on Marc Jacobs' Spring/Summer 2024 campaign.
== Music and films ==
In the early 1990s, Sherman worked with Minneapolis band Babes in Toyland, providing photographs for covers for the albums Fontanelle and Painkillers, creating a stage backdrop used in live concerts, and acting in the promotional video for the song "Bruise Violet." She also worked as a film director.
Sherman moved from photographs to film with her movie Office Killer in 1997, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Molly Ringwald and Carol Kane. Dorine, played by Carol Kane, is a stand-in for Sherman. They have a shared interest in arranging bodies, like a puppeteer, in diorama-like scenes. According to author Dahlia Schweitzer, Office Killer is full of unexpected characters and plot twists. Schweitzer considers the film to be a comedy, horror, melodrama, noir, feminist statement, and an art piece. Echoing similar grisly and gory elements as her Untitled Horror series, the film includes several artistically executed murder scenes. Office Killer grossed $37,446 and received generally poor reviews, which called the film "crude" and "laugh-free." In a review for The New York Times, art critic Roberta Smith states that the film lacks the artist's usual finesse and is a retrospective of her work – "a fascinating if lumpish bit of Shermaniana." Movie critic colleague to Roberta Smith, Stephen Holden, called the film "sadly inept."
Later, she had a cameo role in John Waters' film Pecker, and also appeared in The Feature in 2008, starring ex-husband Michel Auder, which won a New Vision Award.
In 2009, Paul Hasegawa-Overacker and Tom Donahue completed a feature documentary, Guest of Cindy Sherman, about the former's relationship with Sherman. She was initially supportive, but later opposed the project.
In the catalog essay by Philipp Kaiser for Sherman's 2016 exhibition at the Metro Pictures Gallery, he mentioned six short films that Sherman made while in college, and how they were the precursors that eventually led to Office Killer being created. The catalog also includes a conversation between Sherman and the director of the exhibit, Sofia Coppola, in which Sherman admits that she may star in an upcoming film project.
== Exhibitions ==
Sherman's first solo show in New York was presented at a noncommercial space The Kitchen in 1980. When the Metro Pictures Gallery opened later that year, Sherman's photographs were the first show. "Untitled Film Stills" were shown first at the non-profit gallery Artists Space where Sherman was working as a receptionist. Her first solo exhibitions in France were presented by Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris.
Sherman has since participated in many international events, including SITE Santa Fe (2004); the Venice Biennale (1982, 1995); and five Whitney Biennials. In addition to numerous group exhibitions, Sherman's work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1982), Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (1987), Kunsthalle Basel (1991), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (1995), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1998), the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (2003), and Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin (2007), among others. Major traveling retrospectives of Sherman's work have been organized by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam (1996); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1997), which was sponsored by Madonna; and Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Denmark, and Jeu de Paume in Paris (2006–2007). In 2009, Sherman was included in the seminal show "The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 2012, the Museum of Modern Art mounted Cindy Sherman, a show that chronicled Sherman's work from the mid-1970s on and include more than 170 photographs. The exhibition travelled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. In 2013, Sherman was invited to organize a show within that year's Venice Biennale.
In 2016, after a sabbatical from her studio which was spent "coming to terms with health issues and getting older," Sherman produced and staged her first photo gallery in five years. The series, "The Imitation of Life," named after a 1959 melodrama by Douglas Sirk, tackles aging by presenting Sherman in highly stylized glamour portraits inspired by the divas of old Hollywood, such as Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, and Ruby Keeler. The series was exhibited in 2016 at the Metro Pictures Gallery in New York City, and also at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. In 2017 it was shown at the Spruth Magers gallery in Berlin, Germany, and at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2019, the National Portrait Gallery, London, organized a major retrospective of Sherman's works from the mid-1970s to the present. In 2024, at the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Sherman's first exhibition in Greece was held, gathering together over a hundred of her early works.
In 2024, Cindy Sherman exhibited Tapestries at Fotografiska Stockholm, presenting a series of tapestries based on her digitally altered Instagram selfies, marking her first major exploration of this medium.
== Feminism ==
In Sherman's Imitation of Life series of 2016 she poses, in vintage costume and theatrical makeup, as a variety of ageing actress-like women.
When writing about Sherman's "Film Stills" in the journal October, the scholar Douglas Crimp states that Sherman's work is "a hybrid of photography and performance art that reveals femininity to be an effect of representation."
However, Sherman does not consider her work or herself to be feminist, stating "The work is what it is and hopefully it's seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I'm not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff."
Many scholars emphasize the relationship Cindy Sherman's work has with the concept of the gaze. In particular, scholars like Laura Mulvey have analyzed Sherman's Untitled series in relation to the male gaze. In a 1991 essay on Sherman, Mulvey states that ″the accouterments of the feminine struggle to conform to a facade of desirability haunt Sherman's iconography,″ which functions as a parody of different voyeurisms captured by the camera.
Others question whether this confrontation with the male gaze and a feminine struggle was an intentional consideration of Sherman's, and whether this intentionality is important in considering the feminist standpoint of Sherman's photography.
Sherman herself has identified an uncertainty toward the Untitled series' relationship with the male gaze. In a 1991 interview with David Brittain in Creative Camera, Sherman said that "I didn't really analyze it at the time as far as knowing that I was commenting upon some feminist issue. The theories weren't there at all... But now I can look back on some of them, and I think some of them are a little blatantly obvious, too much like the original pin-up pictures of those times, so I have mixed feelings about them now as a whole series."
In addition to questions of the gaze, Sherman's work is also given feminist analysis in the context of abjection. Scholars like Hal Foster and Laura Mulvey interpret Sherman's use of the abject via the grotesque in 1980s projects like Vomit Pictures as de-fetishizing the female body.
Scholar Michele Meager interprets Sherman as having been "crowned a resistant celebrity" to feminist theory.
== Art market ==
In 2010, Sherman's nearly six foot tall chromogenic color print Untitled#153 (1985), featuring the artist as a mud-caked corpse, was sold by Phillips de Pury & Company for $2.7 million, near the $3 million high estimate. In 2011, a print of Untitled#96 fetched $3.89 million at Christie's, making it the most expensive photograph at that time.
Sherman was represented by Metro Pictures for 40 years and also by Sprüth Magers before moving to Hauser & Wirth in 2021.
In April 2023, Phillips NY auctioned the 159 cm x 359 cm sized-Untitled #546 (2010) for a well above-estimate $355,600.
== Influence on contemporary artists ==
Sherman's work is often credited as a major influence for contemporary portrait photographers. One such photographer is Ryan Trecartin, who manipulates themes of identity in his videos and photography. Her influence stretches to artists in other art mediums, including painter Lisa Yuskavage, visual artist Jillian Mayer, and performance artist Tracey Ullman.
In April 2014, actor and artist James Franco exhibited a series of photographs at the Pace Gallery called New Film Stills, in which Franco restaged twenty-nine images from Sherman's Untitled Film Stills. The exhibit garnered mainly negative reviews, calling Franco's appropriations 'sophomoric,' 'sexist,' and 'embarrassingly clueless.'
== Personal life ==
Sherman lived with artist Robert Longo, from 1974 to 1980, who also included her in his 'Men in the Cities' series of photographs. She married director Michel Auder in 1984, making her stepmother to Auder's daughter, Alexandra, and her half-sister Gaby Hoffmann. They divorced in 1999. She was then in a 5-year relationship with Paul Hasegawa-Overacker, creator of a documentary film about Sherman. From 2007 to 2011, she had a relationship with the artist David Byrne.
Between 1991 and 2005, Sherman lived in a fifth-floor co-op loft at 84 Mercer Street in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood; she later sold it to actor Hank Azaria. She bought two floors in a 10-story condo building overlooking the Hudson River in West Soho, and currently uses one as her apartment and the other as her studio and office.
For many years, Sherman spent her summers in the Catskill Mountains. In 2000, she bought songwriter Marvin Hamlisch's 4,200-square-foot house on 0.4 acre in Sag Harbor for $1.5 million. She later acquired a 19th-century home on a ten-acre waterfront property on Accabonac Harbor in East Hampton, New York.
Sherman has expressed contempt for social media platforms, calling them "so vulgar." However, she maintains an active Instagram account featuring her selfies.
== Industry and advocacy work ==
Sherman serves on the artistic advisory committee of the New York City-based Stephen Petronio Company and on the Artists Committee of the Americans for the Arts. Along with David Byrne, she was a member of Portugal's Estoril Film Festival's jury in 2009.
In 2012, she joined Yoko Ono and nearly 150 fellow artists in the founding of Artists Against Fracking, a group in opposition to hydraulic fracturing to remove gas from underground deposits.
In 2023, Sherman served on the jury that chose Sarah Lucas as first winner of the New Museum's $400,000 Hostetler/Wrigley Sculpture Award.
Ahead of the 2024 United States presidential election, Sherman was one of 165 leading contemporary artists who contributed pieces to Artists for Kamala, an online sale with all proceeds raised going directly to Kamala Harris' campaign.
== Publications ==
Inverted Odysseys: Claude Cahun, Maya Deren, Cindy Sherman. MIT Press, 1999. Edited by Shelley Rice. ISBN 0-262-68106-4.
Essential, The: Cindy Sherman. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999. ISBN 0-8109-5808-2.
Cindy Sherman: Retrospective (Paperback). Thames & Hudson, 2000. By Amanda Cruz and Elizabeth A. T. Smith. ISBN 0-500-27987-X.
In Real Life: Six Women Photographers. Holiday House, 2000. By Leslie Sills, et al. ISBN 0-8234-1498-1.
Early Work of Cindy Sherman. Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 2001 ISBN 0-9654020-3-7.
Cindy Sherman: Photographic Works 1975-1995 (Paperback). Schirmer/Mosel, 2002. By Elisabeth Bronfen, et al. ISBN 3-88814-809-X.
Cindy Sherman: The Complete Untitled Film Stills. Museum of Modern Art, 2003. ISBN 0-87070-507-5.
Cindy Sherman: Centerfolds. Skarstedt Fine Art, 2004. ISBN 0-9709090-2-0.
Cindy Sherman: Working Girl. St. Louis, Missouri: Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9712195-8-8.
Cindy Sherman. The MIT Press, 2006. Edited by Johanna Burton. ISBN 0-262-52463-5.
Cindy Sherman: A Play of Selves. Hatje Cantz, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7757-1942-1.
Cindy Sherman. Museum of Modern Art, 2012. ISBN 0870708120.
Cindy Sherman: Untitled Horrors. Hatje Cantz, 2013. ISBN 978-3-7757-3487-5.
Cindy Sherman's Office Killer: Another Kind of Monster. Intellect Books, 2014. By Dahlia Schweitzer. ISBN 1841507075.
== Films ==
Cindy Sherman [videorecording] : Transformations. by Paul Tschinkel; Marc H Miller; Sarah Berry; Stan Harrison; Cindy Sherman; Helen Winer; Peter Schjeldahl; Inner-Tube Video. 2002, 28 minutes, Color. NY: Inner-Tube Video.
== Artistic Style ==
Cindy Sherman’s artistic style is rooted in conceptual photography and explores the construction of identity, gender, and social roles through self-portraiture.She often assumes multiple characters in her work, using costumes, makeup, and props to transform herself, challenging traditional representations of women in media and popular culture. Her early work, such as the Untitled Film Stills series, is characterized by cinematic references and the portrayal of archetypal female figures, highlighting the influence of visual culture on individual identity.In later series, Sherman experimented with digital manipulation and grotesque imagery to question notions of beauty, fame, and social perception.
Sherman’s style is widely recognized for its critical approach to representation, blending realism with theatricality, and making the viewer aware of the artificiality inherent in images.
== Awards and other recognition ==
1981: Artist-in-residence, Light Work, Syracuse, New York
1994: Larry Aldrich Foundation Award
1995: MacArthur Fellowship
1997: Wolfgang Hahn Prize
1999: Hasselblad Award from the Hasselblad Foundation
2001: National Arts Award
2003: American Academy of Arts and Sciences Award
2005: Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Arts
2009: Jewish Museum's Man Ray Award
2009: International Artist Award from Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado.
2010: Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London
2012: Roswitha Haftmann Prize
2012: Honored by actor Steve Martin at the 10th anniversary Gala in the Garden at the Hammer Museum
2012: Sherman was among the artists whose works were given as trophies to the filmmakers of winning pictures in the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival's jury competitions
2013: Honorary doctorate degree from the Royal College of Art, London
2017: Induction into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum
2020: Wolf Prize in Art
2024: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, presented by Awards Council member Jeff Koons
== Collections ==
Works by Sherman are held in the following collections:
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
Jewish Museum (Manhattan), New York, NY
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI
Menil Collection, Houston, TX
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Tate Modern, Bankside, London
== See also ==
Self-portraiture
Blackface in contemporary art
Laurel Nakadate
List of most expensive photographs
Nikki S. Lee
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Kelly, Michael, "Danto and Krauss on Cindy Sherman". In: M. A. Holly & K. Moxey (eds.), Art History, Aesthetics, Visual Studies. Massachusetts: Clark Art Institute, 2002.
Grosenick, Uta; Riemschneider, Burkhard, eds. (2005). Art Now (25th anniversary ed.). Köln: Taschen. pp. 288–291. ISBN 9783822840931. OCLC 191239335.
Hoban, Phoebe, "The Cindy Sherman Effect". Artnews.com. 2012.
== External links ==
Video on Untitled Film Stills and mass media representations |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanele_Muholi#:~:text=legacies%20of%20violence.-,Innovative%20Women%20(2009),Muholi%20and%20photographer%20Nandipha%20Mntambo. | Zanele Muholi | Zanele Muholi (born 1972) is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work that dates back to the early 2000s, documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa's Black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex communities. Muholi is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, explaining that "I'm just human".
Muholi has described themselves as a visual activist as opposed to an artist. They are dedicated to increasing the visibility of black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex people. They researched and documented the stories of hate crimes against the LGBTQI community in order to bring forth the realities of "corrective rape," assault, and HIV/AIDS, to public attention.
Muholi was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2015. They received an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in 2016, a Chevalier de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016, and an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2018.
Muholi had a retrospective exhibition on at Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris from 1 February to 25 May 2023. Their work was also shown that year at Mudec-Museo delle Culture in Milan, from 31 March through 30 July 2023, showcasing 60 self-portraits in black and white chosen especially for Mudec.
== Early life and education ==
Zanele Muholi was born and raised in Umlazi, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Their father was Ashwell Tanji Banda Muholi and their mother was Bester Muholi. They are the youngest of eight children. Muholi's father died shortly after their birth, and their mother was a domestic worker who had to leave her children to work for a white family during apartheid in South Africa. Muholi was raised by an extended family.
Muholi completed an Advanced Photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg in 2003, and held their first solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004. In 2009 they were awarded their Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto. Their thesis mapped the visual history of black lesbian identity and politics in post-Apartheid South Africa.
On 28 October 2013, they were appointed Honorary Professor – video and photography at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany.They were appointed Honorary Professor – video and photography at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany.
== Photography ==
Muholi's photography has been compared to the way W.E.B. DuBois subverted the typical representations of African Americans. Both Muholi and Du Bois have created an archive of photos, working to dismantle dominant, pre-existing perceptions of the subjects they chose to photograph. Muholi views their work as collaborative, referring to the individuals they photograph as "participants" rather than as subjects. With the term "participants" Muholi allows their participants to collaborate on poses instead of Muholi placing them in positions. Seeking to empower their subjects, Muholi often invites participants to speak at events and exhibitions, adding the participant's voice to the conversation. Through their artistic approach they hope to document the journey of the African queer community as a record for future generations. They try to capture the moment without negativity or focusing on the prevalent violence, portraying the LGBTQI community as individuals and as a whole to encourage unity. Thus, their work can be considered documentative, recording the overall community LGBTI of South Africa and their challenges, and at times, more specifically the struggle of black lesbians. Before 1994, black lesbian voices were excluded from the making of a formal queer movement. Muholi's efforts of creating a more positive visualization of LGBTI Africans combats the homophobic-motivated violence that is prevalent in South Africa today, especially in the case of black lesbians. While black women's bodies appear frequently throughout sexualized pop-culture, black lesbians are viewed (through the lens of the patriarchy and heteronormativity) as undesirable. This negative view of homosexuals in Africa lead to violence, such as murder and rape, and rejection from their families. Muholi's Zukiswa (2010), shows an African lesbian woman making eye contact with the viewer, displaying an unwavering gaze of confidence, self-awareness, and determination. This example encourages awareness, acceptance, and positivity with the queer community as well as South Africa.
Although Muholi became known as a photographer who engaged with the then-invisible lives of black lesbians in South Africa, they began to recognize this idea of "gender within gender." In 2003, and their sense of community definitively began to include trans people. Muholi was employed as a photographer and reporter for Behind the Mask, an online magazine on LGBTI issues in Africa.
Muholi first received global attention from the art world in 2012 at Documenta, a world-famous exhibition of modern and contemporary art in (Germany), for a series of portraits of lesbians and transgender participants titled: Faces and Phases. The photos were also exhibited at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
=== Visual Sexuality: Only Half the Picture (2004) ===
Muholi launched their visual activism through their first solo exhibition entitled Visual Sexuality: Only Half the Picture, at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004. This exhibition featured photographs of survivors of rape and hate crimes as well as an image of a rape and an assault case number. The artist explicitly captures the images as to not reveal the person's gender. The viewer may only have access to an above the knee, and hip shot with hands over the genital region. In contrast to their later exhibitions, the people in these images remain anonymous. Although homosexuality is technically protected legally under the South African government, many individuals do not exercise their legal rights publicly in fear of violent backlash. There is also a reluctance to report cases of hate crimes since officials will often ridicule the victim and nothing will be accomplished. This is a systematic use of violence and oppression. In Only Half the Picture series, the artist was able to give LGBT people a voice without ousting their anonymity. Their work is mostly about bringing visibility of queer people in the black community.
=== Faces and Phases (2006–ongoing) ===
In 2006, Muholi began their Faces and Phases project, a series of around three hundred portraits of lesbians, shot in front of plain or patterned backgrounds. The project began in 2006 when Muholi photographed activist and friend Busi Sigasa. Sigasa is a survivor of corrective rape and contracted HIV from the attack. Muholi's concern for their participant's safety dictated that all pictured individuals be of age and fully out. Faces and Phases mocks the "art-in-service-to-science" narrative engrained in colonial images. 18th century botany imagery shows various plants plucked from their natural environment therefore erasing any social or cultural context. This practice emphasizes Western discovery of an object without acknowledging its longstanding existence. According to Susan Kart at Grove Art Online, this project "documents victims of sexual assault and hate crimes, the wedding images share moments of victory, acceptance, and joy for LGBTI families." In Faces and Phases, Muholi utilizes this history and compares it to the representation of LGBTI in South Africa. Black queer individuals have increased dramatically in national representation but this is still an erasure of important context. These individuals are represented in the same way as the botanical prints. There is increased visibility for Western consumption but no attention is paid to the suffering and systematic oppression these individuals face in post-apartheid South Africa. Muholi challenges this in their series by providing names, dates, locations, and representing the participants within a public sphere.
In June 2014, Muholi was back at their alma mater, showing Faces and Phases at the Ryerson Image Centre as part of WorldPride. In the same month they showed at the Singapore International Arts Festival's O.P.E.N. where they also spoke on legacies of violence.
=== Innovative Women (2009) ===
In 2009, the Innovative Women exhibition was shown in South Africa in the cities of Durban and Cape Town. It was curated by painter Bongi Bhengu and features their work as well as 9 other artists including Muholi and photographer Nandipha Mntambo. In August 2009, the Minister of Arts and Culture Lulu Xingwana walked out of the exhibition due to Muholi's photography, calling it immoral, offensive and going against nation-building. In their response Muholi said "It's paralysing. I expected people to think before they act, and to ask questions. I wanted to create dialogue."
=== Trans(figures) (2010–2011) ===
Their Trans(figures) (2010–2011) project embraces lesbian and trans life. The portraits are taken in urban and rural settings in South Africa and internationally.
=== Of Love & Loss (2014) ===
Muholi's 2014 exhibition, Of Love & Loss, focused on the violence and hate crimes experienced by members of the LGBTQIA communities in South Africa. Juxtaposing images of weddings and funerals, the show included photographs, video works and installation elements. An element of autobiography featured images of Muholi and their partner. This exhibition furthermore exemplifies why Muholi calls themself a visual activist rather than an artist and it shows their battle scars. They bring these harsh issues into light with such powerful contrast, as a way to show resistance. Muholi calls this as just one of their many responsibilities, and these harsh and cruel realities cannot be ignored.
=== Brave Beauties (2014) ===
A series focusing on capturing the portraits of trans women, Brave Beauties was shot outside the studio and on location throughout South Africa. This "mobile studio" was a further expression of Muholi's celebration of LGBTQIA visibility as equal citizens of their country, an embrace of artistic freedom and a gesture of rejecting the limitations that studios can present. While on show at the Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, an "activist wall" encouraged the participants to write directly on the gallery walls about their experiences, stories and vision. A gesture of destabilization, the activist wall was another expression of Muholi's desire to empower the participants in their work.
=== Isibonelo/Evidence (2015) ===
In 2015, Muholi presented 87 works in their solo Isibonelo/Evidence at the Brooklyn Museum. The meaning of the show's title, in which "Isibonelo" roughly translates from Zulu to "evidence," referred to its contents, which were split into three main sections separated on three walls. The first featured a decade-long chronology of hate crimes in South Africa, and faced the second, which was covered in handwritten messages from members of the LGBTQIA communities. The third and final wall consisted of portraits, including one of Muholi themself.
=== Somnyama Ngonyama ("Hail the Dark Lioness") (2012–present) ===
In 2014 Muholi began working on 365 self portraits for the series Somnyama Ngonyama. The portraits are alter egos, often with a Zulu name.That Muholi turned the camera towards themselves in this series is a departure from their previous work. Muholi explains, “I needed it to be my own portraiture. I didn't want to expose another person to this pain. I was also thinking about how acts of violence are intimately connected to our faces. Remember that when a person is violated, it frequently starts with the face: it’s the face that disturbs the perpetrator, which then leads to something else. Hence the face is the focal point in the series: facing myself and facing the viewer, the camera, directly.”
For most of the pieces in the collection Muholi exaggerated the darkness of their skin tone to reclaim their blackness from its performance by "privileged others." This, academic and critic Nomusa Makhubu explains, is in reference to the appropriation of blackness in minstrel performance. Of this series, the writer and cultural historian Maurice Berger has this to say: "The self-portraits function on various levels and pay homage to the history of black women in Africa and beyond, the dark lionesses of the book’s title. They reimagine black identity in ways that are largely personal but inevitably political. And they challenge the stereotypes and oppressive standards of beauty that often ignore people of color."
This series had a debut exhibition at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York in 2015. It was shown in London in 2017 and in Times Square in New York City as digital billboards during the city's autumn 2017 Performa Biennial festival. Previews in Muholi's New York gallery were sold out. The photos were published in a 2018 book published by Aperture. In 2019 Muholi won the Photography Book award from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation for Somnyama Ngonyama. Hail, the Dark Lioness.
== Activism ==
In 2002, Muholi co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), a black lesbian organization dedicated to providing a safe space for women to meet and organize.
=== Inkanyiso (2009) ===
In 2006 Zanele Muholi conceptualized a platform that promoted Queer Activism = Queer media. With the intention of a flexible and unique source of information for art advocacy. In 2009, Muholi founded Inkanyiso ("illuminate" in Zulu), a non-profit organisation concerned with queer visual activism. In 2009, Muholi registered the non-profit organization with Department of Social Services (NPO 073–402). It is involved with visual arts and media advocacy for and on behalf of the LGBTI community. The organization's vision statement is "Produce. Educate. Disseminate."
=== Women's Mobile Museum (2018) ===
In 2018, Muholi collaborated with photographer Lindeka Qampi, and the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC), to create and mentor a cohort of women artists in Philadelphia. Called the Women's Mobile Museum, the collaborative project culminated in a special exhibition at the PPAC featuring works by the participating artists. According to art critic Megan Voeller: "For nearly nine months, they underwent a professional boot camp at PPAC, starting with technical workshops in digital camerawork, lighting and Photoshop and progressing to assembling and promoting an exhibition."
=== Somnyama Ngonyama (2021) ===
In 2021, Muholi produced a colouring book of their exhibition Somnyama Ngonyama to engage South-African children who are categorised as youth until the age of 35, as a result of the apartheid. Workshops teaching photography and painting were organised in parallel to provide the opportunity of an art education to underprivileged regions. The matter is of personal concern to the artist as someone who grew up under similar circumstances faced with conditions that they are still trying to 'break through' today. 'My activism now focuses on education and building arts infrastructure in places that are rural or still considered peripheral,' Muholi tells Ocula Magazine.
== Documentaries ==
In 2010, Muholi co-directed their documentary Difficult Love, which was commissioned by SABC. Difficult Love provides a look into Muholi's life and the lives, loves and struggles of other black lesbians in South Africa. In the documentary Muholi presents the stories and people that inspired them to create their images. It has shown in South Africa, USA, Spain, Sweden, UK, Amsterdam, Paris (Festival Cinefable) and Italy. In 2013, Muholi co-directed a documentary called We Live in Fear, released by Human Rights Watch.
== Attacks and robberies ==
On 20 April 2012, Muholi's flat in Vredehoek was robbed, with over twenty primary and back-up external hard drives containing five years' worth of photos and video being stolen with their laptop. Photos contained therein include records of the funerals of Black South African lesbians murdered in hate crimes. Nothing else was stolen, raising suspicions that Muholi's recordings of Black lesbian life was targeted. Muholi was overseas at the time of the robbery. This effectively erased the previous five years of Muholi's work. A few weeks later they said, "I'm still traumatized by the burglary" and, "It's hard to fall asleep in this place, which is now a crime scene, as I dealt with many crime scenes before."
In July 2017, a collaborator of Muholi's, Sibahle Nkumbi, was pushed down a staircase in Amsterdam by their Airbnb host while visiting the Netherlands to cover the opening of Muholi's exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum. Nkumbi was hospitalised, sustaining a concussion and substantial bruising. Video footage of the confrontation subsequently went viral, and the host was charged with attempted manslaughter.
== Publication ==
Zanele Muholi: Only Half The Picture. Cape Town: Michael Stevenson, 2006. ISBN 0-620361468.
Faces and Phases. Munich; Berlin; London; New York: Prestel, 2010. ISBN 978-3-7913-4495-9.
Zanele Muholi. African Women Photographers #1. Granada, Spain: Casa África/La Fábrica, 2011. ISBN 978-8-4150-3466-7.
Faces + Phases 2006–14. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2014. ISBN 978-3-86930-807-4.
Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness. Renée Mussai (author), Zanele Muholi (photographer), et al., New York: Aperture, 2018, ISBN 978-1597114240.
== Exhibitions ==
=== Solo exhibitions ===
2004: Visual Sexuality, as part of Urban Life (Market Photo Workshop exhibition), Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006: Vienna Kunsthalle project space, Vienna: Slide Show
2014: Faces and Phases, Massimadi Festival, Montreal, Canada
2015: Zanele Muholi: Vukani/Rise, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, England
2015: Somnyama Ngonyama, Yancey Richardson, New York, NY, USA
2017: Zanele Muholi, Stedelijk, Amsterdam
2017: Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Autograph ABP, London
2017: Zanele Muholi Homecoming: Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2018: Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness Spelman College Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA
2019: Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
2019: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Seattle Art Museum, WA, USA
2020/21: Zanele Muholi, Tate Modern, London (delayed opening) – their biggest solo exhibition to date
2022: Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA
2022: Zanele Muholi, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
2023: Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris
2023: Muholi: A Visual Activist, Museo delle culture (Milano), Milan, Italy
2023: Zanele Muholi, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland
2024: Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2024: Zanele Muholi, Tate Modern, London
=== Group exhibitions ===
2011: Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
2016: Systematically Personae at the FotoFocus Biennal, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
2017: Art/Afrique, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France
2018: Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, USA
2018: Legacy of the Cool: A Tribute to Barkley L. Hendricks, MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Boston, MA, USA
2019: Yithi Laba. A group exhibition by Lindeka Qampi, Neo Ntsoma, Zanele Muholi, Ruth Seopedi Motau and Berni Searle at Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019: 58th Venice Biennale curated by Ralph Rugoff
2020: Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, TX, USA
2020: Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX, USA
2020: Crossing Views, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
2020: African Cosmologies: Fotofest Biennial 2020, Houston, Texas, USA
2020: Sydney Biennale 2020, Sydney Australia
2021: Afro-Atlantic Histories, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA
2021: Interior Infinite, The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2021: THIS IS NOT AFRICA – UNLEARN WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark; Red Clay, Ghana
2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, LACMA, Los Angeles, California, USA
2022: Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA
2022: Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection, ICA Miami, Miami, FL, USA
2022: A Gateway to Possible Worlds, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
2022: The Work of Love, the Queer of Labor, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2022: Facing Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives, Brampton, ON, Canada
2023: Facing Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives, Brampton, ON, Canada
2023: Black Venus, Fotografiska, New York, NY
2023: Museu de l’art Prohibit, Barcelona, Spain
2023: La Cinquième Saison (The Fifth Season), Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France
2023: Love & Anarchy, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC
2023: Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st Century Art and Poetics, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
2023: Africa Fashion, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
2023: Black Venus: Reclaiming Black Women in Visual Culture, Somerset House, London, UK
2023: Youth vs. Crisis: A Generation in Search of a Future, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
2023: A Gateway to Possible Worlds, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
2023: Coyote Park: I Love You Like Mirrors Do, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
2023: Trace – Formations of Likeness: Photography and Video from The Walther Collection, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2023: Lente Africana; fotografia subsahariana de la colleción del Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA
2023: Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia, Bogotá, Colombia
2023: Nudes – Art from the Tate, LWL Museum for Art and Culture, Münster, Germany
2023: Photography Real and Imagined, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
2023: Afro-Atlantic Histories, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
2023: This is Me, This is You. The Eva Felten Photography Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
2023: Dawn of Humanity: Art in Periods of Upheaval, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
2023: Corps à corps: Histoire(s) de la photographie, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2023: Veneradas y Temidas: El poder femenino en el arte y las creencias, CaixaForum Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2024: Photography Real and Imagined, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Afro-Atlantic Histories, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
2024: Dawn of Humanity: Art in Periods of Upheaval, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany Corps à corps: Histoire(s) de la photographie, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2024: This is Me, This is You. The Eva Felten Photography Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
2024: Turning the Page, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
2024: Veneradas y Temidas: El poder femenino en el arte y las creencias, CaixaForum Madrid, Madrid, Spain; CaixaForum Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; CaixaForum Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain; CaixaForum Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
=== Curated exhibitions ===
2016: Co-curated a show at Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, Arles, France
== Awards ==
2005: Tollman Award for the Visual Arts
2006: BHP Billiton/Wits University Visual Arts Fellowship
2009: Thami Mnyele Residency in Amsterdam
2009: Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
2009: Fondation Blachère award at African Photography Encounters (Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie, Biennale Africaine de la photographie) in Bamako, Mali
2009: Fanny Ann Eddy accolade from IRN-Africa for their outstanding contributions to the study of sexuality in Africa
2012: Civitella Ranieri Fellowship by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Italy
2013: Freedom of Expression award by Index on Censorship
2013: Glamour Magazine named them Campaigner of the Year
2013: Winner of the Fine Prize for the 2013 Carnegie International
2013: Prince Claus Award
2013: Feather Award (South Africa's LGBTI Awards)
2015: Shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for Faces and Phases 2006–2014
2015: Light Work Artist-in-Residence Program, Syracuse, NY, USA
2016: Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism from the International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA
2016: Africa's Out! Courage + Creativity Award
2016: Outstanding International Alumni Award from Ryerson University
2017: Mbokodo Award (Visual Art) for South African Women in the Arts
2017: Chevalier de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knighthood of the Order Arts and Letters)
2018: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England
2019: Rees Visionary Award, Amref Health Africa, New York, USA
2019: Lucie Humanitarian Award
2019 Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Best Photography Book Award
== Collections ==
Muholi's work is held in the following public collections:
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (7 prints)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (3 prints as of October 2018)
Museum of Modern Art, New York (6 prints as of March 2019)
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (1 featured print as of March 2019)
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2 prints as of March 2019)
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Tate Modern, London (15 pieces)
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (3 prints as of August 2020)
National Museum of Women in the Arts
== References ==
== External links ==
"My year as a dark lioness – in pictures " – a gallery of photographs in The Guardian
"Zanele Muholi: Mobile Studio" from Art21
Zanele Muholi at Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Zanele Muholi at Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, New York, USA
Zanele Muholi at La MEP, Paris, France |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Legal_career | 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/List_of_University_of_Puerto_Rico_people | List of University of Puerto Rico people | This list of University of Puerto Rico people includes alumni, faculty, and presidents of University of Puerto Rico systemwide.
== US Armed Forces ==
Ricardo Aponte, brigadier general, U.S. Air Force
Salvador E. Felices, major general, U.S. Air Force
Jacob Lozada, colonel, U.S. Army, assistant secretary of veterans affairs
José Antonio Muñiz, lieutenant colonel, U.S. Air Force; together with then-Colonels Alberto A. Nido and Mihiel Gilormini he founded the Puerto Rico Air National Guard. In 1963, the Air National Guard Base, at the San Juan International airport in Puerto Rico, was renamed "Muñiz Air National Guard Base" in his honor.
Antonio J. Ramos, brigadier general, U.S. Air Force
Pedro N. Rivera, brigadier general, U.S. Air Force
== Business ==
Gildo Massó, founder and CEO of Masso Enterprises
== Sports ==
Bernie Williams, former New York Yankees center fielder, MLB
== Science ==
Ricardo Alegría, scholar, cultural anthropologist and archeologist known as the "Father of Modern Puerto Rican Archaeology"
Rafael L. Bras, American civil engineer, currently serves as provost to the Georgia Institute of Technology
Nitza Margarita Cintron, scientist, currently the chief of space medicine and health care systems at NASA
Marcia Cruz-Correa, physician-scientist and gastroenterologist
Orlando Figueroa, director of the Mars Exploration Program in NASA
Enectalí Figueroa-Feliciano, astrophysicist and researcher with the NASA who pioneered the development position-sensitive detectors
Adolfo Figueroa-Viñas, Ph.D., first Puerto Rican astrophysicist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and is an expert in solar and space plasma physics at the Heliophysics Science Division
Joxel García, Puerto Rican physician and former four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
Grizelle González, ecologist at the Sabana Field Research Station
Sixto Gonzalez, first Puerto Rican to be named director of the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest single-dish radio telescope
Olga D. González-Sanabria, Puerto Rican scientist and inventor and the highest-ranking Hispanic at NASA Glenn Research Center
Amri Hernandez-Pellerano, Puerto Rican electronics engineer and scientist
Ramón López Irizarry, educator and scientist who invented "Coco Lopez"
Antonio Mignucci, biological oceanographer specializing in the biology, management and conservation of marine mammals
Enrique Pérez Santiago, first Puerto Rican hematologist, he began the formal program at the University of Puerto Rico Hospital
Mercedes Reaves, Puerto Rican research engineer and scientist
Pedro Rodriguez, director of a test laboratory at NASA and inventor
Helen Rodriguez Trias, women's rights activist and recipient of the Presidential Citizen's Medal.
== Liberal arts ==
Magali Carrasquillo, actress and teacher
Juan Antonio Corretjer, poet, journalist and pro-independence political activist opposing United States rule in Puerto Rico
Luz Odilia Font, actress
Luis Roberto Guzmán, musician, TV and film actor, two-time nominee for "TVyNovela" awards.
Enrique Laguerre, writer, poet, teacher and critic
Samuel Molina, actor, writer, poet and comedian
Rubén Sánchez, main radio news personality at Univisión Radio (WKAQ-AM) as well as anchorman for several TV daily news interview programs
== Law and politics ==
Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (B.A. 1982, J.D. 1985), 8th governor of Puerto Rico (2005–2009), U.S. representative (Resident Commissioner), D-Puerto Rico (2001–2004), state representative, Puerto Rico House of Representatives (1992–1999).
José Aponte (B.B.A. 1980), state representative, Puerto Rico House of Representatives (2001–present).
Norma Burgos (B.A., M.P.A.), state senator, Puerto Rico Senate (2001–present).
Sila M. Calderón (M.P.A.), 7th governor of Puerto Rico (2001–2005), mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico (1997–2001).
Antonio Fas Alzamora (J.D.), state senator, Puerto Rico Senate (1977–present), state representative, Puerto Rico House of Representatives (1973–1977).
Ruth Fernández, former senator, Puerto Rico Senate
Rogelio Figueroa, 2008 gubernatorial candidate for the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR) party
Miguel A. García Méndez, former Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives
Rafael Hernández Colón, 4th Governor of Puerto Rico first term (1973–1977), second term (1985–1993, state senator, Puerto Rico Senate (1969–1973).
Hans Hertell, former United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic
Jesús T. Piñero, first native Puerto Rican to be appointed governor of Puerto Rico by the Government of the United States
Juan Mari Brás, advocate for Puerto Rican independence from the United States who founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP).
Wilfredo Mattos Cintrón, teacher at the university, advocate of Puerto Rican independence who was, along with Mari Brás, a member of the PSP.
Kenneth McClintock, current Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, fulfilling the role of lieutenant governor (first-in-line of succession) in the U.S. territory.
Adolfo L. Monserrate Anselmi, former state representative, Puerto Rico House of Representatives
Luis Negrón López, state senator, Puerto Rico Senate
Carlos Romero Barceló (J.D. 1956), U.S. representative (Resident commissioner), D-Puerto Rico (1993–2000), 5th governor of Puerto Rico (1977–1985), state senator, Puerto Rico Senate (1986–1988), mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico (1969–1977).
Pedro Rosselló (M.P.H. 1981), 6th governor of Puerto Rico (1993–2001), state senator, Puerto Rico Senate (2005–2008).
Nydia Velázquez (B.A. 1974), U.S. representative, D-New York (1993–present)
Carlos M. García Zambrana, politician
== Other ==
Juan Miguel Betancourt, Catholic bishop
F. Javier Cevallos, president of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Danyeshka Hernández, Miss Universe Puerto Rico 2017
Luis S. Fraticelli, FBI director for Puerto Rico
Mariblanca Sabas Alomá, Cuban feminist and journalist
Carlos E. Santiago, current chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and chief executive officer in Hispanic College Fund
María Reinat-Pumarejo, activist
== Notable faculty ==
Eugenio S. Belaval
Ruben Berrios, law professor at the University of Puerto Rico's Law School
Facundo Bueso Sanllehí - Guggenheim Fellow, physicist and educator
Carlos Díaz Olivo, candidate for mayor of San Juan in 1992, corporate law professor
Victoria Espinosa, Professor of Theatre
Edwin Irizarry Mora, candidate for governor of Puerto Rico in the 2008, professor of economics
Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956
Luce López-Baralt, professor of Spanish and comparative literature at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Carolina Marcial Dorado, Spanish language professor
Roberto Sánchez Vilella, second Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1965 to 1969
Luisa R. Seijo Maldonado, (MSW 1972) activist, social worker and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Pedro Juan Soto, Puerto Rican writer
Rexford Tugwell, served as the last appointed American Governor of Puerto Rico from 1941 to 1946, also served as chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico
== Presidents ==
== Alumni associations ==
Association of the University of Puerto Rico Alumni and Friends Abroad (UPRAA).
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_George_Masih | Augustine George Masih | Augustine George Masih (born 12 March 1963) is a judge of Supreme Court of India. He is a former chief justice of the Rajasthan High Court and a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
== Early life and education ==
He was born on 12 March 1963 at Ropar in Punjab. He did his primary education at St. Mary’s Convent School, Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh and then completed school education from high school at Saifuddin Tahir High School, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
He graduated with a degree in Science (Hons.) and then did his LLB (Hons.) from the Aligarh Muslim University at Aligarh.
== Career ==
=== As Advocate ===
He enrolled as an Advocate on the rolls of Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana on 6 June 1987. He practised constitutional law, service law, labour law, and civil law matters on both original and appellate sides. He practised and appeared at several Tribunals, the Punjab and Haryana, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh High Courts and the Supreme Court.
During his practice at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he held the posts of Assistant Advocate General, Deputy Advocate General and Additional Advocate General in office of Advocate General, Punjab.
=== As Judge ===
On 10 July 2008, Justice Masih was sworn in as an Additional Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court and on 14 January 2014 made a Permanent Judge of the High Court. He held the office until he was elevated as the 41st Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court on 30 May 2023.
On 6 November 2023, the Supreme Court collegium recommended Justice Masih as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. The resolution observed that during his long tenure as a judge of the High Court, Justice Masih had significant experience in diverse fields of law. The resolution also noted that Justice Masih’s appointment will bring diversity and inclusion to the Supreme Court as he belongs to a minority community. He took oath of office as Judge of Supreme Court on 9 November 2023.
He is due to retire from Supreme Court on 11 March 2028.
== See also ==
List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Strekalin | Denys Strekalin | Denys Strekalin (born 31 March 1999) is a Ukrainian-born pair skater who competes for France with Megan Wessenberg.
With previous partner, Océane Piegad, he is the 2024 French national silver medalist.
With former skating partner, Cléo Hamon, he is a two-time French national champion (2020, 2021), 2018 Volvo Open Cup champion, and has competed in the final segment at three World Junior Championships (2017–2019).
== Career ==
=== In Ukraine ===
Strekalin began learning to skate in 2006. Competing in men's singles, he placed seventh at the Ukrainian Junior Championships in 2013 and 2015. He also trained in pair skating with Sofiia Nesterova.
=== Partnership with Hamon ===
==== Early seasons ====
In August 2016, Strekhalin teamed up with Cleo Hamon to compete for France in pairs. Coached by Mehdi Bouzzine in Courbevoie, they made their international debut in February 2017, placing seventh in junior pairs at the Bavarian Open. In March, they placed fourteenth at the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei, Taiwan.
In September 2017, Hamon/Strekalin debuted on the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series, placing eighth in Riga, Latvia. In December, appearing on the senior level, they won silver at the French Championships, behind Lola Esbrat / Andrei Novoselov. In March, they finished eleventh at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Competing in the 2018 JGP series, Hamon/Strekalin placed sixth in Linz, Austria, and fifth in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Making their senior international debut, the pair took gold at the Volvo Open Cup in November 2018. In March 2019, they finished ninth at the 2019 World Junior Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
==== 2019–20 season ====
After placing eighth at the 2019 JGP United States, Hamon/Streklain debuted on the senior Challenger series with a seventh-place finish at the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy. They would go on to place tenth at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup and ninth at their first European Championships. Hamon/Strekalin also won the French senior national title for the first time, due to the absence of James/Cipres from the competition season. They finished the season at the 2020 World Junior Championships, where they placed fifth. Hamon/Strekalin were scheduled to participate in the 2020 World Championships in Montreal, which would have been their senior World debut, but these were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
==== 2020–21 season ====
With the pandemic ongoing, Hamon/Strekalin began the new season at the 2020 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, where only pairs training in Europe competed. They were fourth after the short program, and after the top-ranked Hase/Seegert withdrew, they placed third in the free and won the bronze medal.
Hamon/Strekalin were scheduled to make their Grand Prix debut at the 2020 Internationaux de France, but the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.
In February, they won their second straight National title. Later that month, they competed at the International Challenge Cup, placing fifth. On 1 March they were named to the team for the 2021 World Championships. They placed twentieth in their World Championship debut. Hamon/Strekalin finished the season at the 2021 World Team Trophy, where they finished fifth in both segments, and Team France finished in fifth place overall.
==== 2021–22 season ====
Hamon/Strekalin began the season at the 2021 Lombardia Trophy, where they finished in fourth place.
They were originally scheduled to compete at the Nebelhorn Trophy, where the final Olympics spots would be decided, but were later replaced by Coline Keriven / Noël-Antoine Pierre. It was later announced that Hamon would be taking a break from figure skating due to health issues from burnout, and that had been the reason for them being replaced at the Nebelhorn Trophy.
=== Partnership with Piegad ===
==== 2022–23 season ====
On 31 January 2022 Strekalin announced that he had formed a new partnership with former singles skater Océane Piegad. Coached by Laurent Depouilly, Nathalie Depouilly, and Dominique Deniaud, the pair made their competitive debut at the 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, where they finished in eleventh place, and then competed at the 2022 Master's de Patinage, winning the silver medal.
Invited to make their Grand Prix debut at the 2022 Grand Prix de France, they finished seventh of seven teams at the event. They went on to place fourth at the 2022 Bavarian Open and seventh at the 2023 International Challenge Cup.
==== 2023–24 season ====
Piegad/Strekalin began the season with a tenth-place finish at the 2023 CS Lombardia Trophy, before coming seventh at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy. Appearing on the Grand Prix at the 2023 Grand Prix de France, they finished fifth.
==== 2024–25 season ====
Piegad/Strekalin were assigned to the 2024 Grand Prix de France. They withdrew from the competition on September 17. On September 23, they announced their spilt due to injury.
=== Partnership with Wessenberg ===
==== 2025–26 season ====
In June 2025, it was Strekalin announced that he had teamed up with American-born figure skater, Megan Wessenberg, and they would split their time between training in France with Bruno Massot and the United States with Stefania Berton and Rockne Brubaker.
The team debuted at the 2025 Master's de Patinage, where they won the bronze medal. They then went on to compete at the 2025 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, finishing in seventeeth place.
== Programs ==
=== With Wessenberg ===
=== With Piegad ===
=== With Hamon ===
== Competitive highlights ==
=== Pairs with Wessenberg for France ===
=== Pairs with Piegad for France ===
=== Pairs with Hamon for France ===
=== Men's singles for Ukraine ===
== References ==
== External links ==
Cléo Hamon / Denys Strekalin at the International Skating Union |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_R%26B_singles_of_1993_(U.S.) | List of number-one R&B singles of 1993 (U.S.) | Billboard published a weekly chart in 1993 ranking the top-performing singles in the United States in African American-oriented genres; the chart has undergone various name changes over the decades to reflect the evolution of black music and has been published as Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since 2005. In 1993, it was published under the title Hot R&B Singles, and 15 different singles reached number one.
Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" broke several chart records that year. Already number one for four weeks the previous year, it would spend seven more weeks at number one. In doing so, it became the first single in the history of the R&B charts to block a new song from entering number one in the beginning of the year. Also with the song spending eleven weeks at number one, it broke the record for being the longest-running number one single since Billboard merged its previously separate R&B sales and airplay charts in 1958.
A number of acts topped the chart for the first time in 1993: Naughty by Nature, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Silk, H-Town, SWV, Tag Team, Ice Cube, Das EFX, Xscape and DRS.
On the issue of Billboard, dated February 20, 1993, hip-hop group Naughty by Nature entered number one with their single "Hip Hop Hooray". It was replaced the following week by the duo of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg with their single, "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang", staying at the top spot for two weeks. The single was the leading track off Dr. Dre's solo debut album, The Chronic, which would go on to become one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s and one of the best-produced hip-hop albums. In 2019, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Snoop Dogg himself would later release his own debut solo album, Doggystyle, which like The Chronic, would also go on to become one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the most important hip-hop albums ever released. Much like The Chronic, the distinctive sounds of Doggystyle helped introduce the hip-hop subgenre of G-funk to a mainstream audience, bringing forward West Coast hip-hop as a dominant force in the early-mid 1990s. Snoop Dogg would go on to have a prolific music career, selling over 23 million albums in the United States, and 35 million albums worldwide.
The Atlanta-based R&B group Silk's "Freak Me" would top the charts for nine straight weeks, the longest run of any act that year, starting from March 13 until May 1. Many of the band's early hits were produced by Keith Sweat. The Houston-based vocal group H-Town hit number one with their song "Knockin' Da Boots", which was then replaced after four weeks by the female vocal group SWV's first number one single "SWV", which was inspired by writer Brian Alexander Morgan's crush on the R&B singer Chante Moore, spending two weeks at the top spot.
Tag Team's "Whoomp! (There It Is)" then replaced that song at number one. Rapper Ice Cube also hit number one for the first time with his song "Check Yo Self", which featured the rap group Das EFX. On the October 16 issue, another R&B vocal group Xscape scored their first number one single with the Jermaine Dupri-produced "Just Kickin' It" for four weeks. They were then replaced by the song "Gangsta Lean" from the vocal group DRS, which spent six weeks at number one from November 13 to December 18. SWV was the only act that year to have two number one singles. Four of 1993's R&B number-ones also topped Billboard's pop chart, the Hot 100.
== Chart history ==
== See also ==
1993 in music
List of number-one R&B hits (United States)
List of number-one R&B albums of 1993 (U.S.)
== References ==
=== Works cited ===
Whitburn, Joel (1996). Joel Whitburn's Top R & B Singles, 1942–1995. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-115-4.
Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-160-4.
Whitburn, Joel (2005). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 1955–2002. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-155-0. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Triple_Tiara_of_Thoroughbred_Racing#:~:text=In%201979%2C%20Davona%20Dale%20was%20the%20only%20filly%20to%20have%20won%20any%20combination%20of%20races%20seriously%20proposed%20for%20the%20National%20Triple%20Tiara. | American Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing | The Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing, formerly known as the Filly Triple Crown, is a set of three horse races in the United States which is open to three-year-old fillies. Presently, the only official Triple Tiara is the three race series in New York: the Acorn Stakes, run at Belmont Park at a distance of 1+1⁄16 miles (1.7 km), the Coaching Club American Oaks, run at Saratoga Race Course at a distance of 1+1⁄8 miles (1.8 km), and the Alabama Stakes, run at Saratoga at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km).
== History ==
There have been attempts to develop a "Filly Triple Crown" or a Triple Tiara for fillies only, but no set series of three races consistently remained in the public eye. At least four different configurations of races have been designated as such. Two fillies won the series of the Kentucky Oaks, the Pimlico Oaks (now the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes), and the Coaching Club American Oaks, in 1949 and 1952, but the racing press did not designate either accomplishment as a "triple crown". The New York Racing Association designated three of its races as a filly triple crown of sorts, but the races so designated changed over the years. Eight fillies won variations of the NYRA Triple Tiara between 1968 and 1993.
== The New York Filly Triple Tiara (1957–2002 and 2007–2009) ==
The original Triple Tiara consisted of three races at Belmont Park: the 1 mile Acorn Stakes, the 1+1⁄8 miles (1.8 km) Mother Goose Stakes, and the Coaching Club American Oaks, which varied in distance between 1+1⁄4 and 1+1⁄2 miles (2.0 and 2.4 km).
Eight horses have won the series under this system:
Dark Mirage (1968) (also won the Kentucky Oaks)
Shuvee (1969)
Chris Evert (1974)
Ruffian (1975)
Davona Dale (1979) (also won the Kentucky Oaks and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes)
Mom's Command (1985)
Open Mind (1989) (also won the Kentucky Oaks)
Sky Beauty (1993)
Four horses (Shuvee, Mom's Command, Open Mind, and Sky Beauty) have also won the Alabama Stakes in the same year. The Alabama has been part of the Triple Tiara series since 2010, and was also part of that series from 2003 through 2006.
== The New York Filly Triple Tiara (2003–2006) ==
In 2003, the Triple Tiara was reconfigured for a time to consist of the Mother Goose Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks, and the Alabama Stakes, a 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) race held in August at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The New York Racing Association, the operator of Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, once offered a $2 million bonus to any filly that won all three races. The bonus was discontinued in 2005. In 2007, the New York Racing Association reverted to the original three races of the tiara: the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Coaching Club American Oaks. No filly swept this reconfigured series.
== The New York Filly Triple Tiara (2010–present) ==
The Triple Tiara is now a set of three horse races in New York which is open to three-year-old fillies. The three races that compose the series now are the Acorn Stakes, run at Belmont Park at a distance of 1 mile, the Coaching Club American Oaks, run at Saratoga Race Course at a distance of 1+1⁄8 miles (1.8 km) and the Alabama Stakes, also run at Saratoga at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km). The current race system was implemented in 2010 by the New York Racing Association, and the series is sponsored by Betfair and TVG. No filly has swept this reconfigured series.
== National Triple Tiara proposals ==
In recent years, many owners and trainers of fillies have submitted proposals to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to change the three races that compose the Triple Tiara. Although a great deal of prestige is attached to winning one or more of the current Triple Tiara races, all three are held in New York; because of this, the series is skewed to fillies that race in the northeast. Some from outside the area even modify the name of the series by calling it the "New York Triple Tiara".
Several options of races have been suggested to compose the "National Triple Tiara". The most popular proposal of a "National Triple Tiara" are three races that are on the undercard of the three Triple Crown races for three-year-old males. The National Triple Tiara consists of the Kentucky Oaks, run at Churchill Downs in Louisville; the George E. Mitchell Stakes, run at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore; and the Acorn Stakes, run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. These three races are run on the same or similar date, and on the same racetrack, as the three races in the Triple Crown for colts.
Another proposal has been to use the Kentucky Oaks, the George E. Mitchell Stakes, and the Mother Goose Stakes. This version would allow more time for fillies to recuperate between races. Using the Mother Goose would also allow the New York Racing Association to keep the New York Triple Tiara (the Acorn Stakes, the Coaching Club American Oaks, and the Alabama Stakes) in place without interfering with the three National races.
In 1979, Davona Dale was the only filly to have won any combination of races seriously proposed for the National Triple Tiara. She won the three National Triple Tiara races, the Kentucky Oaks, the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (the race was renamed the George E. Mitchell Stakes in 2020), and the Acorn Stakes. She also won the Mother Goose Stakes; thereby two races in the New York Triple Tiara as well.
A prime reason for favoring the National Triple Tiara is that the Kentucky Oaks are the most popular races for fillies and draws one of the biggest crowds of any stakes races throughout the year (behind only the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes). The Kentucky Oaks consistently outdraws the Belmont Stakes, the Travers Stakes, and the Breeders' Cup series. On the other hand, the George E. Mitchell is currently only a Grade II race, as few modern trainers are willing to race their fillies with only two weeks rest after the Kentucky Oaks. However, champion filly Silverbulletday did it in 1999, proving that it is still possible.
== References ==
== External links ==
A look at the Triple Tiara at Hello Race Fans |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Cortez#:~:text=The%20Nike%20Cortez%20is%20the%20first%20track%20shoe%20released%20by%20Nike%20in%201972%2C%20and%20is%20therefore%20thought%20to%20be%20a%20significant%20aspect%20to%20the%20success%20of%20the%20company. | Nike Cortez | The Nike Cortez is the first running shoe released by Nike in 1972, and is therefore thought to be a significant aspect to the success of the company. The Cortez was first designed by Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, aiming to produce a comfortable and durable running shoe for distance training and road running. The Nike Cortez was released at the peak of the 1972 Summer Olympics, and quickly gained interest by the general public. The shoe previously known as the Onitsuka Tiger Cortez was later renamed to the Onitsuka Tiger Corsair after Nike won a court battle to continue using the name in 1974.
== History ==
=== Initial partnerships ===
The Nike Cortez was created by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The men first met in 1957: Bowerman was the track and field coach at the University of Oregon, and Knight competed on Bowerman's team. The two friends became business partners soon after Knight bought the distribution rights of Onitsuka Tiger brand athletic shoes from Japan for the USA. The initial name of their business was Blue Ribbon Sports and was later changed to Nike in 1972. Although the business was distributing decent athletic shoes, Bowerman believed that athletes deserved a better track shoe than what was available. After years of designing and experimenting, Bowerman finalized his image of the Nike Cortez in 1968, and in 1972 the shoe was released.
=== Name ===
The initial name for the shoe was "Mexico", which was derived from the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico City. Once the Olympic Games came to an end, another name change on the shoe occurred, this time looking for something more catchy.
They decided on the name Aztec, but Adidas then threatened legal action because it was too similar to their own Azteca Gold track shoe. Soon thereafter they decided on the name "Cortez", which paid tribute to Hernan Cortés, the Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire.
=== Impact on Nike ===
It is widely thought that the Nike Cortez was key to the success of Nike. The shoe was introduced to the general public at the peak of the 1972 Summer Olympics. Demand for the shoe grew exponentially after the public noticed that the Nike Cortez was being used by the 1972 U.S. Olympic athletes. Sales reached $800,000 during the first year the shoe was released, which was a 100% sales increase over the 8,000 sales inquiries reached after the first year of selling the Tiger brand shoes. Nike ultimately would grow into a multi-billion dollar corporation conducting business in more than 160 countries while employing more than 35,000 people.
=== Association with gangs ===
The Nike Cortez is commonly worn by gangs in Los Angeles, notably MS-13. In January 2013, four Hispanic teenagers were targeted in a shooting in a Brentwood, California neighborhood after being asked why they were wearing Nike Cortez shoes. They were all injured.
== Design and features ==
The Nike Cortez has been redesigned numerous times. Early on, the shoe set the standard for running shoes. Co-founder and Olympic-class track trainer Bill Bowerman was set on designing a running shoe that provided both comfort and durability. The foam is measured to be generously placed in more significant parts of the shoe with intentions of offering comfort, absorbing road shock and providing other health benefits. The combination of these two soles reduces leg fatigue, raises the heel of the shoe to reduce Achilles tendon strains and provides maximum comfort. One of the world's leading marathoners described the Nike Cortez as "the most comfortable shoe ever."
The shoe is given a simple outer design that consists of the Nike swoosh symbol across the sides of the shoe and a streak across the lower portion of the outer sole. Leather was the first material used to construct the shoe, however, Bowerman soon realized that he could reduce the weight of the shoe if he changed the material of the shoe's upper to nylon and suede. In 2009, a new design of the Nike Cortez - the Cortez Fly Motion - was released. The Cortez Fly Motion instituted flywire: a lightweight thread made of Vectran placed in the upper of the shoe, which further reduced the weight of the shoe.
== In popular culture ==
Forrest Gump receives a pair of Nike Cortez in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, and becomes a famous runner wearing them.
The Nike Cortez are the preferred footwear of George Costanza, a character on the television series Seinfeld.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._M._Goldschmidt_Award | V. M. Goldschmidt Award | The V. M. Goldschmidt Award is an award given by the Geochemical Society at the V. M. Goldschmidt Conference for achievements in the fields of geochemistry and cosmochemistry. The award in honor of Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, a pioneer in both those fields.
== Winners ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_House_(TV_series) | In the House (TV series) | In the House is an American sitcom television series starring LL Cool J, Debbie Allen, Maia Campbell, Jeffery Wood, Alfonso Ribeiro and Kim Wayans. The series aired for two seasons on NBC from April 1995 to May 1996 after which it was canceled due to low ratings. UPN quickly picked up In the House where it aired for an additional two seasons. UPN canceled the series in May 1998. The series ran in first-run syndication for a fifth and final season, which ended on August 11, 1999.
== Synopsis ==
Marion Hill (LL Cool J) is a former professional football player. Because of his financial predicament, Marion is forced to rent out most of the rooms in his house to newly divorced single mother Jackie Warren (Debbie Allen) and her two children, Tiffany (Maia Campbell) and Austin (Jeffery Wood).
After the second season, the series was retooled, becoming more adult-oriented. Jackie and Austin both moved back East while Tiffany stayed with Marion to finish high school. Joining the cast for the third season was former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro as Dr. Maxwell "Max" Stanton and In Living Color cast member Kim Wayans as Tonia Harris. Both Maxwell and Tonia helped Marion manage the Los Angeles sports clinic he owns, then Tonia leaves for the WNBA after Season 4, and Tiffany leaves after only two episodes in Season 5.
== Cast ==
=== Main ===
LL Cool J as Marion Hill
Maia Campbell as Tiffany Warren
Debbie Allen as Jackie Warren (seasons 1–2)
Jeffery Wood as Austin Warren (seasons 1–2)
Kim Wayans as Tonia Harris (seasons 2–4)
Alfonso Ribeiro as Dr. Maxwell Stanton (seasons 3–5)
Dee Jay Daniels as Rodney (season 3, episodes 1–7)
=== Recurring ===
Lisa Arrindell Anderson as Heather Comstock (seasons 1–2)
Dawn McMillan as Sasha (season 1–2)
Michael Warren as Milton Warren (season 1–2)
John Amos as Coach Sam Wilson (season 1–3)
Chris Browning as Clayton (season 2)
Richard F. Whiten as Henry (season 3)
Mari Morrow as Amber (season 3)
Eric Howell Sharp as Benny (season 3)
Ken Lawson as Carl (season 3–5)
Gabrielle Carmouche as Raynelle (season 3–5)
Paulette Braxton as Natalie Davis (season 4)
Luis Antonio Ramos as Tito Barrientos (season 4)
Mel Jackson as Graham (season 4)
Derek McGrath as Bernie/Agent Dick Kelly (season 3-4)
Phil Morris as Goldwire (season 4)
Chaz Lamar Shepherd as Mark (season 4)
Lark Voorhies as Mercedes Langford (seasons 4–5)
Joan Pringle as Patricia Hill (season 4-5)
Kenya Moore as Valerie Bridgeforth (season 5)
== U.S. television ratings ==
== Awards and nominations ==
== Syndication ==
The show aired in off-network syndication during the 1999–2000 season; the series had rerun weeknights at 7pm EST on New York City's local UPN affiliate WWOR-TV until it was replaced by The Jamie Foxx Show reruns in fall 2000, and on TV One from 2004 to 2008. On June 13, 2016, BET aired reruns of the show in the earlier months on the weekdays in random times from 2:30AM to 4:00AM on Fridays until the week of August 29 to September 2, 2016. The series also aired reruns on BET Her.
Aspire began airing reruns of the show on August 1, 2020.
On November 1, 2021, In the House began streaming on HBO Max. Since January 1, 2024, the show is currently airing on The365.
== References ==
== External links ==
In the House at IMDb
In the House at epguides.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habba_Khatoon#:~:text=The%20pyramid%2Dshaped%20Habba%20Khatoon,CGS%20Habba%20Khatoon%20after%20her. | Habba Khatoon | Habba Khatoon (Kashmiri pronunciation: [habɨ xoːt̪uːn]; born Zoon Rather (Kashmiri pronunciation: [zuːn]) ; sometimes spelt Khatun), also known by the honorary title The Nightingale of Kashmir, was a Kashmiri Muslim poet and ascetic in the 16th century. She was the consort of King Yousuf Shah Chak, but attained immortality as the queen of song.
Habba Khatoon's music pushed her poetry gradually into learned circles and those who had fled on the works of immortals like Firdausi, Omar and Hafez were bound to raise their eyebrows at first. This wobbling of Habba Khatoon under her peculiar compulsions and with her own limitations created the symphony of romantic words running side by side with mystic poetry till it over stripped and outshone it.
== Early life ==
Habba Khatoon as a figure has been introduced to generations of Kashmiris through folklore and oral traditions. She is said to have been born in the village of Chandur, (Kashmiri: Tsandhor) in the Pampore town of the Pulwama district in Kashmir. Her birth name was Zoon Rather or Zuni (Kashmiri: زوٗن, romanized: zūn, lit. 'Moon'). According to the oral tradition, she was called Zoon because of her immense beauty. Although a peasant, she learnt how to read and write from the village Alimah.
Some circles who have disputed this fact associate her birth with the small glen of Gurez to the north of the valley of the Jhelum. Tradition links a spot near Tsoorawan in Gurez with the poet and it is known even now as the 'hillock of Habba Khatoon'. They take their stand on a legend that Habba Khatoon was born to a petty chieftain in Gurez who passed her on to a Kashmiri trader Hayaband in lieu of the liquidation of his debts. Hayaband married her to his son Habalal, hence the name— Habba Khatoon.
Yet, It is held that the 'hillock' of Habba Khatoon came to be associated with her because of her later contacts when she visited Gurez as the consort of Yusuf Shah Chak.
Abdi Rathar of Chandhur, her father, was a well-to-do farmer and was a man gifted with unusual courage and foresight. Notwithstanding the expected back-talk and open criticism, he made arrangements for the education of his daughter at the hands of a village maulvi. Habba Khatoon received instruction in the study of the Quran and, of course, the Persian classics which, owing to the patronage at the court had become the rage of the times. No further details of this period of her life are available. Perhaps she read Gulistan and Bostan which was the usual fare of pupils in Persian in Kashmir till recently. However, her name spread well beyond the village boundaries and Abdi Rathar's Zoon was referred to as an extraordinary child in hamlets other than Chandhur.
In the course of time, her parents thought of marrying Zoon. Few girls could be better endowed for a happy married life. She came from a well-to-do family and was educated and accomplished. She was highly beautiful and could sing in a sweet, enchanting voice. She could work at home and on the farm to bring prosperity to her family. Her parents selected a peasant boy, Aziz Lone, as her husband. His tastes and interests had nothing in common with Zoon's and there is hardly any doubt that he was a dull-witted, matter-of-fact a boorish young peasant. Nature tricked her into song and glory through Aziz Lone who was stolid to her charm and apathetic to her love. Despite this Habba Khatoon was fondly devoted to him in love and fidelity and left no stone unturned in trying to evoke a suitable response from her husband. With all her beauty of form and mellifluous voice she worked like a slave at her husband's home and their lands. She would so to the stream to fetch water for the household, go to the uplands in search of firewood and wild edible roots, ply the spinning-wheel and do other chores in the tradition of the old times. But there was no appreciation for all this. Instead, her mother in-law and perhaps her husband too were always on the look out for a slip on her part-of course, innocent and unwitting to give them a handle to taunt her, abuse her and perhaps be labour her. If she broke an earthenware water-pot by accident she was asked to replace it or pay for a new one.
The situation was pretty bad for her and she realized that life in such an atmosphere was worse than death. She could not make out how her death would profit him. In her song— 'Tche Kyoho Vaatiyo Myaeni Marnai' (What do you stand to gain by my death?) contemplates such an act but concludes on a note of self-introspection but neither the display of emotion in abandon not admonition brought any relief to Zoon in her predicament and Aziz continued to be indifferent to her.
Translation:
In such circumstances women approach saintly people credited with mystic powers for help. Zoon also must have sought the help of such men, among them one Khwaja Masud. He is said to have given her consolation and predicted a better future for her. He, it is said, also coined for her the name Habba Khatoon which Zoon adopted. But nothing brought even a streak of conjugal delight in the life of Habba Khatoon and she continued to address her laments to her husband.
One of her most famous songs Wolo Myaeni Poshay Madano (Come, my flowery Cupid) graphically representing the state of her mind at the time is surcharged with melancholy, bitterness against the wild talk of the people and vexation at the indifference of her husband. Her complaint is:
Translation:
== Later life ==
According to legend, one day Yousuf Shah Chak, the last independent emperor of Kashmir, was out hunting on horseback. He heard Zoon singing under the shade of a chinar tree, and the couple met and fell in love. The oral tradition describes Zoon as Yousuf Shah Chak's queen consort, although there is scholarly debate about whether she was in fact a lower status mistress or member of his harem. She entered the palace in about 1570, and at some point changed her name to become Habba Khatoon (Kashmiri: حَبہٕ خوتوٗن).
Here was the young peasant woman slaving for her loaf, neglected and loathed by her husband, abhorred by his mother and a victim of people's gossip, being entreated by the heir-apparent to take her exalted place in his palace. She had sought love from Aziz Lone which he denied her: she was in need of affection from his mother which she did not give; she expected normal regard and courtesy from society which treated her with disdain. And now she was being offered all this and more. Need less to say that she accepted the offer and entered the palace in circa 1570 Habba Khatoon was of an age when Kashmir suffered much political, social and economic distress. The dynasty of the Sultans distinguished by rulers like the mighty Shahab-ud-Din and the illustrious Zain-ul-Abdin had grown feeble and power passed into the hands of feudal barons who keenly competed with one another in the bid to exercise power in the name of a puppet here or a pretender there.
Habib Shah, the last of the Sultans, was so weak and naive that in 1554 he was deprived of his crown while in full court and nobody raised even a little finger in his support. The throne was next occupied by Ali Khan, a member of the powerful Chak clan. Who are the Chaks? Whatever their origin, in course time, they seem to have settled in the Gilgit Hunza region as conquerors or refugees. Since then the region is known as Dardistan. But these Chaks entered Kashmir as refugees from Dardistan (Gilgit-Hunza region) in the reign of Sahadev (1305-34 A.D.) in the wake of their ruthless chief. Though energetic, Ali Khan Chak was intrepid and was occupied all the time in meeting revolts and confrontations. The Chaks were Shias and the brunt of their proselytising zeal fell on both the Hindus and the Sunni-Muslims. What was worse, the Sunni-Shia rivalry took an ugly turn and distressing form, leading to an extensive cleavage between the two sections of the population, and sympathies of the masses were alienated. A more serious development was the allurement felt by the hawk-eyed Mughal, Akbar, for the beautiful valley of Kashmir. Because of their mutual bickerings and quarrels, disgruntled Kashmiri leaders often sought assistance from the emperor, or his satraps, who encouraged defections and destabilisation.
Habba Khatoon reached the palace when dark clouds of apathy and disdain were rolling against Kashmiri language and art. Another princess with a less forceful character would have found her sensibility smothered and perhaps fallen in line with the average literati in upholding Persian at the cost of Kashmiri. But Haba Khatoon's devotion to her own language and culture proved stronger.
Yousuf Shah Chak had gained an invaluable treasure in Habba Khatoon, a paragon of beauty, and was deeply attached to her. He spent most of his time in her company, absorbed in her music and poetry. He brought about the fulfilment of her frozen love and became the focus of her life, her gratitude and her devotion. Towns and villages were no longer enough to satisfy the craving of the royal couple and they sought the company of nature in its naked beauty, matchless grandeur and unparalleled sublimity. The credit for the discovery of the far-famed queen of the hills, Gulmarg, is given to Yusuf Shah and his consort who spent much of their leisure in its sylvan glades. They patronised such pleasure spots as Aharabal, Achabal and Sonamarg. They sought enjoyment of hature as far away as the Gurais valley where a hillock has been named after Habba Khatoon. Some of these pleasure spots, especially Ahrabal and Achabal of the Pir Panjal region, attained celebrity in the reign of Jehangir subsequently.
== The fall of Chaks ==
Ghazi Chak, the first Chak Sultan of Kashmir had a fiery temper which made him excessively unbearable and obnoxious to his subjects. The Emperor Akbar despatched Mirza Qara Bahadur, at the head of a large body of troops to invade the country in order to deliver its inhabitants from the yoke of the tyrant. The army of Qara Bahadur was defeated. The fact remains that this defeat demoralised the Mughals to such an extent that for another 25 years Akbar made no serious attempt to capture Kashmir. In spite of annex the valley continued unabated. Ghazi Shah's body was leprous and after his campaign in Ladakh it became worse and he abdicated in favour of his brother Hussain Khan Shah whom he found master of the situation. Hussain Shah was a poet and, it was said, a man of liberal and secular views but Akbar was watching the condition in Kashmir and his agents sent reports to him. Many selfish and disgruntled leaders, often at loggerheads with each other, sought help from the Emperor.
The Mughals were consolidating their hold on the Indian sub-continent during the second half of the sixteenth century and their eyes now turned to Kashmir. Yusuf Shah Chak who ascended the throne in 1579 A.D. did not display the leadership that was the need of the hour and internal feuds took such a serious turn that he lost the throne in 1580 when he had been king for only a year and two months. With his overthrow the wheel of Habba Khatoon's fortunes changed. Yusuf made several attempts to regain the throne but could make no progress. Within six months there was another occupant on the throne and Yusuf continued to be confined to the wings. At last, he approached the emperor Akbar for armed assistance. Akbar who was watching the developments with no unconcern gave asylum to the fugitive prince and attached him to the grand army. Thereafter he practically slept over Yusuf's plea for assistance to recover his lost kingdom. It was an unexpected trial of Yusuf's diplomacy and perseverance. At home Habba Khatoon was forlorn. Yusuf had left Kashmir with high hopes of returning in a few weeks with Mughal troops and funds to fight the enemies and recover his throne. But weeks slipped by, months, and yet Habba Khatoon had no indication that of him coming back. The absence of her husband once a again raised in her mind the spectre of her beloved being snatched from her. Her intense love would not let her rest in peace while Yusuf was away. Then Akbar helped Yusuf Shah Chak who gave his escort Raja Man Singh a slip and recovered the kingdom of Kashmir after a series of manoeuvres at Sopore in 1581 A.D.
Though later in the year 1586 A.D the Mughals marched into Kashmir and finally annexed it.
She lived after Yusuf's exit from Kashmir for nearly twenty years, or such is the tradition, moving from place to place with no attachments or possessions. Probably, she composed lyrics also but the hankering in her heart has been stilled. There is sorrow in her wail, there is regret and there is bitterness, but there is also resignation.
In her wailing song for her lost husband— Harmukh Bartal she recites:
Translation:
== Poetic tradition ==
Although Persian influences had infiltrated the Kashmiri language long before Habba Khatoon, her lyrics offer few examples of her wholeheartedly embracing them. Words of Persian origin are used sparingly in her poetry. Most of the Persian and Arabic words found in her work, such as 'shamaa' (candle), 'ishq' (love) and 'burqa' (veil), had entered the vernacular long before she was born. Using the language spoken by most men and women does not detract from her poetry. In fact, her poetry gains power, appeal and sincerity, impressing readers and listeners alike with its sweet, musical quality. This gives readers an impression of authenticity, as they recognise the strength and variety of their own language in her lyrics, unaided by outside influences. Habba Khatoon deliberately used Persian to revive Kashmiri music, which had been neglected due to a lack of patronage. As Yousuf Shah was a patron of the arts, Habba Khatoon received training from renowned practitioners in the performance of ghazals and songs in the Iranian style. With her remarkable intelligence and rare melodious voice, she became a notable musician in her own right, even among Persian masters. Kashmiri music, cultivated by Harshdev in the 12th century and others, had become heavily influenced by Persian and Central Asian music, incorporating a variety of exotic instruments. As Habba Khatoon was adept in both styles, it was only natural that she would make her own contribution, which she did in the form of a new musical composition known as Raasti-Kashmiri, modelled on Raasti-Farsi, which is sung in the last quarter of the night. She also earned renown for her mastery of a Persian raga known as Muqaami-Iran. Her poems Harmukh Bartal, Char kar myon maalinyo, Vaervain saeth vaar chas no and many others are wailings known as Yadhaaq in Kashmiri.
== Legacy ==
The taqleqkar (pioneer) of loal poetry has been praised by Kalhana in his book- Rajtarangini:
The hillock in Gurez Valley, Kashmir is named after Habba Khatoon.
An underpass in Mughalpura, Lahore has been named after Habba Khatoon. The Indian Coast Guard named the ship CGS Habba Khatoon after her.
=== In film ===
Habba Khatoon (1978) is an Indian Kashmiri-language television film directed by Bashir Badgami for Doordarshan. It starred Rita Razdan in the titular role of the queen. Doordarshan also aired Habba Khatoon, another television show in Hindi on DD National about the poet.
Mrinal Kulkarni portrayed her role in the Indian television series Noorjahan, which aired on DD National from 2000-2001.
Zooni is an unreleased Indian Hindi-language film by Muzaffar Ali that was supposed to release in 1990 but was eventually shelved. Earlier unsuccessful attempts in Indian cinema to portray her life on screen included one by Mehboob Khan in the 1960s and in the 80s by B. R. Chopra.
== See also ==
Kashmiri literature
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Habba Khatoon by Muhammad Yousuf Taing, J&K Academy of Languages, Art & Culture (JAACL)
Zoon by J.N Wali
Habba Khatoon (1909) by Muhammad Amin Kamil
Haba Khatoon (1968) by Shyam Lal Sadhu
Habba Khatoon: The Nightingale of Kashmir (1994) by S.N Wakhlu
Feminism Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of Habba Khatoon and Emily Brontë (2019) by Asma Shaw
Wakhlu, S. N. (1994). Habba Khatoon: the nightingale of Kashmir. South Asia Publications. ISBN 8174330054. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Combinatorics_and_its_Applications | Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications | The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA) is an international scientific organization formed in 1990 to increase the visibility and influence of the combinatorial community. In pursuit of this goal, the ICA sponsors conferences, publishes a bulletin and awards a number of medals, including the Euler, Hall, Kirkman, and Stanton Medals. It is based in Duluth, Minnesota and its operation office is housed at University of Minnesota Duluth.
The institute was minimally active between 2010 and 2016 and resumed its full activities in March 2016.
== Membership ==
The ICA has over 800 members in over forty countries. Membership is at three levels. Members are those who have not yet completed a Ph.D. Associate Fellows are younger members who have received the Ph.D. or have published extensively; normally an Associate Fellow should hold the rank of assistant professor. Fellows are expected to be established scholars and typically have the rank of associate professor or higher.
Some members are involved in highly theoretical research; there are members whose primary interest lies in education and instruction; and there are members who are heavily involved in the applications of combinatorics in statistical design, communications theory, cryptography, computer security, and other practical areas.
Although being a fellow of the ICA is not itself a highly selective honor, the ICA also maintains another class of members, "honorary fellows", people who have made "pre-eminent contributions to combinatorics or its applications". The number of living honorary fellows is limited to ten at any time. The deceased honorary fellows include
H. S. M. Coxeter, Paul Erdős, Haim Hanani, Bernhard Neumann, D. H. Lehmer,
Leonard Carlitz, Robert Frucht, E. M. Wright, and Horst Sachs.
Living honorary fellows include
S. S. Shrikhande, C. R. Rao, G. J. Simmons, Vera Sós, Henry Gould, Carsten Thomassen, Neil Robertson, Cheryl Praeger, and R. M. Wilson.
== Publication ==
The ICA publishes the Bulletin of the ICA (ISSN 1183-1278), a journal that combines publication of survey and research papers with news of members and accounts of future and past conferences. It appears three times a year, in January, May and September and usually consists of 128 pages.
Beginning in 2017, the research articles in the Bulletin have been made available on an open access basis.
== Medals ==
The ICA awards the Euler Medals annually for distinguished career contributions to combinatorics by a member of the institute who is still active in research. It is named after the 18th century mathematician Leonhard Euler.
The ICA awards the Hall Medals, named after Marshall Hall, Jr., to recognize outstanding achievements by members who are not over age 40.
The ICA awards the Kirkman Medals, named after Thomas Kirkman, to recognize outstanding achievements by members who are within four years past their Ph.D.
The winners of the medals for the years between 2010 and 2015 were decided by the ICA Medals Committee between November 2016 and February 2017 after the ICA resumed its activities in 2016.
In 2016, the ICA voted to institute an ICA medal to be known as the Stanton Medal, named after Ralph Stanton, in recognition of substantial and sustained contributions, other than research, to promoting the discipline of combinatorics. The Stanton Medal honours significant lifetime contributions to promoting the discipline of combinatorics through advocacy, outreach, service, teaching and/or mentoring. At most one medal per year is to be awarded, typically to a Fellow of the ICA.
=== List of Euler Medal winners ===
=== List of Hall Medal winners ===
=== List of Kirkman Medal winners ===
=== List of Stanton Medal winners ===
== References ==
== External links ==
Official Website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_forest_elephant | African forest elephant | The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is an elephant species native to humid tropical forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It was first described in 1900. With an average shoulder height of 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in), it is the smallest of the three living elephants. Both sexes have straight, down-pointing tusks, which begin to grow at the age of 1–3 years.
The African forest elephant lives in highly sociable family groups of up to 20 individuals comprising adult cows, their daughters and sons. When young bulls reach sexual maturity, they separate from the family group and form loose bachelor groups for a short time, but usually stay alone. Adult bulls associate with family groups only during the mating season.
The African forest elephant forages on leaves, seeds, fruit, and tree bark of at least 96 plant species. Since it disseminates partly digested seeds for at least 5 km (3.1 mi) through its droppings, it contributes significantly to maintaining the diversity and structure of the Guinean Forests of West Africa and the Congolese rainforests.
During the 20th century, overhunting caused a sharp decline of the African forest elephant population, and by 2013 it was estimated that fewer than 30,000 individuals remained. It is threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation, and poaching. The conservation status of populations varies across range countries. Since 2021, it has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
== Taxonomy ==
Elephas (Loxodonta) cyclotis was the scientific name proposed by Paul Matschie in 1900 who described the skulls of a female and a male specimen collected by the Sanaga River in southern Cameroon.
=== Phylogeny and evolution ===
The African forest elephant was long considered to be a subspecies of the African elephant, together with the African bush elephant. Morphological and DNA analysis showed that they are two distinct species.
The taxonomic status of the African pygmy elephant (Loxodonta pumilio) was uncertain for a long time. Phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial genome of nine specimens from museum collections indicates that it is an African forest elephant whose diminutive size or early maturity is due to environmental conditions.
Phylogenetic analysis of nuclear DNA of African bush and forest elephants, Asian elephants, woolly mammoths and American mastodons revealed that the African forest elephant and African bush elephant are two distinct species that genetically diverged at least 1.9 million years ago. They are therefore considered distinct species. Despite evidence of hybridization between the two species where their ranges overlap, there appears to have been little gene flow between the two species since their initial divergence.
DNA from the extinct European straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) indicates that members of the extinct elephant genus Palaeoloxodon interbred with African forest elephants, with over 1/3 of the nuclear genome as well as the mitochondrial genome of the straight-tusked elephant deriving from that of African forest elephants, with the genomic contribution more closely related to modern West African populations of the forest elephant than to other populations. Palaeoloxodon carried multiple separate mitochondrial lineages derived from forest elephants which were carried among both European straight-tusked elephant and Chinese populations of Palaeoloxodon, indicating this ancestry was widespread in Eurasian Palaeoloxodon populations.
== Description ==
The African forest elephant is considerably smaller than the African bush elephant, though the size of the species has been subject to contradictory estimates. A 2000 study suggested that bulls of the species reach a shoulder height of 2.4–3.0 m (7 ft 10 in – 9 ft 10 in), and weighed 4–7 t (4.4–7.7 short tons), while cows were about 1.8–2.4 m (5 ft 11 in – 7 ft 10 in) tall at the shoulder and 2–4 t (2.2–4.4 short tons). However, a 2003 study of forest elephants at a reserve in Gabon did not find any elephants taller than 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in). A 2015 study alternately suggested that fully grown African forest elephant males in optimal condition were only on average 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) tall and 2 t (2.2 short tons) in weight, with the largest individuals (representing less than 1 in 100,000 as a proportion of the total population) no bigger than 2.75 m (9 ft 0 in) tall and 3.5 t (3.9 short tons) in weight.
The African forest elephant has grey skin, which looks yellow to reddish after wallowing. It is sparsely covered with black coarse hair, which is 20–200 mm (0.8–8 in) long around the tip of the tail. The length of the tail varies between individuals from half the height of the rump to almost touching ground. It has five toenails on the fore foot and four on the hind foot. Its back is nearly straight. Its oval-shaped ears have small elliptical-shaped tips, and the tip of the trunk has two finger-like processes.
The African forest elephant's tusks are straight and point downwards, and are present in both males and females. The African forest elephant has pink tusks, which are thinner and harder than the tusks of the African bush elephant. The length and diameter vary between individuals. Tusks of bulls grow throughout life, tusks of cows cease growing when they are sexually mature. The tusks are used to push through the dense undergrowth of their habitat. The largest tusk recorded for the species is 2.41 m (7 ft 11 in) long and 60 kg (130 lb) in weight. A larger tusk measuring 2.96 m (9 ft 9 in) long and weighing 70 kg (150 lb) has been recorded, but this may belong to a forest-bush elephant hybrid. The average tusk size is uncertain due to measurements historically being lumped in with those of African bush elephants, but based on the sizes of the largest known tusks may be in the region of 1.6–2 m (5 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) and 25–30 kg (55–66 lb).
== Distribution and habitat ==
Populations of the African forest elephant in Central Africa range in large contiguous rainforest tracts from Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the largest stable population in Gabon, where suitable habitat covers 90% of the country.
They are also distributed in the evergreen moist deciduous Upper Guinean forests in Ivory Coast and Ghana, in West Africa.
A group of about 10-25 African forest elephants has been sighted on the escarpment to the east of Luanda in the Kambondo forest in 2015.
Nonetheless, it was estimated that the population of African forest elephants in Central Africa had declined by around 86% (in the 31 years preceding 2021) due to poaching and loss of habitat. In places such as Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, many areas of appropriate forest habitat have been reduced after years of warfare and human conflict. As of 2021, an estimated 95,000 forest elephants lived in Gabon. Prior to this the population had been estimated at 50,000 to 60,000 individuals.
== Behaviour and ecology ==
The African forest elephant lives in family groups. Groups observed in the rain forest of Gabon's Lopé National Park between 1984 and 1991 comprised between three and eight individuals. Groups of up to 20 individuals were observed in the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas, comprising adult cows, their daughters and subadult sons. Family members look after calves together, called allomothering. Once young bulls reach sexual maturity, they separate from the family group and form loose bachelor groups for a few days, but usually stay alone. Adult bulls associate with family groups only during the mating season. Family groups travel about 7.8 km (4.8 mi) per day and move in a home range of up to 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi).
Their seasonal movement is related to the availability of ripe fruits in Primary Rainforests.
They use a complex network of permanent trails that pass through stands of fruit trees and connect forest clearings with mineral licks. These trails are reused by humans and other animals.
In Odzala-Kokoua National Park, groups were observed to frequently meet at forest clearings indicating a fission–fusion society. They stayed longer when other groups were also present. Smaller groups joined large groups, and bulls joined family units.
=== Diet ===
The African forest elephant is an herbivore. Elephants observed in Lopé National Park fed mostly tree bark and leaves, and at least 72 different fruits.
To supplement their diet with minerals, they congregate at mineral-rich waterholes and mineral licks.
Elephant dung piles collected in Kahuzi-Biéga National Park contained seeds and fruit remains of Omphalocarpum mortehanii, junglesop (Anonidium mannii), Antrocaryon nannanii, Klainedoxa gabonensis, Treculia africana, Tetrapleura tetraptera, Uapaca guineensis, Autranella congolensis, Gambeya africana and G. lacourtiana, Mammea africana, Cissus dinklagei, and Grewia midlbrandii. Dung piles collected in a lowland rain forest in the northern Republic of Congo contained seeds of at least 96 plant species, with a minimum of 30 intact seeds and up to 1102 large seeds of more than 1 cm (0.39 in) in a single pile. Based on the analysis of 855 dung piles, it has been estimated that African forest elephants disperse a daily mean of 346 large seeds per 1 km2 (0.39 sq mi) of at least 73 tree species; they transport about a third of the large seeds for more than 5 km (3.1 mi).
Seeds passed by elephant gut germinate faster. The African forest elephant is one of the most effective seed disperser in the tropics and has been referred to as the "megagardener of the forest" due to its significant role in maintaining plant diversity. In the Cuvette Centrale, 14 of 18 megafaunal tree species depend on seed dissemination by African forest elephants, including wild mango (Irvingia gabonensis), Parinari excelsa and Tridesmostemon omphalocarpoides. These 14 species are not able to survive without elephants.
African forest elephants provide ecological services that maintain the composition and structure of Central African forests.
=== Communication ===
Vocalization is a trait found among L. cyclotis with studies emphasizing significance in acoustic structure and their social dynamics. Vocalization patterns can be classified into three main types: single rumble, single broadband, and combinatorial. Rumbles are tonal, low-frequency calls, while broadband are calls that lack clear harmonic structures, resembling barks and roars. The utilization of rumbles and broadband calls in combinatorial calls may involve distinct acoustic elements, forming multi-element calls, which combine meaningless elements to generate context-specific meaningful calls. The African forest elephant also exhibits a more balanced distribution of combinatorial call types compared to other elephant species. Despite having a simpler social structure, L. cyclotis can display a comparable repertoire of rumble-roar call combinations than L. africana. Communication patterns vary across age and sex, with adult males typically producing more combinatorial calls than adult females. Additionally, certain events may provoke a behavioral change, as evidenced by lowered levels of vocalizations in response to gunfire sounds related to poaching.
For these mammals, hearing and smell are the most important senses they possess because they do not have good eyesight. They can recognize and hear vibrations through the ground and can detect food sources with their sense of smell. Elephants are also an arrhythmic species, meaning they have the ability to see just as well in dim light as they can in the daylight. They are capable of doing so because the retina in their eyes adjusts nearly as quickly as light does.
=== Reproduction ===
Females reach sexual maturity between the age of 8 and 12 years, depending on the population density and nutrition available. On average, they begin breeding at the age of 23 and give birth every 5–6 years. As a result, the birth rate is lower than the bush species, which starts breeding at age 12 and has a calf every 3–4 years.
Baby elephants weigh around 105 kg (232 lb) at birth. Almost immediately, they can stand up and move around, allowing the mother to roam around and forage, which is also essential to reduce predation. The baby suckles using its mouth while its trunk is held over its head. Their tusks do not come until around 16 months and calves are not weaned until they are roughly 4 or 5 years old. By this time, their tusks are around 14 cm (5.5 in) long and begin to get in the way of suckling.
African forest elephants have a lifespan of about 60 to 70 years and mature slowly, coming to puberty in their early teens. Bulls generally pass puberty within the next year or two of females. Between the ages of 15 and 25, bulls experience "musth", which is a hormonal state they experience marked by increased aggression. The male secretes fluid from the temporal gland between his ear and eye during this time. Younger bulls often experience musth for a shorter period of time, while older bulls do for a longer time. When in musth, bulls have a more erect walk with their head high and tusks inward, they may rub their heads on trees or bushes to spread the musth scent, and they may even flap their ears, accompanied by a musth rumble, so that their smell can be blown toward other elephants. Another behavior affiliated with musth is urination. Bulls allow their urine to slowly come out and spray the insides of their hind legs. All of these behaviors are to advertise to receptive females and competing bulls that they are in the musth state. Bulls only return to the herd to breed or to socialize; they do not provide parental care to their offspring but rather play a fatherly role to younger bulls to show dominance.
Females are polyestrous, meaning they are capable of conceiving multiple times a year, which is a reason why they do not appear to have a breeding season. However, there does appear to be a peak in conceptions during the two rainy seasons of the year. Generally, the female conceives after two or three matings. Though the female has plenty of room in her uterus for twins, twins are rarely conceived. Gestation lasts 22 months. Based on the maturity, fertility, and gestation rates, African forest elephants have the capacity to increase their population by 5% annually under ideal conditions.
== Traditional hunting ==
African forest elephants are hunted by various hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo basin, including by Mbuti pygmies, among others. It is unknown how long the active hunting of elephants in the region has been practised, and it may have only begun as a response for the demand for ivory beginning in the 19th century or earlier.
Elephants are traditionally hunted using spears, typically to stab at the lower abdomen (as is done among the Mbuti) or knees, both of which are effective at rendering the animal immobile. Anthropologist Mitsuo Ichikawa observed the hunting of elephants by Mbuti pygmies in fieldwork during the 1970s and 1980s, when the Mbuti used spears tipped with metal points (though earlier reports suggest that that prior to this they used purely wooden spears, which may have been less effective at breaking the elephants' hide). As observed by Ichikawa, elephant hunting by the Mbuti pygmies involved both small and large groups of hunters, which was led by at least one experienced hunter called a mtuma. Before the hunt began, ritual acts of singing and dancing were performed by the community to support the success of the hunt. These hunters often went into the forest without food, living off of wild honey and vegetables, smearing themselves in mud, elephant dung, and charcoal made from certain plants to disguise their scent from the elephants. Once the traces of an elephant are detected, it was carefully tracked, before being approached from downwind and stabbed. It typically took several hours to several days from the first stab to the death of the elephant.
Many hunts failed due to elephants detecting the hunters before being stabbed and fleeing, with field research by Ichikawa finding that only one out of six Mbuti elephant hunts were successful in a six-month period, corresponding to around 60–70 days of total hunting time, meaning that despite the large quantity of meat provided by each individual elephant, it did not provide reliable subsistence, with the Mbuti instead relying on hunting smaller animals. Following the death of the animal, the Mbuti hunters returned to their homes, with the whole community moving to dismember the elephant carcass. Meat was shared equally among the community with the exception of a few body parts which were reserved for certain community members, with the feast on the animals remains lasting for several days. Elephant hunting was a dangerous activity that was known to result in the deaths of hunters.
== Threats ==
Both African elephant species are threatened foremost by habitat loss and habitat fragmentation following conversion of forests for plantations of non-timber crops, livestock farming, and building urban and industrial areas. As a result, human-elephant conflict has increased. Poaching for ivory and bushmeat is a significant threat in Central Africa. Because of a spike in poaching, the African forest elephant was declared Critically Endangered by the IUCN in 2021 after it was found that the population had decreased by more than 80% over 3 generations.
Civil unrest, human encroachment, and habit fragmentation leaves some elephants confined to small patches of forest without sufficient food. In January 2014, International Fund for Animal Welfare undertook a relocation project at the request of the Ivory Coast government, moving four elephants from Daloa to Assagny National Park.
=== Poaching ===
Genetic analysis of confiscated ivory showed that 328 tusks of African forest elephants seized in the Philippines between 1996 and 2005 originated in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo; 2,871 tusks seized in Hong Kong between 2006 and 2013 originated in Tridom, the tri-national Dja-Odzala-Minkébé protected area complex and the adjacent Dzanga Sangha Reserve in the Central African Republic. So did partly worked ivory confiscated between 2013 and 2014 at warehouses in Togo comprising 4,555 kg (5.021 short tons) of tusks.
The hard ivory of the African forest elephant makes for more enhanced carving and fetches a higher price on the black market. This preference is evident in Japan, where hard ivory has nearly monopolized the trade for some time. Premium quality bachi, a traditional Japanese plucking tool used for string instruments, is contrived exclusively from African forest elephant tusks. In the impenetrable and often trackless expanses of the rain forests of the Congo Basin, poaching is extremely difficult to detect and track. Levels of off-take, for the most part, are estimated from ivory seizures. The scarcely populated and unprotected forests in Central Africa are most likely becoming increasingly alluring to organized poacher gangs.
Late in the 20th century, conservation workers established a DNA identification system to trace the origin of poached ivory. Due to poaching to meet high demand for ivory, the African forest elephant population approached critical levels in the 1990s and early 2000s. Over several decades, numbers are estimated to have fallen from approximately 700,000 to less than 100,000, with about half of the remaining population in Gabon. In May 2013, Sudanese poachers killed 26 elephants in the Central African Republic's Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site. Communications equipment, video cameras, and additional training of park guards were provided following the massacre to improve protection of the site. From mid-April to mid-June 2014, poachers killed 68 elephants in Garamba National Park, including young ones without tusks.
At the request of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, twelve British soldiers traveled to Gabon in 2015 to assist in training park rangers following the poaching of many elephants in Minkebe National Park.
On 19 August 2020, Guyvanho, a poacher who killed over 500 African forest elephants in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, was convicted to 30 years in prison for charges of poaching and others. Guyvanho was the first poacher to be tried criminally in the Republic of the Congo, and has the longest prison sentence for a poacher in the Republic of the Congo.
=== Bushmeat trade ===
It is not ivory alone that drives African forest elephant poaching. Killing for bushmeat in Central Africa has evolved into an international business in recent decades with markets reaching New York and other major cities of the United States, and the industry is still on the rise. This illegal market poses the greatest threat not only to forest elephants where hunters can target elephants of all ages, including calves, but to all of the larger species in the forests. There are actions that can be taken to lower the incentive for supplying to the bushmeat market. Regional markets, and international trade, require the transporting of extensive amounts of animal meat which, in turn, requires the utilisation of vehicles. Having checkpoints on major roads and railroads can potentially help disrupt commercial networks. In 2006, it was estimated that 410 African forest elephants are killed yearly in the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests.
== Conservation ==
In 1986, the African Elephant Database was initiated with the aim to monitor the status of African elephant populations. This database includes results from aerial surveys, dung counts, interviews with local people, and data on poaching.
Both African elephant species have been listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora on CITES Appendix I since 1989. This listing banned commercial international trade of wild African elephants and their parts and derivatives by countries that signed the CITES agreement. Populations of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were listed in CITES Appendix II in 1997 as was the population of South Africa in 2000. Hunting elephants is banned in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal.
African forest elephants are estimated to constitute up to one-third of the continent's elephant population but have been poorly studied because of the difficulty in observing them through the dense vegetation that makes up their habitat. Thermal imaging has facilitated observation of the species, leading to more information on their ecology, numbers, and behavior, including their interactions with elephants and other species. Scientists have learned more about how the elephants, who have poor night vision, negotiate their environment using only their hearing and olfactory senses. They also appeared to be much more active sexually during the night compared to the day, which was unexpected.
Research in the tropical rainforest has shown that African forest elephants can significantly increase the forest's carbon uptake, making conservation a way to contribute to carbon storage.
== References ==
== External links ==
"Elephant Listening Project: Forest Elephants". The Cornell Lab, Cornell University.
African Forest Elephant Foundation
WCS.org: Forest Elephant Program
ARKive .org: Images and movies of the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)
BBC Wildlife Finder - video clips from the BBC archive
PBS Nature: Tracking Forest Elephants Archived 2008-05-03 at the Wayback Machine
Elephant Information Repository Archived 2009-03-18 at the Wayback Machine — in-depth resource on elephants.
AWF.org: African Forest Elephant — photos and info. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Fernanda_Cabal#:~:text=Mar%C3%ADa%20Fernanda%20Cabal%20Molina%20(born,businesswoman%2C%20political%20scientist%20and%20politician. | María Fernanda Cabal | María Fernanda Cabal Molina (born August 8, 1966) is a Colombian political scientist, businesswoman, politician, and Senator of Colombia. A member of the Democratic Center Party, she has held her seat since 2018 and is her party's most voted-for member of Congress.
Born in Cali, Cauca Valley, Cabal graduated from the University of the Andes in Bogotá, D.C. She began her career as a Member of the Chamber of Representatives in 2014. Cabal was first elected to the Senate in 2018. She was re-elected in 2022. Cabal is a female member of the Democratic Center, the highest-ranking member in the Senate. Cabal is known for her far-right views. She was one of the members of her party who voted against the plebiscite for the peace process.
== Personal life ==
=== Early life ===
María Fernanda Cabal Molina was born on August 8, 1966, in Cali, Cauca Valley, where she lived until her high school years. She later moved to Bogotá, D.C. to begin her career as a political scientist at the University of the Andes where she joined the Political Science Department as coordinator of the Democracy Program, which was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.
She is of spanish ancestry from asturias and Madrid.
During the 90's, Cabal participated as a member of the student movement that later promoted the Seventh Ballot, which called for a constitutional reform through the convening of the National Constituent Assembly.
=== Religion ===
Cabal was once at birth baptized under the Catholic rite, by her parents in 1964, despite this she declares herself as a Lapsed Catholic, and has shown herself to be an admirer of the Evangelical Protestant rite, which she has expressed to attend on multiple occasions.
=== Political positions ===
Cabal is known for her conservative positions. As a member of congress, she maintained close relations with the Donald Trump administration in the United States and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, as well as being a constant critic of leftist movements in Colombia and Latin America. She is in favor of controversial policies such as promoting the right of civilians to bear arms to defend themselves and the rejection of the peace agreement between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government.
Cabal would sign the Madrid Charter of the Madrid Forum, joining the right-wing group organized by the Spanish political party Vox.
== References ==
== External links ==
Media related to María Fernanda Cabal at Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIVB_Women%27s_Volleyball_Nations_League#MVP_by_edition | FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League | The FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The first tournament took place between May and July 2018, with the final round matches taking place in Nanjing, China. United States won the inaugural edition, defeating Turkey in the final.
In July 2018, the FIVB announced that China would host the next three editions of the women's Volleyball Nations League Finals, from 2019–2021, but on March 13, 2020, the Federation decided to postpone the Nations League until after the 2020 Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the FIVB canceled the 2020 edition and confirmed Italy as the host of the final stage of the 2021 VNL.
In February 2024, the FIVB announced that the competition will be expanded to 18 teams from the 2025 edition onwards, and that along with this format reform will be the abolition of the core and challenge teams' statuses.
The creation of the tournament was announced in October 2017 (alongside the announcement of the Challenger Cup) as a joint project of the FIVB, the IMG and 21 national federations. The Women's VNL replaced the World Grand Prix, a former annual women's international event that ran between 1993 and 2017.
A corresponding tournament for men's national teams is the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League.
== History ==
=== Adoption ===
In June 2017, Argentinian website Voley Plus reported that the FIVB would drastically change the format for both the 2018 World League and World Grand Prix. According to the reports, starting from 2018, the World League and the World Grand Prix would have only one Group (no more Groups 1, 2 and 3) of 16 national teams.
In October 2017, the FIVB announced, via a press release, the creation of the men's and women's Volleyball Nations League, confirming the tournaments as a replacement for the World League and World Grand Prix.
== Marketing ==
The International Volleyball Federation has partnered with global brand strategy and design firm Landor Associates to create the Volleyball Nations League branding. Landor has also contributed with in-stadium and on-screen television graphics, staff uniforms, designs for the World Volleyball app, medals and the winning trophy.
=== Digital ===
Microsoft, the multinational technology company, has signed an agreement with the FIVB that the international federation vows will change the way the sport of volleyball is consumed while heightening the fan experience during match days as well as in the digital space. Under the tie-up, the 'Microsoft Sports Digital Platform' has been created to create new digital services and deliver personalised content on demand in order to boost the FIVB global audience and improve fan engagement.
== Prize money ==
According to the FIVB, the prize money is equal for both the men's and women's VNL as per the FIVB's gender equality policy.
=== Team awards ===
At the preliminary round, the winning team is awarded US$9,500 for every win and the losing team is awarded US$4,250.
Prize money allocated to teams based on their final place in the final round:
Champions: US$1,000,000
Runners-up: US$500,000
3rd place: US$300,000
4th place: US$180,000
5th place: US$130,000
6th place: US$85,000
7th place: US$65,000
8th place: US$40,000
Fair Play Award:
Admissions by athletes before the Challenge is thrown will be evaluated to avoid time wasting, a green card will be awarded in this case. The team with the most green cards will receive a cash prize of $30,000. In case of a tie, the best-ranked team will be awarded.
=== Individual awards ===
The players selected into Dream Team will receive US$10,000 each while the MVP will be given US$30,000.
== Market performance ==
The FIVB announced that the 2019 Volleyball Nations League (both men's and women's) attracted a cumulative global audience of more than 1.5 billion. This number was an increase of 200 million from the 2018 VNL. In total, more than 600,000 tickets were sold in the 2019 VNL.
== Format ==
=== First format ===
As in the former World Grand Prix, the competition will be divided in two phases, albeit with changes in the competition formula: a preliminary round (known as preliminary round), with a system of rotating host cities, and a final round played in a pre-selected host city.
The preliminary round is held over five weeks, versus three in the World Grand Prix. Each week, the participating teams are organized in pools, and each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool. All games in a pool take place over a weekend in the same city.
When all matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top five teams in the overall standings qualify for the final round, and the remaining ones leave the competition. The host nation automatically qualifies for the final round.
16 national teams will compete in the inaugural edition of the tournament; 12 core teams, which are always qualified, and 4 challenger teams, which can face relegation.
Preliminary round
The 16 teams compete in round-robin tournament, with every core team hosting a pool al least once. The teams are divided into 4 pools of 4 teams in each week and compete five weeks long, with a total of 120 matches. The top five teams after the round-robin tournament join the hosts in the final round. The relegation will consider the four challenger teams and the last ranked challenger team will be excluded from next edition. The winners of the Challenger Cup would qualify for next edition as a challenger team.
Final round
The six qualified teams play in 2 pools of 3 teams in a round-robin format. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The first ranked teams play against the second ranked teams in this round. The winners of the semifinals advance to compete for the Nations League title.
=== Current format ===
The current format is applied since the 2022 edition. The whole competition still be divided into two phases: The pool phase and the Finals.
Pool phase
The 16 teams will be divided into 2 groups of eight. Each team will play with 12 matches during the three weeks of the preliminary round. Two pools of eight teams will compete in four matches of six days of competition (Tuesday – Sunday). The new competition format allows for a one-week gap between events. The total number of matches in the pool phase will be 96.
The finals
The Finals will see the eight strongest teams moving directly to the knockout phase which will consist of eight matches in total: four quarterfinals, two semi-finals and the bronze and gold medal matches. The total number of matches in the final phase will be 8.
=== Third reform from 2025 ===
The VNL will expand to 18 teams from 2025 alongside format changes that will elevate the VNL experience for athletes, fans, and all stakeholders. To facilitate the reform, there will be no relegation for the 2024 participating teams, while the winner of the 2024 Volleyball Challenger Cup, plus the top ranked not-yet-qualified team as per the senior Volleyball World Ranking, will join the participating teams of the 2025 VNL.
As of the 2025 edition, the core team status shall be abolished with the last team in the competition's final standing relegated, and the top team not yet qualified as per the Senior Volleyball World Ranking promoted into the following edition of the VNL.
== Challenger Cup ==
Until the 2024 edition, the FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup is a competition for national teams which will run in concurrence with the Volleyball Nations League. The Challenger Cup consist of the best non-participating in the current edition of the Volleyball Nations League and featured feature one host team and five to seven teams from the five continental confederations as follows:
The Continental Confederations, responsible for determining the teams that will qualify for the FIVB Challenger Cup, are free to organise their Continental Qualification Tournament or use an existing competition to define the qualified team(s).
The FIVB Challenger Cup is held before the FIVB Volleyball Nations League Finals (in 2018 and 2019 editions) but changed it in 2022 edition and the winners will qualify for the next year's VNL as a challenger team.
=== New VNL qualification system ===
Starting in 2025 edition, the lowest ranked Challenger team of the current edition of the VNL will play the Volleyball Challenger Cup (VCC) held after the VNL. The winner of the current edition of the VCC shall be promoted and compete in the next edition of the VNL.
== Hosts ==
List of hosts by number of final round championships hosted.
== Appearance ==
Table current through the end of the 2025 edition
== Results summary ==
== Medals summary ==
== MVP by edition ==
2018 – Michelle Bartsch-Hackley
2019 – Andrea Drews
2021 – Michelle Bartsch-Hackley (2)
2022 – Paola Egonu
2023 – Melissa Vargas
2024 – Paola Egonu (2)
2025 – Monica De Gennaro
== Team performances by season ==
Legend
1st – Champions
2nd – Runners-up
3rd – Third place
4th – Fourth place
– No movement for challenger teams
– Promoted to the next year's VNL
– Relegated for challenger teams (2018–2024)/Excluded to the next year's VNL (2025–present)
Table current through the end of the 2025 edition
== See also ==
FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix
FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup
List of indoor volleyball world medalists
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Fédération Internationale de Volleyball – official website
Volleyball Nations League – official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doni_Tondo#: | Doni Tondo | The Doni Tondo or Doni Madonna is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive. Now in the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, and still in its original frame, the Doni Tondo commissioned by Agnolo Doni, probably to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, the daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The painting is in the form of a tondo, meaning in Italian 'round', a shape which is frequently associated during the Renaissance with domestic ideas.
The Doni Tondo portrays the Holy Family (the child Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) in the foreground, along with John the Baptist in the middle-ground, and contains five nude male figures in the background. The inclusion of these nude figures has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
== History ==
Vasari tells us that the work was commissioned by Agnolo Doni (portrait). The occasion may have been to celebrate his marriage in January 1504 to Maddelena Strozzi (portrait); the blazon of the Strozzi family with three crescent moons is carved in the frame.
Alternatively, it could have been commissioned to commemorate the birth of his daughter Maria in 1507. This last theory is supported by the noticeable influence that the Laocoon was unearthed in January 1506 in the presence of Michelangelo, and the similarities between the Doni Virgin and the Sybils in the Sistine Chapel frescoes, painted the following year.
In either case, Michelangelo completed it before started work in his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, in 1508.
== Description ==
Mary is the most prominent figure in the composition, taking up much of the center of the image. She sits directly on the ground without a cushion between herself and the grass, to better communicate the theme of her relationship to the earth (?). Joseph is positioned higher in the image than Mary, although this is an unusual feature in compositions of the Holy Family. Mary is seated between his legs, as if he is protecting her, his great legs forming a kind of de facto throne. There is some debate as to whether Mary is receiving the Child from Joseph or vice versa. Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, is very commonly included in Florentine works depicting the Madonna and Child. He is in the middle-ground of the painting, between the Holy Family and the background. The scene appears to be a rural one, with the Holy Family enjoying themselves on the grass and separated from the curiously (seemingly) unrelated group at the back by a low wall.
The painting is still in its original frame, one that Michelangelo might have influenced or helped design. The frame is ornately carved and rather unusual for the five heads it contains which protrude three-dimensionally into space. Similar to the nudes of the background, the meanings of these heads has been the subject of speculation. The frame also contains carvings of crescent moons, stars, vegetation, and lions' heads. These symbols are, perhaps, references to the Doni and Strozzi families, taken from each one's coat of arms. As depicted on the frame, "the moons are bound together with ribbons that interlock with the lions", possibly referring to the marriage of the two families.
There is a horizontal band, possibly a wall, separating the foreground and background. The background figures are five nudes, whose meaning and function are subject to much speculation and debate. Because they are much closer to us, the viewers, the Holy Family is much larger than the nudes in the background, a device to aid the illusion of deep space in a two-dimensional image. Behind Saint John the Baptist is a semi-circular ridge, against which the Sistine ignudi are leaning, or upon which they are sitting. This semi-circle reflects or mirrors the circular shape of the painting itself and acts as a foil to the vertical nature of the principal group (the Holy family). Mary and Joseph gaze at Christ, but none of the background nudes looks directly at him. The far background contains a mountainous landscape rendered in atmospheric perspective.
== Technique ==
The Doni Tondo is believed to be the only existing panel picture Michelangelo painted without the aid of assistants; and, unlike his Manchester Madonna and Entombment (both National Gallery, London), the attribution to him has never been questioned. The juxtaposition of bright colors foreshadows the same use of color in Michelangelo's later Sistine Ceiling frescoes. The folds of the drapery are sharply modelled, and the modelling of the figures is distinctly sculptural, suggesting they are carved in medium marble. The nude figures in the background have softer modelling and look to be precursors to the ignudi, the male nude figures in the Sistine Ceiling frescoes. Michelangelo's technique includes shading from the most intense colors first to the lighter shades on top, using the darker colors as shadows. By applying the pigment in a certain way, Michelangelo created an "unfocused" effect in the background and focused detail in the foreground. The most vibrant color is located within the Virgin's garments, signifying her importance within the image. The masculinity of Mary could be explained by Michelangelo's use of male models for female figures, as was done for the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo used a limited palette of pigments comprising Lead White, Azurite, Verdigris and a few others. He avoided ochres and used very little vermilion.
== Influences ==
The composition is, most likely, partially influenced by the cartoon (a term referring to a detailed later-stage preliminary drawing) for Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin and Child with St. Anne. Michelangelo's Holy Family forms a tight, separated group in the centre foreground of the image, with the Virgin's figure constructing a typical Renaissance pyramid or triangle. Michelangelo saw the drawing in 1501 while in Florence working on the David.
The Doni Tondo is also associated with Luca Signorelli's Medici Madonna in the Uffizi. Michelangelo probably knew of the work and its ideas, and he wanted to incorporate those ideas into his own work. Signorelli's Madonna similarly uses a tondo form, depicts nude male figures in the background, and displays the Virgin sitting directly on the earth.
Three aspects of the painting can be attributed to an antique sardonyx cameo and a 15th-century relief from the circle of Donatello, available to Michelangelo in the Palazzo Medici: the circular form, the masculinity of Mary, and the positioning of the Christ Child. The Virgin's right arm mirrors the arm of the satyr in the cameo, and the cameo also depicts an infant located on the shoulders of the satyr, a position similar to the Christ Child being passed over the right arm of Mary.
Additionally, some scholars suggest that Michelangelo was inspired by the famous Greco-Roman group of Laocoön and His Sons, excavated in 1506 in Rome, an event at which Michelangelo is believed to have been present. The pose of the nude figure in the background immediately behind Saint Joseph, to our right, appears to have been influenced by the twisting contortions of the figures captured by the serpent in the Laocoön (again, if this were so, it would alter the date of the Doni Tondo by several years).
Furthermore, the inclusion of the five protruding heads in the paintings frame is often seen as a reference to a similar motif found on Ghiberti's Porta del Paradiso, the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistry which Michelangelo is known to have greatly admired.
== Plant symbolism ==
The plant in front of John the Baptist has aspects of both hyssop and cornflower, yet is most likely a hyssop because it grows from a wall. Cornflower is an attribute of Christ and symbolizes Heaven while hyssop symbolizes both the humility of Christ and baptism. There is a citron tree in the background, which represents the Cedar of Lebanon. Michelangelo uses the hyssop and tree as a visual representation of a quote by Rabanus Maurus, "From the Cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop which grows on a stony wall we have an explanation of the Divinity which Christ has in his Father and of the humanity that he derives from the Virgin Mary." The clover in the foreground represents the Trinity and salvation. The anemone plant represents the Trinity and the Passion of Christ.
== Scholarly theories ==
There is a multitude of interpretations for the various parts of the work. Most interpretations differ in defining the relationship between the Holy Family and the figures in the background.
Paul Barolsky argues that the Doni Tondo is a "devotional image […] more than an example of style, symbolism, [or] iconography". Barolsky bases much of his thesis on the language used by Giorgio Vasari in his work Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times. His support for the idea of devotion comes from Christ being presented in the painting like a gift, which he links to the painting's patron due to a perceived pun on the Italian word for "gift", donare, and the patron's name, Doni (meaning literally, in Italian, 'gifts'). Furthering the Christ-as-gift metaphor, Mary's holding of Christ in the painting is seen to reference the elevating of the host during mass.
Mirella Levi D'Ancona argues that the image reflects Michelangelo's views on the roles of the members of the Holy Family in human salvation and the soul's immortality. The Virgin's placement and emphasis is due to her role in human salvation. She is both the mother of Christ and the best intercessor for appealing to him. Michelangelo, who had been strongly influenced by the Dominican Fra Girolamo Savonarola in Florence, is using the picture to defend the Maculist point of view, a philosophy of the Dominican order rejecting the idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Maculist view is that the Virgin did not receive her sanctification at birth but at the moment of the incarnation of Christ; thus, the image depicts the moment of Mary's sanctification by showing the Christ Child blessing her. Michelangelo depicts Christ as if he is growing out of Mary's shoulder to take human form, one leg hanging limply and the other not visible at all, therefore making him a part of Mary. Moreover, his muscles and balance convey an upward movement, as if he is growing out of her, although he is above Mary, asserting his superiority to her. Furthermore, she argues that the nudes are to be interpreted as sinners who have removed their clothes for cleansing and purification through baptism. The water, which separates the sinners from the Holy Family, just beyond the horizontal band in the middle of the painting, can therefore be seen as the "waters of separation" mentioned in the Bible. She also argues that the five figures may represent the five parts of the soul: the higher soul (soul and intellect) on the left and the lower soul (imagination, sensation, and nourishing faculty) on the right, a visual depiction of the views of Marsilio Ficino, whom Michelangelo references in other works. Additionally, in looking at them as separate groupings, she suggests that the two figures on Mary's right represents the human and divine natures of Christ, while the three on her left represent the Trinity.
Andrée Hayum argues that the commissioning of the tondo by the Doni family helped to emphasize the "secular and domestic ideals" of the painting rather than seeing it as a "devotional object". In choosing a tondo as the format for the picture, Michelangelo is referencing the form's long association with depicting the "Adoration of the Magi, the Nativity, [and] the Madonna and Child." Hayum also finds many allusions to Noah throughout the work. She posits a referencing of the Madonna to Noah's daughter-in-law, a sibyl, which thus makes Joseph an embodiment of Noah himself. Hayum further supports this by acknowledging the direct link between Joseph and Noah as depicted in Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling paintings. This link to Noah also gives an explanation to the nudes in the background, whose forms may have inspired the sons in the Drunkenness of Noah. The allusion to the Noah story also brings up themes of baptismal water, thus giving rise to an interpretation of the nudes similar to D'Ancona's: "catechumens awaiting baptism" from John the Baptist, whose "isolation within a pit-like space" indicates his special role as baptizer.
Roberta Olson states that the painting depicts the "importance of the family" and is related to "Doni’s hoped-for descendants". One of the ways in which the painting depicts a "good marriage" is by the seemingly "reciprocal action" of the handling of Jesus between Joseph and Mary. Much importance is given to Joseph by way of the colors of his clothes: yellow, indicating the divine aspect of the family as well as "truth", and purple, standing for royal lineage tracing from the House of David. Additionally, Joseph is important to the painting by referencing the middle name of the "Doni's third child who lived beyond infancy". The theme of baptism is also suggested on the painting's frame through a possible reference to Ghiberti's Porta del Paradiso – being one of the three sets of doors of the Florence Baptistery (two of which by Ghiberti) – the sculpted details indirectly referring to the rite of Baptism, important for the Donis and their desire for a child as the product of a good marriage, exemplified by the Holy Family, perhaps one reason behind the commissioning of the work.
== See also ==
Media related to Tondo Doni at Wikimedia Commons
List of works by Michelangelo
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Barolsky, Paul (2003). "Michelangelo's Doni Tondo and the Worshipful Beholder". Notes in the History of Art. 22 (3): 8–11. doi:10.1086/sou.22.3.23206720. S2CID 192987028.
Buzzegoli, Ezio (December 1987). "Michelangelo as a Colourist, Revealed in the Conservation of the Doni Tondo". Apollo: 405–408.
d’Ancona, Mirella Levi (1968). "The Doni Madonna by Michelangelo: An Iconographic Study". The Art Bulletin. 50 (1). Taylor & Francis: 43–50. doi:10.2307/3048510. ISBN 978-0-8153-1823-1. JSTOR 3048510.
Hartt, Frederick; David G. Wilkins (2003). History of Italian Renaissance Art: Fifth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. pp. 506–508.
Hayum, Andrée. "Michelangelo's Doni Tondo: Holy Family and Family Myth". Studies in Iconography. 7/8.1981/82(1982), No. 1: 209–251.
Olson, Roberta J. M. (1993). "Lost and Partially Found: The Tondo, a Significant Florentine Art Form, in Documents of the Renaissance". Artibus et Historiae. 14 (27): 31–65. doi:10.2307/1483444. JSTOR 1483444.
Olsen, Roberta J.M. (2000). "Painted Devotional Tondi: Michelangleo Buonarotti's Doni Tondo". The Florentine Tondo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 219–226.
Smith, Graham (1975). "A Medici Source for Michelangelo's Doni Tondo". Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte. 38 Bd., H. 1 (1). Taylor & Francis: 84–85. doi:10.2307/1481909. ISBN 978-0-8153-1823-1. JSTOR 1481909.
Zimmer, William (1991). "The Tondo". Art Journal. 50 (1): 60–63. doi:10.2307/777088. JSTOR 777088.
Natali, Antonio (2014), Michelangelo. Inside and outside the Uffizi, Florence: Maschietto Editore, 2014. ISBN 978-88-6394-085-5
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Doni Tondo, ColourLex
E. Buzzegoli, R. Bellucci, Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo investigated with non-invasive analytical techniques, in Studying old master paintings, Technology and Practice, ed. by M. Spring, London 2011 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constable#:~:text=He%20was%20elected%20to%20the%20Royal%20Academy%20in%20February%201829,been%20popular%20with%20the%20students. | John Constable | John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".
Constable's most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1828) and The Hay Wain (1821). Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.
== Early career ==
John Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, to Golding and Ann (Watts) Constable. His father was a wealthy corn merchant, owner of Flatford Mill in East Bergholt and, later, Dedham Mill in Essex. Golding Constable owned a small ship, The Telegraph, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman. Although Constable was his parents' second son, his older brother was intellectually disabled and John was expected to succeed his father in the business. After a brief period at a boarding school in Lavenham, he was enrolled in a day school in Dedham, Essex. Constable worked in the corn business after leaving school, but his younger brother Abram eventually took over the running of the mills.
In his youth, Constable embarked on amateur sketching trips in the surrounding Suffolk and Essex countryside, which was to become the subject of a large proportion of his art. These scenes, in his own words, "made me a painter, and I am grateful"; "the sound of water escaping from mill dams etc., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things." He was introduced to George Beaumont, a collector, who showed him his prized Hagar and the Angel by Claude Lorrain, which inspired Constable. Later, while visiting relatives in Middlesex, he was introduced to the professional artist John Thomas Smith, who advised him on painting but also urged him to remain in his father's business rather than take up art professionally.
In 1799, Constable persuaded his father to let him pursue a career in art, and Golding granted him a small allowance. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, he attended life classes and anatomical dissections, and studied and copied old masters. Among works that particularly inspired him during this period were paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain, Peter Paul Rubens, Annibale Carracci and Jacob van Ruisdael. He also read widely among poetry and sermons, and later proved a notably articulate artist.
In 1802 he refused the position of drawing master at Great Marlow Military College (now Sandhurst), a move which Benjamin West (then master of the RA) counselled would mean the end of his career. In that year, Constable wrote a letter to John Dunthorne in which he spelled out his determination to become a professional landscape painter:
For the last two years I have been running after pictures, and seeking the truth at second hand... I have not endeavoured to represent nature with the same elevation of mind with which I set out, but have rather tried to make my performances look like the work of other men...There is room enough for a natural painter. The great vice of the present day is bravura, an attempt to do something beyond the truth.
His early style has many qualities associated with his mature work, including a freshness of light, colour and touch, and reveals the compositional influence of the old masters he had studied, notably of Claude Lorrain. Constable's usual subjects, scenes of ordinary daily life, were unfashionable in an age that looked for more romantic visions of wild landscapes and ruins. He made occasional trips farther afield.
By 1803, he was exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy. In April he spent almost a month aboard the East Indiaman Coutts as it visited south-east ports while sailing from London to Deal before leaving for China.
In 1806 Constable undertook a two-month tour of the Lake District. He told his friend and biographer, Charles Leslie, that the solitude of the mountains oppressed his spirits, and Leslie wrote:
His nature was peculiarly social and could not feel satisfied with scenery, however grand in itself, that did not abound in human associations. He required villages, churches, farmhouses and cottages.
Constable adopted a routine of spending winter in London and painting at East Bergholt in summer. In 1811 he first visited John Fisher and his family in Salisbury, a city whose cathedral and surrounding landscape were to inspire some of his greatest paintings.
To make ends meet, Constable took up portraiture, which he found dull, though he executed many fine portraits. He also painted occasional religious pictures but, according to John Walker, "Constable's incapacity as a religious painter cannot be overstated."
Another source of income was country house painting. In 1816, he was commissioned by Major-General Francis Slater Rebow to paint his country home, Wivenhoe Park, Essex. The Major-General also commissioned a smaller painting of the fishing lodge in the grounds of Alresford Hall, which is now in the National Gallery of Victoria. Constable used the money from these commissions towards his wedding with Maria Bicknell. This period of Constable's painting is heavily populated with idyllic country scenes with heavy detail, notably his 1816 work The Wheat Field.
== Marriage ==
From 1809, his childhood friendship with Maria Elizabeth Bicknell developed into a deep, mutual love. Their marriage in 1816 when Constable was 40 was opposed by Maria's grandfather, Dr. Rhudde, rector of East Bergholt. He considered the Constables his social inferiors and threatened Maria with disinheritance. Maria's father, Charles Bicknell, solicitor to George IV and the Admiralty, was reluctant to see Maria throw away her inheritance. Maria pointed out to John that a penniless marriage would detract from any chances he had of making a career in painting. Golding and Ann Constable, while approving the match, held out no prospect of supporting the marriage until Constable was financially secure. After they died in quick succession, Constable inherited a fifth share in the family business.
John and Maria's marriage in October 1816 at St Martin-in-the-Fields (with Fisher officiating) was followed by time at Fisher's vicarage and a honeymoon tour of the south coast. The sea at Weymouth and Brighton stimulated Constable to develop new techniques of brilliant colour and vivacious brushwork. At the same time, a greater emotional range began to be expressed in his art. While on honeymoon, Constable began to experiment with works exploring nature's grandeur, characterized by dominating skies, such as Osmington Bay.
Three weeks before their marriage, Constable revealed that he had started work on his most ambitious project to date In a letter to Maria Bicknell from East Bergholt, he wrote:
’I am now in the midst of a large picture here which I had contemplated for the next exhibition
The picture was Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River). It was the largest canvas of a working scene on the River Stour that he had worked on to date and the largest he would ever complete largely outdoors. Constable was determined to paint on a larger scale, his objective not only to attract more attention at the Royal Academy exhibitions but also, it seems, to project his ideas about landscape on a scale more in keeping with the achievements of the classical landscape painters he so admired. Although Flatford Mill failed to find a buyer when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1817, its fine and intricate execution drew much praise, encouraging Constable to move on to the even larger canvases that were to follow.
== The ‘Six-Footers’ ==
Although he managed to scrape an income from painting, it was not until 1819 that Constable sold his first important canvas, The White Horse, described by Charles Robert Leslie as ‘on many accounts the most important picture Constable ever painted'. The painting (without the frame) sold for the substantial price of 100 guineas to his friend John Fisher, finally providing Constable with a level of financial freedom he had never before known. The White Horse marked an important turning point in Constable’s career; its success saw him elected an associate of the Royal Academy and it led to a series of six monumental landscapes depicting narratives on the River Stour known as the ‘six-footers’ (named for their scale). The extraordinary size of the works helped Constable attract attention in the competitive space of the Academy's exhibitions. Viewed as ‘the knottiest and most forceful landscapes produced in 19th-century Europe’, for many they are the defining works of the artist's career. The series also includes Stratford Mill, 1820 (National Gallery, London); The Hay Wain, 1821 (National Gallery, London); View on the Stour near Dedham, 1822 (Huntington Library and Art Gallery, Los Angeles County); The Lock, 1824 (Private Collection); and The Leaping Horse, 1825 (Royal Academy of Arts, London).
The following year, his second six-footer Stratford Mill was exhibited. The Examiner described it as having ‘a more exact look of nature than any picture we have ever seen by an Englishman’. The painting was a success, acquiring a buyer in the loyal John Fisher, who purchased it for 100 guineas, a price he himself thought too low. Fisher bought the painting for his solicitor and friend, John Pern Tinney. Tinney loved the painting so much, he offered Constable another 100 guineas to paint a companion picture, an offer the artist didn’t take up. Constable's growing popularity in turn led to more lucrative commissions, such as Malvern Hall (1821, Clark Art Institute).
In 1821, his most famous painting The Hay Wain was shown at the Royal Academy's exhibition. Although it failed to find a buyer, it was viewed by some important people of the time, including two Frenchmen, the artist Théodore Géricault and writer Charles Nodier. According to the painter Eugène Delacroix, Géricault returned to France ’quite stunned‘ by Constable’s painting, while Nodier suggested French artists should also look to nature rather than relying on trips to Rome for inspiration. It was eventually purchased, along with View on the Stour near Dedham, by the Anglo-French dealer John Arrowsmith, in 1824. A small painting Yarmouth Jetty was added to the bargain by Constable, with the sale totalling £250. Both paintings were exhibited at the Paris Salon that year, where they caused a sensation, with the Hay Wain being awarded a gold medal by Charles X. The Hay Wain was later acquired by the collector Henry Vaughan who donated it to the National Gallery in 1886.
Of Constable's colour, Delacroix wrote in his journal: "What he says here about the green of his meadows can be applied to every tone". Delacroix repainted the background of his 1824 Massacre de Scio after seeing the Constables at Arrowsmith's Gallery, which he said had done him a great deal of good.
A number of distractions meant that The Lock wasn't finished in time for the 1823 exhibition, leaving the much smaller Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds as the artist's main entry. This may have occurred after Fisher forwarded Constable the money for the painting. This both helped him out of a financial difficulty and nudged him along to get the painting done. The Lock was therefore exhibited the following year to more fanfare and sold for 150 guineas on the first day of the exhibition, the only Constable ever to do so. The Lock is the only upright landscape of the Stour series and the only six-footer that Constable painted more than one version of. A second version now known as the ‘Foster version’ was painted in 1825 and kept by the artist to send to exhibitions. A third, landscape version, known as A Boat Passing a Lock (1826) is now in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts. Constable’s final attempt, The Leaping Horse, was the only six-footer from the Stour series that didn’t sell in Constable’s lifetime.
== Later life ==
Constable’s pleasure at his own success was dampened after his wife started displaying symptoms of tuberculosis. Her growing illness meant that Constable took lodgings for his family in Brighton from 1824 until 1828, in the hope the sea air could restore her health. During this period Constable split his time between Charlotte Street in London and Brighton. This change saw Constable move away from large scale Stour scenes in favour of coastal scenes. He continued painting six-foot canvases, although he was initially unsure of the suitability of Brighton as a subject for painting. In a letter to Fisher in 1824 he wrote
The magnificence of the sea, and its (to use your own beautiful expression) everlasting voice, is drowned in the din & lost in the tumult of stage coaches - gigs - “flys” &c. -and the beach is only Piccadilly (that part of it where we dined) by the sea-side.
In his lifetime, Constable sold only 20 paintings in England, but in France he sold more than 20 in just a few years. Despite this, he refused all invitations to travel internationally to promote his work, writing to Francis Darby: "I would rather be a poor man [in England] than a rich man abroad."
In 1825, perhaps due partly to the worry of his wife's ill-health, the uncongeniality of living in Brighton ("Piccadilly by the seaside"), and the pressure of numerous outstanding commissions, he quarreled with Arrowsmith and lost his French outlet.
Chain Pier, Brighton was his only ambitious six-foot painting of a Brighton subject, it was exhibited in 1827. The Constables persevered in Brighton for five years to aid Maria’s health, but to no avail. After the birth of their seventh child in January 1828, they returned to Hampstead where Maria died on 23 November at the age of 41. Intensely saddened, Constable wrote to his brother Golding, "hourly do I feel the loss of my departed Angel—God only knows how my children will be brought up...the face of the World is totally changed to me".
Thereafter, he dressed in black and was, according to Leslie, "a prey to melancholy and anxious thoughts". He cared for his seven children alone for the rest of his life. The children were John Charles, Maria Louisa, Charles Golding, Isobel, Emma, Alfred, and Lionel. Only Charles Golding Constable produced offspring. Several of Constable's children also painted, notably his son Lionel. While Lionel eventually gave up painting for photography, several of his works are within the collection of the Clark Art Institute.
Shortly before Maria died, her father had also died, leaving her £20,000. Constable speculated disastrously with the money, paying for the engraving of several mezzotints of some of his landscapes in preparation for a publication. He was hesitant and indecisive, nearly fell out with his engraver, and when the folios were published, could not interest enough subscribers. Constable collaborated closely with mezzotinter David Lucas on 40 prints after his landscapes, one of which went through 13 proof stages, corrected by Constable in pencil and paint. Constable said, "Lucas showed me to the public without my faults", but the venture was not a financial success.
This period saw his art move from the serenity of its earlier phase, to a more broken and accented style. The turmoil and distress of his mind is clearly seen in his later six-foot masterpieces Hadleigh Castle (1829) and Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831), which are amongst his most expressive pieces.
He was elected to the Royal Academy in February 1829, at the age of 52. In 1831 he was appointed Visitor at the Royal Academy, where he seems to have been popular with the students.
He began to deliver public lectures on the history of landscape painting, which were attended by distinguished audiences. In a series of lectures at the Royal Institution in 1836, Constable proposed a three-fold thesis: firstly, painting "is scientific as well as poetic"; secondly, "that imagination never did, and never can" produce art to bear comparison with reality; and thirdly, "that no great painter was ever self taught".
He also spoke against the new Gothic Revival movement, which he considered mere "imitation".
In 1835, his last lecture to students of the Royal Academy, in which he praised Raphael and called the Academy the "cradle of British art", was "cheered most heartily". He died on the night of 31 March 1837, apparently from heart failure, and was buried with Maria in the graveyard of St John-at-Hampstead Church in Hampstead in London. (His children John Charles Constable and Charles Golding Constable are also buried in this family tomb.)
== Locations ==
Bridge Cottage is a National Trust property, open to the public. Nearby Flatford Mill and Willy Lott's Cottage (the house visible in The Hay Wain) are used by the Field Studies Council for courses. The largest collection of original Constable paintings outside London is on display at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich. Somerville College, Oxford is in possession of a portrait by Constable.
== Art ==
Constable quietly rebelled against the artistic culture that taught artists to use their imagination to compose their pictures rather than nature itself. He told Leslie, "When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture".
Constable attributed his gift 'to all that lay on the Stour river', however, biographer Anthony Bailey attributed his artistic development to the influence of his well to do relative, Thomas Allen and the London contacts he introduced Constable to.
Although Constable produced paintings throughout his life for the "finished" picture market of patrons and R.A. exhibitions, constant refreshment in the form of on-the-spot studies was essential to his working method. He was never satisfied with following a formula. "The world is wide", he wrote, "no two days are alike, nor even two hours; neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of all the world; and the genuine productions of art, like those of nature, are all distinct from each other."
Constable painted many full-scale preliminary sketches of his landscapes to test the composition in advance of finished pictures. These large sketches, with their free and vigorous brushwork, were revolutionary at the time, and they continue to interest artists, scholars and the general public. The oil sketches of The Leaping Horse and The Hay Wain, for example, convey a vigour and expressiveness missing from Constable's finished paintings of the same subjects. Possibly more than any other aspect of Constable's work, the oil sketches reveal him in retrospect to have been an avant-garde painter, one who demonstrated that landscape painting could be taken in a totally new direction.
Constable's watercolours were also remarkably free for their time: the almost mystical Stonehenge, 1835, with its double rainbow, is often considered to be one of the greatest watercolours ever painted. When he exhibited it in 1836, Constable appended a text to the title: "The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, standing remote on a bare and boundless heath, as much unconnected with the events of past ages as it is with the uses of the present, carries you back beyond all historical records into the obscurity of a totally unknown period."
In addition to the full-scale oil sketches, Constable completed numerous observational studies of landscapes and clouds, determined to become more scientific in his recording of atmospheric conditions. The power of his physical effects was sometimes apparent even in the full-scale paintings which he exhibited in London; The Chain Pier, 1827, for example, prompted a critic to write: "the atmosphere possesses a characteristic humidity about it, that almost imparts the wish for an umbrella".
The sketches themselves were the first ever done in oils directly from the subject in the open air, with the notable exception of the oil sketches Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes made in Rome around 1780. To convey the effects of light and movement, Constable used broken brushstrokes, often in small touches, which he scumbled over lighter passages, creating an impression of sparkling light enveloping the entire landscape. One of the most expressionistic and powerful of all his studies is Seascape Study with Rain Cloud, painted about 1824 at Brighton, which captures with slashing dark brushstrokes the immediacy of an exploding cumulus shower at sea. Constable also became interested in painting rainbow effects, for example in Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831, and in Cottage at East Bergholt, 1833.
To the sky studies he added notes, often on the back of the sketches, of the prevailing weather conditions, direction of light, and time of day, believing that the sky was "the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment" in a landscape painting. In this habit he is known to have been influenced by the pioneering work of the meteorologist Luke Howard on the classification of clouds; Constable's annotations of his own copy of Researches About Atmospheric Phaenomena by Thomas Forster show him to have been fully abreast of meteorological terminology. "I have done a good deal of skying", Constable wrote to Fisher on 23 October 1821; "I am determined to conquer all difficulties, and that most arduous one among the rest".
Constable once wrote in a letter to Leslie, "My limited and abstracted art is to be found under every hedge, and in every lane, and therefore nobody thinks it worth picking up". He could never have imagined how influential his honest techniques would turn out to be. Constable's art inspired not only contemporaries like Géricault and Delacroix, but the Barbizon School, and the French impressionists of the late nineteenth century.
In 2019 two drawings by Constable were found among the possessions of the late playwright and poet, Christopher Fry; the drawings later sold for £60,000 and £32,000 at auction.
=== Gallery ===
== Selected paintings ==
Dedham Vale (1802) – Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Stour (1810) – Philadelphia Museum of Art
Landscape: Two Boys Fishing (1813) – Anglesey Abbey, Cambs, NT
Landscape: Ploughing Scene in Suffolk (1814, revised c. 1816 and 1831) – Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Mill Stream, Flatford (1814) – Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
The Stour Valley And Dedham Village (1814–1815) – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boat-Building Near Flatford Mill (1815) – Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Golding Constable's Flower Garden (1815) – Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
Golding Constable's Kitchen Garden (1815) – Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
Portrait of Maria Bicknell, Mrs. John Constable (1816) – Tate Britain, London
Wivenhoe Park, Essex (1816) – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Quarters behind Alresford Hall (1816) – National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Flatford Mill (original title Scene on a Navigable River) (1816) – Tate Britain, London
Two Donkeys (1816) – Philadelphia Museum of Art
Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill (1816–17) – National Gallery, London
A Cottage in a Cornfield (1817) – National Museum Cardiff
Weymouth Bay with Approaching Storm (1819) – Louvre, Paris
The White Horse (A Scene on the River Stour) (1819) – Frick Collection, New York City
Harwich- The Low Lighthouse and Beacon Hill (1820) – Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Hampstead Heath (1820) – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Dedham Lock and Mill (1820) – Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Stratford Mill (1820) – National Gallery, London
The Hay Wain (original title Landscape: Noon; 1821) – National Gallery, London
The Grove, or the Admiral's House in Hampstead (1821–22) – Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
View on the Stour near Dedham (1822) – The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds (1823) – Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Lock (1824) – Private Collection
Seascape Study with Rain Clouds (1824–25) – Royal Academy of Arts, London
Brighton Beach (c. 1824–26) – Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
The Leaping Horse (1825) – Royal Academy of Arts, London
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds (1825) – Frick Collection, New York City
The Cornfield (1826) – National Gallery, London
Chain Pier, Brighton (1827) – Tate Britain, London
The Vale of Dedham (1828) – National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Hadleigh Castle (1829) – Yale Center for British Art and sketch Tate Britain
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831) – Tate Britain, London
Sir Richard Steele's Cottage, Hampstead (1832) – Yale Center for British Art
The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (1832) – Tate Britain, London
The Valley Farm (1835) – Tate Britain, London
Stonehenge (1835) – Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow (1836) – Tate Britain, London
Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1836) – National Gallery, London
Arundel Mill and Castle (c. 1836–37) – Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
== Notes ==
== Bibliography ==
== External links ==
Media related to Paintings by John Constable at Wikimedia Commons
348 artworks by or after John Constable at the Art UK site
John Constable: Sketch for Hadleigh Castle c1828 – Great Works of Western Art
A gallery of Constable's cloud studies
Web feature from Royal Academy of Arts
Constable's Great Landscapes: The Six-Foot Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
John Constable: a complete chronology and other articles
Constable's Oil Sketches Victoria and Albert Museum
A Sketchbook by Constable Victoria and Albert Museum
List of works held by the Victoria and Albert Museum
390 paintings by John Constable at www.John-Constable.org
Gallery of Constable Paintings at MuseumSyndicate Archived 22 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
Portraits by the artist as a young man: Constable's parents finally identified, The Guardian, March 4, 2009
Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, ed C. R. Leslie 1843
Romanticism & the school of nature : nineteenth-century drawings and paintings from the Karen B. Cohen collection, fully digitized text from The Metropolitan Museum of Art libraries
Charles Rhyne Archive - Research on John Constable
Turner and Constable 2025 exhibition at the Tate Britain |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Baltika_Kaliningrad | FC Baltika Kaliningrad | FC Baltika (Russian: Акционерное Общество «Футбольный клуб «Балтика») is a professional association football club based in Kaliningrad, Russia. The club returned to the Russian Premier League in the 2025–26 season.
== History ==
The club was founded on 23 August 1954 as Pishchevik Kaliningrad. In 1958 the club was renamed Baltika.
The team entered the Soviet League in 1957 and played in Class B (1957–1965), Class A, Group 2 (1966–1970), and Second League (1971–1991). The best result was achieved in 1984, when Baltika won the regional group tournament.
In 1992 Baltika entered the Russian Second Division and won the regional tournament and promotion to the First Division. After a fourth-place finish in 1993 and third position in 1994 Baltika won the division in 1995. In 1996 Baltika achieved the best result in club's history, finishing 7th in the Top Division, the Russian Premier League. Baltika were relegated in 1998, spending a total of three seasons in the top flight. In 1998 Baltika participated in the Intertoto Cup and reached the third round.
Since then, Baltika played in the First Division, except for the 2002 and 2005 seasons which they spent in the Second Division.
In 2018–19 Russian Football National League, they finished 16th (a relegation spot). However, PFL zone East winners FC Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk did not apply for the FNL license, keeping Baltika in the league.
On 19 May 2023, Baltika secured a promotion to the Russian Premier League for the first time in 25 years.
In the 2023–24 Russian Cup, Baltika advanced to the Superfinal.
Baltika finished 15th in the league season and was relegated back to second tier after one year in the Premier League.
On 2 June 2024, Baltika lost the 2024 Russian Cup final to Zenit St. Petersburg with the score of 1–2, Baltika initially led 1–0 and conceded two goals in the 81st minute and in the 5th added minute.
On 10 May 2025, Baltika secured a top-2 finish in the First League season and promotion back to the Russian Premier League for 2025–26.
== League results ==
== Current squad ==
As of 12 September 2025, according to the official Russian Premier League website.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
=== Out on loan ===
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
=== Reserve team ===
== Reserve team ==
Baltika's reserve team played professionally in the Russian Third League in 1994 as FC Baltika-d Kaliningrad and in the Russian Second Division in 2006 and 2007 as FC Baltika-2 Kaliningrad.
== Notable players ==
These players had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Baltika.
== Club staff ==
== External links ==
Official website (in Russian)
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartad%C3%B3 | Apartadó | Apartadó (Spanish pronunciation: [apaɾtaˈðo]) is a small city and municipality in the Antioquia Department, Colombia. It is part of the Urabá sub-region.
"Apartadó" means "river of plantains" in the local Indian language. The city is located near the Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Urabá, the economy is based in bananas, plantain, corn, cassava, cocoa, wood and livestock. The mean maximum temperature is 30 °C (86 °F) and the relative humidity is above 80% all year round.
Apartadó is divided in 48 neighborhoods, and here is the best high school of the region of Urabá Antioquia. Today, the government is stimulating industrialization because it is near the Caribbean Sea and to the center of the country.
The municipality had a population of 127,744 in 2020.
== Climate ==
Apartadó has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) with heavy rainfall year-round.
== Transportation ==
The city is served by Antonio Roldán Betancourt Airport, with service on three commercial airlines.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Azad | Maulana Azad | Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958), better known as Maulana Azad and sometimes referred as Abul Kalam Azad, was an Indian writer, activist of the Indian independence movement and statesman. A senior leader of the Indian National Congress, following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.
As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu, as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. After the failure of the Khilafat Movement, he became closer to the Congress. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.
In October 1920, Azad was elected as a member of foundation committee to establish Jamia Millia Islamia at Aligarh in U. P. without taking help from British colonial government. He assisted in shifting the campus of the university from Aligarh to New Delhi in 1934. The main gate (Gate No. 7) to the main campus of the university is named after him.
Azad was one of the main organizers of the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, and emerged as one of the most important national leaders of the time, prominently leading the causes of Hindu–Muslim unity as well as espousing secularism and socialism. He served as Congress president from 1940 to 1945, during which the Quit India rebellion was launched. Azad was imprisoned, together with the entire Congress leadership. He also worked for Hindu–Muslim unity through the Al-Hilal newspaper.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Azad was born on 11 November 1888 in Mecca, then a part of the Ottoman Empire, now a part of Saudi Arabia. His real name was Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin, but he eventually became known as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Azad's forefathers had come to India from Herat. His father was a Muslim scholar who lived in Delhi with his maternal grandfather, as his father had died at a very young age. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, he left India and settled in Mecca. His father Muhammad Khairuddin bin Ahmed Al Hussaini wrote twelve books, had thousands of disciples, and claimed noble ancestry, while his mother was Sheikha Alia bint Mohammad, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad bin Zaher AlWatri, himself a reputed scholar from Medina who had a reputation that extended even outside of Arabia.
Azad settled in Calcutta with his family in 1890.
=== Education and influences ===
Azad was home-schooled by the teachers hired by his family. Following fluency in Arabic as a first language, Azad began to master several other languages including Bengali, Hindustani, Persian, and English. He was also trained in the Madhabs of Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali fiqh, Shariat, mathematics, philosophy, world history, and science by tutors hired by his family. An avid and determined student, the precocious Azad was running a library, a reading room, and a debating society before he was twelve; wanted to write on the life of Al-Ghazali at twelve; was contributing learned articles to Makhzan (a literary magazine) at fourteen; was teaching a class of students, most of whom were twice his age, when he was fifteen; and completed the traditional course of study at the age of sixteen, nine years ahead of his contemporaries, and brought out a magazine at the same age. At the age of thirteen, he was married to a young Muslim girl, Zulaikha Begum. Azad compiled many treatises interpreting the Qur'an, the Hadis, and the principles of Fiqh and Kalam.
=== Early journalistic career ===
Azad began his journalistic endeavours at an early age. In 1899 at the age of eleven he started publishing a poetical journal Nairang-e-Aalam at Calcutta and was already an editor of a weekly Al-Misbah in 1900. He contributed articles to Urdu magazines and journals such as Makhzan, Ahsanul Akhbar, and Khadang e Nazar.
In 1903, he brought out a monthly journal, Lissan-us-Sidq. It was published between December 1903 to May 1905 until its closure due to shortage of funds. He then joined Al-Nadwa, the Islamic theological journal of the Nadwatu l-Ulama on Shibli Nomani's invitation. He worked as editor of Vakil, a newspaper from Amritsar from April 1906 to November 1906. He shifted to Calcutta for a brief period where he was associated with Dar-ul-Saltunat. He returned to Amritsar after few months and resumed the editorship of Vakil, continuing to work there until July 1908.
=== Struggle for Indian Independence ===
In 1908, he took a trip of Egypt, Syria, Turkey and France where he came into contact with several revolutionaries such as followers of Kamal Mustafa Pasha, members of Young Turk Movement and Iranian revolutionaries. Azad developed political views considered radical for most Muslims of the time and became a full-fledged Indian nationalist. In his writing, Azad proved to be a fierce critic of both the British government and Muslim politicians; the former for its racial discrimination and refusal to provide for the needs of the Indian public, and the later for focusing on communal issues before matter of common-self interest (Azad pointedly rejected the All-India Muslim League's communal separatism). However, his views changed considerably when he met ethnically oriented Sunni revolutionary activists in Iraq and was influenced by their fervent anti-imperialism and Arab nationalism. Against common Muslim opinion of the time, Azad opposed the partition of Bengal in 1905 and became increasingly active in revolutionary activities, to which he was introduced by the prominent Hindu revolutionaries Aurobindo Ghosh and Shyam Sundar Chakravarty. Azad initially evoked surprise from other revolutionaries, but Azad won their praise and confidence by working secretly to organise revolutionaries activities and meetings in Bengal, Bihar and Bombay (now called Mumbai).
==== Al-Hilal and Khilafat movement ====
He established an Urdu weekly newspaper in 1912 called Al-Hilal from Calcutta, and openly attacked British policies while exploring the challenges facing common people. Espousing the ideals of Indian nationalism, Azad's publications were aimed at encouraging young Muslims into fighting for independence and Hindu-Muslim unity. With the onset of World War I, the British stiffened censorship and restrictions on political activity. Azad's Al-Hilal was consequently banned in 1914 under the Press Act.
In 1913, he was founding member of the Anjuman-i-Ulama-i-Bangala, which would become the Jamiat Ulema-e-Bangala branch of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1921. His work helped improve the relationship between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal, which had been soured by the controversy surrounding the partition of Bengal and the issue of separate communal electorates.
In this period Azad also became active in his support for the Khilafat agitation to protect the position of the Sultan of Ottoman Turkey, who was considered the Caliph or Khalifa for Muslims worldwide. The Sultan had sided against the British in the war and the continuity of his rule came under serious threat, causing distress amongst Muslim conservatives. Azad saw an opportunity to energise Indian Muslims and achieve major political and social reform through the struggle.
Azad started a new journal, the Al-Balagh, which also got banned in 1916 under the Defence of India Regulations Act and he was arrested. The governments of the Bombay Presidency, United Provinces, Punjab and Delhi prohibited his entry into the provinces and Azad was moved to a jail in Ranchi, where he was incarcerated until 1 January 1920.
==== Non-co-operation Movement ====
Upon his release, Azad returned to a political atmosphere charged with sentiments of outrage and rebellion against British rule. The Indian public had been angered by the passage of the Rowlatt Acts in 1919, which severely restricted civil liberties and individual rights. Consequently, thousands of political activists had been arrested and many publications banned. The killing of unarmed civilians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13 April 1919 had provoked intense outrage all over India, alienating most Indians, including long-time British supporters, from the authorities. The Khilafat struggle had also peaked with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the raging Turkish War of Independence, which had made the caliphate's position precarious. India's main political party, the Indian National Congress came under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, who had aroused excitement all over India when he led the farmers of Champaran and Kheda in a successful revolt against British authorities in 1918. Gandhi organised the people of the region and pioneered the art of Satyagraha— combining mass civil disobedience with complete non-violence and self-reliance.
Taking charge of the Congress, Gandhi also reached out to support the Khilafat struggle, helping to bridge Hindu-Muslim political divides. Azad and the Ali brothers – Maulana Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali – warmly welcomed Congress support and began working together on a programme of non-co-operation by asking all Indians to boycott British-run schools, colleges, courts, public services, the civil service, police and military. Non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity were universally emphasised, while the boycott of foreign goods, especially clothes were organised. Azad joined the Congress and was also elected president of the All India Khilafat Committee. Although Azad and other leaders were soon arrested, the movement drew out millions of people in peaceful processions, strikes and protests.
This period marked a transformation in Azad's own life. Along with fellow Khilafat leaders Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan and others, Azad grew personally close to Gandhi and his philosophy. The three men founded the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi as an institution of higher education managed entirely by Indians without any British support or control. Both Azad and Gandhi shared a deep passion for religion and Azad developed a close friendship with him. He adopted the Islamic prophet Muhammad's ideas by living simply, rejecting material possessions and pleasures. Becoming deeply committed to ahimsa (non-violence) himself, Azad grew close to fellow nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das and Subhas Chandra Bose. He strongly criticised the continuing suspicion of the Congress amongst the Muslim intellectuals from the Aligarh Muslim University and the Muslim League.
In 1921, he started the weekly Paigham which was also banned by December 1921. He along with the editor of Paigham, Abdul Razzak Mahilabadi was arrested by the government and sentenced to one year imprisonment.
During the course of 1922, both the Khilafat and the non cooperation movement suffered blow while Azad and other leaders like the Ali brothers were in jail. The movement had a sudden decline with rising incidences of violence; a nationalist mob killed 22 policemen in Chauri Chaura in 1922. Fearing degeneration into violence, Gandhi asked Indians to suspend the revolt and undertook a five-day fast to repent and encourage others to stop the rebellion. Although the movement stopped all over India, several Congress leaders and activists were disillusioned with Gandhi. By 1923, Ali brothers grew distant and critical of Gandhi and the Congress. Azad's close friend Chittaranjan Das co-founded the Swaraj Party, breaking from Gandhi's leadership. Despite the circumstances, Azad remained firmly committed to Gandhi's ideals and leadership.
In 1923, he became the youngest man to be elected Congress president. Azad led efforts to organise the Flag Satyagraha in Nagpur. Azad served as president of the 1924 Unity Conference in Delhi, using his position to work to re-unite the Swarajists and the Khilafat leaders under the common banner of the Congress. In the years following the movement, Azad travelled across India, working extensively to promote Gandhi's vision, education and social reform.
==== Congress leader ====
Azad served on the Congress Working Committee and in the offices of general secretary and president many times. The political environment in India re-energised in 1928 with nationalist outrage against the Simon Commission appointed to propose constitutional reforms. The commission included no Indian members and did not even consult Indian leaders and experts. In response, the Congress and other political parties appointed a commission under Motilal Nehru to propose constitutional reforms from Indian opinions. In 1928, Azad endorsed the Nehru Report, which was criticised by the Ali brothers and Muslim League politician Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Azad endorsed the ending of separate electorates based on religion, and called for an independent India to be committed to secularism. At the 1928 Congress session in Guwahati, Azad endorsed Gandhi's call for dominion status for India within a year. If not granted, the Congress would adopt the goal of complete political independence for India. Despite his affinity for Gandhi, Azad also drew close to the young radical leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Bose, who had criticised the delay in demanding full independence. Azad developed a close friendship with Nehru and began espousing socialism as the means to fight inequality, poverty and other national challenges. Azad decided the name of Muslim political party Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam. He was also a friend of Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, founder of All India Majlis-e-Ahrar. When Gandhi embarked on the Dandi Salt March that inaugurated the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, Azad organised and led the nationalist raid, albeit non-violent on the Dharasana salt works to protest the salt tax and restriction of its production and sale. The biggest nationalist upheaval in a decade, Azad was imprisoned along with millions of people, and would frequently be jailed from 1930 to 1934 for long periods of time. Following the Gandhi–Irwin Pact in 1931, Azad was amongst millions of political prisoners released. When elections were called under the Government of India Act 1935, Azad was appointed to organise the Congress election campaign, raising funds, selecting candidates and organising volunteers and rallies across India. Azad had criticised the Act for including a high proportion of un-elected members in the central legislature, and did not himself contest a seat. He again declined to contest elections in 1937, and helped head the party's efforts to organise elections and preserve co-ordination and unity amongst the Congress governments elected in different provinces.
At the 1936 Congress session in Lucknow, Azad was drawn into a dispute with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari regarding the espousal of socialism as the Congress goal. Azad had backed the election of Nehru as Congress president, and supported the resolution endorsing socialism. In doing so, he aligned with Congress socialists like Nehru, Subhash Bose and Jayaprakash Narayan. Azad also supported Nehru's re-election in 1937, at the consternation of many conservative Congressmen. Azad supported dialogue with Jinnah and the Muslim League between 1935 and 1937 over a Congress-League coalition and broader political co-operation. Less inclined to brand the League as obstructive, Azad nevertheless joined the Congress's vehement rejection of Jinnah's demand that the League be seen exclusively as the representative of Indian Muslims.
==== Quit India Movement ====
In 1938, Azad served as an intermediary between the supporters of and the Congress faction led by Congress president Subhash Bose, who criticised Gandhi for not launching another rebellion against the British and sought to move the Congress away from Gandhi's leadership. Azad stood by Gandhi with most other Congress leaders, but reluctantly endorsed the Congress's exit from the assemblies in 1939 following the inclusion of India in World War II. Nationalists were infuriated that Viceroy Lord Linlithgow had entered India into the war without consulting national leaders. Although willing to support the British effort in return for independence, Azad sided with Gandhi when the British ignored the Congress overtures. Azad's criticism of Jinnah and the League intensified as Jinnah called Congress rule in the provinces as "Hindu Raj", calling the resignation of the Congress ministries as a "Day of Deliverance" for Muslims. Jinnah and the League's separatist agenda was gaining popular support amongst Muslims. Muslim religious and political leaders criticised Azad as being too close to the Congress and placing politics before Muslim welfare. As the Muslim League adopted a resolution calling for a separate Muslim state (Pakistan) in its session in Lahore in 1940, Azad was elected Congress president in its session in Ramgarh. Speaking vehemently against Jinnah's Two-Nation Theory—the notion that Hindus and Muslims were distinct nations—Azad lambasted religious separatism and exhorted all Muslims to preserve a united India, as all Hindus and Muslims were Indians who shared deep bonds of brotherhood and nationhood. In his presidential address, Azad said:
"Full eleven centuries have passed by since then. Islam has now as great a claim on the soil of India as Hinduism. If Hinduism has been the religion of the people here for several thousands of years, Islam also has been their religion for a thousand years. Just as a Hindu can say with pride that he is an Indian and follows Hinduism, so also we can say with equal pride that we are Indians and follow Islam. I shall enlarge this orbit still further. The Indian Christian is equally entitled to say with pride that he is an Indian and is following a religion of India, namely Christianity."
In face of increasing popular disenchantment with the British across India, Gandhi and Patel advocated an all-out rebellion demanding immediate independence. Azad was wary and sceptical of the idea, aware that India's Muslims were increasingly looking to Jinnah and had supported the war. Feeling that a struggle would not force a British exit, Azad and Nehru warned that such a campaign would divide India and make the war situation even more precarious. Intensive and emotional debates took place between Azad, Nehru, Gandhi and Patel in the Congress Working Committee's meetings in May and June 1942. In the end, Azad became convinced that decisive action in one form or another had to be taken, as the Congress had to provide leadership to India's people and would lose its standing if it did not.
Supporting the call for the British to "Quit India", Azad began exhorting thousands of people in rallies across the nation to prepare for a definitive, all-out struggle. As Congress president, Azad travelled across India and met with local and provincial Congress leaders and grass-roots activists, delivering speeches and planning the rebellion. Despite their previous differences, Azad worked closely with Patel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad to make the rebellion as effective as possible. On 7 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank in Mumbai, Congress president Azad inaugurated the struggle with a vociferous speech exhorting Indians into action. Just two days later, the British arrested Azad and the entire Congress leadership. While Gandhi was incarcerated at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, Azad and the Congress Working Committee were imprisoned at a fort in Ahmednagar, where they would remain under isolation and intense security for nearly four years. Outside news and communication had been largely prohibited and completely censored. Although frustrated at their incarceration and isolation, Azad and his companions attested to feeling a deep satisfaction at having done their duty to their country and people.
Azad occupied the time playing bridge and acting as the referee in tennis matches played by his colleagues. In the early mornings, Azad began working on his classic Urdu work, the Ghubhar-i-Khatir. Sharing daily chores, Azad also taught the Persian and Urdu languages, as well as Indian and world history to several of his companions. The leaders would generally avoid talking of politics, unwilling to cause any arguments that could exacerbate the pain of their imprisonment. However, each year on 26 January, which was then considered Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) Day, the leaders would gather to remember their cause and pray together. Azad, Nehru and Patel would briefly speak about the nation and the future. Azad and Nehru proposed an initiative to forge an agreement with the British in 1943. Arguing that the rebellion had been mistimed, Azad attempted to convince his colleagues that the Congress should agree to negotiate with the British and call for the suspension of disobedience if the British agreed to transfer power. Although his proposal was overwhelmingly rejected, Azad and a few others agreed that Gandhi and the Congress had not done enough. When they learnt of Gandhi holding talks with Jinnah in Mumbai in 1944, Azad criticised Gandhi's move as counter-productive and ill-advised.
==== Partition of India ====
With the end of the war, the British agreed to transfer power to Indian hands. All political prisoners were released in 1946 and Azad led the Congress in the elections for the new Constituent Assembly of India, which would draft India's constitution. He headed the delegation to negotiate with the British Cabinet Mission, in his sixth year as Congress president. While attacking Jinnah's demand for Pakistan and the mission's proposal of 16 June 1946 that envisaged the partition of India, Azad became a strong proponent of the mission's earlier proposal of 16 May. The proposal advocated a federal system with a limited central government and autonomy for the provinces. The central government would have Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication while the provinces would win all other subjects unless they voluntarily relinquished selected subjects to the Central Government. Additionally, the proposal called for the "grouping" of provinces on religious lines, which would informally band together the Muslim-majority provinces in the West as Group B, Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Assam as Group C and the rest of India as Group A. While Gandhi and others expressed scepticism of this clause, Azad argued that Jinnah's demand for Pakistan would be buried and the concerns of the Muslim community would be assuaged. Under Azad and Patel's backing, the Working Committee approved the resolution against Gandhi's advice. Azad also managed to win Jinnah's agreement to the proposal citing the greater good of all Indian Muslims.
Azad had been the Congress president since 1939, so he volunteered to resign in 1946. He nominated Nehru, who replaced him as Congress president and led the Congress into the interim government. Azad was appointed to head the Department of Education. However, Jinnah's Direct Action Day agitation for Pakistan, launched on 16 August sparked communal violence across India. Thousands of people were killed as Azad travelled across Bengal and Bihar to calm the tensions and heal relations between Muslims and Hindus. Despite Azad's call for Hindu-Muslim unity, Jinnah's popularity amongst Muslims soared and the League entered a coalition with the Congress in December, but continued to boycott the constituent assembly. Later in his autobiography, Azad indicated Patel having become more pro-partition than the Muslim League, largely due to the League's not co-operating with the Congress in the provisional government on any issue.
Azad had grown increasingly hostile to Jinnah, who had described him as the "Muslim Lord Haw-Haw" and a "Congress Showboy." Muslim League politicians accused Azad of allowing Muslims to be culturally and politically dominated by the Hindu community. Azad continued to proclaim his faith in Hindu-Muslim unity:
"I am proud of being an Indian. I am part of the indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me this splendid structure is incomplete. I am an essential element, which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim."
Amidst more incidences of violence in early 1947, the Congress-League coalition struggled to function. The provinces of Bengal and Punjab were to be partitioned on religious lines, and on 3 June 1947 the British announced a proposal to partition India on religious lines, with the princely states free to choose between either dominion. The proposal was hotly debated in the All India Congress Committee, with Muslim leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan expressing fierce opposition. Azad privately discussed the proposal with Gandhi, Patel and Nehru, but despite his opposition was unable to deny the popularity of the League and the unworkability of any coalition with the League. Faced with the serious possibility of a civil war, Azad abstained from voting on the resolution, remaining silent and not speaking throughout the AICC session, which ultimately approved the plan.
Azad, committed to a united India until his last attempt, was condemned by the advocates of Pakistan, especially the Muslim League.
=== Post-Independence career ===
India's partition and independence on 15 August 1947 brought with it a scourge of violence that swept the Punjab, Bihar, Bengal, Delhi and many other parts of India. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly created Pakistan for India, and millions of Muslims fled for West Pakistan and East Pakistan, created out of East Bengal. Violence claimed the lives of an estimated one million people, almost entirely in Punjab. Azad took up responsibility for the safety of Muslims in India, touring affected areas in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and the Punjab, guiding the organisation of refugee camps, supplies and security. Azad gave speeches to large crowds encouraging peace and calm in the border areas and encouraging Muslims across the country to remain in India and not fear for their safety and security. Focusing on bringing the capital of Delhi back to peace, Azad organised security and relief efforts, but was drawn into a dispute with the Deputy prime minister and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel when he demanded the dismissal of Delhi's police commissioner, who was a Sikh accused by Muslims of overlooking attacks and neglecting their safety. Patel argued that the commissioner was not biased, and if his dismissal was forced it would provoke anger amongst Hindus and Sikhs and divide the city police. In Cabinet meetings and discussions with Gandhi, Patel and Azad clashed over security issues in Delhi and Punjab, as well as the allocation of resources for relief and rehabilitation. Patel opposed Azad and Nehru's proposal to reserve the houses vacated by Muslims who had departed for Pakistan for Muslims in India displaced by the violence. Patel argued that a secular government could not offer preferential treatment for any religious community, while Azad remained anxious to assure the rehabilitation of Muslims in India, secularism, religious freedom and equality for all Indians. He supported provisions for Muslim citizens to make avail of Muslim personal law in courts.
Azad remained a close confidante, supporter and advisor to prime minister Nehru, and played an important role in framing national policies. Azad masterminded the creation of national programmes of school and college construction and spreading the enrolment of children and young adults into schools, to promote universal primary education. He was elected to the lower house of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha in 1952 from Rampur Lok Sabha seat. In 1957 he re-contested Rampur and also dually contested the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in Punjab (modern-day Haryana), where he won on both seats. Gurgaon had a significant Muslim Meo population making it a safe seat for Azad.
Azad supported Nehru's socialist economic and industrial policies, as well as the advancing social rights and economic opportunities for women and underprivileged Indians. In 1956, he served as president of the UNESCO General Conference held in Delhi. Azad spent the final years of his life focusing on writing his book India Wins Freedom, an exhaustive account of India's freedom struggle and its leaders. About 30 of the pages of this book were published about 30 years after Azad's death in 1988 as per his own wish.
As India's first Minister of Education, he emphasised on educating the rural poor and girls. As Chairman of the Central Advisory Board of Education, he gave thrust to adult literacy, universal primary education, free and compulsory for all children up to the age of 14, girl's education, and diversification of secondary education and vocational training.
Addressing the conference on All India Education on 16 January 1948, Maulana Azad emphasised,
We must not for a moment forget, it is a birthright of every individual to receive at least the basic education without which he cannot fully discharge his duties as a citizen.
He oversaw the setting up of the Central Institute of Education, Delhi, which later became the Department of Education of the University of Delhi as "a research centre for solving new educational problems of the country". Under his leadership, the Ministry of Education established the first Indian Institute of Technology in 1951 and the University Grants Commission in 1953., He also laid emphasis on the development of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Faculty of Technology of the Delhi University. He foresaw a great future in the IITs for India:I have no doubt that the establishment of this Institute will form a landmark in the progress of higher technological education and research in the country.
== Literary works ==
Azad wrote many books including India Wins Freedom, Ghubar-e-Khatir, and Tazkirah Tarjumanul Quran (Urdu تذکرہ ترجمان القُران).
=== Ghubar-e-Khatir ===
Ghubar-e-Khatir (Sallies of Mind), (Urdu: غُبارِخاطِر) is one of the most important works of Azad, written primarily during 1942 to 1946 when he was imprisoned in Ahmednagar Fort in Maharashtra by British Raj while he was in Bombay (now Mumbai) to preside over the meeting of All India Congress Working Committee.
The book is basically a collection of 24 letters he wrote addressing his close friend Maulana Habibur Rahman Khan Sherwani. These letters were never sent to him because there was no permission for that during the imprisonment and after the release in 1946, he gave all these letters to his friend Ajmal Khan who let it published for the first time in 1946.
Although the book is a collection of letters but except one or two letters, all other letters are unique and most of the letters deal with complex issues such as existence of God, the origin of religions, the origin of music and its place in religion, etc.
The book is primarily an Urdu language book; however, there are over five hundred of couplets, mostly in Persian and Arabic languages. It is because, Maulana was born in a family where Arabic and Persian were used more frequently than Urdu. He was born in Mekkah, given formal education in Persian and Arabic languages but he was never taught Urdu.
It is often said that his book India Wins Freedom is about his political life and Ghubar-e-Khatir deals with his social and spiritual life.
== Legacy and influence ==
The Ministry of Minority Affairs of the central Government of India set up the Maulana Azad Education Foundation in 1989 on the occasion of his birth centenary to promote education amongst educationally backward sections of the Society. The Ministry also provides the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad National Fellowship, an integrated five-year fellowship in the form of financial assistance to students from minority communities to pursue higher studies such as M.Phil. and PhD In 1992 government of India honoured by giving posthumously Bharat Ratna.
Numerous institutions across India have also been named in his honour. Some of them are the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology in Bhopal, the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad, Maulana Azad Centre for Elementary and Social Education (MACESE Delhi University), the Maulana Azad College, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology in West Bengal, Maulana Azad College of Engineering and Technology in Patna, Bab – e – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Gate No. 7), Jamia Millia Islamia, a central (minority) university in New Delhi, the Maulana Azad Library in the Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh and Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. His home housed the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies earlier, and is now the Maulana Azad Museum. The National Education Day, an annual observance in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India, who served from 15 August 1947 until his death on 22 February 1958. The National Education Day of India is celebrated on 11 November every year in India.
He is celebrated as one of the founders and greatest patrons of the Jamia Millia Islamia. Azad's tomb is located next to the Jama Masjid in Delhi. In recent years great concern has been expressed by many in India over the poor maintenance of the tomb. On 16 November 2005 the Delhi High Court ordered that the tomb of Maulana Azad in New Delhi be renovated and restored as a major national monument. Azad's tomb is a major landmark and receives large numbers of visitors annually.
Jawaharlal Nehru referred to him as Mir-i-Karawan (the caravan leader), "a very brave and gallant gentleman, a finished product of the culture that, in these days, pertains to few". Mahatma Gandhi remarked about Azad by counting him as "a person of the calibre of Plato, Aristotle and Pythagorus".
Azad was portrayed by actor Virendra Razdan in the 1982 biographical film, Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough.
A television series, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, aired on DD National in the 1990s and starred Mangal Dhillon in the title role. DD Urdu aired Seher Hone Tak, a docudrama television series by Lavlin Thadani based on his life and political career, with Aamir Bashir portraying the role of Azad. It was later shortened and re-released as the film Aashiq-e-Vatan - Maulana Azad. Woh Jo Tha Ek Massiah Maulana Azad, a 2019 biographical film about Azad was directed by Rajendra Gupta Sanjay and Sanjay Singh Negi, with Linesh Fanse playing the title role.
His birthday, 11 November is celebrated as National Education Day in India.
Commemorative stamps released by India Post (by year):
== See also ==
Cyrus the Great as Dhul-Qarnayn, a theory proposed by Azad
Indian Council for Cultural Relations, international cultural promotion organization founded by Azad
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Cited sources ==
Gandhi, R (1990). Patel: A Life. Navajivan, Ahmedabad.
Pant, Vijay Prakash (2010). "MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD: A Critical Analysis Life and Work". The Indian Journal of Political Science. 71 (4): 1311–1323. ISSN 0019-5510. JSTOR 42748956.
Qaiyoom, Nishat (2012). "Maulana Azad's Journalistic Crusade Against Colonialism". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 73: 678–685. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44156263.
Douglas, Ian Henderson (1993). Abul Kalam Azad: An Intellectual and Religious Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-563279-8.
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
Abul Kalam Azad at Encyclopædia Britannica
APJ Abdul Kalam Scholarship Archived 30 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
Azad's Careers – Roads taken and roads not taken – Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Contemporary South Asia By Aijaz Ahmad
An Introduction to Abul Kalam Azad & collection of his quotes – Eminent Indian freedom fighters Vol2 Chapter 11 p. 310 By S.K. Sharma
Abu'l Kalam Azad, Chapter 44, pp. 325–333, Modernist Islam, 1840–1940: a sourcebook By Charles Kurzman
National Education Day 2012 Celebrated at Sangam University Bhilwara Rajasthan
Some Rare Speeches of Maulana Azad in the Audio Archives of Bhatkallys.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Anatsui | El Anatsui | El Anatsui (; born 4 February 1944) is a Ghanaian sculptor active for much of his career in Nigeria. He has drawn particular international attention for his "bottle-top installations". These installations consist of thousands of aluminum pieces sourced from alcohol recycling stations and sewn together with copper wire, which are then transformed into metallic cloth-like wall sculptures. Such materials, while seemingly stiff and sturdy, are actually free and flexible, which often helps with manipulation when installing his sculptures.
Anatsui was included in the 2023 Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. In the article, artist and art historian Okeke-Agulu writes,"The breathtaking combination of experimental rigor and inspired vision turns such unassuming materials as printer’s plates or liquor-bottle caps into the magnificent constructions and compositions displayed around the world.”
== Early life and education ==
El Anatsui was born in Anyako, in the Volta Region of Ghana. The youngest of his father's 32 children, Anatsui lost his mother and was raised by his uncle. His first experience with art was through drawing letters on a chalkboard. His lettering attempts drew the attention of his school's headmaster, who encouraged his effort by providing him with more chalk. Because of his age at the time (just after kindergarten), he regarded the letters more as images than as letters--the forms interested him.
Anatsui received his B.A in 1968 from the College of Art and Built Environment (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. He received his postgraduate diploma in Art Education the following year, in 1969, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), also in Kumasi.
Some of his early artistic influences include Oku Ampofo, Vincent Akwete Kofi, and Kofi Antubam, all of whom began to reject foreign influences in their practices in favor of indigenous art forms. After graduating in 1969, Anatsui assumed a teaching position at Winneba Specialist Training College (now University of Education), a role that had previously been filled by Kofi.
He began teaching at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1975. He became a senior lecturer for the Fine and Applied Arts department in 1982, and later became head of that department and full professor of sculpture in 1996, a role he occupied until 2011. His presence at the University of Nsukka led to his affiliation with the Nsukka group.It has taken many years to find artists who can occupy a prominent place on the global circuit while choosing to reside outside the metropolitan centres. William Kentridge has made his reputation from Johannesburg, and El Anatsui has conquered the planet while living and working in the Nigerian university town of Nsukka.
== Artwork ==
Anatsui notes that, through school and in university, "everything we were doing was western," especially within the fine arts department of his university; he felt that there was something missing in his education for its lack of focus on his own culture. In order to rectify this, he started visiting the National Cultural Centre of Ghana, also in Kumasi, to engage with the musicians, graphic artists, textile artists, printers, and creative artists of all types. It was there that he encountered Adinkra, a system of signs and symbols, which was his first introduction to abstract art and opened up a new world of artistic possibilities for him.
In the 1970s, Anatsui worked frequently in wood. He was particularly interested in wooden trays, which he often saw used in the markets to display food items and other wares--he would carve them or engrave them with Adinkra symbols and other marks using hot rods. He also began using wood to construct wall panels from strips placed next to each other, the surface decorated with designs imparted on the material through the use of chain saws, gouges, flame, or paint. In the late 70s, he began working in clay: pots, in particular, exploring themes of fragility and dilapidation. He was interested in how, even after a pot breaks and ceases being used in the way we commonly think (for food, water), it takes on a new purpose, even acquires more uses, from the mundane to the spiritual. Most intriguing to him is the use of pot shards for presenting offerings. He said, "It's as if the pot, having broken, is transformed into a dimension which makes it ideal for use by ancestors and deities who are themselves in the spirit dimension."
After his work with the broken pots, Anatsui explored food-adjacent themes in other materials: wood, again, in the form of mortars; equipment used to process cassava, and bottle tops.
Much of Anatsui's work features found materials, or materials that had a life of use prior to being formed into this artworks. His emphasis on the found object, however, is less Duchampian, and more focused on the history of use and the evidence of the human hand in the material. "When something has been used, there is a certain charge, a certain energy, that has to do with the people who have touched it and used it and sometimes abused it. This helps to direct what one is doing, and also to root what one is doing in the environment and the culture."Metal bottle caps are a favorite material of his; like cloth, Anatsui describes, an arrangement of bottle caps is versatile, allowing him to consider his art both sculpturally (through the form of the caps) and in a painterly manner (through the colors of the caps). Further, he appreciates the glimpse that bottle caps give into current and historical political and sociological issues, by virtue of the names and colors of various drink brands that are printed onto the caps."The most important thing for me is the transformation. The fact that these media, each identifying a brand of drink, are no longer going back to serve the same role but are elements that could generate some reflection, some thinking, or just some wonder. This is possible because they are removed from their accustomed, functional context into a new one, and they bring along their histories and identities."A number of themes are present in Anatsui's work: the destruction and subsequent reconstitution of material as a metaphor for life and the changes Africa faced under colonialism and since independence; traditional themes and motifs of West African strip woven cloth and other African textiles; and concern over Western scholarly misinterpretation of African history and the distortions it has caused. His work is also thematically connected to the West African cultural landscape and ideas of consumption and labor.
The idea of Sankofa [translated as "go back and retrieve"] is also present in Anatsui's work. He views it as a way of drawing on the past, the lessons it offers, to chart a mode of moving forward. For him, Sankofa described a need to draw from what was immediately around him; Ghana became independent when he was in high school, and much of his education had been focused on western art and art history, and so he felt called to 'go back and retrieve' aspects of Ghanaian culture that had been suppressed, something he described as a sort of "quest for self-discovery."
== Exhibitions ==
Anatsui's career grew gradually, starting in his home village of Nsukka before branching off to places such as Enugu and Lagos, and eventually internationally. In 1990, Anatsui had his first important group show at the Studio Museum In Harlem, New York. He also was one of three artists singled out in the 1990 exhibition "Contemporary African Artists: Changing Traditions", which was extended for five years.
Anatsui has since exhibited his work around the world, including at the Brooklyn Museum (2013); the Clark Art Institute (2011); the Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2010); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2008–09); the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2008); the Fowler Museum at UCLA (2007); the Venice Biennale (1990 and 2007); the Hayward Gallery (2005); the Liverpool Biennial (2002); the National Museum of African Art (2001); the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2001); the 8th Osaka Sculpture Triennale (1995); the 5th Gwangju Biennale (2004); the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha (2019); and the Kunstmuseum Bern (2020).
In 1995, Anatsui held his first solo exhibition outside of Africa in London. He expressed a variety of themes and demonstrated how African art can be shown in a multitude of ways that are not seen as "typical" African. His work utilized conceptual modes used by European and American artists but hardly in African countries. Anatsui showed his work at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2005. This was his first time "appear[ing] as part of the permanent collection in a major art museum". Also in 2005, his exhibition at New York's Skoto Gallery, "Danudo," was the first display of his metal sheets in an American city. At this gallery, Skoto Aghahowa presented Anatsui's wood wall panels alongside Sol LeWitt's drawings. This exhibition popularized his bottle-cap works as he gained more recognition in the press.
Anatsui was invited to the Venice Biennale in 2006 and again in 2007 where he was commissioned to make two hanging metal tapestries. During the 2007 edition, he exhibited his works at the Palazzo Fortuny which consisted of newly built walls for him to display three metal hangings entitled Dusasa. Each artwork demonstrated different textures and colors including golds, reds, and blacks. The way the bottle tops draped throughout the hangings created a sense of gentleness that made it stand apart from the other works in the gallery. The art curator of the Biennale, Robert Storr, mentions that the artist's series "reaches back into a whole series of things in the postwar period-it has a kind of exaltation I have not seen before". During this Venetian showing, Anatsui wanted to create a new experience for his viewers conceptually. He believes that "human life is not something which is cut and dried. It is something that is constantly in a state of change." At this point, he began to refer his metalworks as hangings instead of "cloths".
A 2010 retrospective of his work, entitled When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, was organized by the Museum for African Art and opened at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It subsequently toured venues in the United States for three years, concluding at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
A major exhibition of recent works, entitled Gravity & Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, had its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Museum in 2013. Organized by the Akron Art Museum (exhibition: 2012), the exhibition later traveled to the Des Moines Art Center (2013–14) and the Bass Museum of Art in Miami (2014).
A career-spanning survey of his work, organized by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, entitled Triumphant Scale drew record-breaking crowds when it opened, in March 2019 at Munich's Haus der Kunst. From there, the show travelled to the Arab Museum of Modern Art, in Doha, and later to the Kunstmuseum Bern in 2020.
Anatsui was selected for the 2023 Hyundai Commission at the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern; a vast display space for large-scale sculptural and site-specific artworks. His work, "Behind the Red Moon," is made of thousands of metal bottle tops and fragments, building upon his work with materials linked to the transatlantic slave trade, and will be on view through April 14, 2024.
== Other activities ==
Anatsui was selected to be a member of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) world council in 1992 for his work in education. Anatsui was a founding member and fellow of the Forum for African Arts in 2000. That year he also became a member of the International Selection Committee for the Dakar Biennale in Senegal. In 2001 he was a fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy.
== Recognition ==
=== Awards ===
Anatsui won an honorable mention at the First Ghana National Art Competition as an undergraduate student in 1968. The following year he was awarded the Best Student of the Year at the College of Art in Kumasi, Ghana. In 1983 he won a commission for two large public sculptures made of terrazzo-surfaced cement on the Nsukka campus. He was selected to be one of ten artists invited to the Zweites Symposium Nordesekkuste residency in Cuxhaven, West Germany, in 1984.
In 1990, Anatsui was invited to the 44th annual Venice Biennale show 5 Contemporary African Artists, where he received an honorable mention. That year he was included in the American documentary Nigerian Art-Kindred Spirits.
In 2015, the Venice Biennale awarded Anatsui the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In 2017, Anatsui was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, the first Ghanaian to win this international art prize.
Other awards include:
1990 – Public Prize, 7th Annual Triennale der Kleinplastik
1995 – Kansai Telecasting Prize, 6th Osaka Sculpture Triennial
1998 – Bronze Prize, 9th Osaka Sculpture Triennial
2008 – Visionaries! Award, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)
2009 – Prince Claus Award
2009 – Artist Honoree, 30th Anniversary Celebration, National Museum of African Art
2016 – Honorary doctorate, Harvard University
2017 – Honorary doctorate, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
2023 – Time 100
2024 – Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Bard College
== See also ==
Big 4 (statue)
== Footnotes ==
== Further reading ==
(in French) "EL Anatsui, Tsiatsia", Le Delarge, read online.
"El Anatsui (born 1944), Sculptor", Benezit Dictionary of Artists, read online, ISBN 978-0-19-989991-3.
Anatsui, El and Laura Leffler James, "Convergence: History, Materials, and the Human Hand--An Interview with El Anatsui," Art Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 36-53, read online
Binder, Lisa M., "Anatsui, El (born 1944), sculptor", Grove Art Online, read online, ISBN 978-1-884446-05-4.
Binder, Lisa M., "El Anatsui: Transformations," African Arts Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 24-37, read online
Chilvers, Ian and John Glaves-Smith, "Anatsui, El (1944–)", A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, read online, ISBN 978-0-19-172675-0.
Enwezor, Okwui and Chika Okeke-Agulu, El Anatsui: The Reinvention of Sculpture, Damiani, 2022 [1] ISBN 9788862087636
Gayer, J. (2008). El Anatsui : Gawu. Espace, (86), 39–40. id.erudit.org/iderudit/9058ac
Jennifer, Anne Hart, "El Anatsui (1944)", Dictionary of African Biography, read online, ISBN 978-0-19-985725-8.
LaGamme, Alisa, "The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design without End," African Arts Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring, 2009), pp. 88-99, read online
Oguibe, Olu. "El Anatsui: Beyond Death and Nothingness", African Arts, Vol.31, No.1 (1988), pp. 48–55+96, El Anatsui: Beyond Death and Nothingness
Ottenberg, Simon, New Traditions from Nigeria: Seven Artists of the Nsukka group, Smithsonian Institution Press 1997, ISBN 978-1-56098-800-7
Sollins, Marybeth (2012). art:21 vol.6. Art21, Inc. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-615-54566-0.
Vogel, Susan Mullin (2012). El Anatsui. Prestal. ISBN 9783791346502.
== External links ==
El-Anatsui.com
"El Anatsui" at Praemium Imperiale.
QuickTime Virtual Reality Image of "Akua's Surviving Children" at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, by Jonathan Greet
Doug Britt, "El Anatsui lets chance, collaboration into his work" Archived 31 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Houston Chronicle, 25 January 2010.
Inception Gallery Contemporary Art Archived 15 October 2013 at archive.today
El Anatsui piece at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art
"El Anatsui", Art21. (n.d.). Retrieved 8 December 2016.
'The Installation of El Anatsui's "Dusasa l" (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art). Retrieved 17 January 2017. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teauesque#:~:text=The%20first%20building%20in%20this,designed%20by%20Eug%C3%A8ne%2D%C3%89tienne%20Tach%C3%A9. | Châteauesque | Châteauesque (or Francis I style, or in Canada, the Château Style) is a revivalist architectural style based on the French Renaissance architecture of the monumental châteaux of the Loire Valley from the late fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century.
The term châteauesque (literally, "château-like") is credited (by historian Marcus Whiffen) to American architectural historian Bainbridge Bunting, although it can be found in publications that pre-date Bunting's birth. As of 2011, the Getty Research Institute's Art & Architecture Thesaurus includes both "Château Style" and "Châteauesque", with the former being the preferred term for North America.
The style frequently features buildings heavily ornamented by the elaborate towers, spires, and steeply pitched roofs of sixteenth century châteaux, themselves influenced by late Gothic and Italian Renaissance architecture. Despite their French ornamentation, as a revival style, buildings in the châteauesque style do not attempt to completely emulate a French château. Châteauesque buildings are typically built on an asymmetrical plan, with a roof-line broken in several places and a facade composed of advancing and receding planes.
== History ==
The style was popularized in the United States by Richard Morris Hunt. Hunt, the first American architect to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, designed residences, including those for the Vanderbilt family, during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. A relatively rare style in the United States, its presence was concentrated in the Northeast, although isolated examples can be found in nearly all parts of the country. It was mostly employed for residences of the extremely wealthy, although it was occasionally used for public buildings.
The first building in this style in Canada was the 1887 Quebec City Armoury (now named the Voltigeurs de Québec Armoury, formerly called the Grande-Allée Armoury (French: Manège militaire Grande-Allée, or simply Manège militaire) designed by Eugène-Étienne Taché. Many of Canada's grand railway hotels, designed by John Smith Archibald, Edward Maxwell, Bruce Price and Ross and Macdonald, were built in the Châteauesque style, with other mainly public or residential buildings. The style may be associated with Canadian architecture because these grand hotels are prominent landmarks in major cities across the country and in certain national parks.
In Hungary, Arthur Meinig built numerous country houses in the Loire Valley style, the earliest being Andrássy Castle in Tiszadob, 1885–1890, and the grandest being Károlyi Castle in Nagykároly (Carei), 1893–1895.
The style began to fade after the turn of the 20th century, and it was largely absent from new construction by the 1930s.
== Architects who designed in Châteauesque style ==
John Smith Archibald of Archibald and Schofield
Bradford Gilbert
Bruce Price
Edward Maxwell
Eugène-Étienne Taché
Francis Rattenbury
Sproatt and Rolph
Hippolyte Destailleur
Richard Morris Hunt
Ross and Macfarlane, Ross and Macdonald
Solon Spencer Beman
Walter-André Destailleur
William Lightfoot Price
William Henry Crossland
Henry Heistand [founder of Miami University's(OH) architecture program]
== Examples in Europe ==
=== United Kingdom ===
== Examples in the United States ==
== Examples in Canada ==
Many of the Châteauesque-style buildings in Canada were built by railway companies, and their respective hotel divisions. They include Canadian National Railway and Canadian National Hotels, Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian Pacific Hotels, and the Grand Trunk Railway.
== Examples in Argentina ==
== See also ==
List of architectural styles
Empire style
French architecture
Revivalism (architecture)
== References ==
== External links ==
Yorklinks.net: Images of Châteauesque architecture
Ci.chi.il.us: Châteauesque style guide — images from Chicago architecture.
Oldlouisville.com: Châteauesque homes in Louisville — images from Louisville, Kentucky. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_for_Industry_-_Derek_Birchall_Award#:~:text=2013%3A%20Professor%20John%20W.%20Goodby | Materials for Industry - Derek Birchall Award | The Materials for Industry – Derek Birchall Award is awarded biennially to an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the application of materials chemistry in industry. The recipient of the award is chosen by an independent committee consisting of experts from both the Materials Chemistry Division (MCD) and industry. The award is given by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the chosen winner is rewarded with a monetary prize of £2000. The award was discontinued in 2020.
== Award History ==
The award was established in 2008, in honour of work carried out by British inventor and materials chemist Derek Birchall (born 1930).
== Awardees ==
Source: RSC
2009 (2009): Patrick McGrail, University of Sheffield
2013 (2013): Professor John W. Goodby, University of York
2015 (2015): Professor Tobin Marks, Northwestern University
2017 (2017): Professor Karl Coleman, Durham University
2019 (2019): Professor Andrew Mills, Queen's University, Belfast
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== References == |
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