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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaya_Godana | Bonaya Godana | Bonaya Adhi Godana (September 2, 1952 in Dukana, Kenya – April 10, 2006 in Marsabit, Kenya) was the foreign minister of Kenya from January 1998 until 2001.
From 2002 to his death in 2006 he was the deputy leader of the opposition Kenya African National Union (KANU) party. He was the Member of Parliament for North Horr Constituency. He died on April 10, 2006, in a Kenya Air Force plane crash near Marsabit. 13 other people were also killed in the crash while three survived. Among the other casualties were several other government officials including two assistant cabinet ministers who were political rivals of Godana. The politicians and religious leaders were on a mission to secure peace along the Ethiopian border. A decade earlier, on July 28, 1996, he survived a helicopter crash at the same Marsabit airstrip.
He graduated as Master of Law from University of Nairobi in 1976, and PHD of International Law from Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva in 1984. He was first elected to the National Assembly of Kenya in 1988.
== References ==
== External links ==
"Godana, Dr. Bonaya". Parliament of the Republic of Kenya. Archived from the original on 15 May 2006.
"Air crash kills Kenya politicians". BBC News. 10 April 2006.
Lacey, Marc (10 April 2006). "14 Killed as Plane Carrying Kenyan Politicians Crashes". The New York Times. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_8110#:~:text=Nokia%208110%20is%20a%20mobile,a%20'slider'%20form%20factor. | Nokia 8110 | Nokia 8110 is a mobile phone released in 1996. It was announced on 9 September 1996, as the first of Nokia's high-end 8000 series of phones. Its distinctive styling was the first example of a 'slider' form factor. A sliding cover protected the keypad when being carried in the pocket and extended downwards in use, bringing the microphone closer to the mouth. The action of opening the cover also answered an incoming call. The prominent curvature of the case, particularly when open, earned it the nickname "banana phone". It was also the first Nokia phone with monochrome graphic LCD.
The phone was designed for the business market and was one of the smallest and lightest (152 grams) phones on the market, but still had better battery life than its predecessor Nokia 2110. The phone was also the first GSM cellphone to use an ARM processor.
The improved 8110i model, announced in March 1997, was the first phone with the SSMS (Smart SMS) engine. The handsets could be updated OTA (Over The Air) with an intelligent menu structure, which allowed simple information input, input which was sent through a simple structured text message to an MT receiver. This station could interpret information and send a structured text message back to the handset. Ring tone receiving by SMS was also part of the smart messaging protocol, so 8110i was also the first mobile phone to support it. Nokia later stopped marketing Smart messaging and concentrated on the upcoming WAP standard, but has not dropped smart messaging support from later phones.
The 8110 is visually the same as the 8110i, apart from on the earlier model, the Nokia logo appears in white.
8110 and 8110i models were succeeded by Nokia 8810 in 1998, while the 8146 and 8148 models were succeeded by Nokia 7110 in 1999.
== Cultural references ==
An altered version of this phone was famously featured in the science fiction action film The Matrix (1999), for which it was modified featuring a spring-loaded mechanism (this actually appeared on the Nokia 7110).
== Variants ==
The Nokia 8146/8148 for the GSM-1800 band.
The Nokia 3110 shared the same engine.
== See also ==
Nokia 8110 4G
Samsung SPH-N270, the phone from The Matrix Reloaded
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petty,_1st_Earl_of_Shelburne | Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne | Henry Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne PC (I) (22 October 1675 – 17 April 1751) was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1727.
== Background ==
Petty was a younger son of Sir William Petty and Elizabeth, Baroness Shelburne, daughter of Sir Hardress Waller. He succeeded his elder brother Charles Petty, 1st Baron Shelburne to the family estates in 1696 and then bought further estates near Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
== Political career ==
Petty was elected to the Irish House of Commons for Midleton in 1692, a seat he held until 1693, and then represented County Waterford between 1695 and 1699. In the latter year, the barony of Shelburne which had become extinct on the early death of his elder brother in 1696 was revived in his favour. Two years later he was sworn to the Irish Privy Council. He was later a member of the British House of Commons for Great Marlow between 1715 and 1722 and for Wycombe between 1722 and 1727. In 1719 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Dunkerron and Earl of Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland.
== Personal life ==
Lord Shelburne married the Hon. Arabella, daughter of Charles Boyle, 3rd Viscount Dungarvan, in 1699. They had one daughter Anne who married Francis Bernard of Castle Bernard, Bandon, County Cork. The Countess of Shelburne died in October 1740. Lord Shelburne survived her by eleven years and died in April 1751, aged 75, when his titles became extinct. His estates devolved on his nephew John FitzMaurice, who changed his surname to Petty and in whose favour the earldom of Shelburne was revived in 1753 (see Marquess of Lansdowne).
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bernhard | Ruth Bernhard | Ruth Bernhard (October 14, 1905 – December 18, 2006) was a German-born American photographer.
== Early life and education ==
Bernhard was born in Berlin to Lucian Bernhard and Gertrude Hoffmann. Lucian Bernhard was known for his poster and typeface design, many of which bear his name and are still in use. Bernhard's parents divorced when she was 2 years old and she only met her mother twice after the divorce. She was raised by two schoolteacher sisters and their mother. Bernhard's father Lucian was a major proponent of Ruth's work, and advised her frequently.
Bernhard studied art history and typography at the Berlin Academy of Art from 1925 to 1927 before moving to New York City to join her father. She began teaching at the University of California in 1958, while also giving lectures, classes and workshops all over the United States.
== Photography career ==
In 1927 Bernhard moved to New York City, where her father was already living. She worked as an assistant to Ralph Steiner in Delineator magazine, but he terminated her employment for indifferent performance. Using the severance pay, Bernhard bought her own camera equipment. By the late-1920s, while living in Manhattan, Bernhard was heavily involved in the lesbian sub-culture of the artistic community, becoming friends with photographer Berenice Abbott and her lover, critic Elizabeth McCausland. Her first realization that she was attracted to other women occurred on New Year's Eve 1928 when she met the painter Patti Light. She wrote about her "bisexual escapades" in her memoir. In 1934 Bernhard began photographing women in the nude. It would be this art form for which she would eventually become best known. In 1935, she chanced to meet Edward Weston on the beach in Santa Monica. She would later say;
I was unprepared for the experience of seeing his pictures for the first time. It was overwhelming. It was lightning in the darkness ... here before me was indisputable evidence of what I had thought possible—an intensely vital artist whose medium was photography.
Bernhard was so inspired by Weston's work that, after meeting him in 1935, she moved to California (where he lived). In 1939, Bernhard moved back to New York for eight years, during which time she met photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
Bernhard was inspired by the small things in her life. In an interview from 1999 with Photographers Forum, Ruth states," I’m most interested in—the little things that nobody observes, that nobody thinks are of any value". In the same interview she stated that,"Everything is universal" and that she was "very much aware of that". This idea of minimalism drove her passion for photography.
In 1934 Ruth received a commission from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to photograph works for the Machine Art exhibition catalog. Her father Lucian Bernhard set up the meeting with MoMA for her.
== Life on the West Coast ==
By 1944 she had met and became involved with artist and designer Eveline (Evelyn) Phimister. The two moved in together, and remained together for the next ten years in Carmel, California. Here, Bernhard worked with Group f/64. Soon, finding Carmel a difficult place in which to earn a living, they moved to Hollywood where she fashioned a career as a commercial photographer. In 1953, they moved to San Francisco where she became a colleague of photographers such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Minor White, and Wynn Bullock.
Most of Bernhard's work is studio-based, ranging from simple still lifes to complex nudes. In the 1940s she worked with the conchologist Jean Schwengel. She worked almost exclusively in black-and-white, though there are rumours that she had done some color work as well. She also is known for her lesbian themed works, most notably Two Forms (1962). In that work, a black woman and a white woman who were real-life lovers are featured with their nude bodies pressed against one another.
A departure was a collaboration with Melvin Van Peebles (as "Melvin Van"), then a young cable car gripman (driver) in San Francisco. Van Peebles wrote the text and Bernhard took the unposed photographs for The Big Heart, a book about life on the cable cars.
In the early 1980s, Bernhard started to work with Carol Williams, owner of Photography West Gallery in Carmel, California. Bernhard told Williams that she knew there would be a book of her photography after her death, but hoped one could be published during her lifetime. Williams approached New York Graphics Society, and several other photographic book publishers, but was advised that "only Ansel Adams could sell black-and-white photography books." Bernhard and Williams decided to sell five limited edition prints to raise the necessary funds to publish a superior quality book of Ruth Bernhard nudes. The ensuing edition was produced by David Gray Gardner of Gardner Lithograph, (also the printer of Adams's books) and was called The Eternal Body. It won Photography Book of the Year in 1986 from Friends of Photography. This book was often credited by Ruth Bernhard as being an immeasurable help to her future career and public recognition. The Eternal Body was reprinted by Chronicle Books and later as a deluxe limited Centennial Edition in celebration of Ruth Bernhard's 100th birthday in October 2005. Carol Williams credited Ruth Bernhard with encouraging her to venture into book publishing, and later published several other photographic monographs.
In the 1980s Bernhard also started to work with Joe Folberg. Folberg bought Vision Gallery from Douglas Elliott (who founded it in 1979) in San Francisco in 1982. Bernhard and Folberg worked together until Folberg's death. The gallery split with Debra Heimerdinger taking over operations in North America and Folberg's son Neil moving the "Vision Gallery" to Jerusalem.
In 1967, Bernhard began a teaching career. This same year, Bernhard met United States Air Force Colonel Price Rice, an African American man ten years younger than her, and the two became lovers. They would remain together until his death in 1999. In her 90s, Bernhard cooperated with biographer Margaretta K. Mitchell in the book Ruth Bernhard, Between Art and Life, publicly revealing her many affairs with women and men throughout her lifetime.
In 1984 Ruth worked with filmmaker Robert Burrill on her autobiographic film entitled, Illuminations: Ruth Bernhard, Photographer. The film premièred in 1989 at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco and on local PBS station KQED in 1991.
Bernhard was inducted into the Women's Caucus for Art in 1981. Bernhard was hailed by Ansel Adams as "the greatest photographer of the nude".
Bernhard died in San Francisco at age 101.
== Publications by Bernhard ==
Bernhard, Ruth. Collecting Light: The Photographs of Ruth Bernhard. Edited by James Alinder. Carmel, Calif.: Friends of Photography, 1979
Bernhard, Ruth. Gift of the Commonplace. Carmel Valley, Calif.: Woodrose Publications / Center for Photographic Art, 1996. ISBN 0-9630393-5-0
Bernhard, Ruth. The Eternal Body: A Collection of Fifty Nudes. Carmel, Calif.: Photography West Graphics, 1986. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1994. Essay by Margaretta K. Mitchell. ISBN 0-8118-0801-7 ISBN 0-8118-0826-2
Van, Melvin, and Ruth Bernhard. The Big Heart. San Francisco: Fearon, 1957.
Mitchell, Margaretta K., and Ruth Bernhard. Ruth Bernhard: Between Art and Life. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000. Print.
== Awards ==
1976 Dorothea Lange Award by the Oakland Museum
1987 Distinguished Career in Photography Award. Society of Photographic education. Midwest Regional Conference, Chicago, Illinois November 8, 1987
1990 Presidential Citation for Outstanding Service to Utah State University. Logan, Utah, October 25, 1990
1994 Cyril Magnin Award for Distinguished Service in Photography. Presented by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
1996 Lifetime Achievement Award. Women's Caucus for Art. California Regional Chapter, Presented at Mills College, Oakland, March 30, 1996
1997 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. The Academy of Art, San Francisco, June 1, 1997
2003 Lucie Awards for achievement in fine art
== Solo exhibitions ==
1936: Jake Zeitlin Gallery, Los Angeles
1936: Pacific Institute of Music and Art, Los Angeles, Eye Behind the Camera
1938: P.M. Gallery, New York
1956: Institute for Cultural Relations, Mexico City
1981 - Photography West Gallery, Carmel, CA. Carmel Pine Cone
1986: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The Eternal Body
2014: Peter Fetterman Gallery The Eternal Nude
== Collections ==
Bernhard's work is held in the following permanent collections:
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), San Diego, California
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon
San Jose Museum of Art, California
Minneapolis Institute of Art
International Photography Hall of Fame, St.Louis, Missouri
== See also ==
List of German women artists
== References ==
== General references ==
Ruth Bernhard Minnesota Public Radio (audio)
Samples of Bernhard's works
Various photographs at artnet
Lavender, Lisa Ann. "Ruth Bernhard." In The Oxford Companion to the Photograph, ed. Robin Lenman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-866271-8
Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-761-1
Bernhard, Ruth, and Margaretta K. Mitchell. Ruth Bernhard: Between Art and Life. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000. ISBN 0-8118-2191-9
Corinne, Tee A. "Ruth Bernhard." In An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. 2002.
"Ruth Bernhard" at Women in Photography: an unsigned article, with photographs by Bernhard
Ruth Bernhard, Joe Folberg of meeting Bernhard
Primary documents regarding her life and career are housed at Princeton University's Special Collections. An inventory of their holding can be found in this finding aid. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Experiences | Disney Experiences | Disney Experiences, commonly known as Disney Parks, is one of the three major divisions of the Walt Disney Company. It was founded on April 1, 1971, exactly six months before the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort.
Led by Josh D'Amaro, the company's theme parks hosted over 157.3 million guests, making Disney Parks the world's most visited theme park company worldwide, with United Kingdom-based Merlin Entertainments coming in second at 67 million guests. It is Disney's largest business segment by employee headcount, with approximately 130,000 of the company's 180,000 employees as of 2015. In March of 2018, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media was merged into Parks and Resorts and renamed Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. In September 2020, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products laid off 28,000 employees in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
== Background ==
Originally, entry into the theme park and travel business was a side project of Walt Disney himself. As the Disneylandia project started to become a reality, Walt Disney Productions at Walt's request set up Disneyland, Inc. (DLI) in 1951 and agreed to a design deal in March 1953 with WED Enterprises (WED), Walt's personal corporation, which then included what would now be called Walt Disney Imagineering. With the WED concept designs and prospectus for Disneylandia, Roy Disney in September 1953 met with TV networks in a deal for Disney-produced TV show and Disneyland investment. American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres (AB-PT) agreed to the Disneyland, Inc. investment. Joining AB-PT as Disneyland investors were Walt Disney Productions (WDP), Western Publishing and Walt Disney. Walt Disney Productions had the option to repurchase the Walt Disney, WED and Western Publishing shares (31%) by May 1, 1959, for $562,500.
With a need for the Disneyland Hotel nearby and no funding available for Disney to build it, Walt Disney approached Jack Wrather to build the hotel who agreed.
Disneyland, changed from Disneylandia, was announced in April 1954 by Walt to be opened in July 1955. On July 17, 1955, the Disneyland park opened with five themed "lands" containing eighteen attractions with double the expected guests. WED owned Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad opened, too.
On June 29, 1957, Disney Production exercised its options to purchase all but AB-PT's common stock outstanding. This allowed WDP to consolidate DLI into its 1957 annual accounting statements adding four months' worth of net profits, $511K. In June 1960, Walt Disney Productions completed the purchase of AB-PT's share of the company for nearly $7.5 million and its TV contract, and the theme park became a fully owned subsidiary of Walt Disney Productions.
== History ==
Beginning in 1958 with the contracting of Economics Research Associates (ERA) to find a location for another Disney resort, Disney Productions moved beyond a single park. ERA recommended Florida; another study in 1961 named Ocala or Orlando in Florida as possible locations. In November 1963, Walt Disney made a trip to Florida for final site selection.:333, 334 In 1962, Disney Productions purchased Celebrity Sports Center (opened on September 17, 1960, in Denver, Colorado) from its owners, including Walt Disney, Art Linkletter, and John Payne, to use as a staff training center for its second resort. In 1963, Roy made plans to buy from 5,000 to 10,000 acres (2,000 to 4,000 ha), which was carried out in 1964, amassing 27,443 acres (11,106 ha) by October 1965. Plans for the Florida project that would eventually become Walt Disney World were announced to the public in November 1965. Legislation forming the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, was signed into law by Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr. on May 12, 1967, allowing Disney to build the infrastructure for the second park. Ground breaking followed for the future Reedy Creek park on May 30. In Roy O. Disney's last act as CEO in 1968, he officially named the second park Walt Disney World.:357
Disneyland International was incorporated on November 20, 1961. The next year, The Oriental Land Company contacted Disney about building a theme park.
In 1959, the WED-owned Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System began operations at Disneyland.
The first Audio-Animatronic attraction, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, opened at Disneyland in 1963. Disneyland's first new themed land, New Orleans Square, opened in 1966. Tomorrowland was revamped in 1967 with seven new attractions. The design and architectural group and the WED Enterprise name was purchased from Walt's corporation, renamed as Retlaw Enterprise.
Disney expanded into attractions at the 1964 New York World's Fair with It's a Small World and costumed character appearances. When the characters proved a hit at the 1964 World's Fair, Walt wanted another outlet for "live" characters; thus, Disneyland put on Disney on Parade, a self-produced live arena show starting in 1969. Small World and its famous song lasted two years at the fair; it was then moved to Disneyland as an expanded major attraction in 1966 and later duplicated in the other Disney theme parks.
In 1965, Walt Disney won a bid with the US Forest Service to develop Mineral King as a ski resort. The Sierra Club sued in June 1969 to stop the development, which was granted by the federal district judge. The Forest Service appealed and won at the appeal and the Supreme Court. This ruling opened the possibility of refiling to the club. In the next round of lawsuits, the same district judge blocked the redevelopment. The injunction and the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act led to Disney backing out.
$40 million worth of Walt Disney Productions Convertible Debentures were sold in January 1968 to fund Disney World (WDW). The next year in February, an agreement was made with multiple labor unions, in which the unions exchanged the right to strike for regular pay increases during the first building phase. By 1971, chairman of the Park Operations Committee and vice president of park operations Dick Nunis was appointed executive vice president of Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney World began operation on October 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom park at a cost of $400 million. The Magic Kingdom had six themed lands: Main Street, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, and Tomorrowland. Additionally, Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort campground and two hotels, Disney's Contemporary Resort and Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, also opened.
Disneyland expanded in 1972 with a seventh themed land, Bear Country, replacing the Indian Village of Frontierland, and later renamed Critter Country. In 1979, the Disneyland crafts and maintenance union workers went on strike for 15 days, at first, rejecting and then accepting the park's contract. Space Mountain opens at Disneyland in 1977.
Two more hotels opened in 1973 at Walt Disney World: the Golf Resort and the Gold Resort; Disney opened the Buena Vista Club golf club in Lake Buena Vista on November 22, 1974.:71 Lake Buena Vista Village, the shopping area, opened on March 22, 1975 and was renamed Walt Disney World Village in 1977.:280 Celebrity Sports Center, Disney World's training center, was sold on March 29, 1979.
At Walt Disney World, the Treasure Island nature preserve pens opened on April 8, 1974,:569 renamed Discovery Island in 1977.:126 On July 1, 1975, the WEDway PeopleMover opened in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. The first water park, River Country, opened on June 20, 1976 at Disney World.:22 EPCOT Center's groundbreaking occurred at Walt Disney World in May 1979.
In 1979, Oriental Land and Disney agreed to build a Japanese theme park. Tokyo Disneyland opened on April 15, 1983 on 200 acres (80 ha) in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.
=== Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division ===
With the retirement of Donn Tatum as Walt Disney Productions' Chairman and CEO on June 3, 1980, three divisions were formed, including the Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division, of which Disney Legend, Dick Nunis was named division president. Disneyland started using Disney Dollars on May 5, 1987, while Walt Disney World parks started with Epcot on October 2. A renegotiated Disneyland Japan royalty agreement in April 1988 by Chief Financial Officer Gary L. Wilson netted Disney US$723 million in cash in exchange for lower royalty payments.
The steam railroad and monorail at Disneyland were purchased from Retlaw Enterprises, formerly WED Enterprises, in 1982. Bear Country was renamed Critter Country on November 23, 1988.
Tishman Company's plans for two Walt Disney World hotels were rejected by the new CEO Michael Eisner on September 30, 1984, marking a change in Disney architecture. New plans for the Dolphin and Swan hotels were submitted by Michael Graves in July 1986; ground breaking took place on January 28, 1988. The first non-Disney owned hotel, Pickett Suite Resort, opened in Disney World Village on March 15, 1987.
On June 1, 1982, the Walt Disney World monorail line was extended to EPCOT Center from the Transportation and Ticket Center.:338 The EPCOT Center theme park opened on October 1, 1982, at a building cost of US$1.2 billion, with two areas, Future World and World Showcase.:272
Plans for a Hollywood-style theme park were announced in April 1985 for the Walt Disney World resort at a project cost of US$300 million. In April 1985, Disney signed a licensing agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), giving Disney the right to use the MGM name, logo and movie library for this third park. Construction of the Disney-MGM Studios theme park began in 1986. Disney-MGM Studios opened on May 1, 1989, along with a Pleasure Island entertainment area; its second water park, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, opened on June 1. In 1983, Walt Disney World Village's name was changed to the Disney Village Marketplace. A new themed area, Mickey's Birthdayland, opened in the Magic Kingdom near Fantasyland on June 18, 1988.
In 1987, Disney and Ron Brierley's Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd., already a 28% owner of the Wrather Corporation, agreed to purchase the remaining Wrather Corporation stock with a 50% share each. Wrather Corporation owned the Disneyland Hotel and operated the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose tourist attractions. In March 1988, Disney purchased Industrial Equity's half of Wrather Corporation.
In 1985, Premier Cruise Line became the licensed partner cruise line with Disney. This allowed Disney characters on their ships and combined cruise, hotel, and theme park packages.
=== Walt Disney Attractions ===
The Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division was incorporated as Walt Disney Attractions, Inc. on August 10, 1989. In January 1990, Disney CEO Eisner announced plans to expand both Disneyland (by 20% in 10 years) and Walt Disney World (WDW). The plan would have WDW add another theme park and 16 new attractions in Disney-MGM Studios. Disney and The Coca-Cola Company agreed to a 15-year marketing contract on January 25: Coca-Cola products would be exclusive in Disney theme parks, and Coca-Cola would use some Disney characters in their ads. On March 16, 1990, Attractions president Nunis announced a 25-year plan for a 4,400-acre (1,800 ha) development in Osceola, Florida, with homes, shopping malls and industrial buildings.
In 1990, the possibility of a West Coast version of Epcot Center was placed in development. This was announced as WestCOT in 1991, to be placed at the Disneyland Resort. On July 31, 1990, a new 350-acre (140 ha) ocean-themed park and resort, Port Disney, was announced for Long Beach. Port was to have a cruise-ship terminal, five hotels, restaurants, and shopping areas, costing $2 billion to build. On December 12, 1991, Disney selected only one California project to go forward with, Disneyland Resort, which was to include the WestCOT Center, hotels, a shopping mall, and a lake. Port Disney was abandoned in March 1992, and Disney canceled its leases on the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attractions picked up from the Wrather Corporation. Mickey's Toontown, a new themed land at Disneyland, opened on January 24, 1993. Disney canceled its plans for WestCOT in mid-1995 due to financial issues at Disneyland Paris and the park's projected high cost. That park was then replaced by plans for the California Adventure park, hotels, and a retail district.
At Walt Disney World, Mickey's Birthdayland closed on April 22, 1991, then reopened on May 26 as Mickey's Starland.324, 329, 333 In order to expand Disney World on wetland, on April 23, 1993, the company agreed to form an 8,500-acre (3,400 ha) wilderness preserve in Florida, known as the Disney Wilderness Preserve. The Disney Inn hotel was leased starting February 1, 1994, by the US Army, then purchased on January 12, 1996, and later renamed Shades of Green.130 Planet Hollywood opened a location in Pleasure Island on December 17, 1994. The third water park at Walt Disney World, Disney's Blizzard Beach, opened on April 1, 1995. The Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland was completely refurbished and reopened in June 1995. Taking up a corner of the Magic Kingdom parking lot, the Walt Disney World Speedway opened on November 28, 1995. In 1996, the Disney Institute opened on February 9, and Disney's BoardWalk opened on July 1. The first of the World of Disney stores opened in the Disney Village Marketplace on October 3. The Downtown Disney district opened in November 1997, combining Disney Village Marketplace and Pleasure Island. A fourth theme park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened at Disney World the week of April 20, 1998.
The first Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Vacation Club Resort, opened on October 1, 1991, and was renamed Disney's Old Key West Resort in January 1996. These vacation club hotels were operated by Disney Vacation Developments, Inc. as vacation timeshares. The first off-resort vacation club hotel was Vacation Club Resort, which opened on October 1, 1995, in Vero Beach, Florida.
In 1993, Premier Cruises discontinued its partnership with Disney for one with Warner Bros. After failing to reach agreements with Carnival or Royal Caribbean, Disney announced in 1994 the formation of its cruise line. The Disney Cruise Line launched with the Disney Magic ship in 1998 along with its exclusive resort island port of Castaway Cay.
Disney reportedly had plans to build a park named Disney's America. The park was to have been located in Haymarket, Virginia; 2,300 acres (930 ha) of property were purchased from Exxon in 1993. The history-themed park was announced on November 11, 1993. The plans for the 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) called for a 150-acre (61 ha) amusement park, a campground, a golf course, 2 million square feet (190,000 m2) of office/commercial space, and 2500 homes. With projections indicating that the park would operate at a loss and with opposition in the press, Disney canceled the project on September 15, 1994.
Walt Disney Imagineering created Disney Fair, a U.S. traveling attraction, which premiered in September 1996. The fair was poorly attended and was pulled after a few stops. Disney Entertainment Projects (Asia Pacific) Inc., a new Disney Asian Pacific subsidiary, selected a renamed fair called DisneyFest as its first project, taking it to Singapore to open there on October 30, 1997.
In November 1995, Disney announced the building of Tokyo DisneySea, to be owned by Oriental along with Tokyo Disneyland. Oriental and Disney signed the DisneySea licensing agreement in November 1997; the theme park was scheduled to open in 2001 at a cost of $2.6 billion.
In December 1998, Walt Disney Attractions added Disneyland Paris, Disney Regional Entertainment and Walt Disney Imagineering to its portfolio, which already held Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland. Chairman Dick Nunis retired at the same time. On October 31, 1999, Walt Disney Attractions, Inc. was merged into Walt Disney Attractions, LLC.
On June 19, 1998, Disney Regional Entertainment opened its first DisneyQuest, a location-based entertainment venue, at Downtown Disney West Side in Walt Disney World. The first DisneyQuest outside of a resort was opened in Chicago on June 16, 1999, with plans for more locations worldwide.
In 1999, plans were announced for a new resort in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disneyland, as a joint venture, Hong Kong International Theme Parks Ltd., between the Hong Kong Government and Disney Resorts. The Disney Wonder cruise ship began operation on August 15. Disney World's Discovery Island was closed on April 8, 1999.
=== Disney Destinations ===
Walt Disney Attractions, LLC changed its name to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, LLC on April 14, 2000, then to Disney Destinations, LLC on April 25, 2006. Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort opened on September 4, 2001. The Walt Disney Company in selling its Japanese and US chains decided to keep the Disney Stores in Europe, along with the store in Manhattan, which was converted into a World of Disney store run by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in 2004.
Downtown Disney opened at the Disneyland Resort on January 12, 2001, between Disneyland and the future California Adventure. Disney California Adventure opened at the Disneyland Resort on February 8, 2001, with three major areas: Paradise Pier, Hollywood Pictures Backlot, and the Golden State. In California Adventure on October 6, 2002, A Bug's Land area opened. Parks and Resorts chairman Jay Rasulo announced at Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, California on September 12, 2009, that Walt Disney World's Fantasyland would be overhauled and increased in size by 2013. A $1 billion expansion/renovation of Disney California Adventure was announced in 2007 to be completed by 2012.
River Country water park closed on November 2, 2001. Disney-MGM Studios is renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios in January 2008. Pleasure Island's core remaining six nightclubs were closed down in late 2008 to change the area to match the family friendly make-up of the other two sections of Downtown Disney at Disney World.
Walt Disney Studios Park opened March 16, 2002, as the second theme park at the renamed Disneyland Resort Paris. The first park was renamed Disneyland Park (DLP). DLP Paris opened in August 2000 Toy Story Playland with three attractions.
Construction on Hong Kong Disneyland began on January 12, 2003, then opened September 12, 2005. Groundbreaking occurred at Hong Kong Disneyland in December 2009 for a three land expansion: Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, and Toy Story Land.
In June 2005, Disney Magic made the first cruise outside of the Caribbean, by moving its port for the summer to Los Angeles with a Mexican Riviera schedule. Disney Cruise Line ordered a new 2 ships class from Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany by February 22, 2007. The Magic in May 2007 transferred its homeport to Barcelona, Spain, for the lines' first summer Mediterranean itinerary then returned to its permanent port in September.
The Chicago DisneyQuest location was closed in September 2001. Disney Parks started the Adventures by Disney tour vacation business in 2005. Disney entered a float, "The Most Magical Celebration on Earth", into the 2006 Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade.
In October 2007, Disney announced plans to build a resort at Ko Olina Resort & Marina in Kapolei, Hawaii, featuring both a hotel and Disney Vacation Club timeshare units. The 800-unit property, named Aulani, opened in 2011 and joined the other resorts not associated with a theme park, such as Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina.
With the Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration starting on October 1, 2000, sanctioned Disney pin trading was started. In 2001, the Themed Entertainment Association gave Disney Parks and Resorts the Thea Award for Breakthrough Innovation for the park's FastPass system.
=== Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide ===
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. was incorporated on September 29, 2008, and took over the parks and resorts business segment. Disney Parks and Resorts reorganized in early 2009 which included layoffs in all units due to recession-induced falling attendance. 600 U.S. managers in January were buyout packages. Worldwide Operations was formed under President Al Weiss in 2009. Worldwide Operations would take over various back-office functions previously performed by both Disney World and Disneyland including training, procurement, menu planning, and merchandise development. While its Walt Disney Imagineering subsidiary combined its three development units.
In November 2009, Disney received approval from the Chinese government to build a Disneyland resort in Shanghai's Pudong district. The resort opened on June 16, 2016.
California Adventure completed its overhaul in 2012 adding two new lands: Cars Land and Buena Vista Street. The overhaul also included a re-themed of several attractions plus a pair of classic dark rides. In July 2017, it was announced that Paradise Pier land would be replaced by Pixar Pier, with four neighborhoods, and the remainder not in Pixar Pier would be replaced by Paradise Park. Pixar Pier opened on June 23, 2018.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, a 14-acre (5.7 ha) themed land for both Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios announced at the D23 Expo on August 15, 2015. Construction began at both locations on April 14, 2016. The lands at both parks opened in 2019.
The New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom opened on December 6, 2012. It is the biggest upgrade to the theme park since its opening in 1971. Announced along with its new Star Wars Land expansion at the D23 Expo on August 15, 2015, Hollywood Studios was slated to have a version of Toy Story Land.
Holz became president of New Vacation Operations of Parks & Resorts reporting to Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. by April 2008. In February 2009, Holz returned to the presidency of Disney Cruise Line in addition to his continuing as head of New Vacation Operations, which was primarily Adventures by Disney. As an extension of the "One Disney" initiative and the resignation of Weiss, Disney Vacation Club was added to New Vacation Operations. While Holz and Meg Crofton joined Disney Parks and Resorts executive committee in July 2011. At that time, Crofton was transferred from Disney World president to president of operations in the U.S. and France, a new positions.
The Disney Dream ship began service in January 2011 and Disney Cruise Line (DCL) announced the maiden voyage of the Disney Fantasy to be March 31, 2012. The Dream deployment allowed Disney Wonder to be stationed at Port of Los Angeles for Mexican Riviera cruises, but initial served in the short Alaska cruise season. Magic moved to New York for Canadian or Bahama cruises starting May 25, 2012. DCL's Magic was refitted in late 2013.
The first of three expansion theme lands at Hong Kong Disneyland, Toy Story Land, opened on November 18, 2011. Grizzly Gulch opened at Hong Kong Disneyland on July 13, 2012. The final land of this expansion, Mystic Point, opened at Hong Kong Disneyland on May 17, 2013.
On February 5, 2015, it was announced that Tom Staggs had been promoted to Disney Company Chief operating officer but would continue as chairman of Parks and Resorts until his successor was named. On February 23, 2015, Robert Chapek was named chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts effective that day.
On April 29, 2015, the Walt Disney Company, through the subsidiary, Carousel Holdings Eat LLC, has purchased Carousel Inn & Suites hotel in Anaheim, from Good Hope International for $32 million. The purchase was considered a strategic purchase; the hotel would not be considered a part of the Disneyland hotel portfolio and would operate independently. Disney indicated in August 2016, that the company would be closing the Carousel Inn in October 2016 in preparation for razing it as part of plans to construct a new parking structure, transit plaza and pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard.
On February 10, 2017, Disney revealed a deal to purchase Kingdom Holding Co.'s shares of Euro Disney S.C.A. as the first step in purchasing the remaining shares held by others. Disney has offered about $2.12 a share, a 67% premium over the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange value as of February 9. The company expects the buyout and delisting to be finished by June. Plans are for the company to invest another $1.4 billion into Disneyland Paris after the buyout to counteract the recent Paris terrorist attack, which hurt a previous 2014 park hotel investment. If this buyout is successful, it would make the resort the only resort 100% owned and operated by Disney outside of the United States of America. On June 13, 2017, the Walt Disney Company reached the 95% threshold required for a mandatory takeover according to French law, owning 97.08% of Euro Disney S.C.A., paving the way for the Walt Disney Company to become the sole owner and operator of Disneyland Paris.
=== Disney Parks, Experiences and Products ===
As part of the Walt Disney Company's March 2018 strategic reorganization, Disney Consumer Products, and Interactive Media was merged into the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts segment and renamed Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products. Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek was named chairman of this new segment, who also previously served as head of Disney Consumer Products. At the time, the Consumer Products chairman position was vacant, as its former holder, James Pitaro, had been recently appointed as the new head of ESPN and co-chair of Disney Media Networks.
In March 2018, a Disney Parks West regional division was formed with Disneyland Resort in California, Walt Disney World in Florida, and Disneyland Paris under Catherine Powell, outgoing Disneyland Paris president. This mirrors the Disney Parks East regional division consisting of Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney Attractions Japan and headed by Michael Colglazier. Imagineering was expected to take on the development of merchandise, games, publishing, and apps. Paul Gainer moved up from Disney Retail head to head up the new Global Product Management and Distribution unit, which includes Disney Retail, Global Licensing, and digital guest experience.
New Vacation Operations and Disney Cruise Line division was renamed Disney Signature Experiences along with a new president, Jeff Vahle, for the division in April 2018. On January 1, 2019, Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products changed its name to Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. Disney Cruise Line purchased in early March 2019 another Bahamas destination, the Lighthouse Point property on the island of Eleuthera. In July 2019, Disney denied reports of plans to launch its own airline with the purchase of small regional airlines in the United States.
With the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by August 2019, National Geographic Partners' non-TV operations were transferred into its Disney counterpart with NG Media and National Geographic Expeditions moving to the segment's units, Disney Publishing Worldwide and Disney Signature Experiences, respectively.
Powell supervised the two Star Wars-themed land, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, openings in May at Disneyland and August 2019 in Disney's Hollywood Studios. However, initial numbers showed an attendance dropped instead of the boost such an opening should have generated. In late September, Powell left the company with the Parks West regional division being dissolved, thus having those resorts' executives directly report to chairman Chapek. He denied that Powell was let go because of the low attendance issue from Galaxy's Edge, but instead, Powell's position was a temporary one to allow Chapek to focus on the acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
Powell's departure from Disney was soon followed by a domino of executive appointments, as announced on September 26, 2019. George Kalogridis, then-president of the Walt Disney World Resort, was promoted as the president of segment development and enrichment. Kalogridis is replaced by Josh D'Amaro, then-president of the Disneyland Resort, as president of the Walt Disney World Resort. In turn, D'Amaro was replaced by Rebecca Campbell as president of the Disneyland Resort. Campbell transferred from the Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International segment where she served as the president of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Both D'Amaro and Campbell assumed these roles in November 2019. In addition, Michael Colglazier is also promoted as the president and managing director of Disney Parks International and will oversee Disneyland Paris as well as those under the Parks East regional division. In February 2020, Chapek was promoted from chairman of this segment to chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company under executive chairman Bob Iger.
With the closure of all Disney parks in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, Disney donated 150,000 rain ponchos usually sold at the parks to MedShare, to be distributed in hospitals.
In May 2020, CEO Chapek named new appointees under the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products segment. Succeeding Chapek as chairman of this segment is Josh D'Amaro, then-president of the Walt Disney World Resort. Jeff Vahle, then-president of Disney Signature Experiences, replaced D'Amaro as president of the Walt Disney World Resort. Thomas Mazloum, senior vice president for transportation and resort operations at the Walt Disney World Resort, succeeded Vahle as president of Disney Signature Experiences. In addition, Kareem Daniel, former president of operations/product creation/publishing/games at Walt Disney Imagineering, was named president of consumer products, games and publishing. Ken Potrock replaced Rebecca Campbell as president of the Disneyland Resort; Campbell returned to the Director-to-Consumer & International segment as its chairman, replacing Kevin Mayer.
On July 15, 2020, it was announced that Jill Estorino, then-executive vice president, global marketing and sales, replaced Michael Colglazier as president and managing director of Disney Parks International, supervising Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disney Resort.
On September 28, 2020, D'Amaro announced the difficult decision to lay off over 28,000 employees in the parks division, many of them being part-time workers. D'Amaro cited the uncertainty of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as California's continued reluctance to reopen Disneyland as factors. Nearly 6,700 Central Florida employees, including almost 6,500 Disney World workers, were also among those laid off. On October 13, 2020, Disney CEO and former Disney Park, Experiences and Products head Bob Chapek agreed to keep Disney World at only 25% capacity until the Center For Disease Control (CDC) issued new guidance and also stated that with regards to reopening Disneyland, "It's not much of a negotiation. It's pretty much a mandate that we stay closed." Disneyland Resort was finally allowed to reopen on April 30, 2021, after a 412-day closure.
Historically, Imagineering and certain other Disney units merged into DPEP were physically headquartered in the Los Angeles metropolitan area (near the Walt Disney Company's film and television divisions)—even as the rapid growth of Walt Disney World meant that by the start of the 21st century, most Disney U.S. domestic theme park jobs were based in Florida, not California. In July 2021, it was reported that approximately 2,000 DPEP positions would be transferred over the next couple of years to a new 60-acre corporate campus in the Lake Nona area of Orlando, Florida, and it was later reported that fall that as many as 90% of the transferred positions would be Imagineering positions. The relocation was reportedly motivated in part by $570 million in tax breaks from the state of Florida, as well as Florida's business-friendly climate, lower cost of living, and lack of a state income tax. The planned relocation was cancelled in May 2023 amidst a feud with Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
=== Disney Experiences ===
On November 16, 2023, the division was renamed Disney Experiences.
On August 10, 2024, D'Amaro hosted a Disney Experiences Showcase at Honda Center as part of D23: The Ultimate Fan Event (formerly D23 Expo), in which he revealed how Disney Experiences planned to invest $60 billion over the next decade in adding new and improved attractions to its parks. He brought out All-4-One to sing "I Swear" to celebrate Disney's announcement that they will build four more cruise ships on top of four already under construction, bringing its fleet to a total of 13 by 2031.
Disney executives did not address the increasing ticket prices at Disney parks over the preceding decade during the event. The pricing changes had rendered Disney theme parks largely inaccessible to most middle class consumers because the cost of one day and one night at a Disney theme park was now higher than what many people spend on vacation in an entire year. On August 16, D'Amaro responded to such criticism by stressing the broad range of Disney's ticket pricing and options and explaining that the company would "provide as much access and flexibility as we possibly can, so as many of our fans can experience these things as possible".
== Leadership ==
Josh D'Amaro, Chairman
Lisa Becket, Executive Vice President, Global Marketing
Jill Estorino, President and Managing Director, Disney Parks International
Andrew Bolstein, President and General Manager, Shanghai Disney Resort
Clark Jones, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Walt Disney Attractions Japan
Natacha Rafalski, Présidente, Disneyland Paris
Tim Sypko, President and Managing Director, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Tasia Filippatos, President, Disney Consumer Products
Tami Garcia, Executive Vice President, People & Culture
Alannah Hall-Smith, Executive Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs
Kevin Lansberry, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Douglas Leckie, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer
Thomas Mazloum, President, Disneyland Resort
Matt Penarczyk, General Counsel
Ken Potrock, President, Major Events Integration
Joe Schott, President, Disney Signature Experiences
Sharon Siskie, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Disney Cruise Line
Stephanie Young, President, Disney Vacation Club, Adventures & Expeditions, and Enrichment Programs
Bill Diercksen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Disney Vacation Club
Nancy Schumacher, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Adventures & Expeditions
Jeff Vahle, President, Walt Disney World Resort
Bruce Vaughn, President and Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney Imagineering
== Current theme parks ==
=== Disneyland Resort ===
The Disneyland Resort was founded as a single park, Disneyland, and opened on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California. Disneyland Hotel opened to the public on October 5, 1955. In 2001, the site expanded significantly and was renamed the Disneyland Resort with the opening of a second theme park, Disney California Adventure, three hotels, and the Downtown Disney retail, dining, and entertainment complex. Disneyland was re-branded Disneyland Park to distinguish it from the larger 500-acre (2.0 km2) resort complex.
=== Walt Disney World Resort ===
The Walt Disney World resort opened October 1, 1971, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, with the Magic Kingdom theme park and three resort hotels. It expanded with the opening of the theme parks Epcot in 1982, Disney's Hollywood Studios in 1989 and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998, in addition to the water parks Disney's Typhoon Lagoon in 1989 and Disney's Blizzard Beach in 1995. In addition the resort includes the Disney Springs retail, dining, and entertainment complex. The resort occupies 27,258 acres (11,031 ha) overall, the largest (by area) and most-visited vacation resort in the world, with four theme parks, two water parks, 21 resort hotels, eight golf courses, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and additional recreational activities.
=== Tokyo Disney Resort ===
Tokyo Disney Resort, in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, opened April 15, 1983, as Tokyo Disneyland. On September 4, 2001, the resort expanded with second theme park Tokyo DisneySea. The resort includes six Disney hotels and several non-Disney hotels along with the Ikspiari retail, dining, and entertainment complex. Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, the resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under license with the Walt Disney Company. Disney oversees all aspects of the resort and assigns Imagineers to it.
=== Disneyland Paris ===
Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992 as Euro Disney Resort. Located in Marne-la-Vallée in the suburbs of Paris, France, it features two theme parks, Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park (soon to be renamed Disney Adventure World), a golf course, the Disney Village entertainment complex, and seven Disney resort hotels, over 4,940 acres (20.0 km2). It is the only resort outside the United States fully owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company.
=== Hong Kong Disneyland Resort ===
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort opened September 12, 2005. The resort is located in Penny's Bay. The resort consists of Hong Kong Disneyland theme park, Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre, and three hotels, with land reserved for future expansion. It is owned and operated by Hong Kong International Theme Parks, a joint venture of the Walt Disney Company (48% ownership) and the Government of Hong Kong (52% ownership). The first phase of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort occupies 320 acres (1.3 km2).
=== Shanghai Disney Resort ===
Shanghai Disney Resort opened on June 16, 2016. The resort is located in the city's Pudong district and has one theme park, two resort hotels, Shanghai Disneyland, and the Disneytown entertainment complex. It is owned and operated by Shanghai International Theme Park Company, a joint venture of the Walt Disney Company (43% ownership) and the Shanghai Shendi Group (57% ownership).
== Future theme parks and experiences ==
=== Disneyland Abu Dhabi ===
In May 2025, Disney announced that they will develop a theme park and resort with Miral Group on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Similarly to Tokyo Disney Resort, the resort will be designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and owned and operated by Miral, under license with the Walt Disney Company.
== Training ==
Each new employee ("cast member") at a Disney theme park is trained at a Disney University, founded by Walt Disney in 1955. Before training specific to the work they will perform, each employee attends the "Disney Traditions" course where they learn about the philosophies and history of Disney's guest services.
== Abandoned and misreported concepts ==
Disney had plans to build Walt Disney's Riverfront Square in St. Louis, but canceled the project in July 1965.
In the 1960s, Disney initiated a plan for a ski resort at Mineral King in California. Opposition from environmental groups led by the Sierra Club led to a temporary court injunction in 1969 and legal battles through the 1970s. The project's planning and scale changed multiple times, and in 1978, Mineral King was annexed into Sequoia National Park, ending any possibility of developing a resort there.
Disney had plans to build a park named Disney's America in Haymarket, Virginia, but abandoned the idea in 1994. On September 28, 1994, Michael Eisner announced Disney was canceling its plans after a national media fight with Protect Historic America, and aggressive local opposition in Virginia from Protect Prince William and other citizen groups.
Disney had plans to build a smaller Disneyland-style theme park in Sydney, Australia, between 2007 and 2008, with the proposed name "Disney Wharf at Sydney Harbour", but the concept was abandoned due to mixed responses in the New South Wales Government.
In early January 2011, conflicting reports emerged regarding Disney's involvement in a proposed entertainment complex in Haifa, Israel, whose plans include a small (30,000 square meter) amusement park scheduled to open in 2013. The project was set to be partially funded by Shamrock Holdings, a Disney-affiliated investment firm. In the wake of reports from Israeli business newspaper, Globes and industry newswire Amusement Management that Disney itself would be involved in the project's development, a spokesperson for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts clarified to Fast Company that Disney did not have any plans to be involved in the building of the park.
== Disney intellectual properties outside Disney parks ==
Due to its acquisitions of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012 and 21st Century Fox in 2019, some Disney-owned franchises are represented in its competitors' parks.
=== Marvel Entertainment ===
Marvel Super Hero Island, a themed land featuring characters and settings from Marvel Comics, has operated at Universal Orlando Resort's Universal Islands of Adventure park since 1999, as well as the Islands of Adventure, cloned ride The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Studios Japan from 2004 to 2024. Under Marvel's 1994 agreement with Universal Destinations & Experiences in regional terms, none of the Marvel characters and other persons related to such characters (e.g., side characters, team members, and the villains associated with the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, etc.) connected with Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Japan can be used at Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort. The Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, and Tokyo Disney Resort also cannot use the Marvel brand name as part of an attraction or marketing and the Marvel-themed simulator ride. This clause has allowed Walt Disney World to have meet-and-greets with Marvel characters not associated with the ones present at Islands of Adventure, such as Star-Lord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy, and Doctor Strange. Hong Kong Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris either have or planned to incorporate meet and greets as well as attractions relating to the Marvel characters, as well as using the Marvel name and the Marvel simulator ride.
IMG Worlds of Adventure in Dubai has a Marvel-themed section.
=== Star Wars ===
A Star Wars-themed section of Legoland California's Miniland USA opened in 2011, with a similar version opening at Legoland Florida in November 2012, just weeks before Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise. However, the Star Wars-themed sections at Miniland USA, Legoland Florida, and other Legoland areas closed at the start of 2020 before the 2020 theme park season due to the expiration of their contract with Lucasfilm.
=== 20th Century Studios ===
Following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, which included properties from 20th Century Studios and 20th Television, in March 2019, The Simpsons became the intellectual property of Disney. Like Marvel before it, The Simpsons is represented in Universal parks, with The Simpsons Ride having operated at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida since 2008, with accompanying themed areas based on the show's setting of Springfield.
The Fox acquisition also made Disney responsible for the future of Malaysia's under-construction 20th Century Fox World theme park. The park's owner, Genting Group, filed a $1.75 billion lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox in November 2018, accusing Fox of trying to back out of the deal for licensing the theme park. In the suit, Genting Malaysia alleges that Fox has taken steps to cancel the contract. The suit also names Disney as a defendant, contending that Disney executives, following the company's then-pending acquisition of Fox, were "calling the shots" on the project and that they were opposed to the park because they would have "no control" over its operations and that it would be adjacent to a casino, which would go against Disney's "family-friendly" image. Fox, in turn, referred to the suit as "without merit", stating that their reasons for withdrawing from the deal were due to Genting consistently not meeting "agreed-upon deadlines for several years" and that Genting's attempts to blame Disney for Fox's default were "made up". In July 2019, it was announced that Fox and Genting had settled their respective lawsuits. As part of the deal, Genting would be given "a license to use certain Fox intellectual properties" and that non-Fox intellectual property would make up the rest of the attractions in the park. The outdoor park would also no longer be referred to as 20th Century Fox World, but instead would be named Genting SkyWorlds.
== Adaptations ==
While Disney Parks generally adapt movies into rides, some Disney theme park attractions have been adapted into or have served inspiration for films, books, comic books, television series, television specials and television pilots. Disney entered the television field with a network TV show named after Disneyland (which was then its only park, and was being built at the time), in order to fund the park. In this series, some episodes featured the park or a park attraction. The Walt Disney Company pioneered and is the only film company and theme park company to have converted theme park attractions to film productions. However, lackluster results were achieved for most of these films except for the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Walt Disney Pictures produced two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels in 2006 and 2011 that made approximately a billion dollars each at the box office.
At first, Disney had merely dabbled with this type of film. Disney Telefilms made the first movie-based-on-ride, Tower of Terror, for the Wonderful World of Disney anthology television series in 1997. In 2000, Touchstone Pictures made Mission to Mars based on the closed ride of the same name.
Walt Disney Pictures took the Country Bear Jamboree attraction and made it into The Country Bears in 2002. In 2003, Walt Disney Pictures issued two ride-based films in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Haunted Mansion. Pirates of the Caribbean launched a film series and a franchise. After four Pirates sequels, the franchise took in more than $5.4 billion worldwide.
Disney Publishing Worldwide started mining Disney Parks with its The Kingdom Keepers series. The first novel of the series, Disney After Dark, was released in 2005. A five-book series was laid out by Pearson, but was extended to seven with the first book's success. On March 31, 2015, the first novel in The Kingdom Keepers sequel trilogy series was released.
Other Disney Publishing projects based on the Disney Parks include the Tales from Adventureland trilogy by Jason Lethcoe in 2017-2018, based around Adventureland attractions such as the Enchanted Tiki Room and Jungle Cruise, the Tales from the Haunted Mansion anthology series by John Esposito writing under the pen name of the Mansion's ghostly librarian Amicus Arcane, and the Shinji Takahashi books by Julie Kagawa, which explores the Society of Explorers and Adventurers organization seen in various parks within the modern day.
With the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Disney Pictures' top franchise, the company had been looking for additional projects in this category for a decade. Disney Pictures took another push at additional adaptations in the 2010s. By November 2010, Jon Favreau had been tapped to develop the Magic Kingdom park into a "Night at the Museum" like film, with Strike Entertainment signed on to produce it after a script by Ronald D. Moore was turned down. Another Haunted Mansion film was in the works with Guillermo del Toro as of August 2012. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride ride film was in the works at Disney by January 2013. Tomorrowland, first to be loosely based on a theme park area, was announced in January 2013 for a December 2014 release. Also in 2013, ABC had ordered a pilot based on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It's A Small World was added to the list of known two projects in November 26, 2013 and April 22, 2014. Tower of Terror was given a theatrical treatment by John August under producer Jim Whitaker in October 2015, while the long-in-production Jungle Cruise gained an actor.
Marvel Worldwide with Disney announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first comic book title under their joint Disney Kingdoms imprint. Running for six miniseries, Disney Kingdoms would feature adaptations of the unbuilt Museum of the Weird, two serials about Figment and Dreamfinder from Epcot's Journey into Imagination, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Haunted Mansion, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room. Disney Publishing Worldwide's revived Disney Comics imprint first publication was the Space Mountain graphic novel released on May 7, 2014 and based on the same name park attraction.
In May 2017, Freeform cable channel aired a special documentary, Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings, based on the services provided by Disney Parks and Resorts unit, Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons. With success of the May special, the show was picked up as a series with seven episodes in October 2017. However, another special, Holiday Magic, was aired on December 11, 2017 with the now six episode regular series starting on June 11, 2018.
There have also been a number of video games based on the park or its attractions, there has also been several games that incorporate parts of the park like epic Mickey and starlight valley.
== Disney Signature Experiences ==
The Disney Signature Experiences division, which was formerly known as the Disney Cruise Line & New Vacation Operations, holds newer non-theme park travel units under president Thomas Mazloum.
In February 2009, Tom McAlpin left the Disney Cruise Line presidency and was replaced by Karl Holz as president of both Disney Cruise Line and New Vacation Operations. New Vacation Operations included the Adventures by Disney. The cruise line ordered three ships of a new class of ship, Triton, in 2016 and 2017. In April 2017, it was announced that Karl Holz would retire as president of Disney Cruise Line on February 15, 2018 and Anthony Connelly would assumed the role of president on October 1, 2017.
Soon after a March 2018 conglomerate wide reorganization that formed Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment division, Disney Cruise Line and New Vacation Operations was renamed Disney Signature Experiences along with a new president, Jeff Vahle. Ken Potrock was promoted from Senior Vice President and General Manager of Disney Vacation Club to President of Consumer Products in May 2018. Disney Cruise Line purchased in early March 2019 another Bahamas destination, Lighthouse Point property on the island of Eleuthera from the Bahamas Government.
=== Disney Cruise Line ===
Formed in 1995, its fleet currently comprises six ships: Disney Magic (launched Disney Wonder (1999), Disney Dream (2011), Disney Fantasy (2012), Disney Wish (2022), and Disney Treasure (2024). Two more ships, the Disney Destiny and Disney Adventure, will be launching in late 2025 and early 2026, respectively. Five additional ships are planned through 2031, which will bring the total fleet count to 13.
Disney Cruise Line also operates two private destinations in the Bahamas: Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.
=== Disney Vacation Club ===
A timeshare program that includes 12 themed resorts within Walt Disney World Resort, 3 within Disneyland Resort, and 3 stand-alone locations: Disney's Aulani Resort, Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, and Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
There are an estimated 220,000 club members.
=== Adventures by Disney ===
Launched in 2005, Adventures by Disney is a program of all-inclusive, guided vacation tour packages offered at predominantly non-Disney sites around the world.
=== National Geographic Expeditions ===
National Geographic Expeditions leads travelers to people and places on every continent, with access to scientists, storytellers, explorers, museums and more. National Geographic Experts and local guides share their knowledge so travelers are inspired by immersive expeditions that deepen their understanding of the world.
With the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by August 2019, National Geographic Partners' National Geographic Expeditions moved into Disney Signature Experiences.
=== Golden Oak at Walt Disney World Resort ===
A residential neighborhood located within the Walt Disney World Resort, consisting of 299 homes, the private Golden Oak Club, and the Four Seasons Resort Orlando resort hotel.
=== Storyliving by Disney ===
Master-planned communities that utilize Disney Imagineering and are staffed by Disney cast members. Cotino, in Rancho Mirage, California, is the first community under development, while Asteria, in Pittsboro, North Carolina, is the second community under development, with other locations being explored.
== Disney Sports Enterprises ==
Disney Sports Enterprises, formerly called Disney Sports Attractions, is the unit of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products for Disney's sports functions and is made up of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and the runDisney program.
=== DSE background ===
Disney Golf facilities date back to the opening of Disney World with two golf courses, the Palm and Magnolia courses. At the time, those courses started hosting the Walt Disney World Open Invitational, an annual PGA Tour event.
In 1994, Disney held the Walt Disney World Marathon, its first road race added additional races later. Disneyland Marathon and 5K were run in 1995 three weeks after the LA Marathon on March 26, 1995.
In 1995, Disney World had IMS Events, Inc. build the Walt Disney World Speedway. Disney's Wide World of Sports opened in 1997 under executive Reggie Williams.
=== DSE history ===
By 1998, Williams was named vice president of Disney Sports Attractions, overseeing a newly created sports & recreation division. The first 10K Disney Classic race on October 3, 1999, kicked off Disney World's 15-month Millennium Celebration. On March 30, 2003, Sports Attractions held the first Disney Inline Marathon.
On November 21, 2007, Reggie Williams retired as vice president of Disney Sports Attractions. His replacement was named on January 3, 2008, when Ken Potrock was promoted to Senior Vice President, Disney Sports Enterprises. On February 25, 2010, Disney's Wide World of Sports was renamed ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex with some upgrades and new facilities.
On September 25, 2011, Disney started the lease of its five Disney World golf courses (Palm, Magnolia, Lake Buena Vista, Osprey Ridge, and Oak Trail) to Arnold Palmer Golf Management to operate for 20 years while splitting the revenue. As part of the deal, Arnold Palmer would redesign the Palm course. The Orlando market for golf had a glut of course from the building boom then bust making profitability a challenge for any golf course. Disney hoped that Palmer's involvement and "Palmer Advantage" membership club would draw more attention to Disney's course. With the Osprey Ridge course sold to Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to build a hotel, which was delayed until 2014, the golf management company would run the course until hotel construction begins. While another golf course, the Eagle Pines, was closed several years ago to make way for a residential housing subdivision development called Golden Oak being built in 2011.
In January 2013, Ken Petrock was promoted to Disney Vacation Club and Adventures by Disney senior vice president & general manager while Tom Wolber, Disney Cruise Line senior vice president of operations, was promoted to replace Petrock at Disney Sports. In late June 2015, the Walt Disney World Speedway was shut down.
Sports marketing director Faron Kelley was promoted to vice president of sports in January 2016 and has responsibility for the water parks too. Senior vice president of Disney Springs and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Maribeth Bisienere was promoted to Senior Vice President of Parks in early March 2018. Rosalyn Durant moved over from ESPN to be appointed in February 2020 as senior vice president of operations for Disney Springs, ESPN Wide World of Sports and Waterparks.
=== runDisney ===
runDisney is the road race division of Disney Sports Enterprises. The division is designed to get runners to plan a "runcation", a vacation planned to coincide with the race they signed up for.
Race weekends are currently held at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort. Additional Virtual race events take place throughout the year. Runners who complete a 10-mile or longer race at both resorts in a calendar year can complete the runDisney Coast to Coast Race Challenge.
== See also ==
Disney Consumer Products
Anaheim Sports
== Notes ==
== References ==
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of the Walt Disney Company", kpolsson.com, retrieved May 5, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Disneyland Theme Park", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved May 5, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Disneyland Theme Park (1985–1989)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved May 5, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Disneyland Theme Park (1990–1999)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved May 5, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Walt Disney World (1958–1971)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved September 24, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Walt Disney World (1972–1982)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved September 24, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Walt Disney World (1983–1989)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved September 24, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Walt Disney World (1990–1994)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved September 24, 2015:
From Polsson, Ken, "Chronology of Walt Disney World (1995-end)", Chronology of the Walt Disney Company, retrieved September 24, 2015:
== External links ==
Official website
Disney Parks YouTube channel |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_state_symbols#Uttarakhand | 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/Narcos_season_3 | Narcos season 3 | The third and final season of Narcos, an American crime thriller drama streaming television series produced and created by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro, follows the story of the Cali Cartel. Pedro Pascal reprises his role from the previous two seasons.
All 10 episodes of the season became available for streaming on Netflix on September 1, 2017, and were met with very positive reviews.
Narcos was initially renewed for a fourth season, but it instead became Narcos: Mexico, a prequel/sequel companion series.
== Cast and characters ==
=== Main ===
=== Recurring ===
Juan Sebastián Calero as Navegante, a violent associate of the Cali Cartel who works as their top henchman
Juan Pablo Shuk as Colonel Hugo Martínez, the commander of Search Bloc
Brett Cullen as Ambassador Arthur Crosby, a former Navy officer sent as US Ambassador to Colombia by George H. W. Bush in 1992, replacing Noonan
Gaston Velandia as José Serrano, General of the Colombian National Police
Margarita Rosa de Francisco as Carolina Álvarez, Colombian journalist working for El Tiempo
Roberto Cano as Darío, David Rodriguez's partner in crime
Sebastián Eslava as Nicolas Rodrígue, Gilberto's son
Miguel Ángel Silvestre as Franklin Jurado
Edward James Olmos as Chucho Peña, Javier's father
Raymond Ablack as Stoddard
Shea Whigham as Agent Duffy
Gabriel Iglesias as Dominican Gangster
Carlos Camacho as Claudio Salazar
Taliana Vargas as Paola Salcedo
Bre Blair as Lorraine
Wayne Knight as Alan Starkman
Andrés Crespo as Carlos Córdova
Lux Pascal (under Lucas Pascal) as Elias
== Episodes ==
== Reception ==
On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season holds an approval rating of 97% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 7.46/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Narcos continues to evolve in its third season, drawing on historical details to take viewers on a thoroughly gripping -- and unsettlingly timely -- journey into darkness." On Metacritic, season three holds a score of 78 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Narcos at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Dreadful_(TV_series)#Production_and_development | Penny Dreadful (TV series) | Penny Dreadful is a horror drama television series created for Showtime and Sky by John Logan, who also acts as executive producer alongside Sam Mendes. The show was originally pitched to several American and British channels, and eventually landed with Showtime, with Sky Atlantic as co-producer. It premiered at the South by Southwest film festival on March 9 and began airing on television on April 28, 2014, on Showtime on Demand. The series premiered on Showtime in the United States on May 11, 2014, and on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2014. After the third-season finale on June 19, 2016, series creator John Logan announced that Penny Dreadful had ended as the main story had reached its conclusion.
The title refers to the penny dreadfuls, a type of 19th-century British fiction publication with lurid and sensational subject matter. The series draws upon many public domain characters from 19th-century Victorian Gothic fiction, including Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray; Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, John Seward, Renfield, and Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula; Victor Frankenstein and his monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; and Henry Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, showing their origin stories as an explorer searches for his daughter. Justine from Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade also appears.
A spin-off series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, aired from April 26 to June 28, 2020.
== Plot ==
The first season begins in London, 1891. Ethan Chandler, an American gunman and roadshow artist, is hired by the adventurer-explorer Malcolm Murray and the mysterious Vanessa Ives to help rescue Murray's daughter from a mysterious creature. They receive help from a young doctor named Victor Frankenstein who soon is stalked by an undead creature he once reanimated and abandoned. Ives becomes romantically involved with the handsome, artistic Dorian Gray but also finds herself haunted by Lucifer, who wishes to make her his bride and queen.
In the second season, Ives is hunted by a coven of witches led by the charismatic Evelyn Poole, who wants to deliver Ives to Lucifer. Frankenstein is forced to make his creature a bride, and an inspector investigates a grisly murder that Chandler committed in a London inn.
In the third season, the main characters find themselves scattered across the world – Ives is in London, consulting the alienist Florence Seward, Ethan is being extradited to the United States, and Murray is in Zanzibar. Count Dracula soon appears in London, setting the stage for the final battle for Ives' soul.
== Episodes ==
== Cast and characters ==
=== Main cast ===
Reeve Carney as Dorian Gray, a charismatic man who is ageless and immortal
Timothy Dalton as Malcolm Murray, a hardened explorer-adventurer of the African continent, on a deeply personal quest to save the remaining members of his family
Eva Green as Vanessa Ives, an enigmatic, quietly driven heroine who proves herself a force to be reckoned with as she battles powerful, relentless forces from the underworld
Rory Kinnear as the Creature, a creation Frankenstein abruptly abandoned, who, not given a name, variously uses the aliases Caliban and John Clare
Billie Piper as Brona Croft / Lily Frankenstein, an Irish immigrant seeking to escape her brutal, violent past
Danny Sapani as Sembene (seasons 1–2), a mysterious, long-time ally of Malcolm
Harry Treadaway as Victor Frankenstein, an arrogant, socially inept young doctor whose ambition and research involve transcending the barrier between life and death
Josh Hartnett as Ethan Chandler (born Ethan Lawrence Talbot), a charming, brash and daring American man of action with uncanny marksmanship, who detests violence, and is more complicated than he likes to admit
Helen McCrory as Evelyn Poole a.k.a. Evelyn Paul (season 2, recurring season 1), a professional spiritualist known by the alias Madame Kali who is secretly the leader of a powerful coven of witches called "Nightcomers"
Simon Russell Beale as Ferdinand Lyle (season 2, recurring seasons 1 and 3), an eccentric Egyptologist
Patti LuPone as Florence Seward (season 3), an alienist or early psychotherapist treating Vanessa's depression
LuPone previously guest-starred as Joan Clayton in season 2
Wes Studi as Kaetenay (season 3), an Apache with a connection to Ethan, who becomes an ally to Malcolm
=== Supporting cast ===
==== Introduced in season 1 ====
Olivia Llewellyn as Mina Harker (seasons 1–2), Malcolm's daughter and Vanessa's childhood friend who has been abducted
Alex Price as Proteus (seasons 1–2), a new creation of Dr. Frankenstein's, named after the literary character of the same name, who was killed by the Creature
Lorcan Cranitch as Inspector Goldsworthy (season 1), of the London police
Robert Nairne as the Vampire (season 1), an evil creature who leads a cabal of undead and who abducted Mina Harker
Olly Alexander as Fenton (season 1), a vampire minion
Graham Butler as Peter Murray (seasons 1–2), Malcolm's son, who died accompanying his father on one of his expeditions
Noni Stapleton as Gladys Murray (seasons 1–2), Malcolm's estranged wife and mother of Mina and Peter
Alun Armstrong as Vincent Brand (season 1), the leader of a troupe of actors in residence at the Grand Guignol
Hannah Tointon as Maud Gunneson (season 1), an actress at the Grand Guignol, and object of the Creature's affection
Gavin Fowler as Simon (season 1), Maud's partner who mistreats the Creature
David Warner as Abraham Van Helsing (season 1), a haematologist and colleague of Frankenstein
Stephen Lord as Warren Roper (seasons 1–2), a Pinkerton agent hired to bring Ethan back to the United States
==== Introduced in season 2 ====
Sarah Greene as Hecate Poole (seasons 2–3), Evelyn's eldest daughter
Nicole O'Neill, Olivia Chenery and Charlotte Beckett as minor witches of Evelyn's coven (season 2)
Douglas Hodge as Bartholomew Rusk (seasons 2–3), a Scotland Yard police inspector investigating the grisly Mariner's Inn Massacre
Jack Hickey as the junior inspector working with Rusk (seasons 2–3)
Jonny Beauchamp as Angelique (season 2), a mysterious transgender woman who gains Dorian's attention
David Haig as Oscar Putney (season 2), the owner of a struggling wax museum who employs the Creature for his own nefarious reasons
Ruth Gemmell as Octavia Putney (season 2), Oscar's wife who is uneasy about the Creature and treats him cruelly
Tamsin Topolski as Lavinia Putney (season 2), the blind daughter of the Creature's new employers, with whom he develops a friendship
Ronan Vibert as Geoffrey Hawkes (season 2), a rich landowner who fell under Evelyn's sway
==== Introduced in season 3 ====
Shazad Latif as Henry Jekyll / Hyde, a chemist and college friend of Victor Frankenstein
Christian Camargo as Dracula, the brother of Lucifer who fell to Earth to feed on the blood of the living as the first vampire. In London, he takes the guise of kindly zoologist Alexander Sweet to captivate Vanessa
Samuel Barnett as Renfield, Florence Seward's secretary who becomes involved with Dracula
Sebastian Croft and Jack Greenlees as minor vampires serving Dracula
Casper Allpress and Pandora Colin as Jack and Marjorie, the Creature's son and wife from when he was still alive
Cokey Falkow as Scarman, a gunman in the service of Ethan's father
Jessica Barden as Justine, a homeless, brutalized young prostitute who becomes an acolyte to Lily
Sean Gilder as Franklin Ostow, a marshal in the American West aiding Rusk in the hunt for Ethan
Brian Cox as Jared Talbot, a ruthless, powerful American rancher and the estranged father of Ethan
Perdita Weeks as Catriona Hartdegen, a thanatologist scholar with expert knowledge of the supernatural
Notable non-recurring cast include Mary Stockley as Victor Frankenstein's mother Caroline, Anna Chancellor as Vanessa's mother Claire, and Frank McCusker as Christopher Banning, a doctor overseeing Vanessa's treatment while institutionalized, all appearing in flashbacks during the first season, as well as Oliver Cotton as Father Matthew, having been requested to perform an exorcism on Vanessa in the first season's penultimate episode.
== Production and development ==
In January 2013, it was announced that Showtime had made a series commitment for the project. Logan and Mendes previously wrote and directed Skyfall, respectively. Production began in London in the second half of 2013. Showtime president David Nevins stated that the tone of the ensemble series will be "very realistic and very grounded, not Bela Lugosi. All exist in human form in turn-of-century London." This was also reflected during production of the sound for the show, where Logan often pulled things back towards more realism. Logan, a lifelong fan of literary monsters, wrote the project on spec and scripts the majority of episodes of the series. It was intended that Mendes would direct episodes, but scheduling prevented this.
Juan Antonio Bayona was announced as director for the first two episodes. The remaining episodes of the first season were directed by Dearbhla Walsh, Coky Giedroyc, and James Hawes.
In March 2013, it was announced that the series would be filmed in the United Kingdom to take advantage of the new UK tax credit for high-end TV productions that offered a 25% rebate. However, it was reported in August that production would instead take place in Bray's Ardmore Studios and other locations around Dublin, Ireland, because of the country's section 481 tax incentives. Filming began on October 7 and lasted 5 months. Reports indicated that the change was made as no stage space of a sufficient caliber was available due to the filming of major motion pictures in London.
In December 2013, Showtime announced its first production blog for a series with the launch of The Penny Dreadful Production Blog. The venue gave viewers an online, behind-the-scenes look at the series' production from its early stages of filming in Ireland through the end of the first season, featuring interviews with cast and crew. In February 2014, Showtime released a full-length trailer for the series.
Logan revealed at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con panel that one of the texts he thought about while planning the series that he would like to use in a future season is The Island of Doctor Moreau. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly prior to the premiere of the third season, Logan stated that the addition of Dr. Henry Jekyll was implemented because the rights to Doctor Moreau were not available.
Showtime had announced season renewals shortly before the ends of the first and second seasons; however, Logan had decided during the middle of the second season that the third season should be the last, and he pitched the third season to Showtime president David Nevins accordingly. They did not release this information until after the final season had completed, as Nevins stated, "given what I knew the ending of Penny Dreadful was going to be felt like a massive spoiler and it felt disrespectful to the experience that people were having with the show." Logan said regarding not releasing the information, "That's what the ending of this series is, it is meant to be a strong, bold, theatrical ending because I think that's what our fans like and to water that down with an announcement or having them know I think would be an act of bad faith."
== Reception ==
=== Critical reception ===
The first season of Penny Dreadful received positive reviews from critics, with a Metacritic rating of 70 out of 100 based on 37 reviews. It holds an 81 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.4 out of 10, based on 62 reviews, with the site's consensuses stating, "Skillfully shot and superbly acted, Penny Dreadful is perplexing in a good way – even if it's a bit silly at times." The first season was described "as riotous as it is ridiculous, taking the macabre to new heights (or depths)" by The Guardian reviewer Ben Hewitt.
The second season also received positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 100 percent rating with an average score of 7.7 out of 10 based on 21 reviews, with the site's consensus stating, "Penny Dreadful's second season maintains the show's intense, bloody drama, utilizing a vast array of fascinating characters and locales to tell a unique story."
The third season received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, it has a score of 83 out of 100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 93 percent rating with an average score of 8.1 out of 10 based on 15 reviews, with the site's consensuses stating, "Penny Dreadful is back for a beautifully bloody third season of ever-expanding mysteries and Gothic horrors." Ben Travers of Indiewire gave it a B+ grade and wrote, "Season 3's American-set storyline breaks things up nicely with some classic western elements mixed in with the show's established creature horrors, and the aesthetics of the production have never looked better."
=== Ratings ===
The series debuted to 872,000 viewers (1.44 million including re-runs). This number does not include the 900,000 viewers who previewed the series on Showtime on Demand and the Showtime app.
=== Accolades ===
== Related media ==
=== Comics ===
In 2015, Titan Books announced a comic book series based on Penny Dreadful, written by co-executive producer Chris King and writers Krysty Wilson-Cairns and Andrew Hinderaker. The first issue was released on May 11, 2016. In October 2016, Showtime announced that a new series would be released in 2017, set six months after the finale of the TV series. The project will be written by King, illustrated by Jesús Hervás, and published by Titan Books.
=== Spin-off series ===
In November 2018, a spin-off series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels was announced by Showtime. It is set in 1938 and centers on Mexican-American folklore and social tension of the era in Los Angeles, California. The series started production in August 2019 and stars Daniel Zovatto, Nathan Lane, Natalie Dormer, Kerry Bishé, Rory Kinnear, Adriana Barraza, Michael Gladis, Jessica Garza and Johnathan Nieves. It premiered on April 26, 2020. On August 21, 2020, the series was cancelled after one season.
== See also ==
Frankenstein in popular culture
Dracula in popular culture
Neo-Victorian
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a comic series written by Alan Moore with a similar premise of characters from public domain literature teaming up to fight the forces of evil.
Vampire film
List of vampire television series
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Penny Dreadful at IMDb
Penny Dreadful at epguides.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krieger%E2%80%93Nelson_Prize | Krieger–Nelson Prize | The Krieger–Nelson Prize is presented by the Canadian Mathematical Society in recognition of an outstanding woman in mathematics. It was first
awarded in 1995. The award is named after Cecilia Krieger and Evelyn Nelson, both known for their contributions to mathematics in Canada.
== Recipients ==
While the award has largely been awarded to a female mathematician working at a Canadian University, it has also been awarded to Canadian-born or -educated women working outside of the country. For example, Cathleen Morawetz, past president of the American Mathematical Society, and a faculty member at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (a division of New York University) was awarded the Krieger–Nelson Prize in 1997. (Morawetz was educated at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada). According to the call for applications, the award winner should be a "member of the Canadian mathematical community".
The recipient of the Krieger–Nelson Prize delivers a lecture to the Canadian Mathematical Society, typically during its summer meeting.
== See also ==
List of mathematics awards
== References ==
== External links ==
Krieger–Nelson Prize, Canadian Mathematical Society. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87#:~:text=In%20Imponderabilia%20(1977%2C%20reenacted%20in,one%20of%20them%20to%20face. | Marina Abramović | Marina Abramović (Serbian Cyrillic: Марина Абрамовић, pronounced [marǐːna abrǎːmovitɕ]; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Being active for over four decades, Abramović refers to herself as the "grandmother of performance art". She pioneered a new notion of artistic identity by bringing in the participation of observers, focusing on "confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body". In 2007, she founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a non-profit foundation for performance art.
== Early life ==
Abramović was born in Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia, on November 30, 1946. In an interview, Abramović described her family as having been "Red bourgeoisie". Her great-uncle was Varnava, Serbian Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Both of her Montenegrin-born parents, Danica Rosić and Vojin Abramović, were Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. After the war, Abramović's parents were given positions in the postwar Yugoslavian government.
Abramović was raised by her grandparents until she was six years old. Her grandmother was deeply religious and Abramović "spent [her] childhood in a church following [her] grandmother's rituals—candles in the morning, the priest coming for different occasions". When she was six, her brother was born, and she began living with her parents while also taking piano, French, and English lessons. Although she did not take art lessons, she took an early interest in art and enjoyed painting as a child.
Life in Abramović's parental home under her mother's strict supervision was difficult. When Abramović was a child, her mother beat her for "supposedly showing off". In an interview published in 1998, Abramović described how her "mother took complete military-style control of me and my brother. I was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock at night until I was 29 years old. ... [A]ll the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o'clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It's completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in 'The Firestar'—everything was done before 10 in the evening."
In an interview published in 2013, Abramović said, "My mother and father had a terrible marriage." Describing an incident when her father smashed 12 champagne glasses and left the house, she said, "It was the most horrible moment of my childhood."
== Education and teaching career ==
She was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965 to 1970. She completed her post-graduate studies in the art class of Krsto Hegedušić at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, SR Croatia, in 1972. Then she returned to SR Serbia and, from 1973 to 1975, taught at the Academy of Fine Arts at Novi Sad while launching her first solo performances.
In 1976, following her marriage to Neša Paripović (between 1970 and 1976), Abramović went to Amsterdam to perform a piece and then decided to move there permanently.
From 1990 to 1995, Abramović was a visiting professor at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Berlin University of the Arts. From 1992 to 1996 she also served as a visiting professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and from 1997 to 2004 she was a professor for performance-art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Braunschweig.
== Art career ==
=== Rhythm 10, 1973 ===
In her first performance in Edinburgh in 1973, Abramović explored elements of ritual and gesture. Making use of ten knives and two tape recorders, the artist played the Russian game, in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of one's hand, the title of the piece getting its name from the number of knives used. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of ten she had set up, and record the operation. After cutting herself ten times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat the same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing; the double sounds from the history and the replication. With this piece, Abramović began to consider the state of consciousness of the performer. "Once you enter into the performance state you can push your body to do things you absolutely could never normally do."
=== Rhythm 5, 1974 ===
In this performance, Abramović sought to re-evoke the energy of extreme bodily pain, using a large petroleum-drenched star, which the artist lit on fire at the start of the performance. Standing outside the star, Abramović cut her nails, toenails, and hair. When finished with each, she threw the clippings into the flames, creating a burst of light each time. Burning the communist five-pointed star or pentagram represented a physical and mental purification, while also addressing the political traditions of her past. In the final act of purification, Abramović leapt across the flames into the center of the large pentagram. At first, due to the light and smoke given off by the fire, the observing audience did not realize that the artist had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen inside the star. However, when the flames came very near to her body and she still remained inert, a doctor and others intervened and extricated her from the star.
Abramović later commented upon this experience: "I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit. When you lose consciousness you can't be present, you can't perform."
=== Rhythm 2, 1974 ===
Prompted by her loss of consciousness during Rhythm 5, Abramović devised the two-part Rhythm 2 to incorporate a state of unconsciousness in a performance. She performed the work at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, in 1974. In Part I, which had a duration of 50 minutes, she ingested a medication she describes as 'given to patients who suffer from catatonia, to force them to change the positions of their bodies.' The medication caused her muscles to contract violently, and she lost complete control over her body while remaining aware of what was going on. After a ten-minute break, she took a second medication 'given to schizophrenic patients with violent behavior disorders to calm them down.' The performance ended after five hours when the medication wore off.
=== Rhythm 4, 1974 ===
Rhythm 4 was performed at the Galleria Diagramma in Milan. In this piece, Abramović knelt alone and naked in a room with a high-power industrial fan. She approached the fan slowly, attempting to breathe in as much air as possible to push the limits of her lungs. Soon after she lost consciousness.
Abramović's previous experience in Rhythm 5, when the audience interfered in the performance, led to her devising specific plans so that her loss of consciousness would not interrupt the performance before it was complete. Before the beginning of her performance, Abramović asked the cameraman to focus only on her face, disregarding the fan. This was so the audience would be oblivious to her unconscious state, and therefore unlikely to interfere. After several minutes of Abramović's unconsciousness, the cameraman refused to continue and sent for help.
=== Rhythm 0, 1974 ===
To test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience, Abramović developed one of her most challenging and best-known performances, which took place in Naples, Italy. She assigned a passive role to herself, with the public being the force that would act on her. Abramović placed on a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use in any way that they chose; a sign informed them that they held no responsibility for any of their actions. Some of the objects could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, olive oil, scissors, a scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed audience members to manipulate her body and actions without consequences. This tested how vulnerable and aggressive human subjects could be when actions have no social consequences. At first the audience did not do much and was extremely passive. However, as the realization began to set in that there was no limit to their actions, the piece became brutal. By the end of the performance, her body was stripped, attacked, and devalued into an image that Abramović described as the "Madonna, mother, and whore." As Abramović described it later: "What I learned was that ... if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you. ... I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation."
In her works, Abramović defines her identity in contradiction to that of spectators; however, more importantly, by blurring the roles of each party, the identity and nature of humans individually and collectively also become less clear. By doing so, the individual experience morphs into a collective one and truths are revealed. Abramović's art also represents the objectification of the female body, as she remains passive and allows spectators to do as they please to her; the audience pushes the limits of what might be considered acceptable. By presenting her body as an object, she explores the limits of danger and exhaustion a human can endure.
=== Works with Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen) ===
In 1976, after moving to Amsterdam, Abramović met the West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen, who went by the single name Ulay. They began living and performing together that year. When Abramović and Ulay began their collaboration, the main concepts they explored were the ego and artistic identity. They created "relation works" characterized by constant movement, change, process and "art vital". This was the beginning of a decade of influential collaborative work. Each performer was interested in the traditions of their cultural heritage and the individual's desire for ritual. Consequently, they decided to form a collective being called "The Other", and spoke of themselves as parts of a "two-headed body". They dressed and behaved like twins and created a relationship of complete trust. As they defined this phantom identity, their individual identities became less defined. In an analysis of phantom artistic identities, Charles Green has noted that this allowed a deeper understanding of the artist as performer, since it revealed a way of "having the artistic self made available for self-scrutiny".
The work of Abramović and Ulay tested the physical limits of the body and explored male and female principles, psychic energy, transcendental meditation, and nonverbal communication. While some critics have explored the idea of a hermaphroditic state of being as a feminist statement, Abramović herself rejects this analysis. Her body studies, she insists, have always been concerned primarily with the body as the unit of an individual, a tendency she traces to her parents' military pasts. Rather than concerning themselves with gender ideologies, Abramović/Ulay explored extreme states of consciousness and their relationship to architectural space. They devised a series of works in which their bodies created additional spaces for audience interaction. In discussing this phase of her performance history, she has said: "The main problem in this relationship was what to do with the two artists' egos. I had to find out how to put my ego down, as did he, to create something like a hermaphroditic state of being that we called the death self."
In Relation in Space (1976) they ran into each other repeatedly for an hour – mixing male and female energy into the third component called "that self".
Relation in Movement (1977) had the pair driving their car inside of a museum for 365 laps; a black liquid oozed from the car, forming a kind of sculpture, each lap representing a year. (After 365 laps the idea was that they entered the New Millennium.)
In Relation in Time (1977) they sat back to back, tied together by their ponytails for sixteen hours. They then allowed the public to enter the room to see if they could use the energy of the public to push their limits even further.
To create Breathing In/Breathing Out the two artists devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other's exhaled breaths until they had used up all of the available oxygen. Nineteen minutes after the beginning of the performance they pulled away from each other, their lungs having filled with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explored the idea of an individual's ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.
In Imponderabilia (1977, reenacted in 2010) two performers of opposite sexes, both completely nude, stand in a narrow doorway. The public must squeeze between them in order to pass, and in doing so choose which one of them to face.
In AAA-AAA (1978) the two artists stood opposite each other and made long sounds with their mouths open. They gradually moved closer and closer, until they were eventually yelling directly into each other's mouths. This piece demonstrated their interest in endurance and duration.
In 1980, they performed Rest Energy, in an art exhibition in Amsterdam, where both balanced each other on opposite sides of a drawn bow and arrow, with the arrow pointed at Abramović's heart. With almost no effort, Ulay could easily kill Abramović with one finger. This was intended to represent the power advantage men have over women in society. In addition, the handle of the bow is held by Abramović and is pointed at herself. The handle of the bow is the most significant part of a bow. This would be a whole different piece if it were Ulay aiming a bow at Abramović, but by having her hold the bow, even while her life is subject to his will, she supports him.
Between 1981 and 1987, the pair performed Nightsea Crossing in twenty-two performances. They sat silently across from each other in chairs for seven hours a day.
In 1988, after several years of tense relations, Abramović and Ulay decided to make a spiritual journey that would end their relationship. They each walked the Great Wall of China, in a piece called Lovers, starting from the two opposite ends and meeting in the middle. As Abramović described it: "That walk became a complete personal drama. Ulay started from the Gobi Desert and I from the Yellow Sea. After each of us walked 2500 km, we met in the middle and said good-bye." She has said that she conceived this walk in a dream, and it provided what she thought was an appropriate, romantic ending to a relationship full of mysticism, energy, and attraction. She later described the process: "We needed a certain form of ending, after this huge distance walking towards each other. It is very human. It is in a way more dramatic, more like a film ending ... Because in the end, you are really alone, whatever you do." She reported that during her walk she was reinterpreting her connection to the physical world and to nature. She felt that the metals in the ground influenced her mood and state of being; she also pondered the Chinese myths in which the Great Wall has been described as a "dragon of energy". It took the couple eight years to acquire permission from the Chinese government to perform the work, by which time their relationship had completely dissolved.
At her 2010 MoMA retrospective, Abramović performed The Artist Is Present, in which she shared a period of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Although "they met and talked the morning of the opening", Abramović had a deeply emotional reaction to Ulay when he arrived at her performance, reaching out to him across the table between them; the video of the event went viral.
In November 2015, Ulay took Abramović to court, claiming she had paid him insufficient royalties according to the terms of a 1999 contract covering sales of their joint works and a year later, in September 2016, Abramović was ordered to pay Ulay €250,000. In its ruling, the court in Amsterdam found that Ulay was entitled to royalties of 20% net on the sales of their works, as specified in the original 1999 contract, and ordered Abramović to backdate royalties of more than €250,000, as well as more than €23,000 in legal costs. Additionally, she was ordered to credit all works created between 1976 and 1980 as "Ulay/Abramović" and all works created between 1981 and 1988 as "Abramović/Ulay".
=== Cleaning the Mirror, 1995 ===
Cleaning the Mirror consisted of five monitors playing footage in which Abramović scrubs a grimy human skeleton in her lap. She vigorously brushes the different parts of the skeleton with soapy water. Each monitor is dedicated to one part of the skeleton: the head, the pelvis, the ribs, the hands, and the feet. Each video is filmed with its own sound, creating an overlap. As the skeleton becomes cleaner, Abramović becomes covered in the grayish dirt that was once covering the skeleton. This three-hour performance is filled with metaphors of the Tibetan death rites that prepare disciples to become one with their own mortality. The piece was composed of three parts. Cleaning the Mirror #1, lasting three hours, was performed at the Museum of Modern Art. Cleaning the Mirror #2 lasts 90 minutes and was performed at Oxford University. Cleaning the Mirror #3 was performed at Pitt Rivers Museum over five hours.
=== Spirit Cooking, 1996 ===
Abramović worked with Jacob Samuel to produce a cookbook of "aphrodisiac recipes" called Spirit Cooking in 1996. These "recipes" were meant to be "evocative instructions for actions or for thoughts". For example, one of the recipes calls for "13,000 grams of jealousy", while another says to "mix fresh breast milk with fresh sperm milk." The work was inspired by the popular belief that ghosts feed off intangible things like light, sound, and emotions.
In 1997, Abramović created a multimedia Spirit Cooking installation. This was originally installed in the Zerynthia Associazione per l'Arte Contemporanea in Rome, Italy, and included white gallery walls with "enigmatically violent recipe instructions" painted in pig's blood. According to Alexxa Gotthardt, the work is "a comment on humanity's reliance on ritual to organize and legitimize our lives and contain our bodies".
Abramović also published a Spirit Cooking cookbook, containing comico-mystical, self-help instructions that are meant to be poetry. Spirit Cooking later evolved into a form of dinner party entertainment that Abramović occasionally lays on for collectors, donors, and friends.
=== Balkan Baroque, 1997 ===
In this piece, Abramović vigorously scrubbed thousands of bloody cow bones over a period of four days, a reference to the ethnic cleansing that had taken place in the Balkans during the 1990s. This performance piece earned Abramović the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale.
Abramović created Balkan Baroque as a response to the Yugoslav Wars. She remembers other artists reacting immediately, creating work and protesting about the effects and horrors of the war. Abramović could not bring herself to create work on the matter so soon, as it hit too close to home for her. Eventually, Abramović returned to Belgrade, where she interviewed her mother, her father, and a rat-catcher. She then incorporated these interviews into her piece, as well as clips of the hands of her father holding a pistol and her mother's empty hands and later, her crossed hands. Abramović is dressed as a doctor recounting the story of the rat-catcher. While the clips are playing, Abramović sits among a large pile of bones and tries to wash them.
The performance occurred in Venice in 1997. Abramović remembered the horrible smell – for it was extremely hot in Venice that summer – and that worms emerged from the bones. She has explained that the idea of scrubbing the bones clean and trying to remove the blood, is impossible. The point Abramović was trying to make is that blood can't be washed from bones and hands, just as the war couldn't be cleansed of shame. She wanted to allow the images from the performance to speak for not only the war in Bosnia, but for any war, anywhere in the world.
=== Seven Easy Pieces, 2005 ===
Beginning on November 9, 2005, Abramović presented Seven Easy Pieces commissioned by Performa, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. On seven consecutive nights for seven hours she recreated the works of five artists first performed in the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to re-performing her own Thomas Lips and introducing a new performance on the last night. The performances were arduous, requiring both the physical and the mental concentration of the artist. Included in Abramović's performances were recreations of Gina Pane's The Conditioning, which required lying on a bed frame suspended over a grid of lit candles, and of Vito Acconci's 1972 performance in which the artist masturbated under the floorboards of a gallery as visitors walked overhead. It is argued that Abramović re-performed these works as a series of homages to the past, though many of the performances were altered from the originals. All seven performances were dedicated to Abramović's late friend Susan Sontag.
A full list of the works performed is as follows:
Bruce Nauman's Body Pressure (1974)
Vito Acconci's Seedbed (1972)
Valie Export's Action Pants: Genital Panic (1969)
Gina Pane's The Conditioning (1973)
Joseph Beuys's How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965)
Abramović's own Thomas Lips (1975)
Abramović's own Entering the Other Side (2005)
=== The Artist Is Present: March–May 2010 ===
From March 14 to May 31, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective and performance recreation of Abramović's work, the biggest exhibition of performance art in MoMA's history, curated by Klaus Biesenbach. Biesenbach also provided the title for the performance, which referred to the fact that during the entire performance "the artist would be right there in the gallery or the museum."
During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed The Artist Is Present, a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum's atrium while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. Ulay made a surprise appearance at the opening night of the show.
Abramović sat in a rectangle marked with tape on the floor of the second floor atrium of the MoMA; theater lights shone on her sitting in a chair and a chair opposite her. Visitors waiting in line were invited to sit individually across from the artist while she maintained eye contact with them. Visitors began crowding the atrium within days of the show opening, some gathering before the exhibit opened each morning to get a better place in line. Most visitors sat with the artist for five minutes or less, while a few sat with her for an entire day. The line attracted no attention from museum security until the last day of the exhibition, when a visitor vomited in line and another began to disrobe. Tensions among visitors in line could have arisen from the realization that the longer the earlier visitors spent with Abramović, the less chance that those further back in line would be able to sit with her. Due to the strenuous nature of sitting for hours at a time, art-enthusiasts have wondered whether Abramović wore an adult diaper in order to eliminate the need for bathroom breaks. Others have highlighted the movements she made in between sitters as a focus of analysis, as the only variations in the artist between sitters were when she would cry if a sitter cried and her moment of physical contact with Ulay, one of the earliest visitors to the exhibition. Abramović sat across from 1,545 sitters, including Klaus Biesenbach, James Franco, Lou Reed, Alan Rickman, Jemima Kirke, Jennifer Carpenter, and Björk; sitters were asked not to touch or speak to her. By the end of the exhibit, hundreds of visitors were lining up outside the museum overnight to secure a spot in line the next morning. Abramović concluded the performance by slipping from the chair where she was seated and rising to a cheering crowd more than ten people deep.
A support group for the "sitters", "Sitting with Marina", was established on Facebook, as was the blog "Marina Abramović made me cry". The Italian photographer Marco Anelli took portraits of every person who sat opposite Abramović, which were published on Flickr, compiled in a book and featured in an exhibition at the Danziger Gallery in New York.
Abramović said the show changed her life "completely – every possible element, every physical emotion". After Lady Gaga saw the show and publicized it, Abramović found a new audience: "So the kids from 12 and 14 years old to about 18, the public who normally don't go to the museum, who don't give a shit about performance art or don't even know what it is, started coming because of Lady Gaga. And they saw the show and then they started coming back. And that's how I get a whole new audience." In September 2011, a video game version of Abramović's performance was released by Pippin Barr. In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked The Artist Is Present ninth (along with Rhythm 0) in his list of the greatest performance art works.
Her performance inspired Australian novelist Heather Rose to write The Museum of Modern Love and she subsequently launched the US edition of the book at the Museum of Modern Art in 2018.
=== Balkan Erotic Epic: October 2025 ===
Balkan Erotic Epic was a durational performance artwork by Marina Abramović, presented at Factory International's Aviva Studios in Manchester from 9 to 19 October 2025. Building on Abramović’s 2005 multi-channel video installation of the same name, the four-hour performance explored Balkan folklore,, collective mythology, ancient myths, ritual, eroticism, spirituality and tradition. It featured more than seventy performers, including dancers, musicians, and singers, and allowed audiences to move freely through a sequence of thirteen immersive scenes. Incorporating elements such as Fertility Rite, Massaging the Breast, and Scaring the Gods, the work re-examines the connection between sexuality, spirituality, and the body in ritual traditions.
The production was noted for its ritualistic use of nudity, its multi-space choreography, and its focus on reclaiming the body as a site of power and transformation. Frieze called the performance "a reclamation, reinvention and perversion of personal and collective history, mythology and identity."
The performance is touring in Barcelona (24-30 January 2026), Berlin (14-17 October 2026) and New York (8-20 December 2026).
=== Other ===
In 2009, Abramović was featured in Chiara Clemente's documentary Our City Dreams and a book of the same name. The five featured artists – also including Swoon, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, and Nancy Spero – "each possess a passion for making work that is inseparable from their devotion to New York", according to the publisher. Abramović is also the subject of an independent documentary film entitled Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, which is based on her life and performance at her retrospective "The Artist Is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. The film was broadcast in the United States on HBO and won a Peabody Award in 2012. In January 2011, Abramović was on the cover of Serbian ELLE, photographed by Dušan Reljin. Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction novel 2312 mentions a style of performance art pieces known as "abramovics".
A world premiere installation by Abramović was featured at Toronto's Trinity Bellwoods Park as part of the Luminato Festival in June 2013. Abramović is also co-creator, along with Robert Wilson of the theatrical production The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which had its North American premiere at the festival, and at the Park Avenue Armory in December.
In 2007 Abramović created the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a nonprofit foundation for performance art, in a 33,000 square-foot space in Hudson, New York. She also founded a performance institute in San Francisco. She is a patron of the London-based Live Art Development Agency.
In June 2014 she presented a new piece at London's Serpentine Gallery called 512 Hours. In the Sean Kelly Gallery-hosted Generator, (December 6, 2014) participants are blindfolded and wear noise-canceling headphones in an exploration of nothingness.
In celebration of her 70th birthday on November 30, 2016, Abramović took over the Guggenheim museum (eleven years after her previous installation there) for her birthday party entitled "Marina 70". Part one of the evening, titled "Silence," lasted 70 minutes, ending with the crash of a gong struck by the artist. Then came the more conventional part two: "Entertainment", during which Abramović took to the stage to make a speech before watching English singer and visual artist ANOHNI perform the song "My Way" while wearing a large black hood.
In March 2015, Abramović presented a TED talk titled, "An art made of trust, vulnerability and connection".
In 2019, IFC's mockumentary show Documentary Now! parodied Abramović's work and the documentary film Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. The show's episode, entitled "Waiting for the Artist", starred Cate Blanchett as Isabella Barta (Abramović) and Fred Armisen as Dimo (Ulay).
Originally set to open on September 26, 2020, her first major exhibition in the UK at the Royal Academy of Arts was rescheduled for autumn 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Academy, the exhibition would "bring together works spanning her 50-year career, along with new works conceived especially for these galleries. As Abramović approaches her mid-70s, her new work reflects on changes to the artist's body and explores her perception of the transition between life and death." On reviewing this exhibition Tabish Khan, writing for Culture Whisper, described it thus: “It’s intense, it’s discomfiting, it’s memorable, and it’s performance art at its finest".
In 2021, she dedicated a monument, entitled, Crystal wall of crying, at the site of a Holocaust massacre in Ukraine and which is memorialized through the Babi Yar memorials.
In 2022, she condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In September 2023, Abramović became the first woman to have a solo exhibition in the Royal Academy’s main galleries; the show, which she helped stage while recovering from a near-fatal pulmonary embolism, explored how her performance works might be reinterpreted or reperformed by others, testing the endurance of her legacy through archival footage, installations, and live performances by artists trained in the Marina Abramović Method.
In 2026, she is planned to have a solo exhibition titled Transforming Energy at Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia art biennale. It will be the first exhibition for a living female artist at the museum's 275 years history.
=== Unfulfilled proposals ===
Abramović had proposed some solo performances during her career that never were performed. One such proposal was titled "Come to Wash with Me". This performance would take place in a gallery space that was to be transformed into a laundry with sinks placed all around the walls of the gallery. The public would enter the space and be asked to take off all of their clothes and give them to Abramović. The individuals would then wait around as she would wash, dry and iron their clothes for them, and once she was done, she would give them back their clothing, and they could get dressed and then leave. She proposed this in 1969 for the Galerija Doma Omladine in Belgrade. The proposal was refused.
In 1970 she proposed a similar idea to the same gallery that was also refused. The piece was untitled. Abramović would stand in front of the public dressed in her regular clothing. Present on the side of the stage was a clothes rack adorned with clothing that her mother wanted her to wear (including oversized items such as a bra or a slip). She would take the clothing one by one and change into them, then stand to face the public for a while. "From the right pocket of my skirt I take a gun. From the left pocket of my skirt I take a bullet. I put the bullet into the chamber and turn it. I place the gun to my temple. I pull the trigger." The performance had two possible outcomes. One of them is that Abramović dies as a result of shooting herself.
== Films ==
Abramović directed a segment, Balkan Erotic Epic, in Destricted, a compilation of erotic films made in 2006. In 2008 she directed a segment Dangerous Games in another film compilation Stories on Human Rights. She also acted in a five-minute short film Antony and the Johnsons: Cut the World.
== Marina Abramović Institute ==
The Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) is a performance art organization with a focus on performance, works of long duration, and the use of the "Abramović Method".
In its early phases, it was a proposed multi-functional museum space in Hudson, New York. Abramović purchased the site for the institute in 2007. Located in Hudson, New York, the building was built in 1933 and has been used as a theater and community tennis center. The building was to be renovated according to a design by Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu of OMA. The early design phase of this project was funded by a Kickstarter campaign. It was funded by more than 4,000 contributors, including Lady Gaga and Jay-Z. The building project was canceled in October 2017 due to its excessive cost.
The institute continues to operate as a traveling organization. To date, MAI has partnered with many institutions and artists internationally, traveling to Brazil, Greece, and Turkey.
== Collaborations ==
In her youth, she was a performer in one of Hermann Nitsch's performances which were part of the Viennese actionism.
Abramović maintains a friendship with actor James Franco, who interviewed her for The Wall Street Journal in 2009. Franco visited her during The Artist Is Present in 2010, and the two also attended the 2012 Met Gala together.
In July 2013, Abramović worked with Lady Gaga on the pop singer's third album Artpop. Gaga's work with Abramović, as well as artists Jeff Koons and Robert Wilson, was displayed at an event titled "ArtRave" on November 10. Furthermore, both have collaborated on projects supporting the Marina Abramović Institute, including Gaga's participation in an 'Abramović Method' video and a nonstop reading of Stanisław Lem's sci-fi novel Solaris.
Also that month, Jay-Z showcased an Abramović-inspired piece at Pace Gallery in New York City. He performed his art-inspired track "Picasso Baby" for six straight hours. During the performance, Abramović and several figures in the art world were invited to dance with him standing face to face. The footage was later turned into the music video for the aforementioned song. She allowed Jay-Z to adapt "The Artist Is Present" under the condition that he would donate to her institute. Abramović stated that Jay-Z did not live up to his end of the deal, describing the performance as a "one-way transaction". However, two years later in 2015, Abramović publicly issued an apology stating she was never informed of Jay-Z's sizable donation.
== Personal life ==
Abramović claims she feels "neither like a Serb, nor a Montenegrin", but an ex-Yugoslav. "When people ask me where I am from," she says, "I never say Serbia. I always say I come from a country that no longer exists."
In February 2025, Abramović endorsed the 2024–2025 Serbian anti-corruption protests.
Abramović has had three abortions during her life, and has said that having children would have been a "disaster" for her work.
Sculptor Nikola Pešić says that Abramović has a lifelong interest in esotericism and spiritualism.
=== Occultism conspiracy theories ===
Among the Podesta emails was a message from Abramović to Podesta's brother discussing an invitation to a spirit cooking, which was interpreted by conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones as an invitation to a satanic ritual, and was presented by Jones and others as proof that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had links to the occult. In a 2013 Reddit Q&A, in response to a question about occult in contemporary art, she said: "Everything depends on which context you are doing what you are doing. If you are doing the occult magic in the context of art or in a gallery, then it is the art. If you are doing it in different context, in spiritual circles or private house or on TV shows, it is not art. The intention, the context for what is made, and where it is made defines what art is or not".
On April 10, 2020, Microsoft released a promotional video for HoloLens 2 which featured Abramović. However, due to accusations by right-wing conspiracy theorists of her having ties to Satanism, Microsoft eventually pulled the advertisement. Abramović responded to the criticism, appealing to people to stop harassing her, arguing that her performances are just the art that she has been doing for the last 50 years.
== Awards ==
ars viva, 1982
Golden Lion, XLVII Venice Biennale, 1997
Niedersächsischer Kunstpreis, 2002
New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies), 2002
International Association of Art Critics, Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Award, 2003
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2008)
Honorary Doctorate of Arts, University of Plymouth UK, September 25, 2009
Honorary Royal Academician (HonRA), September 27, 2011
Cultural Leadership Award, American Federation of Arts, October 26, 2011
Honorary Doctorate of Arts, Instituto Superior de Arte, Cuba, May 14, 2012
July 13' Lifetime Achievement Awards, Podgorica, Montenegro, October 1, 2012
The Karić brothers award (category art and culture), 2012
Berliner Bär (B.Z.-Kulturpreis) (2012; not to be confused with the Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival; a cultural award of the German tabloid BZ)
Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, 2013
Golden Medal for Merits, Republic of Serbia, 2021
Princess of Asturias Award in the category of Arts, 2021.
Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, 2022
Sonning Prize, 2023
Praemium Imperiale, 2025
== Bibliography ==
=== Books by Abramović and collaborators ===
Cleaning the House, artist Abramović, author Abramović (Wiley, 1995) ISBN 978-1-85490-399-0
Artist Body: Performances 1969–1998, artist, Abramović; authors Abramović, Toni Stooss, Thomas McEvilley, Bojana Pejic, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chrissie Iles, Jan Avgikos, Thomas Wulffen, Velimir Abramović; English ed. (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-88-8158-175-7.
The Bridge / El Puente, artist Abramović, authors Abramović, Pablo J. Rico, Thomas Wulffen (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-84-482-1857-7.
Performing Body, artist Abramović, authors Abramović, Dobrila Denegri (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-88-8158-160-3.
Public Body: Installations and Objects 1965–2001, artist Abramović, authors Celant, Germano, Abramović (Charta, 2001) ISBN 978-88-8158-295-2.
Marina Abramović, fifteen artists, Fondazione Ratti; coauthors Abramović, Anna Daneri, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Lóránd Hegyi, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Angela Vettese (Charta, 2002) ISBN 978-88-8158-365-2.
Student Body, artist Abramović, vari; authors Abramović, Miguel Fernandez-Cid, students; (Charta, 2002) ISBN 978-88-8158-449-9.
The House with the Ocean View, artist Abramović; authors Abramović, Sean Kelly, Thomas McEvilley, Cindy Carr, Chrissie Iles, RosaLee Goldberg, Peggy Phelan (Charta, 2004) ISBN 978-88-8158-436-9; the 2002 piece of the same name, in which Abramović lived on three open platforms in a gallery with only water for 12 days, was reenacted in Sex and the City in the HBO series' sixth season.
Marina Abramović: The Biography of Biographies, artist Abramović; coauthors Abramović, Michael Laub, Monique Veaute, Fabrizio Grifasi (Charta, 2004) ISBN 978-88-8158-495-6.
Balkan Epic, (Skira, 2006).
Seven Easy Pieces, artist, Abramović; authors Nancy Spector, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Sandra Umathum, Abramović; (Charta, 2007). ISBN 978-88-8158-626-4.
Marina Abramović, artist Abramović; authors Kristine Stiles, Klaus Biesenbach, Chrissie Iles, Abramović; (Phaidon, 2008). ISBN 978-0-7148-4802-0.
When Marina Abramović Dies: A Biography. Author James Westcott. (MIT, 2010). ISBN 978-0-262-23262-3.
Walk Through Walls: A Memoir, author Abramović (Crown Archetype, 2016). ISBN 978-1-101-90504-3.
=== Films by Abramović and collaborators ===
Balkan Baroque, (Pierre Coulibeuf, 1999)
Balkan Erotic Epic, as producer and director, Destricted (Offhollywood Digital, 2006)
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Hear the artist speak about her work MoMA Audio: Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present at MoMA
Marina Abramović: 512 Hours at the Serpentine Galleries
Marina Abramović: Advice to Young Artists Video by Louisiana Channel
Marina Abramović & Ulay: Living Doors of the Museum Video by Louisiana Channel
The Story of Marina Abramović and Ulay Video by Louisiana Channel
47-minute in-depth interview – Marina Abramović: Electricity Passing Through Video by Louisiana Channel
Abramovic SKNY Sean Kelly Gallery
Marina Abramović at Art:21
Marina Abramović on Artnet
Marina Abramovic Institute, Hudson, NY.
Marina Abramović at the Lisson Gallery
Royal Academy of Arts Marina Abramović |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Mass_Choir | Mississippi Mass Choir | The Mississippi Mass Choir is an American gospel choir based in Jackson, Mississippi.
== Musical career ==
After wrestling with the idea of forming a mass choir, Frank Williams, a member of the Jackson Southernaires and an executive in the gospel music division of Malaco Records, decided to form the Mississippi Mass Choir. First, he got the record company's support. Then, he began calling on Mississippi talents like David R. Curry Jr., who became the choir's minister of music. Having laid the foundation, open auditions were held and over 100 voices from across the state came together to form the Mississippi Mass Choir. After months of rehearsals, the Mississippi Mass Choir recorded their eponymous debut album and video live at Thalia Mara Hall (formerly Jackson Municipal Auditorium) on October 29, 1988.
In the spring of 1989, five weeks after their debut album was released, Billboard magazine certified it as the Number 1 Spiritual album in the country. The album stayed on the Billboard charts for 45 consecutive weeks, setting a new record for gospel recordings. At the 9th annual James Cleveland GMWA Awards, the Mississippi Mass Choir won the Choir of the Year-Contemporary, and Best New Artist of the Year-Traditional. They also won four Stellar Awards in 1989 and were nominated in several categories for the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards and Dove Awards.
The choir's second album, God Gets The Glory, was recorded live at the Mississippi Coliseum on December 8, 1990. The album debuted on the Billboard chart in the Number 16 position, reaching Number 1 position two weeks later. Awards followed with the release of the album. The Choir recorded two live albums, one in 1991 with Williams and James Moore as leads, and with Moore again in 1995. The choir's third and most popular album, It Remains to Be Seen..., was recorded live at Thalia Mara Hall in January 1993, and remained at the top of the charts for an entire year. This album, unfortunately, would be the last album that the choir would ever record with their founder Williams, who died of a heart attack in Savannah, Georgia, on March 22, 1993.
Eight more albums have been released since Frank Williams' death. Executive director Jerry Mannery states, "We are all about our Father's business. We are not entertainers; we are ministers for Christ. Our mission remains constant; to serve the Lord and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
The choir has ministered in song in over 40 states within the United States, including Alaska. They have traveled to Japan, Italy, Spain, Bahamas, and Greece; becoming the first gospel group to perform at the Acropolis. While attending the Umbria Jazz Gospel and Soul Easter Festival in Terni, Italy, the choir was invited to sing for Pope John Paul II at his summer residence.
On June 19, 2009, the Mississippi Mass Choir commemorated their 20th anniversary by recording their ninth album, ...Then Sings My Soul, live at the First Baptist Church in Jackson. The album was officially released on February 1, 2011.
Also in 2009, the choir released a compilation CD/DVD titled The First Twenty Years, consisting of popular songs recorded over the years, and interviews with various choir members.
From December 8 to 26, 2010, the choir made a fourteen-city tour of Spain and the Canary Islands. According to concert promoter Luis Manjarres, "Since their first Spanish tour, Mississippi Mass Choir has become a classic of the European and the Spanish Christmas. They will showcase their talent in the main venues of Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Pamplona, Gijon, and Vigo. This tour of fourteen concerts will culminate on Christmas night, in the wonderful city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife at the Canary Islands, in a very special event with the 92-piece Tenerife Symphonic Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Lu Jia. Mississippi Mass Choir will be the first African American choir to perform with a European Symphonic Orchestra before an audience of 20,000. It is the time for Mississippi Mass Choir ... It is the time for Classic Gospel."
In October 2013, the choir celebrated their 25th anniversary by recording their 10th live album titled Declaration of Dependence. The album's hit single, "God's on Your Side" (featuring gospel artist/Sunday Best winner Le'Andria Johnson and Stan Jones), was released on April 11, 2014, and the album itself was released that June. The choir the begin a 10-city tour and 13 cities Spain tour.
On January 11, 2017, the choir was featured on an episode of ABC's Black-ish.
On October 7, 2018, the choir appeared on an episode of Discovery Channel's Expedition Unknown, titled "Search For The Afterlife – Heaven and Hell", exploring different religions and cultures from around the world.
On October 28, 2022, the choir recorded their eleventh live album at the Word of Life Church in Flowood, Mississippi. Special guests included Mary Mary's Tina Campbell, Crystal Aikin, Myron Butler, Brian Courtney Wilson, and Georgia Mass Choir's founder/leader Rev. Milton Biggham.
On July 7, 2025, veteran choir member Mosie "Mama" Burks died at the age of 92. Burks joined the choir in the mid-1990s as a lead soloist and toured internationally with the choir for decades until her retirement in 2020.
== Awards ==
March 25, 2017, Stellar Award Honor Hall Of Fame
January 2000 Mississippi Music Museum Hall of Fame
1999 Grammy Award, Grammy nomination
9th Annual James Cleveland Gospel Music Workshop of America Excellence Awards Choir of The Year, Contemporary
Best New Artist of the Year
1997 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album by a Choir or Chorus, I'll See You in the Rapture
1997 Stellar Awards Choir of the Year, "I'll See You in the Rapture" Traditional Choir of the Year, "I'll See You in the Rapture"
1994 National Association of Record Merchandiser (NARM) Best Sellers Award
1994 Stellar Awards, Traditional Choir of the Year, Traditional Album of the Year
1994 Dove Award Nomination Contemporary Black Gospel Recorded Song of the Year, "Your Grace and Mercy" from It Remains to Be Seen
1994 Soul Train Music Award, Best Gospel Artist
1994 3M Corporation, Innovation Award
1994 Indie Award Best Selling Gospel Album, It Remains to Be Seen
1994 Indie Award, Best Selling Gospel Album, God Gets the Glory
1993 National Association of Record Merchandisers (NARM) Best Sellers Award
1992 Billboard Magazine, Gospel Artist of the Year
1992 Billboard Magazine Gospel Record of the Year, "God Gets the Glory"
1992 3M Corporation, Innovation Award
1992 Stellar Awards, Traditional Choir of the Year Choir of the Year
1992 Stellar Nominations, Album of the Year Video of the Year
1991 Billboard, Album of the Year Rev. James Moore – Live with the Mississippi Mass Choir
1991 National Association of Record Merchandisers (NARM) Best Sellers Award
1991 Indie Award Best Selling Gospel Album, The Mississippi Mass Choir, Live!
1990 Billboard Special Achievement Award Recognizing debut album at #1, 45 consecutive weeks.
1990 Billboard Magazine Gospel Record of the Year, "The Mississippi Mass Choir Live!"
1990 Stellar Award Album of the Year, I'm Yours Lord
1990 Billboard Magazine Gospel Artist of the Year
1989 Stellar Awards Choir of the Year Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Gospel Video
1989 Stellar Nomination Song of the Year, "Near the Cross"
== Discography ==
The Mississippi Mass Choir, released: October 29, 1988
God Gets the Glory, released: September 23, 1991
It Remains to Be Seen..., released: May 25, 1993
I'll See You in the Rapture, released: May 21, 1996
Emmanuel (God with Us), released: August 3, 1999
Amazing Love, released: June 4, 2002
Not by Might, nor by Power, released: February 22, 2005
We've Seen His Star, released: 2007
The First Twenty Years, released: November 4, 2008
...Then Sings My Soul, released: February 1, 2011
Declaration of Dependence, released: 2014
The Promise (Mississippi Mass Choir feat. Stan Jones and Myron Butler), released: 2023, Label: Malaco Music Group
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Mississippi Mass Choir discography at Discogs
Mississippi Mass Choir at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Cacciari | Massimo Cacciari | Massimo Cacciari (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmassimo katˈtʃaːri]; born 5 June 1944) is an Italian philosopher and politician who served as Mayor of Venice from 1993 to 2000 and from 2005 to 2010.
== Biography ==
Born in Venice, Cacciari graduated in philosophy from the University of Padua (1967), where he also received his doctorate, writing a thesis on Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment. In 1985, he became professor of Aesthetics at the Architecture Institute of Venice. In 2002, he founded the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, where he was appointed Dean of the Department in 2005. Cacciari has founded several philosophical reviews and published essays centered on the "negative thought" inspired by authors like Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
In the 1980s, Cacciari also worked with the Italian composer of avant-garde contemporary/classical music Luigi Nono. Nono, a political activist whose music represented a revolt against bourgeois cultural constructs, collaborated with Cacciari, who arranged the philosophical lyrics on such works of Nono's as Das Atmende Klarsein, Io, and the opera Prometeo.
After a brief affiliation with Potere Operaio, a radical left-wing worker's party, Cacciari joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI). In the 1970s he was responsible for industrial politics for the PCI Veneto section and, in 1976, he was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, where he was a member of the Parliamentary commission for industry (1976–1983).
After the death of Enrico Berlinguer (1984), Cacciari left the Communist Party and switched to more moderate positions, although he never left the centre-left coalition. In 1993 he was elected mayor of Venice, a position he held until 2000. He was also put forth as the future national leader of the coalition, later named The Olive Tree, but his defeat in the 2000 election as governor of the Veneto region made this occasion wane. However, in a surprise move in 2005, Cacciari again ran for mayor of Venice, and was elected by a slight majority against former magistrate Felice Casson, the very magistrate who years earlier had famously indicted Mayor Cacciari for criminal negligence arising out of the 1996 fire at Venice's La Fenice opera house. Mayor Cacciari was later acquitted of all charges in that case.
== Thought ==
The volumes Icone della Legge (Icons of the Law) and The Necessary Angel (1986) dedicate few pages to the philosophy of the icon and the outcome of the thought of the Russian mystic Pavel Aleksandrovič Florensky. Cacciari affirms that angels in Christianity derive from the angelology of the ancient Babylonia.
Emanuele Severino, Gianni Vattimo, Massimo Cacciari and Umberto Galimberti have been described as "neopagan" philosophers insofar as they adhere to "a reading of Christianity as a historical moment of great importance for the West, but now outdated" (rather than in the vernacular sense of the term).
== Works with English translations ==
Architecture and Nihilism: On the Philosophy of Modern Architecture, Yale University Press, 1993
The Necessary Angel, State University of New York Press, 1994
Posthumous People: Vienna at the Turning Point, Stanford University Press, 1996
The Unpolitical. Essays on the Radical Critique of Political Reason, Yale University Press, 2009
Europe and Empire: On the Political Forms of Globalization, Fordham University Press, 2016
The Withholding Power. An Essay on Political Theology, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018
== Electoral history ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Interview with Massimo Cacciari: “‘I am many’, says Europe. We have to be capable of being many”, Barcelona Metropolis, 2010. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shubh#:~:text=Shubh%20started%20in%202021%20with,Baller%22%20and%20%22Her%22. | Shubh | Shubhneet Singh (born 10 August 1997), known professionally as Shubh, is an Indian rapper-singer and songwriter based in Canada associated with Punjabi music. Shubh rose to mainstream in 2021 with his single "We Rollin". He released his debut album 'Still Rollin' in 2023.
His numerous singles have charted on the Canadian Hot 100, New Zealand Chart, UK Singles Chart and Billboard India. His single "Baller" charted on the Canadian Hot 100. In 2023, his song "Cheques" from his debut album Still Rollin peaked at number 3 on Billboard India Songs, while album was charted on Canadian Albums Chart and New Zealand Albums Chart.
== Early life ==
Shubh was born to a Punjabi Sikh family on 10 August 1997 in Punjab, India. He has an elder brother Ravneet Singh, who is also an actor, singer, vocalist and host. He moved to Brampton where his musical career started.
== Career ==
=== 2021–2022: musical breakthrough ===
Shubh started in 2021 with single "We Rollin", following which he released songs "Elevated" and "Offshore".
In 2022, Shubh released three singles "No Love", "Baller" and "Her". His song "Baller", with music producer Ikky became his most streamed track of all time. It charted on Canadian Hot 100 at 68.
=== 2023–present: Still Rollin, tour and more ===
In 2023, he released his debut album Still Rollin. The album debuted at number 16 on the Billboard Canadian Albums Chart. He released another single "One Love" in August.
In August 2023, Shubh announced his Still Rolling world tour across 7 countries including India, UK, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, USA and Canada, divided among 7 different phases. The tour came following the release of the album 'Still Rollin'.
Phase 1 is the Still Rolling India Tour, visiting 10 cities in India and including a cruise event. He is scheduled to perform as part of Cruise Control 4.0 event in Mumbai, organised aboard Cordelia Cruise. On 20 September 2023, BookMyShow announced the cancellation of Shubh's Still Rollin tour for India. Prior to this announcement, the electronics brand boAt revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that it had withdrawn its sponsorship of the tour due to the controversy.
The UK phase consisted of concerts in two cities, London and Birmingham.
By just one day prior announcement, Shubh released his first EP Leo on 5 January 2024 under his own label.
On 29 March 2024 Shubh released his another single "Bandana" without prior announcement.
On 10 April Shubh announced his Still Rolling world tour next phase of Aus/Nz in 4 cities in total which includes Melbourne , Brisbane , Auckland and with last concert in Sydney with tickets available on Shubhtour.com with beginning on 3 May 2024. The Brisbane Show held on 4 May was cancelled due to lack of communication between the promoter and venue and as well as due to promoter mismanagement the show permit was revoked. The venue load issues presented by the promoters would result in chaotic and unsafe show.
On Melbourne show 3 May Shubh sang his unreleased song MVP and later released the audio on his YouTube channel on 10 May 2024
== Controversy ==
In March 2023, when Punjab Police was in search of a pro-khalistan separatist Amritpal Singh, curfew imposed in several districts and mobile internet services were shut down in Punjab, Shubh shared a portrait of an allegedly distorted map of India in his Instagram story titled "Pray for Punjab", created by Amandeep Singh, a graphic artist known by the pseudonym Inkquisitive. The portrait shows a police cop unplugging a light bulb, rendering the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh dark, while Northeastern states, and the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were omitted, garnering criticism for a wrong portrayal of the map of India. Notably, actress Kangana Ranaut alleged it was an indirect support of the Khalistan movement. Facing backlash, Shubh removed the story and replaced it with the words "Pray for Punjab" on a black background. Later, Inkquisitive apologised on social media, saying it was "not done intentionally to provoke any sort of separate state agenda" but to show a "blackout in Punjab".
In September 2023, Shubh announced his first Indian tour. The electronics brand boAt withdrew its sponsorship of Shubh's tour following criticism. Subsequently, on 20 September, the ticketing app BookMyShow announced the cancellation of the tour. Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Suresh Raina also unfollowed him on Instagram. On 19 September, Inkquisitive reiterated on social media that Shubh shared his artwork, and apologised saying it was to show a "blackout in Punjab". Showing solidarity to Shubh, Inkquisitive blamed Ranaut for giving it a "pro-khalistan angle". Later on 21 September, Shubh took to his Instagram to provide clarification as a concern for an internet shutdown in Punjab and expressed his disappointment over the cancellation of the tour saying, "India is my country too". Other artists like AP Dhillon, Karan Aujla and Sidhu Moose Wala's team publicly supported Shubh. Several politicians from Punjab, including Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and Bikram Singh Majithia also supported him.
During a concert in London on 29 October 2023, Shubh held up a black hoodie thrown from the audience which allegedly had the date and an image showing assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh on a map of Punjab. Later Shubh posted on social media that a lot of clothing, jewellery and phones were thrown at him showing support from the audience and he did not see what was on it along with video.
== Discography ==
=== Studio albums ===
=== Extended plays ===
=== Singles ===
==== As lead artist ====
==== As featured artist ====
== References ==
== External links ==
Shubh at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindrovertilla_kingi | Cylindrovertilla kingi | Cylindrovertilla kingi, common name King's amber pupasnail, is a species of small, air-breathing land snail, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs in the family Vertiginidae, the whorl snails.
== Distribution ==
This terrestrial species is endemic to Australia.and occurs in New South Wales and Queensland
== References ==
Cox, J.C. 1864. Catalogue of Australian Land Shells. Sydney : John Alex Engel 44 pp.
Iredale, T. 1940. Guide to the land shells of New South Wales. Australian Naturalist 10: 227-236
Solem, A. 1991. Distribution and diversity patterns of Australian pupilloid land snails (Mollusca: Pulmonata: Pupillidae, s.l.). Veliger 34(3): 233-252
Stanisic, J., Shea, M., Potter, D. & Griffiths, O. 2010. Australian Land Snails. A field guide to eastern Australian species. Mauritius : Bioculture Press Vol. 1 595 pp.
== External links ==
Image at Australian Faunal Directory: Cylindrovertilla kingi |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z_%26_Ciara_Live | Jay-Z & Ciara Live | Jay-Z & Ciara Live (also known as Jay-Z Live with Special Guest Ciara), was a 2009 summer concert tour headlined by American rapper Jay-Z and American R&B singer Ciara. The tour was in support of both artists' new albums, The Blueprint 3 and Fantasy Ride. The six city United States tour took place from July 2 to July 12, 2009. The tour was originally scheduled to have ten dates, but this was later changed to six. The opening act for the tour was rapper Fabolous.
Ciara did not appear at the first tour date for an unknown reason, but she did appear at the second show at The Palms.
The July 12 stop in Atlanta, Georgia was cancelled due to heavy rain.
== Setlist ==
Ciara
Intro
"Like a Boy"
"1, 2 Step"
"Love Sex Magic"
"Never Ever"
"Goodies"
"Oh"
"Promise"
"Work"
Outro
On the Las Vegas stop, Ciara Performed "Like A Surgeon".
Ciara missed the Connecticut stop on July 10 due to catching the flu.
== Tour dates ==
All tour dates were announced and confirmed on Ciara's official website.
== Critical reception ==
The tour received positive to favorable reviews from critics.
Los Angeles Times gave the whole tour a very positive review, saying Ciara worked hard during her brief set, executing some impressive acrobatics along with her four dancers. Her street-tough image is powerful—she and her dancers wore ripped jeans and leather vests, like a sleeked-up girl gang—but her delivery was unfocused, and she didn't seem to be enjoying herself. And she also sang to tracks, and half the time she lip-synched. The newspaper also gave Jay-Z a positive review saying that his set was exciting and kept the audience very hyped. They also continued saying he interacted with audience very well. As, it's stated Jay-Z shows are fun because the rapper is so adept at spinning liquid gold; his mouth is one of the most nimble in the genre’s history, and he uses it to present thoughts that are sharp, funny and resonant
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Ghana | Geography of Ghana | Ghana is a West African country in Africa, along the Gulf of Guinea.
Ghana encompasses plains, low hills, rivers, Lake Volta, the world's largest artificial lake, Dodi Island and Bobowasi Island on the south Atlantic Ocean coast of Ghana. Ghana can be divided into four different geographical ecoregions. The coastline is mostly a low, sandy shore backed by plains and scrub and intersected by several rivers and streams. The northern part of Ghana features high plains. South-west and south-central Ghana is made up of a forested plateau region consisting of the Ashanti uplands and the Kwahu Plateau. The hilly Akwapim-Togo ranges are found along Ghana's eastern international border.
The Volta Basin takes up most of south-central Ghana and Ghana's highest point is Mount Afadja which is 885 m (2,904 ft) and is found in the Akwapim-Togo ranges. The climate is tropical and the eastern coastal belt is warm and comparatively dry, the south-west corner of Ghana is hot and humid, and the north of Ghana is warm and wet. Lake Volta, the world's largest artificial lake, extends through small portions of south-eastern Ghana and many tributary rivers such as the Oti and Afram rivers flow into it.
The northernmost part of Ghana is Pulmakom and the southernmost part of Ghana is Cape Three Points near Axim. Ghana lies between latitudes 4° and 12°N. South Ghana contains evergreen and semi-deciduous forests consisting of trees such as mahogany, odum, ebony and it also contains much of Ghana's oil palms and mangroves with shea trees, baobabs and acacias found in the northern part of Ghana. Its southernmost coast at Cape Three Points is 4° 30' north of the equator. From here, the country extends inland for some 670 kilometres (420 mi) to about 11° north. The distance across the widest part, between longitude 1° 12' east and longitude 3° 15' west, measures about 560 kilometres (350 mi).
The Greenwich Meridian, which passes through London, also traverses the eastern part of Ghana at Tema.
== Area and boundaries ==
Area
Total: 238,537 km²
country rank in the world: 80th
Land: 227,533 km²
Water: 11,000 km²
Area comparative
Australia comparative: slightly larger than Victoria
Canada comparative: slightly less than half the size of the Yukon
United Kingdom comparative: slightly smaller than the United Kingdom
United States comparative: approximately twice the size of Pennsylvania
EU comparative: approximately equal in size to Romania
Land boundaries
total: 2,420 km
border countries: Burkina Faso (602 km) to the north, Ivory Coast (720 km) to the west, and Togo (1,098 km) to the east.
== Terrain of Ghana ==
The terrain consists of desert mountains with the Kwahu Plateau in the south-central area. Half of Ghana lies less than 152 meters (499 ft) above sea level, and the highest point is 883 meters (2,897 ft). The 537 kilometers (334 mi) coastline is mostly a low, sandy shore backed by plains and scrub and intersected by several rivers and streams, most of which are navigable only by canoe.
A tropical rain forest belt, broken by heavily forested hills and many streams and rivers, extends northward from the shore, near the Ivory Coast frontier. This area, known as the "Ashanti," produces most of Ghana's cocoa, minerals, and timber. North of this belt, the elevation varies from 91 to 396 meters (299 to 1,299 ft) above sea level and is covered by low bushes, park-like savanna, and grassy plains.
Irrigated land:
309 square kilometers (119 sq mi) (2003)
Total renewable water resources:
53.2 cubic kilometers (13 cu mi) (2011)
== Geographical regions ==
Ghana is characterized in general by low physical relief. The Precambrian rock system that underlies most of the nation has been worn down by erosion almost to a plain. The highest elevation in Ghana, Mount Afadja in the Akwapim-Togo Ranges, rises 880 metres (2,890 ft) above sea level.
There are four distinct geographical regions. Low plains stretch across the southern part of Ghana. To their north lie three regions—the Ashanti Uplands, the Akwapim-Togo Ranges, and the Volta Basin. The fourth region, the high plains, occupies the northern and northwestern sector of Ghana. Like most West African countries, Ghana has no natural harbours. Because strong surf pounds the shoreline, two artificial harbours were built at Takoradi and Tema (the latter completed in 1961) to accommodate Ghana's shipping needs.
=== Low plains ===
The low plains comprise the four subregions of the coastal savanna, the Volta Delta, the Accra Plains, and the Akan lowlands or peneplains. A narrow strip of grassy and scrubby coast runs from a point near Takoradi in the west to the Togo border in the east. This coastal savanna, only about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) in width at its western end, stretches eastward through the Accra Plains, where it widens to more than 80 kilometres (50 mi), and terminates at the southeastern corner of the country at the lower end of the Akwapim-Togo Ranges.
Almost flat and featureless, the Accra Plains descend gradually to the gulf from a height of about 150 metres (490 ft). The topography east of the city of Accra is marked by a succession of ridges and spoonshaped valleys. The hills and slopes in this area are the favoured lands for cultivation. Shifting cultivation is the usual agricultural practice because of the swampy nature of the very lowlying areas during the rainy seasons and the periodic blocking of the rivers at the coast by sandbars that form lagoons. A plan to irrigate the Accra Plains was announced in 1984. Should this plan come to reality, much of the area could be opened to large-scale cultivation.
To the west of Accra, the low plains contain wider valleys and rounded low hills, with occasional rocky headlands. In general, however, the land is flat and covered with grass and scrub. Dense groves of coconut palms front the coastline. Several commercial centres, including Winneba, Saltpond, and Cape Coast are located here. Winneba has a small livestock industry and palm tree cultivation is expanding in the area away from the coast, with the predominant occupation of the coastal inhabitants being fishing via dug-out canoe.
The Volta Delta, which forms a distinct subregion of the low plains, extends into the Gulf of Guinea in the extreme southeast. The delta's rock formation—consisting of thick layers of sandstone, some limestone, and silt deposits—is flat, featureless, and relatively young. As the delta grew outward over the centuries, sandbars developed across the mouths of the Volta and smaller rivers that empty into the gulf in the same area, forming numerous lagoons, some quite large, making road construction difficult.
To avoid the lowest-lying areas the road between Accra and Keta makes a detour inland just before reaching Ada, and approaches Keta from the east along the narrow spit on which the town stands. Road links with Keta continue to be a problem. By 1989 it was estimated that more than 3,000 houses in the town had been swallowed by flooding from the lagoon. About 1,500 other houses were destroyed by erosion caused by the powerful waves of the sea.
This flat, silt-composed delta region with its abundance of water supports shallot, corn, and cassava cultivation in the region. The sandy soil of the delta gave rise to the copra industry. Salt-making, from the plentiful supply in the dried beds of the lagoons, provides additional employment. The main occupation of the delta people is fishing, an industry that supplies dried and salted fish to other parts of the country.
The largest part of the low plains is the Akan Lowlands. Some experts prefer to classify this region as a subdivision of the Ashanti Uplands because of the many characteristics they share. Unlike the uplands, the height of the Akan Lowlands is generally between sea level and 150 metres (490 ft). Some ranges and hills rise to about 300 metres (980 ft), but few exceed 600 metres (2,000 ft). The lowlands that lie to the south of the Ashanti Uplands receive the many rivers that make their way to the sea.
The Akan Lowlands contain the basins of the Densu River, the Pra River, the Ankobra River, and the Tano River, all of which play important roles in the economy of Ghana. The Densu River Basin, location of the important urban centres of Koforidua and Nsawam in the eastern lowlands, has an undulating topography. Many of the hills here have craggy summits, which give a striking appearance to the landscape. The upper section of the Pra River Basin, to the west of the Densu, is relatively flat. The topography of its lower reaches resembles that of the Densu Basin and is a rich cocoa and food-producing region. The valley of the Birim River, one of the main tributaries of the Pra, is Ghana's most important diamond-producing area.
The Ankobra River Basin and the middle and lower basins of the Tano River to the west of the lowlands form the largest subdivision of the Akan Lowlands. Here annual rainfall between 1,500 and 2,150 millimetres (59 and 85 in) helps assure a dense forest cover. In addition to timber, the area is rich in minerals. The Tarkwa goldfield, the diamond operations of the Bonsa Valley, and high-grade manganese deposits are all found in this area. The middle and lower Tano basins have been intensely explored for oil and natural gas since the mid-1980s. The lower basins of the Pra, Birim, Densu, and Ankobra rivers are also sites for palm tree cultivation.
Comprising the Southern Ashanti Uplands and the Kwahu Plateau, the Ashanti Uplands lie just north of the Akan Lowlands and stretch from the Ivory Coast border in the west to the elevated edge of the Volta Basin in the east. Stretching in a northwest-to-southeast direction, the Kwahu Plateau extends 193 kilometres (120 mi) between Koforidua in the east and Wenchi in the northwest. The average elevation of the plateau is about 450 metres (1,480 ft), rising to a maximum of 762 metres (2,500 ft). The relatively cool temperatures of the plateau were attractive to Europeans, particularly missionaries, who founded many well-known schools and colleges in this region.
The plateau forms one of the important physical divides in Ghana. From its northeastern slopes, the Afram and Pru Rivers flow into the Volta River, while from the opposite side, the Pra, Birim, Ofin, Tano, and other rivers flow south toward the sea. The plateau also marks the northernmost limit of the forest zone. Although large areas of the forest cover have been destroyed through farming, enough deciduous forest remains to shade the head waters of the rivers that flow from the plateau.
The Southern Ashanti Uplands, extending from the foot of the Kwahu Plateau in the north to the lowlands in the south, slope gently from an elevation of about 300 metres (980 ft) in the north to about 150 metres (490 ft) in the south. The region contains several hills and ranges as well as several towns of historical and economic importance, including Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city and former capital of the Asante. Obuasi and Konongo, two of the country's gold-mining centres, are also located here. The region is Ghana's chief producer of cocoa, and its tropical forests continue to be a vital source of timber for the lumber industry.
=== Volta Basin ===
Taking the central part of Ghana, the Volta Basin covers about 45 percent of the nation's total land surface. Its northern section, which lies above the upper part of Lake Volta, rises to a height of 150 to 215 metres (492 to 705 ft) above sea level. Elevations of the Konkori Scarp to the west and the Gambaga Scarp to the north reach from 300 to 460 metres (980 to 1,510 ft). To the south and the southwest, the basin is less than 300 metres (980 ft). The Kwahu Plateau marks the southern end of the basin, and forms a natural part of the Ashanti Uplands.
The basin is characterized by poor soil, generally of Voltaian sandstone. Annual rainfall averages between 1,000 and 1,140 millimetres (39 and 45 in). The most widespread vegetation type is savanna, the woodlands of which, depending on local soil and climatic conditions, may contain such trees as red ironwood and shea.
The basin's population, principally farmers, is low in density, especially in the central and northwestern areas of the basin, where tsetse flies are common. Archeological finds indicate that the region was once more heavily populated. Periodic burning occurred over extensive areas for perhaps more than a millennium, exposing the soil to excessive drying and erosion, rendering the area less attractive to cultivators.
In contrast with the rest of the region are the Afram Plains, located in the southeastern corner of the basin. Here the terrain is low, averaging 60 to 150 metres (200 to 490 ft) in elevation, and annual rainfall is between 1,140 millimetres (45 in) and about 1,400 millimetres (55 in). Near the Afram River, much of the surrounding countryside is flooded or swampy during the rainy seasons. With the creation of Lake Volta (8,500 square kilometres (3,300 sq mi) in area) in the mid-1960s, much of the Afram Plains was submerged. Despite the construction of roads to connect communities displaced by the lake, road transportation in the region remains poor. Renewed efforts to improve communications, to enhance agricultural production, and to improve standards of living began in earnest in the mid-1980s.
=== High plains ===
The general terrain in the northern and northwestern part of Ghana outside the Volta Basin consists of a dissected plateau, which averages between 150 and 300 metres (490 and 980 ft) in elevation and, in some places, is even higher. Rainfall averages between 1,000 and 1,150 millimetres (39 and 45 in) annually, although in the northwest it is closer to 1,350 millimetres (53 in). Soils in the high plains are more arable than those in the Volta Basin, and the population density is considerably higher. Grain and cattle production are the major economic activities in the high plains of the northern region.
Since the mid-1980s, when former United States President Jimmy Carter's Global 2000 program adopted Ghana as one of a select number of African countries whose local farmers were to be educated and financially supported to improve agricultural production, there has been a dramatic increase in grain production in northern Ghana. The virtual absence of tsetse flies in the region has led to increased livestock raising as a major occupation in the north. The region is Ghana's largest producer of cattle.
== Rivers and lakes ==
Ghana is drained by a large number of streams and rivers. In addition, there are a number of coastal lagoons, the huge man-made Lake Volta, and Lake Bosumtwi, southeast of Kumasi, which has no outlet to the sea. In the wetter south and southwest areas of Ghana, the river and stream pattern is denser, but in the area north of the Kwahu Plateau, the pattern is much more open, making access to water more difficult. Several streams and rivers also dry up or experience reduced flow during the dry seasons of the year, while flooding during the rainy seasons is common.
The major drainage divide runs from the southwest part of the Akwapim-Togo Ranges northwest through the Kwahu Plateau and then irregularly westward to the Ivory Coast border. Almost all the rivers and streams north of this divide form part of the Volta system. Extending about 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) in length and draining an area of about 388,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi), of which about 158,000 square kilometres (61,000 sq mi) lie within Ghana, the Volta and its tributaries, such as the Afram River and the Oti River, drain more than two thirds of Ghana. To the south of the divide are several smaller, independent rivers. The most important of these are the Pra River, the Tano River, the Ankobra River, the Birim River, and the Densu River. With the exception of smaller streams that dry up in the dry seasons or rivers that empty into inland lakes, all the major rivers in Ghana flow into the Gulf of Guinea directly or as tributaries to other major rivers. The Ankobra and Tano are navigable for considerable distances in their lower reaches.
Navigation on the Volta River has changed significantly since 1964. Construction of the dam at Akosombo, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) upstream from the coast, created the vast Lake Volta and the associated hydroelectric project. Arms of the lake extended into the lower-lying areas, forcing the relocation of 78,000 people to newly created townships on the lake's higher banks. The Black Volta River and the White Volta River flow separately into the lake. Before their confluence was submerged, the rivers came together in the middle of Ghana to form the main Volta River.
The Oti River and the Daka River, the principal tributaries of the Volta in the eastern part of Ghana, and the Pru River, the Sene River, and the Afram River, major tributaries to the north of the Kawhu Plateau, also empty into flooded extensions of the lake in their river valleys. Lake Volta is a rich source of fish, and its potential as a source for irrigation is reflected in an agricultural mechanization agreement signed in the late 1980s to irrigate the Afram Plains. The lake is navigable from Akosombo through Yeji in the middle of Ghana. A 24-metre (79 ft) pontoon was commissioned in 1989 to link the Afram Plains to the west of the lake with the lower Volta region to the east. Hydroelectricity generated from Akosombo supplies Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
On the other side of the Kwahu Plateau from Lake Volta are several river systems, including the Pra, Ankobra, Tano and Densu. The Pra is the easternmost and the largest of the three principal rivers that drain the area south of the Volta divide. Rising south of the Kwahu Plateau and flowing southward, the Pra enters the Gulf of Guinea east of Takoradi. In the early part of the twentieth century, the Pra was used extensively to float timber to the coast for export. This trade is now carried by road and rail transportation.
The Ankobra, which flows to the west of the Pra, has a relatively small drainage basin. It rises in the hilly region of Bibiani and flows in a southerly direction to enter the gulf just west of Axim. Small craft can navigate approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from its mouth. At one time, the Ankobra helped transport machinery to the gold-mining areas in the vicinity of Tarkwa. The Tano, which is the westernmost of the three rivers, rises near Techiman in the centre of the country. It also flows in a southerly direction, and it empties into a lagoon in the southeast corner of Ivory Coast. Navigation by steam launch is possible on the southern sector of the Tano for about 70 kilometres (43 mi).
A number of rivers are found to the east of the Pra. The two most important are the Densu and Ayensu, both of which rise in the Atewa Range, and which are important as sources of water for Accra and Winneba respectively. The country has one large natural lake, Lake Bosumtwi, located about 32 kilometres (20 mi) southeast of Kumasi. It occupies the steep-sided meteoric crater and has an area of about 47 square kilometres (18 sq mi). A number of small streams flow into Lake Bosumtwi, but there is no drainage from it. Apart from providing an opportunity for fishing for local inhabitants, the lake serves as a tourist attraction.
== Climate ==
The country's warm, humid climate has an annual mean temperature between 26 and 29 °C (79 and 84 °F). Variations in the principal elements of temperature, rainfall, and humidity that govern the climate are influenced by the movement and interaction of the dry tropical continental air mass, or the harmattan, which blows from the northeast across the Sahara, and the opposing tropical maritime or moist equatorial system. The cycle of the seasons follows the apparent movement of the sun back and forth across the equator.
During summer in the northern hemisphere, a warm and moist maritime air mass intensifies and pushes northward across the country. A low-pressure belt, or intertropical front, in the airmass brings warm air, rain, and prevailing winds from the southwest. As the sun returns south across the equator, the dry, dusty, tropical continental front, or harmattan, prevails. Climatic conditions across the country are hardly uniform. The Kwahu Plateau, which marks the northernmost extent of the forest area, also serves as an important climatic divide. To its north, two distinct seasons occur. The harmattan season, with its dry, hot days and relatively cool nights from November to late March or April, is followed by a wet period that reaches its peak in late August or September. To the south and southwest of the Kwahu Plateau, where the annual mean rainfall from north to south ranges from 1,250 to 2,150 millimetres (49 to 85 in), four separate seasons occur. Heavy rains fall from about April through late June. After a relatively short dry period in August, another rainy season begins in September and lasts through November, before the longer harmattan season sets in to complete the cycle.
The extent of drought and rainfall varies across the country. To the south of the Kwahu Plateau, the heaviest rains occur in the Axim area in the southwest corner of Ghana. Farther to the north, Kumasi receives an average annual rainfall of about 1,400 millimetres (55 in), while Tamale in the drier northern savanna receives rainfall of 1,000 millimetres (39 in) per year. From Takoradi eastward to the Accra Plains, including the lower Volta region, rainfall averages only 750 to 1,000 millimetres (30 to 39 in) a year.
Temperatures are usually high at all times of the year throughout the country. At higher elevations, temperatures are more comfortable. In the far north, temperature highs of 31 °C (88 °F) are common. The southern part of the country is characterized by generally humid conditions. This is particularly so during the night, when 95 to 100 percent humidity is possible. Humid conditions also prevail in the northern section of the country during the rainy season. During the harmattan season, however, humidity drops as low as 25 percent in the north.
== Natural hazards ==
Dry, dusty, harmattan winds occur from January to March. Ghana is also prone to droughts, and was severely affected by floods in 2007 and 2009.
== Environmental issues ==
Environmental issues include recurrent drought in the north, severely affecting agricultural activities, deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, poaching and habitat destruction threatens wildlife populations, water pollution, and inadequate supplies of potable water
International agreements (ratified):
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands.
International agreements (signed, but not ratified)
Marine Life Conservation.
== Other ==
Volta Lake, the largest artificial lake in the world, extends from the Akosombo Dam in southeastern Ghana to the town of Yapei, 520 kilometers (323 mi) to the north. The lake generates electricity, provides inland transportation, and is a potentially valuable resource for irrigation and fish farming.
Ghana has a large and well-preserved national park system that includes Kakum National Park in the Central Region, Mole National Park in the Northern Region, Digya National Park along the western bank of the Volta Lake.
== Extreme points ==
This is a list of the extreme points of Ghana, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.
Northernmost point – the point at which the border with Burkina Faso enters the Morbira river immediately south of the Burkinabè village of Kanhiré, Upper East Region
Easternmost point – the southernmost section of the border with Togo, Volta Region*
Southernmost point – Cape Three Points, Western Region
Westernmost point - the point where the border with Ivory Coast enters the Manzan river, Western Region
Note: Ghana does not have an easternmost point, the border at this section being defined along the line of longitude at 1°12'05.73"E
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
Geology of Ghana
== References ==
Wikimedia Atlas of Ghana |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_Lectureship_Prize#:~:text=1953%3A%20Sir%20Cyril%20Hinshelwood | Faraday Lectureship Prize | The Faraday Lectureship Prize, previously known simply as the Faraday Lectureship, is awarded once every two years (approximately) by the Royal Society of Chemistry for "exceptional contributions to physical or theoretical chemistry". Named after Michael Faraday, the first Faraday Lecture was given in 1869, two years after Faraday's death, by Jean-Baptiste Dumas. As of 2009, the prize was worth £5000, with the recipient also receiving a medal and a certificate. As the name suggests, the recipient also gives a public lecture describing their work.
== Winners ==
Source: RSC
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== References ==
== External links ==
Event data as RDF |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barium_sulfate | Barium sulfate | Barium sulfate (or sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula BaSO4. It is a white crystalline solid that is odorless and insoluble in water. It occurs in nature as the mineral barite, which is the main commercial source of barium and materials prepared from it. Its opaque white appearance and its high density are exploited in its main applications.
== Uses ==
=== Drilling fluids ===
About 80% of the world's barium sulfate production, mostly purified mineral, is consumed as a component of oil well drilling fluid. It increases the density of the fluid, increasing the hydrostatic pressure in the well and reducing the chance of a blowout.
=== Radiocontrast agent ===
Barium sulfate in suspension is often used medically as a radiocontrast agent for X-ray imaging and other diagnostic procedures. It is most often used in imaging of the GI tract during what is colloquially known as a "barium meal". It is administered orally, or by enema, as a suspension of fine particles in a thick milk-like solution (often with sweetening and flavoring agents added). Although barium is a heavy metal, and its water-soluble compounds are often highly toxic, the low solubility of barium sulfate protects the patient from absorbing harmful amounts of the metal. Barium sulfate is also readily removed from the body, unlike Thorotrast, which it replaced. Due to the relatively high atomic number (Z = 56) of barium, its compounds absorb X-rays more strongly than compounds derived from lighter nuclei.
=== Pigment ===
The majority of synthetic barium sulfate is used as a component of white pigment for paints. In oil paint, barium sulfate is almost transparent, and is used as a filler or to modify consistency. One major manufacturer of artists' oil paint sells "permanent white" that contains a mixture of titanium white pigment (TiO2) and barium sulfate. The combination of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide (ZnS) is the inorganic pigment called lithopone. In photography it is used as a coating for certain photographic papers.
It is also used as a coating to diffuse light evenly.
=== Light-reflecting paint for cooling ===
Barium sulfate is highly reflective, of both visible and ultraviolet light. Researchers used it as an ingredient in paint that reflects 98.1% of solar radiation, allowing surfaces to which it has been applied to stay cooler in sunlit conditions. Commercially available white paints only reflect 80–90% of solar radiation. By using hexagonal nanoplatelet boron nitride, the thickness of a coat of this type of paint was reduced to 0.15 mm.
=== Paper brightener ===
A thin layer of barium sulfate called baryta is first coated on the base surface of most photographic paper to increase the reflectiveness of the image, with the first such paper introduced in 1884 in Germany. The light-sensitive silver halide emulsion is then coated over the baryta layer. The baryta coating limits the penetration of the emulsion into the fibers of the paper and makes the emulsion more even, resulting in more uniform blacks. Further coatings may then be present for fixing and protection of the image. Baryta has also been used to brighten papers intended for ink-jet printing.
=== Plastics filler ===
Barium sulfate is commonly used as a filler for plastics to increase the density of the polymer in vibrational mass damping applications. In polypropylene and polystyrene plastics, it is used as a filler in proportions up to 70%. It has an effect of increasing acid and alkali resistance and opacity. Such composites are also used as X-ray shielding materials due to their enhanced radio-opacity. In cases where machinability and weight are a concern, composites with high mass fraction (70–80%) of barium sulfate may be preferred to the more commonly used steel shields.
Barium sulfate can also be used to enhance the material properties of HDPE, although typically in relatively low concentrations, and often in combination with other fillers like calcium carbonate or titanium oxide.
=== Niche uses ===
Barium sulfate is used in soil testing. Tests for soil pH and other qualities of soil use colored indicators, and small particles (usually clay) from the soil can cloud the test mixture and make it hard to see the color of the indicator. Barium sulfate added to the mixture binds with these particles, making them heavier so they fall to the bottom, leaving a clearer solution.
In colorimetry, barium sulfate is used as a near-perfect diffuser when measuring light sources.
In metal casting, the moulds used are often coated with barium sulfate in order to prevent the molten metal from bonding with the mould.
It is also used in brake linings, anacoustic foams, powder coatings, and root canal filling.
Barium sulfate is an ingredient in the "rubber" pellets used by Chilean police. This together with silica helps the pellet attain a 96.5 Shore A hardness.
==== Catalyst support ====
Barium sulfate is used as a catalyst support when selectively hydrogenating functional groups that are sensitive to overreduction. With a low surface area, the contact time of the substrate with the catalyst is shorter and thus selectivity is achieved. Palladium on barium sulfate is also used as a catalyst in the Rosenmund reduction.
==== Pyrotechnics ====
As barium compounds emit a characteristic green light when heated at high temperature, barium salts are often used in green pyrotechnic formulas, although nitrate and chlorate salts are more common. Barium sulfate is commonly used as a component of "strobe" pyrotechnic compositions.
==== Copper industry ====
As barium sulfate has a high melting point and is insoluble in water, it is used as a release material in casting of copper anode plates. The anode plates are cast in copper molds, so to avoid the direct contact of the liquid copper with the solid copper mold, a suspension of fine barium sulfate powder in water is used as a coating on the mold surface. Thus, when the molten copper solidifies in form of an anode plate it can be easily released from its mold.
==== Radiometric measurements ====
Barium sulfate is sometimes used, besides polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), to coat the interior of integrating spheres due to the high reflectance of the material and near Lambertian characteristics.
==== 3D printing of firearms ====
Barium sulfate is listed among the materials acceptable to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) for the manufacturing of firearms and/or components that are made of plastic, to achieve compliance with the U.S. federal requirement that an X-ray machine must be able to accurately depict the shape of the plastic firearm or component.
=== Biological occurences ===
Barium sulfate is also used by the Loxodes genus of ciliates in organelles known as Müller vescicles, which are involved in the sensing of gravity.
== Production ==
Almost all of the barium consumed commercially is obtained from barite, which is often highly impure. Barite is processed by thermo-chemical sulfate reduction (TSR), also known as carbothermal reduction (heating with coke) to give barium sulfide:
BaSO4 + 4 C → BaS + 4 CO
In contrast to barium sulfate, barium sulfide is soluble in water and readily converted to the oxide, carbonate, and halides. To produce highly pure barium sulfate, the sulfide or chloride is treated with sulfuric acid or sulfate salts:
BaS + H2SO4 → BaSO4 + H2S
Barium sulfate produced in this way is often called blanc fixe, which is French for "permanent white". Blanc fixe is the form of barium encountered in consumer products, such as paints.
In the laboratory barium sulfate is generated by combining solutions of barium ions and sulfate salts. Because barium sulfate is the least toxic salt of barium due to its insolubility, wastes containing barium salts are sometimes treated with sodium sulfate to immobilize (detoxify) the barium. Barium sulfate is one of the most insoluble salts of sulfate. Its low solubility is exploited in qualitative inorganic analysis as a test for Ba2+ ions, as well as for sulfate.
Untreated raw materials such as natural baryte formed under hydrothermal conditions may contain many impurities, a.o., quartz, or even amorphous silica.
== History ==
Barium sulfate is reduced to barium sulfide by carbon. The accidental discovery of this conversion many centuries ago led to the discovery of the first synthetic phosphor. The sulfide, unlike the sulfate, is water-soluble.
During the early part of the 20th century, during the Japanese colonization period, hokutolite was found to exist naturally in the Beitou hot-springs area near Taipei City, Taiwan. Hokutolite is a radioactive mineral composed mostly of PbSO4 and BaSO4, but also containing traces of uranium, thorium and radium. The Japanese harvested these elements for industrial uses, and also developed dozens of “therapeutic hot-spring baths” in the area.
== Safety aspects ==
Although soluble salts of barium are moderately toxic to humans, barium sulfate is nontoxic due to its insolubility. The most common means of inadvertent barium poisoning arises from the consumption of soluble barium salts mislabeled as BaSO4. In the Celobar incident (Brazil, 2003), nine patients died from improperly prepared radiocontrast agent. In regards to occupational exposures, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration set a permissible exposure limit at 15 mg/m3, while the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a recommended exposure limit at 10 mg/m3. For respiratory exposures, both agencies have set an occupational exposure limit at 5 mg/m3.
== See also ==
Baryte
List of inorganic pigments
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Teresa_Castillo | María Teresa Castillo | María Teresa Castillo (October 15, 1908 – June 22, 2012) was a Venezuelan journalist, politician, political activist, human rights activist, and cultural entrepreneur. She was the founder of the Caracas Athenaeum, a leading cultural institution which promotes the arts of Caracas. She also served as the president of Caracas Athenaeum from 1958 until her death in 2012. Castillo, a proponent of human rights, also played a major role in the formation of Amnesty International's Venezuelan chapter in 1978.
== Biography ==
María Teresa Castillo was born on October 15, 1908, in a hacienda, called "Bagre," in Cúa, Miranda State, Venezuela. She graduated from the School of Social Communications at the Central University of Venezuela.
In 1934, Castillo emigrated to New York, United States, where he worked in a factory as a seamstress. After she tried to stay in this country but their efforts are futile because she was syndicated as a revolutionary.
In 1989, she was elected to the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies, the former lower house of the national legislature. As deputy, Castillo served as the first President of the Chamber's Permanent Commission on Culture. She was also a member of the Chamber's Committee on Regional Development during her tenure.
Castillo married Venezuelan journalist, Miguel Otero Silva, in 1946. They had two children, Miguel Henrique Otero, the current editor of El Nacional newspaper, and Mariana.
== Death and legacy ==
María Teresa Castillo died in Caracas on June 22, 2012, at the age of 103.
In Salou, Catalan province of Tarragona, there is a street named after Maria Castillo. The street is called Carrer de Maria Castillo.
== See also ==
Politics of Venezuela
Los Notables
== References ==
== External links ==
María Teresa Castillo.
Interview with María Teresa Castillo.
Interview with Maria Teresa Castillo by César Cortez in www.docuven.org.ve. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Fawkes#Personal_life | Wally Fawkes | Walter Ernest Fawkes (né Pearsall; 21 June 1924 – 1 March 2023), also known as Trog when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-British jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist.
After emigrating with his family to Britain from Canada when he was 7 years old, he taught himself the clarinet, and first joined a revivalist jazz band with George Webb in 1944. He later created a new, more mainstream band with friend Humphrey Lyttelton, and it soon became one of the leading British jazz bands of the 1950s.
Fawkes also achieved success illustrating cartoons under the pen name "Trog". His most notable work in this business was Flook, a comic strip which ran in The Daily Mail newspaper from 1949 to 1984. Initially aimed at children, the strip evolved over time into a gentle satire of British politics. When Flook ended he continued to illustrate until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005 at age 81, leaving him to concentrate solely on his clarinet playing.
== Early life ==
Fawkes was born on 21 June 1924, as Walter Ernest Pearsall in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, Douglas Pearsall, was a Canadian railway clerk whom his mother, Mabel (née Ainsley), later left for Charles Fawkes, a British printer. Mabel took her children with Charles to Britain in 1931.
Enthused by comic books from a young age, Fawkes left school at 14 with a scholarship to study at Sidcup Art School, although he later left after 18 months due to financial restraints. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Fawkes was first employed painting camouflage on factory roofs to hide them from enemy bombing. A bout of pleurisy made Fawkes unfit for service and he was instead employed by the Coal Commission to work on maps of coal seams.
== Career ==
=== As a jazz musician ===
It was during the war years that Fawkes began playing in jazz bands.
In 1947, he took a weekly course at the Camberwell School of Art in London where he met future friends Humphrey Lyttelton and Francis Wilford-Smith. Lyttelton would become a long-lasting close friend. Fawkes later joined George Webb's Dixielanders, a semi-professional revivalist jazz band that featured Lyttelton on trumpet, in 1944. When Lyttelton left the Dixielanders in January 1948 to form his own jazz band, Fawkes went with him and stayed there until 1956, by which time it had evolved past revivalism and became more mainstream. This suited Fawkes, as his own bands from then on could be broadly described as mainstream. He re-united with Lyttelton periodically thereafter, and, though highly talented on his instrument, remained (in the broadest sense of the term) an "amateur". He based his style on that of American jazz composer Sidney Bechet and once recorded with him and Louis Armstrong, as part of Lyttelton's band, in 1949. He played with George Melly and John Chilton in the Feetwarmers band in the early 1970s. After giving up illustrating in 2005, Fawkes continued to play in various bands, with one of his last performances being held in 2011.
=== As a cartoonist ===
In 1942, he entered an art competition that was judged by the Daily Mail's chief cartoonist Leslie Illingworth, who found him work with the Clement Davies advertising agency. On Fawkes' 21st birthday in 1945, Illingworth found Fawkes work at the Daily Mail drawing column-breaks and decorative illustrations. He signed the drawings as Trog, which was short for Troglodyte which came from his days from World War II. He once joked that due to the amount of time spent in underground air-raid shelters people in London were becoming troglodytes. Fawkes was later inspired by this to adopt "Trog" as his pen-name.
In 1949, Fawkes's comic strip Flook first appeared in the Daily Mail, and was a success. It featured the unlikely and satirical adventures of its small and furry eponymous hero. Fawkes's role on the Mail was chiefly as illustrator, and he had a strong team of collaborators on the scripts for Flook over the years, including George Melly, Barry Norman, Humphrey Lyttelton and Barry Took. Flook ran for 35 years in the Daily Mail until its sudden cancellation in 1984. Margaret Thatcher once said that it was "quite the best commentary of the politics of the day". When the news broke that Fawkes was leaving the Mail he was signed up by Robert Maxwell, who in July 1984 had bought the Daily Mirror, from where Fawkes took Flook. It then transferred briefly to the Sunday Mirror before being dropped completely.
Fawkes also produced political cartoons for The Spectator with George Melly as his author. The two also contributed occasionally to Private Eye and, beginning in 1962, to the New Statesman. Despite producing larger political cartoons for the Daily Mail, his future role as Illingworth's successor as lead cartoonist was threatened by the paper's preference for the work of Gerald Scarfe. Fawkes therefore began submitting work to other publications, and he began contributing political cartoons to The Observer. At The Observer he fell foul of the readership when readers complained that some of his cartoons about the British royalty were "grossly discourteous to the Queen". In 1967 Scarfe left the Mail and Fawkes' position at the paper became more secure, and in 1968 he stopped writing for The Observer to focus solely on the Mail.
Fawkes became the Daily Mail's political cartoonist when Illingworth retired in 1969. That year he also replaced Illingworth as political cartoonist of Punch. In 1971, the Daily Mail absorbed the Daily Sketch, and the role of transforming the old paper from a broadsheet into a tabloid fell to the old Sketch editor Sir David English, who gave the role of political cartoonist to Stan McMurtry and Fawkes was dropped from his old role. Fawkes returned to The Observer in 1971 and continued to work for Punch. After Flook was cancelled in 1985, Fawkes worked briefly for Today and then served a short stint at the London Daily News. During the 1980s he continued to contribute to Punch and Private Eye, and for The Observer he drew a pocket cartoon named "mini-Trog". In 1996 he left The Observer and joined The Sunday Telegraph, where he remained until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005.
In 2013 his work was celebrated with an exhibition at the Cartoon Museum of London.
== Personal life ==
In 1949 Fawkes married the journalist Sandy Fawkes, who later became known for surviving an affair with the American serial killer Paul John Knowles. They had four children together, one of whom died of SIDS (cot death). In 1965, he married Susan Clifford – daughter of the Australian composer Hubert Clifford – and they had two children.
Fawkes died in London on 1 March 2023, at age 98, following a short illness.
== References ==
== External links ==
Lambiek Comiclopedia biography
Wally Fawkes discography at Discogs
Wally Fawkes at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Canadian_federal_budget | 1972 Canadian federal budget | The 1972 Canadian federal budget for fiscal year 1972–73 was presented by Minister of Finance John N. Turner in the House of Commons of Canada on 8 May 1972. It was the last budget before the 1972 Canadian federal election, and included tax cuts for corporations, and aid for the elderly and post-secondary students.
== External links ==
Budget Speech
Budget Highlights
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Brent | Nathaniel Brent | Sir Nathaniel Brent (c. 1573 – 6 November 1652) was an English college head.
== Life ==
He was the son of Anchor Brent of Little Wolford, Warwickshire, where he was born about 1573. He became 'portionist,' or postmaster, of Merton College, Oxford, in 1589; proceeded B.A. on 20 June 1593; was admitted probationer fellow there in 1594, and took the degree of M.A. on 31 October 1598. He was proctor of the university in 1607, and admitted bachelor of law on 11 October 1623.
In 1613 and 1614 he travelled abroad, securing the Italian text of the History of the Council of Trent which he was to translate. In 1616, he was in the Hague with Dudley Carleton, ambassador there, who wrote about Brent's ambitions to Ralph Winwood. Soon after the close of his foreign tour Brent married Martha, the daughter and heiress of Robert Abbot, Bishop of Salisbury, and niece of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury.
The influence of the Abbots secured Brent's election in 1622 to the wardenship of Merton College, in succession to Sir Henry Savile. He was afterwards appointed commissary of the diocese of Canterbury, and vicar-general to the archbishop, and on Sir Henry Marten's death became judge of the prerogative court. During the early years of William Laud's primacy (1634–7), Brent made a tour through England south of the Trent, acting for the archbishop in his metropolitical visitation of the province of Canterbury, reporting upon and correcting ecclesiastical abuses.
He had a house of his own in Little Britain, London and was often absent from Merton. On 23 August 1629 he was knighted at Woodstock by Charles I of England, who was preparing to pay a state visit to Oxford. In August 1636, Brent presented Prince Charles and Prince Rupert for degrees, when Laud, who had become Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1630, was entertaining the royal family.
In 1638 Laud held a visitation of Merton College, and insisted on many radical reforms. Laud stayed at the college for many weeks, and found Brent an obstinate opponent. Charges of maladministration were brought against Brent by some of those whom Laud examined, but he took no public proceedings against Brent on these grounds. His letters to the warden are, however, couched in very haughty and decisive language. The tenth charge in the indictment drawn up Laud in 1641 treats of the unlawful authority exercised by him at Merton in 1638. Brent came forward as a hostile witness at Laud's trial. His testimony as to Laud's intimacy with papists and the like was damaging to the archbishop, but it did not add to his own reputation. Laud replied in writing to Brent's accusations.
On the outbreak of the First English Civil War Brent sided with Parliament. Before Charles I entered Oxford (29 October 1642), he had abandoned Oxford for London. On 27 January 1645 Charles I wrote to the remaining Fellows at Merton that Brent was deposed from his office on the grounds of his having absented himself for three years from the college, of having adhered to the rebels, and of having accepted the office of judge-marshal in their ranks. He had also signed the Solemn League and Covenant. The petition for the formal removal of Brent, to which the king's letter was an answer, was drawn up by John Greaves, Savilian professor of geometry. On 9 April, William Harvey was elected to fill Brent's place: but as soon as Oxford fell into the hands of Thomas Fairfax, the parliamentary general (24 June 1646), Brent returned to Merton, and apparently resumed his post there without any opposition being offered him.
In 1647, Brent was appointed president of the parliamentary commission, or visitation, ordered by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. The proceedings began on 3 June, but it was not until 30 September that the colleges were directed to forward to Merton their statutes, registers, and accounts to enable Brent and his colleagues to set to work. On 12 April 1648, Brent presented four of the visitors for the degree of M.A. Early in May of the same year Brent spoke for Anthony à Wood's retention of his postmastership in spite of his avowed royalism. Wood wrote that he owed this favour to the intercession of his mother, whom Brent had known from a girl.
On 17 May 1649, Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell paid the university a threatening visit, and malcontents were thenceforth proceeded against by the commission with rigour. But Brent grew dissatisfied with its proceedings. The visitors claimed to rule Merton College as they pleased, and, without consulting the Warden, they admitted fellows, Masters, and Bachelors of Arts. On 13 February 1651, he sent a petition of protest against the conduct of the visitors to parliament. The commissioners were ordered to answer Brent's complaint, but there is no evidence that they did so, and, in October 1651, Brent retired from the commission. On 27 November, following he resigned his office of Warden, nominally in obedience to an order forbidding pluralities, but his refusal to sign 'the engagement,' a statement of loyalty, was a probable cause of his resignation. Brent afterwards withdrew to his house in London, and died there on 6 November 1652. He was buried in St Bartholomew-the-Less.
== Works ==
In 1620 he translated into English the History of the Council of Trent by Pietro Soave Polano (i.e. Paolo Sarpi). A second edition appeared in 1629, and another in 1676, Archbishop Abbot had caused the Latin original to be published for the first time in 1619 in London.
In 1625, asked by George Abbot, he republished the defence of the church of England Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae, first published in 1613 by Francis Mason, archdeacon of Norfolk.
== Family ==
Brent's daughter Margaret married Edward Corbet of Merton College, a presbyterian, on whom Laud repeatedly refused to confer the living of Chartham.
== References ==
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Brent, Nathaniel". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 6. London: Smith, Elder & Co. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Medes | Grace Medes | Grace Medes (November 9, 1886 – December 31, 1967) was an American biochemist, who discovered tyrosinosis—a metabolic disorder today known as tyrosinemia—and studied fatty acid metabolism. She was awarded the Garvan-Olin Medal in 1955 for her work.
== Early life and education ==
Grace May Medes was born in Keokuk, Iowa, daughter of William Johnson Medes and Kate Francisco Hagny Medes. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Kansas, both in zoology, and a PhD at Bryn Mawr College in 1916.
== Career ==
After earning her PhD, Medes went to teach at Vassar College in 1916 serving first as an instructor in zoology until 1919 and then as an assistant professor of physiology until 1922. She was the first female faculty member with a PhD in the physiology department at Vassar. Medes moved to Wellesley College in 1922, where she served as associate professor of physiology until 1924. In 1924 she went to University of Minnesota Medical School where she served as a fellow for her first year and then an assistant professor until 1932.
In her time at Minnesota, Medes discovered the human metabolic disorder she named "tyrosinosis" in 1932. Although her patient was atypical and the mechanism she identified has since been questioned, her testing methods remain a useful model for researchers studying the disorder now known as tyrosinemia.
In 1932, Medes became head of the department of metabolic chemistry at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she specialized in the metabolism of sulfur and fatty acids. Her work established a basis for the later discovery of Coenzyme A. She would remain at the institute (later merged with the Institute for Cancer Research) as a research faculty member until 1952. She was a senior member from 1954 to 1960.
In 1955, Medes won the Garvan Medal (now the Garvan-Olin Medal) from the American Chemical Society as an outstanding woman in chemistry. Also in 1955, Medes was one of the year's five distinguished alumni by the University of Kansas.
While in retirement, Medes resumed her work on tyrosinosis, which she put aside while at Lankenau, at the Fels Research Institute at Temple University. She co-authored a book, Normal Growth and Cancer (1963) with colleague Stanley P. Reimann.
A symposium on tyrosinosis was held in Oslo, Norway in her honor in 1965.
== Personal life ==
Medes died on New Year's Eve in 1967. She was 81 years old.
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Notable women in the physical sciences : a biographical dictionary. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1997. 1997. ISBN 9780313293030. OCLC 433367323. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Industry_Medal | Chemical Industry Medal | The Chemical Industry Medal is an annual American award given to an industrial chemist by the Society of Chemical Industry America (SCI America). The medal has been awarded since 1933, when it replaced the Grasselli Medal. It was initially given to "a person making a valuable application of chemical research to industry. Primary consideration shall be given to applications in the public interest." As of 1945, the criterion became "a person who ... has rendered conspicuous service to applied chemistry." More recently it has been awarded "for contributions toward the growth of the chemical industry."
== Recipients ==
Source: SCI Chemical Industry Medal Past Winners
1933 James G. Vail, Philadelphia Quartz Company
1934 Floyd G. Metzger, Air Reduction
1935 Edward R. Weidlein, Mellon Institute
1936 Walter S. Landis, American Cyanamid
1937 Evan J. Crane, Chemical Abstracts
1938 John V. N. Dorr, Dorr
1939 Robert E. Wilson, Standard Oil of Indiana, PanAmerican Petroleum
1941 Elmer K. Bolton, Dupont
1942 Harrison Howe, ACS
1943 John Grebe, Dow
1944 Bradley Dewey, Dewey & Almy
1945 Sidney Dale Kirkpatrick, Chemical & Metallurgical
1946 Willard H. Dow, Dow Chemical
1947 George W. Merck, Merck
1948 James A. Rafferty, Union Carbide
1949 William B. Bell, American Cyanamid
1950 William M. Rand, Monsanto
1951 Ernest W. Reid, Corn Products
1952 J. R. Donald, Crawford H. Greenewalt, Dupont
1953 Charles S. Munson, Air Reduction
1954 Ernest H. Volwiler, Abbot
1955 Joseph George Davidson, Union Carbide
1956 Robert Lindley Murray, Hooker Electrochemical
1957 Clifford Rassweiler, Johns Manville
1958 Fred J. Emmerich, Allied
1959 Harry B. Mcclure, Union Carbide
1960 Hans Stauffer, Stauffer
1961 William Edward Hanford, Olin Mathieson
1962 Kenneth H. Klipstein, American Cyanamid
1963 Max Tishler, Merck
1964 Leland I. Doan, Dow
1965 Ralph Connor, Rohm and Haas
1966 Monroe E. Spaght, Shell
1967 Chester M. Brown, Allied
1968 Harold W. Fisher, Standard Oil of New Jersey
1969 Charles B. McCoy, Dupont
1970 William H. Lycan, Johnson & Johnson
1971 Carroll A. Hochwalt, Thomas & Hochwalt, Monsanto
1972 Jesse Werner, Gaf
1973 Ralph Landau, Scientific Design
1974 Carl Gerstacker, Dow
1975 Leonard P. Pool, Air Products & Chemicals
1976 Harold E. Thayer, Mallinckrodt
1977 F. Perry Wilson, Union Carbide
1978 Jack B. St. Clair, Shell
1979 Irving S. Shapiro, Dupont
1980 Edward Donley, Air Products
1981 Thomas W. Mastin, Lubrizol
1982 H. Barclay Morley, Stauffer
1983 Paul Oreffice, Dow
1984 James Affleck, American Cyanamid
1985 Louis Fernandez, Monsanto
1986 Edward G. Jefferson, Dupont
1987 Edwin C. Holmer, Exxon
1988 Vincent L. Gregory Jr., Rohm and Haas
1989 Richard E. Heckert, Dupont
1990 George J. Sella Jr., American Cyanamid
1991 Dexter F. Baker, Air Products
1992 H. Eugene McBrayer, Exxon
1993 W. H. Clark, Nalco
1994 Keith R. McKennon, Dow Corning
1995 Robert D. Kennedy, Union Carbide
1996 John W. Johnstone Jr., Olin
1997 J. Roger Hirl, Occidental Chemical
1998 Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., Dupont
1999 J. Lawrence Wilson, Rohm and Haas
2000 Vincent A. Calarco, Crompton
2001 William S. Stavropoulos, Dow Chemical
2002 Earnest W. Deavenport Jr., Eastman Chemical
2003 Whitson Sadler, Solvay
2004 Thomas E. Reilly, Reilly Industries
2005 Daniel S. Sanders, ExxonMobil & Company
2006 Jon Huntsman, Sr., Huntsman Corporation
2007 Raj Gupta, Rohm and Haas
2008 Dennis H. Reilley, Praxair
2009 Jeffrey M. Lipton, Nova Chemicals
2010 Michael E. Campbell, Arch Chemicals, Inc
2011 J. Brian Ferguson, Eastman Chemical
2012 David N. Weidman, Celanese
2013 Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical
2014 Sunil Kumar, International Speciality Products
2015 Stephen D. Pryor, President of ExxonMobil Chemical
2016 James L. Gallogly, LyondellBasell
2017 Andreas C. Kramvis, Honeywell
2018, Cal Dooley, American Chemistry Council
2019, Neil A. Chapman, Exxon Mobil Corporation
2020, Christopher D. Pappas, Trinseo
2021, Craig Rogerson, Hexion
2022, Mark Vergnano, Chemours
2023, Bhavesh (Bob) Patel, W.R. Grace & Co.
2024, John J. Paro, Hallstar
2025, Albert Chao and James Chao, Westlake Corporation
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== External links ==
SCI Chemical Industry Medal Past Winners
Society of Chemical Industry
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Post | India Post | The Department of Posts, d/b/a India Post, is an Indian public sector postal system statutory body headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is an organisation under the Ministry of Communications. It is the most widely distributed postal system in the world and India is the country that has the largest number of post offices in the world with 164,999 post offices including 149,385 rural post offices and 15,614 urban post offices. It is involved in delivering mail (post), remitting money by money orders, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance coverage under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc.
Apart from delivering services to general public and corporates, India Post is also proud custodian of a rich heritage of postal buildings that echo the historical evolution and architectural grandeur of bygone eras. India Post has declared 44 heritage buildings so far.
Warren Hastings had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in the country in 1766. It was initially established under the name "Company Mail". It was later modified into a service under the Crown in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates (universal service) and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon 1837 Post Office act which had introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position Director General of Post for the whole country. The DoP also acts as an agent for the Indian government in discharging other services for citizens such as old age pension payments and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement. With 1,64,999 post offices (as of March 2025), India Post is the widest postal network in the world.
The country has been divided into 23 postal circles, each circle headed by a Chief Postmaster General. Each circle is divided into regions, headed by a Postmaster General and comprising field units known as Divisions. These divisions are further divided into subdivisions. In addition to the 23 circles, there is a base circle to provide postal services to the Armed Forces of India headed by a Director General. One of the highest post offices in the world is in Hikkim, At 4,400m above sea level in northern India's remote Spiti Valley, the Hikkim post office is a vital connection to the outside world.
== History ==
=== Posts and the British Raj (1858–1947) ===
The British Raj was instituted in 1858, when the rule of the East India Company was transferred to the Crown.
A number of acts were enacted during the British Raj to expand and regulate posts and telegraphs service:
The Government Savings Bank Act, 1873 (5 of 1873), passed by the legislature 28 January 1873, was enacted in 1881. On 1 April 1882, Post Office Savings Banks opened throughout India (except in the Bombay Presidency). In Madras Presidency, it was limited; in the Bengal Presidency, no POSBs were established in Calcutta or Howrah.
Postal life insurance began on 1 February 1884 as a welfare measure for the employees of the Posts & Telegraphs Department as Government of India dispatch No. 299 dated 18 October 1882 to the Secretary of State.
The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885
The Indian Post Office Act, 1898, passed by the legislature on 22 March 1898, became effective on 1 July 1898 regulating postal service. It was preceded by Act III of 1882 and Act XVI of 1896.
The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933
The world's first official airmail flight took place in India on 18 February 1911, a journey of 18 kilometres (11 mi) lasting 27 minutes. Henri Pequet, a French pilot, carried about 15 kilograms (33 lb) of mail (approximately 6,000 letters and cards) across the Ganges from Allahabad to Naini; included in the airmail was a letter to King George V of the United Kingdom. India Post inaugurated a floating post office in August 2011 at Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir. Telegraphy and telephony made their appearance as part of the postal service before becoming separate departments. One unique telegraph office was established and operated in the capital of Lhasa until the People's Republic of China's annexation of Tibet. The Posts and Telegraphs departments merged in 1914, later separated again on 1 January 1985.
=== After independence in 1947 ===
Since India became independent in 1947, the postal service continues to function on a nationwide basis, providing a variety of services. The structure of the organization has the directorate at its apex; below it are circle offices, regional offices, the superintendent's offices, head post offices, sub-post offices and branch offices. In April 1959, the Indian Postal Department adopted the motto "Service before help"; it revised its logo in September 2008.
The number of post offices was 23,344 when India became independent in 1947 and these were primarily in urban areas. The number increased to 1,64,987 in 2025 and 90% of these are in rural areas.
== Postage-stamp history ==
=== First adhesive stamps in Asia ===
The first adhesive postage stamps in Asia were issued in the Indian district of Scinde in July 1852 by Bartle Frere, chief commissioner of the region. Frere was an admirer of Rowland Hill, the English postal reformer who had introduced the Penny Post. The Scinde stamps became known as "Scinde Dawks"; "Dawk" is the Anglicised spelling of the Hindustani word Dak or ("post"). These stamps, with a value of 1⁄2-anna, were in use until June 1866. The first all-India stamps were issued on 1 October 1854.
=== Stamps issued by the East India Company ===
The volume of mail moved by the postal system increased significantly, doubling between 1854 and 1866 and doubling again by 1871. The Indian Post Office Act, 1866 (XIV) introduced reforms by 1 May 1866 to correct some of the more obvious postal-system deficiencies and abuses. Postal-service efficiencies were also introduced. In 1863, lower rates were set for "steamer" mail to Europe at (six annas, eight pies for a 1⁄2-ounce letter). Lower rates were also introduced for inland mail.
New regulations removed special postal privileges enjoyed by officials of the East India Company. Stamps for official use were prepared and carefully accounted for, to combat abuses by officials. In 1854 Spain had printed special stamps for official communications, but in 1866 India was the first country to adopt the expedient of overprinting "Service" on postage stamps and "Service Postage" on revenue stamps. This innovation was later widely adopted by other countries.
Shortages developed, so stamps also had to be improvised. Some "Service Postage" overprinted rarities resulted from abrupt changes in postal regulations. New designs for the four-anna and six-anna-eight-pie stamps were issued in 1866. Nevertheless, there was a shortage of stamps to meet the new rates. Provisional six-anna stamps were improvised by cutting the top and bottom from a current foreign-bill revenue stamp and overprinting "Postage". India was the first country in the Commonwealth to issue airmail stamps.
=== Post-independence stamps ===
India attained independence on 15 August 1947. Thereafter, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Department embarked on a broad-based policy for the issuance of stamps. On 21 November 1947 the first new stamp was issued by independent India. It depicts the Indian flag with the patriots' slogan, Jai Hind ("long live India"), at the top right-hand corner. The stamp was valued at three and one-half annas. A memorial to Mahatma Gandhi was issued 15 August 1948 on the first anniversary of independence. One year later a definitive series appeared, depicting India's broad cultural heritage (primarily Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh and Jain temples, sculptures, monuments and fortresses). A subsequent issue commemorated the beginning of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950. Definitives included a technology-and-development theme in 1955, a series depicting a map of India in 1957 (denominated in naya paisa—decimal currency) and a 1965 series with a wide variety of images. The old inscription "India Postage" was replaced in 1962 with "भारत INDIA", although three stamps (issued from December 1962 to January 1963) carried the earlier inscription.
India has printed stamps and postal stationery for other countries, mostly neighbours. Countries which have had stamps printed in India include Burma (before independence), Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Portugal and Ethiopia. The country has issued definitive and commemorative stamps. Six definitive series on India's heritage and progress in a number of fields have been issued. The seventh series, with a theme of science and technology, began in 1986. Between independence and 1983, 770 stamps were issued.
== Losses ==
The postal department has always been the biggest loss-making entity in India, surpassing others like the Air India and BSNL, with an annual loss to the exchequer to the tune of ₹15,000 crore in the fiscal year 2019, and amounting to ₹15,541 crore in the calendar year 2020. The following table shows losses incurred by the postal department over the years.
== PIN ==
The Postal Index Number (PIN, or sometimes redundantly PIN code) is a six-digit postal code. The PIN system was made by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar when he was at service in Kolkata. It was introduced on 15 August 1972 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There are nine postal zones in the country; the first eight are geographical regions, and the ninth is reserved for the Army Postal Service (APS905898).
The PIN system is organised in the following way:
The first digit indicates the zone.
The first two digits indicate the sub-zone (or postal circle).
The first three digits indicate a sorting district.
The first four digits indicate a service route.
The last two digits indicate the delivery post office.
The PIN for an address may be found on the Postal Service website. There are total of 19,101 PINs covering 1,64,999 post offices in India, with the exception of the Army Postal Service, as of 2025.
== Digital Address Code ==
Indian post proposed a 10 digit unique identification number to each and every address in India based on geo coordinates called DIGIPIN. Digital Address Code (DAC) will be assigned to all types of addresses in the country ranging from independent houses, individual building, every flat in the given apartment, every shop in a commercial building and every individual unit in an office complex. Draft approach paper on Digital Address Code was issued by Indian Post for public comments.
== Project Arrow ==
Project Arrow was launched in April 2008. The project plans to upgrade post offices in urban and rural areas, improving service and appearance into a vibrant and responsive organization and to make a visible and positive difference. The project aims to create an effective, friendly environment for staff and customers, providing secure IT services and improving mail delivery, remittances (electronic and manual) and postal-savings plans. Core areas for improvement are branding, information technology, human resources and infrastructure. The project to improve service has been implemented in more than 23,500 post offices, and 'look and feel' improvements have been made in 2,940 post offices. The Department of Posts received the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration during 2008–09 for "Project Arrow – Transforming India Post" on 21 April 2010.
Multipurpose counter machines with computers were introduced in post offices in 1991 to improve customer service and increase staff productivity. 25,000 departmental post offices out of 25,464 were computerized between as of 2011–2012. In 2012, a plan costing ₹1,877.2 crore (equivalent to ₹35 billion or US$420 million in 2023) was formulated to computerize rural post offices.
== Services ==
=== Philately ===
The first philatelic Society in India was founded in Calcutta on 6 March 1897 to service postage-stamp collections. Function include design, printing and distribution of special or commemorative postage stamps, definitive postage stamps and items of postal stationery, promotion of philately, conduct of philatelic examinations at the national level, participation in international exhibitions and monitoring exhibitions at the state, regional and district levels and maintenance of the National Philatelic Museum.
Philatelic bureaus were established in head post offices located at circle headquarters and at district-capital head post offices (as necessary). There are 68 philately bureaus and 1111 philatelic counters, including all head post offices (Mukhya Dak Ghars) in the country as of 31 March 2011. A domestic philatelic deposit-account system was introduced on 1 August 1965 at all philatelic bureaus. Customers are given priority in purchasing commemorative or special-issue stamps, first-day covers and information sheets soon after their issue by opening a deposit account at any philatelic bureau. The number of philately deposit-accountholders grew from 23,905 in 1999–2000 to 168,282 in 2006–2007 and 183,202 in 2008–2009. Four philatelic bureaux—the Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Parliament Street, New Delhi GPOs are authorized to sell United Nations stamps. A quarterly philatelic magazine, Philapost, was launched in 2008.
The Department of Post has also developed software for philatelic inventory management, known as "Philsim". It is used for all activities relating to philately, including forecasting, indenting, invoicing, monitoring supply and demand and recording sales and revenue for commemorative stamps and other philatelic products at philately bureaus and counters (and definitive stamps and stationery at circle stamp depots and head post offices).
The National Philatelic Museum was inaugurated on 6 July 1968 in New Delhi. It had its beginnings at a meeting of the Philatelic Advisory Committee on 18 September 1962. Besides a large collection of India Postage stamps designed, printed and issued, it has a large collection of Indian states (confederate and feudatory), early essays, proofs and colour trials, a collection of Indian stamps used abroad, early Indian postcards, postal stationery and thematic collections. The museum was renovated in 2009 with more exhibits, a philatelic bureau and postal objects (such as Victorian post boxes). The Department of Posts inaugurated the National Philatelic Museum on 11 July 2011. It exhibits rare postage stamps from around the world and provides a venue for philatelists to exhibit their collections.
=== Army Postal Service ===
The Army Postal Service (APS) functions as a government-operated military mail system in India. A primary feature of Army Postal Service systems is that normally they are subsidized to ensure that military mail posted between duty stations abroad and the home country (or vice versa) does not cost the sender any more than normal domestic mail traffic. In some cases, Indian military personnel in a combat zone may post letters and/or packages to the home country for free, while in others, senders located in a specific overseas area may send military mail to another military recipient, also located in the same overseas area, without charge.
=== Electronic Indian Postal Order ===
The Electronic Indian Postal Order (e-IPO) was introduced on 22 March 2013, initially only for citizens living abroad. The postal orders can be used for online payment of fees for access to information under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The service was expanded to include all Indian citizens on 14 February 2014.
=== Postal Life insurance ===
Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1 February 1884 with the express approval of the Secretary of State (for India) to Her Majesty, the Queen Empress of India. It was essentially a welfare scheme for the benefit of Postal employees in 1884 and later extended to the employees of Telegraph Department in 1888. In 1894, PLI extended insurance cover to female employees of P & T Department at a time when no other insurance company covered female lives. It is the oldest life insurer in this country. There was over 6.4 million policies active as on 31 March 2015 with a sum assured of ₹130,745 crore (US$15 billion). Premium income of PLI for the year 2014-15 was ₹6,053.2 crore (US$720 million). It was extended to all rural residents on 24 March 1995.
Policies for government employees include Santhosh (endowment assurance), Suraksha (whole-life assurance), Suvidha (convertible whole-life assurance), Sumangal (anticipated endowment policy) and Yugal Suraksha (joint life endowment assurance). India Post started Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) for the rural public in 1995. RPLI plans include Gram Santosh (endowment assurance), Gram Suraksha (whole-life assurance), Gram Suvidha (convertible whole-life assurance), Gram Sumangal (anticipated endowment assurance) and Gram Priya.
=== Postal savings ===
The post office offers a number of savings plans, including recurring deposit accounts, Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) is also known as Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), National Savings Certificates (NSC), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), the Public Provident Fund, savings-bank accounts, monthly-income plans, senior-citizens' savings plans and time-deposit accounts.
=== Banking ===
In 2013, it was revealed that the Indian postal service had formulated plans to enter the banking industry after RBI guidelines for the issuance of new banking licenses were released. Eventually they are planning to open a Post Bank of India, an independent banking service.
As of 29 February 2016, 18,231 post offices are utilizing Core Banking Solutions (CBS). ATMs are installed at 576 Post Office locations and debit cards issued to Post Office Savings Bank customers. Core Insurance Solution (CIS) for Postal Life Insurance (PLI) is rolled out in 808 head post offices and corresponding 24,000+ sub post offices. In September 2017, it was announced that by 2018 all of the 1.55 lakh post offices, every postman and grameen dak sevak (postmaster) will accept all payment options that the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) plans to provide.
On 1 September 2018, the India Post Payments Bank was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
=== Data collection ===
A collaboration between the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and the Department of Posts has enabled the computation of consumer-price indices for rural areas. These statistics were previously unobtainable, due to problems of remoteness and scale. The agreement authorises the postal service to collect data on prices paid for selected consumer goods. In February 2011, MoSPI published its first Consumer Price Index (CPI) and All-India Consumer Price Index. The information has since been published monthly, based on data available from 1,181 villages across the country.
=== E-commerce delivery ===
The boom in e-commerce and the surging number of cash-on-delivery consignments has led India Post to partner with major e-commerce portals for delivering pre-paid as well as cash on delivery (COD) parcels. According to the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, revenue of India Post from such deliveries would go up to ₹15 billion (US$180 million) in the year 2015–16.
=== Other services ===
Other services include:
Post boxes and post bags for mail receipt
Speed Post
Identity cards for proof of residence
India Post ATM
RMS (Railway Mail Service)
Post office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK)
Aadhaar Enrollment and Updation.
Western Union.
Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance.
Savings Bank (SB/RD/TD/MIS/SCSS/PPF/SSA)
Savings Cash Certificates.
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).
Stamp Sales.
== See also ==
List of Asian national postal services
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Headrick, Daniel. "A double-edged sword: Communications and imperial control in British India." Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung (2010): 51–65. in JSTOR
Majumdar, Mohini Lal. The imperial post offices of British India, 1837-1914 (Phila Publications, 1990)
Rahman, Siddique Mahmudur. "Postal Services During The East India Company's Rule in Bengal." Bangladesh Historical Studies 19 (2002): 43+
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deputy_chief_ministers_of_Jammu_and_Kashmir | List of deputy chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir | The deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir is the title given to the deputy head of government of Jammu and Kashmir. The state was reconstituted by the government of India as the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on 31 October 2019.
== Deputy prime and chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir ==
Keys:
Bharatiya Janata Party
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party
Indian National Congress
== See also ==
List of chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir
Government of Jammu and Kashmir
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Hardeman_Prize | D. B. Hardeman Prize | The D. B. Hardeman Prize is a cash prize awarded annually by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation for the best book that furthers the study of the U.S. Congress in the fields of biography, history, journalism, or political science. Submissions are judged on the basis of five criteria: (1) contribution to scholarship, (2) contribution to the public's understanding of Congress, (3) literary craftsmanship, (4) originality, and (5) depth of research. Members of the national selection committee are: Senator Tom Daschle; Lee Hamilton, Director of The Center on Congress; Thomas Mann of The Brookings Institution; Leslie Sanchez of Impacto Group; and Nancy Beck Young of The University of Houston.
D. Barnard Hardeman, Jr. (1914–1981) was a politician, political scholar, journalist and teacher. He graduated from the University of Texas and the University of Texas Law School and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Hardeman served in the 52nd and 54th Legislatures representing Grayson and Collin counties in the Texas House of Representatives. Between 1958 and 1961, he worked as an assistant to Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House, and was Rayburn's official biographer. An avid bibliophile whose book collection numbered more than ten thousand volumes, Hardeman bequeathed his collection of American biographies and political history to the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.
== Recipients ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon#:~:text=From%2016%20to%2031%20July,and%20art%20collector%20Paul%20Poiret. | 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/Circus_Circus_Las_Vegas | Circus Circus Las Vegas | Circus Circus Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the northern Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Phil Ruffin. Circus Circus includes the largest permanent circus in the world. It features circus and trapeze acts, as well as carnival games, at its Carnival Midway. The resort also includes the Adventuredome, an indoor amusement park.
Circus Circus was originally owned by Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin. It opened without a hotel on October 18, 1968. It included a casino on its first floor, while a second floor contained carnival games for children. Circus Circus was among the first family-oriented casinos in Las Vegas. It struggled financially during its early years, in part because of its lack of a hotel. A 15-story tower, with 409 rooms, was added in 1972. Sarno and Mallin were subsequently investigated for tax code violations and alleged connections with organized crime.
In 1974, the casino was leased to Bill Bennett and William Pennington, taking over operations from Sarno and Mallin. The property thrived under its new management. Another 15-story tower was added in 1975, followed by an RV park in 1979. A year later, Circus Circus added a series of motel structures, increasing the total room count to 1,610. Bennett and Pennington eventually purchased Circus Circus in 1983 and added a 29-story tower in 1986. The amusement park was added in 1993, and a 35-story tower was completed three years later. The casino contains 123,928 sq ft (11,513.3 m2), while the hotel has 3,767 rooms. The Circus Circus property also includes the small Slots-A-Fun Casino, which Sarno opened in 1971.
The resort was owned through Circus Circus Enterprises, which was renamed Mandalay Resort Group in 1999. The resort was sold to MGM Mirage (later MGM Resorts International) in 2005. MGM intended to renovate and expand Circus Circus, but canceled such plans amid the Great Recession. Fifty years after its opening, Circus Circus remained popular among families. In 2019, MGM sold Circus Circus to Las Vegas casino owner Phil Ruffin. At the time, the resort included the only RV park on the Las Vegas Strip.
== History ==
Circus Circus was originally owned by Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin. Explaining the casino's double name, Sarno said, "At first I planned a Roman circus motif, but changed my mind and decided to build a circus like we are all familiar with – instead of a Roman circus, it's a circus circus." A circus-themed casino was a departure from Sarno's previous Las Vegas resort, the luxurious Caesars Palace. Sarno called Circus Circus "the most exciting project of my life".
Planning for Circus Circus was underway at the end of 1967, and the opening was initially planned for August 1, 1968. The Nevada Gaming Control Board gave preliminary approval for Circus Circus, but this was overturned by the Nevada Gaming Commission, which noted that Sarno's group had only 70 percent of the necessary funds to finance the project. Approval was granted after a $1.1 million loan was provided by relatives of Kirk Kerkorian.
Circus Circus was designed by the California firm of Rissman and Rissman Associates. The general contractor was R. C. Johnson and Associates, of Las Vegas. Circus Circus was built on the Las Vegas Strip, across from the Riviera resort, on property next to the Westward Ho motel. The opening was eventually delayed to October 1, 1968. The Circus Circus owners had $4.2 million to cover the construction costs, and R. C. Johnson estimated the project to cost $3.9 million. However, work was sped up during the final month to get the casino opened sooner, resulting in a higher construction cost. The casino included a circus tent structure, made of steel and concrete. The tent-shaped roof reached 90 feet in the air, and was made of a plexiglass material which was painted white and hot pink.
=== Opening and financial problems ===
The $15 million Circus Circus ultimately opened on the night of October 18, 1968. An invitational costume party preceded the public opening. The opening was attended by numerous government officials and film stars, as well as media from across the United States. Nevada governor Paul Laxalt declared a "Circus Circus Premiere Week" to mark the opening.
Circus Circus had 1,000 employees. Sarno served as the casino's president, and held a 25-percent interest, while Jud McIntosh held 22 percent. The two-story building included an indoor balcony that overlooked the casino floor. Various high wire and trapeze acts took place over the casino, but Sarno said that such acts would not distract the gamblers below. The property also featured female shoeshiners in skimpy clothing. Sarno had wanted the trapeze artists and shoeshiners to be topless, an idea that was vetoed by the gaming commission. Other attractions in the casino, however, were allowed to feature topless women. The second floor included a midway with various carnival games for children. Circus Circus was among the first family-oriented casinos in Las Vegas, along with the Hacienda.
The casino featured costumed table dealers and cocktail waitresses, as well as small, pink elephants that could be ridden. Several trained monkeys roamed the casino as well and interacted with guests, for instance by paying out jackpot winnings. In addition, an elephant named Tanya was trained to pull slot machine handles and toss dice with her trunk. According to some accounts, a short-lived publicity stunt involved baby elephants that were transported around the casino via an overhead tram, giving the illusion that they were flying. The property also included an all-you-can-eat dessert experience known as the Diet Buster.
Circus Circus attracted 26,000 people within its first eight hours of opening. However, it would struggle financially during its early years. It was mocked and criticized by skeptics, who doubted the idea of a circus-themed casino. Gamblers were put off by the many distractions, including the trapeze artists and other performers. Howard Hughes, who owned several Las Vegas casinos, believed that Circus Circus did not fit in with the upscale resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. Mallin later said Circus Circus was "ahead of its time" and acknowledged that it was not well received in its early years.
By the end of 1968, Circus Circus owed more than $1 million in construction debt, which led to rumors about its finances. Casino management stated that it was performing satisfactorily, and that the debt was the result of certain construction work being disputed, due to concerns about whether such work was ever authorized. Circus Circus alleged $271,000 in unauthorized construction work by R. C. Johnson. The Nevada Gaming Commission declined to issue a permanent gaming license to Circus Circus until its debt was paid off, giving the casino one month to do so. In addition, Circus Circus charged a $1 admission fee, and the gaming commission determined on short notice that the casino had to pay $30,000 in taxes on the fees. The casino filed a lawsuit against the state to oppose the tax. The admission fee was one reason that Circus Circus struggled, and it was eventually dropped.
The gaming commission granted several extensions, allowing the casino to continue operating on a temporary license. In April 1969, the gaming commission voted to let the Circus Circus gaming license expire at the end of the month, after the discovery of secret loans that were made to the casino but not reported to the state. Hours before the scheduled closure, the commission extended the license for another month. This came after Sarno resigned as president and put his ownership stake into a trust until it could be sold. Mallin was chosen to serve as the new president. A permanent gaming license was granted in May 1969, and planning was underway for more than $500,000 in improvements. In January 1970, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved Sarno to return as the operator of Circus Circus.
The casino was unable to attract high rollers, due to its lack of a hotel. In 1971, the Teamsters' Union pension fund provided a loan to Circus Circus to pay off debts and to add a hotel. A 15-story tower opened in July 1972. As part of the loan arrangement, the Chicago Outfit's enforcer, Anthony Spilotro (under the name of Tony Stuart), was granted a gift shop concession in the hotel. In addition to a government investigation into the organized-crime connections, Sarno and Mallin were also being investigated for tax code violations. The casino's financial problems also continued, and Sarno began discussions to bring in a new casino operator.
=== Ownership changes and later years ===
In April 1974, William Bennett and William Pennington were approved by the state as new operators of the casino. They leased Circus Circus from Sarno and Mallin, who remained as landlords for several years. Bennett and Pennington had been searching for a financially challenged Las Vegas casino that they could take over. They originally considered the Landmark, before settling on Circus Circus. Bennett was initially skeptical that a family friendly casino could succeed in Las Vegas. However, he and Pennington quickly turned Circus Circus into a profitable venture. Under their management, the casino contained mostly slot machines, and did not cater to big gamblers. Although the casino was mocked for its theme, it had wide appeal among the middle-class demographic. Various additions were made over the years, including an RV park in 1979, followed by motel structures the next year.
Bennett said in 1981, "I don't believe kids and gambling mix. If I had to start over, I would not use this concept. We end up being babysitters for the town, which is fine, but we have a lot of problems because of all the kids around. We have more security wandering the floors than most hotels." Bennett and Pennington operated the property through Circo Resorts, Inc, which would later become Circus Circus Enterprises. In their lease, they had an option to buy Circus Circus from Sarno, which they eventually did in 1983. By that point, Circus Circus was one of the most successful casinos in the state.
A 29-story hotel tower was added in 1986, followed by the Adventuredome amusement park in 1993. A 35-story tower was added during renovations in 1996, part of an effort to bring in new customers. Circus Circus officials also hoped to retain the resort's core demographic: young families and retirees searching for bargains.
Circus Circus Enterprises was renamed as Mandalay Resort Group in 1999. MGM Mirage (later MGM Resorts International) bought out Mandalay Resort Group in 2005, and acquired Circus Circus as a result. In 2007, the company planned to build a multibillion-dollar resort on newly acquired property north of Circus Circus, where the El Rancho Vegas once stood. The Circus Circus motel structures and RV park were to be demolished to accommodate the new project, and the remaining structures would be renovated and expanded. However, MGM's plans were canceled due to the financial impact of the Great Recession. The El Rancho land was later used as the site of MGM's Festival Grounds, which opened in 2015.
Out of 10 resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, Circus Circus was MGM's most popular property among Hispanic tourists. Fifty years after its opening, Circus Circus remained popular among families, although the aging facility was in need of renovations, including new carpeting and exterior paint. Circus Circus was the oldest Las Vegas property owned by MGM Resorts. Although 50 years is a long lifespan for Las Vegas casinos, the anniversary went uncelebrated.
In 2019, MGM Resorts International sold Circus Circus to Phil Ruffin, owner of the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, for $825 million. The sale included the Festival Grounds. Like previous owners, Ruffin continued to operate Circus Circus as a budget property. He began a $30 million renovation project focusing on various parts of the resort, with work extending into 2023.
Early on, Ruffin had planned to build a 2,000-seat theater in front of Circus Circus at a cost of $11 million. He also intended to convert the RV park into a swimming pool complex with a wave machine, sand beaches and a lazy river ride. As of 2024, these features have yet to be built.
In January 2025, Ruffin stated that he was planning to sell Circus Circus in order to acquire another property on the Las Vegas Strip or elsewhere. Circus Circus and the Festival Grounds make up a total of 102 acres and could sell for up to $5 billion. If sold, a new luxury integrated resort could be built on the site. Other uses for the site could include Formula One-related developments or a film studio. Neighboring Resorts World Las Vegas has been mentioned as a potential buyer for Circus Circus, as the site could be developed to host an NBA arena.
== Features ==
Circus Circus has 123,928 sq ft (11,513.3 m2) of casino space, and 3,767 hotel rooms. When it opened, the casino originally had 19 blackjack tables, two roulette wheels, eight crap tables, and 686 slot machines.
The front exterior of the casino originally had various features which were eventually removed. A 306-foot-long fountain area marked the front, and some of the fountains could shoot water four stories high, while illuminating the water in a series of colors. Las Vegas artist Montyne was hired to sculpt several statues, which also stood in front of Circus Circus. A carousel was also located in front of the casino.
In its early years, Circus Circus included the Hippodrome showroom. It hosted the show Nudes in the Night, which at one point starred Babette Bardot. In 1970, Sarno launched Tom Jones, a topless show based on the eponymous 1963 film. Other shows would include Naked But Nice, Nudes Delight, and Hot Pants Sexplosion. The theater was soon walled off to public access and, as of 2024, has sat vacant for decades.
In 1974, the Guinness Book of World Records named Circus Circus as the world's largest permanent circus, a distinction that it continues to hold. Pink coloring is used throughout the resort. Jo Harris was the original interior designer. She had previously designed Caesars Palace, and would later work with Sarno on other projects. The 1972 hotel tower gave the casino 409 rooms. Another 15-story tower was opened in April 1975, adding an additional 400 rooms, and a convention hall. The two original towers are connected, and are known as the Casino Tower. In the 1970s, the hotel included a two-story Royal Suite, which was designed by Harris and included a balcony. A wedding chapel, known as Chapel of the Fountain, also opened in 1975.
The Circus Circus carousel was removed in 1976, to make room for the resort's new roadside sign, which stands 123 feet. The neon sign depicts a clown character known as Lucky. It was created by YESCO and is one of the most-photographed signs in Las Vegas. A sportsbook opened In September 1976, but closed seven months later, as management believed that the space could be better utilized through a different purpose.
In 1977, there were plans for an expansion, which would include a parking garage. The 1,000-space garage was completed in 1978, and the Circusland RV Park was added a year later. Circus Circus Manor, which opened in 1980, consists of five, three-story motel buildings with a total of 810 rooms. This brought the resort's overall total to 1,610 hotel rooms.
A monorail, the Circus Sky Shuttle, was added in 1981. It was the first automated transit system in the Las Vegas Valley. The track, located 18 feet above street level, connected the main resort to the Circus Circus Manor rooms. A $7 million renovation and expansion project was underway in 1982, expanding the casino and a video game arcade. A valet parking lot was added in front of the resort, replacing the fountains.
Additional casino space and a second parking garage were added in 1985, and construction was underway on the 29-story Circus Skyrise tower, which would add 1,188 rooms for a total of 2,793. It would also include more casino space and a sportsbook, as well as a third parking garage. The general contractor was Marnell Corrao Associates, with Veldon Simpson as the architect. Groundbreaking for the tower took place on January 31, 1985. It was topped off on September 25, 1985, and opened the following year, on property that was previously occupied by the Savoy Motel.
A $100 million renovation began in 1996. It included the December opening of the $60 million, 35-story West Tower. The addition added about 1,000 rooms, for a total of approximately 3,700. The older rooms underwent refurbishment, and a retail area with 14 shops was opened in January 1997. Operations of the monorail were ended around 2000, due to the high cost of maintaining its outdated equipment, although the track remains intact.
Most of Montyne's statues were disposed of in 2006, under MGM's ownership. The company stated that the statues were in a state of deterioration. In 2012, Circus Circus introduced an exhibit dedicated to the work of animator Chuck Jones.
The Circus Circus midway includes a video game arcade and carnival-type games. It also features clown shows and trapeze acts several times a day. Clowns also roam the rest of the resort to amuse visitors. For decades, the midway featured a carousel that operated as a bar.
The hotel rooms were renovated in 2014. The RV park was also briefly closed and renovated; a portion of it was converted into additional space for MGM's Festival Grounds, leaving the RV park with 170 spaces. It takes up 10 acres, and is the only RV park on the Las Vegas Strip.
In 2017, Circus Circus added the Splash Zone water park for its hotel guests, after several years of planning. By 2022, the pool area had been enlarged as part of Ruffin's $30 million renovation project, which also made minor improvements to the property. This included a $10 million update of the resort's elevators, and a new paint job consisting of bright colors, emphasizing the property's circus theme. The property's faux circus tent structure was also included in the renovation project.
=== Adventuredome ===
The Adventuredome is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) indoor amusement park located within a large pink glass dome, which is connected to Circus Circus. It offers various rides and attractions, including the Canyon Blaster and El Loco roller coasters, as well as midway and arcade games.
Circus Circus added the amusement park in 1993, on property behind the resort. It was originally known as Grand Slam Canyon until 1997.
=== Restaurants ===
Circus Circus includes a popular restaurant known as the Steak House, which has won several awards. It opened in 1982, replacing a spa area. The two main restaurants in the 1990s were the Steak House and a buffet, although an Italian restaurant, Stivali, was added in 1997. The buffet averaged approximately 13,000 diners per day. Readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal voted the buffet as Las Vegas' worst for seven straight years, starting in 2001. In 2021, a portion of the buffet was replaced with a food court, which includes Dairy Queen, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Pick Up Stix, and Popeyes.
=== Slots-A-Fun Casino ===
Slots-A-Fun Casino is a small casino located on the Circus Circus property. It operates in a separate building along the Las Vegas Strip, directly south of the Circus Circus east entrance. It was opened in August 1971, by Circus Circus owner Jay Sarno replacing a merry-go-round. In 1974, management of the casino was assumed by Ross W. Miller, a former Circus Circus executive (and father of eventual Nevada governor Bob Miller). Miller was reported to be leasing the premises from the Teamsters Union, which had provided some of the financing to develop Circus Circus.
In 1975, gaming executive Carl Thomas bought into the casino as an equal partner with Miller, who died later that year. In 1979, however, Thomas was exposed as being involved in casino skimming operations on behalf of the Kansas City mob. Two FBI informants claimed that the mob owned a secret interest in Slots-A-Fun through Allen Dorfman, though that claim was never substantiated. Thomas's gaming licenses were revoked, and he was forced to sell his casino interests.
Miller's estate and Thomas sold Slots-A-Fun to Circus Circus Hotels, Inc., a company owned by Bill Bennett and Bill Pennington, who were the operators of the Circus Circus casino. Their company later became known as Circus Circus Enterprises, and then Mandalay Resort Group. In 1986, a woman accidentally crashed her car into the casino, injuring 14 people.
MGM Mirage (later MGM Resorts International) bought Mandalay Resort Group in 2005, and acquired Slots-A-Fun as part of the purchase. As of 2014, it was one of the last casinos to still offer coin-operated slot machines. Phil Ruffin bought Circus Circus and Slots-A-Fun in 2019. The casino is popular for its low-priced drinks and table games.
== In popular culture ==
In 1969, Circus Circus served as the location for an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. It also appears in the 1970 film The Grasshopper.
In the 1971 journalistic novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, author Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich. The ground floor is full of gambling tables, like all the other casinos . . . but the place is about four stories high, in the style of a circus tent, and all manner of strange County-Fair/Polish Carnival madness is going on up in this space." When the novel was adapted to film in 1998, the fictional "Bazooko Circus" was featured as a thinly veiled stand-in for Circus Circus, which had refused permission for the filmmakers to shoot on their property.
Circus Circus is a featured location in the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, which includes key scenes filmed in the casino and midway. Sarno himself has a cameo in the film, and Tanya the elephant is shown doing her slot machine-playing trick. A year later, Circus Circus appeared in an episode of Banacek titled "A Million the Hard Way". It also made appearances in several other films of the 1970s, including Las Vegas Lady, Damnation Alley, and Corvette Summer. The 1999 film Baby Geniuses was partially shot at the Adventuredome, which stood in as the fictional Joyworld theme park.
Circus Circus also appears in a 1998 King of the Hill episode Next of Shin as Hank, Dale, and Bill search for Hank's father Cotton in Las Vegas.
In the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Circus Circus appears under the name Clown's Pocket. A recreation of Circus Circus, called the Ringmaster, also appears in the 2014 racing video game The Crew, near the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip.
A robbery occurred at Circus Circus in 1993, when Heather Tallchief, a driver for an armored truck, drove away with $3 million, which was in the process of being distributed to ATMs. Tallchief carried out the robbery with the help of murderer Roberto Solis. They disappeared, but she eventually surrendered 12 years later. The robbery is chronicled in an episode of the 2021 Netflix docuseries Heist.
== See also ==
Circus Circus Reno
Circus Circus Tunica
List of largest hotels
List of integrated resorts
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Images from University of Nevada, Las Vegas |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asian_Nuclear-Weapon-Free_Zone_Treaty | Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty | The Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ), or the Bangkok Treaty of 1995, is a nuclear weapons moratorium treaty between 11 Southeast Asian member-states under the auspices of the ASEAN: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. It was opened for signature at the treaty conference in Bangkok, Thailand, on 15 December 1995 and it entered into force on March 28, 1997 and obliges its members not to develop, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or have control over nuclear weapons.
The Zone is the area comprising the territories of the states and their respective continental shelves and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ); "Territory" means the land territory, internal waters, territorial sea, archipelagic waters, the seabed and the sub-soil thereof and the airspace above them.
The treaty includes a protocol under which the five nuclear-weapon states recognized by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), namely China, the United States, France, Russia and the United Kingdom (who are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council) undertake to respect the Treaty and do not contribute to a violation of it by State parties. None of the nuclear-weapon states have signed this protocol.
== Background ==
The groundwork of the establishment of the future Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ) was started on November 27, 1971, when the 5 original members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and signed the declaration on ASEAN's Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN). One of the targets of ASEAN was also the establishment of SEANWFZ.
However, due to the political atmosphere at that time, including rivalries among the members and conflicts in the region and the Cold War, it was less feasible then to establish SEANWFZ. Thus the formal proposal for establishing a nuclear-free region was delayed until the 1990s, after the Cold War ended and conflicts were settled, and the member states renewed the denuclearization efforts. After conducting negotiations and finalizing the treaty for SEANWFZ by an ASEAN working group, the SEANWFZ treaty finally signed by the heads of government from 10 ASEAN member states in Bangkok on December 15, 1995. The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states have ratified it. It became fully effective on 21 June 2001, after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all nuclear weapons in the region. In 2014 at the Meeting of the Commission for the Treaty on the SEANWFZ, the Ministers reviewed the progress on the implementation of the 2013-2017 Plan of Action to Strengthen the SEANWFZ Treaty, while reaffirming their commitment to preserve Southeast Asia as a Nuclear-Weapon Free Zone.
== Listing of parties ==
=== Protocol ===
The SEANWFZ treaty has a protocol that is open to signature by the five recognized nuclear-weapon states: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The protocol commits those states not to contribute to any violation of the treaty and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons within the zone.
As of April 2015, none of the five has signed the SEANWFZ protocol, but in November 2011 they agreed with ASEAN states on steps that would enable them to do so.
== See also ==
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear-weapon-free zone
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality
ASEAN
Southeast Asia
== References ==
== External links ==
Treaty text at UNODA
Participants of the Bangkok Treaty (in alphabetical order) at UNODA |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmolive_Beauty_Box_Theater | Palmolive Beauty Box Theater | Palmolive Beauty Box Theater was an American radio program that featured an operetta or other musical each week from April 24, 1934, to October 6, 1937. It was sponsored by Palmolive soap and produced by Bill Bacher.
Nathaniel Shilkret directed the orchestra through July 1935, for a total of 70 broadcasts. Announcer Tiny Ruffner introduced "the Palmolive Players, with John Barclay as director and leading man." In addition, there were well known guest stars, with Gladys Swarthout appearing frequently.
== Productions ==
Productions included The Chocolate Soldier, Carmen, The Mikado, and Hit the Deck. A complete list of performances through July 1935 is in the archival edition of the Shilkret autobiography. Dunning wrote that the initial run "was a huge success, drawing an estimated 25 million people in its first year and tapering off sharply thereafter." A picture of Shilkret on page 12 of the November 1934 Radio Stars has the caption, "Nathaniel Shilkret, orchestra director of the Palmolive Beauty Box Theatre, the program that ranks first"; and this was the only program the magazine rated as five stars. As of April 1935, Radio Stars ranked the Palmolive Beauty Box as third and rated it four stars. Five broadcasts are in the Shilkret archives, and Hickerson reports that the Christmas 1934 broadcast is also extant.
Shilkret ended 20 years as a RCA Victor musician and executive in New York in mid-1935 to become a musical director and head of the music department at RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood, thus ending his affiliation with the Palmolive Beauty Box program.
== 1937 finale ==
Al Goodman was the musical director for Palmolive Beauty Box’s remaining two years. The format remained the same, except that in 1937 the length of the show was cut from 60 to 38 minutes, seriously eroding its quality. In 1937, the show switched from NBC Radio to CBS Radio. Jessica Dragonette starred on the show in 1937. Her agreement to appear on the Palmolive program ended her seven-year stint as star of the Cities Service Concerts on NBC and adversely affected her career as a radio star.
== See also ==
The Palmolive Hour (1927-1931)
== References ==
== External links ==
Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: Palmolive Beauty Box Theater |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blenheim_Palace | Blenheim Palace | Blenheim Palace ( BLEN-im) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough. Originally called Blenheim Castle, it has been known as Blenheim Palace since the 19th century. One of England's largest houses, it was built between 1705 and 1722, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The palace is named after the 1704 Battle of Blenheim. It was originally intended to be a reward to the 1st Duke of Marlborough for his military triumphs against the French and Bavarians in the War of the Spanish Succession, culminating in the Battle of Blenheim. The land was given as a gift, and construction began in 1705, with some financial support from Queen Anne. The project soon became the subject of political infighting, with the Crown cancelling further financial support in 1712, Marlborough's three-year voluntary exile to the Continent, the fall from influence of his duchess, and lasting damage to the reputation of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh.
Designed in the rare, and short-lived, English Baroque style, the palace receives architectural appreciation as divided today as it was in the 1720s. It is unique in its combined use as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The palace is notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill.
Following the palace's completion, it became the home of the Churchill (later Spencer-Churchill) family for the next 300 years, and various members of the family have wrought changes to the interiors, park and gardens. At the end of the 19th century, the palace was saved from ruin by funds gained from the 9th Duke of Marlborough's marriage to the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt.
== Origins and construction ==
=== Churchills ===
John Churchill was born in Devon. Although his family had aristocratic relations, it belonged to the minor gentry rather than the upper echelons of 17th-century society. In 1678, Churchill married Sarah Jennings, and in April that year, he was sent by Charles II to The Hague to negotiate a convention on the deployment of the English army in Flanders. The mission ultimately proved abortive. In May, Churchill was appointed to the temporary rank of Brigadier-General of Foot, but the possibility of a continental campaign was eliminated with the Treaty of Nijmegen.
When Churchill returned to England, the Popish Plot resulted in a temporary three-year banishment for James Stuart, Duke of York. The Duke obliged Churchill to attend him, first to The Hague, then in Brussels. For his services during the crisis, Churchill was made Lord Churchill of Eyemouth in the peerage of Scotland in 1682, and the following year appointed colonel of the King's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons.
On the death of Charles II in 1685, his brother, the Duke of York, became King James II. James had been Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company (today North America's oldest company, established by royal charter in 1670), and with his succession to the throne, Churchill was appointed the company's third ever governor. He also became Gentleman of the Bedchamber in April, and admitted to the English peerage as Baron Churchill of Sandridge in the county of Hertfordshire in May. Following the Monmouth Rebellion, Churchill was promoted to Major General and awarded the lucrative colonelcy of the Third Troop of Life Guards.
When William, Prince of Orange, invaded England in November 1688, Churchill, accompanied by some 400 officers and men, rode to join him in Axminster. When the King saw he could not even keep Churchill – for so long his loyal and intimate servant – he fled to France. As part of William III's coronation honours, Churchill was created Earl of Marlborough, sworn to the Privy Council, and made a Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber.
During the War of the Spanish Succession Churchill gained a reputation as a capable military commander, and in 1702 he was elevated to the dukedom of Marlborough. During the war he won a series of victories, including the Battle of Blenheim (1704), the Battle of Ramillies (1706), the Battle of Oudenarde (1708), and the Battle of Malplaquet (1709). For his victory at Blenheim, the Crown bestowed upon Marlborough the tenancy of the royal manor of Hensington (situated on the site of Woodstock) to site the new palace, and Parliament voted a substantial sum of money towards its creation. The rent or petit serjeanty due to the Crown for the land was set at the peppercorn rent or quit-rent of one copy of the French royal flag to be tendered to the Monarch annually on the anniversary of the Battle of Blenheim. This flag is displayed by the Monarch on a 17th-century French writing table in Windsor Castle.
Marlborough's wife was by all accounts a cantankerous woman, though capable of great charm. She had befriended the young Princess Anne and later, when the princess became Queen, the Duchess of Marlborough, as Her Majesty's Mistress of the Robes, exerted great influence over the Queen on both personal and political levels. The relationship between Queen and Duchess later became strained and fraught, and following their final quarrel in 1711, the money for the construction of Blenheim ceased. For political reasons the Marlboroughs went into exile on the Continent; they returned the day after the Queen's death on 1 August 1714.
=== Site ===
The estate given by the nation to Marlborough for the new house was the manor of Woodstock, sometimes called the Palace of Woodstock, which had been a royal demesne, in reality little more than a deer park. Legend has obscured the manor's origins. King Henry I enclosed the park to contain the deer. Henry II housed his mistress Rosamund Clifford (sometimes known as "Fair Rosamund") there in a "bower and labyrinth"; a spring in which she is said to have bathed remains, named after her.
It seems the unostentatious hunting lodge was rebuilt many times, and had an uneventful history until Elizabeth I, before her succession, was imprisoned there by her half-sister Mary I between 1554 and 1555. Elizabeth had been implicated in the Wyatt plot, but her imprisonment at Woodstock was short, and the manor remained in obscurity until bombarded and ruined by Oliver Cromwell's troops during the Civil War.
When the park was being re-landscaped as a setting for the house, the 1st Duchess wanted the historic ruins demolished, while Vanbrugh, an early conservationist, wanted them restored and made into a landscape feature. The Duchess, as so often in her disputes with her architect, won the day and the remains of the manor were swept away.
=== Architect ===
The architect selected for the ambitious project was a controversial one. The Duchess was known to favour Sir Christopher Wren, famous for St Paul's Cathedral and many other national buildings. The Duke however, following a chance meeting at a playhouse, is said to have commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh there and then. Vanbrugh, a popular dramatist, was an untrained architect, who usually worked in conjunction with the trained and practical Nicholas Hawksmoor. The duo had recently completed the first stages of the Baroque Castle Howard. This huge Yorkshire mansion was one of England's first houses in the flamboyant European Baroque style. The success of Castle Howard led Marlborough to commission something similar at Woodstock.
Blenheim, however, was not to provide Vanbrugh with the architectural plaudits he imagined it would. The fight over funding led to accusations of extravagance and impracticality of design, many of these charges levelled by the Whig factions in power. He found no defender in the Duchess of Marlborough. Having been foiled in her wish to employ Wren, she levelled criticism at Vanbrugh on every level, from design to taste. In part their problems arose from what was demanded of the architect. The nation (which was then assumed, by both architect and owners, to be paying the bills) wanted a monument, but the Duchess wanted not only a fitting tribute to her husband but also a comfortable home, two requirements that were not compatible in 18th-century architecture. Finally, in the early days of the building the Duke was frequently away on his military campaigns, and it was left to the Duchess to negotiate with Vanbrugh. More aware than her husband of the precarious state of the financial aid they were receiving, she criticised Vanbrugh's grandiose ideas for their extravagance.
Following their final altercation, Vanbrugh was banned from the site. In 1719, whilst the Duchess was away, Vanbrugh viewed the house in secret. However, when Vanbrugh's wife visited the completed Blenheim as a member of the viewing public in 1725, the Duchess refused to allow her even to enter the park.
Vanbrugh's severe massed Baroque used at Blenheim never truly caught the public imagination, and was quickly superseded by the revival of the Palladian style. Vanbrugh's reputation was irreparably damaged, and he received no further truly great public commissions. For his final design, Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland, which was hailed as his masterpiece, he used a refined version of the Baroque employed at Blenheim. He died shortly before its completion.
=== Funding the construction ===
The precise responsibility for the funding of the new house has always been a debatable subject, unresolved to this day. The house as a reward was mooted within months of the Battle of Blenheim, at a time when Marlborough was still to gain many further victories on behalf of the country. That a grateful nation led by Queen Anne wished and intended to give their national hero a suitable home is beyond doubt, but the exact size and nature of that house is questionable. A warrant dated 1705, signed by the parliamentary treasurer the Earl of Godolphin, appointed Vanbrugh as architect and outlined his remit. Unfortunately for the Churchills, nowhere did this warrant mention Queen or Crown.
The Duke of Marlborough contributed £60,000 to the initial cost when work commenced in 1705, which, supplemented by Parliament, should have built a monumental house. Parliament voted funds for the building of Blenheim, but no exact sum was mentioned nor provision for inflation or over-budget expenses. Almost from the outset, funding was spasmodic. Queen Anne paid something, but with growing reluctance and lapses following her frequent altercations with the Duchess. After their final argument in 1712, all state funds ceased and work came to a halt. £220,000 had already been spent and £45,000 was owed to workmen. The Marlboroughs were forced into exile on the Continent, and did not return until after the Queen's death in 1714.
On their return the Duke and Duchess came back into favour at court. The 64-year-old Duke now decided to complete the project at his own expense. In 1716 work resumed, but the project relied completely upon the limited means of the Duke himself. Harmony on the building site was short-lived, as in 1717 the Duke suffered a severe stroke, and the thrifty Duchess took control. The Duchess blamed Vanbrugh entirely for the growing costs and extravagance of the house, the design of which she had never liked. Following a meeting with the Duchess, Vanbrugh left the building site in a rage, insisting that the new masons, carpenters and craftsmen, brought in by the Duchess, were inferior to those he had employed. The master craftsmen he had patronised, however, such as Grinling Gibbons, refused to work for the lower rates paid by the Marlboroughs. The craftsmen brought in by the Duchess, under the guidance of furniture designer James Moore, and Vanbrugh's assistant architect Hawksmoor, completed the work in perfect imitation of the greater masters.
Following the Duke's death in 1722, completion of the house and its park became the Duchess's driving ambition. Vanbrugh's assistant Hawksmoor was recalled and in 1723 designed the "Arch of Triumph", based on the Arch of Titus, at the entrance to the park from Woodstock. Hawksmoor also completed the interior design of the library, the ceilings of many of the state rooms and other details in numerous other minor rooms, and various outbuildings.
Cutting rates of pay to workmen, and using lower-quality materials in unobtrusive places, the widowed Duchess completed the great house as a tribute to her late husband. The final date of completion is not known, but as late as 1735 the Duchess was haggling with Rysbrack over the cost of Queen Anne's statue placed in the library. In 1732 the Duchess wrote "The Chappel is finish'd and more than half the Tomb there ready to set up".
== Current design and architecture ==
Vanbrugh planned Blenheim in perspective; that is, to be best viewed from a distance. As the site covers some seven acres (2.8 hectares), this is also a necessity.
The plan of the palace's principal block (or corps de logis) is a rectangle (see plan) pierced by two courtyards; these serve as little more than light wells. Contained behind the southern façade are the principal state apartments; on the east side are the suites of private apartments of the Duke and Duchess, and on the west along the entire length of the piano nobile is given a long gallery originally conceived as a picture gallery, but is now the library. The corps de logis is flanked by two further service blocks around square courtyards (not shown in the plan). The east court contains the kitchens, laundry, and other domestic offices, the west court adjacent to the chapel the stables and indoor riding school.
The three blocks together form the "Great Court" designed to overpower the visitor arriving at the palace. Pilasters and pillars abound, while from the roofs, themselves resembling those of a small town, great statues in the Renaissance manner of St Peter's in Rome gaze down on the visitor below, who is rendered inconsequential. Other assorted statuary in the guise of martial trophies decorate the roofs, most notably Britannia standing atop the entrance pediment in front of two reclining chained French captives sculpted in the style of Michelangelo, and the English lion devouring the French cock, on the lower roofs. Many of these are by such masters as Grinling Gibbons.
In the design of great 18th-century houses comfort and convenience were subservient to magnificence, and this is certainly the case at Blenheim. This magnificence over creature comfort is heightened as the architect's brief was to create not only a home but also a national monument to reflect the power and civilisation of the nation. To create this monumental effect, Vanbrugh chose to design in a severe Baroque style, using great masses of stone to imitate strength and create shadow as decoration.
The solid and huge entrance portico on the north front resembles more the entrance to a pantheon than a family home. Vanbrugh also liked to employ what he called his "castle air", which he achieved by placing a low tower at each corner of the central block and crowning the towers with vast belvederes of massed stone, decorated with curious finials (disguising the chimneys). Coincidentally these towers, which hint at the pylons of an Egyptian temple, further add to the heroic pantheonesque atmosphere of the building.
The palace's grand entrance has two approache, one from the long straight drive through wrought iron gates directly into the Great Court, while another, equally if not more impressive, betrays Vanbrugh's true vision: the palace as a bastion or citadel, the true monument and home to a great warrior. Piercing the windowless, city-like curtain wall of the east court is the great East Gate, a monumental triumphal arch, more Egyptian in design than Roman. An optical illusion was created by tapering its walls to create an impression of even greater height. Confounding those who accuse Vanbrugh of impracticality, this gate is also the palace's water tower. Through the arch of the gate one views across the courtyard a second equally massive gate, that beneath the clock tower, through which one glimpses the Great Court.
This view of the Duke as an omnipotent being is also reflected in the interior design of the palace, and indeed its axis to certain features in the park. It was planned that when the Duke dined in state in his place of honour in the great saloon, he would be the climax of a great procession of architectural mass aggrandising him rather like a proscenium. The line of celebration and honour of his victorious life began with the great column of victory surmounted by his statue and detailing his triumphs, and the next point on the great axis, planted with trees in the position of troops, was the epic Roman style bridge. The approach continues through the great portico into the hall, its ceiling painted by James Thornhill with the Duke's apotheosis, then on under a great triumphal arch, through the huge marble door-case with the Duke's marble effigy above it (bearing the ducal plaudit "Nor could Augustus better calm mankind"), and into the painted saloon, the most highly decorated room in the palace, where the Duke was to have sat enthroned.
The Duke was to have sat with his back to the great 30-tonne marble bust of his vanquished foe Louis XIV, positioned high above the south portico. Here the defeated King was humiliatingly forced to look down on the great parterre and spoils of his conqueror (rather in the same way as severed heads were displayed generations earlier). The Duke did not live long enough to see this majestic tribute realised, and sit enthroned in this architectural vision. The Duke and Duchess moved into their apartments on the eastern side of the palace, but the entirety was not completed until after the Duke's death.
The palace has been Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England since August 1957.
=== Palace chapel ===
The palace chapel, as a consequence of the Duke's death, now obtained even greater importance. The design was altered by the Marlboroughs' friend the Earl of Godolphin, who placed the high altar in defiance of religious convention against the west wall, thus allowing the dominating feature to be the Duke's gargantuan tomb and sarcophagus. Commissioned by the Duchess in 1730, it was designed by William Kent, and statues of the Duke and Duchess depicted as Caesar and Caesarina adorn the great sarcophagus. In bas relief at the base of the tomb, the Duchess ordered to be depicted the surrender of Marshal Tallard. However, the theme throughout the palace of honouring the Duke did not reach its apotheosis until the dowager duchess's death in 1744. Then, the Duke's coffin was returned to Blenheim from its temporary resting place, Westminster Abbey, and husband and wife were interred together and the tomb erected and completed. Now Blenheim had indeed become a pantheon and mausoleum. Successive Dukes and their wives are also interred in the vault beneath the chapel. Other members of family are interred in St. Martin's parish churchyard at Bladon, a short distance from the palace.
== Interior ==
The internal layout of the rooms of the central block at Blenheim was defined by the court etiquette of the day. State apartments were designed as an axis of rooms of increasing importance and public use, leading to the chief room. The larger houses, like Blenheim, had two sets of state apartments each mirroring each other. The grandest and most public and important was the central saloon ("B" in the plan) which served as the communal state dining room. To either side of the saloon are suites of state apartments, decreasing in importance but increasing in privacy: the first room ("C") would have been an audience chamber for receiving important guests, the next room ("L") a private withdrawing room, the next room ("M") would have been the bedroom of the occupier of the suite, thus the most private.
One of the small rooms between the bedroom and the internal courtyard was intended as a dressing room. This arrangement is reflected on the other side of the saloon. The state apartments were intended for use by only the most important guests such as a visiting sovereign. On the left (east) side of the plan on either side of the bow room (marked "O") can be seen a smaller but nearly identical layout of rooms, which were the suites of the Duke and Duchess themselves. Thus, the bow room corresponds exactly to the saloon in terms of its importance to the two smaller suites.
Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of the 1st Duke's famous descendant, Winston Churchill, whose life and times are commemorated by a permanent exhibition in the suite of rooms in which he was born (marked "K" on the plan). Blenheim Palace was designed with all its principal and secondary rooms on the piano nobile, thus there is no great staircase of state: anyone worthy of such state would have no cause to leave the piano nobile. Insofar as Blenheim does have a grand staircase, it is the series of steps in the Great Court which lead to the North Portico. There are staircases of various sizes and grandeur in the central block, but none are designed on the same scale of magnificence as the palace. James Thornhill painted the ceiling of the hall in 1716. It depicts Marlborough kneeling to Britannia and proffering a map of the Battle of Blenheim. The hall is 67 ft (20 m) high, and remarkable chiefly for its size and for its stone carvings by Gibbons, yet in spite of its immense size it is merely a vast anteroom to the saloon.
The saloon was also to have been painted by Thornhill, but the Duchess suspected him of overcharging, so the commission was given to Louis Laguerre. This room is an example of three-dimensional painting, or trompe l'œil, "trick-the-eye", a fashionable painting technique at the time. The Peace Treaty of Utrecht was about to be signed, so all the elements in the painting represent the coming of peace. The domed ceiling is an allegorical representation of Peace: John Churchill is in the chariot, he holds a zigzag thunderbolt of war, and the woman who holds back his arm represents Peace. The walls depict all the nations of the world who have come together peacefully. Laguerre also included a self-portrait placing himself next to Dean Jones, chaplain to the 1st Duke, another enemy of the Duchess, although she tolerated him in the household because he could play a good hand at cards. To the right of the doorway leading into the first stateroom, Laguerre included the French spies, said to have big ears and eyes because they may still be spying. Of the four marble door-cases in the room displaying the Duke's crest as a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, only one is by Gibbons, the other three were copied indistinguishably by the Duchess's cheaper craftsmen.
The third remarkable room is the long library designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1722–1725, (H), 183 ft (56 m) long, which was intended as a picture gallery. The ceiling has saucer domes, which were to have been painted by Thornhill, had the Duchess not upset him. The palace, and in particular this room, was furnished with the many valuable artefacts the Duke had been given, or sequestered as the spoils of war, including a fine art collection. Here in the library, rewriting history in her own indomitable style, the Duchess set up a larger than life statue of Queen Anne, its base recording their friendship.
From the northern end of the library—in which is housed the largest pipe organ in private ownership in Europe, built by England's great organ builder Henry Willis & Sons—access is obtained to the raised colonnade which leads to the chapel (H). The chapel is perfectly balanced on the eastern side of the palace by the vaulted kitchen. This symmetrical balancing and equal weight given to both spiritual and physical nourishment would no doubt have appealed to Vanbrugh's renowned sense of humour, if not the Duchess'. The distance of the kitchen from even the private dining room ("O" on the plan) was obviously of no consideration, hot food being of less importance than to avoid having to inhale the odour of cooking and proximity of servants.
== Pipe organs ==
The Long Library organ was built in 1891 by the famous London firm of Henry Willis & Sons at a cost of £3,669. It replaced a previous organ built in 1888 by Isaac Abbott of Leeds, which was removed to St Swithun's church, Hither Green. Originally erected in the central bay, with its back to the water terraces, the Norwich firm of Norman & Beard moved it to the northwestern end of the library in 1902 and made a few tonal additions and, the following year, cleaned it. No further changes were made until 1930, when the Willis firm lowered the pitch to modern concert pitch: a Welte automatic player was added in 1931, with 70 rolls cut by Marcel Dupré, Joseph Bonnet, Alfred Hollins, Edwin Lemare and Harry Goss-Custard also being supplied. This remained in use for some time: the Duke of the time is said to have frequently sat at the organ bench and pretended to play the organ to his guests and they would applaud at the end. This practice is said to have been halted abruptly when the player started before the Duke had reached the organ. This famous instrument is regularly maintained and is played by visiting organists throughout the year, but as of 2013 its condition is declining: a fundraising campaign has been launched for its complete restoration.
The organ in the chapel was built circa 1853 by Robert Postill of York: it is notable as a rare unaltered example of this fine builder's work, speaking boldly and clearly into a generous acoustic.
== Park and gardens ==
Blenheim sits in the centre of a large undulating park, a classic example of the English landscape garden movement and style. When Vanbrugh first cast his eyes over it in 1704 he immediately conceived a typically grandiose plan: through the park trickled the small River Glyme, and Vanbrugh envisaged this marshy brook traversed by the "finest bridge in Europe". Thus, ignoring the second opinion offered by Sir Christopher Wren, the marsh was channelled into three small canal-like streams and across it rose a bridge of huge proportions, so huge it was reported to contain some 30-odd rooms. While the bridge was indeed an amazing wonder, in this setting it appeared incongruous, causing Alexander Pope to comment: "the minnows, as under this vast arch they pass, murmur, 'how like whales we look, thanks to your Grace.'"
Horace Walpole saw it in 1760, shortly before Capability Brown's improvements: "the bridge, like the beggars at the old duchess's gate, begs for a drop of water and is refused." Another of Vanbrugh's schemes was the great parterre, nearly half a mile long (800 m) and as wide as the south front. Also in the park, completed after the 1st Duke's death, is the Column of Victory. It is 134 ft (41 m) high and terminates a great avenue of elms leading to the palace, which were planted in the positions of Marlborough's troops at the Battle of Blenheim. Vanbrugh had wanted an obelisk to mark the site of the former royal manor, and the trysts of Henry II which had taken place there, causing the 1st Duchess to remark: "If there were obelisks to bee made of all what our Kings have done of that sort, the countrey would bee stuffed with very odd things" (sic). The obelisk was never realised.
Following the 1st Duke's death, the Duchess concentrated most of her considerable energies on the completion of the palace itself, and the park remained relatively unchanged until the arrival of Capability Brown in 1764. The 4th Duke employed Brown who immediately began an English landscape garden scheme to naturalise and enhance the landscape, with tree planting and man-made undulations. However, the feature with which he is forever associated is the lake, a huge stretch of water created by damming the River Glyme and ornamented by a series of cascades where the river flows in and out. The lake was narrowed at the point of Vanbrugh's grand bridge, but the three small canal-like streams trickling underneath it were completely absorbed by one river-like stretch. Brown's great achievement at this point was to actually flood and submerge beneath the water level the lower stories and rooms of the bridge itself, thus reducing its incongruous height and achieving what is regarded by many as the epitome of an English landscape. Brown also grassed over the great parterre and the Great Court. The latter was re-paved by Duchêne in the early 20th century. The 5th Duke was responsible for several other garden follies and novelties.
Sir William Chambers, assisted by John Yenn, was responsible for the small summerhouse known as "The Temple of Diana" down by the lake, where in 1908 Winston Churchill proposed to his future wife.
The extensive landscaped park, woodlands and formal gardens of Blenheim are Grades I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Blenheim Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
== History ==
=== Failing fortunes ===
On the death of the 1st Duke in 1722, as both his sons were dead, he was succeeded by his daughter Henrietta. This was an unusual succession and required a special Act of Parliament, as only sons can usually succeed to an English dukedom. When Henrietta died, the title passed to Marlborough's grandson Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, whose mother was Marlborough's second daughter Anne.
The 1st Duke, as a soldier, was not a rich man and what fortune he possessed was mostly used for finishing the palace. In comparison with other British ducal families, the Marlboroughs were not very wealthy. Yet they existed quite comfortably until the time of the 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766–1840), a spendthrift who considerably depleted the family's remaining fortune. He was eventually forced to sell other family estates, but Blenheim was safe from him as it was entailed. This did not prevent him from selling the Marlboroughs' Boccaccio for a mere £875 and his own library in over 4000 lots. On his death in 1840, his profligacy left the estate and family with financial problems.
By the 1870s, the Marlboroughs were in severe financial trouble and in 1875 the 7th Duke sold the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, together with the famed Marlborough gems, at auction for £10,000. However, this was not enough to save the family. In 1880, the 7th Duke was forced to petition Parliament to break the protective entail on the Palace and its contents. This was achieved under the Blenheim Settled Estates Act 1880 and the door was now open for wholesale dispersal of Blenheim and its contents. The first victim was the great Sunderland Library which was sold in 1882, including such volumes as The Epistles of Horace, printed at Caen in 1480, and the works of Josephus, printed at Verona in 1648. The 18,000 volumes raised almost £60,000. The sales continued to denude the palace: Raphael's Ansidei Madonna was sold for £70,000; Van Dyck's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I realised £17,500; and finally, the "pièce de résistance" of the collection, Peter Paul Rubens' Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment, and Their Son Peter Paul, and Their Son Frans (1633–1678), which had been given by the city of Brussels to the 1st Duke in 1704, was also sold, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
These sums of money, vast by the standards of the day, failed to cover the debts and the maintenance of the great palace remained beyond the Marlboroughs' resources. These had always been small in relation to their ducal rank and the size of their house. The British agricultural depression, which started in the 1870s, added to the family's problems. When the 9th Duke inherited in 1892, the land was generating dwindling income.
=== 9th Duke of Marlborough ===
Charles, 9th Duke of Marlborough (1871–1934) can be credited with saving both the palace and the family. Inheriting the near-bankrupt dukedom in 1892, he was forced to find a quick and drastic solution to the problems. Prevented by the strict social dictates of late 19th-century society from earning money, he was left with one solution: he had to marry into money. In November 1895 he coldly and openly without love married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt.
The marriage was celebrated following lengthy negotiations with her divorced parents: her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, was desperate to see her daughter a duchess, and the bride's father, William Vanderbilt, paid for the privilege. The final price was $2,500,000 ($94.5 million today) in 50,000 shares of the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway Company with a minimum 4% dividend guaranteed by the New York Central Railroad Company. The couple were given a further annual income each of $100,000 for life.
The teenage Consuelo had been locked in her room by her mother until she agreed to the marriage. The marriage settlement was actually signed in the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, immediately after the wedding vows had been made. In the carriage leaving the church, Marlborough told Consuelo he loved another woman, and would never return to America, as he "despised anything that was not British".
The replenishing of Blenheim began on the honeymoon itself, with the replacement of the Marlborough gems. Tapestries, paintings and furniture were bought in Europe to fill the depleted palace. On their return, the Duke began an exhaustive restoration and redecoration of the palace. The staterooms to the west of the saloon were redecorated with gilt boiseries in imitation of Versailles. Vanbrugh's subtle rivalry to Louis XIV's great palace was now completely undermined, as the interiors became mere pastiches of those of the greater palace.
While this redecoration may not have been without fault (and the Duke later regretted it), other improvements were better received. Another problem caused by the redecoration was that the state and principal bedrooms were now moved upstairs, thus rendering the staterooms an enfilade of rather similar and meaningless drawing rooms. On the west terrace, the French landscape architect Achille Duchêne was employed to create a water garden. On a second terrace below this were placed two great fountains in the style of Bernini, scaled models of those in the Piazza Navona which had been presented to the 1st Duke.
Blenheim was once again a place of wonder and prestige. However, Consuelo was far from happy; she records many of her problems in her cynical and often less than candid biography The Glitter and the Gold (1956). In 1906 she shocked society and left her husband. They divorced in 1921. She married a Frenchman, Jacques Balsan in 1921. She died in 1964, having lived to see her son become Duke of Marlborough. She frequently returned to Blenheim, the house she had hated and yet saved, albeit as the unwilling sacrifice.
After his divorce the Duke married again, to an American former friend of Consuelo, Gladys Deacon, who was of an artistic disposition, and a painting of her eyes remains on the ceiling of the great north portico (see secondary lead image). A lower terrace was decorated with sphinxes modelled on Gladys and executed by W. Ward Willis in 1930. Before her marriage, while staying with the Marlboroughs, she caused a diplomatic incident by encouraging the young Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany to form an attachment with her.
The prince had given her an heirloom ring, which the combined diplomatic services of two empires were charged to recover. After her marriage, Gladys was in the habit of dining with the Duke with a revolver by the side of her plate. Tiring of her, the Duke was temporarily forced to close Blenheim, and turn off the utilities to drive her out. They subsequently separated but did not divorce. The Duke died in 1934. His widow died in 1977.
=== 10th Duke of Marlborough ===
The 9th Duke was succeeded by his and Consuelo Vanderbilt's eldest son, John, 10th Duke of Marlborough (1897–1972), who married to the Hon. Alexandra Mary Cadogan in 1920. Together they had two sons and three daughters. She died in 1961, and after eleven years as a widower he remarried at the age of 74 to (Frances) Laura Charteris, formerly the wife of the 2nd Viscount Long and the 3rd Earl of Dudley, and granddaughter of the 11th Earl of Wemyss. The marriage was short-lived, however; the Duke died just six weeks later, on 11 March 1972. The bereaved Duchess complained of "the gloom and inhospitality of Blenheim" after his death and soon moved out. In her autobiography, Laughter from a Cloud (1980), she referred to Blenheim Palace as "The Dump". She died in London in 1990.
=== Second World War ===
==== Coming-out party ====
The coming-out party held for the 17 year-old Lady Sarah Consuelo Spencer-Churchill at Blenheim Palace on 7 July 1939 was considered to be the highlight of the social season, and in hindsight has been styled by some as "the last season ever".
Over 700 guests attended, including Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Ian Fleming, and a 22-year-old John F. Kennedy. The house and gardens were lit up and visible for miles (kilometers), and the Ambrose band played in a pavilion, as the guests danced on the vast lawn into the early morning.
Socialite Henry (Chips) Channon noted in his diary: "I have seen much, travelled far and am accustomed to splendour, but there has never been anything like tonight."
==== Evacuees ====
During the war, the 10th Duke welcomed the boys from Malvern College as evacuees. In September 1940, the Security Service (MI5) was allowed to use the palace as its base until the end of the war.
=== 11th Duke of Marlborough ===
John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, (13 April 1926 – 16 October 2014) was a British peer. He was the elder son of the 10th Duke of Marlborough and his wife, the Hon. Alexandra Mary Hilda Cadogan. He was known as "Sunny" after his courtesy title of Earl of Sunderland. He was ranked 224th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2004, with an estimated wealth of £185 million.
In 1972, on inheriting the Dukedom of Marlborough, he assumed the management of Blenheim Palace and the Blenheim estate. To fund the maintenance of the house, he opened it to visitors and as a film set, and established a number of businesses, including a garden furniture company and a water bottling plant.
He was also active in a range of organisations, including the Thames and Chilterns Tourist Board and Oxford United Football Club. He served as vice-president of the Witney Conservative Association, the local party of David Cameron. He died in 2014 at the age of 88.
=== The palace today ===
The palace remains the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, the present incumbent being Charles James (Jamie) Spencer-Churchill, 12th Duke of Marlborough. Charles James succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his father, the 11th duke on 16 October 2014. As of October 2016, the Marlboroughs still tender a copy of the French royal flag to the monarch on the anniversary of the Battle of Blenheim as rent for the land that Blenheim Palace stands on.
The palace, park, and gardens are open to the public on payment of an entry fee (maximum £32, as of September 2022). Several tourist entertainment attractions separate from the palace are the Formal and Walled Gardens, Marlborough Maze and the Butterfly House. The palace is linked to the Walled Garden by a miniature railway, the Blenheim Park Railway.
The public have free access to about five miles (8 km) of public rights of way through the Great Park area of the grounds, which are accessible from Old Woodstock and from the Oxfordshire Way, and which are close to the Column of Victory.
Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, the brother of the current Duke, founded Blenheim Art Foundation (BAF), a non-profit organisation, to present large-scale contemporary art exhibitions within the historic setting of the palace. BAF launched on 1 October 2014 with the UK's largest ever exhibition by Ai Weiwei. In September 2019, during an exhibition of the work of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, thieves entered the palace and stole America, a toilet constructed in 18-carat gold and valued at £4.75 million, which had been installed in one of Blenheim's bathrooms. The artwork was not recovered.
Blenheim Palace is a frequent location for filming. A survey in 2021 noted that Blenheim made 71 appearances in film and television, more than for any other English country house. The site offers a tour of the various filming locations.
In July 2024, the palace was the venue for the 4th summit of the European Political Community.
== See also ==
Blenheim Palace in film and media
List of Baroque residences
Noble Households – book with Blenheim Palace inventory of 1740
== Footnotes ==
== References ==
Bingham, Jane (2015). The Cotswolds: A Cultural History. Signal Books. ISBN 978-1909930223.
Colvin, Howard (2007). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840 (4th ed.). New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12508-5.
Cooper, Dana (2014), Informal Ambassadors: American Women, Transatlantic Marriages, and Anglo-American Relations, 1865–1945., The Kent State University Press, ISBN 9781612778365 – via Project MUSE
Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). World Architecture. London: Hamlyn.
Dal Lago, Adalbert (1966). Ville Antiche. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori.
Downes, Kerry (1979). Hawksmoor. London: Thames & Hudson.
Downes, Kerry (1987). Sir John Vanbrugh: A Biography. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 9780283994975.
Field, Ophelia (2002). The Favourite: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-76808-8.
Games, Stephen (2014). Pevsner: The Complete Broadcast Talks: Architecture and Art on Radio and Television, 1945–1977. Routledge. ISBN 978-1409461975.
Girouard, Mark (1978). Life in the English Country House. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300022735.
Green, David Brontë (1982) [1950]. Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Oxford: Alden Press.
Halliday, F. E. (1967). An Illustrated Cultural History of England. London: Thames & Hudson.
Harlin, Robert (1969). Historic Houses. London: Condé Nast Publications.
Mavor, William Fordyce (2010) [1787]. Blenheim, a poem. Gale Ecco. ISBN 978-1170457344.
Pevsner, Nikolaus; Sherwood, Jennifer (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 459–475. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
Purcell, Mark (2019). The Country House Library. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24868-5.
Spencer-Churchill, The Lady Henrietta (2013). Blenheim and the Churchill Family – A personal portrait of one of the most important buildings in Europe. CICO Books. ISBN 978-1782490593.
Tintner, Adeline R. (2015). Edith Wharton in Context: Essays on Intertextuality. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-5840-2.
Turner, Roger (1999). Capability Brown and the Eighteenth century English Landscape (2nd ed.). Chichester: Phillimore.
Vanderbilt, Arthur II (1989). Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. London: Michael Joseph.
Vanderbilt Balsan, Consuelo (2012) [1953]. The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess—In Her Own Words. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1250017185.
Watkin, David (1979). English Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson.
== Further reading ==
Conniff, Richard (February 2001). "The House that John Built". Smithsonian Journeys. Archived from the original on 2 October 2002.
Cornforth, John (2004). Early Georgian Interiors. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. pp. 275–9. ISBN 978-0-30-010330-4. OCLC 938151474.
Murdoch, Tessa (ed.) (2006). Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses. A Tribute to John Cornforth. Cambridge: John Adamson, pp. 273–83. ISBN 978-0-9524322-5-8. OCLC 78044620.
Scholl, Andreas (1995). Die antiken Skulpturen in Farnborough Hall sowie in Althorp House, Blenheim Palace, Lyme Park und Penrice Castle. Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Great Britain. Vol. 3, 7. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. ISBN 3-8053-1738-7.
Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1981). "Excesses of the Rich and Wealthy: The Vanderbilts". The People's Almanac.
== External links ==
Official website
Churchill by Oswald Birley – UK Parliament Living Heritage
Blenheim Art Foundation
Blenheim Palace at Cotswolds Website
"Blenheim Palace, Blenheim, Oxfordshire Gallery". Historic England Archive.
"Blenheim Palace (Blenheim House) (Blenheim Castle) (Woodstock Manor)". The DiCamillo Companion. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia%E2%80%93Europe_Meeting#ASEM_Transport_Ministers'_Meetings_(ASEMTMM) | Asia–Europe Meeting | The Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an Asian–European political dialogue forum to enhance relations and various forms of cooperation between its partners.
It was officially established on 1 March 1996 at the 1st ASEM Summit (ASEM1) in Bangkok, Thailand, by the then 15 Member States of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission, the then 7 Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the individual countries of China, Japan, and South Korea. A series of enlargements saw additional EU Member States join as well as India, Mongolia, Pakistan and the ASEAN Secretariat in 2008, Australia, New Zealand and Russia in 2010, Bangladesh, Norway, and Switzerland in 2012, as well as Croatia, and Kazakhstan in 2014.
The main components of the ASEM Process rest on the following 3 pillars:
Political Pillar
Economic & Financial Pillar
Social, Cultural & Educational Pillar
In general, the ASEM Process is considered by the Partners involved to be a way of deepening the relations between Asia and Europe at all levels, which is deemed necessary to achieve a more balanced political and economic world order. The process is enhanced by the biennial meetings of Heads of State and Government, alternately in Asia and Europe, and biennial meetings of Foreign Ministers as well as other Ministerial Meetings, and other political, economic, and socio-cultural events at various levels.
== Partners ==
The ASEM Partnership currently has 53 Partners: 51 countries and 2 regional organisations. The countries are Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam while the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat are the regional organisations involved.
== Meetings ==
=== ASEM Summits ===
Biennial Summits are held alternating between Asia and Europe, attended by the Heads of State and Government of the respective partner countries and organisations:
ASEM13: 25–26 November 2021, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
ASEM12: 18–19 October 2018, Brussels, Belgium
ASEM11: 15–16 July 2016, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
ASEM10: 16–17 October 2014, Milan, Italy
ASEM9: 05–06 November 2012, Vientiane, Laos
ASEM8: 04–05 October 2010, Brussels, Belgium
ASEM7: 24–25 October 2008, Beijing, China
ASEM6: 10–11 September 2006, Helsinki, Finland
ASEM5: 08–09 October 2004, Hanoi, Vietnam
ASEM4 Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine: 22–24 September 2002, Copenhagen, Denmark
ASEM3: 20–21 October 2000, Seoul, South Korea
ASEM2: 03–04 April 1998, London, United Kingdom
ASEM1: 01–02 March 1996, Bangkok, Thailand
=== ASEM Ministerial Meetings ===
Aside from Summits, regular Ministerial Meetings are held on foreign affairs, financial, cultural, economic, educational, labor and employment, transport, or environmental issues, attended by the relevant ministers:
==== ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meetings (ASEMFMM) ====
ASEMFMM14 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 15-16 December 2019, Madrid, Spain
ASEMFMM13: 20–21 November 2017, Naypyidaw, Myanmar
ASEMFMM12: 05–06 November 2015, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
ASEMFMM11 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 11–12 November 2013, New Delhi, India
ASEMFMM10 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 06–07 June 2011, Gödöllő, Hungary
ASEMFMM9 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 25–26 May 2009, Hanoi, Vietnam
ASEMFMM8 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 28–29 May 2007, Hamburg, Germany
ASEMFMM7 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 06–07 May 2005, Kyoto, Japan
ASEMFMM6 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 17–18 April 2004, Kildare, Ireland
ASEMFMM5 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 23–24 July 2003, Bali, Indonesia
ASEMFMM4 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 06–07 June 2002, Madrid, Spain
ASEMFMM3 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 24–25 May 2001, Beijing, China
ASEMFMM2 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 29 March 1999, Berlin, Germany
ASEMFMM1 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 15 February 1997, Singapore
==== ASEM Finance Ministers' Meetings (ASEMFinMM) ====
ASEMFinMM14: 2020, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ASEMFinMM13 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 26 April 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria
ASEMFinMM12 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 09–10 June 2016, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
ASEMFinMM11 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 11–12 September 2014, Milan, Italy
ASEMFinMM10 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 15 October 2012, Bangkok, Thailand
ASEMFinMM9 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 17–18 April 2010, Madrid, Spain
ASEMFinMM8 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 16 June 2008, Jeju, South Korea
ASEMFinMM7 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 08–09 April 2006, Vienna, Austria
ASEMFinMM6 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 25–26 June 2005, Tianjin, China
ASEMFinMM5 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 05–06 July 2003, Bali, Indonesia
ASEMFinMM4 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 05–06 July 2002, Copenhagen, Denmark
ASEMFinMM3 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 13–14 January 2001, Kobe, Japan
ASEMFinMM2 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 15–16 September 1999, Frankfurt, Germany
ASEMFinMM1 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 19 September 1997, Bangkok, Thailand
==== ASEM Culture Ministers' Meetings (ASEMCMM) ====
ASEMCMM9: 2020, Asia
ASEMCMM8: 01-02 March 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria
ASEMCMM7 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 22–24 June 2016, Gwangju, South Korea
ASEMCMM6 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 20–21 October 2014, Rotterdam, Netherlands
ASEMCMM5: 18–19 September 2012, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
ASEMCMM4: 08–10 September 2010, Poznań, Poland
ASEMCMM3: 21–24 April 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ASEMCMM2: 06–07 June 2005, Paris, France
ASEMCMM1: 03 December 2003, Beijing, China
==== ASEM Economic Ministers' Meetings (ASEMEMM) ====
ASEMEMM7: 21–22 September 2017, Seoul, South Korea
High-level Meeting: 16-17 September 2005, Rotterdam, Netherlands
ASEMEMM5: 23–24 July 2003, Dalian, China
ASEMEMM4: 18–19 September 2002, Copenhagen, Denmark
ASEMEMM3: 10–11 September 2001, Hanoi, Vietnam
ASEMEMM2: 09–10 October 1999, Berlin, Germany
ASEMEMM1: 27–28 September 1997, Makuhari, Japan
==== ASEM Education Ministers' Meetings (ASEMME) ====
ASEMME9: 25-26 January 2024, Valletta, Malta
ASEMME8: 15 December 2021, Bangkok (online), Thailand
ASEMME7 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 15-16 May 2019, Bucharest, Romania
ASEMME6: 21–22 November 2017, Seoul, South Korea
ASEMME5: 27–28 April 2015, Riga, Latvia
ASEMME4: 12–14 May 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ASEMME3: 09–10 May 2011, Copenhagen, Denmark
ASEMME2: 14–15 May 2009, Hanoi, Vietnam
ASEMME1: 05–06 May 2008, Berlin, Germany
==== ASEM Labour & Employment Ministers' Conferences (ASEMLEMC) ====
ASEMLEMC5 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 03–04 December 2015, Sofia, Bulgaria
ASEMLEMC4: 24–26 October 2012, Hanoi, Vietnam
ASEMLEMC3: 12–14 December 2010, Leiden, Netherlands
ASEMLEMC2: 13–15 October 2008, Bali, Indonesia
ASEMLEMC1: 03 September 2006, Potsdam, Germany
==== ASEM Transport Ministers' Meetings (ASEMTMM) ====
ASEMTMM5 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 11-12 December 2019, Budapest, Hungary
ASEMTMM4 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 26–28 September 2017, Bali, Indonesia
ASEMTMM3 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 29–30 April 2015, Riga, Latvia
ASEMTMM2: 24–25 October 2011, Chengdu, China
ASEMTMM1 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 19–20 October 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania
==== ASEM Environment Ministers' Meetings (ASEMEnvMM) ====
ASEMEnvMM4 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 22–23 May 2012, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
ASEMEnvMM3 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 23–26 April 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark
ASEMEnvMM2 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 12–13 October 2003, Lecce, Italy
ASEMEnvMM1 Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: 17 January 2002, Beijing, China
==== ASEM Ministerial Conference on Energy Security (ASEMESMC) ====
ASEMESMC1: 17–18 June 2009, Brussels, Belgium
== See also ==
ASEM Education Process
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the only permanently established institution under the ASEM framework
European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Summit
== References ==
== External links ==
ASEM InfoBoard, the official information platform of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)
Introduction to the Asia-Europe Meeting
ASEM in Its Tenth Year: Looking Forward, Looking Back Archived 21 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine
Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF)
Asia-Europe Labour Forum (AELF)
ASEM Education Secretariat (AES)
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the only permanently established institution under the ASEM framework
ASEF Classroom Network (ASEF ClassNet)
Asia-Europe Museum Network (ASEMUS) Archived 1 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
ASEF University Alumni Network (ASEFUAN)
Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Tylee_Ryan_and_J._J._Vallow | Murders of Tylee Ryan and J. J. Vallow | The Vallow–Daybell doomsday murders consist of a series of killings—including child murder, filicide, and spousal murder—committed by an American couple, Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell. Chad and Lori led a Mormon religious sect described in the media as a "doomsday cult." The murders started when Lori's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona. Next, Lori's daughter, Tylee Ryan (16), and adopted son, Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow (7), disappeared from their home in Rexburg, Idaho on September 9 and 23, 2019, respectively. Their remains were found on June 9, 2020. They had been buried on a property owned by Chad, who was Lori's lover at the time of their deaths and had become her husband by the time their bodies were found. On October 2, 2019, Lori's nephew-in-law Brandon Boudreaux survived a murder attempt in Gilbert, Arizona. On October 19, Chad Daybell's wife Tammy was murdered at their home in Rexburg. Lori's brother Alex Cox, who is believed by authorities to have participated in all the crimes, died before he could be brought to trial.
At the time of the murders, Chad and Lori were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). However, their beliefs had deviated significantly from mainstream Mormonism. Chad was an apocalyptic author and publisher who claimed to have visions of the future and to have lived through multiple past lives, and prophesied the world would end in July 2020. Lori had come to share his fringe beliefs; she became convinced that she was a deity destined to play a role in the coming apocalypse and that her family was getting in the way of her mission. Lori was later nicknamed "Doomsday Mom" by the media.
The case was set in motion by the children's disappearances. Tylee was last seen alive on September 8, 2019, and J.J. on September 22, 2019. In late November 2019, after police questioned Lori about J.J.'s whereabouts, she and Chad abruptly vacated their homes in Idaho and left for Hawaii. As police searched for J.J., they discovered that Tylee was also missing. Investigations revealed that Tylee and J.J.'s disappearances had been preceded and followed by the suspicious deaths of Lori and Chad's respective spouses and by the attempt on Brandon Boudreaux's life. Lori and Chad had married two weeks after the death of Chad's first wife Tammy. After the children's disappearances became known, Tammy's body was exhumed by law enforcement. She was autopsied and her death was ruled a homicide.
On February 20, 2020, Lori was arrested for desertion and non-support of her children. On June 9, police discovered the remains of Tylee and J. J. during a search at Chad's property. Chad was then arrested. On May 25, 2021, he and Lori were charged with the first-degree murders of Tylee, J.J., and Tammy. Prosecutors said that the couple had conspired with Cox to commit the murders as part of their apocalyptic beliefs, but also to remove obstacles to their affair and to collect life insurance money and the children's Social Security benefits, using religion to justify their crimes.
Lori and Chad were tried separately. On May 12, 2023, Lori was found guilty of all charges related to the killings of Tylee, J.J., and Tammy. On July 31, she was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On May 30, 2024, Chad was also found guilty of all charges. On June 1, he was sentenced to death. After her sentencing in Idaho, Lori was extradited to Arizona to stand trial there twice, first for the murder of Charles Vallow and then for the attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux. Lori acted as her own attorney during both of her Arizona trials, causing multiple incidents with the court. On April 22, 2025, she was found guilty of conspiring to murder Charles Vallow. On June 12, she was found guilty of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux. On July 25, she was given two additional life sentences. Both Chad and Lori have appealed their sentencings.
== Background ==
=== Chad Daybell ===
Chad Guy Daybell was born on August 11, 1968, in Provo, Utah, to a Mormon family and grew up in the neighboring city of Springville. He was accepted and enrolled at Brigham Young University (BYU) after high school. One year into college, he applied to be a missionary, for which he spent two years in New Jersey. He then resumed his studies and graduated from BYU with a B.A. in journalism. Chad married Tamara "Tammy" Douglas on March 9, 1990; they had five children.
Chad worked for a time as a copy editor for the Ogden Standard-Examiner. At various times during and after his studies, he supported himself by working as a gravedigger, then as the cemetery sexton for Springville.
Chad's first religion-themed novel, An Errand for Emma, was published in 1999 by the Springville-based publisher Cedar Fort, Inc. He eventually left his employment at the cemetery to focus on his writing. In 2001, he published One Foot in the Grave, a non-fiction book that chronicled his experiences working in cemeteries. In 2004, Chad and his wife founded Spring Creek Book Company, which he used to self-publish his beliefs regarding the end times as well as other religion-themed books aimed at a Mormon audience.
By the end of the 2000s, the Daybells were facing financial problems. At that time, Chad's publishing business provided an annual income of approximately $2,000. Both spouses had to work part-time jobs to supplement that income, with Chad being employed again as a cemetery sexton. Eventually, Chad salvaged his company and found an audience among people concerned by the Second Coming of Jesus, becoming a popular author and speaker in some radical Mormon circles. He published dozens of fiction and non-fiction books, by himself or other authors.
Chad's novels often depicted apocalyptic situations and dystopian futures, and featured characters based on his own family. In a memoir called Living on the Edge of Heaven, he claimed to have had two near-death experiences that allowed him to receive supernatural visions from "beyond the veil." A recurring theme in Chad's writings was a supernatural voice giving instructions and advice to him or to his characters. He commented: "I don't fictionalize any of the events portrayed [in my books]. I'm really not that creative... My torn veil allows information to be downloaded into my brain from the other side. The scenes I am shown are real events that will happen." Chad was also a regular contributor to "Another Voice of Warning" (AVOW), a Mormon paid forum where he would discuss his near-death experiences and thoughts on the future.
Over time, Chad's religious beliefs became increasingly extreme. Jason Gwilliam, the husband of Tammy's sister, later recalled that Chad's views had started changing around 2006 and 2007, as he became "hyper-focused on preparing for end of times." In 2010 or 2011, Chad started claiming he had visions about how the end of the world would occur. In 2013, he began prophesying there would be earthquakes, war, and destruction in the Americas.
During the 2010s, Chad became the publisher of apocalyptic author and self-proclaimed clairvoyant Julie Rowe. She and Chad made similar prophecies about the end times and claims about their own connections to the "spirit world." Both were popular among Mormon "preppers" who believed the end of the world to be imminent and considered regrouping in tent cities to await doomsday. Suzanne Freeman, another author published by Chad, later said that she had stopped working with him in the 2010s over concerns about his radicalization and his deviation from Mormon teachings, becoming convinced that his beliefs were dangerous.
In 2015, Chad claimed he heard the "voice" telling him to relocate to Rexburg, Idaho. He and Tammy moved there from Springville that June. Chad said that he had had a vision that Utah would be devastated by an earthquake in 2015.
=== Lori Vallow Daybell ===
Lori Norene Ryan Daybell, also referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell, was born Lori Norene Cox on June 26, 1973, in Loma Linda, California. She grew up in a Mormon family. Her parents were tax protesters who adhered to sovereign citizen ideology and were in a conflict with the IRS for about two decades. In 1992, at the age of 19, Lori married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended in divorce shortly afterwards. In October 1995, Lori married again and had a son named Colby in 1996, before divorcing in 1998. She worked for some time as a hairdresser. In 2004, she was a contestant in both the Mrs. Texas beauty pageant and on the game show Wheel of Fortune.
In 2001, Lori married Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr., who gave his name to Colby. The couple's daughter, Tylee, was born in 2002. Lori and Ryan divorced in 2005, subsequently engaging in a bitter custody battle during which she accused him of sexually assaulting both children. Ryan eventually lost equal custody. Lori's brother Alex Cox attacked Ryan in 2007, claiming he had been abusive to Lori and the children; Cox served ninety days in jail for the incident. In 2020, Colby claimed during an interview that as a child, he had been sexually abused by Ryan.
In 2018, Ryan was found dead in his apartment from what was determined to be arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. After Lori's arrest in 2020, and after a recording surfaced in which she mentioned wanting to kill Ryan "like Nephi killed," police reviewed Ryan's death. Nothing was found to suspect foul play.
In February 2006, Lori married Leland Charles Anthony Vallow, who commonly went by the name Charles. In 2013 the couple adopted Charles' grandnephew, Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow, as the boy's birth parents were unable to care for him. Because of his biological parents' substance abuse, J.J. was born with drugs in his system and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit. As a baby, he was taken care of for nearly a year by his grandparents, Kay (Charles' sister) and Larry Woodcock, before being adopted by Charles. J.J. was eventually diagnosed with autism.
=== Vallow and Daybell meet ===
Around 2015, Lori became interested in Chad Daybell's Standing in Holy Places series of books. Over the next few years she became increasingly invested in radical religious beliefs, reading books about near-death experiences and listening to podcasts by excommunicated Mormons.
In October 2018, together with Melanie Gibb and Zulema Pastenes whom she had recently befriended, Lori attended a "Preparing a People" event where she met Chad for the first time. Gibb and Pastenes both said that Lori had behaved in a very flirtatious manner with Chad at the conference. Chad claimed to Lori that they had been married in multiple previous lifetimes. They started communicating privately afterwards.
After their initial meeting, Lori's husband went on a business trip, giving her the opportunity to hold a small overnight gathering at her home. Chad and Gibb were among the attendees, with Chad captivating Lori and the group by sharing his Mormon-influenced, but unique, beliefs. Lori developed a strong attachment to Chad and his teachings. The two eventually became lovers.
On December 5, 2018, Chad and Lori appeared together on the Preparing a People podcast episode "Time to Warrior Up." The two were featured in several other episodes.
A religious group formed around Chad and his teachings: He and Lori told their followers that they belonged to the "Church of the Firstborn," of which Chad was the leader. The group included Lori's niece, Melani Boudreaux; Gibb; Cox; and Pastenes, who eventually became Cox's girlfriend and then wife. Gibb and Lori co-hosted a podcast called "Feel the Fire".
=== Lori and Chad's beliefs ===
Reincarnation – a concept which is not accepted by the LDS Church – played a key part in Chad's religious views. He claimed to have lived thirty-one previous lives on different planets and that Lori had lived twenty-one separate lives, five of which coincided with his own experiences on Earth. Lori eventually told Gibb that she and Chad were sealed due to their previous marriages in their past lives, despite their respective spouses still being alive. When Gibb suggested that Chad and Lori should divorce their spouses, Lori told her they were "not allowed to" because of information they were receiving "from the other side of the veil."
Chad also claimed to be a reincarnation of James the Less, that Lori had been James' wife under the name "Elena" and that in other past lives Lori had been Mary French, the great-grandmother of Joseph Smith, as well as the wife of the prophet Moroni. According to Chad, past lives were "multiple probations" on Earth. This belief is shared by some Mormon fundamentalist groups who consider that such "probations" are necessary for one to reach exaltation.
Chad categorized people as "light" or "dark" based on his assigning them an affiliation with Jesus Christ or Satan. He and Lori employed a unique "scoring system" for good and evil, assigning every person a rating from "light" to "dark." According to their belief system, "dark" people were possessed by evil spirits. The group often joined in "castings," ceremonies where they would try to cast away evil spirits through prayers and scripture readings. They claimed that in some cases "possessed" people could become "zombies," and that the only way to banish a zombie was to kill the person. Seven women within the group, including Lori and Zulema Pastenes, called themselves the "seven gatherers" and would do "castings" together, sometimes via Zoom.
Chad and Lori also scored people on a "vibration" scale, and deemed those having enough "vibrations" to possess special powers, or to be translated. Their beliefs also included teleportation and "dark and light portals." Chad claimed that he could create such supernatural "portals," which he used to "interact spiritually" with Lori, receive revelations and travel to other realms.
Chad predicted that the world would come to an end on July 22, 2020. He told his followers that he was guided by angels and could see hidden truths, while Lori claimed to have direct communications with God and Jesus. Lori came to believe that she was an "exalted goddess" with visionary powers, and that she and Chad were destined to lead the 144,000 people who would survive when the world ended. Zulema Pastenes later told investigators that Lori believed that, as an exalted being, she couldn't be held responsible for her actions on Earth.
Lindsay Park, executive director of the Sunstone Education Foundation, commented that these beliefs could be categorized as Mormon fundamentalism (though without the polygamy aspects) or "Mormon fanfic," as they took the fundamental tenets of the LDS Church and rewrote them to the extreme. Journalist Leah Sottile, who wrote When the Moon Turns to Blood about the case, said that Chad and Lori had been active "at the fringes, the far right fringes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," and were able to meet due to an "ecosystem of extremism" that exists in those circles.
== Murder of Charles Vallow ==
By February 2019, Lori reportedly informed Charles that "she no longer cared about him or J.J.". She then vanished for 58 days. The same month, Charles filed for divorce, citing threats to his life, as well as the theft of his truck and US$35,000 from their joint bank accounts. According to Charles' filing, Lori had told him that he was possessed by a "dark spirit" called "Ned Schneider", that she was "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's Second Coming" which would happen in July 2020, and that she would murder him if he got in the way of her mission.
Charles sought a protective order against Lori at the advice of his attorney. He withdrew the petition one month later, saying he wanted to "try to make the marriage work." Nevertheless, Charles had become so worried by Lori's actions that in February 2019, he changed his $1 million life insurance policy so the beneficiary would be his sister Kay rather than his wife. Lori was unaware of this until after Charles' death.
Arizona police detectives later retrieved text messages between Chad, Lori and her brother Alex Cox which referred to Charles as "Ned" or "Hiplos", the names of the "spirit" said to possess him. Lori told members of her religious group that her husband had become a "zombie". Several followers repeatedly joined to pray for Charles' demise.
Having discovered his wife's affair with Chad Daybell, Charles Vallow confronted Lori about it. Eleven days before his death, he sent an email to Tammy Daybell to inform her that their spouses were cheating. Evidence later showed that Tammy had opened and deleted the message, and blocked Charles' email address. On July 1, 2019, Charles informed Lori that he planned to meet Tammy in person. At that point, Lori and Chad were communicating constantly with burner phones.
On July 11, 2019, Charles went to pick up J.J. at Lori's home in Chandler, Arizona early in the morning. Alex Cox was present. An altercation occurred and Cox shot and killed Charles, Tylee told police that she had grabbed a baseball bat after she heard from her room Charles, Lori and Cox arguing, that Charles had taken the bat away from her, and that she had then run away from the house with J.J. before the shooting. Cox claimed self-defense, alleging that he had retrieved his gun after Charles struck him on the head with the bat. Lori did not call 911; it was later determined that Alex Cox had called it about 45 minutes after Charles was killed. Moments after the shooting, Lori took J.J. to school and stopped on her way at Burger King, then at Walgreens to buy flip-flops.
No charges were pressed. A police detective later testified that Lori's behavior that day had been oddly "nonchalant" and that she seemed unaffected by the situation. Zulema Pastenes said that Cox had told her he did not feel bad because he had killed a "zombie". Investigations later showed that, two days before the shooting, Lori had sent her brother a text message which told him to "be like Nephi": police interpreted that message as a command to kill a wicked man.
Lori texted Charles' sons from a previous marriage that their father had "passed away", then left them without any further information for three days. Charles' sons had to find on their own the mortuary where their father's body was. They were left to organise a memorial service, which Lori did not attend.
Before Charles' death, his attorneys stated he had been primarily concerned for J.J.'s safety and well-being, as the boy needed a consistent routine due to his special needs. Charles was also concerned for Tylee, but he was unable to include her in the filings as she was neither his biological daughter nor had he filed to legally adopt her.
Days after Charles was killed, Chad sent Lori a love story in the form of a series of text messages. The story, which investigators called a "romance novel", told the meeting of "James" and "Elena" – the names Chad substituted for himself and Lori – and gave a detailed description of their sexual relationship.
== Disappearances of Tylee and J.J. ==
By the end of August, Lori relocated to Rexburg, Idaho with her children. Alex Cox also moved there. Just before moving to Idaho, Lori sold J.J.'s service dog.
While Lori and her children resided in Rexburg, neighbors noticed J.J.'s erratic behavior as Lori often left him outside without adult supervision for long periods of time. When confronted about this, Lori did not mention that J.J. was autistic but told neighbors that he was "her niece's drug baby".
Tylee was last seen on September 8, 2019, at Yellowstone National Park with her brother J.J., her mother Lori, and her uncle Alex Cox. She was never enrolled at any school in Idaho, even though her mother had claimed she was attending BYU-Idaho.
J.J. last attended Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School on September 20. On September 22, Melanie Gibb and her boyfriend, David Warwick, were staying at Lori's home. Around 10:30 p.m, Warwick saw Alex Cox take J.J., who was sleeping, upstairs to his bedroom. This was J.J.'s last confirmed sighting. On the next morning, J.J. was absent: Lori told Gibb and Warwick that J.J. had been misbehaving so his uncle Alex had picked him up.
On September 23, J.J. had an unexcused absence from school. The next day, Lori informed Rexburg Elementary School that she would now be homeschooling J.J. In the months that followed her children's disappearances, Lori kept collecting the Social Security Survivor benefits that each received after the death of their respective father.
In October 2019, two Venmo payments were made from Tylee's account to her older half-brother, Colby Ryan, with love-expressing messages attached. When Colby later expressed concern towards Tylee via text, he received responses from her cell phone indicating she was safe but too busy to talk. After repeated calls to Tylee went unanswered, Colby became more worried.
Brandon Boudreaux and Melanie Gibb later said that Lori and Chad were convinced Tylee and J.J. were "possessed" and had become "zombies". Zulema Pastenes testified that Chad had told his followers that J.J. would die soon, only to come back as Colby's son.
The FBI uncovered text messages in which Lori and Chad discussed Tylee and J.J.'s "possession" and mentioned "a perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children". A text exchange between Lori and Alex Cox mentioned "working on Z's", referring to zombies.
== Attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux ==
On October 2, 2019, Brandon Boudreaux, the estranged husband of Lori's niece Melani, was shot at from a Jeep while driving home in Gilbert, Arizona. The bullet missed Boudreaux's head by inches. Boudreaux, who had been close to Charles and Lori Vallow's family, recognized the Jeep as a vehicle used by Tylee Ryan. The Jeep drove away, but Boudreaux could give its license plate number to the police who identified it as being registered to Charles Vallow.
Melani had become very involved with her aunt's religious activities during 2018 and had insisted that she and her husband buy food stockpiles for the end of the world. During the summer of 2019, she had demanded a divorce, which was not yet finalized when Boudreaux was shot at. Boudreaux said that he had been blindsided by the divorce request, which he blamed on Melani's involvement in her aunt's "cult".
Boudreaux, who suspected Lori and her brother Alex of Charles' killing, hired a private investigator. After it became known that Tylee and J.J. were missing, Boudreaux was convinced that Charles' death, the children's disappearance and the attempt on his life were all connected to Lori's religious group. He suspected that the murder attempt against him was motivated by his life insurance policy. Prosecutors later opined that Lori had hoped to access Boudreaux's money through her niece.
In February 2020, Boudreaux filed a court document claiming that the attempt on his life was motivated by insurance money, that the gunman was probably Lori's recently deceased brother Alex Cox, and that Melani was likely aware of Tylee and J.J.'s whereabouts. Melani denied any knowledge of what had happened to the children.
By tracking Alex Cox's cell phone data, investigators later found that Cox had searched on the Internet for directions to Boudreaux's address and had been present near Boudreaux's home during the hours before the shooting. He had also searched "how to load ammunition", "ballistic trajectory calculators" and, after the shooting, "man shot in Gilbert". On the day of the shooting, Cox and Lori had communicated several times. Later on, Lori had also made Internet searches about a shooting in Gilbert, Arizona.
== Murder of Tammy Daybell ==
In February 2019, Chad told his neighbors, Todd and Alice Gilbert, that he had had a vision that Tammy would die before her 50th birthday.
On October 9, 2019, Tammy reported being shot at in her driveway by a masked man with what she thought was a paintball gun. The man pulled the trigger several times, but the gun was apparently unloaded. Police believed this to be a prank but could not identify the man.
Ten days later, Tammy was found dead in her home, apparently from natural causes. Chad claimed that she had retired the previous night "with a terrible cough" and died in her sleep. He said that Tammy had been experiencing low blood pressure, seizures, and negative reactions with homeopathic medicines, though nothing in her medical records supported this.
Tammy's funeral was organized in Utah three days after her death. Alice Gilbert later said she had been surprised that the funeral came so soon, and felt like it had been "planned". The Gilberts also testified that, unlike his children, Chad did not seem devastated and had acted in a "businesslike" manner. Chad's sister-in-law, Heather Daybell, said that Chad's behavior at Tammy's funeral did not ring true and that he "just didn't seem upset". Jason Gwilliam said that he felt Chad was "not crying but trying to cry." During the service, Chad mentioned in his talk that Tammy suffered from depression, commented that she was not easy to live with and called her "lazy".
According to police reports, Chad Daybell received life insurance payouts after Tammy's death totaling US$430,000 (equivalent to about $529,000 in 2024).
Tammy's body was not autopsied initially due to Chad's refusal and the coroner's acceptance of his decision. However, after Tammy's body was exhumed and autopsied, it was determined that she had been asphyxiated by someone else. The autopsy results, completed by February 2021, were not publicly revealed until April 2023 during Lori's trial.
Investigators later uncovered text messages between Chad and Lori, claiming that Tammy was in "limbo" and possessed by a spirit named "Viola". At some point, Chad and Lori told their followers that Tammy had become a "zombie".
Alex Cox's phone was located near the Daybells' residence on October 9, four hours before Tammy was shot at. It pinged again in the same area ten days later, on the night Tammy died. Police found at Cox's home an AR-15 that resembled the description Tammy had made of the supposed paintball gun. Cox had made several Internet searches about the use of an AR-15 and on how a Grendel round would impact a Dodge Dakota, which was the car the Daybells owned. Prosecutors later said the "paintball gun" spotted by Tammy on October 9 was a real gun, that may have jammed or misfired, and that the shooter was probably Alex Cox. Zulema Pastenes testified that she had been with Lori and her niece Melani to do a "casting" on the night Tammy was attacked in her driveway. At some point during that night, Lori talked with someone on the phone and became very angry, calling the other person "idiot, moron, stupid". After hanging up, she commented: "idiot can't do anything by himself".
== Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow’s marriage and flight ==
Chad introduced Lori to his children the day after Tammy's funeral. One week after Tammy's death, he also told Todd and Alice Gilbert that he had found the woman he would marry. Days later, Chad brought Lori to meet the Gilberts. Alice Gilbert described the situation as "awkward", with Chad and Lori laughing and giggling, and being very affectionate to each other, more than Gilbert had seen Chad be with Tammy. Chad also mentioned that Lori "recently had a daughter who had passed away".
Chad told Tammy's sister, Samantha Gwilliam, that Tammy's spirit had appeared to him at the cemetery and advised him to "move on". He also told Samantha that he and Lori had bonded over their recently dead spouses and that Lori had no children, so they would be "empty nesters".
Chad and Lori were married in Hawaii on November 5, 2019, two weeks after the death of Tammy, and two months after Tylee and J.J. (not yet known to be missing) were murdered. Apart from his children, Chad did not inform his family beforehand. Chad's mother discovered that he and Lori were married upon meeting Lori.
Investigators later found in Lori's internet history that she had ordered a pair of wedding rings in August 2019, several months before Tammy's death, and that she had searched for wedding dresses on the day of Tammy's burial.
On November 26, police visited Lori's townhouse in Rexburg for a welfare check on J.J. at the request of his grandmother, Kay Woodcock. A police detective initially found Chad and Alex Cox at Lori's home. Both men acted suspiciously, with Alex Cox (not knowing that it was Kay who had requested the welfare check) claiming that J.J. was with his grandmother and Chad (whom the detective knew was married to Lori) saying that he was a friend of Alex and that he "hardly knew" Lori. Police later reached Lori, who claimed that J.J. was in Arizona with her friend Melanie Gibb. However, when contacted by police, Gibb stated that J.J. had not been with her for several months. That night, a neighbor observed Lori and Alex Cox packing a truck outside her home. The following day, when the police and FBI arrived to search the house, it was abandoned. Chad's home was also searched by investigators.
Lori and Chad returned to Hawaii, where they resided in a gated community in Princeville on the island of Kauai, living off the money Chad had received from Tammy's life insurance. While searching for a home in Hawaii, Chad had written in an application that the couple had no children.
== Investigations and media coverage ==
Prosecutors in Idaho became involved in the case when police requested a warrant for locating the Jeep from which Brandon Boudreaux had been shot at in Arizona. On December 6, 2019, Melanie Gibb contacted the police, revealing that both Lori and Chad had called her separately on November 26 and had asked her to tell police that J.J. was with her. Police efforts to locate J.J. led to the discovery that Tylee was also missing. A connection was made between the investigations in Idaho and those in Arizona. Law enforcement agencies intensified their inquiries about the children's whereabouts, as well as Chad and Lori's departure from Idaho. It was also decided to further investigate Tammy's death: her body was exhumed for an autopsy on December 11.
On December 20, the Rexburg Police Department announced that the children were officially missing and asked the public's assistance in locating them. Investigators expressed concern for the children's safety, asserting that they were not with Chad and Lori and that Lori had refused to cooperate with the investigation, opting to leave the state with Chad instead. Police also announced that the children's disappearance could be linked to Tammy Daybell's "suspicious death". The next day, police said Lori and Chad were "persons of interest".
The case soon received national coverage, with family and friends describing Chad and Lori's "cult-like" beliefs in interviews and on social media posts. On December 23, 2019, the Daybells released statements through a Rexburg attorney, who said that "Chad Daybell was a loving husband and he has the support of his children in this matter", adding that Lori was a "devoted mother" who "resents assertions to the contrary" and that the "allegations" would be addressed "once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor".
Colby Ryan, J.J.'s grandparents Larry and Kay Woodcock, and Chad's brother, Matt Daybell, issued messages asking Lori and Chad to return the children. On January 7, 2020, the Woodcocks held a press conference in Rexburg offering a $20,000 reward for the children's return or for any information leading to them.
On January 25, 2020, after Lori and Chad were located in Kauai, law enforcement agents served them with a court order requiring Lori to "physically produce" within five days Tylee and J.J. to the Idaho Department of Welfare or to the Rexburg Police Department. The next day, police seized the couple's rental car and searched their rental townhome in Princeville, where they found Tylee's debit card and J.J.'s iPad. Also on January 26, the Daybells were confronted over the children's disappearance by East Idaho News reporter Nate Eaton: they refused to answer questions.
In February 2020, authorities focused on a storage locker in Rexburg that had been rented by Lori in October 2019. They discovered belongings linked to Tylee and J.J., including clothing, bikes, and photographs. These items had been left behind when Lori abruptly left Rexburg in late November 2019. Video footage captured Lori and Alex Cox moving items to and from the locker before her departure.
== Death of Alex Cox ==
On November 24, 2019, Chad Daybell gave Alex Cox a "patriarchal blessing", which he had no standing to give in the LDS Church, saying that Alex had assisted him and Lori "in ways that can never be repaid". Chad called Alex a prophet and a hero and predicted he would have a future as a "messenger of the Lord". The recording of this "blessing" was later found by investigators on Lori's iCloud account.
Alex Cox died on December 12, 2019. His death was attributed to blood clots and high blood pressure.
The day before his death, Cox had been informed by Lori and Chad that Tammy Daybell's body was going to be exhumed. Zulema Pastenes later testified that Cox had told her he was worried about being Lori and Chad's "fall guy".
== Arrests and criminal charges ==
=== Lori's arrest ===
On February 20, 2020, Lori was arrested in Hawaii by the Kauai Police Department. On March 5, she was extradited back to Idaho.
Lori faced charges in Madison County, Idaho, including two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, as well as three misdemeanors. Her bail was initially set at $5 million, but was later lowered to $1 million after her extradition to Idaho. In May, Lori appeared in court in Rexburg to request a further reduction of her bail, which was denied. Multiple local bond companies were reportedly unwilling to work with her.
After Lori's arrest, Chad returned to Idaho. He tried to convince the Gilberts to put their home up for bond to get Lori out of prison, claiming that Jesus had given him this idea. When Alice Gilbert asked him about the children and confronted him on what he had said about Lori's daughter being dead, Chad answered that it was a custody issue. He added at some point that Tylee "didn't like people" and did not like him, using the past tense.
=== Discovery of the children's remains and Chad's arrest ===
On June 9, police found human remains buried in unmarked graves in the backyard of Chad's home during a search of the premises. Tylee's remains were located in an area the Daybell family called the pet cemetery, as it had been used to bury their cats and dogs. J.J.'s remains were located in a separate area of the property near a pond. As the property was being searched, Chad phoned Lori in jail to warn her about the situation. After police found and began to unearth the bodies, he tried to drive off from the scene, but was chased down and apprehended. He was arrested for obstruction or concealment of evidence. The next day, his bail was set at $1 million.
Authorities had decided to search Daybell's property after tracking Alex Cox's cell phone. On September 9, 2019, the day after Tylee's last verifiable sighting, Cox's phone had pinged in the middle of the night at Lori's home, then in the morning at Daybell's home. In the morning of September 23, the day after J.J. was last seen, Cox's phone had again pinged at Daybell's property. The FBI also intercepted a September 9 text conversation between Chad Daybell and his wife: Chad told Tammy he had shot a large raccoon after finding it in their backyard that morning, and buried it in their "pet cemetery". Investigators found that suspicious, as raccoons are normally nocturnal animals.
On June 10, the Woodcock and Ryan families confirmed that the human remains found on Chad's property were those of Tylee and J.J. This finding was officially confirmed by Rexburg police three days later. Tylee's body was burned; her hands had been cut off and her bones were fractured in several places, from which forensic examiners deduced that someone had attempted to dismember her. J.J.'s body was wrapped in plastic; unlike Tylee, he had been buried with great care, under rocks and wooden planks.
It was determined that J.J. had been asphyxiated with a plastic bag and duct tape over his mouth. Due to the state of her remains, Tylee's cause of death could not be determined and was ruled a "homicide by unspecified means". Tylee's DNA was found on a pickaxe and a shovel seized at Chad's home. Alex Cox's fingerprints and Lori's hair were found on the plastic and duct tape on J.J.'s remains.
In August, Chad Daybell was excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the basis of his religious teachings, which the media has later described as a "doomsday cult".
=== Charges ===
On July 2, 2020, prosecutors dropped two charges against Lori related to desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, and instead charged her with obstruction or concealment of evidence regarding her children's remains.
On July 17, in light of the two felony counts against Lori having been dropped, her bond was lowered by Madison County judge Michelle Mallard. The bond was set at $50,000 for each charge, totaling $150,000. It was further noted that Chad would still need to post $1 million in Fremont County to be released from jail.
On May 25, 2021, Chad and Lori were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for the deaths of Tylee, J.J. and Tammy, as well as grand theft by deception regarding the children. Lori was also charged with grand theft related to her children's Social Security Survivor benefits. Chad faced an insurance fraud charge related to Tammy's life insurance policy.
In June 2021, Lori was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County, Arizona, on one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for the death of Charles Vallow. Police documents read: the evidence shows that Charles' death was a planned event and necessary to prevent Charles and others from confronting Lori about her extreme religious beliefs when he came to town... The death of Charles Vallow was also necessary in order for Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow to marry and fulfill their religious prophecy.
In July 2021, prosecutors in Maricopa County decided not to prosecute Chad Daybell in connection with the death of Charles Vallow, citing "no reasonable likelihood of conviction".
In September 2021, Chad Daybell's children issued a statement defending their father's innocence and claiming he had been "fooled in the worst, most deadly way possible" by Lori Vallow.
In 2022, Lori was indicted by a grand jury on one count of first-degree premeditated murder related to the attempt on Brandon Boudreaux's life.
== Trials ==
=== Lori and Chad's trials in Idaho ===
A jury trial for the Madison County charges against Lori was initially set for January 25–29, 2021. On May 27, 2021, Lori was found incompetent and unfit to stand trial, and her case was stayed. In December 2021, Lori's attorney Mark Means was disqualified from the case because his representation of both Lori and Chad created a conflict. On April 11, 2022, Lori was deemed competent to stand trial after mental health treatment. On October 6, 2022, after Lori's new defense team filed several motions, Judge Steven W. Boyce issued an order indicating the case was suspended until her competency to stand trial could be determined. On November 16, she was once again found competent.
Lori and Chad both pleaded not guilty to all charges in Idaho. Their cases were split in March 2023, at Chad's request. The reasons were that Chad had waived his right to a speedy trial and his attorneys said they needed more time to review DNA evidence. Chad's attorneys also cited the "mutually antagonistic nature of the defendants' positions". Since Lori had not waived her right to a swift trial, the court ruled that her case would proceed as planned.
==== Lori (2023) ====
On March 21, 2023, the judge removed the death penalty from Lori due to newly uncovered DNA evidence, discovered too close to the trial to be tested and admitted into court.
Lori's trial began on April 3, 2023, in the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho. She did not testify in her own defense. Her lawyers did not call any witnesses, while the prosecution called about 60 people to testify. On April 15, pictures of the children's corpses were shown to jurors and audience. Lori asked to be excused from court that day; this was denied, as the defendant in a felony case must be present at all significant proceedings.
Melanie Gibb, Audrey Barattiero (another former friend of Lori who had also participated in her religious group) and Ian Pawlowski (the husband of Lori's niece Melani) testified about Lori's beliefs and her claims that she could cast out Satan and other evil spirits. Barattiero said that when she grew uncomfortable about Lori's beliefs and decided to dissolve their friendship, Lori threatened to murder her and dispose of her body in trash bags.
In the light of the evidence that pointed to Alex Cox's direct involvement in the murders, prosecutors stated that Lori Vallow Daybell had "groomed" and "manipulated" her brother to participate in her crimes. Lori's sister Summer Shiflet testified that Alex had suffered brain damage in a car accident and that his decision-making was "stuck at a teenage level". Zulema Pastenes said that Alex was entirely under the influence of Chad and Lori, who had convinced him that he was a reincarnated warrior of God and that "the only reason he had come to Earth was to protect Lori".
During the closing arguments, Lori's attorney Jim Archibald depicted her as being under Chad Daybell's psychological control. Prosecutor Rob Wood summed up the evidence that showed Lori had participated in the conspiracy to commit all three murders and reminded the jury how Lori had never reported that her children were missing and had lied to multiple people about their whereabouts.
On May 12, 2023, Lori was found guilty of all criminal charges. On July 31, 2023, she received three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for, respectively, the murder of Tylee, the murder of J.J., and the conspiracy to commit murder charge of Tammy, in addition to fines and restitution for the grand theft charges.
Judge Boyce said that Lori had murdered her children to "remove them as obstacles and to profit financially", by choosing "the most evil and destructive path possible" and going down "a bizarre, religious rabbit hole" to justify their killings.
Before her sentencing, Lori made her first public statement since her arrest. She said that she had been speaking to Jesus, as well as to her children and to Tammy, and that Tylee, J.J. and Tammy were "happy and extremely busy" in heaven. She also stated: "Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen, suicides happen, fatal side effects from medications happen."
An alternate juror during Lori's trial described Lori as "a monster" after seeing graphic photos of Tylee and J.J. as well as Lori and Chad's Hawaii wedding photos after them murdering the children.
On May 30, 2025, Lori's attorney filed a notice of appeal for her 2023 conviction, demanding a new trial.
==== Chad (2024) ====
On November 9, 2023, Chad's legal team filed three motions to remove the death penalty in his murder trial. The final motion stated that Lori had "manipulated" Chad "through emotional and sexual control" and that Chad had "lesser culpability than his co-defendant, who did not face the death penalty". The motions were denied in December.
Chad Daybell's trial opened on April 10, 2024. In his opening statement, prosecutor Wood depicted him as a man motivated by "sex, money and power" and craving for significance, who saw his spouse and Lori's children as obstacles to his rightful destiny. Chad's attorney John Prior painted him as a religious man who had been "lured" into adultery by Lori Vallow: his statement also focused on Alex Cox's history of violence and his role as "Lori's protector".
On May 16, Chad's defense team filed a motion for acquittal after it appeared that an amended indictment had incorrectly listed J.J. Vallow's death as having occurred between September 8–9, 2019, instead of September 22–23. Judge Boyce ruled that this clerical error was not ground for acquittal.
Two of Chad's children, Emma and Garth, testified in their father's defense and said their mother had been experiencing health problems and "was getting tired extremely easily". On the contrary, three former colleagues of Tammy Daybell said that she seemed healthy and energetic up until the day before her death. Tammy's sister also testified that Tammy had seemed fine when she visited her on October 14, 2019.
Chad did not take the stand. During the closing arguments, prosecutor Lindsey Blake summarized the evidence that pointed to Chad's crucial role in coordinating and giving a religious justification to the murders. Prior painted Lori and Alex Cox as the true culprits, stating that Lori had been motivated by greed, that she had manipulated Chad all along and that Chad would likely have been her next victim.
On May 30, 2024, the jury found Chad Daybell guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy in the deaths of Tammy, Tylee and J.J. He was also found guilty of grand theft by deception related to the children's killing and of insurance fraud related to Tammy's. It was confirmed that the prosecution would seek the death penalty for Chad.
At his sentencing hearing, Chad chose not to present any mitigation evidence. On June 1, 2024, he was sentenced to death. For the insurance fraud charges, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, each to run concurrent to death and to the restitution of $130,000 plus $300,000. Since Chad had been deemed indigent, no fines were added to the insurance fraud sentence.
Tammy Daybell's extended family, Matt and Heather Daybell, as well as the Boudreaux, Cox and Shiflet families issued statements expressing their relief at the end of the Idaho trials and their thoughts for the victims. Chad was put on death row at Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
On June 5, 2024, Chad's attorneys filed notice of appeal to Idaho Supreme Court asking them to review verdict and death penalty sentence.
=== Lori's trials in Arizona (2025) ===
In November 2023, Lori was extradited to Arizona to face her two conspiracy charges there. She pleaded not guilty to both. In February 2024, her trial was scheduled to begin on August 1 of the same year, though the judge mentioned that it might be moved at a later date due to the amount of evidence to process. In June, Lori's defense team in Arizona filed a motion requesting a delay for the trial. Lori objected and continued to assert her right to a speedy trial. On July 2, the lawyers' request was granted and the trial date was moved to February 24, 2025.
In October 2024, Colby Ryan posted on his YouTube channel the recording of a telephone conversation he had had with his mother from her prison. During their exchange, Lori claimed that she received "higher knowledge" directly from Jesus and was on a "divine mission", said that Tylee and J.J. had visited her in spirit, and suggested that Tylee had accidentally killed J.J. and then taken her own life in remorse. Colby commented that his mother was "beyond deceived".
Also in October 2024, Lori's attorneys made a request for a competency hearing. One week later, she requested to waive her right to counsel and act as her own attorney. At a December 5, 2024, hearing, Lori was deemed by a doctor to be mentally fit and competent to stand trial. Judge Justin Beresky also granted Lori's request to represent herself. Lori said at the hearing that she had "real trial experience" and had been studying case law since her incarceration.
The court decided that the Charles Vallow case and the Brandon Boudreaux case would be tried separately. The judge moved again the trial date for the Charles Vallow conspiracy case, this time to March 31, 2025. Her trial over the murder attempt on Brandon Boudreaux was eventually scheduled to begin in late May.
On March 7, 2025, Dateline NBC aired Lori's first-ever media interview. During a "combative" exchange with Keith Morrison, she maintained her innocence, tried again to pin J.J.'s death on Tylee and claimed that Jesus had shown her that she and Chad would be "exonerated" and released from prison in the future. She told Morrison that she might go on Dancing with the Stars after her release.
In both Arizona trials, members of the jury had to be unaware of Lori and her previous convictions.
==== Charles Vallow case ====
Lori's trial over Charles' death began on March 31 with jury selection. Lori told jurors that their role was to "protect" her from the state.
On April 7, during her opening statement, Lori maintained that Alex Cox had shot Charles in self-defense and announced that she would provide proof of this. She used the phrase "The evidence will show..." over 70 times during her statement. The prosecution said that Lori had conspired to murder Charles so she could access his life insurance policy and marry Chad, that Cox had staged the home to make it look like Charles had attacked him and Lori, and that there was no evidence Cox had been hit with a baseball bat like he claimed.
Lori subpoenaed several witnesses, but two were stricken by the court and others couldn't be located or served. At one point, Lori "aggressively" cross-examined a witness who had gone on a date with Charles the day before he was killed: Lori asked the woman if she went on dates with married men. Adam Cox, Lori's surviving brother, testified for the prosecution, saying that he had "no doubt" Lori had conspired with Alex to murder Charles. When Charles was killed, he and Adam had been planning to confront Lori together about her beliefs. Kay Woodcock testified on how her brother Charles had been concerned for his safety. Charles had been hit by two bullets: evidence showed that he was lying on the floor when he was shot the second time.
Lori ultimately did not call any witnesses or present evidence, nor did she testify in her own defense. She made a verbal motion for a Rule 20 Judgment of Acquittal, arguing that no evidence had been presented that would allow a jury to find her guilty. The judge denied her motion. In her closing argument, Lori reiterated that Charles had been killed in self-defense and told the jurors: "Don’t let them turn my family tragedy into a crime."
On April 22, 2025, Lori was found guilty of conspiring to murder Charles. After the verdict, she agreed to several aggravating factors. One of the jurors told reporters that Lori hadn't done herself any favors by choosing to represent herself in court: "Many days she was just smiling and laughing and didn’t seem to take anything very seriously". When asked by reporters if she had a message for Lori, Kay Woodcock said: "We gotcha, and you're not the smartest person in the room. Everybody's going to forget about you."
On May 1, Lori filed a motion demanding a new trial for the Charles Vallow murder case, claiming that a juror had been aware of her prior murder convictions. She also claimed there had been discovery violations, prosecutorial misconduct and a lack of impartiality by the court, and that her rights had been violated under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Her motion was denied on May 23.
==== Brandon Boudreaux case ====
After Lori was found guilty of conspiring to murder Charles Vallow, Maricopa County attorney Rachel Mitchell confirmed that despite Lori's multiple convictions, she fully intended to prosecute her for the murder attempt on Brandon Boudreaux, as it was important for Boudreaux "to be able to have his story vindicated".
Lori filed a motion to cancel her trial in the Brandon Boudreaux case, claiming that her constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated. The judge rejected that motion on May 9. During the hearing, Lori argued with Judge Beresky over jury selection and witnesses. After her motion was denied, she demanded that the judge recuse himself, claiming that he demonstrated bias against her by rejecting all her motions. The judge answered that he would grant a motion by Lori if she filed one that had legal merit. On May 28, Lori filed a motion for the judge to recuse himself, alleging "personal bias or prejudice" and religious discrimination against her. Her motion was denied the next day. She filed three motions for recusal against Judge Beresky during the proceedings.
Lori's second Arizona trial, her third and final, began on May 29 with jury selection. The next day, jury selection had to be halted after Lori said she was feeling sick. On June 2, Lori appeared in court in a wheelchair, saying she was suffering from nausea, chills and headache, and crying loudly. The trial was postponed for two days. On June 4, Lori appeared again in court, not using a wheelchair but insisting that she was still sick. The judge said that based on an examination that showed Lori had no medical condition preventing her from appearing, the trial would proceed.
During her opening statement, on June 5, Lori claimed her innocence, disputing that the event was not a crime at all or that a shooting had actually occurred. She discussed the meaning of the word 'conspiracy' by comparing her own case to Judas conspiring against Jesus and Cain against Abel and stated that she had no malice towards anyone and was "all about spreading love".
Brandon Boudreaux took the stand, telling that Lori had contributed to the breakup of his marriage and recounting the moment he was shot. Prosecutor Treena Kay showed the evidence, including cellphone location data, that pointed to Lori's involvement in the preparations for the murder. On June 6, Lori cross-examined Boudreaux and the private investigator he had hired after being shot. She cast suspicion on her niece Melani by asking if she had a financial gain at Boudreaux's death. The prosecutor mentioned that Melani was under investigation. Of the few people who knew Boudreaux's new address in Gilbert, only his estranged then-wife had connections with Lori and Alex Cox.
Also on June 6, Lori was briefly removed from the courtroom after failing to comply with the court's instructions and disregarding sustained objections. The judge threatened to revoke her self-representation. On June 9, Lori filed a motion to recuse Chief Judge Jennifer Green, who had denied her multiple motions to recuse Judge Beresky. She also filed a motion to "dismiss abuse of discretion". Both were denied.
The Jeep's rear tire had been removed to allow the shootist to aim at Boudreaux. Prosecutors showed video footage of Lori, Alex and Chad putting a tire into the storage locker that Lori rented in Rexburg.
Once again, Lori did not testify in her defense or call witnesses. She instead tried to cast doubt on nearly every piece of evidence, also suggesting that data could have been tampered with. In a tearful closing argument, she said that there was no evidence against her, that she was the victim of a vendetta by Boudreaux who blamed her for the failure of his marriage and had been working for six years with law enforcement to get to her, and that it was time for healing. The prosecution summed up the evidence of a conspiracy between Lori, Chad, Alex and Melani. Lori again asked to be acquitted outside the presence of the jury, claiming that the presented evidence was insufficient to prove her guilt. The judge ruled against her, considering that the prosecution had presented a compelling case.
On June 12, Lori was found guilty of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, after the jury had deliberated for less than 30 minutes. Brandon Boudreaux, standing with Kay Woodcock and Colby Ryan, stated that though facing Lori at the trial had been difficult for him, he had owed it to Charles, Tylee, J.J. and Tammy to speak, "because [he] could".
On June 25, Lori filed a motion requesting a new trial, citing her own health condition during the trial and lack of impartiality by the court. On June 26, she granted an interview to East Idaho News: she said that she still loved Chad, reaffirmed her innocence and predicted that she and Chad would be exonerated. Her motion asking for a new trial was denied on July 22.
==== Sentencing ====
Prosecutors requested a life sentence without parole for each case, to run concurrently with the convictions in Idaho. Sentencing for both cases took place on July 25. During her final testimony, Lori claimed that she had been denied a fair trial and said God would set prisoners free. Judge Beresky said Lori had "shown blatant disregard for humanity" and should never be released from prison. Lori was given two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole before 25 years. She was also fined $267,000 on each case and given a lifetime no-contact order for Brandon Boudreaux, Kay Woodcock and several other relatives of Charles Vallow.
In August, Lori filed a notice of appeal for both her Arizona convictions. That same month, she was extradited back to Idaho to serve her sentences there. She was incarcerated at Pocatello Women's Correctional Center.
== Media depictions ==
In 2020, Investigation Discovery released a three-episode documentary series entitled Doomsday: The Missing Children, which contained first-hand accounts of J.J.'s grandparents Larry and Kay Woodcock, Lori's brother Adam Cox, and former KPHO-TV reporter Kim Powell.
In 2021, Lifetime released a dramatization of the Lori Vallow story as a made-for-TV film titled Doomsday Mom, also marketed with the subtitle The Lori Vallow Story, starring Lauren Lee Smith as Lori, Marc Blucas as Chad, Linda Purl as Kay, and Patrick Duffy as Larry.
In 2022, Netflix released the three-episode documentary series entitled Sins of Our Mother, primarily centered from the perspective of her surviving child and Tylee's older brother, Colby Ryan.
The story of the case was the subject of investigative journalist Leah Sottile's 2022 book When the Moon Turns to Blood.
== See also ==
Apocalyptic beliefs among Latter-day Saints
Predictions and claims for the Second Coming
List of murdered American children
List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
List of serial killers in the United States
List of people sentenced to more than one life imprisonment
Capital punishment in Idaho
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Eaton, Nate (February 13, 2020). "Keith Morrison previews Dateline special on Daybell case that is 'nothing like anything else' he's ever seen". East Idaho News. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
"The latest timeline in the cases of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell". East Idaho News. January 30, 2023. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
Teurfs, Kathryne; Dunn, Lauren Turner; Narvaez, Chelsea; Singer, Michelle (June 4, 2024). "What did Lori Vallow Daybell do? A full timeline of the "doomsday mom" case". CBS News. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
"Lori Vallow Profile - Where is she now?". Killer Updates. April 16, 2025. Retrieved April 16, 2025. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dina_Nath_Walli#:~:text=In%201936%2C%20he%20returned%20to,landscape%20painting%20in%20water%20colours. | Dina Nath Walli | Dina Nath Walli (1908–2006), also known by his pen name Almast Kashmiri, was an Indian water colour artist and poet from Srinagar city in the Kashmir Valley. He was the part of the modern art movement in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and was known for painting everyday scenes of Kashmir.
== Early life and education ==
Dina Nath Walli was born in 1906 in the Badyar Bala neighborhood of Srinagar, in the Kashmir Valley of the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, within British India, into a Kashmiri Pandit family. His father died when Dina Nath was very young. He had his early education in Srinagar, then he continued his three years course at Amar Singh Technical Institute, Srinagar and then he moved from Kashmir to Calcutta in Bengal Presidency in 1930 for his further training, where he learned various forms of art under the guidance of Percy Brown, principal of the Government College of Art & Craft at the University of Calcutta.
== Career ==
In 1936, he returned to Srinagar, where he concentrated on landscape painting in water colours. He was also awarded gold medals by the government of Kashmir in 1939 and in 1940 he was awarded a highly commended medal from the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta. He had also produced an album of 12 paintings.
Under his pen name of Almast Kashmiri, his "accent on realistic art or people's poetry", is best seen in his two collections of his poetry, Bala Yapair (This side of Mountains, 1955) and Sahaavukh Posh (Desert Flowers, 1981).
== Works ==
Kashmir Water Colour Paintings, by Dinanath Walli. Walli, 1970.
Sahraavuky posh: desert flowers, by Dinanath Walli. Metropolitan Book Co., 1978.
== References ==
== External links ==
Amaresh Datta (2006). The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Vol. 1. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 8126018038.
Paintings - Walli, KOA USA
Shehjar.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_Medal_(electrochemistry)#:~:text=1999%20Philippe%20Allongue | Faraday Medal (electrochemistry) | The Faraday Medal is awarded by the Electrochemistry Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Since 1977, it honours distinguished mid-career electrochemists working outside of the United Kingdom and Ireland for their research advancements.
== Laureates ==
Source: RIC
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== References ==
== External links ==
"Electrochemistry Group Faraday Medal Award". Royal Society of Chemistry. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2025. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_A._Ferguson#:~:text=Early%20life,-Daughters%20Ouida%20and&text=Miriam%20Amanda%20Wallace%20Ferguson%20was,from%20her%20initials%2C%20%22M. | Miriam A. Ferguson | Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson (née Wallace; June 13, 1875 – June 25, 1961) was an American politician who served two non-consecutive terms as the governor of Texas: from 1925 to 1927, and from 1933 to 1935. She was the first female governor of Texas, and the second woman elected to the governorship of any U.S. state to assume office, after Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming.
== Early life ==
Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson was born in Bell County, Texas. She studied at Salado College and Baylor Female College. When she was 24, she married James Edward Ferguson, a lawyer, at her father's farm near Belton in Bell County, Texas.
Her nickname, "Ma", came from her initials, "M. A.", and the fact that her husband was known as "Pa" Ferguson. They had two daughters: Ouida Wallace Ferguson and Dorrace Watt Ferguson.
== Early political career ==
Her husband served as Governor of Texas from 1915 to 1917. During his second term, he was investigated by State Attorney General Dan Moody (who would, incidentally, succeed her as Governor in 1927 after her first term) for actions that had been taken against the University of Texas. The Texas State Senate impeached him, convicted him on ten charges, and prohibited him from holding state office in Texas again.
== 1924 election and first term ==
After her husband's impeachment and conviction, Ma Ferguson ran in the primary for the Democratic nomination for governor and was successful, openly supported by her husband, whom she said she would consult for advice. She ran for office in the 1924 general election.
During her campaign, she said that voters would get "two governors for the price of one". Her speeches at rallies consisted of introducing him and letting him take the platform. A common campaign slogan was, "Me for Ma, and I Ain't Got a Durned Thing Against Pa." Patricia Bernstein of the Houston Chronicle stated "There was never a question in anyone's mind as to who was really running things when Ma was governor."
After her victory in the Democratic primary, Ferguson defeated George C. Butte, a prominent lawyer and University of Texas dean who emerged as the strongest Republican gubernatorial nominee in Texas since Reconstruction. Due to the widespread corruption of her husband's term, resulting in his impeachment, thousands of voters crossed party lines in the general election to vote for the Republican candidate. Republicans usually took between 11,000 and 30,000 votes for governor, but Butte won nearly 300,000 votes, many of them from women and suffragists. It was still primarily a Democratic state, and Ferguson received 422,563 votes (58.9 percent) to Butte's 294,920 (41.1 percent). Butte had been supported in the general election by former governor William P. Hobby, who had succeeded James Ferguson in 1917 and won a full term in 1918.
In 1924, Ma Ferguson became the first elected female chief executive of Texas. She was the second elected female state governor in the United States to assume office, and the first to be elected in a general election. Nellie Tayloe Ross had been sworn in as governor of Wyoming to finish the unexpired term of her late husband two weeks before Ferguson's inauguration, though Ross and Ferguson won their respective elections on the same day. Ferguson's campaign manager was Homer T. Brannon of Fort Worth, Texas.
In 1926, state attorney general Dan Moody, who had investigated her husband for embezzlement and recovered $1 million for Texas citizens, ran against her in a run-off election. He defeated her to become the next and then-youngest governor of Texas. Suffragist activism provided a major contribution to her defeat, as these women rallied behind Moody and campaigned for him.
== 1932 election and second term ==
Ferguson ran again in 1932. She narrowly won the Democratic nomination over incumbent Ross S. Sterling, then soundly defeated Republican Orville Bullington in the general election, 521,395 (61.6 percent) to 322,589 (38.1 percent). It was a year of Democratic successes as Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as President of the United States. Bullington was a cousin of the first wife of John G. Tower, future U.S. Senator from Texas. He fared more strongly than most Texas Republican candidates did in that period, but did not match Butte's 1924 showing against Ferguson.
Ferguson's second term as governor was less controversial than her first. It was rumored that state highway contracts went only to companies that advertised in the Fergusons' newspaper, the Ferguson Forum. A House committee investigated the rumors, but no charges were ever filed. The Great Depression forced both the federal and state governments to cut down on personnel and funding of their organizations, and the Texas Rangers were no exception. The number of commissioned officers in the law-enforcement agency was reduced to 45, and the only means of transportation afforded to Rangers were free railroad passes, or using their personal horses. The situation worsened for the Rangers when they entangled themselves in politics in 1932 by publicly supporting Governor Ross Sterling in his re-election campaign over "Ma" Ferguson. Immediately after taking office in January 1933, she proceeded to discharge all serving Rangers. The force also saw its salaries and funds slashed by the Texas Legislature, and their numbers reduced further to 32 men. The result was that Texas became a safe hideout for the many Depression-era gangsters escaping from the law, such as Bonnie and Clyde, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd and Raymond Hamilton. The hasty appointment of many unqualified Rangers to stop the increasing criminality proved ineffective.
The general disorganization of law enforcement in the state convinced the members of the Legislature that a thorough revision of the public security system was in order, and with that purpose it hired the services of a consulting firm from Chicago. The resulting report yielded many worrying conclusions, but the basic underlying facts were simple: the criminality levels in Texas were extremely high, and the state's means to fight them were underfunded, undermanned, loose, disorganized and obsolete. The consultants' recommendation, besides increasing funding, was to introduce a whole reorganization of state security agencies; especially, to merge the Rangers with the Texas Highway Patrol under a new agency called the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). After deliberating, the Legislature agreed with the suggestion. The resolution that created the new state law enforcement agency was passed in 1935 under the next governor of Texas, James V. Allred, and with an initial budget of $450,000, the DPS became operational on August 10.
In October 1933, Ferguson signed into law Texas House Bill 194, which was instrumental in establishing the University of Houston as a four-year institution.
== Views and policies ==
"Fergusonism", as the Fergusons' brand of populism was called, remains a controversial subject in Texas. As governor, she tackled some of the tougher issues of the day. Though a teetotaler like her husband, she aligned herself with the "wets" in the battle over prohibition. She opposed the Ku Klux Klan, which was on the decline after 1925 because of a national murder and sex scandal by its president, D. C. Stephenson.
Ferguson has been described as a fiscal conservative but also pushed for a state sales tax and corporate income tax. She is often credited with a quote allegedly referring to bilingualism in Texas schools: "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it ought to be good enough for the children of Texas." Variations of this statement have been dated to 1881, and were often used to ridicule the claimed backwardness of various unnamed Christians. Ferguson did not originate the quote.
Ferguson issued almost 4,000 pardons during her two nonconsecutive terms in office, many of them to free persons who had been convicted of violating prohibition laws. In 1930, between Ferguson's terms, the Secretary of State of Texas Jane Y. McCallum published a pamphlet criticizing the former governor's numerous pardons of prisoners. Though never proven, rumors persisted that pardons were available in exchange for cash payments to the governor's husband. In 1936, voters passed an amendment to the state constitution stripping the governor of the power to issue pardons and granting that power to a politically independent Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (see Capital punishment in Texas).
A number of labor laws were also passed during Ferguson's two terms as governor.
In a 1932 speech, Ferguson's husband James E. Ferguson defended the record of "Fergusonism;" listing reforms such as child labor and workmen's compensation laws, aid for rural education, a free textbook law, and laws regulating the working hours of women. Miriam Ferguson herself defended “Fergusonism;” citing liberal measures such as a semi-monthly pay day law, an eight-hour law, the establishment of an Industrial Accident Board, and the creation of Lower Colorado and Brazos River Authorities.
== Post-governorship ==
Except for an unsuccessful bid to replace Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel in 1940, the Fergusons remained retired from political life after 1935. In the 1940 campaign, Ma Ferguson trailed O'Daniel's principal rival, Ernest O. Thompson of Amarillo, who was Texas Railroad Commissioner.
Her husband, James, died of a stroke in 1944. Miriam Ferguson died from congestive heart failure in 1961 at the age of 86. She was buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
== See also ==
List of female governors in the United States
List of the first women holders of political offices in the United States
== Notes ==
== Further reading ==
Luthin, Reinhard H. (1954). "Ch. 7: Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson: 'Pa' & 'Ma' of the Lone Star State". American Demagogues: Twentieth Century. Beacon Press. pp. 153–181. ASIN B0007DN37C. LCCN 54-8426. OCLC 1098334.
== External links ==
Miriam Ferguson from the Handbook of Texas Online |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Palace#:~:text=In%202013%2C%20Alexandra%20Park%20was,for%20Nature%20Conservation%2C%20Grade%201. | Alexandra Palace | Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in north London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. It was designed by John Johnson and Alfred Meeson. It opened in 1873 but following a fire two weeks after its opening, was rebuilt by Johnson. It was intended as "the People's Palace" and it is often referred to by the nickname "Ally Pally".
At first a private venture, in 1900 the owners planned to sell it and Alexandra Park for development. A group of neighbouring local authorities managed to acquire it. An Act of Parliament created the Alexandra Palace and Park Trust. The Act required the trustees to maintain the building and the park, and make them available for the free use and recreation of the public forever. The present trustee is the London Borough of Haringey, whose coat of arms shows lightning bolts depicting Alexandra Palace's pioneering role in the development of television.
In 1935 the trustees leased part of the Palace to the BBC for use as the production and transmission centre for their new television service. Thus, in 1936, it became the home of the world's first regular public (then) "high-definition" television service. The broadcasting system was 405-line monochrome analogue television – the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. Although other facilities soon superseded it after the Second World War, Alexandra Palace continued to be used by the BBC for many years, and its radio and television mast is still in use.
The original Studios A and B still survive in the southeast wing with their producers' galleries, and are used for exhibiting original historical television equipment. The original Victorian Alexandra Palace Theatre with its stage machinery also survives and, as of 2019, is back in use. The theatre and the stage structure are on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register. Alexandra Palace became a listed building in 1996, at the instigation of the Hornsey Historical Society. A planned commercial development of the building into a mixed leisure complex, including a hotel, a replacement ice-skating rink, a cinema, a ten-pin bowling alley and an exhibition centre, encountered opposition from public groups and was blocked by the High Court in 2007.
The Great Hall and the West Hall are typically used for exhibitions, concerts and conferences. They are operated by the trading arm of the charitable trust that owns the building and the park on behalf of the public. There are also a pub, an ice rink, a palm court and a panoramic view of London.
In 2013 Alexandra Park was declared a local nature reserve. It is also a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1.
The nearest railway stations are Alexandra Palace, with Great Northern services from Moorgate, and the London Underground station Wood Green on the Piccadilly line. Alexandra Palace is also served by London Buses route W3, which is operated by Arriva London.
== History ==
=== 19th century ===
The "Palace of the People" was conceived by Owen Jones in 1859. The Great Northern Palace Company had been established by 1860, but was initially unable to raise financing for the construction of the Palace. Construction materials were acquired and recycled from the large 1862 International Exhibition building in South Kensington after it was demolished: the government had declined to take it over. In 1863 Alexandra Park Co. Ltd. acquired the land of Tottenham Wood Farm for conversion to a park and to build the People's Palace, on a site that stands on a ridge more than 300 ft (91 m) high, part of Muswell Hill. Alexandra Park was opened to the public on 23 July 1863.
The planned building was originally named "The Palace of the People"; it and its park were renamed to honour the popular new Princess of Wales, Alexandra of Denmark, who had married Prince Albert Edward on 10 March 1863. The Palace of the People, or the People's Palace, remained as alternative names. In September 1865 construction commenced but to a design by John Johnson and Alfred Meeson rather than the glass structure initially proposed by Jones.
In 1871 work started on the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway to connect the site to Highgate station. Work on both the railway and the Palace was completed in 1873 and, on 24 May of that year, Alexandra Palace and Park were opened. The structure covers some 7.5 acres (3.0 ha). The Palace was built by Kelk and Lucas, who also built the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington at around the same time. Sims Reeves sang on the opening day before an audience of 102,000. Only 16 days later, Alexandra Palace was destroyed by a fire which also killed three members of staff. Only the outer walls survived; a loan exhibition of a collection of English pottery and porcelain, comprising some 4,700 items of historic and intrinsic value, was also destroyed.
The Palace was quickly rebuilt and reopened on 1 May 1875. The new Alexandra Palace contained a concert hall, art galleries, a museum, a lecture hall, a library, a banqueting room and a large theatre. The stage of the theatre incorporated machinery that enabled special effects for the pantomimes and melodramas that were then popular: performers could disappear, reappear and be propelled into the air. The theatre was also used for political meetings. An open-air swimming pool was constructed at the base of the hill in the surrounding park; it is long since closed and little trace remains except some reeds.
The grounds included a horseracing course with a grandstand, named the Alexandra Park Racecourse but nicknamed the "Frying Pan" or the "Pan Handle" because of its layout. It was London's only racecourse from 1868 until its closure in 1970. There were also a Japanese village, a switchback ride, a boating lake and a nine-hole pitch-and-putt golf course. Alexandra Park cricket and football clubs have also played within the grounds, in the middle of the old racecourse. since 1888. A Henry Willis organ was installed in 1875, vandalised in 1918, and restored and reopened in 1929. In its restored form Willis's masterpiece was declared by Marcel Dupré to be the finest concert organ in Europe.
=== 20th century ===
In 1900 the owners of Alexandra Palace and Park were threatening to sell them for redevelopment, but a consortium headed by Henry Burt JP, a member of the Middlesex County Council and of Hornsey District Council, embraced the opportunity of securing the Palace and the grounds for the people of London. A committee was formed by Burt and the consortium managed to raise enough money to purchase them just in time. By the Alexandra Park and Palace (Public Purposes) Act 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. cclix), a charitable trust was created; representatives of the purchasing local authorities became the trustees with the duty to keep both building and park "available for the free use and recreation of the public forever".
In 1921 a plaque was erected at the entrance of the south terrace in honour of Burt. The Palace passed into the hands of the Greater London Council in 1967, with the proviso that it should be used entirely for charitable purpose. The trusteeship was transferred to Haringey council in 1980.
During the First World War the park was closed; the Palace and its grounds were first used as a refugee camp for displaced Belgians, and then later from 1915 to 1919 as an internment camp for German and Austrian civilians. The camp commandant was Lt. Col. R. S. F. Walker until his death in May 1917.
The theatre was greatly altered in the early 1920s, when the general manager, W. J. MacQueen-Pope, spent war reparation money on refurbishing the auditorium. He abandoned the understage machinery that had produced the effects necessary in Victorian melodrama; some of the machinery is preserved, and there is a project to restore some of it to working order. After these changes the theatre was leased by Archie Pitt, then husband of Gracie Fields, who appeared in the theatre. Fields also drew an audience of 5,000 people to the hall for a charity event.
In 1935 the trustees leased part of the Palace to the BBC for use as the production and transmission centre for their new BBC Television service. The antenna was designed by Charles Samuel Franklin of the Marconi Company. The world's first public broadcasts of (then) "high-definition" television were made from Alexandra Palace in November 1936, an event which is alluded to by the rays in the modern coat of arms of the London Borough of Haringey. Two competing systems, Marconi-EMI's 405-line system and John Logie Baird's 240-line system, were installed, each with its own broadcast studio and were transmitted on alternate weeks until the 405-line system was chosen in January 1937. After the BBC leased the eastern part of the Palace the theatre was only used for props storage space.
The Palace continued as the BBC's main transmitting centre for London until 1956, interrupted only by the Second World War, when the transmitter found an alternative use jamming German bombers' navigation systems. In 1944, a German doodlebug exploded just outside the organ end of the Great Hall and the Rose Window was blown in, leaving the organ exposed to the elements. In 1947 some of the pieces of the shattered rose window were incorporated in a new design by architect E.T. Spashett during renovation of bomb-damaged public buildings by the Ministry of Works. During the 1940s and 1950s the Palace also housed a public roller-skating rink and the Alexandra Palace Roller Skating Club.
In the early 1960s an outside broadcast was made from the top of the tower, in which the first passage of a satellite across the London sky was watched and described. It continued to be used for BBC News broadcasts until 1969, and for the Open University until 1981. The antenna mast still stands and is used for local terrestrial television transmission, local commercial radio and Digital Audio Broadcasting. The main London television transmitter is now at Crystal Palace in South London.
In 1977 the Greater London Council (GLC) considered a £20 million proposal to redevelop Alexandra Park into a multi-sport complex constructed around a shared football ground for two North London clubs, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. The 75,000-seat stadium would have required a new transit connection, either a monorail line or a branch of the Piccadilly line, and private funding. The proposal was rejected by the GLC after local opposition cited the potential for hooliganism in the area.
Early in 1980 Haringey Council took over the trusteeship of Alexandra Palace from the GLC, insuring it for £31 million, intending to refurbish the building but just six months later, during Capital Radio's Jazz Festival, a fire started under the organ and quickly spread. It destroyed half the building. Again the outer walls survived and the eastern parts, including the theatre and the BBC Television studios and aerial mast, were saved. Parts of the famous organ were destroyed, though it had been dismantled for repairs so some parts, including nearly all the pipework, were away from the building in store. Some of the damage to the Palace was repaired immediately, but Haringey Council overspent on the restoration, creating a £30 million deficit. The Palace was reopened to the public in 1988 under a new management team headed by Louis Bizat. Later the council was heavily criticised for the overspend in a report by Project Management International. In 1991 the Attorney General stated that the overspending by the council as trustee was unlawful, and so could not be charged to the charity. The council for some years did not accept this finding and instead maintained that the charity "owed" the council £30 million, charged compound interest on what it termed a "debt", which eventually rose to a claim of some £60 million, and to recoup it tried to offer the whole palace for sale.
An ice rink was installed at Alexandra Palace in 1990. Primarily intended for public skating, it has also housed ice hockey teams including the Harringay Racers, the Haringey Greyhounds, the London Racers and now the Haringey Huskies, as well as a figure skating club, the Alexandra Palace Amateur Ice Skating Club.
=== 21st century ===
The first performances for about 70 years took place in the theatre, first in its foyer in June 2004, then, in July, in the theatre itself. Although conditions were far from ideal, the audience was able to see the potential of this very large space. Originally seating 3,000, it could not be licensed for more than a couple of hundred. It was intended that the theatre would reopen, but costly restoration would be required first. It will never again reach a seating capacity of 3,000, not least because one balcony was removed in the early part of the 20th century as a fire precaution when films started to be shown there. A major season of the theatre company Complicité was planned for 2005, but the project, which would have included some repair and access work, was cancelled due to higher-than-anticipated costs.
Plans by the current trustees, Haringey Council, to replace all the charitable uses by commercial ones through a lease of the entire building, including a casino, encountered considerable public and legal opposition, and on 5 October 2007, in the High Court, Mr Justice Sullivan granted an application by Jacob O'Callaghan, a London resident, to quash the Charity Commission's order authorising a 125-year lease of the entire building to Firoka Ltd.
In September 2009 the main hall at Alexandra Palace was allowed 2,000 more occupation, up to 10,250 ("still saddled by a £37 million debt it owes its guardian, Haringey Council").
A masterplan for the future of the site was drawn up in 2012, comprising six "big ideas" to restore and redevelop the Palace. The first of these to be implemented aimed to transform the derelict eastern end of the Palace, making the Victorian theatre and the historic BBC Studios accessible. In 2013 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a Round 1 pass to develop the proposals, creating a new entrance in the restored East Court, re-establishing the theatre as a flexible performance space and reopening the BBC Studios as a visitor attraction. There was controversy regarding plans to demolish the brick infills in the colonnade on the southeastern face of the building, which the BBC constructed after 1936 to form their television studios within. Following a public consultation and advice from English Heritage, Planning and Listed Building Consent was given for the proposals, and in March 2015 HLF awarded Round 2 major grant funding.
In 2018 Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios made a £27 million refurbishment of the long-abandoned Alexandra Palace theatre and east wing.
In 2018 it was announced that the Theatre would open for a BBC Proms performance on 1 September before officially reopening to the public on 1 December 2018 following the completion of the East Wing Restoration Project by the contractor Willmott Dixon. The opening programme included performances from Dylan Moran, Horrible Histories, Gilbert & George, Gareth Malone and an evening of jazz presented by Ronnie Scott's.
During the coronavirus pandemic Alexandra Palace was used by Edible London as a food distribution hub for local residents.
== Notable events ==
=== Recurring ===
Alexandra Palace has hosted a number of significant events. Recurring events held there include the Great British Beer Festival (1977–1980), the Brit Awards (1993–1995), the PDC World Darts Championship (2008–present) and the Masters snooker tournament (2012–2020 and 2022–2025).
In November every year a large fireworks display is scheduled there as part of London's Bonfire Night celebrations.
=== 1960s ===
The Observer's Wildlife Exhibition held here in 1963 was an important early event in highlighting awareness of worldwide endangered species, and it gained a large attendance (46,000).
The News of the World Darts Championship final stage was held at Alexandra Palace from 1963 to 1977.
In April 1967 a benefit event took place at the Palace. The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, organised by the International Times, demonstrated the importance of the quickly developing Underground scene. Although venues such as the UFO Club were hosting counter-cultural bands, this was certainly the largest indoor event at the time. Performers included headlining act Pink Floyd as well as the Pretty Things, Savoy Brown, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, The Purple Gang, The Move and Sam Gopal's Dream (featuring Sam Gopal, Mick Hutchinson and Pete Sears). John Lennon attended, and Yoko Ono (who was soon to become Lennon's new romantic partner) presented her performance work "Cut Piece".
=== 1970s ===
In 1970 an Italian director, Lucio Fulci, filmed a segment of his giallo film A Lizard in a Woman's Skin here. Alexandra Palace posed as a disused church. The rock band Led Zeppelin played at Alexandra Palace's Grand Hall in two sell out performances on the evenings of the 22/23 December 1972. Their concert tickets were priced at £1 each for the two-hour-long gig and were uniquely made available from specific Harlequin Record Shops within Central London.
In 1973 the Divine Light Mission held a "Festival of Love" there. Also in 1973, British rock band Wishbone Ash played a Christmas concert at the Palace, billed as "Christmas at the Palace".
The American band Grateful Dead played a series of three shows there between 9 and 11 September 1974; a recording of portions of all three shows was released as part of the Dick's Picks series in March 1997.
The Campaign for Real Ale held the Great British Beer Festival there from 1977 to 1980 (the 1980 edition taking place in tents outside the fire-damaged Alexandra Palace). On the afternoon of 10 July 1980 (an accidental) fire destroyed the Great Hall, Banqueting Suite, Dressing Rooms and Ice Rink during contractors routine repairs and maintenance.
From 27 July to 5 August 1973 The London Music Festival '73 was held here.
=== 1980s ===
After the fire the burnt-out shell of the great hall of Alexandra Palace was used as Victory Square in Michael Radford's 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The Sinclair C5 battery electric vehicle was launched at the Palace in January 1985, one week after the closure of the 405-line television system that was inaugurated there 49 years earlier.
In November 1989 the Stone Roses performed a concert at Alexandra Palace.
=== 1990s ===
Hugh Cornwell played his last performance with the Stranglers at Alexandra Palace in August 1990. This was documented by the Saturday Night, Sunday Morning album and video.
Blur performed a major concert at the venue in October 1994 to promote their album Parklife. The recording of the concert was released on video in February 1995 with the title Showtime and used as the basis for the video for the band's song "End of a Century".
From 1993 to 1995 the Brit Awards were hosted at Alexandra Palace. In November 1996 it was the venue for the annual MTV Europe Music Awards.
In 1996 the Palace hosted the inaugural London Model Engineering Exhibition which continued each year until 2021 when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
=== 2000s ===
In April 2000 the funeral service of the Labour MP Bernie Grant took place at the Palace. An estimated 3,000 people attended.
The fourth Mind Sports Olympiad was held at Alexandra Palace in August 2000, with more than 4,000 competitors from around the world taking part in mind sports.
In December 2002 the Miss World 2002 pageant was staged at the venue.
In June 2007 a Hackday event was hosted at Alexandra Palace by the BBC and Yahoo! During the event the building was struck by lightning, causing the fire vents to open (and then get stuck open), and it rained inside the building.
Since December 2007 Alexandra Palace has hosted the PDC World Darts Championship, following 14 years from December 1993 to January 2007 of the tournament being held at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex. The Palace was previously home to the News of the World Darts Championship between 1963 and 1977.
April 2008 saw the relaunch of the regular antiques fairs, now held four times a year, organised by International Antiques & Collectors Fairs (IACF).
=== 2010s ===
The band Portishead hosted one of two All Tomorrow's Parties festivals titled I'll Be Your Mirror in July 2011 at Alexandra Palace. The 50th anniversary programme of Songs of Praise was recorded there in September 2011 and broadcast the following month.
Since 2012 the Palace has been the venue for the Masters snooker tournament, held every January. The only subsequent year it has not been held there was 2021, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics the Palace served as the official hospitality venue for the Dutch Olympic team.
In November 2012 it was the venue for the annual Warped Tour, a music and extreme sports festival.
The band Suede appeared in March 2013, playing one of the first dates in support of Bloodsports, their first new album in more than a decade. In September 2013 Björk performed one of the final concerts of her Biophilia tour. The show was the last concert to be held "in the round", a format that characterised the tour, and the first to be performed in this way at Alexandra Palace. The eclectic programming has included in 2015, Florence and the Machine playing 4 dates of their How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Tour in the Palace as well as in 2016 alone, heavy metal band Slipknot, Drum & Bass DJ Andy C and the Last Shadow Puppets; with sell out shows by Twenty One Pilots and Panic at the Disco.
The bootcamp stage for series 13 of The X Factor was filmed at the Alexandra Palace from 6 to 8 July 2016.
=== 2020s ===
In June 2020, Nick Cave recorded the live album and concert film Idiot Prayer in the West Hall. On the record, he performs songs from throughout his career solo on the piano.
On 18 April 2021 London Grammar performed their third album, Californian Soil, live at Alexandra Palace.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge presented the inaugural Earthshot Prizes, with many celebrity guests, at Alexandra Palace on 17 October 2021.
Fontaines D.C. performed the last show of their 2021 UK tour at Alexandra Palace on 27 October 2021.
On 11 November 2021 Bethesda Softworks hosted a special concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The performance by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices was livestreamed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boxxer Promotions used the Palace for a Sunday special card which was headlined by rising prospect Adam Azim. The event took place on 27 November 2022 and aired live on Sky Sports.
== Notes and references ==
== External links ==
Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust 2016 Annual Review
Heritage at Risk Register: Alexandra+Palace
Alexandra Palace (Victorian London)
Alexandra Palace theatrestrust.org.uk
Pictures and Information About Alexandra Palace History
Alexandra Palace – West Corridor Murals History of the Peoples Palace
Society
Save Ally Pally Archived 6 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine : campaign to maintain the charitable status for the public
Hornsey Historical Society
Friends of Alexandra Park
Friends of Alexandra Palace Theatre
Alexandra Palace Organ Appeal
Television
BBC Television at Alexandra Palace
History of early BBC TV broadcasts, with photos – 9 July 2003 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms | List of pseudonyms | This is a list of pseudonyms, in various categories.
A pseudonym is a name adopted by a person for a particular purpose, which differs from their true name. A pseudonym may be used by social activists or politicians for political purposes or by others for religious purposes. It may be a soldier's nom de guerre or an author's nom de plume. It may be a performer's stage name or an alias used by visual artists, athletes, fashion designers, or criminals. Pseudonyms are occasionally used in fiction such as by superheroes or other fictional characters.
== General list ==
== Other lists ==
=== Maternal family names ===
=== Pen names ===
=== Porn names ===
=== Stage names ===
== Fictional pseudonyms ==
=== Superhero genre ===
Iron Man (Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark) – Marvel Comics
Captain America (Steven Grant "Steve" Rogers) – Marvel Comics
The Hulk (Dr. Robert Bruce Banner) – Marvel Comics
Spider-Man (Peter Benjamin Parker) – Marvel Comics
Spider-Man (Miles Gonzalo Morales) – Marvel Comics
Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) – Marvel Comics
Doctor Octopus (Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius) - Marvel Comics
Wolverine (Logan, James Howlett) – Marvel Comics
Hawkeye (Clinton Francis "Clint" Barton) – Marvel Comics
Hawkeye (Katherine Elizabeth "Kate" Bishop) – Marvel Comics
Black Widow (Claire Voyant) – Marvel Comics
Black Widow (Natalia Alianovna "Natasha Romanoff" Romanova) – Marvel Comics
Black Widow (Yelena Belova) – Marvel Comics
Amazing-Man (William Blake "Will" Everett) – DC Comics
Amazing-Man (William Blake "Will" Everett III) – DC Comics
Amazing-Man (Markus Clay) – DC Comics
Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (Amy Winston) – DC Comics
Animal Man (Bernhard "Buddy" Baker) – DC Comics
Aquagirl (Lorena Marquez) – DC Comics
Argus (Nick Kelly) – DC Comics
Atom (Albert "Al" Pratt) – DC Comics
Aqualad (Garth) – DC Comics
Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm / Jackson Hyde) – DC Comics
Aquaman (Arthur Joseph Curry) – DC Comics
Superman (Kal-El / Clark Joseph Kent) – DC Comics
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) – DC Comics
Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) – DC Comics
Batman (Bruce Wayne) – DC Comics
Catwoman (Selina Kyle) – DC Comics
Catwoman (Patience Phillips) – 2004 film
Huntress (Helena Wayne) – DC Comics
Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) – DC Comics
The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) – DC Comics
The Riddler (Dr. Edward Nigma) – DC Comics
Rorschach (Walter Joseph Kovacs) – Watchmen (Alan Moore graphic novel)
The Flash (Jason Peter "Jay" Garrick) – DC Comics
The Flash (Bartholomew Henry "Barry" Allen) – DC Comics
The Flash (Wallace Rudolph "Wally" West) – DC Comics
The Flash (Bartholomew Henry "Bart" Allen II) – DC Comics
Wonder Woman (Princess Diana of Themyscira / Diana Prince) – DC Comics
=== Other fictional characters ===
Lord Voldemort (Thomas Marvolo "Tom" Riddle) – Harry Potter series
Aramis (Henri d'Aramitz, le Chevalier d'Herblay) – The Three Musketeers
Scarlet Pimpernel (Sir Percy Blakeney) - The Scarlet Pimpernel
Athos (Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle, Le Comte de La Fère) – The Three Musketeers
Demosthenes (Valentine Wiggin) – Ender's Game series
Chuck Finley (Sam Axe) - Burn Notice
Monika (Monitor Kernel Access / Monika.chr / Monika) – Doki Doki Literature Club!
d'Artagnan (Charles de Batz-Castelmore) – The Three Musketeers
Dylan Sharp (Deryn Sharp) – Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Jeff (Othello Jeffries from the comic strip Mutt and Jeff)
Locke (Peter Wiggin) – Ender's Game series
M (Sir Miles Messervy) – James Bond novels
Q (Major Boothroyd) – James Bond novels
Regina Phalange (Phoebe Buffay) – Friends
Porthos (Isaac de Porthau, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds) – The Three Musketeers
Rusty Shackleford (Dale Gribble) - King of the Hill
Duke Silver (Ron Swanson) - Parks and Recreation
Speaker for the Dead (Ender Wiggin) – Ender's Game series
Ken Adams (Joey Tribbiani) – Friends
Art Vandelay (George Costanza) – Seinfeld
La Volpe – Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Zorro (Don Diego de la Vega)
Alucard (Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş)
Mr. Underhill (Frodo Baggins) – The Lord of the Rings series
The Shadow (Lamont Cranston)
Clint Eastwood (Marty McFly) – Back to the Future Part III
Heisenberg (Walter White) – Breaking Bad
Saul Goodman (James "Jimmy" McGill) – Breaking Bad
L (L Lawliet) – Death Note
John Smith (Kyon) - Haruhi Suzumiya
The Doctor – Doctor Who
Keyser Söze (Roger "Verbal" Kint) - The Usual Suspects
Rollo Tomasi - Pseudonym given to his father's unknown murderer by Lieutenant Edmund Exley - L.A. Confidential
Comic Book Guy (Jeff Albertson) - The Simpsons
Fat Tony (Don Marion Anthony D'Amico) - The Simpsons
Krusty the Clown (Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky) - The Simpsons
== See also ==
Literary initials
List of pen names
List of people who adopted matrilineal surnames
List of pseudonyms used in the American Constitutional debates
List of works published under a pseudonym
Mononymous persons
Nicknames of jazz musicians
Pseudonyms used by U.S. President Donald Trump
== References ==
== External links ==
FamousFolk – An extensive list of pseudonyms |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepi_Litman | Pepi Litman | Pepi Litman (Yiddish: פּעפּי ליטמאַן, born Pesha Kahane; c. 1876 – 13 September 1930) was a cross-dressing female Yiddish vaudeville singer associated with the Broderzinger movement. Litman led a popular traveling theater troupe around Europe, performing highly satirical songs while costumed as a male Hasidic Jew. Because she frequently performed while costumed as a young boy or as a male dandy, she is considered a proto-drag king performer. Pepi Litman made numerous 78rpm recordings which capture her energetic and virtuosic singing style, and which also stand as a document of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
== Early life ==
Litman was born to poor Jewish parents in Tarnopol, a city in eastern Galicia (now in Ukraine). The region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where Jews were relatively free to work and travel. However, a poor Jewish girl with no dowry faced very limited prospects in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, usually working uncompensated all her life to support her parents, husband, children and in-laws.
In her youth, Litman worked as a maid in a theatrical boarding house run by the parents of Max Badin, an actor who later appeared in American Yiddish films. Since she had a good singing voice she soon got involved with the itinerant Yiddish vaudevillians known as the Broderzingers.
The Broderzingers are credited with creating the earliest form of secular Yiddish theater in East European pubs, cafes, and wine gardens. Their performances combined elements of the traditional rabbinical court jester, the badkhn (master of ceremonies at a Yiddish wedding), and the Purimshpil (traditional holiday plays, usually performed privately by amateurs, with cross-dressing, satire, and bawdy songs). Besides providing comic entertainment, the Broderzingers were influenced by the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, to advocate on behalf of modernization, education and emancipation for Jews. Some Broderzinger songs satirized Hasidism; others were sung from the point of view of working-class proste yidn (Yiddish: simple folk) such as nightwatchmen, water carriers, gravediggers, housemaids and beggars.
Pepi married a bandleader and Broderzinger, Jacob Litman or Littman, who ran his own travelling theatre troupe. After his death she took over the troupe herself, touring around inns, small towns, health spas, cities and even private homes in Russia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Rumania.
== Eyewitness accounts ==
According to eyewitness accounts cited by Zalmen Zylbercweig's Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre), Pepi Litman spoke several languages, frequented literary Yiddish circles, and observed Jewish law as much as she could on the road, by keeping kosher and lighting Shabes candles.
Jacob Mestel, a co-editor of the Leksikon, called her "a chansonette in Hasidic trousers."
Zylbercweig quotes another eyewitness account:
"Dressed as a Hasid, in a big fur hat above curly peyes framing her round, full feminine face, in a wide unbuttoned coat with short trousers, white socks and pumps, with her hands twirling her peyes, she would burst from behind the curtains singing; and instantly, like lightning, set the audience on fire, both on the floor and in the balconies—as choirboys and merchants, tailors and doctors, maids and madames caught on to her melodies and sang along with her.
"Pepi Litman had a masculine voice, deep and hoarse, but anyone who once heard her 'Yismekhu' could never forget it."
In 1910, journalist M. J. Landa reviewed Litman's performance in Lemberg, Poland as part of a "Zydowska Kabaretu" [Polish: "Jewish Cabaret"]. Landa wrote:
"She was the 'star' of the program.....The moment she stepped on the stage, dressed as a Galician youth, with skull cap and ringlets, the whole atmosphere of the room was different. It was dominated by a personality.....Frankly, I do not think I have heard a female comic singer with a voice of greater power and possibility. I preferred it to the cultured voice of the lady in a black evening dress who crooned operatic airs with ease and effect, and afterward wheedled members of the audience into buying her portrait postcards. Pepi Littmnn's voice is a rich, clear mezzo of operatic fullness and breadth and there are moments when it is quite thrilling. At others, again, it sounds almost harsh — this when she is engaged in repartee with her audience. She banters and expostulates with her hearers, always good humoredly and seems to take as much delight in her singing and in her patter as they do. She is the incarnation of the joyous spirit of the Jew, with moments of pathos and sentiment. Listening to her singing of "Shabbos After Table" and "Kol Yisrael Chaverim,' and also an amusing ditty about the Messiah coming in an automobile, I forgot that I was in Galicia—forgot the horrible depressing poverty with which I had been surrounded for some days...."
== Career & associates ==
From about 1905 to 1930, Litman performed in Germany (especially in spa towns like Marienbad and Karlsbad), Hungary (in Budapest), Poland (especially in Lemberg/Lviv), Russia (especially in Odessa), and probably in America, since she recorded several 78RPM discs in New York.
She performed both comic and serious songs, in a broad Galitsyaner Yiddish dialect, sometimes in a Germanized form of Yiddish called daytshmerish. She recorded a number of songs, both in Lemberg, Budapest, and in New York. Pepi Litman also worked closely with Broderzinger, author and composer Shloyme Pryzament.
During World War I, Litman primarily performed in and around Odessa, where she found a following in literary circles. She was frequently a guest of Yiddish writer and editor David Frishman and author Mendele Mocher Sforim.
== Death ==
Litman returned to performing in Vienna in 1928, mapping out a route that included Karlsbad, Marienbad, and Poland. She became quite ill after this tour, and, after a stay at the Rothschild Hospital, she died on 13 September 1930. Her funeral was arranged by the Vienna Yiddish Artists Union and her burial plot was donated by the Jewish community.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neelam_Sanjiva_Reddy | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (19 May 1913 – 1 June 1996) was an Indian politician who served as the president of India from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress in the independence movement, he went on to hold several key offices in independent India – as deputy chief minister of Andhra state and the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, a two-time Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Minister— before becoming the Indian president.
Born in present-day Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, Reddy completed his schooling at Adayar and joined the Government Arts College at Anantapur. He quit to become an Indian independence activist and was jailed for participating in the Quit India Movement. He was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946 as a Congress representative. Reddy became the deputy chief minister of Andhra State in 1953 and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1956. He was a union cabinet minister under prime ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi from 1964 to 1967 and Lok Sabha Speaker from 1967 to 1969. He later retired from active politics but returned in 1975, responding to Jayaprakash Narayan's call for "Total Revolution" against the Indira Gandhi Government.
Elected to Parliament in 1977 as a candidate of the Janata Party, Reddy was unanimously elected speaker of the 6th Lok Sabha and three months later, was elected unopposed as president of India. As president, Reddy worked with prime ministers Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, and Indira Gandhi. Reddy was succeeded by Zail Singh in 1982, and retired to his farm in Anantapur. He died in 1996 and his samadhi is at Kalpally Burial Ground, Bangalore. In 2013, the Government of Andhra Pradesh commemorated Reddy's birth centenary.
== Education and family ==
Reddy was born into a Telugu Hindu family in Illur village, Madras Presidency (present-day Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh) on 19 May 1913. He studied at the Theosophical High School at Adayar in Madras and later enrolled at the Government Arts College at Anantapur, an affiliate of the University of Madras, as an undergraduate. In 1958, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati bestowed the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws on him because of his role in its founding.
Reddy was married to Neelam Nagaratnamma, the sister of politician T. Nagi Reddy. The couple had one son and three daughters.
== Role in the Indian independence movement ==
Reddy joined the Indian struggle for independence from the British Raj following Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Anantapur in July 1929 and dropped out of college in 1931. He was closely associated with the Youth League and participated in a student satyagraha. In 1938, Reddy was elected Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Congress Committee, an office he held for ten years. During the Quit India Movement, he was imprisoned and was mostly in jail between 1940 and 1945. Released in March 1942, he was arrested again in August and sent to the Amraoti jail where he served time with activists T Prakasam, S. Satyamurti, K Kamaraj and V V Giri till 1945.
== Political career ==
Elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946 as a Congress representative, Reddy became secretary of the Congress' legislature party. He was also a Member of the Indian Constituent Assembly from Madras. From April 1949 to April 1951, he was the Minister for Prohibition, Housing and Forests of the Madras State. Reddy lost the 1951 election to the Madras Legislative Assembly to the Communist leader Tarimela Nagi Reddy, his brother-in-law.
=== Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra State ===
In 1951, in a closely contested election, he was elected President of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee defeating N G Ranga. When the Andhra State was formed in 1953, T. Prakasam became its Chief Minister and Reddy became the deputy.
=== Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (1956–60, 1962–64) ===
After the formation of the state of Andhra Pradesh by incorporating Telangana with the Andhra State, Reddy became its first Chief Minister from 1 November 1956 to 11 January 1960. He was Chief Minister for a second time from 12 March 1962 to 20 February 1964, thus holding that office for over five years. Reddy was MLA from Sri Kalahasti and Dhone respectively during his stints as Chief Minister. The Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam multipurpose river valley projects were initiated during his tenure. The Government of Andhra Pradesh later renamed the Srisailam project to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Sagar in his honour.
The Congress governments under Reddy placed emphasis on rural development, agriculture and allied sectors. The shift towards industrialisation remained limited and was largely driven by the central government's investments in large public sector enterprises in the state. Reddy's first term as Chief Minister ended in 1960 after he resigned on being elected President of the Indian National Congress. In 1964, he resigned voluntarily following unfavourable observations made against the Government of Andhra Pradesh by the Supreme Court in the Bus Routes Nationalisation case.
=== Congress President (1960–62) and Union Minister (1964–67) ===
Reddy served thrice as President of the Indian National Congress at its Bangalore, Bhavnagar and Patna sessions during 1960 to 1962. At the Congress session at Goa in 1962, Reddy's speech stating India's determination to end the Chinese occupation of Indian territory and the irrevocable nature of the liberation of Goa was enthusiastically received by attendees. He was thrice member of the Rajya Sabha. From June 1964, Reddy was Union Minister of Steel and Mines in the Lal Bahadur Shastri government. He also served as Union Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation, Shipping and Tourism from January 1966 to March 1967 in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet.
=== Speaker of the Lok Sabha (1967–69) ===
In the general elections of 1967, Reddy was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. On 17 March 1967, Reddy was elected Speaker of the Fourth Lok Sabha becoming only the third person to be elected Speaker of the house during their inaugural term. To emphasize the independence of the Speaker's office, Reddy resigned from the Congress Party. His term as Speaker was marked by several firsts including the admission of a No-Confidence Motion on the same day as the President's address to a joint session of Parliament, the handing down of a sentence of imprisonment for Contempt of the house and the setting up of the Committee on the Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. During his term as Speaker a defamation suit filed against him by an MP resulted in the Supreme Court's ruling that parliamentarians had complete freedom of speech in the House and that the courts had no say in such matters. Reddy described his role as being the 'watchman of the Parliament'. He however had several hostile encounters with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the House that proved costly when he became, two years later, the Congress Party's nominee to succeed Zakir Hussain as president.
=== Presidential election of 1969 ===
In 1969, following President Zakir Husain's death, the Congress party nominated Reddy, a member of its Syndicate faction, as candidate for president although Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opposed him. She was forced to accept Reddy as the Congress party's official candidate and feared his election would allow the Syndicate to expel her from office. She asked Congress legislators to "vote according to their conscience" rather than blindly toe the Party line, in effect giving a call to support the independent candidate V V Giri. In a closely fought election held on 16 August 1969, V V Giri emerged victorious, winning 48.01 per cent of the first preference votes and subsequently getting a majority on counting the second preference votes. In the final tally, Giri had 420,077 votes against the quota of 418,169 votes required to be elected president and Reddy had 405,427 votes. The election led to much discord within the Congress Party and culminated in the historic split of 1969 and the subsequent rise of Indira Gandhi in Indian politics.
Subsequently, Reddy, who had resigned as Speaker of the Lok Sabha to contest the election, retired from active politics and moved back to Anantapur where he took to farming.
=== Return to active politics (1975–82) ===
In response to Jayaprakash Narayan's call for a Total Revolution, Reddy emerged from his political exile in 1975. In January 1977, he was made a member of the Committee of the Janata Party and in March, he fought the General Election from the Nandyal (Lok Sabha constituency) in Andhra Pradesh as a Janata Party candidate. He was the only non-Congress candidate to be elected from Andhra Pradesh. The Congress Party led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated, ending 30 years of Congress rule in India and a five party coalition with Morarji Desai as its leader came to power. Reddy was unanimously elected Speaker of the Sixth Lok Sabha on 26 March 1977. However he resigned a few months later to contest in the presidential elections of July 1977. Reddy's second term as Speaker lasted three months and 17 days and remains till date the shortest tenure for anyone to have held that post.
=== Presidential election of 1977 ===
The presidential election of 1977 was necessitated by the death in office of the incumbent Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Although Prime Minister Morarji Desai wanted to nominate danseuse Rukmini Devi Arundale for the post, she turned down the offer. Reddy was elected unopposed, the only President to be elected thus, after being unanimously supported by all political parties including the opposition Congress party. At 64, he was the youngest person to be elected President of India until Droupadi Murmu was elected President in 2022. He was also the only serious presidential candidate to have contested twice – in 1969 against V V Giri and in 1977. 37 candidates had filed their nominations for the presidency of whom 36 were rejected by the returning officer. Following these disqualifications, Reddy remained the only validly nominated candidate in the fray which made elections unnecessary. Reddy thus became the first person to be elected President of India without a contest and remains the only President to have been elected unopposed.
== Presidency (1977-1982) ==
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was elected on 21 July 1977 and was sworn in as the sixth President of India on 25 July 1977. Reddy worked with three governments, with Prime Ministers Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi. Reddy announced, on the eve of India's thirtieth anniversary of Independence, that he would be moving out of the Rashtrapati Bhawan to a smaller accommodation and that he would be taking a 70 percent pay cut in solidarity with India's impoverished masses.
=== Morarji Desai government (1977–79) ===
Relations between Reddy and Desai soon soured over the latter's promotion of his son, Kanti Desai, in politics and over Desai's communication with Chief Ministers Vengala Rao and Channa Reddy on the issue of land ceilings in Andhra Pradesh. Following mass defections from the Janata Party and from the cabinet, Morarji Desai's 30-month-old government ended in July 1979 after he handed in his resignation to Reddy before a no-confidence motion could be tabled against his government in Parliament. Reddy's actions following Desai's resignation have been much debated. His decision to accept Desai's resignation before an alternative government created a ministerial vacuum in the executive according to H. M. Seervai. The faction of the Janata Party supporting Desai continued to have the support of 205 MPs as opposed to Charan Singh's 80 MPs. Reddy used presidential discretion in choosing Charan Singh as the next Prime Minister over a contending claim from Jagjivan Ram, the leader of the Janata Party.
=== Charan Singh government (1979) ===
Following Desai's resignation and the fall of the Janata government headed by him, Reddy appointed Charan Singh as prime minister. This was on the condition that he should prove his majority on the floor of the House before the end of August. Singh was sworn in on 28 July 1979 but never faced Parliament to prove his majority when Reddy convened it on 20 August. Reddy had appointed him Prime Minister since he had produced a letter claiming to have a parliamentary majority with the support of the opposition Congress Party led by his rival, the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In return for her support, Gandhi demanded that a law establishing special courts to try her and her son Sanjay Gandhi be repealed – a proposition that was unacceptable to Charan Singh. Gandhi therefore withdrew her support, forcing Singh to resign. His government lasted 24 days and he never faced Parliament. The convention of appointing a prime minister in a hung House but with conditions on time to prove majority was later adopted by President R Venkataraman.
Following Charan Singh's resignation, Reddy summoned Chandrashekhar and Jagjivan Ram to Rashtrapati Bhavan to look into the possibility of forming an alternate government. Reddy, convinced that they would not be able to form one, accepted Singh's advice and dissolved Lok Sabha, calling for a mid term election. Singh was asked to continue as the caretaker prime minister till a new government was sworn in after the election. Reddy's decision was met with angry denunciations and protests by members of the Janata Party who even threatened to have him impeached. Although heading a caretaker government, Singh proposed as many as seven ordinances on a broad range of matters from effecting changes in company law, providing state funding of elections and reservation of jobs for the backward classes. Reddy however refused to promulgate the ordinances arguing that such momentous changes could not be made by a caretaker government.
=== Indira Gandhi's return to power (1980–82) ===
In the elections of 1980, Indira Gandhi's party the Indian National Congress (I) returned to power by winning 351 seats in the Lok Sabha. Neither the Janata Party nor Charan Singh's Janata Party Secular (which later known as Lok Dal) won the 54 seats needed for recognition as the official opposition in Parliament. Indira was sworn in as prime minister by Reddy for what would become her last term in office in January 1980. Between 1980 and 1982 President Reddy led seven state visits abroad, visiting the USSR, Bulgaria, Kenya, Zambia, the UK, Ireland, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia. At home, as president, he signed an ordinance that gave the new government wide powers to imprison people for up to a year without trial under preventive detention and ordered the imposition of President's rule in nine opposition-ruled states on the advice of the government.
== Later life and death ==
Reddy was succeeded as president by Giani Zail Singh, who was sworn in on 25 July 1982. In his farewell address to the nation, Reddy criticised the failure of successive governments in improving the lives of the Indian masses and called for the emergence of a strong political opposition to prevent governmental misrule. Following his presidential term, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka Ramakrishna Hegde invited Reddy to settle down in Bangalore but he chose to retire to his farm in Anantapur. He died of pneumonia in Bangalore in 1996 at the age of 83. His samadhi is at Kalpally Burial Ground, Bangalore. Parliament mourned Reddy's death on 11 June 1996 and members cutting across party lines paid him tribute and recalled his contributions to the nation and the House.
Reddy authored a book, Without Fear or Favour: Reminiscences and Reflections of a President, published in 1989.
== Commemoration ==
Sanjiva Reddy's birth centenary was celebrated in 2013 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh with the concluding ceremony in Anantapur being addressed by President Pranab Mukherjee and with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in attendance. The Postal Department of India released a commemorative stamp and special cover in honour of Reddy on the occasion of his birth centenary. In Hyderabad, there is the Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy College of Education. As part of the centenary celebrations of his birth, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has announced that it will rename the Andhra Pradesh State Revenue Academy, Reddy's alma mater the Government Arts College and the Government Medical College, Anantapur after the former president. In the 1960s, when he was Union Minister for Mines, a statue of him had been unveiled at Vijayawada by K. Kamaraj, the then president of the Congress Party, prompting Reddy to ask for its removal as he deemed the practice of erecting statues of people holding public office undesirable. A statue of Sanjiva Reddy, unveiled in 2005, stands at the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat (now Telangana Secretariat) in Hyderabad.
== In popular culture ==
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy – President of India is a 1982 short documentary film directed by Prem Vaidya & C. L. Kaul and produced by the Films Division of India, covering his term of presidency.
The character Mahendranath, Chief Minister of the fictional state of Afrozabad in former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's novel, The Insider, is based on Reddy, portraying his career in Andhra Pradesh and his political rivalry with Kasu Brahmananda Reddy.
121. http://wwww.agrasri.org.in
122. The Hans India, 20 May, 2023, Tirupati Edition, https://epaper.thehansindia.com/Home/ArticleView?eid=5&edate=20/05/2023&pgid=118591
123. The Hans India, 20 May, 2024, Tirupati Edition, https://epaper.thehansindia.com/Home/ArticleView?eid=5&edate=20/05/2024&pgid=160976
== Explanatory notes ==
== References ==
121. http://wwww.agrasri.org.in
122. The Hans India, 20 May, 2023, Tirupati Edition, https://epaper.thehansindia.com/Home/ArticleView?eid=5&edate=20/05/2023&pgid=118591
123. The Hans India, 20 May, 2024, Tirupati Edition, https://epaper.thehansindia.com/Home/ArticleView?eid=5&edate=20/05/2024&pgid=160976.
== External links ==
President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy's broadcast to India on Republic Day, 1979 (Audio)
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy – The Office of Speaker Lok Sabha |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithophane_viridipallens | Lithophane viridipallens | Lithophane viridipallens, the pale green pinion moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae that is native to North America. It is listed as a species of special concern in the US state of Connecticut. It was described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1877.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiya_Haruhata | Michiya Haruhata | Michiya Haruhata (春畑道哉, Haruhata Michiya; born November 5, 1966) is a Japanese musical composer, guitarist and music producer under Sony Music Entertainment Japan. He is a member of the pop rock band Tube.
== Biography ==
As a child he was interested in learning piano, however later he was influenced by his father who owned an acoustic guitar. In middle school, he formed the school band Rainbow and was the lead guitarist. In high school he formed amateurs band; Backing M with each of the members coming from different school, Michiya’s role being as the guitarist. In 1984, Michiya took part in the music festival Silc Road held by music agency Being Inc, where he won an award for best guitarist. On the same festival was Nobuteru Maeda, who won the award for best vocalist. With Nobutoru and two more members, Ryoji Matsumoto and Hideyuki Kakuno, they had one year of activity in the amateur band "Pipeline".
All the members were gathered together and in 1985 made their major debut with the band Tube under Sony Music Entertainment Japan. As of 2023 Michiya is still an active member. Two years later in 1987, he started his solo career with the release of the instrumental album Drivin'.
In 1992, he started expanding his musical activities by composing and arranging for artists such as Twinzer, Mi-Ke and Zard. Between years 1996 and 1999, he would temporarily resume his solo career and started his producing records for the Japanese singer Kanae. During the same period, he and Nobutoru formed the production project; Pipeline Project, the name being taken from their amateur period time, where they would contribute compositions, lyrics and arrangements as a duo to various Japanese artists.
Michiya was given his own Signature Model Stratocaster from Fender in 2002.
In 2005, he was part of the guitarist session along with Takashi Masuzaki from the fusion band Dimension, and Yoshinobu Ohga from OOM and released together compilation album "Theatre Of Strings" produced and composed by japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto from the rock band B'z.
Since 2012, the music agency Being has launched once-in-year event called Being Legend: Guitar summit, in which he performs on live venues with juniors such as Akihide from Breakerz, Hiroshi Shibazaki from Wands, Shinji Tagawa from Deen, Takashi Gomi from T-BOLAN and Takashi Masuzaki from Dimension.
His song "Jaguar '08" was named the 31st best guitar instrumental by Young Guitar Magazine in 2019.
In 2020, his instrumental album Continue received the award for Best Instrumental Album of the Year at the 34th Japan Gold Disc Award.
== Signature guitars ==
He is not only the first Japanese but the first Asian guitarist to be added to the Fender signature artist club. He is also one of few people to receive multiple Fender signature guitars, having three unique signature designs in the line:
The Michiya Haruhata Stratocaster (released in 2002)
The Michiya Haruhata BWL Stratocaster (released in 2005),
And the Michiya Haruhata III Stratocaster (released in 2022).
== Usage in media ==
His song "J'S Theme" became the official theme song of the J.League, Japan's professional football (soccer) league. In 1993 he performed for 60,000 spectators live at the J-league opening ceremony at the national stadium.
His single "Kingdom of the Heavens" was made to be the theme song of the New Japan Pro-Wrestling tournament.
== Discography ==
As of 2023, he has released 3 singles, 11 solo albums, 2 compilation albums, 1 EP and 3 digital releases.
=== Studio albums ===
=== Compilation albums ===
=== EP ===
=== Singles ===
=== Digital release ===
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website (powered by Sony Music JP)
Michiya Haruhata at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Michiya Haruhata – Kingdom of the Heavens interview |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property | Intellectual property | Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. The modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term "intellectual property" began to be used in the 19th century, though it was not until the late 20th century that intellectual property became commonplace in most of the world's legal systems.
Supporters of intellectual property laws often describe their main purpose as encouraging the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to certain information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time. Supporters argue that because IP laws allow people to protect their original ideas and prevent unauthorized copying, creators derive greater individual economic benefit from the information and intellectual goods they create, and thus have more economic incentives to create them in the first place. Advocates of IP believe that these economic incentives and legal protections stimulate innovation and contribute to technological progress of certain kinds.
The intangible nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property is "indivisible", since an unlimited number of people can in theory "consume" an intellectual good without its being depleted. Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from appropriation problems: Landowners can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, but producers of information or literature can usually do little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at a lower price. Balancing rights so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of intellectual goods but not so strong that they prevent the goods' wide use is the primary focus of modern intellectual property law.
== History ==
The Venetian Patent Statute of 19 March 1474, established by the Republic of Venice, is usually considered to be the earliest codified patent system in the world. It states that patents might be granted for "any new and ingenious device, not previously made", provided it was useful. By and large, these principles still remain the basic principles of current patent laws. The Statute of Monopolies (1624) and the British Statute of Anne (1710) are seen as the origins of the current patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property.
"Literary property" was the term predominantly used in the British legal debates of the 1760s and 1770s over the extent to which authors and publishers of works also had rights deriving from the common law of property (Millar v Taylor (1769), Hinton v Donaldson (1773), Donaldson v Becket (1774)). The first known use of the term intellectual property dates to this time, when a piece published in the Monthly Review in 1769 used the phrase. The first clear example of modern usage goes back as early as 1808, when it was used as a heading title in a collection of essays.
The German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property (Schutz des geistigen Eigentums) to the confederation. When the administrative secretariats established by the Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886) merged in 1893, they located in Berne, and also adopted the term intellectual property in their new combined title, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property.
The organization subsequently relocated to Geneva in 1960 and was succeeded in 1967 with the establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by treaty as an agency of the United Nations. According to legal scholar Mark Lemley, it was only at this point that the term really began to be used in the United States (which had not been a party to the Berne Convention), and it did not enter popular usage there until passage of the Bayh–Dole Act in 1980.
The history of patents does not begin with inventions, but rather with royal grants by Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) for monopoly privileges. Approximately 200 years after the end of Elizabeth's reign, however, a patent represents a legal right obtained by an inventor providing for exclusive control over the production and sale of his mechanical or scientific invention. demonstrating the evolution of patents from royal prerogative to common-law doctrine.
The term can be found used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown, in which Justice Charles L. Woodbury wrote that "only in this way can we protect intellectual property, the labors of the mind, productions and interests are as much a man's own ... as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears." The statement that "discoveries are ... property" goes back earlier. Section 1 of the French law of 1791 stated, "All new discoveries are the property of the author; to assure the inventor the property and temporary enjoyment of his discovery, there shall be delivered to him a patent for five, ten or fifteen years." In Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs, published in 1846.
Until the 2000s, the purpose of intellectual property law was to give as little protection as possible in order to encourage innovation. Historically, legal protection was therefore granted only when necessary to encourage invention, and it was limited in time and scope. This is mainly as a result of knowledge being traditionally viewed as a public good, in order to allow its extensive dissemination and improvement.
The concept's origin can potentially be traced back further. Jewish law includes several considerations whose effects are similar to those of modern intellectual property laws, though the notion of intellectual creations as property does not seem to exist—notably the principle of Hasagat Ge'vul (unfair encroachment) was used to justify limited-term publisher (but not author) copyright in the 16th century. In 500 BCE, the government of the Greek state of Sybaris offered one year's patent "to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury".
According to Jean-Frédéric Morin, "the global intellectual property regime is currently in the midst of a paradigm shift". Up until the early 2000s, the global IP regime used to be dominated by high standards of protection characteristic of IP laws from Europe or the United States, with a vision that uniform application of these standards over every country and to several fields with little consideration over social, cultural or environmental values or of the national level of economic development. Morin argues that "the emerging discourse of the global IP regime advocates for greater policy flexibility and greater access to knowledge, especially for developing countries". With the Development Agenda adopted by WIPO in 2007, a set of 45 recommendations to adjust WIPO's activities to the specific needs of developing countries and aim to reduce distortions especially on issues such as patients' access to medicines, Internet users' access to information, farmers' access to seeds, programmers' access to source codes or students' access to scientific articles. However, this paradigm shift has not yet manifested itself in concrete legal reforms at the international level.
Similarly, it is based on these background that the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement requires members of the WTO to set minimum standards of legal protection, but its objective to have a "one-fits-all" protection law on Intellectual Property has been viewed with controversies regarding differences in the development level of countries. Despite the controversy, the agreement has extensively incorporated intellectual property rights into the global trading system for the first time in 1995, and has prevailed as the most comprehensive agreement reached by the world.
== Rights ==
Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. There are also more specialized or derived varieties of sui generis exclusive rights, such as circuit design rights (called mask work rights in the US), supplementary protection certificates for pharmaceutical products (after expiry of a patent protecting them), and database rights (in European law). The term "industrial property" is sometimes used to refer to a large subset of intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, service marks, trade names, and geographical indications.
=== Patents ===
A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor or their successor-in-title, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process, and generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new, not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability. To enrich the body of knowledge and to stimulate innovation, it is an obligation for patent owners to disclose valuable information about their inventions to the public.
=== Copyright ===
A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed.
=== Licensing frameworks ===
Standardized copyright licensing systems are used to specify how creative works may be accessed, reused, or redistributed. Creative Commons (CC) licenses provide a set of permissions that range from highly permissive to more restrictive, outlining conditions such as attribution requirements, non-commercial use, share-alike distribution, and restrictions on derivative works.
For data and database-related material, the Open Data Commons (ODC) licenses—such as the Open Database License (ODbL), the Attribution License (ODC-By), and the Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL)—offer legal tools that govern the sharing, modification, and redistribution of databases.
These licensing frameworks provide creators and institutions with flexible ways to manage copyrighted works while maintaining legal clarity in digital and collaborative environments.
=== Industrial design rights ===
An industrial design right (sometimes called "design right" or design patent) protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Generally speaking, it is what makes a product look appealing, and as such, it increases the commercial value of goods.
=== Plant varieties ===
Plant breeders' rights or plant variety rights are the rights to commercially use a new variety of a plant. The variety must, amongst others, be novel and distinct and for registration the evaluation of propagating material of the variety is considered.
=== Trademarks ===
A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression that distinguishes a particular trader's products or services from similar products or services of other traders.
=== Trade dress ===
Trade dress is a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual and aesthetic appearance of a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers.
=== Trade secrets ===
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors and customers.
Trade secrets are protected by a combination of state and federal laws, which prescribe a combination of civil and criminal penalties for trade secret "misappropriation"—the improper acquisition, disclosure, or use of a trade secret.
Examples of trade secrets include Coca-Cola's formulas for its soft drinks and the WD-40 Company's formula for its lubricant WD-40.
== Motivation and justification ==
Intellectual property law is mainly intended to encourage the creation of various intellectual goods for consumers by giving people and businesses property rights to the information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time. Because they can then profit from them, this creates economic incentives for their creation. The intangible nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property is indivisible—an unlimited number of people can "consume" an intellectual good without it being depleted. Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from problems of appropriation—while a landowner can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, a producer of information or an intellectual good can usually do very little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at a lower price. Balancing rights so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of information and intellectual goods, but not so strong that they prevent their wide use, is the primary focus of modern intellectual property law.
By exchanging limited exclusive rights for disclosure of inventions and creative works, society and rightsholders mutually benefit, and an incentive is created for inventors and authors to create and disclose their works. Some commentators have noted that the objective of intellectual property legislators and supporters of intellectual property laws appears to be "objective protection". "If some intellectual property is desirable because it encourages innovation, they reason, more is better. The thinking is that creators will not have sufficient incentive to invent unless they are legally entitled to capture the full social value of their inventions". This absolute protection or full-value view treats intellectual property as another type of "real" property, typically adopting its law and rhetoric. Other recent developments in intellectual property law, such as the America Invents Act, stress international harmonization. Recently, there has also been much debate over the desirability of using intellectual property rights to protect cultural heritage, including intangible ones, as well as over risks of commodification derived from this possibility. The issue still remains open in legal scholarship.
=== Financial incentive ===
These exclusive rights allow intellectual property owners to benefit from the property they have created, providing a financial incentive for the creation of an investment in intellectual property, and, in the case of patents, pay associated research and development costs. In the United States Article I Section 8 Clause 8 of the Constitution, commonly called the Patent and Copyright Clause, reads; "The Congress shall have power 'To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'" "Some commentators, such as David Levine and Michele Boldrin, dispute this justification.
In 2013, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approximated that the worth of intellectual property to the U.S. economy is more than US$5 trillion and creates employment for an estimated 18 million American people. The value of intellectual property is considered similarly high in other developed nations, such as those in the European Union. In the UK, IP has become a recognised asset class for use in pension-led funding and other types of business finance. However, in 2013, the UK Intellectual Property Office stated: "There are millions of intangible business assets whose value is either not being leveraged at all, or only being leveraged inadvertently".
An October 2023 study released by Americans for the Arts (AFTA) found that "nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated $151.7 billion in economic activity—$73.3 billion in spending by the organizations, which leveraged an additional $78.4 billion in event-related spending by their audiences." This spending supported 2.6 million jobs and generated $29.1 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue." 224,000 audience members and over 16,000 organizations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico were surveyed over an 18-month period to collect the data.
=== Economic growth ===
The WIPO treaty and several related international agreements underline that the protection of intellectual property rights is essential to maintaining economic growth. The WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook gives two reasons for intellectual property laws: "One is to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those creations. The second is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair trading which would contribute to economic and social development."
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) states that "effective enforcement of intellectual property rights is critical to sustaining economic growth across all industries and globally". Economists estimate that two-thirds of the value of large businesses in the United States can be traced to intangible assets. A joint research project of the WIPO and the United Nations University measuring the impact of IP systems on six Asian countries found "a positive correlation between the strengthening of the IP system and subsequent economic growth."
=== Morality ===
According to Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author". Although the relationship between intellectual property and human rights is complex, there are moral arguments for intellectual property. The arguments that justify intellectual property fall into three major categories. Personality theorists believe intellectual property is an extension of an individual. Utilitarians believe that intellectual property stimulates social progress and pushes people to further innovation. Lockeans argue that intellectual property is justified based on deservedness and hard work. Various moral justifications for private property can be used to argue in favor of the morality of intellectual property, such as:
The natural rights/justice argument is based on Locke's idea that a person has a natural right over the labour and products which are produced by their body. Appropriating these products is viewed as unjust. Although Locke had never explicitly stated that natural rights applied to products of the mind, it is possible to apply his argument to intellectual property rights, in which it would be unjust for people to misuse another's ideas. Locke's argument for intellectual property is based upon the idea that laborers have the right to control the material they create. They argue that, as we own our bodies which are the laborers, this right of ownership extends to what we create. Intellectual property thus ensures this right with regard to production.
According to the utilitarian-pragmatic argument, societies that protect private property are more effective and prosperous than societies that do not. Innovation and invention in 19th-century America has been attributed to the development of the patent system. By providing innovators with "durable and tangible return on their investment of time, labor, and other resources", intellectual property rights seek to maximize social utility. The presumption is that they promote public welfare by encouraging the "creation, production, and distribution of intellectual works". Utilitarians argue that, without intellectual property, there would be a lack of incentive to produce new ideas.
The "personality" argument is based on a quote from Hegel: Every man has the right to turn his will upon a thing or make the thing an object of his will, that is to say, to set aside the mere thing and recreate it as his own. European intellectual property law is shaped by the notion that ideas are an "extension of oneself and of one's personality". Personality theorists argue that, by being a creator of something, one is inherently at risk of (and vulnerable to) having their ideas and designs stolen and/or altered. Intellectual property protects moral claims that pertain to personality.
Lysander Spooner (1855) argues that [A] man has a natural and absolute right—and if a natural and absolute, then necessarily a perpetual, right—of property, in the ideas, of which he is the discoverer or creator; that his right of property, in ideas, is intrinsically the same as, and stands on identically the same grounds with, his right of property in material things; that no distinction, of principle, exists between the two cases. Writer Ayn Rand argued in her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal that the protection of intellectual property is essentially a moral issue. The belief is that the human mind itself is the source of wealth and survival and that all property at its base is intellectual property. Intellectual property rights violations therefore do not differ morally from violations of other property rights which compromise the very processes of survival and therefore constitute immoral acts.
== Infringement, misappropriation, and enforcement ==
Violation of intellectual property rights, called "infringement" with respect to patents, copyright, and trademarks, and "misappropriation" with respect to trade secrets, may be a breach of civil law or criminal law, depending on the type of intellectual property involved, jurisdiction, and the nature of the action. As of 2011, trade in counterfeit copyrighted and trademarked works was a $600 billion industry worldwide and accounted for 5–7% of global trade. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, IP has been a consideration in punishment of the aggressor through trade sanctions, has been proposed as a method to prevent future wars of aggression involving nuclear weapons, and has caused concern about stifling innovation by keeping patent information secret.
=== Patent infringement ===
Patent infringement typically is caused by using or selling a patented invention without permission from the patent holder, i.e. from the patent owner. The scope of the patented invention or the extent of protection is defined in the claims of the granted patent. There is safe harbor in many jurisdictions to use a patented invention for research. This safe harbor does not exist in the US unless the research is done for purely philosophical purposes, or to gather data to prepare an application for regulatory approval of a drug. In general, patent infringement cases are handled under civil law (e.g., in the United States) but several jurisdictions incorporate infringement in criminal law also (for example, Argentina, China, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea).
=== Copyright infringement ===
Copyright infringement is reproducing, distributing, displaying or performing a work, or to make derivative works, without permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by the work's creator. It is often called "piracy". In the United States, while copyright is created the instant a work is fixed, generally the copyright holder can only get money damages if the owner registers the copyright. Enforcement of copyright is generally the responsibility of the copyright holder. The ACTA trade agreement, signed in May 2011 by the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and the EU, and which has not entered into force, requires that its parties add criminal penalties, including incarceration and fines, for copyright and trademark infringement, and obligated the parties to actively police for infringement. There are limitations and exceptions to copyright, allowing limited use of copyrighted works, which does not constitute infringement. Examples of such doctrines are the fair use and fair dealing doctrine.
=== Trademark infringement ===
Trademark infringement occurs when one party uses a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services of the other party. In many countries, a trademark receives protection without registration, but registering a trademark provides legal advantages for enforcement. Infringement can be addressed by civil litigation and, in several jurisdictions, under criminal law.
=== Trade secret misappropriation ===
Trade secret misappropriation is different from violations of other intellectual property laws, since by definition trade secrets are secret, while patents and registered copyrights and trademarks are publicly available. In the United States, trade secrets are protected under state law, and states have nearly universally adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The United States also has federal law in the form of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. §§ 1831–1839), which makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. § 1831(a), criminalizes the theft of trade secrets to benefit foreign powers. The second, 18 U.S.C. § 1832, criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes. The statutory penalties are different for the two offenses. In Commonwealth common law jurisdictions, confidentiality and trade secrets are regarded as an equitable right rather than a property right but penalties for theft are roughly the same as in the United States.
== International framework ==
The international governance of IP involves multiple overlapping institutions and forums. There is no overall rule-making body. One of the most important aspects of global IP governance is the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The TRIPS Agreement sets minimum international standards for IP which every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must comply with. A member's non-compliance with the TRIPS Agreement may be grounds for suit under the WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism. Bilateral and multi-lateral agreements often establish IP requirements above the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement.
== Criticisms ==
=== The term "intellectual property" ===
Criticism of the term intellectual property ranges from discussing its vagueness and abstract overreach to direct contention to the semantic validity of using words like property and rights in fashions that contradict practice and law. Critics argue that this term specially serves the doctrinal agenda of parties opposing reform in the public interest or otherwise abusing related legislations, and that it disallows intelligent discussion about specific and often unrelated aspects of copyright, patents, trademarks, etc.
Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman argues that, although the term intellectual property is in wide use, it should be rejected altogether, because it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion". He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues" and that it creates a bias by confusing these monopolies with ownership of limited physical things, likening them to property rights. Stallman advocates referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warns against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term. He argues that, "to avoid spreading unnecessary bias and confusion, it is best to adopt a firm policy not to speak or even think in terms of 'intellectual property'."
Similarly, economists Boldrin and Levine prefer to use the term "intellectual monopoly" as a more appropriate and clear definition of the concept, which, they argue, is very dissimilar from property rights. They further argued that "stronger patents do little or nothing to encourage innovation", mainly explained by its tendency to create market monopolies, thereby restricting further innovations and technology transfer.
On the assumption that intellectual property rights are actual rights, Stallman says that this claim does not live to the historical intentions behind these laws, which in the case of copyright served as a censorship system, and later on, a regulatory model for the printing press that may have benefited authors incidentally, but never interfered with the freedom of average readers. Still referring to copyright, he cites legal literature such as the United States Constitution and case law to demonstrate that the law is meant to be an optional and experimental bargain to temporarily trade property rights and free speech for public, not private, benefits in the form of increased artistic production and knowledge. He mentions that "if copyright were a natural right nothing could justify terminating this right after a certain period of time".
Law professor, writer and political activist Lawrence Lessig, along with many other copyleft and free software activists, has criticized the implied analogy with physical property (like land or an automobile). They argue such an analogy fails because physical property is generally rivalrous while intellectual works are non-rivalrous (that is, if one makes a copy of a work, the enjoyment of the copy does not prevent enjoyment of the original). A related argument is that unlike the situation with tangible property, there is no natural scarcity of a particular idea or information: once it exists at all, it can be re-used and duplicated indefinitely without such re-use diminishing the original. Stephan Kinsella has objected to intellectual property on the grounds that the word "property" implies scarcity, which is not applicable to ideas.
Entrepreneur and politician Rick Falkvinge and hacker Alexandre Oliva have independently compared George Orwell's fictional dialect Newspeak to the terminology used by intellectual property supporters as a linguistic weapon to shape public opinion regarding copyright debate and digital rights management (DRM).
==== Alternative terms ====
In civil law jurisdictions, intellectual property has often been referred to as intellectual rights, traditionally a somewhat broader concept that has included moral rights and other personal protections that cannot be bought or sold. Use of the term intellectual rights has declined since the early 1980s, as use of the term intellectual property has increased. Alternative terms monopolies on information and intellectual monopoly have emerged among those who argue against the property or intellect or rights assumptions, notably Richard Stallman. The backronyms intellectual protectionism and intellectual poverty, whose initials are also IP, have also found supporters, especially among those who have used the backronym digital restrictions management. The argument that an intellectual property right should (in the interests of better balancing of relevant private and public interests) be termed an intellectual monopoly privilege (IMP) has been advanced by several academics including Birgitte Andersen and Thomas Faunce.
=== Objections to overly broad intellectual property laws ===
Some critics of intellectual property, such as those in the free-culture movement, point at intellectual monopolies as harming health (in the case of pharmaceutical patents), preventing progress, and benefiting concentrated interests to the detriment of the masses, and argue that ever-expansive monopolies in the form of copyright extensions, software patents, and business method patents harm the public interest. More recently, scientists and engineers are expressing concern that patent thickets are undermining technological development even in high-tech fields like nanotechnology. Petra Moser has asserted that historical analysis suggests that intellectual property laws may harm innovation:Overall, the weight of the existing historical evidence suggests that patent policies, which grant strong intellectual property rights to early generations of inventors, may discourage innovation. On the contrary, policies that encourage the diffusion of ideas and modify patent laws to facilitate entry and encourage competition may be an effective mechanism to encourage innovation.
In support of that argument, Jörg Baten, Nicola Bianchi and Petra Moser find historical evidence that especially compulsory licensing—which allows governments to license patents without the consent of patent-owners—encouraged invention in Germany in the early 20th century by increasing the threat of competition in fields with low pre-existing levels of competition. Peter Drahos notes, "Property rights confer authority over resources. When authority is granted to the few over resources on which the many depend, the few gain power over the goals of the many. This has consequences for both political and economic freedom within a society."
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recognizes that conflicts may exist between respecting and implementing current intellectual property systems and other human rights. In 2001 the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a document called "Human rights and intellectual property" that argued that intellectual property tends to be governed by economic goals when it should be viewed primarily as a social product; in order to serve human well-being, intellectual property systems must respect and conform to human rights laws. According to the Committee, when systems fail to do so, they risk infringing upon the human right to food and health, and to cultural participation and scientific benefits. In 2004, the General Assembly of WIPO adopted The Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization which argues that WIPO should "focus more on the needs of developing countries, and to view IP as one of many tools for development—not as an end in itself".
Ethical problems are most pertinent when socially valuable goods like life-saving medicines are given IP protection. While the application of IP rights can allow companies to charge higher than the marginal cost of production in order to recoup the costs of research and development, the price may exclude from the market anyone who cannot afford the cost of the product, in this case a life-saving drug. "An IPR driven regime is therefore not a regime that is conductive to the investment of R&D of products that are socially valuable to predominately poor populations". Libertarians have differing views on intellectual property. Stephan Kinsella, an anarcho-capitalist on the right-wing of libertarianism, argues against intellectual property because allowing property rights in ideas and information creates artificial scarcity and infringes on the right to own tangible property. Kinsella uses the following scenario to argue this point:[I]magine the time when men lived in caves. One bright guy—let's call him Galt-Magnon—decides to build a log cabin on an open field, near his crops. To be sure, this is a good idea, and others notice it. They naturally imitate Galt-Magnon, and they start building their own cabins. But the first man to invent a house, according to IP advocates, would have a right to prevent others from building houses on their own land, with their own logs, or to charge them a fee if they do build houses. It is plain that the innovator in these examples becomes a partial owner of the tangible property (e.g., land and logs) of others, due not to first occupation and use of that property (for it is already owned), but due to his coming up with an idea. Clearly, this rule flies in the face of the first-user homesteading rule, arbitrarily and groundlessly overriding the very homesteading rule that is at the foundation of all property rights.
Thomas Jefferson once said in a letter to Isaac McPherson on 13 August 1813:
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
In 2005, the Royal Society of Arts launched the Adelphi Charter, aimed at creating an international policy statement to frame how governments should make balanced intellectual property law. Another aspect of current U.S. Intellectual Property legislation is its focus on individual and joint works; thus, copyright protection can only be obtained in 'original' works of authorship. Critics like Philip Bennet argue that this does not provide adequate protection against cultural appropriation of indigenous knowledge, for which a collective IP regime is needed. Intellectual property law has been criticized as not recognizing new forms of art such as the remix culture, whose participants often commit what technically constitutes violations of such laws, creation works such as anime music videos and others, or are otherwise subject to unnecessary burdens and limitations which prevent them from fully expressing themselves.
=== Objections to the expansion in nature and scope of intellectual property laws ===
Other criticism of intellectual property law concerns the expansion of intellectual property, both in duration and in scope. As scientific knowledge has expanded and allowed new industries to arise in fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, originators of technology have sought IP protection for the new technologies. Patents have been granted for living organisms, and in the United States, certain living organisms have been patentable for over a century.
The increase in terms of protection is particularly seen in relation to copyright, which has recently been the subject of serial extensions in the United States and in Europe. With no need for registration or copyright notices, this is thought to have led to an increase in orphan works (copyrighted works for which the copyright owner cannot be contacted), a problem that has been noticed and addressed by governmental bodies around the world.
Also with respect to copyright, the American film industry helped to change the social construct of intellectual property via its trade organization, the Motion Picture Association (MPA). In amicus briefs in important cases, in lobbying before Congress, and in its statements to the public, the MPAA has advocated strong protection of intellectual property rights. In framing its presentations, the association has claimed that people are entitled to the property that is produced by their labor. Additionally Congress's awareness of the position of the United States as the world's largest producer of films has made it convenient to expand the conception of intellectual property. These doctrinal reforms have further strengthened the industry, lending the MPAA even more power and authority.
The growth of the Internet, and particularly distributed search engines like Kazaa and Gnutella, have represented a challenge for copyright policy. The Recording Industry Association of America, in particular, has been on the front lines of the fight against copyright infringement, which the industry calls "piracy". The industry has had victories against some services, including a highly publicized case against the file-sharing company Napster, and some people have been prosecuted for sharing files in violation of copyright. The electronic age has seen an increase in the attempt to use software-based DRM tools to restrict the copying and use of digitally based works. Laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have been enacted that use criminal law to prevent any circumvention of software used to enforce DRM systems. Equivalent provisions, to prevent circumvention of copyright protection have existed in EU for some time, and are being expanded in, for example, Article 6 and 7 the Copyright Directive. Other examples are Article 7 of the Software Directive of 1991 (91/250/EEC), and the Conditional Access Directive of 1998 (98/84/EEC). This can hinder legal uses, affecting public domain works, limitations and exceptions to copyright, or uses allowed by the copyright holder. Some copyleft licenses, like the GNU GPL 3, are designed to counter this. Laws may permit circumvention under specific conditions, such as when it is necessary to achieve interoperability with the circumventor's program, or for accessibility reasons; however, distribution of circumvention tools or instructions may be illegal.
In the context of trademarks, this expansion has been driven by international efforts to harmonise the definition of "trademark", as exemplified by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ratified in 1994, which formalized regulations for IP rights that had been handled by common law, or not at all, in member states. Pursuant to TRIPS, any sign which is "capable of distinguishing" the products or services of one business from the products or services of another business is capable of constituting a trademark.
=== Use in corporate tax avoidance ===
Intellectual property has become a core tool in corporate tax planning and tax avoidance. IP is a key component of the leading multinational tax avoidance base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) tools, which the OECD estimates costs $100–240 billion in lost annual tax revenues. In 2017–2018, both the U.S. and the EU Commission simultaneously decided to depart from the OECD BEPS Project timetable, which was set up in 2013 to combat IP BEPS tax tools like the above, and launch their own anti-IP BEPS tax regimes:
U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has several anti-IP BEPS abuse tax regimes, including GILTI tax and the BEAT tax regimes.
EU Commission 2018 Digital Services Tax, which is less advanced than the U.S. TCJA, but does seek to override IP BEPS tools via a quasi-VAT.
The departure of the U.S. and EU Commission from the OECD BEPS Project process, is attributed to frustrations with the rise in IP as a key BEPS tax tool, creating intangible assets, which are then turned into royalty payment BEPS schemes (double Irish), and/or capital allowance BEPS schemes (capital allowances for intangibles). In contrast, the OECD has spent years developing and advocating intellectual property as a legal and a GAAP accounting concept.
=== Gender gap in intellectual property ===
Women have historically been underrepresented in the creation and ownership of intellectual property covered by intellectual property rights. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, women composed only 16.5% of patent holders even as recently as 2020. This disparity is the result of several factors including systemic bias, sexism and discrimination within the intellectual property space, underrepresentation within STEM, and barriers to access of necessary finance and knowledge in order to obtain intellectual property rights, among other reasons.
=== Global IP ratchet and developing countries ===
The global increase in intellectual property protection is sometimes referred to as a global IP ratchet in which a spiral of bilateral and multilateral agreements result in growing obligations where new agreements never recede from existing standards and very often further heighten them. The global IP ratchet has limited the freedom of developing countries to set their own IP standards. Developing countries' lack of bargaining power relative to the developed countries driving the global IP ratchet means that developing countries' ability to regulate intellectual property to advance domestic interests is eroding.
== See also ==
Copyfraud
Defensive publication
Freedom of information
Information policy
Libertarian perspectives on intellectual property
New product development
Soft intellectual property
Sweat of the brow
Intellectual property analytics
== References ==
=== Citations ===
=== Sources ===
== External links ==
Media related to Intellectual property at Wikimedia Commons
The European Audiovisual Observatory hosts articles on copyright legislature and covers media laws in their newsletter
Internet/Media Piracy: Statistics & Facts—Statista |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De%C8%99teapt%C4%83-te,_rom%C3%A2ne! | Deșteaptă-te, române! | "Deșteaptă-te, române!" (Romanian: [deʃˈte̯aptəte roˈmɨne] ; lit. 'Awaken Thee, Romanian!') is the national anthem of Romania. It originated from a poem written during the Wallachian Revolution of 1848.
The lyrics were composed by Andrei Mureșanu and published during the 1848 revolution, initially with the name "Un răsunet" ('An Echo'), as a lyrical response to Vasile Alecsandri's poem "Către Români" ('To Romanians'), later known as "Deșteptarea României" ('The Awakening of Romania'), from which Mureșanu took inspiration for many of the themes and motifs of his own lyrics, a fact that is reflected in the overall similarity between the two poems. The original text was written in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet. It was first sung in late June in the same year in the city of Brașov, on the streets of the Șcheii Brașovului neighborhood and it became immediately the revolutionary anthem.
Since then, this patriotic song has been sung during all major Romanian conflicts, including during the 1989 anti-communist revolution. After the revolution, it became the national anthem on 24 January 1990, replacing the communist-era national anthem "Trei culori" ('Three Colours').
29 July, the National Anthem Day (Ziua Imnului național), is an annual observance in Romania.
The anthem was also used on various solemn occasions in the Moldavian Democratic Republic during its brief existence between 1917 and 1918. Between 1991 and 1994, "Deșteaptă-te, române!" was the national anthem of Moldova before it was subsequently replaced by "Limba noastră" ('Our Language').
== History ==
The melody was originally a sentimental song called "Din sânul maicii mele" composed by Anton Pann after hearing the poem. In 1848 Andrei Mureșanu wrote the poem "Un răsunet" and asked Gheorghe Ucenescu, a Șcheii Brașovului Church singer, to find him a suitable melody. After Ucenescu sang him several lay melodies, Mureșanu chose Anton Pann's song instead.
First sung during the uprisings of 1848, "Deșteaptă-te române!" became a favourite among Romanians and it has seen play during various historical events, including as part of Romania's declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and during World War I. The song received particularly heavy radio broadcast in the days following Romanian coup d'état of 23 August 1944, when Romania switched sides, turning against Nazi Germany and joining the Allies in World War II.
After the Communist Party abolished the monarchy on 30 December 1947, "Deșteaptă-te române!" and other patriotic songs closely associated with the previous regime were outlawed. Nicolae Ceaușescu's government permitted the song to be played and sung in public, but it was not given state recognition as the national anthem of the Socialist Republic of Romania.
The song was officially adopted as the national anthem on 24 January 1990, shortly after the Romanian Revolution of December 1989.
The overall message of the anthem is a "call to action"; it proposes a "now or never" urge for change present in many national anthems like the French revolutionary song "La Marseillaise" – hence why Nicolae Bălcescu called it the "Romanian Marseillaise".
=== Another anthem ===
"Hora Unirii" ('Hora of the Union'), written by poet Vasile Alecsandri, which was sung a great deal on the occasion of the Union of the Principalities (1859) and on other occasions. "Hora Unirii" is sung on the Romanian folk-like tune of a slow but energetic round dance written by Alexandru Flechtenmacher, joined by the whole attendance (hora).
== Lyrics ==
Romania's national anthem has eleven stanzas. Today, only the first, second, fourth, and last are sung on official occasions, as established by Romanian law. At major events such as the National Holiday on 1 December, the full version is sung, accompanied by 21-gun salute when the President is present at the event.
== See also ==
"Limba noastră", national anthem of Moldova
"Dimãndarea pãrinteascã", ethnic anthem of the Aromanians
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Romania: Deșteaptă-te, române! – Audio of the national anthem of Romania, with information and lyrics (archive link)
"The President of Romania". presidency.ro.
Romania: Deșteaptă-te, române! – Video with scores and authentic video material of the Romanian revolution 1989 of the national anthem of Romania, with information in description and Creative Commons resources for Download in description (archive link) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_J0952%E2%80%930607 | PSR J0952–0607 | PSR J0952−0607 is a massive millisecond pulsar in a binary system, located between 3,200–5,700 light-years (970–1,740 pc) from Earth in the constellation Sextans. As of 2022, it holds the record for being the most massive neutron star known, with a mass 2.35±0.17 times that of the Sun—potentially close to the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff mass upper limit for neutron stars. The pulsar rotates at a frequency of 707.31 Hz (a period of 1.4137 ms), making it the second-fastest-spinning pulsar known, and the fastest-spinning pulsar known within the Milky Way.
PSR J0952−0607 was discovered by the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope during a search for pulsars in 2016. It is classified as a black widow pulsar, a type of pulsar harboring a closely-orbiting substellar-mass companion that is being ablated by the pulsar's intense high-energy solar winds and gamma-ray emissions. The pulsar's high-energy emissions have been detected in gamma-ray and X-ray wavelengths.
== Discovery ==
PSR J0952−0607 was first identified as an unassociated gamma-ray source detected during the first seven years of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's all-sky survey since 2008. Because of its optimal location away from the crowded Galactic Center and its pulsar-like gamma-ray emission peak at 1.4 GeV, it was deemed a prime millisecond pulsar candidate for follow-up. The pulsar was reobserved and confirmed by the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands on 25 December 2016, which revealed a 707-Hz radio pulsation frequency alongside radial acceleration by an unseen binary companion. Further LOFAR observations took place from January to February 2017, alongside radio observations by the Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia in March 2017. Optical observations by the 2.54-meter Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma detected and confirmed the pulsar's companion at a faint apparent magnitude of 23 in January 2017. The discovery was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and was announced in a NASA press release in September 2017.
== Distance and location ==
The distance of PSR J0952−0607 from Earth is highly uncertain.
== Binary system ==
The PSR J0952−0607 binary system is composed of a massive pulsar and a substellar-mass (<0.1 M☉) companion in close orbit around it. Because of this configuration, this system falls under the category of black widow pulsars that "consume" their companion, by analogy with the mating behavior of the eponymous black widow spider. The companion is continuously losing mass through ablation by intense high-energy solar winds and gamma-ray emissions from the pulsar, which then accretes some of the companion's lost material onto itself.
=== Companion ===
The companion orbits the pulsar at a distance of 1.6 million km (1 million mi) with an orbital period of 6.42 hours. Because it orbits so closely, the companion is presumably tidally locked, with one hemisphere always facing the pulsar. The companion does not appear to eclipse the pulsar, indicating that its orbit is oriented nearly face-on with an inclination of 60° with respect to the plane perpendicular to Earth's line of sight. The companion's orbital motion also does not appear to modulate the pulsar's pulsations, signifying a circular orbit with negligible orbital eccentricity.
The companion was likely a former star that had been reduced to the size of a large gas giant planet or brown dwarf, with a present-day mass of 0.032±0.002 M☉ or 34±2 MJ according to radial velocity measurements. Due to intense irradiation and heating by the host pulsar, the companion's radius is bloated up to 80% of its Roche lobe and brightly glows with a thermal luminosity of about 10 L☉, thereby accounting for much of the system's optical brightness. As a result of bloating, the companion attains a low density likely around 10 g/cm3 (with significant uncertainty due to the system's unknown distance from Earth), making it susceptible to tidal deformation by the pulsar.
The companion's pulsar-facing irradiated hemisphere is continuously heated up to a temperature of 6,200 K, whereas the companion's unirradiated hemisphere experiences a uniform temperature of 3,000 K. This hemispherical temperature difference corresponds to a difference in hemisphere luminosities, which in turn causes significant variability in apparent brightness as the companion rotates around the pulsar. This brightness variability is demonstrated in PSR J0952−0607's optical light curve, which exhibits an amplitude greater than one magnitude.
== Mass ==
PSR J0952−0607 has a mass of 2.35±0.17 M☉, making it the most massive neutron star known as of 2022. The pulsar likely acquired most of its mass by accreting up to 1 M☉ of lost material from its companion.
== Rotation and age ==
PSR J0952−0607 rotates at a frequency of 707.31 Hz (1.4137 ms period), making it the second-fastest-spinning pulsar known, and the fastest-spinning pulsar that is located in the Milky Way. Assuming a standard neutron star radius of 10 km (6.2 mi), the equator of PSR J0952−0607 rotates at a tangential velocity over 44,400 km/s (27,600 mi/s)—about 14% the speed of light. Based on 7 years of precise pulsation timing data from gamma-ray and radio observations, the pulsar's rotation period is estimated to be slowing down at a spin-down rate less than 4.6×10−21 seconds per second, corresponding to a characteristic age of 4.9 billion years.
== Magnetic field ==
Measurements of PSR J0952−0607's spin-down rate show that the pulsar has a remarkably weak surface magnetic field strength of 6.1×107 gauss (6.1×103 T), placing it among the 10 weakest pulsar magnetic fields known as of 2022. For context, ordinary pulsar magnetic fields usually lie on the order of teragauss (1×1012 G, 1.0×108 T), over 10,000 times greater than that of PSR J0952−0607. Other millisecond pulsars exhibit similarly weak magnetic fields, hinting at a common albeit unknown mechanism in these types of systems; possible explanations range from accreted matter burying the pulsar's surface magnetic field to heat-driven evolution of the pulsar's solid crust.
== Gamma-ray emissions ==
PSR J0952−0607 appears very faint in gamma-rays and was not detected in July 2011.
== See also ==
Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit
Black Widow Pulsar, the prototypical namesake for the class of binary pulsars with ablating companions
PSR J1748−2446ad, the fastest-spinning pulsar located in the globular cluster Terzan 5
== Notes ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isa_Genzken#Early_life_and_education | Isa Genzken | Isa Genzken (born 27 November 1948) is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photography, video, film and collage.
== Early life and education ==
Hanne-Rose "Isa" Genzken (pronounced EE-sa GENZ-ken) was raised mostly in the small northern German city of Bad Oldesloe and in Hamburg.
She studied fine arts and art history with Almir Mavignier and Kai Sudeck at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (1968–1971) and the Berlin University of the Arts (1971–1973). To pay her tuition, Genzken worked part-time as a model. In 1973 she transferred to Arts Academy Düsseldorf while also studying art history and philosophy at the University of Cologne. At the academy, fellow students included artists Katharina Fritsch and Thomas Struth.
Upon graduating in 1977, Genzken taught sculpture at the academy. She married German visual artist Gerhard Richter in 1982 and moved to Cologne in 1983. The couple separated in 1993 and Genzken moved back to Berlin.
Genzken has bipolar disorder, goes through manic and depressive phases and has spent time in psychiatric hospitals. She has frequently undergone treatment for substance abuse. In a 2016 interview, she said that her alcohol problems began after her divorce and that she had been sober since 2013.
Genzken has worked in studios in Düsseldorf, Cologne (designed in 1993 by architect Frank Tebroke); for short stretches in the United States, in Lower Manhattan and Hoboken, New Jersey; and currently in Berlin.
== Work ==
Although Isa Genzken's primary focus is sculpture, she has produced various media including photography, film, video, works on paper, works on canvas with oil, collages, collage books, film scripts, and even a record. Her diverse practice draws on the legacies of Constructivism and Minimalism and often involves a critical, open dialogue with Modernist architecture and contemporary visual and material culture. Genzken's diverse work also keeps her from being predictable in her work. Despite Genzken's diverse work, much of her practice still maintains conventions of traditional sculpture. Using plaster, cement, building samples, photographs, and bric-a-brac, Genzken creates architectonic structures that have been described as contemporary ruins. She further incorporates mirrors and other reflective surfaces to literally draw the viewer into her work. Genzken also uses location placement methods to inflict emotions into her sculptor viewers by making her viewers physically move out of the way of Genzken's sculptor due to the placement of the sculptor. The column is a recurring motif for Genzken, a "pure" architectural trope on which to explore relationships between "high art" and the mass-produced products of popular culture.
In the 1970s, Genzken began working with wood that she carved into unusual geometric shapes such as hyperboloids and ellipsoids. In the photographs of her Hi-Fi-Serie (1979), she reproduced advertisements for stereo phonographs.
In 1980, Genzken and Gerhard Richter were commissioned to design the König-Heinrich-Platz underground station in Duisburg; it was completed in 1992. Between 1986 and 1992, Genzken conceived her series of plaster and concrete sculptures to investigate architecture. These sculptures consist of sequentially poured and stacked slabs of concrete featuring rough openings, windows and interiors. A later series consists of other architectural or interior design quotations made from epoxy resin casts, such as column or lamp sculptures. In 1986, Genzken's architectural references switched from the 1910s, 20s and 30s to the 1950s, 60s and 70s. In 1990 she installed a steel frame, Camera (1990) on a Brussels gallery's rooftop, offering a view of the city below. In 2000, a series of architectural models roughly patched together, was inscribed with Fuck the Bauhaus. Later, in the series New Buildings for Berlin, which was shown at Documenta 11, Genzken designed architectural visions of glass high-rises.
The project entitled Der Spiegel 1989-1991 is a series of images comprising 121 reproductions of black and white photographs selected and cut from German newsweekly Der Spiegel. Presented in a non-sequential but methodical manner, each image is glued against a piece of white card and individually mounted in a simple frame. Whilst the images themselves remain caption-less, the dates in the series' titles offer clues about the artist's intentions.
Her paintings of suspended hoops, collectively entitled MLR (More Light Research) (1992), recall gymnastics apparatus caught mid-swing and frozen in time.
Starting in 1995, while in New York for several months, Genzken created a three-volume collage book entitled I Love New York, Crazy City (1995–1996), a compendium of souvenirs from her various stays in the city, including photographs of Midtown's architecture, snapshots, maps, hotel bills, nightclub flyers, and concert tickets, among others.
One of Genzken's best known works, Rose (1993/7), is a public sculpture of a single long-stemmed rose made from enamelled stainless steel that towers eight metres above the Leipzig fairgrounds. The artist's first public artwork in the United States, her replica Rose II (2007) was installed outside the New Museum as part of a year-long rotating installation in November 2010.
Genzken has also produced numerous films, including Zwei Frauen im Gefecht, 1974, Chicago Drive, 1992, Meine Großeltern im Bayerischen Wald, 1992, and the video Empire/Vampire, Who Kills Death, 2003.
As an artist she published five portfolio styled books. Each including her expressive work, they can be purchased under David Zwirners Books website. Her books include Sculpture as a World Receiver, October Files, Isa Genzken: Retrospective, Isa Genzken: Oil, and Isa Genzken.
Since the end of the second half of the 1990s, Genzken has been conceptualizing sculptures and panel paintings in the shape of a bricolage of materials taken from DIY stores and from photographs and newspaper clippings. She often uses materials that underline the temporary character of her works. As part of her deep-set interest in urban space, she also arranges complex, and often disquieting, installations with mannequins, dolls, photographs, and an array of found objects. New Buildings for New York are assembled from found scraps of plastic, metal and pizza-box cardboard. The assemblages from the Empire/Vampire, Who Kills Death series, originally comprising more than twenty sculptures that were created following the attacks of September 11, are combinations of found objects – action figures, plastic vessels, and various elements of consumer detritus – arranged on pedestals in architecturally inspired, post-destruction scenes. Elefant (2006) is a column of cascading vertical blinds festooned with plastic tubes, foil, artificial flowers, fabric and some tiny toy soldiers and Indians. For her installation Oil, the artist transformed the German Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale into a futuristic and morbid Gesamtkunstwerk.
Genzken worked frequently with Zwiner, who held her Paris New York Exhibition from August 29-October 10 in 2020. She had five solo exhibitions with him and this last one was her fifth. She has worked with him since 2010. The exhibition included Genzken's early work at the Kunstmuseum Basel. The installation of Genzken's recent "tower" sculptures. It was inspired by the artists decades-long fascination with architecture and urban skylines. She used multiple forms that include, vertical structures, of medium-density fiberboard with inclusion of a mirror foil, spray paint as well as other media.
=== Genzken's impact ===
Genzken's work has undoubtedly impacted art culture through her unique ability to create sculptures out of many materials such as wood, plaster, concrete, steel, epoxy resin, and even household kitchen materials, as seen in her "Babies" semblance from 1997. Genzken redefined the art of creating sculptures and even combated discrimination against sculpture art in the 60s and 70s as she pursued her unique talent. Simply put, her work has been seen as an attempt to encourage and broaden the art of sculpture without eliminating it. Genzken's art and media have always stayed true to the logic of her work, which continues to be contradictory, unpredictable, and in opposition throughout the sculpture. Her sculptures have even been recognized as art that creates illusions with the mind and opens the imagination of the viewer.
== Exhibitions ==
Genzken's first solo exhibition was held in 1976 at the Konrad Fischer Gallery in Düsseldorf, and her first exhibition with Galerie Buchholz was in 1986 in Cologne. From November 23, 2013 to March 10, 2014, "Isa Genzken: Retrospective" was on view at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition then traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Dallas Museum of Art.
== Collections ==
Genzken's work is included in the collections of many institutions internationally, including the Nationalgalerie, West Berlin; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Generali Foundation, Vienna; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Ruby City, Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, TX
Rose III sculpture in Zuccotti Park, NYC.
== Recognition ==
She won the International Art Prize (Cultural Donation of SSK Munich) in 2004 and the Wolfgang-Hahn-Prize (Museum Ludwig, Cologne) in 2002.
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
List of German women artists
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Repin | Ilya Repin | Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1844 – 29 September 1930) was a Ukrainian-born Russian painter. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1880–1883), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885), and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–1891). He is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading Russian literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov, and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship.
Repin was born in Chuguev, in the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). His father had served in an Uhlan regiment in the Russian army, and then sold horses. Repin began painting icons at age sixteen. He failed at his first effort to enter the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg, but went to the city anyway in 1863, audited courses, and won his first prizes in 1869 and 1871. In 1872, after a tour along the Volga River, he presented his drawings at the Academy of Art in St. Petersburg. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich awarded him a commission for a large scale painting, The Barge Haulers of the Volga, which launched his career. He spent two years in Paris and Normandy, seeing the first Impressionist expositions and learning the techniques of painting in the open air.
He suffered one setback in 1885 when his history portrait of Ivan the Terrible killing his own son in a fit of rage caused a scandal, resulting in the painting being removed from exhibition. But this was followed by a series of major successes and new commissions. In 1898, with his second wife, he built a country house, which he called "The Penates" ('Penaty' in Russian) in the village of Kuokkala, Finland, where they entertained Russian society. The house and garden now constitute the Penaty Memorial Estate and the village and district were renamed to Repino, now a suburban area of Russia's Saint Petersburg.
In 1905, following the repression of street demonstrations by the Imperial government, he quit his teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts. He welcomed the February Revolution in 1917, but was appalled by the violence and terror unleashed by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution. Later that year, Finland declared its independence from Russia. Following this event, Repin was unable to travel to St. Petersburg (renamed Leningrad), even for an exhibition of his own works in 1925. Repin died on 29 September 1930, at the age of 86, and was buried at the Penates. His home is now a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
== Biography ==
=== Early life and work ===
Ilya Repin was born on 24 July 1844 in the town of Chuguev, in Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire, in the heart of the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. His father, Yefim Vasilyevich Repin (1804–1894), was a military settler who served in an Uhlan regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. He fought in the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, and the Hungarian campaign of 1849. When his father retired from the army in the early 1850s, after 27 years of service, he became an itinerant merchant selling horses. Although some sources referred to Repin as having Cossack or Ukrainian ancestry, he had none; instead, he identified as a Russian born in Little Russia – the name applied to Ukraine at the time. His ancestors were ethnic Russians who served in the streltsy and were sent to Chuguev to assist local Cossacks. Despite this, he felt affinity with both the Cossacks and Ukrainians.
Repin's mother, Tatyana Stepanovna Repina (née Bocharova; 1811–1880), was also the daughter of a soldier. She had family ties to noblemen and officers; the Repins had six children and were moderately well-off. He had two younger brothers: one who died at the age of ten, and another named Vasily. Repin spent much of his childhood in the provincial town of Chuguev, located 45 miles (72 km) from Kharkov, the second-largest city in Little Russia.
In 1855, at the age of eleven, he was enrolled at the local school where his mother taught. He showed a talent for drawing and painting, and when he was thirteen, his father enrolled him in the workshop of Ivan Bunakov, an icon painter. He restored old icons and painted portraits of local notables. At the age of sixteen, his skill was recognized, and he became a member of an artel, or cooperative of artists, the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, which traveled around Voronezh province to paint icons and wall paintings.
Repin had much higher ambitions. In October 1863, he competed for admission to the Imperial Academy of Arts in the capital, Saint Petersburg. He failed in his first attempt, but persevered, rented a small room in the city, and took courses in academic drawing. In January 1864 he succeeded and was allowed, without fee, to attend classes. His brother Vasily also followed him to Saint Petersburg.
At the academy he met the painter Ivan Kramskoi, who became his professor and mentor. When Kramskoi founded the first independent union of Russian artists, Repin became a member. In 1869, he was awarded a gold medal second-class for his painting Job and His Brothers. He met the influential critic Vladimir Stasov and painted a portrait of Vera Shevtsova, his own future wife.
=== First success ===
In 1870, with two other artists, Repin traveled to the Volga River to sketch landscapes and studies of barge haulers (the Repin House in Tolyatti and the Repin Museum on the Volga commemorate this visit). When he returned to Saint Petersburg, the quality of his Volga boatmen drawings won him a commission from Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich for a large scale painting on the subject. The painting, Barge Haulers on the Volga was completed in 1873. The following year, he was awarded a gold medal first-class for his painting The Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus.
In May 1872, he married Vera Alexeievna Shevtsova (1855–1917). She joined him on his travels, including a trip to Samara, where their first child, Vera, was born. They had three other children; Nadia, Yuri, and Tatyana. The marriage was difficult, as Repin had numerous affairs, while Vera cared for the children. They were married for fifteen years.
In an 1872 letter to Stasov, Repin wrote: "Now it is the peasant who is the judge and so it is necessary to represent his interests. (That is just the thing for me, since I am myself, as you know, a peasant, the son of a retired soldier who served twenty-seven hard years in Nicholas I's army.)" In 1873, Repin traveled to Italy and France with his family. His second daughter, Nadezhda, was born in 1874.
=== Paris and Normandy ===
Repin's painting Barge Haulers of the Volga, shown at the Vienna International Exposition, brought him his first International attention. It also earned him a grant from the Academy of Fine Arts which allowed him to make an extended tour of several months to Austria, then Italy, and finally in 1873, to Paris. He rented an apartment in Montmartre at 13 rue Veron, and a small attic studio under a mansard roof at number 31 on the same street.
He remained in Paris for two years. He described his subjects as "the principal types of Parisians, in the most typical settings." He painted the street markets and boulevards of Paris, and especially the varied faces and costumes of the Parisians of every class. His major Russian work created in Paris was Sadko (1876), a mystical allegory of an undersea kingdom, which included elements of Art Nouveau. He gave the young heroine a Russian face, surrounded by a strange and exotic setting. He wrote to his friend the civic Stasov: "This idea describes my present situation, and perhaps, the situation of all of our Russian art". In 1876, his Sadko painting won him a place in the Russian Academy of Fine Arts.
He was in Paris in April 1874, when the First Impressionist Exhibition was held. In 1875, he wrote to Stasov about "The liberty of the "impressionalists", Manet, Monet et the others, and their infantile truthfulness." In 1876, he painted a portrait of his wife Vera in the exact style of Berthe Morisot's portrait by Édouard Manet. as a tribute to Manet and Morisot. Though he admired some impressionist techniques, especially their depictions of light and color, he felt their work lacked moral or social purpose, key factors in his own art.
Following the ideas of the Impressionists, he spent two months at Veules-les-Roses in Normandy, painting landscapes in the open air. In 1874–1876 he contributed to the Salon in Paris. In 1876, he wrote to the secretary of the Russian academy of arts: "You told me not to become "Francified." What are you saying? I dream only of returning to Russia and working seriously. But Paris was of great utility to me, it can't be denied."
=== Moscow and "The Wanderers" (1876–1885) ===
Repin returned to Russia in 1876. His son Yury was born the following year. He moved to Moscow that year, and produced a wide variety of works including portraits of the painters Arkhip Kuindzhi and Ivan Shishkin. He became involved with the "Wanderers", an artistic movement founded in St. Petersburg in 1863. The style of the Wanderers was resolutely realistic, patriotic, and politically engaged, determined to break with classical models and to create a specifically Russian art. It involved not only painters, but sculptors, writers and composers.
Repin created a series of major historical works, including the Religious Procession in Kursk Governorate (1883), which was presented at the 12th annual exposition of the Wanderers. It was notable both for its extraordinary crowd of realistic figures, including surly policemen, weary monks, children and beggars, each expressing a vivid personality. He also experimented with outdoor sunlight effects, apparently influenced by the impressionists and his outdoor studies in France. His next major work of this period was Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan. This painting, depicting the tsar, his face full of horror, just after he has killed his son with his sceptre in a demented rage. It caused a scandal. Some critics saw it as a veiled criticism of Tsar Alexander III, who had brutally suppressed the opposition after a failed assassination attempt. It was also attacked by the more aesthetic faction of the Wanderers, who considered it overly sensationalist. It was vandalised twice and was finally, at the tsar's request, removed from view. The tsar reconsidered his decision, and the painting was finally put back on view.
The portrait of Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna is one of his most tragic historical works. It depicts the daughter of Tsar Alexis who became regent of Russia after the death of her father, but then was deposed from power in 1689 and locked away in a convent by her half-brother, Peter the Great. The painting captures her fury as she realises her future life.
They Did Not Expect Him (1884–1888) is a notable and subtle historical work of the period, depicting a young man, a former narodnik or revolutionary, emaciated and frail from prison and exile, returning unexpectedly to his family. The story is told by the different expressions on the faces of his family and small details, such as the portraits of Tsar Alexander III and of favourite Russian poets on the wall.
=== Repin and Tolstoy ===
In 1880, Leo Tolstoy came to Repin's small studio on Bolshoi Trubny street in Moscow to introduce himself. This developed into a friendship between the 36-year-old painter and the 52-year-old writer that lasted thirty years until Tolstoy's death in 1910. Repin regularly visited Tolstoy at his Moscow residence, and his country estate at Yasnaya Polyana. He painted a series of portraits of Tolstoy in peasant dress, working and reading under a tree at Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy wrote of an 1887 visit by Repin: "Repin came to see me and painted a fine portrait. I appreciate him more and more; he is lively person, approaching the light to which all of us aspire, including us poor sinners." His last trip to see Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana was in 1907, when Tolstoy was 79. Despite his age, Tolstoy went horseback riding with Repin, ploughed fields, cleared paths of brush and hiked through the countryside for nine hours, all the while discussing philosophy and morals. Repin's portraits of Tolstoy in country dress were widely exhibited, and helped build Tolstoy's legendary image.
=== Repin and Russian composers ===
In addition to his portraits of Tolstoy and Russian writers, Repin painted portraits of the major Russian composers of his time, His images, like his paintings of Tolstoy and other writers, became an integral part of the image of these composers. His portrait of Modest Moussorgsky was particularly famous. The composer suffered from alcoholism and depression. Repin painted him in four sittings, beginning four days before his death. When Moussorgsky died, Repin used the proceeds of the sale of the painting to erect a monument to the composer.
His portrait of Mikhail Glinka, composer of the opera Ruslan and Ludmilla (1887) was an unusual work for Repin. The portrait was painted after Glinka's death (Repin never met him), and was based on drawings and recollections of others. Other composers painted by Repin included Alexander Glazunov who had just completed Borodin's opera "Prince Igor", and Anton Rubinstein the founder of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory of Music.
His third daughter, Tatyana, was born in 1880. He frequented the art circle of Savva Mamontov, which gathered at Abramtsevo, his estate near Moscow. Here Repin met many of the leading painters of the day, including Vasily Polenov, Valentin Serov, and Mikhail Vrubel. In 1882 he and Vera divorced; they maintained a friendly relationship afterwards.
Repin's contemporaries often commented on his special ability of capturing peasant life in his works. In an 1876 letter to Stasov, Kramskoi wrote: "Repin is capable of depicting the Russian peasant exactly as he is. I know many artists who have painted peasants, some of them very well, but none of them ever came close to what Repin does." Leo Tolstoy later stated that Repin "depicts the life of the people much better than any other Russian artist." He was praised for his ability to reproduce human life with powerful and vivid force.
=== Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks ===
In 1883, he traveled around Western Europe with Vladimir Stasov. Repin's painting Religious Procession in Kursk Province was shown at the eleventh Itinerants' Society Exhibition. In that year, he painted The Wall of Pere Lachaise Cemetery Commemorating the Paris Commune. In 1886, he traveled to the Crimea with Arkhip Kuindzhi, and produced drawings and sketches on biblical subjects.
In 1887, he visited Austria, Italy, and Germany, and retired from the board of the Wanderers, painted two portraits of Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana and painted Alexander Pushkin on the Shore of the Black Sea (in collaboration with Ivan Aivazovsky). In 1888, he traveled to southern Russia and the Caucasus, where he did sketches and studies of descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Throughout the 1870s to 1880s, he visited Chuguyev and gathered materials for his future works. There, he painted his Archdeacon.
Many of Repin's finest portraits were produced in the 1880s. Through the presentation of real faces, these portraits express the rich, tragical, and hopeful spirit of the period. His portraits of Aleksey Pisemsky (1880), Modest Mussorgsky (1881), and others created throughout the decade have become familiar to whole generations of Russians. Each is completely lifelike, conveying the transient, changeable nature of the sitter's state of mind. They give an intense embodiment of both the physical and spiritual life of the people who sat for him.
In 1887 he was separated from his wife Vera. He visited Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, and painted his portrait, and then took a long trip along the Volga and the Don, to the Cossack regions. This trip gave him material for his most famous historical work, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The painting depicts an apocryphal event in 1678, when a group of cossacks supposedly amused themselves by drafting a highly insulting letter to the Turkish sultan, addressing him as "The Grand Imbecile". Repin worked on this painting periodically between 1880 and 1891, creating an extraordinary ensemble of expressive faces. Most of the models were faculty members from the Academy of Arts, and had a variety of nationalities, including Russians, Ukrainians, a Cossack student, Greeks, and Poles. The Cossack with a yellow hat, at the top right and almost hidden by Taras Bulba, is Fyodor Stravinsky, an opera singer with the Mariinsky Theatre, of Polish descent, and the father of the composer Igor Stravinsky. The central figure in the painting was inspired by a legendary Cossack leader Ivan Sirko, modeled by Russian General Mikhail Dragomirov. The finished work was so popular that he painted a second version.
In 1890, he was given a government commission to work on the creation of a new statute for the Academy of Arts. In 1891 he resigned from the Wanderers in protest against a new statute that restricted the rights of young artists. An exhibition of works by Repin and Shishkin was held in the Academy of Arts, including Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. In 1892 he held a one-man exhibition at the History Museum in Moscow. In 1893 he visited academic art schools in Warsaw, Kraków, Munich, Vienna, and Paris to observe and study teaching methods. He spent the winter in Italy and published his essays Letters on Art.
In 1894, he began teaching a class at the Higher Art School attached to the Academy of Arts, a position he held, off and on, until 1907. In 1895 he painted portraits of Emperor Nicholas II, and Princess Maria Tenisheva. In 1896, he attended the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. His paintings were exhibited in Saint Petersburg, at the Exhibition of Works of Creative Art. His paintings from this year included The Duel and Don Juan and Dona Anna. In 1897, he rejoined the Wanderers, and was appointed rector of the Higher Artistic School for a year. In 1898 he traveled to the Holy Land, and painted the icon Carrying the Cross for the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Jerusalem. After returning to Russia, he attended Pavel Tretyakov's funeral. In 1899 he joined the editorial board of the magazine World of Art, but soon quit.
=== Move to Finland (1890) ===
In 1890, Repin met Natalia Nordman (1863–1914), who became his common-law wife. She was the daughter of an admiral, a writer and feminist, an activist for the improvement of working conditions. She advocated a simple life close to nature. In 1899, he acquired land near a village of Kuokkala, about forty kilometres north of St. Petersburg, and they built what is the Penaty Memorial Estate, a country house, which became his home for the next thirty years. It was located in the Grand Duchy of Finland, then part of the Russian Empire, about an hour by train from St. Petersburg. At first he used it only as a summer house, but after he resigned from the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts in 1907, it became his full-time home and studio.
It was a rather eccentric estate, including a studio covered with a pyramidal lantern roof, a landscape garden with a "Pushkin alley" of trees, a multicoloured music kiosk in the Egyptian style, and a telescope overlooking the Gulf of Finland. He hosted vegetarian breakfasts for his guests (a practice he adapted from Tolstoy), and very elaborate receptions on Wednesdays. His Wednesday guests included the opera singer Chaliapin, the writer Maxim Gorky, the composer Alexander Glazunov the writer Aleksandr Kuprin; artists Vasily Polenov, Isaak Brodsky and Nicolai Fechin as well as poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, philosopher Vasily Rozanov and scientist Vladimir Bekhterev.
In 1900, he took Nordman to the World Exhibition in Paris, where he served as a painting judge. They visited Munich, the Tyrol, and Prague, His painting Get Thee Behind Me, Satan! was shown at the 29th Exhibition of the Wanderers. In 1901, he received from the tsar one of his largest commissions, portraits of all sixty members of State Council. He proceeded with the help of photographs and the aid of two of his students. One of the subjects was Alexander Kerensky, the Russian president before the Bolshevik seizure of power. In addition to his government commissions, he found time for a light work on an entirely different theme; a painting in 1902–1903 called What Freedom! depicting two students dancing in the waves at the beach after completing their examinations.
=== Revolution and disillusion (1900–1905) ===
The repression of popular demonstrations in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1905 disillusioned Repin. He called 1905 "the year of disaster and shame". He resigned from his teaching post at the Academy of Fine Arts, and concentrated on painting. The movements toward democracy in the early 20th century inspired Repin, he joined the Constitutional Democratic Party, was offered the rank of Councillor of State, and was invited to take a seat in the Duma, the national assembly. He made a colourful painting of the celebration of the new Russian Constitution of 1905. Later, he painted the portrait of the newly-elected Russian President, Alexander Kerensky.
Repin concentrated on writing his memoirs, which he finished in 1915. He visited St. Peterburg to see expositions, including a 1909 show of works by the modernist Wassily Kandinsky. Repin was not impressed; he described it as "the swamps of artistic corruption".
He visited Munich, the Tyrol, and Prague, and painted Natalia Nordman in a Tyrolese Hat and In the Sunlight: Portrait of Nadezhda Repina. In 1901, he was awarded the Legion of Honor. In 1902–1903, his works included the paintings Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council and What a Freedom!, over forty portrait studies, and portraits of Sergei Witte and Vyacheslav von Plehve.
In 1904, he gave a speech at a memorial gathering for the artist Vasily Vereshchagin. He painted a portrait of the writer Leonid Andreyev and his work The Death of the Cossack Squadron Commander Zinovyev. He made sketches depicting government troops opening fire on a peaceful demonstration on 9 December 1905. During 1905 Repin participated in many protests against bloodshed and tsarist repressions, and tried to convey his impressions of these emotionally and politically charged events in his paintings.
He also did sketches for portraits of Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Stasov and two portraits of Natalia Nordman. In 1907, he resigned from the Academy of Arts, visited Chuguyev and the Crimea, and wrote reminiscences of Vladimir Stasov. In 1908, he publicly denounced capital punishment in Russia. He illustrated Leonid Andreyev's story The Seven Who Were Hanged, and his painting The Cossacks from the Black Sea Coast was exhibited at the Itinerants' Society Exhibition. In 1909, he painted Gogol Burning the Manuscript of the Second Part of Dead Souls, and in 1910, portraits of Pyotr Stolypin, and the children's writer and poet Korney Chukovsky.
=== War, the Bolshevik Revolution and later years (1917–1930) ===
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought a series of setbacks and tragedies to Repin. His wife became ill with tuberculosis, and departed for treatment in Locarno, Switzerland. She refused assistance from her family and died in Switzerland in 1914. Then, following the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Finland, including Rupin's home, "The Penates" ('Penaty' in Russian), declared its independence from Russia. The border was closed, and Repin refused to return to Russia. He turned to Finland for new clients, painting a large group portrait of notable Finnish leaders and artists, including the architect Eliel Saarinen, the composer Jean Sibelius, and the future Finnish president, Carl Gustav Mannerheim. Repin included the back of his own head in the painting.
In 1916, Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near, with the assistance of Korney Chukovsky. He welcomed the early phases of the Russian Revolution, namely the February Revolution of February 1917. However, he was hostile to the Bolsheviks and was appalled by their rise to power in the October Revolution and the violence and terror they unleashed thereafter. In 1919, he donated his collection of works by Russian artists and his own works to the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, and in 1920, honorary celebrations of Repin were held by artistic circles in Finland. In 1921–1922, he painted The Ascent of Elijah the Prophet and Christ and Mary Magdalene (The Morning of the Resurrection).
Repin was so hostile to the new Soviet government, that he even lashed out at their spelling reform. Specifically, he objected to writing his last name "Рѣпинъ" (Repin) under the new rules, which made it "Репин", as the elimination of the letter "ѣ" led many people to incorrectly spell his name as Ryopin.
After end of the war in 1918, Repin could travel again. In 1923, Repin held a one-man exhibition in Prague. Celebrations were given in 1924 in Kuokkala to mark Repin's 80th birthday, and an exhibition of his works was held in Moscow. In 1925, a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad (renamed St Petersburg-Petrograd). The new Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, sent a delegation of Soviet artists, including a former student of Repin, Isaak Brodsky, to persuade Repin to return to St. Petersburg, and to give up his residence in Finland. But Repin did not want to be under the thumb of Stalin, and refused, though he donated three sketches devoted to the Revolution of 1905 and the portrait of Alexander Kerensky to the Museum of the Revolution of 1905. In 1928–1929, while still in Finland, he continued working on the painting The Hopak Dance (The Zaporozhye Cossacks Dancing), begun in 1926, which was his final work. It portrays Repin's admiration of Ukraine and its culture. Repin painted it with oil on linoleum, because he could not get a canvas large enough.
Repin died in 1930, and was buried at The Penates ('Penaty'). In one of his last letters he wrote: "kind, dear compatriots [...] I ask you to believe in the sense of my devotion and endless regret that I can't move to live in a sweet, joyful Ukraine [...] Loving you from the childhood, Ilya Repin". After the Winter War in 1939, the territory of Kuokkala was annexed by the Soviet Union. In 1948, despite Repin's hostility towards Bolshevism, it was renamed Repino in his honor. The Penates became a museum in 1940, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
== Portraits ==
Repin particularly excelled at portrait painting. He produced more than three hundred portraits in his career. He painted most of the notable political figures, writers and composers of his time. One exception was Dostoevsky, whose mysticism Repin did not appreciate at all. He preceded each portrait with six or seven sketches. He had to persuade a reluctant Tolstoy to be portrayed working in a field with bare feet, as he usually did.
Repin persistently searched for new techniques and content to give his work more fullness and depth. Repin had a set of favorite subjects, and a limited circle of people whose portraits he painted. But he had a deep sense of purpose in his aesthetics, and had the great artistic gift to sense the spirit of the age and its reflection in the lives and characters of individuals. Repin's search for truth and for an ideal led him in various directions artistically, influenced by hidden aspects of social and spiritual experiences as well as national culture. Like most Russian realists of his times, Repin often based his works on dramatic conflicts, drawn from contemporary life or history. He also used mythological images with a strong sense of purpose; some of his religious paintings are among his greatest.
== Drawings and sketches ==
With some of his paintings, Repin made one hundred or more preliminary sketches. He began his works with sketches in pencil or charcoal, using lines and cross-hatching. Often he would rub the drawing with his finger or an eraser to get the precise shading that he desired. He sometimes used drawings or paintings of his children to experiment with different points of view. For his large paintings, he made very detailed studies, experimenting with the composition and judging the overall impression.
== Genre painting ==
No Russian painter of the 19th or 20th century was more skilled at genre painting, portraying scenes of daily life in a sympathetic and perceptive way, giving each character a distinct purpose and personality. His works ranged from domestic scenes to small dramas, such as policemen arresting a young militant for distributing revolutionary tracts.
== Style and technique ==
Repin persistently searched for new techniques and content to give his work more fullness and depth. Repin had a set of favorite subjects, and a limited circle of people whose portraits he painted. But he had a deep sense of purpose in his aesthetics, and had the great artistic gift to sense the spirit of the age and its reflection in the lives and characters of individuals. Repin's search for truth and for an ideal led him in various directions artistically, influenced by hidden aspects of social and spiritual experiences as well as national culture. Like most Russian realists of his times, Repin often based his works on dramatic conflicts, drawn from contemporary life or history. He also used mythological images with a strong sense of purpose; some of his religious paintings are among his greatest.
His method was the reverse of the general approach of impressionism. He produced works slowly and carefully. They were the result of close and detailed study. He was never satisfied with his works, and often painted multiple versions, years apart. He also changed and adjusted his methods constantly in order to obtain more effective arrangement, grouping and coloristic power. Repin's style of portraiture was unique, but owed something to the influence of Édouard Manet and Diego Velázquez.
== Legacy ==
Repin was the first Russian artist to achieve European fame using specifically Russian themes. His 1873 painting Barge Haulers on the Volga, radically different from previous Russian paintings, made him the leader of a new movement of critical realism in Russian art. He chose nature and character over academic formalism. The triumph of this work was widespread, and it was praised by contemporaries like Vladimir Stasov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The paintings show his feeling of personal responsibility for the hard life of the common people and the destiny of Russia.
On 5 August 2009, Google celebrated Ilya Repin's Birthday with a doodle.
In a 2017 VTsIOM poll, Repin ranked third as the most favorite artist of Russians, with 16% of respondents naming him as their favorite, behind Ivan Aivazovsky (27%) and Ivan Shishkin (26%).
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
Penates House-Museum of Ilya Repin
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
== Further reading ==
Parker, Fan; Stephen Jan Parker (1980). Russia on Canvas: Ilya Repin. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00252-2.
Sternin, Grigory (1985). Ilya Repin: Painting Graphic Arts. Leningrad: Auroras.
Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1990). Ilya Repin and the World of Russian Art. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-06964-2.
Marcadé, Valentine (1990). Art d'Ukraine. Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme. ISBN 978-2-8251-0031-8.
Jackson, David, The Russian Vision: The Art of Ilya Repin (Schoten, Belgium, 2006) ISBN 9085860016
Karageorgevich, Prince Bojidar, "Professor Repin," in the Magazine of Art, xxiii. p. 783 (1899)
Prymak, Thomas M., "Message to Mehmed: Repin Creates his Zaporozhian Cossacks," in his Ukraine, the Middle East, and the West (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021), pp. 173–200.
Шишанов, В.А. «Ниспровержение на пьедестал»: Илья Репин в советской печати 1920–1930-х годов / В.А. Шишанов // Архип Куинджи и его роль в развитии художественного процесса в ХХ веке. Илья Репин в контексте русского и европейского искусства. Василий Дмитриевич Поленов и русская художественная культура второй половины XIX – первых десятилетий XX века : материалы научных конференций. – М. : Гос. Третьяковская галерея, 2020. – С. 189–206.
== External links ==
Ilya Repin at the Russian Academy of Arts' official website (in Russian)
Ilya Repin at the Web Gallery of Art |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_(1967_TV_series) | Dragnet (1967 TV series) | Dragnet is an American crime drama television series starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan which ran for four seasons, from January 12, 1967, to April 16, 1970. To differentiate it from the earlier 1950s Dragnet television series, the year in which each season ended was made part of the on-screen title—the series started as Dragnet 1967 and ended as Dragnet 1970. The entire series aired Thursdays at 9:30–10:00 pm (ET) and was directed by Jack Webb.
All four seasons of this series have been released on DVD; Season 1 ("Dragnet 1967") by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and seasons 2 ("1968"), 3 ("1969") and 4 ("1970") by Shout! Factory.
This was the second television series in a Dragnet media franchise encompassing film, television, books and comics. It has the distinction of being one of the first examples of a discontinued American TV series being revived years later with some original cast members.
== Cast ==
Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Actors playing multiple roles during the series run include Don Ross, Olan Soule, Marco Lopez, Herb Vigran, Clark Howat, Art Balinger, Alfred Shelly, Art Gilmore, Ralph Moody, Virginia Gregg, Ed Deemer, Howard Culver, Bert Holland, Don Stewart, Bobby Troup, Len Wayland, William Boyett, Stacy Harris, Stuart Nisbet, Kent McCord, Robert Brubaker, Harry Bartell, Jill Banner, Robert Patten, Sidney Clute, Anthony Eisley, Virginia Vincent, Don Dubbins, James McEachin, Peggy Webber, Jack Sheldon, and Vic Perrin.
== Series overview ==
Typically, each episode begins with stock footage of Los Angeles over Sgt. Joe Friday's introduction, "This is the city." Friday then specifies the day and time with a description of the watch, or shift, he and Gannon are working. The two investigate each case that arises with Friday, usually, the lead investigator. Although always polite and professional, Friday's manner of questioning witnesses, or suspects, is terse, clipped and rigid, resulting in rapid dialogue. If a witness begins providing irrelevant details, Friday often responds, "Ma’am (Sir), we just want to get the facts." At the end of each episode, the legal fate of the arrested suspects is revealed. Friday and Gannon are rarely shown outside their professional relationship. Gannon occasionally refers to his wife, Eileen, and family; and, sometimes encourages Friday, who is single, to have more of a social life. In a rare departure from the crime drama, a 1968 episode titled "Homicide: DR-06," depicts Friday inviting the Gannons to his apartment for a steak dinner, only to have the evening constantly interrupted by other tenants seeking Friday's assistance.
=== TV movie ===
In 1965 Jack Webb was approached by Universal Pictures to produce a Dragnet television movie to air on NBC. NBC programming director Mort Werner was impressed with the film and decided there was more value in developing Dragnet as a weekly TV series. Webb was more interested in continuing the franchise with TV movies, but ultimately agreed. The movie would not be released until January 27, 1969 (midway through the third season of the TV series) on The NBC Monday Movie, with the promotional title World Premiere: Dragnet.
The working title in the film's script was Dragnet 1966, although the official title is simply Dragnet. The movie is commonly referred to as Dragnet 1966 to distinguish it from other works in the franchise. This movie is included as an extra in the Dragnet 1968 DVD set.
== Episodes ==
All episodes of the series were directed by Jack Webb.
=== Season 1 (Dragnet 1967) ===
=== Season 2 (Dragnet 1968) ===
=== Season 3 (Dragnet 1969) ===
=== Season 4 (Dragnet 1970) ===
== References ==
Dragnet (1967) at epguides.com
Dragnet (1967) at IMDb
== External links ==
Badge 714.com, Dragnet fan site (Archive copy)
Dragnet episode summaries on Badge 714.com (archive copy) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange-spotted_bulbul#:~:text=The%20orange%2Dspotted%20bulbul%20was,until%20split%20by%20the%20IOC. | Orange-spotted bulbul | The orange-spotted bulbul (Pycnonotus bimaculatus) is a species of songbird in the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is endemic to Java, Bali and Sumatra.
It favors forest edges and open meadows in montane forests.
== Taxonomy and systematics ==
The orange-spotted bulbul was originally described in the genus Turdus by Thomas Horsfield in 1821. Until 2016, the Aceh bulbul (Pycnonotus snouckaerti) was considered as a subspecies of the orange-spotted bulbul until split by the IOC. Most other authorities have not yet recognized this split.
=== Subspecies ===
Two subspecies are recognized:
P. b. bimaculatus – (Horsfield, 1821): Found on south-western Sumatra, western and central Java
P. b. tenggerensis – (van Oort, 1911): Found on eastern Java and Bali
== Description ==
Up to 20 cm long. It is a dark-colored and active bulbul with a rounded tail.
=== Calls ===
It is a noisy bird, giving out a variety of harsh and loud calls and songs.
== Behaviour and ecology ==
=== Diet ===
It is a frugivore.
=== Reproduction ===
It breeds throughout the year. Nesting occurs year-round, peaking in May. Nests are robust and cup-shaped.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Danilov | Georgy Danilov | Georgy Konstantinovich Danilov (Russian: Георгий Костантинович Данилов; 10 January 1897 – 29 July 1937) was a Soviet linguist, Africanist and polyglot. He was executed during the Great Purge and rehabilitated during the Khrushchev Thaw.
== Early years and education ==
Georgy Konstantinovich Danilov was born on 10 January 1897 in Chyhyryn, a city located in the Chigirinsky Uyezd of the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine). He was of Russian ethnicity.
Danilov enrolled at Moscow University(ИФФ МУ,Faculty of engineering and physics) in 1916 but was immediately drafted into the Imperial Army and sent to the front during World War I for a period of two years. Although he formally graduated, his education remained incomplete.
In 1922 he returned to Moscow, where he was assigned to the department of languages at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (or Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока КУТВ). He worked at КомА (Коммунистическая академия, Communist Academy), then taught high school.
== Marxist linguistics ==
In February 1931, Danilov became the assistant director of the linguistic Institute linked to the Наркомпрос (Народный комиссариат просвещения, the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment). Danilov used linguistics to solve day-to-day practical political problems and his works were intimately related to social class. His approach to Marxism was dogmatic, always asking what the real Marxism was in linguistics and who could be called a true Marxist linguist.
The social purpose of his work emerged from a linguistic study, done in Ukraine, entitled: Язык общественного класса (по данным говора мест. Белик Полтавского округа), or The Language of Social Class (according to the Dialect of Beliki, in the Region of Poltava) .4.The greatest achievement of this linguistic survey has been the modernity of his methods, using what he called mass observation that in a way reminiscent of modern sociolinguistics.
The area where Danilov and his team worked was the village of Beliki in the region of Poltava, in the summer of 1927. In his work, dated 1928, the author focused on the language of people, conducting a “linguistic survey” and studying data obtained through interviews according to different linguistic axes. The study consisted of identifying citizen class types and of demonstrating their particular speech and how this contributes to the class struggle. The main method to search for material and information consisted of a systematic investigation of many people of different ages, gender and social status. What emerged from this linguistic analysis was the strong role that language can have in the class struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie.
Danilov shared the belief, which was widespread in the second half of the 1920s, that the socio-economic conditions of a social group or class are reflected by their psychology and their language used. The different uses of language in these classes introduce a new hierarchy in which poor peasants occupy the bottom of the ladder, as they use the archaic lexicon reduced to the terminology of agriculture. In this classification, skilled workers and local cadres occupy a high place - they are bilingual, they use the Russian language of the October Revolution but they also speak Ukrainian. Danilov interpreted this diversity of language as the result of differences between the psychologies of classes.
Danilov suggested a new language that can finally unite the classes: Russian, since it relates to the Revolution. He later acknowledged the limitations of this work, affirming that he should have looked beyond the results and should not have considered these results as answers, but as the key to arrive at the answers.
== Jazikofront ==
During the 1930s in the Soviet Union two main linguistic schools existed: those who followed the idea of an ancient proto-language developed long time ago, namely Proto-Indo-European, and those who followed the theory postulated by Nikolay Marr, the Japhetic theory, which postulated that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area are related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East. Marrism claimed to represent "proletarian science" as opposed to the "bourgeois science" of Indo-European linguistics.
The situation became more complicated, however, on 15 September 1930, when Danilov formally founded Jazikofront, a group of linguists belonging to the Communist Academy who rejected the Japhetic theory. For the first time in the USSR, Marrism was attacked by Marxist linguists, who criticized Marrism's single-minded focus on genetic analysis, as opposed to functional analysis concerned with the ongoing development and use of language.
The "Jazikofront" also included other important young linguists, such as K.A. Alaverdov, Y.V. Loya, T.P. Lomtev and P.S. Kuznetsov. These young linguists fought on two different fronts: against the traditional approach to language and against other pretenders to the throne of new linguistics and other linguists claiming to be Marxists. Their criticism was not ideological but technical. Ideologically, the positions of Marr coincided with those of the group, but they believed it was necessary to revise the method of study proposed by him. The young linguists of Jazikofront, together with Danilov, shared the conviction with Marrists that Indo-European linguistics was an obsolete approach to the study of language, but their conclusions about what should replace it were different. They felt that linguistics had to deal with present-day reality and it should concentrate on the relation between language, class and the proletariat consciousness to create a socialist society. The Jazikofront criticised the Japhetic theory because its approach to the study of the language was useless to solve the real problems of Soviet linguistics.
Danilov was attacked by both Indo-Europeanists and Marrists. His bitter enemy was Yevgeny Polivanov, whom Danilov accused of adopting an anti-proletarian position because he defended Indo-European studies and labeled as a Trotskyist. However, the arguments provided by Danilov to disprove the thesis of Polivanov were unclear and confusing, sometimes even contradictory.
Danilov's influence on the new linguistic movement likewise brought him into conflict with the exponents of Marrism, who used the term "danilovščina" (даниловщина), coined by Jakubinskii, to denounce Danilov's ideas as a dangerous tendency for the development of new linguistics.
Jazikofront survived until 1932.
== African studies in Soviet Union ==
Georgy Danilov was also an exponent of African studies, and especially South Africa, which resulted in the creation of НИАНКП (the Research Association for the Study of National and Colonial Problems). Soviet African studies emerged in the late 1920s to the late 1930s. During that period none of Soviet Africanist scholars travelled to Africa; instead, in the early 1930s a Department of Africa was created at one of Comintern's universities, the Communist University of Eastern Toilers. There was also an African Department, or the African Laboratory (“Kabinet”) in the Academic Research Association for National and Colonial Problems. Its main task was collecting materials on Africa.
The activities of both these centres were vibrant and diverse. Not only did they study Africa's socio–economic problems and history but languages as well. Both Moscow and Leningrad academics were involved in these studies, as well as émigré from African countries and Africans who came to study at the Comintern's universities (Lenin School and KUTV).
Danilov was the initiator of the study of African languages in Moscow. His efforts gave birth to the first Soviet Congress for African languages in Moscow in January 1934, during which his two papers "Perspectives, tasks and methods of studies on African languages" and "Phonetical system of Swahili" were presented.
== The Great Purge ==
Danilov was an active member of the Communist Party. Like a number of other linguists and Africanists he perished due to Great Purge. On 28 December 1934 he was expelled from the CPSU (b), and in January. 1935 dismissed from all jobs and forced to work as an educator in children's colonies of the OGPU in Kaluga and near Serpukhov.
Danilov was arrested on 14 May 1937. He was found guilty of crimes against his country and being a member of a counterrevolutionary terrorist organization and was executed on 29 July 1937. Danilov's ashes were scattered in the Donskoy Cemetery. He was rehabilitated on 10 November 1956.
== References ==
== External links ==
Some additional info on Danilov and most of his works ( in French)
Danilov's Biography (in Russian) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhruv_Rathee#Personal_life | Dhruv Rathee | Dhruv Rathee (born 8 October 1994, Hindi pronunciation: [d̪ʰrʊʋ raːʈʰiː]) is an Indian influencer and social media activist based in Berlin, Germany. He is known for his YouTube videos on social, political, and environmental issues. As of June 2025, he has over 36 million subscribers and 7 billion views across all of his channels.
== Early life and education ==
Rathee was born into a Haryanvi Hindu family in the Indian state of Haryana. He completed his primary education in Haryana before pursuing higher education in Germany. He then completed his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, followed by a master's degree in renewable energy from the same institution.
== Career ==
Rathee is mainly known for his political videos, which mainly contain fact-checking and explanatory content. According to ThePrint, Rathee was one of the first Indian users to use YouTube as a political platform. He began uploading travel videos in 2013, but by the end of the year, he shifted his focus towards political and social topics.
Alongside his serious content, Rathee launched Pee News, a satirical "fake news" segment. Additionally, from 2017 until early 2020, Rathee wrote opinion columns for ThePrint. Dhruv's coverage of the 2018 BJP-AAP scuffle was considered to be one-sided.
In July 2020, Rathee began another YouTube channel called Dhruv Rathee Vlogs, where he shares his international travel vlogs. In addition to his travel vlogs, Rathee hosts various shows, including DW Travel of Deutsche Welle and Decode with Dhruv of Netflix India. He also hosts a podcast on Spotify called Maha Bharat with Dhruv Rathee.
As of February 2022, Rathee began a shorts channel to share 30-seconds fact videos. The channel offers a quick and accessible way for viewers to engage with the information Rathee presents. In September 2022, he faced controversy when a video he posted about the political crisis in Pakistan was blocked by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The ministry claimed that the video contained a distorted map of India, in which parts of Kashmir were depicted as part of Pakistan or "disputed". In March 2023, he also faced copyright charges from Dabur on his video titled "The dark-side of cold drinks". In an order, the Calcutta high court ordered social media platforms to remove the video.
In 2023, Rathee was included in TIME Magazine's list of Next Generation Leaders.
On 18 April 2024, Rathee announced five new YouTube channels focusing to publish dubbed videos in five Indian regional languages, which includes Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, and Kannada. Following the Pahalgam terrorist attack in April 2025, Rathee was the subject of backlash when Pakistani news channels aired clips of his video which criticized the Indian government's security failures; Rathee claimed that the clips were misused.
In May 2025, he faced controversy from the Sikh community for posting an AI-generated thumbnail in a newly titled video, "The Rise of Sikhs," which primarily focused on the first Sikh ruler, Banda Singh Bahadur. The video received widespread condemnation from the Sikh community, including the SGPC President, for depicting AI-generated visuals of the Sikh gurus. Following the backlash, Rathee later removed the video from his YouTube channel.
== Personal life ==
Rathee is a resident of Germany. In November 2021, Rathee married his long-time partner Juli Lbr at the Belvedere Palace, in Vienna, Austria. Their first child was born in September 2024.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Dhruv Rathee's Channel on YouTube |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratcatcher_(comics) | Ratcatcher (comics) | The Ratcatcher (Otis Flannegan) is a character appearing in American comic books and other media published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of Batman. He belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up the Dark Knight's rogues gallery. Once an actual rat-catcher in Gotham City, Flannegan sank into a life of crime. Calling himself the Ratcatcher because of his special ability to communicate with and train rats, Flannegan has used his minions to plague Gotham on more than one occasion by unleashing hordes of the vermin.
A female version of the character named Cleo Cazo / Ratcatcher 2 appears in the DC Extended Universe film The Suicide Squad (2021), portrayed by Daniela Melchior. Taika Waititi portrays the first Ratcatcher, Cleo's father.
== Publication history ==
The Ratcatcher first appeared in Detective Comics #585 (April 1988) and was created by writers Alan Grant and John Wagner, and artist Norm Breyfogle.
== Fictional character biography ==
Otis Flannegan is a former rat-catcher in the Gotham City Sanitation Department who claims he could train rats to attack before he is arrested and sentenced to ten years in Gotham State Penitentiary after stabbing a man to death in a street fight. After being released, Flannegan kidnaps the officials responsible for his arrest and tortures them with his rats.
After five years of captivity, one of Flannegan's prisoners escapes. Though he orders his rats to kill him, the latter reaches the surface, where Batman discovers his body, tracks down Flannegan, and easily defeats him upon dispersing his rats. After being re-incarcerated, Flannegan escapes his parole hearing using a flute he carved to control rats via a high-pitched frequency, only to be foiled by Dick Grayson disguised as Batman and captured again.
In Infinite Crisis, Flannegan is revealed to be an OMAC before being killed by a civilian.
In The New 52 continuity reboot, Flannegan is resurrected and makes a minor appearance in Batman Eternal.
== Powers and abilities ==
The Ratcatcher possesses the ability to communicate and control an army of rats and in-depth knowledge of Gotham City's sewer system and Blackgate Penitentiary's layout. Additionally, he wields a gas gun and can manipulate various objects with cyanide gas.
== Other versions ==
An original alternate universe incarnation of the Ratcatcher named Ransom Trappe appears in Master Comics as an enemy of Bulletman and Bulletgirl.
An alternate reality variant of Otis Flannegan appears in Mother Panic. This version has reformed, retired, and moved into the basement of the hotel that Violet Paige uses as her headquarters.
== In other media ==
=== Television ===
The Ratcatcher appears in Harley Quinn, voiced by James Adomian. This version is an underling of Two-Face.
The Ratcatcher appears in Suicide Squad Isekai, voiced by Yōji Ueda and Adam Noble in the Japanese and English dubs respectively. This version bears a grudge against Deadshot for slandering him. After being recruited into the Suicide Squad and sent to another world, he escaped and gained a magic scepter that allows him to control other animals, such as werewolves. After Deadshot destroys his scepter, Ratcatcher's thralls betray him.
=== Film ===
An original, female incarnation of the Ratcatcher named Cleo Cazo / Ratcatcher 2 appears in The Suicide Squad, portrayed by Daniela Melchior. This version is the daughter of an unnamed previous Ratcatcher (portrayed by Taika Waititi), who was originally from Portugal and died from a heroin overdose. Following this, Cazo came to America and used her father's equipment to become a criminal, only to be arrested for armed bank robbery due to authorities considering rats as weapons and incarcerated in Belle Reve Penitentiary. Sometime later, Cazo and her pet rat Sebastian (vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker) join the eponymous squad to infiltrate and destroy Jötenheim, a Corto Maltesean laboratory containing the alien Starro. Along the way, she forms bonds with her teammates Bloodsport, despite his fear of rats, and King Shark.
=== Video games ===
The Ratcatcher appears as a boss in Batman: Dark Tomorrow, voiced by Jeff Meller.
The Ratcatcher appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
The Ratcatcher appears in Batman: Arkham Shadow, voiced by Khary Payton. This version is African-American.
=== Miscellaneous ===
The Ratcatcher appears in Batman: Arkham Unhinged as a juror in Two-Face's trial against the Joker, during which he votes guilty in retaliation for the latter poisoning his rats.
The Ratcatcher appears in Batman: Arkham Knight – Genesis #1. Following the events of Batman: Arkham City, he survived an encounter with the Penguin, but lost his left eye and arm, before he is eventually killed by the Arkham Knight.
The Ratcatcher appears in Batman: The Adventures Continue #16 as an attendee of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's party.
== See also ==
List of Batman family enemies
Pied Piper, a similarly themed Flash villain
Pied Piper of Hamelin
== References ==
== External links ==
Ratcatcher at DC Comics Wiki |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford#:~:text=Freemasonry,until%20January%201977 | Gerald Ford | Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party, Ford assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he had served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 following the resignation of Spiro Agnew. Prior to that, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.
Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, where he played for the university football team, before eventually attending Yale Law School. Afterward, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. Ford began his political career in 1949 as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district, serving in this capacity for nearly 25 years, the final nine of them as the House minority leader. In December 1973, two months after the resignation of Vice President Agnew, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment. After President Nixon resigned in August 1974, Ford immediately assumed the presidency.
Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. Foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president. Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the collapse of South Vietnam eight months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War essentially ended. In the 1976 Republican presidential primary, he narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter. Ford remains the only person to serve as president without winning an election for president or vice president.
Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party, but his moderate views on various social issues increasingly put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. He also set aside the enmity he had felt towards Carter following the 1976 election and the two former presidents developed a close friendship. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 2006. Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Ford as a below-average president, though retrospective public polls on his time in office were more positive.
== Early life ==
Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. He was the only child of Dorothy Ayer Gardner and Leslie Lynch King Sr., a wool trader. His paternal grandfather was banker and businessman Charles Henry King, and his maternal grandfather was Illinois politician and businessman Levi Addison Gardner. Ford's parents separated just sixteen days after his birth and his mother took the infant Ford with her to Oak Park, Illinois, where her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law Clarence Haskins James lived at 410 N. Humphrey Ave. From there, she moved to the home of her parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gardner and King divorced in December 1913, and she gained full custody of their son. Ford's paternal grandfather paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.
Ford later said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. In a biography of Ford, James M. Cannon wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents was sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, infant son, and Ford's nursemaid. Ford later told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she had smiled at another man during their honeymoon.
After living with her parents for two and a half years, on February 1, 1917, Gardner married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company. Though never formally adopted, her young son was referred to as Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. from then on; the name change, including the anglicized spelling "Rudolph", was formalized on December 3, 1935. He was raised in what is now East Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison "Dick" Ford (1924–2015), and James Francis "Jim" Ford (1927–2001).
Ford was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, and earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout in August 1927. He is the only Eagle Scout to have ascended to the U.S. presidency. Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School, where he was a star athlete and captain of the football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League. He also attracted the attention of college recruiters.
== College and law school ==
Ford attended the University of Michigan, where he played center and linebacker for the school's football team and helped the Wolverines to two undefeated seasons and national titles in 1932 and 1933. In his senior year of 1934, the team suffered a steep decline and won only one game, but Ford was still the team's star player. In one of those games, Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota—the eventual national champion—to a scoreless tie in the first half. After the game, assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan said, "When I walked into the dressing room at halftime, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud of them. Ford and [Cedric] Sweet played their hearts out. They were everywhere on defense." Ford later recalled, "During 25 years in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, I often thought of the experiences before, during, and after that game in 1934. Remembering them has helped me many times to face a tough situation, take action, and make every effort possible despite adverse odds." His teammates later voted Ford their most valuable player, with one assistant coach noting, "They felt Jerry was one guy who would stay and fight in a losing cause."
During Ford's senior year, a controversy developed when Georgia Tech said that it would not play a scheduled game with Michigan if a Black player named Willis Ward took the field. Students, players and alumni protested, but university officials capitulated and kept Ward out of the game. Ford was Ward's best friend on the team, and they roomed together while on road trips. Ford reportedly threatened to quit the team in response to the university's decision, but he eventually agreed to play against Georgia Tech when Ward personally asked him to play.
In 1934, Ford was selected for the Eastern Team in the Shriners' East–West Shrine Game at San Francisco (a benefit for physically disabled children), played on January 1, 1935. As part of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team, Ford played against the Chicago Bears in the Chicago College All-Star Game at Soldier Field. In honor of his athletic accomplishments and his later political career, the University of Michigan retired Ford's No. 48 jersey in 1994. With the blessing of the Ford family, it was placed back into circulation in 2012 as part of the Michigan Football Legends program and issued to sophomore linebacker Desmond Morgan before a home game against Illinois on October 13.
Throughout life, Ford remained interested in his school and football; he occasionally attended games. Ford also visited with players and coaches during practices; at one point, he asked to join the players in the huddle. Before state events, Ford often had the Navy band play the University of Michigan fight song, "The Victors," instead of "Hail to the Chief."
Ford graduated from Michigan in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. He turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. Instead, he took a job in September 1935 as the boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach at Yale University and applied to its law school.
Ford hoped to attend Yale Law School beginning in 1935. Yale officials at first denied his admission to the law school because of his full-time coaching responsibilities. In 1936, Ford worked as a seasonal park ranger at Yellowstone National Park's Canyon Station. He then spent the summer of 1937 as a student at the University of Michigan Law School and was eventually admitted in the spring of 1938 to Yale Law School. That year he was also promoted to the position of junior varsity head football coach at Yale. While at Yale, Ford began working as a model. He initially worked with the John Robert Powers agency before investing in the Harry Conover agency, with whom he modelled until 1941.
While attending Yale Law School, Ford joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart Jr., and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for the America First Committee, a group determined to keep the U.S. out of World War II. His introduction into politics was in the summer of 1940 when he worked for the Republican presidential campaign of Wendell Willkie.
Ford graduated in the top third of his class in 1941, and was admitted to the Michigan bar shortly thereafter. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip W. Buchen.
== U.S. Naval Reserve ==
Following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Ford enlisted in the Navy. He received a commission as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 13, 1942. On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary navigation skills, ordnance, gunnery, first aid, and military drill. In addition, he coached all nine sports that were offered, but mostly swimming, boxing, and football. During the year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade, on June 2, 1942, and to lieutenant, in March 1943.
=== Sea duty ===
After Ford applied for sea duty, he was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26), at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. From the ship's commissioning on June 17, 1943, until the end of December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the Monterey. While he was on board, the carrier participated in many actions in the Pacific Theater with the Third and Fifth Fleets in late 1943 and 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, Papua New Guinea in 1943. During the spring of 1944, the Monterey supported landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participated in carrier strikes in the Marianas, Western Carolines, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After an overhaul, from September to November 1944, aircraft from the Monterey launched strikes against Wake Island, participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukyus, and supported the landings at Leyte and Mindoro.
Although the ship was not damaged by Japanese forces, the Monterey was one of several ships damaged by Typhoon Cobra that hit Admiral William Halsey Jr.'s Third Fleet on December 18–19, 1944. The Third Fleet lost three destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. The Monterey was damaged by a fire, which was started by several of the ship's aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding on the hangar deck. Ford was serving as General Quarters Officer of the Deck and was ordered to go below to assess the raging fire. He did so safely, and reported his findings back to the ship's commanding officer, Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll. The ship's crew was able to contain the fire, and the ship got underway again.
After the fire, the Monterey was declared unfit for service. Ford was detached from the ship and sent to the Navy Pre-Flight School at Saint Mary's College of California, where he was assigned to the Athletic Department until April 1945. From the end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois, at the rank of lieutenant commander.
Ford received the following military awards: the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine 3⁄16" bronze stars (for operations in the Gilbert Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Marshall Islands, Asiatic and Pacific carrier raids, Hollandia, Marianas, Western Carolines, Western New Guinea, and the Leyte Operation), the Philippine Liberation Medal with two 3⁄16" bronze stars (for Leyte and Mindoro), and the World War II Victory Medal. He was honorably discharged in February 1946.
== U.S. House of Representatives (1949–1973) ==
After Ford returned to Grand Rapids in 1946, he became active in local Republican politics, and supporters urged him to challenge Bartel J. Jonkman, the incumbent Republican congressman. Military service had changed his view of the world. "I came back a converted internationalist", Ford wrote, "and of course our congressman at that time was an avowed, dedicated isolationist. And I thought he ought to be replaced. Nobody thought I could win. I ended up winning two to one."
During his first campaign in 1948, Ford visited voters at their doorsteps and as they left the factories where they worked. Ford also visited local farms where, in one instance, a wager resulted in Ford spending two weeks milking cows following his election victory.
Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for 25 years, holding Michigan's 5th congressional district seat from 1949 to 1973. It was a tenure largely notable for its modesty. As an editorial in The New York Times described him, Ford "saw himself as a negotiator and a reconciler, and the record shows it: he did not write a single piece of major legislation in his entire career." Appointed to the House Appropriations Committee two years after being elected, he was a prominent member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Ford described his philosophy as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy." He voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ford was known to his colleagues in the House as a "Congressman's Congressman".
In the early 1950s, Ford declined offers to run for either the U.S. Senate or the Michigan governorship. Rather, his ambition was to become Speaker of the House, which he called "the ultimate achievement. To sit up there and be the head honcho of 434 other people and have the responsibility, aside from the achievement, of trying to run the greatest legislative body in the history of mankind ... I think I got that ambition within a year or two after I was in the House of Representatives".
=== Warren Commission ===
On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission, a special task force set up to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ford was assigned to prepare a biography of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. He and Earl Warren also interviewed Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer. According to a 1963 FBI memo that was released to the public in 2008, Ford was in contact with the FBI throughout his time on the Warren Commission and relayed information to the deputy director, Cartha DeLoach, about the panel's activities. In the preface to his book, A Presidential Legacy and The Warren Commission, Ford defended the work of the commission and reiterated his support of its conclusions.
=== House Minority Leader (1965–1973) ===
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson led a landslide victory for his party, secured another term as president and took 36 seats from Republicans in the House of Representatives. Following the election, members of the Republican caucus looked to select a new minority leader. Three members approached Ford to see if he would be willing to serve; after consulting with his family, he agreed. After a closely contested election, Ford was chosen to replace Charles Halleck of Indiana as minority leader. The members of the Republican caucus that encouraged and eventually endorsed Ford to run as the House minority leader were later known as the "Young Turks". One of the members of the Young Turks was congressman Donald H. Rumsfeld from Illinois's 13th congressional district, who later on would serve in Ford's administration as the chief of staff and secretary of defense.
With a Democratic majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Johnson Administration proposed and passed a series of programs that was called by Johnson the "Great Society". During the first session of the Eighty-ninth Congress alone, the Johnson Administration submitted 87 bills to Congress, and Johnson signed 84, or 96%, arguably the most successful legislative agenda in Congressional history.
In 1966, criticism over the Johnson Administration's handling of the Vietnam War began to grow, with Ford and Congressional Republicans expressing concern that the United States was not doing what was necessary to win the war. Public sentiment also began to move against Johnson, and the 1966 midterm elections produced a 47-seat swing in favor of the Republicans. This was not enough to give Republicans a majority in the House, but the victory gave Ford the opportunity to prevent the passage of further Great Society programs.
Ford's private criticism of the Vietnam War became public knowledge after he spoke from the floor of the House and questioned whether the White House had a clear plan to bring the war to a successful conclusion. The speech angered President Johnson, who accused Ford of having played "too much football without a helmet".
As minority leader in the House, Ford appeared in a popular series of televised press conferences with Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, in which they proposed Republican alternatives to Johnson's policies. Many in the press jokingly called this "The Ev and Jerry Show." Johnson said at the time, "Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time." The press, used to sanitizing Johnson's salty language, reported this as "Gerald Ford can't walk and chew gum at the same time."
After Richard Nixon was elected president in November 1968, Ford's role shifted to being an advocate for the White House agenda. Congress passed several of Nixon's proposals, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Tax Reform Act of 1969. Another high-profile victory for the Republican minority was the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act. Passed in 1972, the act established a revenue sharing program for state and local governments. Ford's leadership was instrumental in shepherding revenue sharing through Congress, and resulted in a bipartisan coalition that supported the bill with 223 votes in favor (compared with 185 against).
During the eight years from 1965 to 1973 that Ford served as minority leader, he received many friends in the House because of his fair leadership and inoffensive personality.
== Vice presidency (1973–1974) ==
For the past decade, Ford had been unsuccessfully working to help Republicans across the country get a majority in the chamber so that he could become House Speaker. He promised his wife that he would try again in 1974 then retire in 1976. However, on October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned from the vice presidency. According to The New York Times, Nixon "sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement." The advice was unanimous. House Speaker Carl Albert recalled later, "We gave Nixon no choice but Ford." Ford agreed to the nomination, telling his wife that the vice presidency would be "a nice conclusion" to his career. Ford was nominated to take Agnew's position on October 12, the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the 25th Amendment had been implemented. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27. On December 6, the House confirmed Ford by a vote of 387 to 35. After the confirmation vote in the House, Ford took the oath of office as vice president.
Ford became vice president as the Watergate scandal was unfolding. On August 1, 1974, Chief of Staff Alexander Haig contacted Ford to tell him to prepare for the presidency. At the time, Ford and his wife, Betty, were living in suburban Virginia, waiting for their expected move into the newly designated vice president's residence in Washington, D.C. However, "Al Haig asked to come over and see me", Ford later said, "to tell me that there would be a new tape released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, 'I'm just warning you that you've got to be prepared, that things might change dramatically and you could become President.' And I said, 'Betty, I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house.'"
== Presidency (1974–1977) ==
=== Swearing-in ===
When Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford automatically assumed the presidency, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House. This made him the only person to become the nation's chief executive without being elected to the presidency or the vice presidency. Immediately afterward, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech that was broadcast live to the nation, noting the peculiarity of his position. He later declared that "our long national nightmare is over".
=== Nominating Rockefeller ===
On August 20, Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the vice presidency he had vacated. Rockefeller's top competitor had been George H. W. Bush. Rockefeller underwent extended hearings before Congress, which caused embarrassment when it was revealed he made large gifts to senior aides, such as Henry Kissinger. Although conservative Republicans were not pleased that Rockefeller was picked, most of them voted for his confirmation, and his nomination passed both the House and Senate. Some, including Barry Goldwater, voted against him.
=== Pardon of Nixon ===
On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed against the United States while president. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must."
Ford's decision to pardon Nixon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and said a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the two men, in which Ford's pardon was granted in exchange for Nixon's resignation, elevating Ford to the presidency. Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald terHorst resigned his post in protest after the pardon. According to Bob Woodward, Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig proposed a pardon deal to Ford. He later decided to pardon Nixon for other reasons, primarily the friendship he and Nixon shared. Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the 1976 presidential election, an observation with which Ford agreed. In an editorial at the time, The New York Times stated that the Nixon pardon was a "profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act" that in a stroke had destroyed the new president's "credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence". On October 17, 1974, Ford testified before Congress on the pardon. He was the first sitting president since Abraham Lincoln to testify before the House of Representatives.
In the months following the pardon, Ford often declined to mention President Nixon by name, referring to him in public as "my predecessor" or "the former president." When Ford was pressed on the matter on a 1974 trip to California, White House correspondent Fred Barnes recalled that he replied "I just can't bring myself to do it."
After Ford left the White House in January 1977, he privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon. In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Edward Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon, but later decided that history had proven Ford to have made the correct decision.
=== Draft dodgers and deserters ===
On September 16 (shortly after he pardoned Nixon), Ford issued Presidential Proclamation 4313, which introduced a conditional amnesty program for military deserters and Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. The conditions of the amnesty required that those reaffirm their allegiance to the United States and serve two years working in a public service job or a total of two years service for those who had served less than two years of honorable service in the military. The program for the Return of Vietnam Era Draft Evaders and Military Deserters established a Clemency Board to review the records and make recommendations for receiving a presidential pardon and a change in military discharge status. Full pardon for draft dodgers came in the Carter administration.
=== Administration ===
When Ford assumed office, he inherited Nixon's Cabinet. During his brief administration, he replaced all members except Secretary of State Kissinger and Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon. Political commentators have referred to Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 as the "Halloween Massacre". One of Ford's appointees, William Coleman—the Secretary of Transportation—was the second Black man to serve in a presidential cabinet (after Robert C. Weaver) and the first appointed in a Republican administration.
Ford selected George H. W. Bush as Chief of the US Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China in 1974, and then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in late 1975.
Ford's transition chairman and first Chief of Staff was former congressman and ambassador Donald Rumsfeld. In 1975, Rumsfeld was named by Ford as the youngest-ever Secretary of Defense. Ford chose a young Wyoming politician, Richard Cheney, to replace Rumsfeld as his new Chief of Staff; Cheney became the campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign.
=== Midterm elections ===
The 1974 Congressional midterm elections took place in the wake of the Watergate scandal and less than three months after Ford assumed office. The Democratic Party turned voter dissatisfaction into large gains in the House elections, taking 49 seats from the Republican Party, increasing their majority to 291 of the 435 seats. This was one more than the number needed (290) for a two-thirds majority, the number necessary to override a presidential veto or to propose a constitutional amendment. Perhaps due in part to this fact, the 94th Congress overrode the highest percentage of vetoes since Andrew Johnson was President of the United States (1865–1869). Even Ford's former, reliably Republican House seat was won by a Democrat, Richard Vander Veen, who defeated Robert VanderLaan. In the Senate elections, the Democratic majority became 61 in the 100-seat body.
=== Domestic policy ===
==== Inflation ====
The economy was a great concern during the Ford administration. One of the first acts the new president took to deal with the economy was to create, by Executive Order on September 30, 1974, the Economic Policy Board. In October 1974, in response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now". As part of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons. At the time, inflation was believed to be the primary threat to the economy, more so than growing unemployment; there was a belief that controlling inflation would help reduce unemployment. To rein in inflation, it was necessary to control the public's spending. To try to mesh service and sacrifice, "WIN" called for Americans to reduce their spending and consumption. On October 4, 1974, Ford gave a speech in front of a joint session of Congress; as a part of this speech he kicked off the "WIN" campaign. Over the next nine days, 101,240 Americans mailed in "WIN" pledges. In hindsight, this was viewed as simply a public relations gimmick which had no way of solving the underlying problems. The main point of that speech was to introduce to Congress a one-year, five-percent income tax increase on corporations and wealthy individuals. This plan would also take $4.4 billion out of the budget, bringing federal spending below $300 billion. At the time, inflation was over twelve percent.
==== Budget ====
The federal budget ran a deficit every year Ford was president. Despite his reservations about how the program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children" according to the official White House press release for the bill signing.
The economic focus began to change as the country sank into the worst recession since the Great Depression four decades earlier. The focus of the Ford administration turned to stopping the rise in unemployment, which reached nine percent in May 1975. In January 1975, Ford proposed a 1-year tax reduction of $16 billion to stimulate economic growth, along with spending cuts to avoid inflation. Ford was criticized for abruptly switching from advocating a tax increase to a tax reduction. In Congress, the proposed amount of the tax reduction increased to $22.8 billion in tax cuts and lacked spending cuts. In March 1975, Congress passed, and Ford signed into law, these income tax rebates as part of the Tax Reduction Act of 1975. This resulted in a federal deficit of around $53 billion for the 1975 fiscal year and $73.7 billion for 1976.
When New York City faced bankruptcy in 1975, Mayor Abraham Beame was unsuccessful in obtaining Ford's support for a federal bailout. The incident prompted the New York Daily News' famous headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead", referring to a speech in which "Ford declared flatly ... that he would veto any bill calling for 'a federal bail-out of New York City'".
==== Swine flu ====
Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. In the early 1970s, an influenza strain H1N1 shifted from a form of flu that affected primarily pigs and crossed over to humans. On February 5, 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix mysteriously died and four fellow soldiers were hospitalized; health officials announced that "swine flu" was the cause. Soon after, public health officials in the Ford administration urged that every person in the United States be vaccinated. Although the vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, some 25% of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was canceled in December 1976. Ford and his family were publicly vaccinated before cameras in October, shortly before he lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter.
==== Equal rights and abortion ====
Ford was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, issuing Presidential Proclamation no. 4383 in 1975:
In this Land of the Free, it is right, and by nature it ought to be, that all men and all women are equal before the law.
Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, to remind all Americans that it is fitting and just to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment adopted by the Congress of the United States of America, in order to secure legal equality for all women and men, do hereby designate and proclaim August 26, 1975, as Women's Equality Day.
As president, Ford's position on abortion was that he supported "a federal constitutional amendment that would permit each one of the 50 States to make the choice". This had also been his position as House Minority Leader in response to the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, which he opposed. Ford came under criticism when First Lady Betty Ford entered the debate over abortion during an August 1975 interview for 60 Minutes, in which she stated that Roe v. Wade was a "great, great decision". During his later life, Ford would identify as pro-choice.
=== Foreign policy ===
Ford continued the détente policy with both the Soviet Union and China, easing the tensions of the Cold War. Still in place from the Nixon administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's own visit in December 1975. The Administration entered into the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union in 1975, creating the framework of the Helsinki Watch, an independent non-governmental organization created to monitor compliance which later evolved into Human Rights Watch.
Ford attended the inaugural meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations (initially the G5) in 1975 and secured membership for Canada. Ford supported international solutions to issues. "We live in an interdependent world and, therefore, must work together to resolve common economic problems," he said in a 1974 speech.
In November 1975, Ford adopted the global human population control recommendations of National Security Study Memorandum 200 – a national security directive initially commissioned by Nixon – as United States policy in the subsequent NSDM 314. The plan explicitly states the goal was population control and not improving the lives of individuals despite instructing organizers to "emphasize development and improvements in the quality of life of the poor", later explaining the projects were "primarily for other reasons". Upon approving the plan, Ford stated "United States leadership is essential to combat population growth, to implement the World Population Plan of Action and to advance United States security and overseas interests". Population control policies were adopted to protect American economic and military interests, with the memorandum arguing that population growth in developing countries resulted with such nations gaining global political power, that more citizens posed a risk to accessing foreign natural resources while also making American businesses vulnerable to governments seeking to fund a growing population, and that younger generations born would be prone to anti-establishment behavior, increasing political instability.
==== Indonesia and East Timor ====
As South Vietnam collapsed, an anti-communist Indonesia was seen as essential by the United States. Good relations with the Indonesian government were considered more important than the decolonization process in East Timor. The Ford administration gave the Suharto regime in Indonesia economic and military support, even as it invaded East Timor and committed a genocide that killed close to a third of the population. One day prior to the invasion, Ford and Kissinger met with Suharto, and they assured him that relations with Indonesia would remain strong regardless of Indonesia's actions and that it would not object to the annexation of East Timor.
==== Middle East ====
In the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, two ongoing international disputes developed into crises. The Cyprus dispute turned into a crisis with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974, causing extreme strain within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. In mid-August, the Greek government withdrew Greece from the NATO military structure; in mid-September, the Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to halt military aid to Turkey. Ford, concerned with both the effect of this on Turkish-American relations and the deterioration of security on NATO's eastern front, vetoed the bill. A second bill was then passed by Congress, which Ford also vetoed, fearing that it might impede negotiations in Cyprus, although a compromise was accepted to continue aid until December 10, 1974, provided Turkey would not send American supplies to Cyprus. U.S. military aid to Turkey was suspended on February 5, 1975.
In the continuing Arab–Israeli conflict, although the initial cease fire had been implemented to end active conflict in the Yom Kippur War, Kissinger's continuing shuttle diplomacy was showing little progress. Ford considered it "stalling" and wrote, "Their [Israeli] tactics frustrated the Egyptians and made me mad as hell." During Kissinger's shuttle to Israel in early March 1975, a last minute reversal to consider further withdrawal, prompted a cable from Ford to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which included:
I wish to express my profound disappointment over Israel's attitude in the course of the negotiations ... Failure of the negotiation will have a far reaching impact on the region and on our relations. I have given instructions for a reassessment of United States policy in the region, including our relations with Israel, with the aim of ensuring that overall American interests ... are protected. You will be notified of our decision.
On March 24, Ford informed congressional leaders of both parties of the reassessment of the administration's policies in the Middle East. In practical terms, "reassessment" meant canceling or suspending further aid to Israel. For six months between March and September 1975, the United States refused to conclude any new arms agreements with Israel. Rabin notes it was "an innocent-sounding term that heralded one of the worst periods in American-Israeli relations". The announced reassessments upset the American Jewish community and Israel's well-wishers in Congress. On May 21, Ford "experienced a real shock" when seventy-six U.S. senators wrote him a letter urging him to be "responsive" to Israel's request for $2.59 billion (equivalent to $15.13 billion in 2024) in military and economic aid. Ford felt truly annoyed and thought the chance for peace was jeopardized. It was, since the September 1974 ban on arms sales to Turkey, the second major congressional intrusion upon the President's foreign policy prerogatives. The following summer months were described by Ford as an American-Israeli "war of nerves" or "test of wills". After much bargaining, the Sinai Interim Agreement (Sinai II) was formally signed on September 1, and aid resumed.
==== Vietnam ====
One of Ford's greatest challenges was dealing with the continuing Vietnam War. American offensive operations against North Vietnam had ended with the Paris Peace Accords, signed on January 27, 1973. The accords declared a cease-fire across both North and South Vietnam, and required the release of American prisoners of war. The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for national elections in the North and South. The Paris Peace Accords stipulated a sixty-day period for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces.
The agreements were negotiated by US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese Politburo member Lê Đức Thọ. South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu was not involved in the final negotiations, and publicly criticized the proposed agreement. However, anti-war pressures within the United States forced Nixon and Kissinger to pressure Thieu to sign the agreement and enable the withdrawal of American forces. In multiple letters to the South Vietnamese president, Nixon had promised that the United States would defend Thieu's government, should the North Vietnamese violate the accords.
In December 1974, months after Ford took office, North Vietnamese forces invaded the province of Phuoc Long. General Trần Văn Trà sought to gauge any South Vietnamese or American response to the invasion, as well as to solve logistical issues, before proceeding with the invasion.
As North Vietnamese forces advanced, Ford requested Congress approve a $722 million aid package for South Vietnam (equivalent to $4.22 billion in 2024), funds that had been promised by the Nixon administration. Congress voted against the proposal by a wide margin. Senator Jacob K. Javits offered "...large sums for evacuation, but not one nickel for military aid". President Thieu resigned on April 21, 1975, publicly blaming the lack of support from the United States for the fall of his country. Two days later, on April 23, Ford gave a speech at Tulane University. In that speech, he announced that the Vietnam War was over "...as far as America is concerned". The announcement was met with thunderous applause.
1,373 U.S. citizens and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated from the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon during Operation Frequent Wind. Many of the Vietnamese evacuees were allowed to enter the United States under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. The 1975 Act appropriated $455 million (equivalent to $2.66 billion in 2024) toward the costs of assisting the settlement of Indochinese refugees. In all, 130,000 Vietnamese refugees came to the United States in 1975. Thousands more escaped in the years that followed.
==== Mayaguez incident ====
North Vietnam's victory over the South led to a considerable shift in the political winds in Asia, and Ford administration officials worried about a consequent loss of U.S. influence there. The administration proved it was willing to respond forcefully to challenges to its interests in the region when Khmer Rouge forces seized an American ship in international waters. The main crisis was the Mayaguez incident. In May 1975, shortly after the fall of Saigon and the Khmer Rouge conquest of Cambodia, Cambodians seized the American merchant ship Mayaguez in international waters. Ford dispatched Marines to rescue the crew, but the Marines landed on the wrong island and met unexpectedly stiff resistance just as, unknown to the U.S., the Mayaguez sailors were being released. In the operation, two military transport helicopters carrying the Marines for the assault operation were shot down, and 41 U.S. servicemen were killed and 50 wounded, while approximately 60 Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed. Despite the American losses, the operation was seen as a success in the United States, and Ford enjoyed an 11-point boost in his approval ratings in the aftermath. The Americans killed during the operation became the last to have their names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.
Some historians have argued that the Ford administration felt the need to respond forcefully to the incident because it was construed as a Soviet plot. But work by Andrew Gawthorpe, published in 2009, based on an analysis of the administration's internal discussions, shows that Ford's national security team understood that the seizure of the vessel was a local, and perhaps even accidental, provocation by an immature Khmer government. Nevertheless, they felt the need to respond forcefully to discourage further provocations by other Communist countries in Asia.
=== Assassination attempts ===
Ford was the target of two assassination attempts during his presidency. In Sacramento, California, on September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a Colt .45-caliber handgun at Ford and pulled the trigger at point-blank range. As she did, Larry Buendorf, a Secret Service agent, grabbed the gun, and Fromme was taken into custody. She was later convicted of attempted assassination of the President and was sentenced to life in prison; she was paroled on August 14, 2009, after serving 34 years.
In reaction to this attempt, the Secret Service began keeping Ford at a more secure distance from anonymous crowds, a strategy that may have saved his life seventeen days later. As he left the St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore, standing in a crowd of onlookers across the street, fired a .38-caliber revolver at him. The shot missed Ford by a few feet. Before she fired a second round, retired Marine Oliver Sipple grabbed at the gun and deflected her shot; the bullet struck a wall about six inches above and to the right of Ford's head, then ricocheted and hit a taxi driver, who was slightly wounded. Moore was later sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled on December 31, 2007, after serving 32 years.
=== Judicial appointments ===
==== Supreme Court ====
In 1975, Ford appointed John Paul Stevens as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to replace retiring Justice William O. Douglas. Stevens had been a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, appointed by President Nixon. During his tenure as House Republican leader, Ford had led efforts to have Douglas impeached. After being confirmed, Stevens eventually disappointed some conservatives by siding with the Court's liberal wing regarding the outcome of many key issues. Nevertheless, in 2005 Ford praised Stevens. "He has served his nation well," Ford said of Stevens, "with dignity, intellect and without partisan political concerns."
==== Other judicial appointments ====
Ford appointed 11 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 50 judges to the United States district courts.
=== 1976 presidential campaign ===
Ford reluctantly agreed to run for office in 1976, but first he had to counter a challenge for the Republican party nomination. Former Governor of California Ronald Reagan and the party's conservative wing faulted Ford for failing to do more in South Vietnam, for signing the Helsinki Accords, and for negotiating to cede the Panama Canal. (Negotiations for the canal continued under President Carter, who eventually signed the Torrijos–Carter Treaties.) Reagan launched his campaign in autumn of 1975 and won numerous primaries, including North Carolina, Texas, Indiana, and California, but failed to get a majority of delegates; Reagan withdrew from the race at the Republican Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The conservative insurgency did lead to Ford dropping the more liberal Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in favor of U.S. senator Bob Dole of Kansas.
In addition to the pardon dispute and lingering anti-Republican sentiment, Ford had to counter a plethora of negative media imagery. Chevy Chase often did pratfalls on Saturday Night Live, imitating Ford, who had been seen stumbling on two occasions during his term. As Chase commented, "He even mentioned in his own autobiography it had an effect over a period of time that affected the election to some degree."
Ford's 1976 election campaign benefitted from his being an incumbent president during several anniversary events held during the period leading up to the United States Bicentennial. The Washington, D.C. fireworks display on the Fourth of July was presided over by the President and televised nationally. On July 7, 1976, the President and First Lady served as hosts at a White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, which was televised on the Public Broadcasting Service network. The 200th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts gave Ford the opportunity to deliver a speech to 110,000 in Concord acknowledging the need for a strong national defense tempered with a plea for "reconciliation, not recrimination" and "reconstruction, not rancor" between the United States and those who would pose "threats to peace". Speaking in New Hampshire on the previous day, Ford condemned the growing trend toward big government bureaucracy and argued for a return to "basic American virtues".
Televised presidential debates were reintroduced for the first time since the 1960 election. As such, Ford became the first incumbent president to participate in one. Carter later attributed his victory in the election to the debates, saying they "gave the viewers reason to think that Jimmy Carter had something to offer". The turning point came in the second debate when Ford blundered by stating, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford Administration." Ford also said that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union". In an interview years later, Ford said he had intended to imply that the Soviets would never crush the spirits of eastern Europeans seeking independence. However, the phrasing was so awkward that questioner Max Frankel was visibly incredulous at the response.
In the end, Carter won the election, receiving 50.1% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes compared with 48.0% and 240 electoral votes for Ford.
== Post-presidency (1977–2006) ==
The Nixon pardon controversy eventually subsided. Ford's successor, Jimmy Carter, opened his 1977 inaugural address by praising the outgoing president, saying, "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."
After leaving the White House, the Fords moved to Denver, Colorado. Ford successfully invested in oil with Marvin Davis, which later provided an income for Ford's children.
He continued to make appearances at events of historical and ceremonial significance to the nation, such as presidential inaugurals and memorial services. In January 1977, he became the president of Eisenhower Fellowships in Philadelphia, then served as the chairman of its board of trustees from 1980 to 1986. Later in 1977, he reluctantly agreed to be interviewed by James M. Naughton, a New York Times journalist who was given the assignment to write the former president's advance obituary, an article that would be updated prior to its eventual publication. In 1979, Ford published his autobiography, A Time to Heal (Harper/Reader's Digest, 454 pages). A review in Foreign Affairs described it as, "Serene, unruffled, unpretentious, like the author. This is the shortest and most honest of recent presidential memoirs, but there are no surprises, no deep probings of motives or events. No more here than meets the eye."
During the term of office of his successor, Jimmy Carter, Ford received monthly briefs by President Carter's senior staff on international and domestic issues, and was always invited to lunch at the White House whenever he was in Washington, D.C. Their close friendship developed after Carter had left office, with the catalyst being their trip together to the funeral of Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. Until Ford's death, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visited the Fords' home frequently. Ford and Carter served as honorary co-chairs of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2001 and of the Continuity of Government Commission in 2002.
Like Presidents Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, Ford was an honorary co-chair of the Council for Excellence in Government, a group dedicated to excellence in government performance, which provides leadership training to top federal employees. He also devoted much time to his love of golf, often playing both privately and in public events with comedian Bob Hope, a longtime friend. In 1977, he shot a hole in one during a Pro-am held in conjunction with the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at Colonial Country Club in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1977, Ford established the Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Policy at Albion College in Albion, Michigan, to give undergraduates training in public policy. In April 1981, he opened the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the north campus of his alma mater, the University of Michigan, followed in September by the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids.
Ford considered a run for the Republican nomination in 1980, forgoing numerous opportunities to serve on corporate boards to keep his options open for a rematch with Carter. Ford attacked Carter's conduct of the SALT II negotiations and foreign policy in the Middle East and Africa. Many have argued that Ford also wanted to exorcise his image as an "Accidental President" and to win a term in his own right. Ford also believed the more conservative Ronald Reagan would be unable to defeat Carter and would hand the incumbent a second term. Ford was encouraged by his former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, as well as Jim Rhodes of Ohio and Bill Clements of Texas to make the race. On March 15, 1980, Ford announced that he would forgo a run for the Republican nomination, vowing to support the eventual nominee.
After securing the Republican nomination in 1980, Ronald Reagan considered his former rival Ford as a potential vice-presidential running mate, but negotiations between the Reagan and Ford camps at the Republican National Convention were unsuccessful. Ford conditioned his acceptance on Reagan's agreement to an unprecedented "co-presidency", giving Ford the power to control key executive branch appointments (such as Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary). After rejecting these terms, Reagan offered the vice-presidential nomination instead to George H. W. Bush. Ford did appear in a campaign commercial for the Reagan-Bush ticket, in which he declared that the country would be "better served by a Reagan presidency rather than a continuation of the weak and politically expedient policies of Jimmy Carter". On October 8, 1980, Ford said former President Nixon's involvement in the general election potentially could negatively impact the Reagan campaign: "I think it would have been much more helpful if Mr. Nixon had stayed in the background during this campaign. It would have been much more beneficial to Ronald Reagan."
On October 3, 1980, Ford cast blame on Carter for the latter's charges of ineffectiveness on the part of the Federal Reserve Board due to his appointing of most of its members: "President Carter, when the going gets tough, will do anything to save his own political skin. This latest action by the president is cowardly."
Following the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, Ford told reporters while appearing at a fundraiser for Thomas Kean that criminals who use firearms should get the death penalty in the event someone is injured with the weapon.
In September 1981, Ford advised Reagan against succumbing to Wall Street demands and follow his own agenda for the economic policies of the US during an appearance on Good Morning America: "He shouldn't let the gurus of Wall Street decide what the economic future of this country is going to be. They are wrong in my opinion." During a news conference on October 20, 1981, Ford stated that stopping the Reagan administration's Saudi arms package could have a large negative impact to American relations in the Middle East.
On March 24, 1982, Ford offered an endorsement of President Reagan's economic policies while also stating the possibility of Reagan being met with a stalemate by Congress if not willing to compromise while in Washington.
Ford founded the annual AEI World Forum in 1982, and joined the American Enterprise Institute as a distinguished fellow. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University on March 23, 1988.
During an August 1982 fundraising reception, Ford stated his opposition to a constitutional amendment requiring the US to have a balanced budget, citing a need to elect "members of the House and Senate who will immediately when Congress convenes act more responsibly in fiscal matters." Ford was a participant in the 1982 midterm elections, traveling to Tennessee in October of that year to help Republican candidates.
In January 1984, a letter signed by Ford and Carter and urging world leaders to extend their failed effort to end world hunger was released and sent to Secretary-General of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.
In 1987, Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of District of Columbia Circuit Court judge and former Solicitor General Robert Bork after Bork was nominated by President Reagan to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Bork's nomination was rejected by a vote of 58–42.
In 1987, Ford's Humor and the Presidency, a book of humorous political anecdotes, was published.
By 1988, Ford was a member of several corporate boards including Commercial Credit, Nova Pharmaceutical, The Pullman Company, Tesoro Petroleum, and Tiger International, Inc. Ford also became an honorary director of Citigroup, a position he held until his death.
In October 1990, Ford appeared in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with Bob Hope to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the birth of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, where the two unveiled a plaque with the signatures of each living former president.
In April 1991, Ford joined former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter, in supporting the Brady Bill. Three years later, he wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives, along with Carter and Reagan, in support of the assault weapons ban.
At the 1992 Republican National Convention, Ford compared the election cycle to his 1976 loss to Carter and urged attention be paid to electing a Republican Congress: "If it's change you want on Nov. 3, my friends, the place to start is not at the White House but in the United States' Capitol. Congress, as every school child knows, has the power of the purse. For nearly 40 years, Democratic majorities have held to the time-tested New Deal formula, tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect." (The Republicans would later win both Houses of Congress at the 1994 mid-term elections.)
In April 1997, Ford joined President Bill Clinton, former president Bush, and Nancy Reagan in signing the "Summit Declaration of Commitment" in advocating for participation by private citizens in solving domestic issues within the United States.
On January 20, 1998, during an interview at his Palm Springs home, Ford said the Republican Party's nominee in the 2000 presidential election would lose if the party turned ultra-conservative in their ideals: "If we get way over on the hard right of the political spectrum, we will not elect a Republican President. I worry about the party going down this ultra-conservative line. We ought to learn from the Democrats: when they were running ultra-liberal candidates, they didn't win."
In the prelude to the impeachment of President Clinton, Ford conferred with former president Carter and the two agreed to not speak publicly on the controversy, a pact broken by Carter when answering a question from a student at Emory University.
In October 2001, Ford broke with conservative members of the Republican Party by stating that gay and lesbian couples "ought to be treated equally. Period." He became the highest-ranking Republican to embrace full equality for gays and lesbians, stating his belief that there should be a federal amendment outlawing anti-gay job discrimination and expressing his hope that the Republican Party would reach out to gay and lesbian voters. He also was a member of the Republican Unity Coalition, which The New York Times described as "a group of prominent Republicans, including former President Gerald R. Ford, dedicated to making sexual orientation a non-issue in the Republican Party".
On November 22, 2004, New York Republican governor George Pataki named Ford and the other living former presidents (Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.
In a pre-recorded embargoed interview with Bob Woodward of The Washington Post in July 2004, Ford stated that he disagreed "very strongly" with the Bush administration's choice of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as justification for its decision to invade Iraq, calling it a "big mistake" unrelated to the national security of the United States and indicating that he would not have gone to war had he been president. The details of the interview were not released until after Ford's death, as he requested.
=== Health issues ===
On April 4, 1990, Ford was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center for surgery to replace his left knee, orthopedic surgeon Robert Murphy saying, "Ford's entire left knee was replaced with an artificial joint, including portions of the adjacent femur, or thigh bone, and tibia, or leg bone."
Ford suffered two minor strokes at the 2000 Republican National Convention, but made a quick recovery after being admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital. In January 2006, he spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center near his residence at Rancho Mirage, California, for treatment of pneumonia. On April 23, 2006, President George W. Bush visited Ford at his home in Rancho Mirage for a little over an hour. This was Ford's last public appearance and produced the last known public photos, video footage, and voice recording.
While vacationing in Vail, Colorado, Ford was hospitalized for two days in July 2006 for shortness of breath. On August 15 he was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for testing and evaluation. On August 21, it was reported that he had been fitted with a pacemaker. On August 25, he underwent an angioplasty procedure at the Mayo Clinic. On August 28, Ford was released from the hospital and returned with his wife Betty to their California home. On October 13, he was scheduled to attend the dedication of a building of his namesake, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, but due to poor health and on the advice of his doctors he did not attend. The previous day, Ford had entered the Eisenhower Medical Center for undisclosed tests; he was released on October 16. By November 2006, he was confined to a bed in his study.
== Death and funeral ==
Ford died on December 26, 2006, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, of arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis. He had end-stage coronary artery disease and severe aortic stenosis and insufficiency, caused by calcific alteration of one of his heart valves. At the time of his death, Ford was the longest-lived U.S. president, having lived 93 years and 165 days (45 days longer than Ronald Reagan, whose record he surpassed). He died on the 34th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman's death; he was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission.
On December 30, 2006, Ford became the 11th U.S. president to lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. A state funeral and memorial services were held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, January 2, 2007. After the service, Ford was interred at his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Ford's family asked for Scouts to participate in his funeral. A few selected Scouts served as ushers inside the National Cathedral. About 400 Eagle Scouts were part of the funeral procession, where they formed an honor guard as the casket went by in front of the museum.
One of the songs selected by Ford during the procession was the University of Michigan fight song, as it was a favorite of his that he preferred to be played during his presidency. After his death in December 2006, the University of Michigan Marching Band played the school's fight song for him one final time, for his last ride from the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The State of Michigan commissioned and submitted a statue of Ford to the National Statuary Hall Collection, replacing Zachariah Chandler. It was unveiled on May 3, 2011, in the Capitol Rotunda.
== Personal life ==
=== Family ===
Speaking of his stepfather and his mother, Ford said, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."
Ford had three younger half-siblings from the second marriage of his biological father, Leslie King Sr., to Marjorie King (1921–1993); Leslie Henry King (1923–1976); and Patricia Jane King (1925–1980). They never saw one another as children, and he did not know them at all until 1960. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth. That year, his biological father, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son,” approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King Sr.'s death in 1941.
On October 15, 1948, Ford married Elizabeth Bloomer (1918–2011) at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids.
Bloomer, who was originally from Grand Rapids herself, had been living in New York City for several years, where she had been working as a John Robert Powers fashion model, and as a dancer in the auxiliary troupe of the Martha Graham Dance Company. At the time of their engagement, Ford was campaigning for what would be the first of his 13 terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. They delayed their wedding until shortly before the election because, as The New York Times reported in a 1974 profile of Betty Ford, "Jerry Ford was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced exdancer."
The couple had four children: Michael Gerald, born in 1950; John Gardner (known as Jack), born in 1952; Steven Meigs, born in 1956; and Susan Elizabeth, born in 1957.
=== Civic and fraternal organizations ===
Ford was a member of several civic and fraternal organizations, including the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees), American Legion, AMVETS, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Sons of the Revolution, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and was an alumnus of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Michigan.
==== Freemasonry ====
Ford was initiated into Freemasonry on September 30, 1949. He later said in 1975, "When I took my obligation as a master mason—incidentally, with my three younger brothers—I recalled the value my own father attached to that order. But I had no idea that I would ever be added to the company of the Father of our Country and 12 other members of the order who also served as Presidents of the United States." Ford was made a 33° Scottish Rite Mason on September 26, 1962. In April 1975, Ford was elected by a unanimous vote Honorary Grand Master of the International Supreme Council, Order of DeMolay, a position in which he served until January 1977. Ford received the degrees of York Rite Masonry (Chapter and Council degrees) in a special ceremony in the Oval Office on January 11, 1977, during his term as President of the United States.
Ford was also a member of the Shriners and the Royal Order of Jesters; both being affiliated bodies of Freemasonry.
== Public image ==
Ford is the only person to hold the presidential office without being elected as either president or vice president. The choice of Ford to fill the vacant vice-presidency was based on Ford's reputation for openness and honesty. "In all the years I sat in the House, I never knew Mr. Ford to make a dishonest statement nor a statement part-true and part-false. He never attempted to shade a statement, and I never heard him utter an unkind word", said Martha Griffiths.
According to the Gallup Organization, Ford took office with the fourth-highest approval rating for a president following their inauguration, but the trust the American public had in him was rapidly and severely tarnished by the pardon of Nixon and his ratings fell an unprecedented 21 points. By January 1975, his disapproval rating had surpassed his approval rating.
In spite of his athletic record and remarkable career accomplishments, Ford acquired a reputation as a clumsy, likable, and simple-minded everyman. Henry Kissinger described him as "as close to a normal human being as we'll ever get in that office". Other pieces of the everyman image were attributed to his inevitable comparison with Nixon, his Midwestern stodginess, and his self-deprecation.
An incident in 1975, when Ford tripped while exiting Air Force One in Austria, was famously and repeatedly parodied by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live, cementing Ford's image as a klutz. Additionally, an incident in April 1976, when Ford bit into a still shuck-wrapped tamale, a culinary faux pas, made national news and contributed to the image of Ford as a chronic bumbler. The incident has become a cautionary tale about the hazards of eating on the campaign trail.
Ford has notably been portrayed in two television productions which included a central focus on his wife: the Emmy-winning 1987 ABC biographical television movie The Betty Ford Story, and the 2022 Showtime television series The First Lady.
== Honors ==
=== Foreign honors ===
Estonia:
First Class of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana (January 7, 1997)
Ford received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in May 1970, as well as the Silver Buffalo Award, from the Boy Scouts of America.
In 1974, he also received the highest distinction of the Scout Association of Japan, the Golden Pheasant Award. In 1985, he received the 1985 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor. In 1992, the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation awarded Ford its Lone Sailor Award for his naval service and his subsequent government service. In 1999, Ford was honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. Also in 1999, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton. In 2001, he was presented with the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon to stop the agony America was experiencing over Watergate.
The following are named after Ford:
The Ford House Office Building in the U.S. Capitol Complex, formerly House Annex 2.
Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Nebraska)
Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Michigan)
Gerald Ford Memorial Highway, I-70 in Eagle County, Colorado
Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Policy, Albion College
USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)
Gerald R. Ford Middle School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
President Gerald R. Ford Park in Alexandria, Virginia, located in the neighborhood where Ford lived while serving as a Representative and Vice President
President Ford Field Service Council, Boy Scouts of America The council where he was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. Serves 25 counties in Western and Northern Michigan with its headquarters located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
== See also ==
List of Freemasons
List of members of the American Legion
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
=== Primary sources ===
== External links ==
=== Official sites ===
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
=== Media coverage ===
Gerald Ford collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Appearances on C-SPAN
"Life Portrait of Gerald R. Ford", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, November 22, 1999
=== Other ===
United States Congress. "Gerald Ford (id: F000260)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Gerald Ford: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress.
Essays on Gerald Ford, each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Works by or about Gerald Ford at the Internet Archive
Works by Gerald Ford at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Gerald Ford at IMDb
Works by Gerald Ford at Project Gutenberg |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daya_Ram_Thapar#Personal_life | Daya Ram Thapar | Daya Ram Thapar (6 April 1894 – 15 December 1965) was an Indian Army medical officer and Director-General of the Indian Armed Forces Medical Services.
== Early life and education ==
Thapar was born to a prominent Punjabi family in Lahore, where he received his early education, also studying at Government College Lahore. Entering the University of Edinburgh in 1911 for his medical studies, he graduated M.B.Ch.B. (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) in 1916. later obtaining a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene (DTM&H) from London and an M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) from Edinburgh with a thesis on ascariasis in 1930.
== Career ==
=== Early career ===
Whilst a student at Edinburgh, Thapar organised the Scottish Wing of the Indian Volunteers' Ambulance Corps following the outbreak of war in 1914. Holding the rank of volunteer sergeant-major, he recruited 120 Indian students into the corps, which provided dressers and interpreters to army medical units. He was commissioned in the Indian Medical Service (IMS) as a temporary lieutenant on 25 March 1918. He was promoted to temporary captain on 25 March 1919. He received a regular commission as a lieutenant in the IMS on 14 March 1920, and was promoted substantive captain on 25 March 1921 (with seniority in the IMS from that date).
Thapar was promoted to major on 25 September 1929, and was appointed a staff captain (medical) on 1 July 1936. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 25 September 1937. On 14 October 1937, Thapar was posted to Peshawar as second-in-command of a hospital, and was appointed as the officiating Officer Commanding on 3 May 1938. He was posted to Rawalpindi on 15 June 1939 as Officer in Command of No. 1 Battalion Indian Hospital Corps.
Assigned as Officer Commanding Indian Hospital Corps at Kirkee on 22 October 1942, Thapar was promoted to acting colonel on 5 November 1942 and to temporary colonel on 5 May 1943, while serving as Commandant, Indian Army Medical Corps (IAMC) HQ at Pune. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in the 1946 Birthday Honours list, having previously been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1942 New Year Honours. Thapar's final appointment prior to Indian independence was as deputy director of Medical Services, Medical Department. He was promoted to substantive colonel on 1 October 1946 (seniority from 25 September 1940).
=== Post-Independence ===
Following Independence in 1947, Thapar was promoted to major general on 3 September. On 1 January 1951, he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed Director-General, Armed Forces Medical Services, with an ex-officio appointment as a member of the Medical Council of India. He retired in 1954, serving as Colonel Commandant of the Army Medical Corps until April 1956. He died at New Delhi in December 1965.
== Personal life ==
Thapar was the son of Dewan Bahadur Kunj Behari Thapar OBE; the future Chief of Staff of the Indian Army General Pran Nath Thapar was his younger brother. He was the father of journalist Romesh Thapar and the noted author and historian Romila Thapar.
== Publications ==
Ascaris Infection among the Gurkhas (MD thesis), University of Edinburgh, 1930.
Icons in Bronze: An Introduction to Indian Metal Images. London: Asia Publishing House, 1961.
The Morale Builders: Forty Years with the Military Medical Services of India. London: Asia Publishing House, 1965. ISBN 978-021022603-2
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Maraga | David Maraga | David Kenani Maraga (born 12 January 1951) is a Kenyan lawyer and jurist. He was the 14th Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya from October 2016 until his retirement in January 2021.
== Early life and education ==
Maraga was born in Bonyamatuta, South Nyanza District in Nyanza Province (present-day Nyamira County), on 12 January 1951. He attended Sironga DEB Primary School from 1961 to 1967 for his Certificate of Primary Education (CPE), Maranda High School from 1968 to 1971 for his East African School Certificate (O Level), and Kisii High School from 1972 to 1973 for his East African Advanced Certificate of Education (A Level).
He studied law at the University of Nairobi, and was awarded a Bachelor of Laws in 1977. He also holds a post-graduate diploma awarded in 1978 by the Kenya School of Law. He was admitted to the Kenyan bar in October 1978.
He later obtained a Master of Laws from the University of Nairobi in 2011.
== Legal Career ==
Following his admission to the Kenyan bar in 1978, David Maraga ran a private law practice for over 25 years in Nakuru, specializing in civil and criminal litigation as well as conveyancing. He served from 1987 to 1989 as the chairperson of the Rift Valley Law Society.
=== Judicial Career in the High Court and Court of Appeal ===
==== High Court ====
Justice Maraga joined the bench as a High Court Judge in October 2003 having been appointed by President Mwai Kibaki. Subsequently, he served as a judge of the High Court in Mombasa (2003–2007), Nakuru (2008–2010), and Nairobi (2010–2011).
He also served in various leadership roles, including as the resident judge, High Court of Kenya in Nakuru from May 2009 to August 2010 and as the presiding judge of the Family Division of the High Court in Nairobi from April 2010 to December 2011.
==== Vetting ====
Since he was appointed to a judicial office before the 2010 Constitution of Kenya came into force, Justice Maraga went through the mandatory vetting by the Judges & Magistrates Vetting Board in 2012. The Vetting Board unanimously declared him fit to continue serving in office, though his vetting took a dramatic twist when he demanded a Bible and swore before the vetting panel that he had never taken a bribe in his judicial career and would never take bribes in the future.
==== Court of Appeal ====
He was elevated to the Court of Appeal in January 2012 following an interview process by the Judicial Service Commission.
A year after joining the Court of Appeal, he vied for the position of President of the Court of Appeal, losing by a solitary vote to Justice Paul Kihara Kariuki, who served as the President of the court before his appointment as the Attorney-General.
Justice Maraga served in the Court of Appeal in Nairobi from January 2012 to September 2014, and as the presiding judge of the Court of Appeal in Kisumu from October 2014 until his appointment as the Chief Justice two years later.
==== Judiciary Committee on Elections ====
Justice Maraga was appointed by retired Chief Justice Willy Mutunga in May 2012 as the vice chair of the Kenya Judiciary Working Committee on Election Preparations (JWCEP) which was constituted to ensure the judiciary was fully prepared to deal in a timely manner, with any disputes that would arise from the March 2013 General Election.
As a result of the committee's work, the judiciary was in position to deal with all election petitions within the strict statutory timelines. The committee was thus reconstituted in August 2015 as a standing Committee and renamed the Judiciary Committee on Elections (JCE) with Justice Maraga as chairperson.
==== Joseph Mutava judicial misconduct tribunal ====
In 2013, the President of Kenya named Justice Maraga as the chair of a tribunal which was constituted to investigate the conduct of High Court Judge Joseph Mutava after the Judicial Service Commission recommended a tribunal to investigate complaints that the Judge had been compromised to deliver a judgment which cushioned Goldenberg suspect Kamlesh Pattni from prosecution over his involvement in the Goldenberg scandal.
The tribunal's work was delayed when the Judge challenged its constitutionality in the High Court, but was finally able to complete its work in September 2016. The tribunal submitted a report in September 2016, recommending to the president that Justice Mutava be removed from office for improperly allocating himself the Kamlesh Pattni file when it did not fall under his docket, and proceeding to write a judgment in the case even though the Judicial Service Commission was investigating his conduct.
Justice Mutava challenged the findings of the tribunal before the Supreme Court but the highest court affirmed his removal in a March 2019 decision. Justice Maraga abstained from these proceedings at the Supreme Court having chaired the tribunal that recommended the dismissal of the Justice Mutava.
=== Appointment to the Office of Chief Justice of Kenya ===
Following the voluntary early retirement of Dr. Willy Mutunga in June 2016, Justice Maraga was among the ten people who applied to replace him. Judge Maraga emerged victorious from a list of eminent judges, legal practitioners and scholars, including law professor Makau Mutua, Supreme Court of Kenya Judges Jackton Ojwang and Smokin Wanjala, East Africa Court of Justice Judge Aaron Ringera and his Court of Appeal colleague Alnashir Visram.
==== Parliamentary vetting and confirmation hearing ====
Having been nominated for appointment by the Judicial Service Commission, his name was forwarded to the president, who transmitted it to the National Assembly for vetting before formal appointment. The National Assembly voted unanimously to approve his appointment as the Chief Justice on 18 October 2016.
==== Official appointment and oath of office ====
He was officially appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta on 19 October 2016, when he took the oath of office as the 14th chief justice of independent Kenya and the second chief justice in Kenya's new constitutional dispensation. Unlike his predecessor Willy Mutunga, who showed up for his oath wearing a normal suit, Maraga took his oath of office in full judicial regalia.
=== Tenure as Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court ===
==== Nullification of 2017 presidential election ====
Joined by Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and associate justices Isaac Lenaola and Dr Smokin Wanjala (with Justices Njoki Ndung'u and Prof. J. B. Ojwang' dissenting), Chief Justice David Maraga made history by nullifying the August 2017 presidential election because of illegalities and irregularities that were presented by the petitioners. President Kenyatta was in the lead with 54% of the vote, but opponent Raila Odinga reported the evidence of the hacking to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice ruling acquitted Kenyatta of any misconduct. The supporters of the president were disappointed with the ruling, while many Kenyans praised the ruling against President Uhuru Kenyatta, and restoring the independence of the judiciary. After issuing veiled threats against the Supreme Court Judges, President Kenyatta told media outlets that he does not agree with a ruling that disappointed millions of his supporters, but he would respect and tolerate the ruling.
While the Chief Justice and the rest of the Supreme Court Judges who nullified the 2017 presidential election were subjected to verbal attacks by the President, who called them crooks and his supporters, this decision earned Maraga tremendous respect from people who praised him for his bravery and was a key pillar of his legacy as the Chief Justice. He is particularly remembered for stating in the brief ruling nullifying the election that "The greatness of any nation lies in its fidelity to the Constitution and adherence to the rule of law and, above all, respect to God."
==== Advisory on the dissolution of Kenya's Parliament ====
On 21 September 2020, Maraga issued an advisory calling on the President to dissolve Kenya's Parliament owing to the failure by Parliament to enact legislation which would give effect to a provision in Kenya's Constitution that requires gender quotas in all public bodies. Under the 2010 Constitution, Kenya's Parliament had five years to enact legislation ensuring that no more than two-thirds of members of elective public bodies be of the same gender. The 2010 Constitution gives the Chief Justice the power to issue an advisory to the President to dissolve Parliament if a court has declared that Parliament has failed to enact any of the laws required to give full effect to the Constitution within the timelines provided in the Constitution. These laws, and the timelines within which they are to be enacted by Parliament, are listed in the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution.
The Two-thirds Gender Rule had been the subject of years of litigation by civil society organizations which resulted in numerous Court Orders requiring Parliament to pass the law but the House did not enact any such legislation despite several extensions of the original 5-year deadline. While the High Court issued orders freezing the advisory, this move worsened the relations between the Executive headed by President Kenyatta and the judiciary under Maraga's leadership.
==== Petitions seeking removal over misconduct ====
Chief Justice David Maraga was the subject of several petitions inviting the Judicial Service Commission to remove him from office over gross misconduct. One such petition was filed in March 2019 by Yusuf Dimbil through lawyer Charles Koech on grounds that the Chief Justice allegedly attended Jubilee Party's political rallies, employed people from his ethnic Kisii group in the judiciary and made unconstitutional utterances. Maraga had earlier been spotted attending a Jubilee Party rally headlined by President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto in Kisii. He was also accused of tribalism, employing only members of his Kisii tribe in his office. The petition claimed that nearly 85% of the staff in the Office of the Chief Justice under Maraga were from his Kisii ethnic group. These included his chief of staff, personal assistant, legal counsel, secretaries and other staff.
In August 2019, Francis Obilo filed a petition seeking the removal of the Chief Justice over his failure to name a three judge bench to hear a case that had been filed against the judiciary over the institution's failure to pay rent for a building which had been leased to house the Court of Appeal. In 2013, the judiciary entered into a six-year lease agreement of Elgon Place in Upper Hill for an annual rent of Sh603.6 million to be used by the Court of Appeal. However, the building went unoccupied because the judges declined to occupy office spaces citing potential radiation risks.
Another petition seeking Maraga's removal was filed in March 2020 by activist Okiya Omtata who alleged that the Chief Justice had interfered with the independence of a judge in discharging his judicial functions by removing an active case file from the judge while judgment was pending. The activist had filed a case in the Employment & Labour Relations Court to challenge a move by the government to re-advertise the vacancy for the auditor general. On the day the Court was to deliver judgment, the presiding judge informed the parties that he had not been able to prepare the judgment since the Chief Justice had called for the file from his docket for unexplained reasons.
Yet another petition was filed in June 2020 by an activist who alleged that the Chief Justice had breached the Code of Conduct when he made public utterances condemning President Kenyatta for refusing to appoint 41 individuals nominated by the Judicial Service Commission for judicial appointment.
==== Child-support case ====
On 30 June 2020, a 30-year-old woman caused a dramatic scene at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi, where she alleged that Chief Justice Maraga had neglected a child they had together in 2014 following an extra-marital affair. The woman also alleged that the Chief Justice had subsequently used his high office to frustrate her attempts to file a child support case in Kenyan Courts. Speaking through his lawyers, the Chief Justice denied any knowledge of the woman while dismissing her claims as the latest in a well choreographed state-sponsored plot to undermine his office and malign his name. Maraga's lawyers highlighted several gaps in the woman's claims, including inconsistencies in the Birth Certificate she produced to support the child's parentage. The Children's Court in Nairobi dismissed the case three weeks later when it emerged that the woman had not paid the mandatory court filing fees.
=== Retirement and legacy ===
Justice Maraga retired on 12 January 2021 when he turned 70 in accordance with Article 167(1) and 167(2) of the Constitution of Kenya which provides that an individual shall retire from the Office of the Chief Justice after serving for 10 years or on reaching the age of 70, whichever comes first. He handed the leadership of the judiciary to Lady Justice Philomena Mwilu, deputy chief justice and vice president of the Supreme Court, who would serve as the Acting Chief Justice and president of the Supreme Court until a substantive chief justice is appointed.
In his valedictory message during his retirement ceremony, Justice Maraga indicated that he was proud to be leaving behind "a strong Judiciary, a professional and enthusiastic corps of Judges and Judicial Officers as well as staff who [were] deeply committed to the administration of justice, and an increasingly enlightened public whose confidence in and demand for [the Judiciary's] services grows by the day."
Many Kenyans admire Justice Maraga's uncompromising fidelity to his faith. He also earned the praise of many Kenyans for his bravery and integrity, especially following the nullification of the 2017 presidential election results, his advisory calling on the President to dissolve Kenya's Parliament and his many public statements condemning the presidency over budgetary cuts and the failure to appoint the JSC's judicial nominees.
However, judiciary insiders have mixed views of his tenure. His reform record pales in comparison to his predecessor Willy Mutunga who achieved far reaching results with the Judiciary Transformation Framework. Maraga's legacy as an administrator was particularly tainted by the widespread perception that he preferred members of his Kisii ethnic group in appointments within the judiciary in general and his office in particular.
By the time he left office, the judiciary's relations with Parliament and the executive branch were at an all-time low. The judiciary suffered from constant budgetary cuts and the refusal of the President to appoint 41 judicial nominees despite several orders from the High Court. These challenges can be blamed in part on the August 2017 decision of the Supreme Court to nullify President Kenyatta's win, following which the President threatened to pursue unspecified retaliatory measures against the judiciary. As a show of this poor relationship, no senior officials from Parliament or the Executive attended his retirement and hand over ceremony. The leadership of the judiciary's close partners such as the attorney general, the police and the director of public prosecutions also snubbed the event.
Legal scholars are equally divided over his jurisprudential legacy. Kenyan judges of appeal (who sit in benches of 3) and the Supreme Court (who sit in benches of 5 or 7) do not publish information on which justice wrote a majority opinion. Unless an individual justice pens a dissenting opinion or a separate but concurring opinion, there is no way for outsiders to know which judge wrote a decision. Consequently, Maraga's judicial philosophy from his time in the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court is difficult to discern. Nonetheless, Justice Maraga is most remembered for his work as the chairperson of the Judiciary Committee on Elections and his electoral law jurisprudence which culminated in the nullification of the August 2017 presidential election results.
== Personal life ==
David Maraga is married to Yucabeth Nyaboke, with whom they have three children; Dr. Edith K. Maraga, Emma I. Maraga-Mangoa, and Moses K. Maraga. He is also a grandfather of two.
Maraga is a member Seventh-day Adventist.
== See also ==
Judiciary of Kenya
Supreme Court of Kenya
Philomena Mwilu
== References ==
== External links ==
Website of the Judiciary of Kenya
Website of the Supreme Court of Kenya |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gael_Garc%C3%ADa_Bernal#:~:text=When%20he%20was%20fourteen%2C%20Garc%C3%ADa,the%20Zapatista%20uprising%20of%201994. | Gael García Bernal | Gael García Bernal (Spanish: [ɡaˈel ɣaɾˈsi.a βeɾˈnal]; born 30 November 1978) is a Mexican actor and filmmaker. He is known for his performances in the films Amores perros (2000), Y tu mamá también (2001), Bad Education (2004), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Babel (2006), Coco (2017), Old (2021), Cassandro (2023) and Magellan (2025). On television, he portrayed music conductor Rodrigo De Souza in the series Mozart in the Jungle (2014–2018), and starred as the titular character in the Disney+ special Werewolf by Night (2022).
García Bernal was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of a young Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries in 2005, and in 2016 won his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Mozart in the Jungle. He and fellow actor Diego Luna founded the production company Canana Films in Mexico City. In 2016, Time magazine named him in the annual Time 100 most influential people list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him No. 25 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
== Early life ==
García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was young. He started acting at just one year old and spent most of his teen years starring in telenovelas. García Bernal and frequent collaborator Diego Luna were friends from childhood in Mexico City.
When he was fourteen, García Bernal taught indigenous people in Mexico to read, often working with the Huichol people. At the age of fifteen, he took part in peaceful demonstrations in support of the Zapatista uprising of 1994.
He began studying philosophy at UNAM, Mexico's national university but, during a prolonged student strike, he decided to take a sabbatical to travel around Europe. He then moved to London, and became the first Mexican accepted to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Bernal also attended the European Graduate School toward a master's in media and communication.
== Career ==
After García Bernal's success in soap operas, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu offered García Bernal a part in his feature directorial debut, Amores perros (2000). The film won rave reviews, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
His next role was Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también (2001), which was a crossover success into American markets and gained him notice on the international stage, becoming the second-highest grossing Spanish language film in the United States. The next year, García Bernal went on to portray Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara in the 2002 TV miniseries Fidel and the morally troubled Father Amaro in the Mexican box-office record-breaker El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002). García Bernal again portrayed Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), an adaptation of a journal the 23-year-old Guevara wrote about his travels across South America. The film broke the box office record set 3 years prior by Y tu mamá también, and garnered Bernal a BAFTA nomination in 2005 for Best Performance by an Actor.
He also did some theatre work, during this time, including a 2005 production of Bodas de Sangre, by Federico García Lorca, in the Almeida Theatre in London. García Bernal has worked for acclaimed directors including González Iñárritu, Pedro Almodóvar, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuarón, Michel Gondry, and Iciar Bollaín, among others. He has taken on roles in English-language films, including the Gondry-directed The Science of Sleep and The King, for which he earned rave reviews.
García Bernal directed his first feature film, Déficit which was released in 2007. He was cast in the 2008 film Blindness, an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by José Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize, about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. As in the novel, the characters have only descriptions, no names or histories; while director Fernando Meirelles said some actors were intimidated by the concept of playing such characters, "'With Gael,' he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'" García Bernal again paired with Diego Luna in Rudo y Cursi directed by Carlos Cuarón.
García Bernal and Diego Luna own Canana Films. The company recently joined with Golden Phoenix Productions to produce a number of television documentaries about the unsolved murders of more than 300 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. In May 2010, García Bernal did a cameo appearance as himself playing Cristiano Ronaldo in Ronaldo: The Movie for the Nike advertisement, Write the Future.
In 2010, he co-directed with Marc Siver four short films in collaboration with Amnesty International. The tetralogy, called "Los Invisibles", is about migrants from Central America in Mexico, their journey and risks, their hopes, and what they can contribute to Mexico, the US and the world. He directed the movies, did the interviews and also narrates the four short movies. He starred in Even the Rain (2010), Spain's official entry for the 2011 Academy Awards.
García Bernal narrated Human Planet for Hispanic audiences, which premiered on Discovery en Español on 25 April 2011 and aired on Discovery Channel in Latin America on 12 May. For the third time García Bernal appeared with Diego Luna in the American Spanish-language comedy film Casa de mi padre, opposite Will Ferrell, where he played a feared drug lord. García Bernal's next projects included a film adaptation of José Agustín's Ciudades Desiertas and the Jon Stewart directorial biopic Rosewater, in which he portrayed Maziar Bahari to widespread critical acclaim. He was set to star in the 20th Century Fox reboot Zorro film called Zorro Reborn. The script is by Glen Gers, Lee Shipman, and Brian McGeevy.
In April 2014, he was announced as a member of the main competition jury at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. In June 2014, he began production as the star of the dramatic comedy Zoom, directed by Pedro Morelli. In 2014, he was cast in the lead role of Rodrigo de Souza in the Amazon Studios comedy-drama television series Mozart in the Jungle. His performance in the show was met with rave reviews, earning him a Golden Globe Award in 2016.
In 2016, he starred in two movies that were submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Desierto (Mexico) and Neruda (Chile). In 2017, he was announced as a member of the U.S. Dramatic Jury at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. That same year, he provided the voice of Héctor, an undead trickster and one of the main protagonists of the Pixar animated film Coco.
García Bernal founded The Ambulante Documentary Film Festival, which works to bring documentary films to places where they are rarely shown, and helped to create the Amnesty International Short Documentary Series Los Invisibles. For this work, he was awarded the Washington Office on Latin America's Human Rights Award in 2011.
In October 2019, García Bernal and Diego Luna announced they were joining the Creative Advisory Board for TV and Film development company EXILE Content along with Adam Grant.
In 2021, García Bernal starred in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Old. In November 2021, Bernal was cast in the Disney+ special Werewolf by Night by Marvel Studios, based on the comics character of the same name.
In 2024, he starred alongside close friend and frequent collaborator Diego Luna in the Hulu original miniseries La Máquina as the eponymous character.
In 2025, García Bernal starred as Ferdinand Magellan in the epic historical drama film Magellan, which was directed by Lav Diaz; the film was an international co-production between the Philippines, Spain, Portugal, Taiwan, and France. The film premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and was announced as the Philippines' official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.
== Personal life ==
García Bernal and Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi met on the set of Private Lives in 2001. On 8 January 2009 their son was born in Madrid, Spain. Their daughter was born on 4 April 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He divides his time between Buenos Aires and Mexico City.
He has been in a relationship with Mexican journalist Fernanda Aragonés since 2019. They had a child on 30 September 2021.
He has described himself as "culturally Catholic but spiritually agnostic".
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
=== Television ===
== Awards ==
Ariel Award
BAFTA Awards
Cannes Film Festival
Golden Globe Awards
Goya Awards
Other honors
== Discography ==
=== Collaborations ===
=== Soundtracks ===
== Notes ==
== See also ==
Cinema of Mexico
== References ==
== External links ==
Gael Garcia Bernal on Twitter (in Spanish)
Gael García Bernal at IMDb
Gael García Bernal interview for Rudo & Cursi By Alastair Smart, Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2009
2014 Cannes Film Festival Screening |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severance_(TV_series)#Season_1_(2022) | Severance (TV series) | Severance is an American science fiction psychological thriller television series created by Dan Erickson, and executive produced and primarily directed by Ben Stiller. It stars Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, and Sarah Bock. The series follows employees at Lumon Industries, a biotechnology corporation, that have undergone "severance"—a procedure that splits a person's memories between work and their personal life. This creates two separate identities for employees: the "innie", who has no knowledge of the outside world, and the "outie", who lives their life outside without any knowledge of their job.
Erickson and Stiller first developed Severance in 2015, with the series being greenlit by Apple TV+ in 2019, with Scott attached. The cast for the first season was rounded out by December 2020, and the cast for the second season was announced in October 2022. Principal photography for the series has taken place in New York, New Jersey and Newfoundland. Its first season aired from February 18 until April 8, 2022, and its second season from January 17 to March 21, 2025. Severance has been renewed for a third season.
Severance has received critical acclaim for its cinematography, direction, production design, musical score, story, and performances. It has received numerous accolades, including 41 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Lower and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Tillman. Scott's performance earned him nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, two Television Critics Association Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, while Stiller and Erickson also received Emmy nominations for directing and writing.
== Cast and characters ==
=== Main ===
Adam Scott as Mark S. / Mark Scout, a former history professor and a severed worker for Lumon Industries in the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) department.
Zach Cherry as Dylan G. / Dylan George, Mark's severed co-worker in the MDR department, who particularly enjoys company perks.
Britt Lower as Helly R., a rebellious new severed employee in the MDR department at Lumon.
Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick, the Deputy Manager on the severed floor at Lumon.
Jen Tullock as Devon Scout-Hale, Mark's sister.
Dichen Lachman as Ms. Casey, who serves as the wellness counselor on the severed floor at Lumon.
Michael Chernus as Ricken Hale, an eccentric self-help author who is Devon's husband and Mark's brother-in-law.
John Turturro as Irving B. / Irving Bailiff, Mark's severed co-worker in the MDR department, who is a stickler for company policy and is drawn to Burt.
Christopher Walken as Burt G. / Burt Goodman, another severed employee and the head of the Optics and Design (O&D) division who is drawn to Irving.
Patricia Arquette as Harmony Cobel, the manager of the severed floor at Lumon, who outside of work uses the false identity of "Mrs. Selvig," and Mark's next-door neighbor.
Sarah Bock as Eustice Huang (season 2), the young new Deputy Manager of the Severed floor.
=== Recurring ===
Yul Vazquez as Peter "Petey" Kilmer (season 1; voice season 2), Mark's former severed co-worker and best friend in the MDR division, who left Lumon under mysterious circumstances.
Michael Cumpsty as Doug Graner (season 1), the head of security on Lumon's severed floor.
Nikki M. James as Alexa (season 1), Devon's midwife and one of Mark's love interests.
Sydney Cole Alexander as Natalie Kalen, Lumon's PR representative and speaker for the mysterious Board.
Nora Dale as Gabby Arteta (season 1), the wife of Senator Angelo Arteta, whom Devon encounters at a birthing retreat.
Mark Kenneth Smaltz as Judd, a security guard at Lumon.
Donald Webber Jr. as Patton, a friend of Ricken's.
Grace Rex as Rebeck, a friend of Ricken's.
Annie McNamara as Danise (season 1), a friend of Ricken's.
Claudia Robinson as Felicia, a severed O&D division employee who is close with Burt.
Karen Aldridge as Asal Reghabi, a former Lumon surgeon who performs reintegrations.
Michael Siberry as Jame Eagan, the current CEO of Lumon.
Darri Ólafsson as Mr. Drummond (season 2), an intimidating Lumon enforcer who is involved with severance operations.
Merritt Wever as Gretchen George (season 2), Dylan's wife.
Robby Benson as Dr. Mauer (season 2), a doctor on Lumon's testing floor.
Gwendoline Christie as Lorne (season 2), a severed employee running the Mammalians Nurturable division.
Sandra Bernhard as Cecily (season 2), a nurse on the testing floor.
=== Guest ===
Marc Geller as Kier Eagan, the late founder of Lumon, who is worshipped with cult-like devotion within the company; he is represented throughout the series in sculptures, paintings, and audio recordings.
Cassidy Layton as June Kilmer (season 1), Petey's daughter.
Joanne Kelly as Nina (season 1), Petey's ex-wife.
Ethan Flower as Angelo Arteta (season 1), a Lumon-backed state senator who supports legalizing the severance procedure and is married to Gabby Arteta, with whom he has three children.
Rajat Suresh as Balf (season 1), a friend of Ricken's.
Bob Balaban as Mark Wilkins (season 2), a new member of MDR, from Lumon branch 5X.
Alia Shawkat as Gwendolyn Y. (season 2), a new member of MDR, from Lumon branch 5X.
Stefano Carannante as Dario Rossi (season 2), a new member of MDR.
Sarah Sherman (season 2) as the voice of a stop-motion water tower in a Lumon industrial film.
Adrian Martinez as Mr. Saliba (season 2), a manager at a door factory who interviews Dylan for a position.
John Noble as Fields (season 2), Burt's husband.
James LeGros as Hampton (season 2), an acquaintance of Harmony Cobel from Salt's Neck.
Jane Alexander as Celestine "Sissy" Cobel (season 2), Harmony's reclusive aunt in Salt's Neck.
Ben Stiller has an uncredited voice cameo as an animated version of Kier Eagan in season 1. Keanu Reeves has an uncredited voice cameo as an animated Lumon building in a Lumon industrial film in season 2.
== Episodes ==
=== Season 1 (2022) ===
=== Season 2 (2025) ===
Episodes in season 2 were promoted as being released on Fridays globally from January 17, but were released in American time zones on the preceding Thursday evenings.
== Production ==
=== Development ===
Erickson conceived of Severance during a period of depression, working an office job at a door factory after he had completed his master's degree in television writing. He found the job so monotonous that he wished he could "skip the eight hours of the workday, to disassociate and just get it over with".
Erickson submitted his pilot script to Ben Stiller's production company Red Hour Productions in 2015, and it was passed to Stiller by the development executive Jackie Cohn and then head of creative Nicholas Weinstock. Stiller read it at least five years before Severance premiered, and said the project was "the longest thing I've ever worked on". He said he enjoyed the story's contributions to the genre of workplace comedy. Erickson has described his earlier versions of the pilot as "weirder" and containing many stray elements with no backstory such as a disembodied pair of legs running by Mark, a charred floor with burnt desks, and a woman trapped in a glass cubicle. Erickson credits Stiller with grounding the show, saying "he felt that the concept was weird enough that you didn't have to throw a bunch of other Terry Gilliam-esque bells and whistles at it." According to Erickson, "Ben fell in love with the part of the show that was this weird human sadness of a person who would willingly do this to himself."
In November 2019, Apple TV+ gave Severance a series order, with Stiller directing and Scott in the leading role. Stiller was only attached to direct the pilot, but decided to direct more episodes as the series entered development. On April 6, 2022, Apple renewed the series for a second season. In April 2023, it was reported that Beau Willimon had been hired as an executive producer and writer for the second and potential third seasons. On March 21, 2025, shortly after the premiere of the season 2 finale, Apple announced the renewal of the series for a third season. The Writers Guild of America West database lists new showrunners Eli Jorne and Mary Laws alongside Erickson for the third season, replacing Chris Black and Mark Friedman, who showran the first two seasons alongside Erickson.
=== Writing ===
Media that influenced Severance include the Backrooms creepypasta, the 2013 video game The Stanley Parable, films including Office Space, The Truman Show, Being John Malkovich, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the Black Mirror episode "White Christmas", and the comic strip Dilbert. Older influences include the existential hell in the 1944 Jean-Paul Sartre play No Exit and the totalitarian dystopia in the 1949 George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Aesthetically, the series was influenced by the films Brazil, Dark City, and Playtime. Erickson's siblings inspired some of the characters. In 2016, his screenplay for the pilot of Severance appeared on Blood List's survey results of the best unproduced genre screenplays.
Erickson said: "The same frustrations that led us to this moment as a country [United States] and as a world are the ones that I was feeling when I wrote this because I was working office jobs, and I was dealing with all these increasingly insane requests that are made of workers. This was born of that ... Employees are the ones who are expected to give and give and give, with the understanding that this is a family—you're doing this out of love, but then that is often not returned by the employers in any kind of a substantive way."
=== Casting ===
In January 2017, Stiller invited Adam Scott to star. Stiller and Scott had previously worked together in Stiller's 2013 movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Stiller intended to appear in the first season as a doctor character, but was later scrapped because Stiller didn't think it felt right and said he's happy to be off-camera.
In January 2020, Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower, Jen Tullock, and Zach Cherry were added to the cast. Tramell Tillman joined in February 2020, and John Turturro and Christopher Walken were added in November 2020. Dichen Lachman was cast in December 2020. Turturro said he recommended Walken for the role of Burt because he had known him for "a long time and I don't have to really act like we're friends".
On October 31, 2022, Gwendoline Christie, Bob Balaban, Merritt Wever, Alia Shawkat, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannante, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and John Noble were announced to have joined the cast for season two. Stiller offered former U.S. President Barack Obama a voice cameo role in the second season, but he declined; the role eventually went to Keanu Reeves.
=== Set design ===
Production designer Jeremy Hindle blended corporate looks from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s for the show's distinctive look, and cited modernist architect Eero Saarinen as influential for the building design. This included the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, Illinois, and the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in New Jersey (the latter which served as both the exterior shots and the ground floor interiors for Lumon Industries), both buildings designed as "work designed to do work" according to Hindle. The set designs of Playtime also served as inspiration for the internal sets. The main sets for Severance were created on soundstages in The Bronx. One soundstage was used for the hallways within Lumon, using around 140 feet (43 m) of hallway that they would rearrange as necessary, along with special effects, to create the maze-like structure. Another soundstage used larger hallways that were used in latter episodes of the first season. A second soundstage was used for main rooms like the Macrodata Refinement Division. This space was designed to create the feeling of being trapped, using a large room (80 by 40 feet (24 m × 12 m)) with a low ceiling. Hindle also felt this room was meant to be a playroom for the newest Lumon hires, and gave it green carpeting in contrast with the whites to make it feel like grass. Other spaces within Lumon were inspired by the works of M.C. Escher.
Erickson said the mix of cars and technologies from different eras was meant to "give a slight sense of disorientation" and make Lumon "feel unmoored from time and space". To this end, the production team sourced an anachronistic collection of 400 cars, largely commonplace boxy vehicles from the 1980s and 1990s, all in relatively good condition. Each car, even in the far background, was intentionally placed to curate the retro science fiction aesthetic. Characters' vehicles, chosen to show more of who they are, include Mark's Volvo S90, Cobel's Volkswagen Rabbit, Helena's Lincoln Continental, and Milchick's Royal Enfield motorcycle. All the office equipment carries Lumon branding. The prop designers reconstructed old computers with functional trackball devices so the actors could perform the work presented on the show in order to get adjusted to the office setting. The computers lacked an escape key, as a metaphor for the lack of control the innies have while in Lumon's offices. The computer terminals were modeled from the Data General Dasher terminals from the 1970s and the keycaps were recreated by Signature Plastics, who also made the original keycaps for the 1970s Dasher terminals. The keycap set was re-released in 2025 under the name "SA Macrodata Refinement".
=== Filming ===
The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the initial production start of March 2020. Principal photography for the first season started in New York City under the working title Tumwater on November 8, 2020. The opening scene of the show was shot on January 6, 2021. The series filmed for a few days in February in Nyack, New York for the homes of Mark and Cobel, and in Kingston and Beacon, New York in March. In April, filming moved to central New Jersey, mainly in the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex which stood in for Lumon HQ. Filming was scheduled to conclude on June 23, 2021.
The second season began filming on October 3, 2022, in New York City, and was set to wrap on May 12, 2023. However, on May 8, 2023, production of the season was shut down due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. Production had resumed by May 13, 2023, with filming occurring in Newfoundland. Filming was later shut down again due to both the actors strike and the writers strike, but resumed on January 29, 2024, and wrapped on April 23, 2024.
== Reception ==
=== Audience viewership ===
In 2025, Severance became the most watched series in the history of Apple TV+.
=== Critical response ===
Both seasons of Severance have received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the overall series holds an approval rating of 96%. Meanwhile, on Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the overall series has received a score of 85 out of 100.
==== Season 1 ====
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season of Severance has an approval rating of 97% based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Audacious, mysterious, and bringing fresh insight into the perils of corporate drudgery, Severance is the complete package." Metacritic assigned a score of 83 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
The series received a rating of five out of five from Lucy Mangan of The Guardian and Rachael Sigee of I, 4 out of 5 stars from Huw Fullerton of Radio Times, John Nugent of Empire, Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone and Anita Singh of The Telegraph, and 3.5 out of 4 stars from Patrick Ryan of USA Today. In her review, Mangan praised Stiller's direction, the writing, and the performances of the cast (particularly those of Arquette, Turturro, Walken, and Tillman). Sigee also praised the performances, especially Scott's, Arquette's, Turturro's and Walken's, and wrote, "Severance moves slowly but surely, allowing time to absorb both the impressive world-building and stunning visuals, [...] [and] its breathtaking cinematography and design. With an exceptional cast [...], this is an original, weird, thought-provoking and beautifully crafted story that asks just how much of ourselves we should give over to our jobs." Fullerton also praised Scott's performance and called the series "an impressive creation". Nugent praised the direction, performances of Scott, Arquette, Turturro and Walken, and chemistry between the latter two. Sepinwall also praised Stiller's direction and the cast's performances (most notably those of Scott, Turturro, Walken, Lower and Tillman), in addition to the production design, tone, and season finale.
Grading the series an "A", Carly Lane of Collider wrote, "the most engrossing element of Severance is the many mysteries it presents, wrapped up in silent overarching questions of philosophy, morality, and free will versus choice, and as the series demonstrates, some of those questions aren't so easily solved, but some issues aren't as black-and-white as initially presented either." Also grading it an "A", Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "Whether you invest in the allegory, character arcs, or both, 'Severance' hits its marks. [...] Erickson and his writing staff deserve a ton of credit. The season plays out cleanly and efficiently; episodes range from nearly 60 minutes to a crisp 40; cliffhangers abound, but they're earned. [...] This is serialized storytelling that knows how to make the most of its episodic format." Stephen Robinson of The A.V. Club gave it an "A-" grade and praised Stiller's direction and the cast, with the performances of Lower, Scott, Tillman, Turturro, Walken, Tullock and Cherry singled out. For Entertainment Weekly, Kristen Baldwin graded it a "B+" and highlighted the performances of Scott, Lower and Tillman, writing, "Scott is a superb fit for Severance's central everyman, [...] Lower brings an effective vulnerability to the acerbic Helly, and Tramell Tillman is an absolute force of charisma as Milchick."
Giving the series a score of nine out of ten, Samantha Nelson of IGN wrote, "Severance [...] uses a clever premise and excellent cast to set up an intriguing mystery that leaves plenty of room for the characters to evolve." Writing for Paste, Shane Ryan gave it an 8.1 out of 10 and praised the performances of Scott, Arquette and Tillman as well as Stiller and McArdle's direction. Kyle Mullin of Under the Radar gave it eight out of ten and said, "Severance's writer/creator Dan Erickson is another newcomer who pens scenes with veteran-level aplomb. Every scene is a Golden Age of TV gem in its own right. But Severance's dramatic heart resides at the workplace, where it also becomes a white-knuckle thriller. This is where director Ben Stiller especially shines, training his lens and setting the scenes [...]. He certainly brings the best out of his cast."
The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best television programs of the year.
The first season was also recognized with The ReFrame Stamp for hiring people of underrepresented gender identities, and of color.
==== Season 2 ====
The second season has an approval rating of 94% based on 223 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's consensus reads: "Masterfully managing its two halves of adroit character study and surreal nightmare, Severance's long-awaited sophomore season makes cognitive dissonance a mind-melting pleasure." Metacritic assigned a score of 86 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for Variety, Alison Herman awarded the second season with a perfect rating, noting: "Season 2 fulfills this sine qua non with deceptive ease. Real-time viewers have had their patience strained; future binge-watchers will barely notice a blip." John Nugent of Empire gave season two 4 stars out of 5, while stating: "After a storming Season One, Season Two expands and deepens the original mysteries while opening up new ones. Sharply made and skilfully executed, the employee benefits are there if you stay with it."
=== Critics' top ten list ===
=== Accolades ===
For its first season, the series received 7 major nominations for the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, with an additional 7 nominations for the 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Nominations included Outstanding Drama Series, Adam Scott for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, John Turturro and Christopher Walken for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Patricia Arquette for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Ben Stiller for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and Dan Erickson for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. It won two awards at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards: Outstanding Title Design and Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score).
For its second season, the series received 10 major nominations for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, with an additional 17 nominations for the 77th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, making it the most-nominated series at both ceremonies. It won for three acting awards: Britt Lower for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Tramell Tillman for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Merritt Wever for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series; it won five additional awards in technical categories. Notable nominations included Outstanding Drama Series, Adam Scott for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Zach Cherry and John Turturro for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Jessica Lee Gagné and Ben Stiller for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and Dan Erickson for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
== Marketing ==
The second season was teased during the Apple Event on September 7, 2022, which featured Helly (Britt Lower). The first footage from season 2 was released on June 10, 2024, as part of a promo for upcoming Apple TV+ programming.
On July 9, 2024, a post on the Apple TV+ account on social media platform X teased an announcement about season 2. In the video, a light blinks the word "tomorrow" in Morse code. The next day on July 10, Apple TV+ announced that season 2 would debut on January 17, 2025. The first trailer for season 2 was released on October 23, 2024.
On January 14, 2025, three days before the premiere of the second season, Apple TV+ recreated the show's 'Macrodata Refinement' office inside a glass box at Grand Central Terminal. Actors Scott, Cherry, Arquette, Lower, and Tillman entered the glass box and behaved as though they were working their respective jobs at Lumon Industries for about two and a half hours. The pop-up's uniqueness and the cast's dedication generated largely favorable responses from the public.
On March 21, 2025, IKEA India and Australia posted the same advertisement promoting office supplies replicating a similar set up to the Macrodata Refinement office. The tagline pokes fun at the "mysterious and important work" joke that is told by the office workers.
On March 26, 2025, some cast members appeared at Tower Bridge in London to celebrate the renewal of season 3. Cast members included Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, and Gwendoline Christie. At the event were balloons with Adam Scott's face. On the same day, Apple updated their computer section on their website to include the Lumon Terminal Pro. However, the item was not actually for sale but served as marketing to promote both the show and the Apple TV+ service.
== Release ==
The official release dates of second-season episodes were on Fridays, but Apple TV+ released episodes the prior Thursday at 9:00 pm ET.
=== Home media ===
The first season was released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD on December 2, 2024, in Australia on December 4, 2024, and in the United States on December 17, 2024.
== Other media ==
An epistolary novel related to the series, Severance: The Lexington Letter, was released by Apple Books purporting to be a "tell-all" exposé of sinister occurrences at Lumon Corporation, in the form of a dialogue between former Lumon employee Margeret "Peg" Kincaid and her innie (work self), sent as a letter to a Topeka newsletter.
A fictional self-help book from the series, The You You Are, was released by Apple Books as an e-book and an audiobook, the latter read by the actor Michael Chernus in his role as Ricken Hale.
The official Severance podcast premiered in January 2025, hosted by Ben Stiller and Adam Scott. Each episode of the podcast recaps an episode of the series, and features interviews with an actor, crew member, or fan of the show.
== See also ==
Cypher, a 2002 thriller with similar themes of memory erasure and separate identities in a mysterious workplace setting
Drug-induced amnesia § In popular culture
My Own Worst Enemy, a 2008 TV series about a secret agent and his cover, who has no knowledge of his own double life
Paycheck, a 1952 novelette by Philip Dick, that explores a theme of erasing memory of the time spent on a contract
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Severance – official site
Severance at IMDb
Severance – wiki site |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahujanratna_Loknayak#:~:text=Bahujanratna%20Loknayak%20(Marathi%3A%20%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A8%20%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%95,younger%20son%20Buddhabhushan%20Kundan%20Gote. | Bahujanratna Loknayak | Bahujanratna Loknayak is a Marathi daily broadsheet newspaper based in Thane, Maharashtra. It was founded by Kundan Gote on 23 October 2005 and is owned by his older son Shubham Kundan Gote, who is editor-in-chief. The paper has eight editions from locations in Maharashtra, Thane, Mumbai, Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune, Raigad, Jalna and Akola.
== See also ==
List of Marathi-language newspapers
== References ==
== External links ==
Loknayak website
Bahujanratna Loknayak's English website
Loknayak featured on Navayan |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fencing_at_the_1896_Summer_Olympics#Medal_summary | Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics | At the 1896 Summer Olympics, three fencing events were contested at the Zappeion. They were prepared and organized by the Sub-Committee for Fencing. The épée event for men was cancelled. All fencing was done to three touches. Events were held on 7 April and 9 April 1896. 15 athletes from four nations competed; 8 fencers from 3 nations won one medal each.
== Medal summary ==
These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a silver medal.
== Participating nations ==
A total of 15 fencers from four nations competed at the Athens Games:
Austria (1)
Denmark (1)
France (4)
Greece (9)
== Medal table ==
== Sub-Committee for Fencing ==
Ioannis Phokianos, president
Georgios Streit, secretary
Ioannis Yenissarlis
Loukas Belos
Nikolaos Politis
Chas. Waldstein
Dimitrios Aiginitis
Dimitrios Sekkeris
Spyridon Koumoundouros
Konstantinos Manos
Spyridon Antonopoulos
== See also ==
List of Olympic medalists in fencing (men)
List of Olympic medalists in fencing (women)
== References ==
== External links ==
Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at [1])
Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2])
Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peicho_Peev | Peicho Peev | Peicho Peev (Bulgarian: Пейчо Пеев; 2 April 1940 – 15 September 2007) was a Bulgarian chess International Master (1973). Bulgarian Chess Championship winner (1968) and Chess Olympiad team bronze medal winner (1968).
== Biography ==
In the 1960s and 1970s Peev was one of the leading Bulgarian chess players. He won the Bulgarian Chess Championship in 1968, and won the silver medal in this tournament in the 1971. Peev was winner of many international chess tournament awards. In 1973, he was awarded the FIDE International Master (IM) title.
Peev played for Bulgaria in the Chess Olympiads:
In 1968, at second reserve board in the 18th Chess Olympiad in Lugano (+2, =2, -1) and won team bronze medal,
In 1972, at first reserve board in the 20th Chess Olympiad in Skopje (+6, =4, -2).
Peev played for Bulgaria in the European Team Chess Championship:
In 1970, at ninth board in the 4th European Team Chess Championship in Kapfenberg (+2, =2, -2),
In 1977, at seventh board in the 6th European Team Chess Championship in Moscow (+1, =2, -3).
Peev played for Bulgaria in the World Student Team Chess Championship:
In 1956, at first reserve board in the 3rd World Student Team Chess Championship in Uppsala (+3, =1, -1).
Peev played for Bulgaria in the Men's Chess Balkaniads:
In 1971, at sixth board in the 3rd Men's Chess Balkaniad in Athens (+2, =2, -0) and won team silver and individual gold medals,
In 1972, at fifth board in the 4th Men's Chess Balkaniad in Sofia (+3, =0, -1) and won team and individual silver medals,
In 1973, at sixth board in the 5th Men's Chess Balkaniad in Poiana Brașov (+3, =1, -0) and won team and individual gold medals.
For many years Peev worked as a chess coach for children and young people in the native Plovdiv chess club ШК Локомотив.
== References ==
== External links ==
Peicho Peev player profile and games at Chessgames.com
Peicho Peev chess games at 365chess.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope | Hubble Space Telescope | The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble Space Telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft.
Hubble features a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror, and its five main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. It has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images, allowing a deep view into space. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope was funded and built in the 1970s by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency. Its intended launch was in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the 1986 Challenger disaster. Hubble was launched on STS-31 in 1990, but its main mirror had been ground incorrectly, resulting in spherical aberration that compromised the telescope's capabilities. The optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission, STS-61, in 1993.
Hubble is the only telescope designed to be maintained in space by astronauts. Five Space Shuttle missions repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including all five of the main instruments. The fifth mission was initially canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster (2003), but after NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin approved it, the servicing mission was completed in 2009. Hubble completed 30 years of operation in April 2020 and is predicted to last until 2030 to 2040.
Hubble is the visible light telescope in NASA's Great Observatories program; other parts of the spectrum are covered by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope (which covers the infrared bands).
The mid-IR-to-visible band successor to the Hubble telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was launched on December 25, 2021, with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope due to follow in 2027.
== Concept, design and aim ==
=== Proposals and precursors ===
In 1923 Hermann Oberth, considered a father of modern rocketry along with Robert H. Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, published Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("The Rocket into Planetary Space"), which mentioned how a telescope could be propelled into Earth orbit by a rocket.
The history of the Hubble Space Telescope can be traced to 1946, to astronomer Lyman Spitzer's paper "Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory". In it, he discussed the two main advantages that a space-based observatory would have over ground-based telescopes. First, the angular resolution (the smallest separation at which objects can be clearly distinguished) would be limited only by diffraction, rather than by the turbulence in the atmosphere, which causes stars to twinkle, known to astronomers as seeing. At that time ground-based telescopes were limited to resolutions of 0.5–1.0 arcseconds, compared to a theoretical diffraction-limited resolution of about 0.05 arcsec for an optical telescope with a mirror 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) in diameter. Second, a space-based telescope could observe infrared and ultraviolet light, which are strongly absorbed by the atmosphere of Earth.
Spitzer devoted much of his career to pushing for the development of a space telescope. In 1962, a report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences recommended development of a space telescope as part of the space program, and in 1965, Spitzer was appointed as head of a committee given the task of defining scientific objectives for a large space telescope.
Also crucial was the work of Nancy Grace Roman, the "Mother of Hubble". Well before it became an official NASA project, she gave public lectures touting the scientific value of the telescope. After it was approved, she became the program scientist, setting up the steering committee in charge of making astronomer needs feasible to implement and writing testimony to Congress throughout the 1970s to advocate continued funding of the telescope. Her work as project scientist helped set the standards for NASA's operation of large scientific projects.
Space-based astronomy had begun on a very small scale following World War II, as scientists made use of developments that had taken place in rocket technology. The first ultraviolet spectrum of the Sun was obtained in 1946, and NASA launched the Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO) to obtain UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray spectra in 1962. An orbiting solar telescope was launched in 1962 by the United Kingdom as part of the Ariel programme, and in 1966 NASA launched the first Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) mission. OAO-1's battery failed after three days, terminating the mission. It was followed by Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2), which carried out ultraviolet observations of stars and galaxies from its launch in 1968 until 1972, well beyond its original planned lifetime of one year.
The OSO and OAO missions demonstrated the important role space-based observations could play in astronomy. In 1968, NASA developed firm plans for a space-based reflecting telescope with a mirror 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter, known provisionally as the Large Orbiting Telescope or Large Space Telescope (LST), with a launch slated for 1979. These plans emphasized the need for crewed maintenance missions to the telescope to ensure such a costly program had a lengthy working life, and the concurrent development of plans for the reusable Space Shuttle indicated that the technology to allow this was soon to become available.
=== Quest for funding ===
The continuing success of the OAO program encouraged increasingly strong consensus within the astronomical community that the LST should be a major goal. In 1970, NASA established two committees, one to plan the engineering side of the space telescope project, and the other to determine the scientific goals of the mission. Once these had been established, the next hurdle for NASA was to obtain funding for the instrument, which would be far more costly than any Earth-based telescope. The U.S. Congress questioned many aspects of the proposed budget for the telescope and forced cuts in the budget for the planning stages, which at the time consisted of very detailed studies of potential instruments and hardware for the telescope. In 1974, public spending cuts led to Congress deleting all funding for the telescope project.
In 1977, then NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher proposed a token $5 million for Hubble in NASA's budget. Then NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science, Noel Hinners, instead cut all funding for Hubble, gambling that this would galvanize the scientific community into fighting for full funding. As Hinners recalls:
It was clear that year that we weren't going to be able to get a full-up start. There was some opposition on [Capitol] Hill to getting a new start on [Hubble]. It was driven, in large part as I recall, by the budget situation. Jim Fletcher proposed that we put in five million as a placeholder. I didn't like that idea. It was, in today's vernacular, a "sop" to the astronomy community. "There's something in there, so all is well".
I figured in my own little head that to get that community energized we'd be better off zeroing it out. Then they would say, "Whoa, we're in deep trouble", and it would marshal the troops. So I advocated that we not put anything in. I don't remember any of the detailed discussions or whether there were any, but Jim went along with that so we zeroed it out. It had, from my perspective, the desired impact of stimulating the astronomy community to renew their efforts on the lobbying front. While I like to think in hindsight it was a brilliant political move, I'm not sure I thought it through all that well. It was something that was spur of the moment.
[...] five million would let them think that all is well anyway, but it's not. So let's give them a message. My own thinking, get them stimulated to get into action. Zeroing it out would certainly give that message. I think it was as simple as that. Didn't talk to anybody else about doing it first, just, "Let's go do that". Voila, it worked. Don't know whether I'd do that again.
The political ploy worked. In response to Hubble being zeroed out of NASA's budget, a nationwide lobbying effort was coordinated among astronomers. Many astronomers met congressmen and senators in person, and large-scale letter-writing campaigns were organized. The National Academy of Sciences published a report emphasizing the need for a space telescope, and eventually, the Senate agreed to half the budget that had originally been approved by Congress.
The funding issues led to a reduction in the scale of the project, with the proposed mirror diameter reduced from 3 m to 2.4 m, both to cut costs and to allow a more compact and effective configuration for the telescope hardware. A proposed precursor 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) space telescope to test the systems to be used on the main satellite was dropped, and budgetary concerns also prompted collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA agreed to provide funding and supply one of the first generation instruments for the telescope, as well as the solar cells that would power it, and staff to work on the telescope in the United States, in return for European astronomers being guaranteed at least 15% of the observing time on the telescope. Congress eventually approved funding of $36 million for 1978, and the design of the LST began in earnest, aiming for a launch date of 1983. In 1983, the telescope was named after Edwin Hubble, who confirmed one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century, made by Georges Lemaître, that the universe is expanding.
=== Construction and engineering ===
Once the Space Telescope project had been given the go-ahead, work on the program was divided among many institutions. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was given responsibility for the design, development, and construction of the telescope, while Goddard Space Flight Center was given overall control of the scientific instruments and ground-control center for the mission. MSFC commissioned the optics company Perkin-Elmer to design and build the optical telescope assembly (OTA) and Fine Guidance Sensors for the space telescope. Lockheed was commissioned to construct and integrate the spacecraft in which the telescope would be housed.
=== Optical telescope assembly ===
Optically, the HST is a Cassegrain reflector of Ritchey–Chrétien design, as are most large professional telescopes. This design, with two hyperbolic mirrors, is known for good imaging performance over a wide field of view, with the disadvantage that the mirrors have shapes that are hard to fabricate and test. The mirror and optical systems of the telescope determine the final performance, and they were designed to exacting specifications. Optical telescopes typically have mirrors polished to an accuracy of about a tenth of the wavelength of visible light, but the Space Telescope was to be used for observations from the visible through the ultraviolet (shorter wavelengths) and was specified to be diffraction limited to take full advantage of the space environment. Therefore, its mirror needed to be polished to an accuracy of 10 nanometers, or about 1/65 of the wavelength of red light. On the long wavelength end, the OTA was not designed with optimum infrared performance in mind, e.g. the mirrors are kept at stable (and warm, about 15°C) temperatures by heaters. This limits Hubble's performance as an infrared telescope.
Perkin-Elmer (PE) intended to use custom-built and extremely sophisticated computer-controlled polishing machines to grind the mirror to the required shape. However, in case their cutting-edge technology ran into difficulties, NASA demanded that PE sub-contract to Kodak to construct a back-up mirror using traditional mirror-polishing techniques. (The team of Kodak and Itek also bid on the original mirror polishing work. Their bid called for the two companies to double-check each other's work, which would have almost certainly caught the polishing error that later caused problems.) The Kodak mirror is now on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum. An Itek mirror built as part of the effort is now used in the 2.4 m telescope at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.
Construction of the Perkin-Elmer mirror began in 1979, starting with a blank manufactured by Corning from their ultra-low expansion glass. To keep the mirror's weight to a minimum it consisted of top and bottom plates, each 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, sandwiching a honeycomb lattice. Perkin-Elmer simulated microgravity by supporting the mirror from the back with 130 rods that exerted varying amounts of force. This ensured the mirror's final shape would be correct and to specification when deployed. Mirror polishing continued until May 1981. NASA reports at the time questioned Perkin-Elmer's managerial structure, and the polishing began to slip behind schedule and over budget. To save money, NASA halted work on the back-up mirror and moved the launch date of the telescope to October 1984. The mirror was completed by the end of 1981; it was washed using 9,100 L (2,000 imp gal; 2,400 US gal) of hot, deionized water and then received a reflective coating of 65‑nm‑thick aluminum and a protective coating of 25‑nm‑thick magnesium fluoride.
Doubts continued to be expressed about Perkin-Elmer's competence on a project of this importance, as their budget and timescale for producing the rest of the OTA continued to inflate. In response to a schedule described as "unsettled and changing daily", NASA postponed the launch date of the telescope until April 1985. Perkin-Elmer's schedules continued to slip at a rate of about one month per quarter, and at times delays reached one day for each day of work. NASA was forced to postpone the launch date until March and then September 1986. By this time, the total project budget had risen to $1.175 billion.
=== Spacecraft systems ===
The spacecraft in which the telescope and instruments were to be housed was another major engineering challenge. It would have to withstand frequent passages from direct sunlight into the darkness of Earth's shadow, which would cause major changes in temperature, while being stable enough to allow extremely accurate pointing of the telescope. A shroud of multi-layer insulation keeps the temperature within the telescope stable and surrounds a light aluminum shell in which the telescope and instruments sit. Within the shell, a graphite-epoxy frame keeps the working parts of the telescope firmly aligned. Because graphite composites are hygroscopic, there was a risk that water vapor absorbed by the truss while in Lockheed's clean room would later be expressed in the vacuum of space; resulting in the telescope's instruments being covered by ice. To reduce that risk, a nitrogen gas purge was performed before launching the telescope into space.
As well as electrical power systems, the Pointing Control System controls HST orientation using five types of sensors (magnetic sensors, optical sensors, and six gyroscopes) and two types of actuators (reaction wheels and magnetic torquers).
While construction of the spacecraft in which the telescope and instruments would be housed proceeded somewhat more smoothly than the construction of the OTA, Lockheed experienced some budget and schedule slippage, and by the summer 1985, construction of the spacecraft was 30% over budget and three months behind schedule. An MSFC report said Lockheed tended to rely on NASA directions rather than take their own initiative in the construction.
=== Computer systems and data processing ===
The two initial, primary computers on the HST were the 1.25 MHz DF-224 system, built by Rockwell Autonetics, which contained three redundant CPUs, and two redundant NSSC-1 (NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer, Model 1) systems, developed by Westinghouse and GSFC using diode–transistor logic (DTL). A co-processor for the DF-224 was added during Servicing Mission 1 in 1993, which consisted of two redundant strings of an Intel-based 80386 processor with an 80387 math co-processor. The DF-224 and its 386 co-processor were replaced by a 25 MHz Intel-based 80486 processor system during Servicing Mission 3A in 1999. The new computer is 20 times faster, with six times more memory, than the DF-224 it replaced. It increases throughput by moving some computing tasks from the ground to the spacecraft and saves money by allowing the use of modern programming languages.
Additionally, some of the science instruments and components had their own embedded microprocessor-based control systems. The MATs (Multiple Access Transponder) components, MAT-1 and MAT-2, use Hughes Aircraft CDP1802CD microprocessors. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC) also used an RCA 1802 microprocessor (or possibly the older 1801 version). The WFPC-1 was replaced by the WFPC-2 during Servicing Mission 1 in 1993, which was then replaced by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) during Servicing Mission 4 in 2009. The upgrade extended Hubble's capability of seeing deeper into the universe and providing images in three broad regions of the spectrum.
=== Initial instruments ===
When launched, the HST carried five scientific instruments: the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC), Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), High Speed Photometer (HSP), Faint Object Camera (FOC) and the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS). WF/PC used a radial instrument bay, and the other four instruments were each installed in an axial instrument bay.
WF/PC was a high-resolution imaging device primarily intended for optical observations. It was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and incorporated a set of 48 filters isolating spectral lines of particular astrophysical interest. The instrument contained eight charge-coupled device (CCD) chips divided between two cameras, each using four CCDs. Each CCD has a resolution of 0.64 megapixels. The wide field camera (WFC) covered a large angular field at the expense of resolution, while the planetary camera (PC) took images at a longer effective focal length than the WF chips, giving it a greater magnification.
The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) was a spectrograph designed to operate in the ultraviolet. It was built by the Goddard Space Flight Center and could achieve a spectral resolution of 90,000. Also optimized for ultraviolet observations were the FOC and FOS, which were capable of the highest spatial resolution of any instruments on Hubble. Rather than CCDs, these three instruments used photon-counting digicons as their detectors. The FOC was constructed by ESA, while the University of California, San Diego, and Martin Marietta Corporation built the FOS.
The final instrument was the HSP, designed and built at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It was optimized for visible and ultraviolet light observations of variable stars and other astronomical objects varying in brightness. It could take up to 100,000 measurements per second with a photometric accuracy of about 2% or better.
HST's guidance system can also be used as a scientific instrument. Its three Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) are primarily used to keep the telescope accurately pointed during an observation, but can also be used to carry out extremely accurate astrometry; measurements accurate to within 0.0003 arcseconds have been achieved.
=== Ground support ===
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is responsible for the scientific operation of the telescope and the delivery of data products to astronomers. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and is physically located in Baltimore, Maryland on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University, one of the 39 U.S. universities and seven international affiliates that make up the AURA consortium. STScI was established in 1981 after something of a power struggle between NASA and the scientific community at large. NASA had wanted to keep this function in-house, but scientists wanted it to be based in an academic establishment. The Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF), established at Garching bei München near Munich in 1984, provided similar support for European astronomers until 2011, when these activities were moved to the European Space Astronomy Centre.
One complex task that falls to STScI is scheduling observations for the telescope. Hubble is in a low-Earth orbit to enable servicing missions, which results in most astronomical targets being occulted by the Earth for slightly less than half of each orbit. Observations cannot take place when the telescope passes through the South Atlantic Anomaly due to elevated radiation levels, and there are also sizable exclusion zones around the Sun (precluding observations of Mercury), Moon and Earth. The solar avoidance angle is about 50°, to keep sunlight from illuminating any part of the OTA. Earth and Moon avoidance keeps bright light out of the FGSs, and keeps scattered light from entering the instruments. If the FGSs are turned off, the Moon and Earth can be observed. Earth observations were used very early in the program to generate flat-fields for the WFPC1 instrument. There is a so-called continuous viewing zone (CVZ), within roughly 24° of Hubble's orbital poles, in which targets are not occulted for long periods.
Due to the precession of the orbit, the location of the CVZ moves slowly over a period of eight weeks. Because the limb of the Earth is always within about 30° of regions within the CVZ, the brightness of scattered earthshine may be elevated for long periods during CVZ observations. Hubble orbits in low Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 540 kilometers (340 mi) and an inclination of 28.5°. The position along its orbit changes over time in a way that is not accurately predictable. The density of the upper atmosphere varies according to many factors, and this means Hubble's predicted position for six weeks' time could be in error by up to 4,000 km (2,500 mi). Observation schedules are typically finalized only a few days in advance, as a longer lead time would mean there was a chance the target would be unobservable by the time it was due to be observed. Engineering support for HST is provided by NASA and contractor personnel at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, 48 km (30 mi) south of the STScI. Hubble's operation is monitored 24 hours per day by four teams of flight controllers who make up Hubble's Flight Operations Team.
=== Challenger disaster, delays, and eventual launch ===
By January 1986, the planned launch date for Hubble that October looked feasible, but the Challenger disaster brought the U.S. space program to a halt, grounded the Shuttle fleet, and forced the launch to be postponed for several years. During this delay the telescope was kept in a clean room, powered up and purged with nitrogen, until a launch could be rescheduled. This costly situation (about $6 million per month) pushed the overall costs of the project higher. However, this delay allowed time for engineers to perform extensive tests, swap out a possibly failure-prone battery, and make other improvements. Furthermore, the ground software needed to control Hubble was not ready in 1986, and was barely ready by the 1990 launch. Following the resumption of shuttle flights, Space Shuttle Discovery successfully launched the Hubble on April 24, 1990, as part of the STS-31 mission.
At launch, NASA had spent approximately $4.7 billion in inflation-adjusted 2010 dollars on the project. Hubble's cumulative costs are estimated to be about $11.3 billion in 2015 dollars, which include all subsequent servicing costs, but not ongoing operations, making it the most expensive science mission in NASA history.
== List of Hubble instruments ==
Hubble accommodates five science instruments at a given time, plus the Fine Guidance Sensors, which are mainly used for aiming the telescope but are occasionally used for scientific astrometry measurements. Early instruments were replaced with more advanced ones during the Shuttle servicing missions. COSTAR was a corrective optics device rather than a science instrument, but occupied one of the four axial instrument bays.
Since the final servicing mission in 2009, the four active instruments have been ACS, COS, STIS and WFC3. NICMOS is kept in hibernation, but may be revived if WFC3 were to fail in the future.
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS; 2002–present)
Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS; 2009–present)
Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR; 1993–2009)
Faint Object Camera (FOC; 1990–2002)
Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS; 1990–1997)
Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS; 1990–present)
Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS/HRS; 1990–1997)
High Speed Photometer (HSP; 1990–1993)
Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS; 1997–present, hibernating since 2008)
Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS; 1997–present (non-operative 2004–2009))
Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC; 1990–1993)
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2; 1993–2009)
Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3; 2009–present)
Of the former instruments, three (COSTAR, FOS and WFPC2) are displayed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The FOC is in the Dornier museum, Germany. The HSP is in the Space Place at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The first WFPC was dismantled, and some components were then re-used in WFC3.
== Flawed mirror ==
Within weeks of the launch of the telescope, the returned images indicated a serious problem with the optical system. Although the first images appeared to be sharper than those of ground-based telescopes, Hubble failed to achieve a final sharp focus and the best image quality obtained was drastically lower than expected. Images of point sources spread out over a radius of more than one arcsecond, instead of having a point spread function (PSF) concentrated within a circle 0.1 arcseconds (485 nrad) in diameter, as had been specified in the design criteria.
Analysis of the flawed images revealed that the primary mirror had been polished to the wrong shape. Although it was believed to be one of the most precisely figured optical mirrors ever made, smooth to about 10 nanometers, the outer perimeter was too flat by about 2200 nanometers (about 1⁄450 mm or 1⁄11000 inch). This difference was catastrophic, introducing severe spherical aberration, a flaw in which light reflecting off the edge of a mirror focuses on a different point from the light reflecting off its center.
The effect of the mirror flaw on scientific observations depended on the particular observation. The core of the aberrated PSF was sharp enough to permit high-resolution observations of bright objects, and spectroscopy of point sources was affected only through a sensitivity loss; however, the loss of light to the large, out-of-focus halo severely reduced the usefulness of the telescope for faint objects or high-contrast imaging. This meant nearly all the cosmological programs were essentially impossible, since they required observation of exceptionally faint objects. This led politicians to question NASA's competence, scientists to rue the cost which could have gone to more productive endeavors, and comedians to make jokes about NASA and the telescope. In the 1991 comedy The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, in a scene where historical disasters are displayed, Hubble is pictured with the Titanic and the Hindenburg. Nonetheless, during the first three years of the Hubble mission, before the optical corrections, the telescope carried out a large number of productive observations of less demanding targets. The error was well characterized and stable, enabling astronomers to partially compensate for the defective mirror by using sophisticated image processing techniques such as deconvolution.
=== Origin of the problem ===
A commission headed by Lew Allen, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was established to determine how the error could have arisen. The Allen Commission found that a reflective null corrector, a testing device used to achieve a properly shaped non-spherical mirror, had been incorrectly assembled. (One lens was out of position by 1.3 mm (0.051 in).) During the initial grinding and polishing of the mirror, Perkin-Elmer analyzed its surface with two conventional refractive null correctors. However, for the final manufacturing step (figuring), they switched to the custom-built reflective null corrector, designed explicitly to meet very strict tolerances. The incorrect assembly of this device resulted in the mirror being ground very precisely but to the wrong shape. During fabrication, a few tests using conventional null correctors correctly reported spherical aberration. But these results were dismissed, thus missing the opportunity to catch the error, because the reflective null corrector was considered more accurate.
The commission blamed the failings primarily on Perkin-Elmer. Relations between NASA and the optics company had been severely strained during the telescope construction, due to frequent schedule slippage and cost overruns. NASA found that Perkin-Elmer did not review or supervise the mirror construction adequately, did not assign its best optical scientists to the project (as it had for the prototype), and in particular did not involve the optical designers in the construction and verification of the mirror. While the commission heavily criticized Perkin-Elmer for these managerial failings, NASA was also criticized for not picking up on the quality control shortcomings, such as relying totally on test results from a single instrument.
=== Design of a solution ===
Many feared that Hubble would be abandoned. The design of the telescope had always incorporated servicing missions, and astronomers immediately began to seek potential solutions to the problem that could be applied at the first servicing mission, scheduled for 1993. While Kodak had ground a back-up mirror for Hubble, it would have been impossible to replace the mirror in orbit, and too expensive and time-consuming to bring the telescope back to Earth for a refit. Instead, the fact that the mirror had been ground so precisely to the wrong shape led to the design of new optical components with exactly the same error but in the opposite sense, to be added to the telescope at the servicing mission, effectively acting as "spectacles" to correct the spherical aberration.
The first step was a precise characterization of the error in the main mirror. Working backwards from images of point sources, astronomers determined that the conic constant of the mirror as built was −1.01390±0.0002, instead of the intended −1.00230. The same number was also derived by analyzing the null corrector used by Perkin-Elmer to figure the mirror, as well as by analyzing interferograms obtained during ground testing of the mirror.
Because of the way the HST's instruments were designed, two different sets of correctors were required. The design of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, already planned to replace the existing WF/PC, included relay mirrors to direct light onto the four separate charge-coupled device (CCD) chips making up its two cameras. An inverse error built into their surfaces could completely cancel the aberration of the primary. However, the other instruments lacked any intermediate surfaces that could be configured in this way, and so required an external correction device.
The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) system was designed to correct the spherical aberration for light focused at the FOC, FOS, and GHRS. It consists of two mirrors in the light path with one ground to correct the aberration. To fit the COSTAR system onto the telescope, one of the other instruments had to be removed, and astronomers selected the High Speed Photometer to be sacrificed. By 2002, all the original instruments requiring COSTAR had been replaced by instruments with their own corrective optics. COSTAR was then removed and returned to Earth in 2009 where it is exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The area previously used by COSTAR is now occupied by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
== Servicing missions and new instruments ==
=== Servicing overview ===
Hubble was designed to accommodate regular servicing and equipment upgrades while in orbit. Instruments and limited life items were designed as orbital replacement units. Five servicing missions (SM 1, 2, 3A, 3B, and 4) were flown by NASA Space Shuttles, the first in December 1993 and the last in May 2009. Servicing missions were delicate operations that began with maneuvering to intercept the telescope in orbit and carefully retrieving it with the shuttle's mechanical arm. The necessary work was then carried out in multiple tethered spacewalks over a period of four to five days. After a visual inspection of the telescope, astronauts conducted repairs, replaced failed or degraded components, upgraded equipment, and installed new instruments. Once work was completed, the telescope was redeployed, typically after boosting to a higher orbit to address the orbital decay caused by atmospheric drag.
=== Servicing Mission 1 ===
The first Hubble servicing mission was scheduled for 1993 before the mirror problem was discovered. It assumed greater importance, as the astronauts would need to do extensive work to install corrective optics; failure would have resulted in either abandoning Hubble or accepting its permanent disability. Other components failed before the mission, causing the repair cost to rise to $500 million (not including the cost of the shuttle flight). A successful repair would help demonstrate the viability of building Space Station Alpha.
STS-49 in 1992 demonstrated the difficulty of space work. While its rescue of Intelsat 603 received praise, the astronauts had taken possibly reckless risks in doing so. Neither the rescue nor the unrelated assembly of prototype space station components occurred as the astronauts had trained, causing NASA to reassess planning and training, including for the Hubble repair. The agency assigned to the mission Story Musgrave (who had worked on satellite repair procedures since 1976) and six other experienced astronauts, including two from STS-49. The first mission director since Project Apollo would coordinate a crew with 16 previous shuttle flights. The astronauts were trained to use about a hundred specialized tools.
Heat had been the problem on prior spacewalks, which occurred in sunlight. Hubble needed to be repaired out of sunlight. Musgrave discovered during vacuum training, seven months before the mission, that spacesuit gloves did not sufficiently protect against the cold of space. After STS-57 confirmed the issue in orbit, NASA quickly changed equipment, procedures, and flight plan. Seven total mission simulations occurred before launch, the most thorough preparation in shuttle history. No complete Hubble mockup existed, so the astronauts studied many separate models (including one at the Smithsonian) and mentally combined their varying and contradictory details.
Service Mission 1 flew aboard Endeavour in December 1993, and involved installation of several instruments and other equipment over ten days. Most importantly, the High Speed Photometer was replaced with the COSTAR corrective optics package, and WF/PC was replaced with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) with an internal optical correction system. The solar arrays and their drive electronics were also replaced, as well as four gyroscopes in the telescope pointing system, two electrical control units and other electrical components, and two magnetometers. The onboard computers were upgraded with added coprocessors, and Hubble's orbit was boosted.
On January 13, 1994, NASA declared the mission a complete success and showed the first sharper images. The mission was one of the most complex performed to that date, involving five long extra-vehicular activity periods. Its success was a boon for NASA, as well as for the astronomers who now had a more capable space telescope.
=== Servicing Mission 2 ===
Servicing Mission 2, flown by Discovery in February 1997, replaced the GHRS and the FOS with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), replaced an Engineering and Science Tape Recorder with a new Solid State Recorder, and repaired thermal insulation. NICMOS contained a heat sink of solid nitrogen to reduce the thermal noise from the instrument, but shortly after it was installed, an unexpected thermal expansion resulted in part of the heat sink coming into contact with an optical baffle. This led to an increased warming rate for the instrument and reduced its original expected lifetime of 4.5 years to about two years.
=== Servicing Mission 3A ===
Servicing Mission 3A, flown by Discovery, took place in December 1999, and was a split-off from Servicing Mission 3 after three of the six onboard gyroscopes had failed. The fourth failed a few weeks before the mission, rendering the telescope incapable of performing scientific observations. The mission replaced all six gyroscopes, replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor and the computer, installed a Voltage/temperature Improvement Kit (VIK) to prevent battery overcharging, and replaced thermal insulation blankets.
=== Servicing Mission 3B ===
Servicing Mission 3B flown by Columbia in March 2002 saw the installation of a new instrument, with the FOC (which, except for the Fine Guidance Sensors when used for astrometry, was the last of the original instruments) being replaced by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). This meant COSTAR was no longer required, since all new instruments had built-in correction for the main mirror aberration. The mission also revived NICMOS by installing a closed-cycle cooler and replaced the solar arrays for the second time, providing 30 percent more power.
=== Servicing Mission 4 ===
Plans called for Hubble to be serviced in February 2005, but the Columbia disaster in 2003, in which the orbiter disintegrated on re-entry into the atmosphere, had wide-ranging effects to the Hubble program and other NASA missions. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe decided all future shuttle missions had to be able to reach the safe haven of the International Space Station should in-flight problems develop. As no shuttles were capable of reaching both HST and the space station during the same mission, future crewed service missions were canceled. This decision was criticized by numerous astronomers who felt Hubble was valuable enough to merit the human risk. HST's planned successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), by 2004 was not expected to launch until at least 2011. JWST was eventually launched in December 2021. A gap in space-observing capabilities between a decommissioning of Hubble and the commissioning of a successor was of major concern to many astronomers, given the significant scientific impact of HST. The consideration that JWST will not be located in low Earth orbit, and therefore cannot be easily upgraded or repaired in the event of an early failure, only made concerns more acute. On the other hand, NASA officials were concerned that continuing to service Hubble would consume funds from other programs and delay the JWST.
In January 2004, O'Keefe said he would review his decision to cancel the final servicing mission to HST, due to public outcry and requests from Congress for NASA to look for a way to save it. The National Academy of Sciences convened an official panel, which recommended in July 2004 that the HST should be preserved despite the apparent risks. Their report urged "NASA should take no actions that would preclude a space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope". In August 2004, O'Keefe asked Goddard Space Flight Center to prepare a detailed proposal for a robotic service mission. These plans were later canceled, the robotic mission being described as "not feasible". In late 2004, several Congressional members, led by Senator Barbara Mikulski, held public hearings and carried on a fight with much public support (including thousands of letters from school children across the U.S.) to get the Bush Administration and NASA to reconsider the decision to drop plans for a Hubble rescue mission.
The nomination in April 2005 of a new NASA Administrator, Michael D. Griffin, changed the situation, as Griffin stated he would consider a crewed servicing mission. Soon after his appointment Griffin authorized Goddard to proceed with preparations for a crewed Hubble maintenance flight, saying he would make the final decision after the next two shuttle missions. In October 2006 Griffin gave the final go-ahead, and the 11-day mission by Atlantis was scheduled for October 2008. Hubble's main data-handling unit failed in September 2008, halting all reporting of scientific data until its back-up was brought online on October 25, 2008. Since a failure of the backup unit would leave the HST helpless, the service mission was postponed to incorporate a replacement for the primary unit.
Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), flown by Atlantis in May 2009, was the last scheduled shuttle mission for HST. SM4 installed the replacement data-handling unit, repaired the ACS and STIS systems, installed improved nickel–hydrogen batteries, and replaced other components including all six gyroscopes. SM4 also installed two new observation instruments: Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and the Soft Capture and Rendezvous System, which will enable the future rendezvous, capture, and safe disposal of Hubble by either a crewed or robotic mission. Except for the ACS's High Resolution Channel, which could not be repaired and was disabled, the work accomplished during SM4 rendered the telescope fully functional.
== Major projects ==
Since the start of the program, a number of research projects have been carried out, some of them almost solely with Hubble, others coordinated facilities such as Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESO's Very Large Telescope. Although the Hubble observatory is nearing the end of its life, there are still major projects scheduled for it. One example is the current (2022) ULLYSES project (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards) which will last for three years to observe a set of high- and low-mass young stars and will shed light on star formation and composition. Another is the OPAL project (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy), which is focussed on understanding the evolution and dynamics of the atmosphere of the outer planets (such as Jupiter and Uranus) by making baseline observations over an extended period.
=== Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey ===
In an August 2013 press release, CANDELS was referred to as "the largest project in the history of Hubble". The survey "aims to explore galactic evolution in the early Universe, and the first seeds of cosmic structure at less than one billion years after the Big Bang." The CANDELS project site describes the survey's goals as the following:
The Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey is designed to document the first third of galactic evolution from z = 8 to 1.5 via deep imaging of more than 250,000 galaxies with WFC3/IR and ACS. It will also find the first Type Ia SNe beyond z > 1.5 and establish their accuracy as standard candles for cosmology. Five premier multi-wavelength sky regions are selected; each has multi-wavelength data from Spitzer and other facilities, and has extensive spectroscopy of the brighter galaxies. The use of five widely separated fields mitigates cosmic variance and yields statistically robust and complete samples of galaxies down to 109 solar masses out to z ~ 8.
=== Frontier Fields program ===
The program, officially named "Hubble Deep Fields Initiative 2012", is aimed to advance the knowledge of early galaxy formation by studying high-redshift galaxies in blank fields with the help of gravitational lensing to see the "faintest galaxies in the distant universe". The Frontier Fields web page describes the goals of the program being:
to reveal hitherto inaccessible populations of z = 5–10 galaxies that are ten to fifty times fainter intrinsically than any presently known
to solidify our understanding of the stellar masses and star formation histories of sub-L* galaxies at the earliest times
to provide the first statistically meaningful morphological characterization of star forming galaxies at z > 5
to find z > 8 galaxies stretched out enough by cluster lensing to discern internal structure and/or magnified enough by cluster lensing for spectroscopic follow-up.
=== Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) ===
The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is an astronomical survey designed to probe the formation and evolution of galaxies as a function of both cosmic time (redshift) and the local galaxy environment. The survey covers a two square degree equatorial field with spectroscopy and X-ray to radio imaging by most of the major space-based telescopes and a number of large ground based telescopes, making it a key focus region of extragalactic astrophysics. COSMOS was launched in 2006 as the largest project pursued by the Hubble Space Telescope at the time, and still is the largest continuous area of sky covered for the purposes of mapping deep space in blank fields, 2.5 times the area of the moon on the sky and 17 times larger than the largest of the CANDELS regions. The COSMOS scientific collaboration that was forged from the initial COSMOS survey is the largest and longest-running extragalactic collaboration, known for its collegiality and openness. The study of galaxies in their environment can be done only with large areas of the sky, larger than a half square degree. More than two million galaxies are detected, spanning 90% of the age of the Universe. The COSMOS collaboration is led by Caitlin Casey, Jeyhan Kartaltepe, and Vernesa Smolcic and involves more than 200 scientists in a dozen countries.
=== Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble ===
The Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) was a Treasury Program from 2010 to 2013 conducted by the Hubble Space Telescope to observe 25 massive galaxy clusters by using gravitational lensing. CLASH aimed to examine the distribution of dark matter and dark energy in massive galaxy clusters with the new instruments installed in 2009. Imagery showing the effects of gravitational lensing is one means of detecting dark matter and dark energy, and CLASH focused on trying to gain a better understanding of both mysterious topics.
=== Photomosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy ===
The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury and Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury (PHAT and PHAST) were observations done by Hubble from July 2010 to October 2013 to map the northern half of the Andromeda Galaxy and from December 2021 to January 2024 to map the southern half. Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy and Hubble created the highest resolution and most detailed photomosaic ever of Andromeda. Two hundred million stars can be seen in this combined image of both Treasury Programs out of a total one trillion stars in Andromeda. Each star looks like a grain of sand. The northern half, PHAT, was mapped in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths in 828 orbits and was released in January 2015. The southern half, PHAST, was mapped in near-ultraviolet and visible wavelengths in 195 orbits and was released in January 2025. Observing Andromeda in this detail is the best alternative to observing the Milky Way Galaxy because Earth is within the Milky Way and cannot observe most of the Milky Way due to the galaxy itself blocking observations of 20% of the sky and most of the galaxy. To achieve this mosaic 1,023 Hubble orbits were needed. The mosaic image is made up of at least 2.5 billion pixels.
== Public use ==
=== Proposal process ===
Anyone can apply for time on the telescope; there are no restrictions on nationality or academic affiliation, but funding for analysis is available only to U.S. institutions. Competition for time on the telescope is intense, with about one-fifth of the proposals submitted in each cycle earning time on the schedule.
Calls for proposals are issued roughly annually, with time allocated for a cycle lasting about one year. Proposals are divided into several categories; "general observer" proposals are the most common, covering routine observations. "Snapshot observations" are those in which targets require only 45 minutes or less of telescope time, including overheads such as acquiring the target. Snapshot observations are used to fill in gaps in the telescope schedule that cannot be filled by regular general observer programs.
Astronomers may make "Target of Opportunity" proposals, in which observations are scheduled if a transient event covered by the proposal occurs during the scheduling cycle. In addition, up to 10% of the telescope time is designated "director's discretionary" (DD) time. Astronomers can apply to use DD time at any time of year, and it is typically awarded for study of unexpected transient phenomena such as supernovae.
Other uses of DD time have included the observations that led to views of the Hubble Deep Field and Hubble Ultra Deep Field, and in the first four cycles of telescope time, observations that were carried out by amateur astronomers.
In 2012, the ESA held a contest for public image processing of Hubble data to encourage the discovery of "hidden treasures" in the raw Hubble data.
=== Use by amateur astronomers ===
The first director of STScI, Riccardo Giacconi, announced in 1986 that he intended to devote some of his director discretionary time to allowing amateur astronomers to use the telescope. The total time to be allocated was only a few hours per cycle but excited great interest among amateur astronomers.
Proposals for amateur time were stringently reviewed by a committee of amateur astronomers, and time was awarded only to proposals that were deemed to have genuine scientific merit, did not duplicate proposals made by professionals, and required the unique capabilities of the space telescope. Thirteen amateur astronomers were awarded time on the telescope, with observations being carried out between 1990 and 1997. One such study was "Transition Comets – UV Search for OH". The first proposal, "A Hubble Space Telescope Study of Posteclipse Brightening and Albedo Changes on Io", was published in Icarus, a journal devoted to solar system studies. A second study from another group of amateurs was also published in Icarus. After that time, however, budget reductions at STScI made the support of work by amateur astronomers untenable, and no additional amateur programs have been carried out.
Regular Hubble proposals still include findings or discovered objects by amateurs and citizen scientists. These observations are often in a collaboration with professional astronomers. One of the earliest such observations is the Great White Spot of 1990 on planet Saturn, discovered by amateur astronomer S. Wilber and observed by HST under a proposal by J. Westphal (Caltech). Later professional-amateur observations by Hubble include discoveries by the Galaxy Zoo project, such as Voorwerpjes and Green Pea galaxies. The "Gems of the Galaxies" program is based on a list of objects by Galaxy Zoo volunteers that was shortened with the help of an online vote. Additionally there are observations of minor planets discovered by amateur astronomers, such as 2I/Borisov and changes in the atmosphere of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn or the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. In the pro-am collaboration backyard worlds the HST was used to observe a planetary mass object, called WISE J0830+2837. The non-detection by the HST helped to classify this peculiar object.
== Scientific results ==
=== Key projects ===
In the early 1980s, NASA and STScI convened four panels to discuss key projects. These were projects that were both scientifically important and would require significant telescope time, which would be explicitly dedicated to each project. This guaranteed that these particular projects would be completed early, in case the telescope failed sooner than expected. The panels identified three such projects: 1) a study of the nearby intergalactic medium using quasar absorption lines to determine the properties of the intergalactic medium and the gaseous content of galaxies and groups of galaxies; 2) a medium deep survey using the Wide Field Camera to take data whenever one of the other instruments was being used and 3) a project to determine the Hubble constant within ten percent by reducing the errors, both external and internal, in the calibration of the distance scale.
=== Important discoveries ===
Hubble has helped resolve some long-standing problems in astronomy, while also raising new questions. Some results have required new theories to explain them.
==== Age and expansion of the universe ====
Among its primary mission targets was to measure distances to Cepheid variable stars more accurately than ever before, and thus constrain the value of the Hubble constant, the measure of the rate at which the universe is expanding, which is also related to its age. Before the launch of HST, estimates of the Hubble constant typically had errors of up to 50%, but Hubble measurements of Cepheid variables in the Virgo Cluster and other distant galaxy clusters provided a measured value with an accuracy of ±10%, which is consistent with other more accurate measurements made since Hubble's launch using other techniques. The estimated age of the universe is now 13.7 billion years. (Before the Hubble Telescope it was ten to twenty billion.)
Astronomers from the High-z Supernova Search Team and the Supernova Cosmology Project used ground-based telescopes and HST to observe distant supernovae and uncovered evidence that, far from decelerating under the influence of gravity, the expansion of the universe is instead accelerating. Three members of these two groups have subsequently been awarded Nobel Prizes for their discovery. The cause of this acceleration remains poorly understood; the term used for the currently-unknown cause is dark energy, signifying that it is dark (unable to be directly seen and detected) to our current scientific instruments.
==== Black holes ====
The high-resolution spectra and images provided by the HST have been especially well-suited to establishing the prevalence of black holes in the center of nearby galaxies. While it had been hypothesized in the early 1960s that black holes would be found at the centers of some galaxies, and astronomers in the 1980s identified a number of good black hole candidates, work conducted with Hubble shows that black holes are probably common to the centers of all galaxies. The Hubble programs further established that the masses of the nuclear black holes and properties of the galaxies are closely related.
==== Extending visible wavelength images ====
A unique window on the Universe enabled by Hubble are the Hubble Deep Field, Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, and Hubble Extreme Deep Field images, which used Hubble's unmatched sensitivity at visible wavelengths to create images of small patches of sky that are the deepest ever obtained at optical wavelengths. The images reveal galaxies billions of light years away, thereby providing information about the early Universe, and have accordingly generated a wealth of scientific papers. The Wide Field Camera 3 improved the view of these fields in the infrared and ultraviolet, supporting the discovery of some of the most distant objects yet discovered, such as MACS0647-JD.
The non-standard object SCP 06F6 was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in February 2006.
On March 3, 2016, researchers using Hubble data announced the discovery of the farthest confirmed galaxy to date: GN-z11, which Hubble observed as it existed roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang. The Hubble observations occurred on February 11, 2015, and April 3, 2015, as part of the CANDELS/GOODS-North surveys.
==== Solar System discoveries ====
The collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 was fortuitously timed for astronomers, coming just a few months after Servicing Mission 1 had restored Hubble's optical performance. Hubble images of the planet were sharper than any taken since the passage of Voyager 2 in 1979, and were crucial in studying the dynamics of the collision of a large comet with Jupiter, an event believed to occur once every few centuries.
In March 2015, researchers announced that measurements of aurorae around Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons, revealed that it has a subsurface ocean. Using Hubble to study the motion of its aurorae, the researchers determined that a large saltwater ocean was helping to suppress the interaction between Jupiter's magnetic field and that of Ganymede. The ocean is estimated to be 100 km (60 mi) deep, trapped beneath a 150 km (90 mi) ice crust.
HST has also been used to study objects in the outer reaches of the Solar System, including the dwarf planets Pluto, Eris, and Sedna. During June and July 2012, U.S. astronomers using Hubble discovered Styx, a tiny fifth moon orbiting Pluto.
From June to August 2015, Hubble was used to search for a Kuiper belt object (KBO) target for the New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM) when similar searches with ground telescopes failed to find a suitable target. This resulted in the discovery of at least five new KBOs, including the eventual KEM target, 486958 Arrokoth, that New Horizons performed a close fly-by of on January 1, 2019.
In April 2022 NASA announced that astronomers were able to use images from HST to determine the size of the nucleus of comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein), which is the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by astronomers. The nucleus of C/2014 UN271 has an estimated mass of fifty trillion tons which is fifty times the mass of other known comets in the Solar System.
==== Supernova reappearance ====
On December 11, 2015, Hubble captured an image of the first-ever predicted reappearance of a supernova, dubbed "Refsdal", which was calculated using different mass models of a galaxy cluster whose gravity is warping the supernova's light. The supernova was previously seen in November 2014 behind galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 as part of Hubble's Frontier Fields program. The light from the cluster took roughly five billion years to reach Earth, while the light from the supernova behind it took five billion more years than that, as measured by their respective redshifts. Because of the gravitational effect of the galaxy cluster, four images of the supernova appeared instead of one, an example of an Einstein cross. Based on early lens models, a fifth image was predicted to reappear by the end of 2015. Refsdal reappeared as predicted in 2015.
==== Mass and size of Milky Way ====
In March 2019, observations from Hubble and data from the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory were combined to determine that the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 1.5 trillion times the mass of the Sun, a value intermediate between prior estimates.
==== Other discoveries ====
Other discoveries made with Hubble data include proto-planetary disks (proplyds) in the Orion Nebula; evidence for the presence of extrasolar planets around Sun-like stars; and the optical counterparts of the still-mysterious gamma-ray bursts. Using gravitational lensing, Hubble observed a galaxy designated MACS 2129-1 approximately ten billion lightyears from Earth. MACS 2129-1 subverted expectations about galaxies in which new star formation had ceased, a significant result for understanding the formation of elliptical galaxies.
In 2022 Hubble detected the light of the farthest individual star ever seen to date. The star, WHL0137-LS (nicknamed Earendel), existed within the first billion years after the Big Bang. It will be observed by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to confirm Earendel is indeed a star.
=== Impact on astronomy ===
Many objective measures show the positive impact of Hubble data on astronomy. As of 2025, over 22,000 papers based on Hubble data have been published in peer-reviewed journals, and countless more have appeared in conference proceedings. Looking at papers several years after their publication, about one-third of all astronomy papers have no citations, while only two percent of papers based on Hubble data have no citations. On average, a paper based on Hubble data receives about twice as many citations as papers based on non-Hubble data. Of the 200 papers published each year that receive the most citations, about 10% are based on Hubble data.
Although the HST has clearly helped astronomical research, its financial cost has been large. A study on the relative astronomical benefits of different sizes of telescopes found that while papers based on HST data generate 15 times as many citations as a 4 m (13 ft) ground-based telescope such as the William Herschel Telescope, the HST costs about 100 times as much to build and maintain.
Deciding between building ground- versus space-based telescopes is complex. Even before Hubble was launched, specialized ground-based techniques such as aperture masking interferometry had obtained higher-resolution optical and infrared images than Hubble would achieve, though restricted to targets about 108 times brighter than the faintest targets observed by Hubble. Since then, advances in adaptive optics have extended the high-resolution imaging capabilities of ground-based telescopes to the infrared imaging of faint objects. The usefulness of adaptive optics versus HST observations depends strongly on the particular details of the research questions being asked. In the visible bands, adaptive optics can correct only a relatively small field of view, whereas HST can conduct high-resolution optical imaging over a wider field. Moreover, Hubble can image more faint objects, since ground-based telescopes are affected by the background of scattered light created by the Earth's atmosphere.
=== Impact on aerospace engineering ===
In addition to its scientific results, Hubble has also made significant contributions to aerospace engineering, in particular the performance of systems in low Earth orbit (LEO). These insights result from Hubble's long lifetime on orbit, extensive instrumentation, and return of assemblies to the Earth where they can be studied in detail. In particular, Hubble has contributed to studies of the behavior of graphite composite structures in vacuum, optical contamination from residual gas and human servicing, radiation damage to electronics and sensors, and the long term behavior of multi-layer insulation. One lesson learned was that gyroscopes assembled using pressurized oxygen to deliver suspension fluid were prone to failure due to electric wire corrosion. Gyroscopes are now assembled using pressurized nitrogen. Another is that optical surfaces in LEO can have surprisingly long lifetimes; Hubble was only expected to last 15 years before the mirror became unusable, but after 14 years there was no measureable degradation. Finally, Hubble servicing missions, particularly those that serviced components not designed for in-space maintenance, have contributed towards the development of new tools and techniques for on-orbit repair.
== Hubble data ==
=== Transmission to Earth ===
Hubble data was initially stored on the spacecraft. When launched, the storage facilities were old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape drives, but these were replaced by solid state data storage facilities during servicing missions 2 and 3A. About twice daily, the Hubble Space Telescope radios data to a satellite in the geosynchronous Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), which then downlinks the science data to one of two 60-foot (18-meter) diameter high-gain microwave antennas located at the White Sands Test Facility in White Sands, New Mexico. From there they are sent to the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at Goddard Space Flight Center, and finally to the Space Telescope Science Institute for archiving. Each week, HST downlinks approximately 140 gigabits of data.
=== Color images ===
All images from Hubble are monochromatic grayscale, taken through a variety of filters, each passing specific wavelengths of light, and incorporated in each camera. Color images are created by combining separate monochrome images taken through different filters. This process can also create false-color versions of images including infrared and ultraviolet channels, where infrared is typically rendered as a deep red and ultraviolet is rendered as a deep blue.
=== Archives ===
All Hubble data is eventually made available via the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at STScI, CADC and ESA/ESAC. Data is usually proprietary (available only to the principal investigator (PI) and astronomers designated by the PI) for twelve months after being taken. The PI can apply to the director of the STScI to extend or reduce the proprietary period in some circumstances.
Observations made on Director's Discretionary Time are exempt from the proprietary period, and are released to the public immediately. Calibration data such as flat fields and dark frames are also publicly available straight away. All data in the archive is in the FITS format, which is suitable for astronomical analysis but not for public use. The Hubble Heritage Project processes and releases to the public a small selection of the most striking images in JPEG and TIFF formats.
=== Pipeline reduction ===
Astronomical data taken with CCDs must undergo several calibration steps before they are suitable for astronomical analysis. STScI has developed sophisticated software that automatically calibrates data when they are requested from the archive using the best calibration files available. This "on-the-fly" processing means large data requests can take a day or more to be processed and returned. The process by which data is calibrated automatically is known as "pipeline reduction", and is increasingly common at major observatories. Astronomers may if they wish retrieve the calibration files themselves and run the pipeline reduction software locally. This may be desirable when calibration files other than those selected automatically need to be used.
=== Data analysis ===
Hubble data can be analyzed using many different packages. STScI maintains the custom-made Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System (STSDAS) software, which contains all the programs needed to run pipeline reduction on raw data files, as well as many other astronomical image processing tools, tailored to the requirements of Hubble data. The software runs as a module of IRAF, a popular astronomical data reduction program.
== Outreach activities ==
NASA considered it important for the Space Telescope to capture the public's imagination, given the considerable contribution of taxpayers to its construction and operational costs. After the difficult early years when the faulty mirror severely dented Hubble's reputation with the public, the first servicing mission allowed its rehabilitation as the corrected optics produced numerous remarkable images.
Several initiatives have helped to keep the public informed about Hubble activities.
In the United States, outreach efforts are coordinated by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Office for Public Outreach, which was established in 2000 to ensure that U.S. taxpayers saw the benefits of their investment in the space telescope program. To that end, STScI operates the HubbleSite.org website. The Hubble Heritage Project, operating out of the STScI, provides the public with high-quality images of the most interesting and striking objects observed. The Heritage team is composed of amateur and professional astronomers, as well as people with backgrounds outside astronomy, and emphasizes the aesthetic nature of Hubble images. The Heritage Project is granted a small amount of time to observe objects which, for scientific reasons, may not have images taken at enough wavelengths to construct a full-color image.
Since 1999, the leading Hubble outreach group in Europe has been the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre (HEIC). This office was established at the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility in Munich, Germany. HEIC's mission is to fulfill HST outreach and education tasks for the European Space Agency. The work is centered on the production of news and photo releases that highlight interesting Hubble results and images. These are often European in origin, and so increase awareness of both ESA's Hubble share (15%) and the contribution of European scientists to the observatory. ESA produces educational material, including a videocast series called Hubblecast designed to share world-class scientific news with the public.
The Hubble Space Telescope has won two Space Achievement Awards from the Space Foundation, for its outreach activities, in 2001 and 2010.
A replica of the Hubble Space Telescope is displayed on the courthouse lawn in Marshfield, Missouri, the hometown of namesake Edwin P. Hubble.
=== Celebration images ===
The Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 20th anniversary in space on April 24, 2010. To commemorate the occasion, NASA, ESA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) released an image from the Carina Nebula.
To commemorate Hubble's 25th anniversary in space on April 24, 2015, STScI released images of the Westerlund 2 cluster, located about 20,000 light-years (6,100 pc) away in the constellation Carina, through its Hubble 25 website. The European Space Agency created a dedicated 25th anniversary page on its website. In April 2016, a special celebratory image of the Bubble Nebula was released for Hubble's 26th "birthday".
== Equipment failures ==
=== Gyroscope rotation sensors ===
HST uses gyroscopes to detect and measure any rotations so it can stabilize itself in orbit and point accurately and steadily at astronomical targets. HST has six of these rate-sensing gyroscopes installed. Three gyroscopes are normally required for operation; observations are still possible with two or one, but the area of sky that can be viewed would be somewhat restricted, and observations requiring very accurate pointing are more difficult. In 2018, the plan was to drop into one-gyroscope mode if fewer than three working gyroscopes were operational. The gyroscopes are part of the Pointing Control System, which uses five types of sensors (magnetic sensors, optical sensors, and the gyroscopes) and two types of actuators (reaction wheels and magnetic torquers).
After the Columbia disaster in 2003, it was unclear whether another servicing mission would be possible, and gyroscope life became a concern again, so engineers developed new software for two-gyroscope and one-gyroscope modes to maximize the potential lifetime. The development was successful, and in 2005, it was decided to switch to two-gyroscope mode for regular telescope operations as a means of extending the lifetime of the mission. The switch to this mode was made in August 2005, leaving Hubble with two gyroscopes in use, two on backup, and two inoperable. One more gyroscope failed in 2007.
By the time of the final repair mission in May 2009, during which all six gyroscopes were replaced (with two new pairs and one refurbished pair), only three were still working. Engineers determined that the gyroscope failures were caused by corrosion of electric wires powering the motor that was initiated by oxygen-pressurized air used to deliver the thick suspending fluid. The new gyroscope models were assembled using pressurized nitrogen and were expected to be much more reliable. In the 2009 servicing mission all six gyroscopes were replaced, and after almost ten years only three gyroscopes failed, and only after exceeding the average expected run time for the design.
Of the six gyroscopes replaced in 2009, three were of the old design susceptible for flex-lead failure, and three were of the new design with a longer expected lifetime. The first of the old-style gyroscopes failed in March 2014, and the second in April 2018. On October 5, 2018, the last of the old-style gyroscopes failed, and one of the new-style gyroscopes was powered-up from standby state. However, that reserve gyroscope did not immediately perform within operational limits, and so the observatory was placed into "safe" mode while scientists attempted to fix the problem. NASA tweeted on October 22, 2018, that the "rotation rates produced by the backup gyro have reduced and are now within a normal range. Additional tests [are] to be performed to ensure Hubble can return to science operations with this gyro."
The solution that restored the backup new-style gyroscope to operational range was widely reported as "turning it off and on again". A "running restart" of the gyroscope was performed, but this had no effect, and the final resolution to the failure was more complex. The failure was attributed to an inconsistency in the fluid surrounding the float within the gyroscope, i.e. an air bubble. On October 18, 2018, the Hubble Operations Team directed the spacecraft into a series of maneuvers, moving it in opposite directions in order to mitigate the inconsistency. Only after the maneuvers, and a subsequent set of maneuvers on October 19, did the gyroscope truly operate within its normal range.
=== Instruments and electronics ===
Past servicing missions have exchanged old instruments for new ones, avoiding failure and making new types of science possible. Without servicing missions, all the instruments will eventually fail. In August 2004, the power system of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) failed, rendering the instrument inoperable. The electronics had originally been fully redundant, but the first set of electronics failed in May 2001. This power supply was fixed during Servicing Mission 4 in May 2009.
Similarly, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) main camera primary electronics failed in June 2006, and the power supply for the backup electronics failed on January 27, 2007. Only the instrument's Solar Blind Channel (SBC) was operable using the side-1 electronics. A new power supply for the wide angle channel was added during SM 4, but quick tests revealed this did not help the high resolution channel. The Wide Field Channel (WFC) was returned to service by STS-125 in May 2009 but the High Resolution Channel (HRC) remains offline.
On January 8, 2019, Hubble entered a partial safe mode following suspected hardware problems in its most advanced instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. NASA later reported that the cause of the safe mode within the instrument was a detection of voltage levels out of a defined range. On January 15, 2019, NASA said the cause of the failure was a software problem. Engineering data within the telemetry circuits were not accurate. In addition, all other telemetry within those circuits also contained erroneous values indicating that this was a telemetry issue and not a power supply issue. After resetting the telemetry circuits and associated boards the instrument began functioning again. On January 17, 2019, the device was returned to normal operation and on the same day it completed its first science observations.
==== 2021 power control issue ====
On June 13, 2021, Hubble's payload computer halted due to a suspected issue with a memory module. An attempt to restart the computer on June 14 failed. Further attempts to switch to one of three other backup memory modules on board the spacecraft failed on June 18. On June 23 and 24, NASA engineers switched Hubble to a backup payload computer, but these operations have failed as well with the same error. On June 28, 2021, NASA announced that it was extending the investigation to other components. Scientific operations were suspended while NASA worked to diagnose and resolve the issue. After identifying a malfunctioning power control unit (PCU) supplying power to one of Hubble's computers, NASA was able to switch to a backup PCU and bring Hubble back to operational mode on July 16. On October 23, 2021, HST instruments reported missing synchronization messages and went into safe mode. By December 8, 2021, NASA had restored full science operations and was developing updates to make instruments more resilient to missing synchronization messages.
== Future ==
=== Orbital decay and controlled reentry ===
Hubble orbits the Earth in the extremely tenuous upper atmosphere, and over time its orbit decays due to drag. If not reboosted, it will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere within some decades, with the exact date depending on how active the Sun is and its impact on the upper atmosphere. If Hubble were to descend in a completely uncontrolled re-entry, parts of the main mirror and its support structure would probably survive, leaving the potential for damage or even human fatalities. In 2013, deputy project manager James Jeletic projected that Hubble could survive into the 2020s. Based on solar activity and atmospheric drag, or lack thereof, a natural atmospheric reentry for Hubble will occur between 2028 and 2040. In June 2016, NASA extended the service contract for Hubble until June 2021. In November 2021, NASA extended the service contract for Hubble until June 2026.
NASA's original plan for safely de-orbiting Hubble was to retrieve it using a Space Shuttle. Hubble would then have most likely been displayed in the Smithsonian Institution. This is no longer possible since the Space Shuttle fleet has been retired, and would have been unlikely in any case due to the cost of the mission and risk to the crew. Instead, NASA considered adding an external propulsion module to allow controlled re-entry. Ultimately, in 2009, as part of Servicing Mission 4, the last servicing mission by the Space Shuttle, NASA installed the Soft Capture Mechanism (SCM), to enable deorbit by either a crewed or robotic mission. The SCM, together with the Relative Navigation System (RNS), mounted on the Shuttle to collect data to "enable NASA to pursue numerous options for the safe de-orbit of Hubble", constitute the Soft Capture and Rendezvous System (SCRS).
=== Possible service missions ===
As of 2017, the Trump Administration was considering a proposal by the Sierra Nevada Corporation to use a crewed version of its Dream Chaser spacecraft to service Hubble some time in the 2020s as a continuation of its scientific capabilities and as insurance against any malfunctions in the James Webb Space Telescope. In 2020, John Grunsfeld said that SpaceX Crew Dragon or Orion could perform another repair mission within ten years. While robotic technology is not yet sophisticated enough, he said, with another crewed visit "We could keep Hubble going for another few decades" with new gyros and instruments.
Billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman proposed to fund a servicing mission using SpaceX spacecraft. Though it might save NASA much money, SpaceX and NASA differed on the mission's risk. In September 2022, NASA and SpaceX signed a Space Act Agreement to investigate the possibility of launching a Crew Dragon mission to service and boost Hubble to a higher orbit, possibly extending its lifespan by another 20 years. This mission could have been the second of the Polaris Program, but by June 2024 NASA had rejected a private servicing mission because of potential damage to the observatory.
=== Successors ===
There is no direct replacement to Hubble as an ultraviolet and visible light space telescope, because near-term space telescopes do not duplicate Hubble's wavelength coverage (near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths), instead concentrating on the further infrared bands. These bands are preferred for studying high redshift and low-temperature objects, objects generally older and farther away in the universe. These wavelengths are also difficult or impossible to study from the ground, justifying the expense of a space-based telescope. Large ground-based telescopes can image some of the same wavelengths as Hubble, sometimes challenge HST in terms of resolution by using adaptive optics (AO), have much larger light-gathering power, and can be upgraded more easily, but cannot yet match Hubble's excellent resolution over a wide field of view with the very dark background of space.
Plans for a Hubble successor materialized as the Next Generation Space Telescope project, which culminated in plans for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the formal successor of Hubble. Very different from a scaled-up Hubble, it is designed to operate colder and farther away from the Earth at the L2 Lagrangian point, where thermal and optical interference from the Earth and Moon are lessened. It is not engineered to be fully serviceable (such as replaceable instruments), but the design includes a docking ring to enable visits from other spacecraft. A main scientific goal of JWST is to observe the most distant objects in the universe, beyond the reach of existing instruments. It is expected to detect stars in the early Universe approximately 280 million years older than stars HST now detects. The telescope is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency since 1996, and was launched on December 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket. Although JWST is primarily an infrared instrument, its coverage extends down to 600 nm wavelength light, or roughly orange in the visible spectrum. A typical human eye can see to about 750 nm wavelength light, so there is some overlap with the longest visible wavelength bands, including orange and red light.
A complementary telescope, looking at even longer wavelengths than Hubble or JWST, was the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, launched on May 14, 2009. Like JWST, Herschel was not designed to be serviced after launch, and had a mirror substantially larger than Hubble's, but observed only in the far infrared and submillimeter. It needed helium coolant, of which it ran out on April 29, 2013.
Further concepts for advanced 21st-century space telescopes include the Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR), a conceptualized 8 to 16.8 meters (310 to 660 inches) optical space telescope that if realized could be a more direct successor to HST, with the ability to observe and photograph astronomical objects in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with substantially better resolution than Hubble or the Spitzer Space Telescope. The final planning report, prepared for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, suggested a launch date of 2039. The Decadal Survey eventually recommended that ideas for LUVOIR be combined with the Habitable Exoplanet Observer proposal to devise a new, 6-meter flagship telescope that could launch in the 2040s.
Existing ground-based telescopes, and various proposed Extremely Large Telescopes, can exceed the HST in terms of sheer light-gathering power and diffraction limit due to larger mirrors, but other factors affect telescopes. In some cases, they may be able to match or exceed Hubble in resolution by using adaptive optics (AO). However, AO on large ground-based reflectors will not make Hubble and other space telescopes obsolete. Most AO systems sharpen the view over a very narrow field: Lucky Cam, for example, produces crisp images just 10 to 20 arcseconds wide, whereas Hubble's cameras produce crisp images across a 150-arcsecond (2½ arcminutes) field. Furthermore, space telescopes can study the universe across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, most of which is blocked by Earth's atmosphere. Finally, the background sky is darker in space than on the ground, because air absorbs solar energy during the day and then releases it at night, producing a faint but discernible airglow that washes out low-contrast astronomical objects.
== See also ==
Hubble (2010 documentary)
List of deep fields
List of Hubble anniversary images
List of largest infrared telescopes
List of largest optical reflecting telescopes
List of space telescopes
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
== Further reading ==
Bahcall, John N.; Barish, Barry C.; Hewitt, Jacqueline N.; McKee, Christopher F.; et al. (August 2003). "Report of the HST–JWST Transition Panel" (PDF). NASA. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
Logsdon, John M.; Snyder, Amy Paige; Launius, Roger D.; Garber, Stephen J.; Newport, Regan Anne, eds. (2001). Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. NASA History Series. Vol. V: Exploring the Cosmos. NASA. ISBN 978-0-16-061774-4. NASA SP-2001-4407. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Contains many of the primary documents such as Spitzer's 1946 article, the Wood's Hole report on STScI autonomy, and the ESA memorandum of understanding. Also includes other NASA astronomy programs.
Pearce, Rohan (March 29, 2012). "What went wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope (and what managers can learn from it)". Techworld. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
Zimmerman, Robert F. (2010). The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14635-5.
== External links ==
HubbleSite
Hubble Space Telescope at NASA.gov
Spacetelescope.org Archived February 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, a Hubble outreach site by ESA
The Hubble Heritage Project and Hubble archives by STScI
Hubble archives by ESA
Hubble archives by CADC
Real-time Hubble location and tracking at uphere.space
Blueprints of Hubble by ESA |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glipodes_dietrichi | Glipodes dietrichi | Glipodes is a genus of tumbling flower beetles in the family Mordellidae. There are at least two described species in Glipodes, found in North, Central, and South America.
== Species ==
These two species belong to the genus Glipodes:
Glipodes sericans (Melsheimer, 1845) (North, Central, and South America)
Glipodes unistrigosa Pic, 1941 (South America)
== References ==
== External links == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexhmije_Pagarusha | Nexhmije Pagarusha | Nexhmije Pagarusha[a] (Albanian pronunciation: [neˈd͡ʒmijɛ pagaˈɾuʃa]; 7 May 1933 – 7 February 2020) was an albanian singer and actress from Kosovo, often referred to as the Queen of Albanian music. Pagarusha gained acclaim as a recording artist in Kosova and neighbouring countries for her distinct soprano vocal range, which she displayed performing various Albanian folk songs during her career, which spanned 36 years, from 1948, in her debut in Radio Prishtina, to 1984, in her final concert in Sarajevo. Her music style was not limited just to Albanian music, as she performed rock, pop, funk, opera/classical, and many more.
== Biography ==
Nexhmije Pagarusha was born in the small village of Pagarusha, near the town of Malisheva, Kosovo. She finished primary school in Malisheva and then went to Belgrade, where she attended a music school for three years, in the solo canto section. She began her music career as a singer for Radio Pristina in 1948.
Her musical creative work lasted for almost 40 years, and due to the contrast in genres she performed in, it is not easy to define Pagarusha as a specific type of singer. She sang both folk music and classical music, especially opera. Pagarusha was given titles such as Bilbili i Këngës Shqipe (Nightingale of Albanian Music), Queen of Albanian music, and Madame Butterfly.
She performed not just in her own country but also in other European countries, such as Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria etc. She led several tours with the music ensemble Shota in these countries, and also in Israel. In Kosovo, she gained the title Këngëtare e shekullit (Singer of the Century).
A song "Baresha" (The Shepherdess), is one of her most popular songs which is known as crown jewel of Albanian music. It was composed by her husband, Rexho Mulliqi and the lyrics were written by Rifat Kukaj. Pagarusha played in many theatre plays and movies and also as an actress she won many prizes.
She ended her music career in 1984 after holding a huge concert in Sarajevo. In 2000 she sang a song called "Për ty" (For You) in an Albanian TV show, after 16 years of absence. She worked as a senior adviser for music on Radio Kosovo and on Radio Blue Sky, both located in Pristina.
She was awarded the "Honor of the Nation" decoration (Albanian: Nderi i Kombit) by the President of Albania Bujar Nishani in November 2012.
Pagarusha died on 7 February 2020 due to an unknown disease.
== Singles ==
Pagarusha interpreted more than 150 songs. Some of her most successful ones are:
== Filmography ==
Makedonska krvava svadba, Albanian: Dasma e përgjakur, Bloody Wedding (1967) as Nedžmije Pagaruša
Jugovizija, Albanian: Jugovizioni, Jugovision (1973)
Gëzuar viti i ri, Happy New Year (1976)
E kafshoja terrin, Biting the darkness (1977)
I ikuri, Gone (1980)
Tre vetë kapërcejnë malin, Three people overpass the mountain (1981)
Lepuri me pesë këmbë, The Five-Legged Hare
Fluturimi i Micakut, Micak's flight
Daullet e të çmendurve, The drums of the crazy ones
Rexha i nënës në grazhd të kalit, Mother's son Rexha in the stall
Vrasësit bëjnë dasmë natën (1997), The killers throw a wedding at nighttime
== See also ==
Music of Kosovo
Music of Albania
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Nexhmije Pagarusha at IMDb
Fan site in Albanian |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simmi_Kahlon#:~:text=Following%20her%20death%2C%20a%20result,likely%20murdered%20by%20their%20mother. | Simmi Kahlon | Harsimrat Kahlon (1982 – October 4, 2009) was an Indian-Canadian serial killer who murdered three of her newborn infants between 2005 and 2009 in Calgary. Following her death, a result from complications from her last pregnancy, Kahlon's common-law husband Harnek Mahal found the infants' bodies stuffed in a suitcase and a box, reporting the findings to police, who later determined that the children were likely murdered by their mother.
== Early life ==
Harsimrat Kahlon was born in Chandigarh, India in 1982, to Sikh parents. In 1999, she emigrated to Canada, settling in with her aunt and uncle in Martindale. She was employed as an assistant and receptionist at a law firm, where her fellow employees described her as a hard worker who appeared to be very happy with life. Her live-in boyfriend, Harnek Mahal, was a long-haul trucker who worked away from home, and the couple were described as quiet and keeping mostly to themselves. They initially lived at a basement suite in Falconridge, before moving to the Taradale neighborhood in 2006.
== Death and exposure ==
On October 4, 2009, after returning home from work, Mahal found Kahlon lying face-down on the floor of her bedroom, motionless. He quickly called the police, who came to examine the apartment. Her death was ruled not to be suspicious, later determined to be complications from childbirth. On the following day, Mahal phoned the authorities again, claiming that he had found a suspicious suitcase in a garbage bag, which apparently had blood and others fluids dripping from it. A medical examiner was dispatched to the home and opened the bag, finding the body of a newborn infant in it.
A more thorough search was then conducted on the premises, with Mahal's sister making another one only a few hours in: another box with two corpses and a placenta in it. When queried on the matter, Mahal explained that he knew that Kahlon had been pregnant in the early 2000s, but both of them agreed that she'd get an abortion, and that he was unaware about the other two pregnancies. According to the investigating forensic psychologist, Dr. J. Thomas Dalby, it was likely that Kahlon had some kind of personality disorder or depression, leading to an unstable personality and self-loathing. In her secret diary, it was made clear that Kahlon felt no guilt about the children's deaths, but apparently felt some kind of attachment to them, as she had kept the bodies on her property long after they had died.
The first child was identified as Reet Kahlon, a baby girl born in 2005 at the Peter Lougheed Centre to an unknown father, who remained unaccounted for after her birth. When found, she was still wearing a hospital ID bracelet. The other two infants, who were apparently unnamed, were born alive at home in the summer of 2009 by Kahlon, while Mahal was away. Bloodied towels, sheets, clothing, cloths and a garden hose were used as crude instruments during the ordeal, and to hide the corpses after death, Kahlon hid them in her bedroom, spraying air freshener to mask the smell of decaying flesh. Questions surrounding the case, including why Kahlon killed the children and why she kept the bodies, have been left unanswered, and are likely to remain that way, as authorities have officially closed the case.
== See also ==
List of serial killers by country
Burton, S. & Dalby, J.T. (2012) Psychological autopsy in the investigation of serial neonaticides. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 57, 270–272.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berrien_Springs,_Michigan | Berrien Springs, Michigan | Berrien Springs is a village in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,910 at the time of the 2020 census. The village is located within Oronoko Charter Township.
== History ==
Berrien Springs, like Berrien County, is named for John M. Berrien. "Springs" was added after mineral springs were discovered in the area.
The village is the site of the earliest European-American settlement in Oronoko Township. It was first known as "Wolf's Prairie" in reference to the 1,000-acre prairie in which it was situated. The site had been a village under the leadership of a Potawatomi chief named Wolf.
The first permanent settlers (according to European-American terms), John Pike and his family, did not arrive until 1829.
Francis B. Murdoch was a co-founder of the village and the first lawyer in the county. (His surname was spelled as 'Murdock' in some records.) In 1831 he built a two-story log house, which is the oldest surviving example of its kind in Michigan. In 1973 this house was moved near courthouse square, to be part of that historic complex.
Murdoch was known in the Antebellum period for representing enslaved African Americans in freedom suits, in which they tried to gain freedom. Michigan was established as a free territory and later state. It went by the principle of "once free, always free". If slaveholders brought enslaved people to the state, the latter were judged to be free.
The village of Berrien was platted in 1831. The Berrien Springs post office opened with the name "Berrien" on December 4, 1832; this was changed to Berrien Springs on April 18, 1836.
Berrien Springs served as the county seat from 1837 until 1894, when St. Joseph was designated as the county seat.
=== 1839 courthouse ===
Berrien Springs courthouse, designed by local architect Gilbert B. Avery, was completed in 1839, making it the oldest courthouse in the state. The Greek Revival-style courthouse emulated the architecture of ancient Greece with its large columns, triangular pediment and white paint. After the county seat was moved in 1894, the building was put to various uses and briefly was vacant. In 1967, efforts to preserve and restore the courthouse were started. Such restoration was completed by 1975.
The restored courthouse square also features the Midwest's most complete surviving mid-nineteenth century county government complex. Today the square houses a county museum and archives. The courthouse serves as headquarters for the Berrien County Historical Association. Its original buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property is dedicated to the preservation of Berrien County's history and does this through permanent and temporary exhibits, programs, events, and community outreach.
=== Christmas pickle capital of the world ===
Berrien Springs was once known as the Christmas pickle capital of the world. A festival was established by the Berrien Springs-Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce, the Berrien County Historical Association (BCHA), and the village. They featured parades, games, activities, and a Pickle Prince and Princess contest. The event ran until the mid-2000s. In 2021, the Pickle Festival was revived by the Village, the BCHA, and the Berrien Springs Community Library.
== Geography ==
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.02 square miles (2.64 km2), of which 0.94 square miles (2.43 km2) is land and 0.08 square miles (0.21 km2) is water. The village is situated on the St. Joseph River.
== Demographics ==
=== 2010 census ===
As of the census of 2010, there were 1,800 people, 756 households, and 463 families living in the village. The population density was 1,914.9 inhabitants per square mile (739.3/km2). There were 837 housing units at an average density of 890.4 per square mile (343.8/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 72.7% White, 12.9% African American, 0.4% Native American, 5.1% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 3.8% from other races, and 4.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 12.9% of the population.
There were 756 households, of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 16.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.4% had a male householder with no wife present, and 38.8% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.95.
The median age in the village was 34.6 years. 22.8% of residents were under the age of 18; 13.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.2% were from 25 to 44; 23.3% were from 45 to 64; and 13.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 47.9% male and 52.1% female.
=== 2000 census ===
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,862 people, 732 households, and 475 families living in the village. The population density was 2,059.6 inhabitants per square mile (795.2/km2). There were 787 housing units at an average density of 870.5 per square mile (336.1/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 77.12% White, 11.06% African American, 0.43% Native American, 4.03% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 4.30% from other races, and 2.90% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 8.92% of the population.
There were 732 households, out of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.2% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.0% were non-families. 29.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the village, 23.0% of the population was under the age of 18, 11.9% was from 18 to 24, 28.7% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.1 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $32,396, and the median income for a family was $41,250. Males had a median income of $31,467 versus $21,750 for females. The per capita income for the village was $16,093. About 12.4% of families and 17.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.4% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.
== Schools ==
=== Elementary ===
Mars Elementary – public, grades K-2
Sylvester Elementary – public, grades 3–5
Berrien Springs Middle School – public, grades 6–8
Trinity Lutheran School – private, religious (Lutheran), grades preK – 8
Ruth Murdoch Elementary – private, religious (Seventh-day Adventist), grades K-8
Village SDA Elementary – private, religious (Seventh-day Adventist), grades K-8
=== Secondary ===
Andrews Academy – private, religious (Seventh-day Adventist), grades 9–12
Berrien Springs High School – public, grades 9–12; team name: Shamrocks; team colors: green and white
Blossomland Learning Center, run by Berrien County RESA – preschool through age 26
=== Post-secondary ===
Andrews University is located outside of town, but still in Oronoko Charter Township. It is served by the Berrien Springs post office.
== Notable people ==
Muhammad Ali, professional boxer, considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history; owned a home in the Berrien Springs area
Francis B. Murdoch, attorney and co-founder of Berrien Springs
Regan Upshaw, defensive lineman for five NFL teams; born in Berrien Springs (1975)
== References ==
=== Notes ===
=== Sources ===
Romig, Walter (October 1, 1986) [1973]. Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities (Paperback). Great Lakes Books Series. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1838-X. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal | Taj Mahal | The Taj Mahal ( TAHJ mə-HAHL, TAHZH -; Hindustani: [taːdʒ ˈmɛɦ(ɛ)l]; lit. 'Crown of the Palace') is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), to house the tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
Construction of the mausoleum was completed in 1648, but work continued on other phases of the project for another five years. The first ceremony held at the mausoleum was an observance by Shah Jahan, on 6 February 1643, of the 12th anniversary of the death of Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around ₹32 million, which in 2015 would be approximately ₹52.8 billion (US$827 million).
The building complex incorporates the design traditions of Indo-Islamic and Mughal architecture. It employs symmetrical constructions with the usage of various shapes and symbols. While the mausoleum is constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones, red sandstone was used for other buildings in the complex similar to the Mughal era buildings of the time. The construction project employed more than 20,000 workers and artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ustad Ahmad Lahori, the emperor's court architect.
The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being "the jewel of Islamic art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". It is regarded as one of the best examples of Mughal architecture and a symbol of Indian history. The Taj Mahal is a major tourist attraction and attracts more than five million visitors a year. In 2007, it was declared a winner of the New 7 Wonders of the World initiative. The Taj Mahal and its setting, surrounding grounds, and structures are a Monument of National Importance, administered by the Archaeological Survey of India.
== Etymology ==
The name "Taj Mahal" is of Urdu origin, and believed to be derived from Arabic and Persian, with the words tāj mahall meaning "crown" (tāj) "palace" (mahall). An alternative derivation of "taj" is that it was a corruption of the second syllable of "Mumtaz".
Abdul Hamid Lahori, in his 1636 book Padshahnama, refers to the Taj Mahal as rauza-i munawwara (Perso-Arabic: روضه منواره, rawdah-i munawwarah), meaning the illumined or illustrious tomb.
== Inspiration ==
The Taj Mahal was commissioned by Shah Jahan in 1631, to be built in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died on 17 June that year while giving birth to their 14th child, Gauhara Begum. Construction started in 1632, and the mausoleum was completed in 1648, while the surrounding buildings and garden were finished five years later.
The imperial court documenting Shah Jahan's grief after the death of Mumtaz Mahal illustrates the love story held as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal. According to contemporary historians Muhammad Amin Qazvini, Abdul Hamid Lahori and Muhammad Saleh Kamboh, Shah Jahan did not show the same level of affection for others as he had shown Mumtaz while she was alive. After her death, he avoided royal affairs for a week due to his grief and gave up listening to music and lavish dressing for two years. Shah Jahan was enamoured by the beauty of the land at the south side of Agra on which a mansion belonging to Raja Jai Singh I stood. He chose the place for the construction of Mumtaz's tomb after which Jai Singh agreed to give it to emperor Shah Jahan in exchange for a large palace in the centre of Agra.
== Architecture and design ==
The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Indo-Islamic and Mughal architecture. Inspirations for the building came from Timurid and Mughal buildings including the Gur-e Amir in Samarkand (the tomb of Timur, progenitor of the Mughal dynasty) and Humayun's Tomb in Delhi which inspired the Charbagh gardens and hasht-behesht plan of the site. The building complex employs symmetrical constructions with the usage of various shapes and symbols. While the mausoleum is constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones, red sandstone was used for other buildings in the complex similar to the Mughal era buildings of the time. The entire complex sits on a platform measuring 300 metres (980 ft) in length and 8.7 metres (28.5 ft) in height on the banks of the Yamuna river. The platform is built with varying patterns of dark and light colored sandstone.
=== Exterior ===
The mausoleum building is the central structure of the entire complex. It is a white marble structure standing on a 6-metre (20 ft) high square plinth with sides measuring 95.5 metres (313 ft) in length. The base structure is a large multi-chambered cube with chamfered corners forming an eight-sided structure that is approximately 57.3 metres (188 ft) long on each of the four long sides.
The building has four identical sides with iwans (arch-shaped doorways), topped by a large dome and finial. Each side of the iwan is framed with a 33-metre (108 ft) high pishtaq (vaulted archway) with two similarly shaped arched balconies stacked on either side. This motif of archways is replicated on a smaller scale on the chamfered corner areas, making the design completely symmetrical. At the southern side of the platform, facing the garden, there are two flights of stairs on either side which are partly covered and provide the only access from ground level up to the mausoleum building.
The predominant feature of the mausoleum is the 23-metre (75 ft) high marble dome that surmounts the tomb. The onion shaped dome sits on a 12-metre (39 ft) high cylindrical drum with an inner diameter of 18.4 metres (60 ft). The dome is slightly asymmetrical and is topped by a 9.6-metre (31 ft) high gilded finial. The intermediate zone between the drum and the dome is supplanted by an ornamental moulding with a twisted rope design.
The main dome is surrounded by four smaller domes or chattris placed at its corners, which replicate the onion shape of the main dome. The smaller domes are supported by columns which stand on the top of the main structure and help bring light to the interior of the building. Tall spires called guldastas extend from edges of walls which serve as decorative elements. The main and the smaller domes are decorated with a design resembling a lotus flower. The domes are topped by decorative finials which uses Persian and Indian design elements. The main finial was originally made of gold but was replaced by a copy made of gilded bronze in the early 19th century. The finial is topped by a moon, a typical Islamic motif, whose horns point heavenward.
Four minarets flank the tomb building, one at each corner of the plinth facing the chamfered corners. The four minarets, which are each more than 40 metres (130 ft) tall, are symmetrically arranged on the corners facing the chamfered corners of the main building. Each minaret is composed of three almost equal parts with balconies at the intersection of the portions. The towers are also surmounted by smaller chattris and incorporate the same design elements as the main dome with a finial. Steps lead to the top of the tower with rectangular openings below the domes providing light and air on the top. The minarets were designed similar to traditional elements of a mosque, which are used by the muezzin to call for prayer. The minarets were constructed slightly oriented towards the outside of the plinth so that in the event of collapse, the material from the towers would tend to fall away from the tomb.
The external surfaces of the building are decorated with a number of delicate relief art adorned with various precious and semi-previous stones. The decorative elements were created by applying paint, stucco, stone inlays or carvings. In line with the Islamic prohibition against the use of anthropomorphic forms, the decorative elements can be grouped into either calligraphy, abstract forms or vegetative motifs. The white marble dados consist of ornamental bas relief depictions of nature and plant based elements. The marble has been polished to emphasise the exquisite detailing of the carvings and the frames and archway spandrels are decorated with pietra dura inlays of stylised geometric pattern of vines, flowers and fruits.
The domes and vaults of the sandstone buildings are worked with tracery of incised painting to create elaborate geometric forms. Herringbone inlays define the space between the adjoining elements. White inlays are used in sandstone buildings, and dark or black inlays on the white marbles. Contrasting colors have been used to create a complex array of different geometric patterns across the mortared areas of the buildings. The floors and walkways are laid with tiles or blocks with contrasting colors and consisting of various tessellation patterns. The plinth is differentiated from the paved surface of the main platform by an interlocking pattern of octagonal white marble pieces set into four pointed stars made of red sandstone, surrounded by a border. The building has many lattice windows or jalis with interlocking hexagonal patterns.
The gateway arches are bordered by Arabic calligraphy with passages from the Qur'an. Much of the calligraphy is composed of florid thuluth script made of jasper or black marble inlaid in white marble panels. Higher panels are written with slightly larger script to reduce the skewing effect when viewed from below. The calligraphy on the southern gate roughly translates to "O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you." The calligraphy on the buildings were believed to have been created in 1609 by Abdul Haq, who was conferred the title of "Amanat Khan" by Shah Jahan. At the base of the interior dome is the inscription, "Written by the insignificant being, Amanat Khan Shirazi".
=== Interior ===
The main inner chamber is an octagon with 7.3-metre (24 ft) sides, with the design allowing for entry from each face with the main door facing the garden to the south. Two tiers of eight pishtaq arches are located along the walls, similar to the exterior. The four central upper arches form balconies or viewing areas, and each balcony's exterior window has an intricate jali. The inner wall is open along the axes where jali screens are fitted which transmit light from the exterior to the interior of the main chamber. Except the south side, other three sides consist of an open elongated room flanked by two square cells covered with decorated ceilings set on the platform. The central room has arched openings on three sides fitted with jalis filled with panes of glass and a small rectangular window cut into the central jali. The square cells which are reached through separate doors were probably originally used for visitors and Qur'an reciters as a place to rest. Staircases lead from the ground floor to the roof level, where there are corridors between the central hall and the two corner rooms in the south with a system of ventilation shafts.
The interior walls are about 25 metres (82 ft) high and are topped by a "false" interior dome decorated with a sun motif. The inlay work is a lapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones. Each chamber wall is highly decorated with dado bas-relief, intricate lapidary inlay and refined calligraphy panels similar to the design elements seen throughout the exterior of the complex. The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan, while the real ones are in the basement. Perforated marble jalis (mahjar-i mushabbak) border the cenotaphs and are made from eight marble panels carved through with intricate pierce work inlaid in delicate detail with semi-precious stones. The cenotaphs were originally covered by a screen made of gold on the occasion of the second anniversary of Mumtaz Mahal's death in 1633, which was later replaced by the marble screen in 1643.
Situated within the screen in the upper main chamber are the likenesses of the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan with the actual burials done below in the lower tomb chamber. From the southern main entrance room, a stairway leads to the lower tomb chamber which is rectangular in shape with walls laid with marble and an undecorated coved ceiling. The cenotaph of Mumtaz is located in the exact center of the chamber on a marble base of 1.5 by 2.5 metres (4 ft 11 in by 8 ft 2 in). Shah Jahan's cenotaph is situated on a larger base on the western side in an asymmetrical arrangement. On the top is a traditional sculpture of a small pen box denoting it as a male tomb. The cenotaphs are aligned north–south, with the head towards the north and the bodies were laid in on their sides with the face turned towards the west, facing Mecca.
The calligraphy found on the marble cenotaphs in the tomb is particularly detailed and delicate. While the cenotaphs are similar to the ones from the Mughal era, no other tombs from the era were adorned with such an exquisite decoration. On Mumtaz's sarcophagus on the top, the decoration consists of natural plum fruits, buds and flower blossoms inlaid with Qur'anic inscriptions with the epitaph reading "The illumined grave of Arjumand Bano Begam, entided Mumtaz Mahal, who died in the year 1631". The original tomb in the lower level is largely undecorated, with Ninety Nine Names of God inscribed on the side. The false cenotaph of Shah Jahan has similar decorations and is covered with flowers and other scroll work without any inscriptions. The epitaph surrounded by red poppy flowers reads "This is the sacred grave of His Most Exalted Majesty, Dweller in Paradise (Firdaus Ashiyani), Second Lord of the Auspicious. Conjunction (Sahib-i Qiran-i Sani), Shah Jahan, Padshah; may it ever be fragrant! The year 1076 [AD 1666]". The original cenotaph of Shah Jahan is a more simply decorated version with similar red flowers and yellow plants with a more comprehensive epitaph reading "This is the illumined grave and sacred resting place of the emperor, dignified as Rizwan, residing in Eternity, His Majesty, having his abode in [the celestial realm of] Illiyun, Dweller in Paradise (Firdaus Ashiyani) [posthumous title of Shah Jahan], the Second Sahib-i Qiran, Shah Jahan, Padshah Ghazi [Warrior for the Faith]; may it be sanctified and may Paradise become his abode. He travelled from this world to the banquet hall of eternity on the night of the twenty-sixth of the month of Rajab, in the year one thousand and seventy-six Hijri [31 January AD 1666]".
=== Garden ===
The complex is set around a large charbagh or Mughal garden. The garden is divided by two main walkways (khiyaban) into four quadrants with further raised pathways that divide each of the four-quarters into 16 sunken parterres or flowerbeds. The garden is surrounded by a walkway connecting all the quadrants. Halfway between the tomb and gateway in the centre of the garden is a raised marble water tank with five fountains and a reflecting pool positioned on a north–south axis to reflect the image of the mausoleum. The elevated marble water tank is called al Hawd al-Kawthar in reference to the "Tank of Abundance" promised to Muhammad. Elsewhere, the garden is laid out with avenues of trees and fountains. In the north-western quadrant, is a place that marks the site where Mumtaz Mahal was first buried, before her body was moved to its final resting place inside the main chamber of the mausoleum.
The charbagh garden, a design inspired by Persian gardens, was introduced to India by Babur, the first Mughal emperor and symbolises the Paradise garden (Jannah) with four rivers flowing from a central spring or mountain, separating the garden into north, west, south and east. While most gardens of the era are rectangular with a tomb or pavilion in the centre, the Taj gardens is unusual in that the main element, the tomb, is located at the end of the garden. With the discovery of Mahtab Bagh ("Moonlight Garden") on the other side of the Yamuna river, the Archaeological Survey of India has hypothesised that the Yamuna river itself was incorporated into the garden's design and was meant to be seen as one of the rivers of Paradise. Similarities in layout and architectural features with the Shalimar Gardens suggest that both gardens may have been designed by the same architect, Ali Mardan. Early accounts of the garden describe its profusion of vegetation, including abundant roses, daffodils, and fruit trees. As the Mughal Empire declined, the gardens were not maintained, and when the British Raj assumed management of the gardens, they changed the landscaping to resemble the formal lawns of London in the 19th century.
The water supply for the gardens were derived from the Yamuna River, where a water channel transported the water into an underground reservoir along the eastern wall of a storage building containing multiple storage tanks. The water from the reservoir was lifted by means of a system of pulleys and wheels, turned by animals, to a tank that supplied an aqueduct which ran south carrying water up to the western wall before turning east. The water was later distributed throughout the garden through earthenware pipes embedded underground. The fountains in the central tank consisted of large vessels made of copper and inter-connected through copper pipes and the drop from the 9.47 m (31.1 ft) high walls created the necessary water for the fountains.
=== Outlying buildings ===
The Taj Mahal complex is enclosed by crenellated red sandstone walls on three sides, with the side facing the Yamuna river left open. Outside the complex walls, there are other mausoleums dedicated to Shah Jahan's other wives, royals and favorite servants. The inner sides of the walls feature columned arcades, adorned with domed cuppola like chattris and smaller structures like the Music House interspersed between them. The main gateway, primarily built of marble, mirrors the tomb's architecture and incorporates intricate decorations like bas-relief and pietra dura inlays. At the far end of the complex stand two similar buildings built of red sandstone, one of which is designated as a mosque and the other as a jawab, a structure to provide architectural symmetry. The mosque's design resembles others built during the era and the jawab has floors with inlaid patterns while lacking a mihrab.
== Construction ==
The land on which the Taj Mahal is situated was present to the south of the walled city of Agra which was given to Shah Jahan by Raja Jai Singh I in exchange for a large palace in the centre of Agra. The building was commissioned in 1631, and construction commenced in 1632. An area of roughly 1.2 hectares (3 acres) was excavated, filled with dirt to reduce seepage, and levelled at 50 metres (160 ft) above the riverbank level. In the tomb area, piles were dug and filled with lime and stone to form the footings of the tomb. The platform above the ground was constructed of brick and mortar.
The tomb complex was built mainly using brick and lime mortar. The external surface of the main tomb building and the interior of the main cenotaph chamber is veneered with white marble. The other interior surfaces and other accessory buildings are lined with red sandstone coated with a red octet for protection, excluding the exterior surfaces of domes. The white marble came from Makrana in Rajasthan, while the red sandstone was quarried from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh. Many precious and semi-precious stones, used for decoration, were imported from across the world, including jade and crystal from China, turquoise from Tibet, Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, sapphire from Sri Lanka and carnelian from Arabia. In all, 28 types of precious and semi-precious stone were inlaid into the white marble.
It is believed that more than 20,000 artisans, labourers, painters and others were involved in the construction of the building. Specialist sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, designers from southern India, stone cutters from Baluchistan and Italian artisans were employed. Workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the tomb rather than wooden scaffolds. A 15 km (9.3 mi) long earthern ramp was built to transport marble and materials to the construction site, hauled on specially constructed wagons by teams of oxen and elephants. An elaborate post-and-beam pulley system was used to raise the blocks into the desired position. Water was drawn from the river by a series of an animal-powered devices.
When the structure was partially completed, the first ceremony was held at the mausoleum by Shah Jahan on 6 February 1643, of the 12th anniversary of the death of Mumtaz Mahal. Construction of the mausoleum was completed in 1648, but work continued on other phases of the project for another five years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around ₹32 million, which in 2015 would be approximately ₹52.8 billion (US$827 million).
== Later years ==
In December 1652, Shah Jahan's son Aurangzeb wrote a letter to his father about the tomb, the mosque and the assembly hall of the complex developing extensive leaks during the previous rainy season. In 1658, Shah Jahan was deposed by Aurangzeb and put under house arrest at the nearby Agra Fort from where he could see the Taj Mahal. Upon Shah Jahan's death in 1666, Aurangzeb buried him in the mausoleum next to his wife. In the 18th century, the Jat rulers of Bharatpur attacked the Taj Mahal while invading Agra and took away two chandeliers, one of agate and another of silver, which had hung over the main cenotaph and the gold and silver screen. Kanbo, a Mughal historian, said the gold shield which covered the 4.6-metre-high (15 ft) finial at the top of the main dome was also removed during the Jat despoliation.
By the late 19th century, parts of the buildings had fallen into disrepair. At the end of the century, British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a restoration project, which was completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber and replaced the gardens with European-style lawns that are still in place today.
In 1942, the government erected scaffolding to disguise the building in anticipation of air attacks by the Japanese Air Force. Since Indian independence in 1947, the Archaeological Survey of India has been responsible for the maintenance of the monument. During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, scaffolding was again erected to mislead bomber pilots.
In 1983, the Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for being "the jewel of Islamic art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".
Since the late 20th century, the monument has been affected by environmental pollution which has turned the Taj Mahal yellow-brown. Acid rain and pollution affecting the Yamuna River including the presence of Mathura Oil Refinery, have contributed to the same. After directives by the Supreme Court of India pursuant to M. C. Mehta v. Union of India & Ors. case in 1997, the Indian government set up the "Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ)", a 10,400-square-kilometre (4,000 sq mi) area around the monument where strict emissions standards are in place.
Concerns for the tomb's structural integrity have recently been raised because of a decline in the groundwater level in the Yamuna river basin, with cracks appearing in parts of the tomb in 2010 and the minarets surrounding the monument showing signs of tilting. Minor damage was reported due to storms on 11 April 2018 and 31 May 2020. In the 2020s, the Government of India has undertaken various restoration measures, including placing mud packs to restore the white color and replacing broken marble.
== Symbolism ==
Due to the global attention that it has received and the millions of visitors it attracts, the Taj Mahal has become a prominent image that is associated with India, and in this way has become a symbol of India itself.
Along with being a renowned symbol of love, the Taj Mahal is also a symbol of Shah Jahan's wealth and power, and the fact that the empire had prospered under his rule. Bilateral symmetry, dominated by a central axis, has historically been used by rulers as a symbol of a ruling force that brings balance and harmony, and Shah Jahan applied that concept in the making of the Taj Mahal. Additionally, the plan is aligned in the cardinal north–south direction and the corners have been placed so that when seen from the centre of the plan, the sun can be seen rising and setting on the north and south corners on the summer and winter solstices respectively. This makes the Taj a symbolic horizon.
The planning and structure of the Taj Mahal, from the building itself to the gardens and beyond, is symbolic of Mumtaz Mahal's mansion in the garden of Paradise. The concept of gardens of paradise is extended into the building of the mausoleum as well. The structure is decorated with colorful relief and semi-precious stones using a technique called parchin kari, symbolizing grandeur. The building appears to slightly change colour depending on the time of day and the weather. The white marble reflects varying hues—pinkish in the morning, milky white during the day, golden in the moonlight, and sometimes even a bluish hue under certain lighting conditions. This effect is due to the marble's surface reacting to light and moisture, creating a magical and ever-changing visual experience. The sky has not only been incorporated in the design through the reflecting pools but also through the surface of the building itself. This is another way to imply the presence of Allah at the site.
According to Ebba Koch, art historian and international expert in the understanding and interpretation of Mughal architecture and the Taj Mahal, the planning of the entire compound symbolises earthly life and the afterlife, a subset of the symbolisation of the divine. The plan was split into two – one half is the white marble mausoleum itself and the gardens, and the other half is the red sandstone side, meant for worldly markets. Only the mausoleum is white so as to represent the enlightenment, spirituality and faith of Mumtaz Mahal. Koch has deciphered that symbolic of Islamic teachings, the plan of the worldly side is a mirror image of the otherworldly side, and the grand gate in the middle represents the transition between the two worlds.
== Tourism ==
The Taj Mahal is a major tourist attraction and attracts a large number of domestic and foreign visitors. About five million visitors visited Taj Mahal in the financial year 2022–23. A three-tier pricing system is in place, with a significantly lower entrance fee for Indian citizens and more expensive ones for foreigners. As of 2024, the fee for Indian citizens was ₹50, for citizens of SAARC and BIMSTEC countries, it was ₹540 and for other foreign tourists, it was ₹1,100. Visitors are allowed through three gates and as polluting vehicles are not allowed near the complex, tourists must either walk or take electric buses from the designated parking areas. The complex is open on all days except on Friday from one hour before sunrise to 45 minutes before sunset. The complex is open for limited night viewing on the day of the full moon, excluding the month of Ramadan. In 2019, to address overtourism, the site instituted fines for visitors who stayed longer than three hours. As per a 2025 government report, the Taj Mahal earned ₹297 crore (US$35 million) over five years, making it the highest-earning ASI monument.
The small town to the south of the Taj, known as Taj Ganji or Mumtazabad, was initially constructed with caravanserais, bazaars and markets to serve the needs of visitors and workers. Lists of recommended travel destinations often feature the Taj Mahal, which also appears in several listings of seven wonders of the modern world, including the New Seven Wonders of the World, a poll conducted in 2007. Foreign dignitaries often visit the Taj Mahal on trips to India.
== Myths ==
Ever since its construction, the building has been the source of an admiration transcending culture and geography, and so personal and emotional responses have consistently eclipsed scholastic appraisals of the monument. A longstanding myth holds that Shah Jahan planned a mausoleum to be built in black marble as a Black Taj Mahal across the Yamuna river. The idea originates from fanciful writings of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a European traveler and gem merchant, who visited Agra in 1665. It was suggested that his son Aurangzeb overthrew Shah Jahan before it could be built. Ruins of blackened marble across the river in the Mehtab Bagh seeming to support the argument were, however, proven false after excavations carried out in the 1990s found that they were discolored white stones that had turned black. A more credible theory for the origins of the black mausoleum was demonstrated in 2006 by archaeologists who reconstructed part of the pool in the Mehtab Bagh. A dark reflection of the white mausoleum could clearly be seen, befitting Shah Jahan's obsession with symmetry and the positioning of the pool itself.
No concrete evidence exists for claims that describe, often in horrific detail, the deaths, dismemberment and mutilations which Shah Jahan supposedly inflicted on various architects and craftsmen associated with the tomb. Some stories claim that those involved in construction signed contracts committing themselves to have no part in any similar design. No evidence exists for claims that Lord William Bentinck, governor-general of India in the 1830s, supposedly planned to demolish the Taj Mahal and auction off the marble. Bentinck's biographer John Rosselli says that the story arose from Bentinck's fund-raising sale of discarded marble from Agra Fort. Another myth suggests that beating the silhouette of the finial will cause water to come forth. To this day, officials find broken bangles surrounding the silhouette.
Several myths, none of which are supported by the archaeological record, have appeared asserting that people other than Shah Jahan and the original architects were responsible for the construction of the Taj Mahal. For instance, in 2000, India's Supreme Court dismissed P. N. Oak's petition to declare that a Hindu king built the Taj Mahal. In 2005, a similar petition brought by Amar Nath Mishra, a social worker and preacher claiming that the Taj Mahal was built by the Hindu king Paramardi in 1196, was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court. Several court cases and statements by right-wing politicians about Taj Mahal being a Hindu temple have been inspired by P. N. Oak's 1989 book Taj Mahal: The True Story, in which he claimed it was built in 1155 AD and not in the 17th century. In November 2015, the Union Minister of Culture stated in the Indian Parliament that there was no evidence that it was ever a temple. In August 2017, the Archaeological Survey of India declared that there was no evidence to suggest the monument ever housed a temple.
Another such unsupported theory, that the Taj Mahal was designed by an Italian, Geronimo Vereneo, held sway for a brief period after it was first promoted by Henry George Keene in 1879. Keene went by a translation of a Spanish work, Itinerario (The Travels of Fray Sebastian Manrique, 1629–1643). Another theory, that a Frenchman named Austin of Bordeaux designed the Taj, was promoted by William Henry Sleeman based on the work of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. These ideas were revived by Father Hosten and discussed again by E. B. Havell and served as the basis for subsequent theories and controversies.
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Citations ===
=== General sources ===
== External links ==
Official website of the Taj Mahal
Description of the Taj Mahal at the Archaeological Survey of India
Profile of the Taj Mahal at UNESCO
"Outlying Buildings". Taj Mahal. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2015. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_the_Rocks | Virgin of the Rocks | The Virgin of the Rocks (Italian: Vergine delle rocce), sometimes the Madonna of the Rocks, is the name of two paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, with a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, the earlier of the two, is unrestored and hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The other, which was restored between 2008 and 2010, hangs in the National Gallery, London. The works are often known as the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks and London Virgin of the Rocks respectively. The paintings are both nearly 2 metres (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils. Both were originally painted on wooden panels, but the Louvre version has been transferred to canvas.
Both paintings show the Virgin Mary and child Jesus with the infant John the Baptist and an angel Uriel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel. There are many minor ways in which the works differ, including the colours, the lighting, the flora, and the way in which sfumato has been used. Although the date of an associated commission is documented, the complete histories of the two paintings are unknown, leading to speculation about which of the two is earlier.
Two further paintings are associated with the commission: side panels each containing an angel playing a musical instrument and completed by associates of Leonardo. These are both in the National Gallery, London.
== The paintings ==
=== Louvre version ===
The Virgin of the Rocks in the Louvre is considered by most art historians to be the earlier of the two and dates from around 1483–1486. Most authorities agree that the work is entirely by Leonardo. It is about 8 cm (3 in) taller than the London version. The first certain record of this picture dates from 1625, when it was in the French royal collection. It is generally accepted that this painting was produced to fulfill a commission of 1483 in Milan. It is hypothesised that this painting was privately sold by Leonardo and that the London version was painted at a later date to fill the commission. There are a number of other theories to explain the existence of two paintings. This painting is regarded as a perfect example of Leonardo's "sfumato" technique.
=== London version ===
A very similar painting in the National Gallery, London, is also ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, and ascribed a date before 1508. Originally thought to have been partially painted by Leonardo's assistants, a close inspection of the painting during the recent restoration between 2008 and 2010 has led the conservators from the National Gallery to conclude that the greater part of the work is by the hand of Leonardo, but debate continues. Parts of the painting, the flowers in particular, indicate the collaboration and have led to speculation that the work is entirely by other hands, possibly Leonardo's assistant Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis and perhaps Evangelista.
It was painted for the chapel of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, in the church of San Francesco Maggiore in Milan. It was sold by the church, very likely in 1781, and certainly by 1785, when it was bought by Gavin Hamilton, who took it to England. After passing through various collections, it was bought by the National Gallery in 1880.
=== Angels ===
Two paintings of angels playing musical instruments are believed to have been part of the composition that was set into the altarpiece. These two pictures, now in the National Gallery, London, are thought to have been completed between 1490 and 1495. One, an angel in red, is thought to be the work of Ambrogio de Predis while the angel in green is thought to be the work of a different assistant of Leonardo, perhaps Francesco Napoletano.
== History ==
=== Chapel of the Immaculate Conception ===
The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception was founded prior to 1335 by Beatrice d'Este, wife of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The chapel was attached to the church of San Francesco Grande, Milan.
In 1479 the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception contracted Francesco Zavattari and Giorgio della Chiesa to decorate the vault of the chapel. In 1480 the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception contracted Giacomo del Maino to create a large wooden altarpiece with spaces for paintings and with carvings and decoration, to be placed above the altar of the chapel. Final payment was to be made on August 7, 1482.
=== Commission for the painting ===
On April 25, 1483, Prior Bartolomeo Scorlione and the Confraternity contracted Leonardo da Vinci, and the brothers Ambrogio and Evangelista de Predis to provide the painted panels for the altarpiece. The contract was not explicit about what each artist was to do. Leonardo was referred to in the contract as "Master". Ambrogio de Predis was also a painter. It is presumed that Evangelista de Predis was a gilder and assisted in preparing the colours.
The details of the painting, colouring and gilding are set out in the contract. The central panel was to be a painting showing the Virgin Mary and Christ child, with two prophets, probably David and Isaiah, surrounded by angels. Above them was to be a lunette containing a relief panel of God and the Virgin Mary, beneath which was a panel showing the crib. The relief figures were to be brightly painted and gilded. To either side of the central painting were to be painted panels showing four angelic musicians on one side and four singing angels on the other. A number of sculptured relief panels were to depict the life of the Virgin Mary. Details of the colours and the gilding of the major parts were specified in the contract.
The due date of installation was December 8, 1483, the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, giving seven months for its completion.
=== Payment ===
On May 1, 1483, there was an initial payment of 100 Lire. This was followed by payments of 40 Lire per month from July 1483 until February 1485 totalling 800 Lire. A final payment was to be negotiated upon completion and delivery of the work in December 1483.
Between 1490 and 1495, Ambrogio and Leonardo wrote to the Confraternity stating that the centrepiece had cost the whole 800 Lire and they asked for a further 1,200 Lire, according to the contract. The Confraternity offered them only 100 Lire as a result of the petition. Leonardo and Ambrogio then requested Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, to intervene on their behalf. It was suggested that the altarpiece should be assessed by experts and evaluated, for the final payment. The artists also suggested that if an agreement over price could not be met, then they should remove the artwork.
In 1503 Ambrogio again appealed for payment, on his own behalf and that of the heirs of his now deceased brother, Evangelista. On March 9, 1503, Louis XII of France, who had invaded Lombardy in 1499, wrote to the commander of Milan requesting that he intervene on behalf of the artists. On June 23, 1503, the Confraternity set out a deed contesting de Predis' request for evaluation or return of the painting. On April 27, 1506, an evaluation was made. It was judged that the work was still incomplete. Leonardo was requested to finish it, but he was still absent from Milan.
On August 18, 1508, the painting was delivered and put into place. On August 7, 1507, and October 23, 1508, Ambrogio received two payments totalling 200 Lire. The receipt of this payment is acknowledged in correspondence by Leonardo.
=== 1524–2011 ===
==== National Gallery painting ====
In 1524 and 1576 The Virgin of the Rocks in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, presumably the London version, was invoked against the plague. In 1576, the altarpiece was removed from the chapel, which was demolished. In mid-1785, Gavin Hamilton, a Scottish painter and dealer, paid 1,582 Lire to purchase the Virgin of the Rocks from Alessandro, Count Cicogna, administrator of the religious body which succeeded the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. Hamilton's heirs sold the painting to Lord Lansdowne, who had amassed considerable debts. After his death in 1805, his son John was forced to sell nearly all of his father's collections and the painting was purchased by the 15th Earl of Suffolk. In 1880, the painting was sold by the 18th Earl of Suffolk to the National Gallery for 9,000 guineas. It was reported at that time to be in a poor state and was attributed by some critics to Leonardo and by others to Bernardino Luini.
In June 2005, the painting was examined by infra-red reflectogram. This imaging revealed a draft of a different painting beneath the visible one. The draft portrays a woman, probably kneeling, with her right hand outstretched and her left on her heart. Some researchers believe that the artist's original intention was to paint an adoration of the infant Jesus. In 2021, Oxia Palus–an artificial intelligence company specialised in the reconstruction of lost artwork–used machine learning techniques to reconstruct this pentimento using the entire oeuvre of Leonardeschi paintings. Many other pentimenti are visible under x-ray or infra-red examination.
In 2009/2010 the painting underwent cleaning and conservation work, returning to display in July 2010. The National Gallery, in a preliminary announcement of the results of the work, said that it revealed that the painting was largely, possibly entirely, by Leonardo, and unfinished in parts. The full publication of the findings was released later in 2010.
==== Louvre painting ====
In 1625 the Virgin of the Rocks now in the Louvre was seen at Fontainebleau by Cassiano dal Pozzo. In 1806, the French restorer Fr Hacquin transferred the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks from its panel onto canvas. For a brief time in 2011–12 it was hung with the London painting as part of an exhibition in the National Gallery on Leonardo's activity as painter to the court of Ludovico Sforza.
==== Side panels ====
The two panels from the completed altarpiece containing figures of angels playing musical instruments were acquired by the National Gallery, London in 1898.
== Subject ==
The subject of the two paintings is the adoration of the Christ child by the infant John the Baptist. This subject relates to a non-Biblical event which became part of the medieval tradition of the Holy Family’s journey into Egypt. The Gospel of Matthew relates that Joseph, the husband of Mary, was warned in a dream that King Herod would attempt to kill the child Jesus, and that he was to take the child and his mother and flee to safety. There are a series of non-Biblical narratives that relate to the journey to Egypt. One of these concerns Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, whose family, like that of Jesus, resided in the town of Bethlehem where the Massacre of the Innocents was to take place. According to legend, John was escorted to Egypt by the Archangel Uriel, and met the holy family on the road. The Louvre website refers to the angel in the painting as "Gabriel" (but the description of the painting in the Louvre still refers to Uriel). This accords with the Apocryphal gospel of John the Baptist, which describes his removal from Bethlehem as by Gabriel rather than Uriel and does not mention the meeting on the road to Egypt.
The subject of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child being adored by John the Baptist was common in the art of Renaissance Florence. John the Baptist is the patron saint of Florence and has often been depicted in the art of that city. Those who painted and sculpted the subject of the Mary and child with St John include Fra Filippo Lippi, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
In both paintings the scene is depicted taking place against a background of rock formations. While scenes of the Nativity were sometimes depicted as taking place in a cave, and Kenneth Clark points to the existence of an earlier rocky landscape in an adoration painted for the Medici family by Fra Filippo Lippi, the setting was unprecedented and gave to the paintings their usual name of the Virgin of the Rocks.
== Description ==
=== Composition ===
The two paintings of the Virgin of the Rocks that now belong to the National Gallery, London, and that belonging to the Louvre Museum, Paris, are the same in subject matter and in overall composition, indicating that one is derivative of the other. The two paintings differ in compositional details, in colour, in lighting and in the handling of the paint.
Both paintings show a grouping of four figures, the Virgin Mary, the Christ child, the infant John the Baptist and an angel arranged into a triangular composition within the painting and set against a background of rocks, and a distant landscape of mountains and water. In both paintings, Mary makes the apex of the pyramidal figure group, stretching one hand to include John and raising the other above the head of the Christ child in a blessing. John kneels, gazing towards the Christ child with his hands together in an attitude of prayer. The Christ child sits towards the front of the painting, supported by the angel, and raising his right hand in a sign of Benediction towards the kneeling John.
=== Differences ===
Compositionally, all the figures are slightly larger in the London painting than in the Louvre painting. The main compositional difference between the two paintings is that while in the London painting the angel's right hand rests on his/her knee, in the Louvre painting the hand is raised, the index finger pointing at John. The eyes of the angel are turned down in a contemplative manner in the London painting, but in the Louvre picture are turned to gaze in the general direction of the viewer.
In the London painting, all the forms are more defined, including the bodily forms of the clothed figures. The rocks are painted in meticulous detail, while the forms of the background in the painting in the Louvre are all more hazy. The contrast between light and shade on the figures and faces in the London painting are all much sharper. The faces and forms in the Louvre painting are more delicately painted and subtly blurred by sfumato. The lighting in the Louvre painting is softer and appears warmer, but this may be the result of the tone of the varnish on the surface. In keeping with their conservative handling of Leonardo's works, the Louvre version has not undergone significant restoration or cleaning. The Louvre painting remains much as it was in 1939 when Kenneth Clark lamented that "We can form no real conception of the colour, the values, or the general tone of the original, buried as it is under layer upon layer of thick yellow varnish. In the darks some mixture of bitumen has made the surface cake and crack like mud, and there are innumerable patches of old repaint all over the picture. All this must be borne in mind before we say that at this date Leonardo was a dark painter and an uninteresting colourist."
Another difference is in the colouring of the robes, particularly those of the angel. The London painting contains no red, while in the Louvre painting, the angel is robed in bright red and green, with the robes arranged differently from those of the angel in London. The London version contains traditional attributes missing from the Louvre version, the haloes and John's traditional cruciform reed staff. Davies says it is "not certain" if these details which are painted in gold are contemporary with the painting or have been added by a later artist. The details of the flowers are also quite different in the two paintings, with those in the Louvre painting being botanically accurate, and those in the London painting being fanciful creations.
=== Angel musicians ===
The two paintings of angels that are associated with the Virgin of the Rocks and are in the National Gallery do not properly fulfil the original commission for two panels each showing four angels, singing on one side and playing musical instruments on the other. There are only two musicians, both turned the same direction and both playing musical instruments. One, in green, plays a vielle, and the other, in red, plays a lute. The positions of the feet and the drapery are similar, indicating that the same design has in part been utilised for both. The angel in red is thought to be the work of Ambrogio de Predis. The angel in green is the work of an unknown associate of Leonardo. The National Gallery suggests that it might be the work of Francesco Napoletano.
In both cases the angel is standing in a grey painted niche. A reflectogram of the Angel in green with a Vielle revealed part of a painted landscape. The background of the Angel in red with a Lute could not be determined because the grey paint on that painting is thick and opaque. While it is commonly thought that the two angel panels were originally placed on either side of the central panel, an article published by the National Gallery suggests that they were placed higher up on the altarpiece.
== Interpretation ==
The relationship between the two paintings “remains much debated”. Matters of debate include the dates of the two paintings, their authorship and the nature of their symbolism. For a few months in 2011 and 2012 the two paintings were brought together, possibly for the first time, in the same room in an exhibition at the National Gallery.
=== Dates ===
It is generally accepted by art historians that the Louvre version is the earlier work. Martin Davies, former director of the National Gallery, described the painting in the Louvre as being stylistically close to Leonardo's earlier works and the London painting more suggestive of his maturer style, and therefore the later of the two, and derivative of the Louvre painting. Most authors agree that the Louvre painting was the one that was painted to fulfil the commission of 1483.
Some writers, including Martin Davies, feel that 1483 is too late a date for the Louvre version, and suggest that the painting had already been begun and perhaps completed in Florence before the commission. Wasserman, Ottino della Chiesa and others have pointed out that the measurements of both paintings are compatible with the altarpiece, and that it is an unlikely coincidence that Leonardo painted a picture that fitted the dimensions, at a time prior to the commission. Wasserman suggests that perhaps the Louvre painting was extended to fit the arched shape, and that the joint is no longer visible since the painting was transferred to canvas in the 19th century. Davies suggests that Leonardo painted the second version in the 1480s to fulfil the commission, and based it on the earlier work. Kenneth Clark agrees with this interpretation, placing the Louvre painting prior to 1481 and the London painting from 1483.
The theory that is most commonly used to explain the existence of the two paintings is that Leonardo painted the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks to fulfil the commission, giving it a date of 1483, and that he then sold it to another client, and painted the London version as a replacement. In line with this theory, it is hypothesised that the Louvre painting was sold in the late 1480s, after some haggling over the final payment. The London painting was commenced in perhaps 1486 as a substitution for the "original" Louvre version, and was not ready for installation until 1508, after prolonged disagreement and negotiation. This explanation, which della Chiesa attributes to Venturi and Poggi, has gained wide acceptance, and is the version of events described on both the National Gallery and the Louvre websites. Martin Kemp dates the Louvre painting to 1483–1490 and the London painting to 1495–1508.
Not all authors agree with either the dating or the theory that the Louvre painting was the earlier, was sold, and the London painting done as a substitute. Taylor asserts that the London painting is stylistically the earlier of the two, being more meticulous, in keeping with the product of Leonardo's Florentine training, while the Louvre painting has more in common with the Last Supper and the Virgin and Child with St Anne, including the delicate use of sfumato. Taylor argues that the London painting fulfils the requirements of the commission of 1483 in terms of iconography, and that the iconography of the Louvre painting indicates that it was painted for an entirely different clientele, and gives it a date in the 1490s.
=== Authorship ===
It has always been agreed that the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks is entirely by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci. The Virgin of the Rocks in London has generally been seen as having been designed by Leonardo and executed with the assistants. The Louvre website and various authors suggest that the entire painting is by Ambrogio de Predis, painted under Leonardo's supervision between 1485 and 1508, or perhaps largely the work of de Predis, with minor intervention by Leonardo.
Since the recent cleaning, National Gallery curator Luke Syson has stated that the quality which has been revealed indicates that the work is mostly from the hand of Leonardo, and that participation of members of Leonardo's workshop was almost certainly less than previously thought.
Geologist Ann C. Pizzorusso argues that there are geological inaccuracies in the London version, unlike the Louvre version, which mean it is unlikely to have come from Leonardo's hand. Taylor disputes this, drawing attention to the fact that, at the time of writing, Pizzorusso had plainly not seen the glacial lakes to which she referred, and had mistaken clumps of moss for sandstone boulders.
== Copies and derivations ==
One of the earliest known direct copies of the Louvre version is actually an altar cloth called the Paliotto leonardesco (ca 1487–90) housed in the Museo Baroffio, and the other is a painting (ca 1494–8) located in the Cheramy Collection, believed by Carlo Pedretti to be created by Leonardo's own hand. In her 1967 book (published in English in 1985) Angela Ottino della Chiesa identifies four paintings derived to some degree from The Virgin of the Rocks: the Holy Family and St. John by Bernardino Luini in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Thuelin Madonna by Marco d'Oggiono in the Thuelin collection in Paris and the Holy Infants Embracing by Joos van Cleve in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. This image was much copied by Flemish artists including Joos van Cleve and Quentin Matsys – there is a small painting in Chatsworth by the latter. There is also a smaller copy of The Virgin of the Rocks (oil on wood) possibly by Joos van Cleve or his circle (private collection Berlin).
There is a 16th-century copy in the Royal Collection, given as a birthday present to Queen Victoria in 1847 by her husband Prince Albert.
== See also ==
List of works by Leonardo da Vinci
The Altarpiece in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception
Tête d'enfant de trois quarts à droite
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Louvre Official Website, Virgin of the Rocks Archived 2022-04-28 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2011-12-11
National Gallery, London Website, Virgin of the Rocks, accessed 2012-02-06
Daniel Arasse (1997). Leonardo da Vinci. Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-198-5.
Luciano Berti (1971). The Uffizi. Scala.
Rachel Billinge, Luke Syson and Marika Spring, Altered Angels: Two Panels from the Immaculate Conception Altarpiece once in San Francesco Grande, Milan, accessed 2012-01-05
Angela Ottino della Chiesa (1967). The Complete Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. Penguin Classics of World Art series. ISBN 978-0-14-008649-2.
Martin Davies (1961). Catalogue of the Earlier Italian Schools. National Gallery Catalogues, London. ISBN 978-0-901791-29-0. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Frederich Hartt (1970). A History of Italian Renaissance Art. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23136-4.
Martin Kemp (2004). Leonardo. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280644-4.
Pizzorusso, Ann, Leonardo's Geology: The Authenticity of the "Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1996), pp. 197–200, The MIT Press, JSTOR
A.E. Popham (1946). The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-60462-8. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Marco Rosci (1977). Leonardo. Bay Books Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85835-176-9.
Tamsyn Taylor, (2011) Leonardo da Vinci and the "Virgin of the Rocks" Archived 2018-07-03 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2012-02-06
Jack Wasserman (1975). Leonardo da Vinci. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-0262-6.
Frank Zollner (2003). Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings. Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8228-1734-6. [The chapter "The Graphic Works" is by Frank Zollner & Johannes Nathan].
== External links ==
Official page from the National Gallery
Official page from the Louvre
Leonardo da Vinci and the Virgin of the Rocks, Which is the earlier? A different point of view Archived 2018-07-03 at the Wayback Machine
Illustrations of the Paris and London versions
geological analysis of the two paintings by Ann C Pizzorusso
The side panels, National Gallery, click link for the other one
Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Virgin of the Rocks (see index)
CNN: "Sketches hidden underneath Leonardo's 'Virgin of the Rocks' revealed after 500 years"
National Gallery reveals images of ‘abandoned’ angel and Christ underneath The Virgin of the Rocks |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmina_Castle#:~:text=Trade%20between%20Elmina,19%20January%201482 | Elmina Castle | Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as Castelo de São Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine Castle), also known as Castelo da Mina or simply Mina (or Feitoria da Mina), in present-day Elmina, Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast. It holds several profound distinctions and was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea and is the oldest extant European building in Sub-Saharan Africa.
First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, after an unsuccessful attempt in 1596, and took over all of the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814. In 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast, including the fort, became a possession of the United Kingdom.
The Gold Coast gained its independence as Ghana in 1957 from the United Kingdom and now controls the castle. Elmina Castle is a historical site, and was a major filming location for Werner Herzog's 1987 drama film Cobra Verde. The castle is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with other castles and forts in Ghana, because of its testimony to the Atlantic slave trade. It is a major tourist attraction in Ghana.
== History ==
=== Pre-Portuguese ===
The people living along the West African coast at Elmina around the fifteenth century were presumably Fante, with an uncertain relationship to the modern Akan who came from north of the forests. Among their ancestors were merchants and miners who traded gold to the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds from medieval times.
The people on the West African coast were organized into numerous populations that were drawn according to kinship lines. Family was extremely important in society, and family heads were united in communities under a recognized local authority. Along the Gold Coast alone, more than twenty independent kingdom-states existed. Elmina lay between two different Fante kingdoms, Fetu and Eguafo.
West Africans nurtured ancient trade connections to other parts of the world. Common metal trade, iconic artistic forms, and agricultural borrowing show that trans-Saharan and regional coastal connections thrived. The Portuguese in 1471 were the first Europeans to visit the Gold Coast as such, but not necessarily the first sailors to reach the port.
=== Portuguese arrival ===
The Portuguese first reached what became known as the Gold Coast in 1471. Prince Henry the Navigator first sent ships to explore the African coast in 1418. The Portuguese had several motives for voyaging south. They were attracted by rumors of fertile African lands that were rich in gold and ivory. They also sought a southern route to India so as to circumvent Arab traders and establish direct trade with Asia.
In line with the strong religious sentiments of the time, another focus of the Portuguese was Christian proselytism. They also sought to form an alliance with the legendary Prester John, who was believed to be the leader of a great Christian nation somewhere far from Europe.
These motives prompted the Portuguese to develop the Guinea trade. They made gradual progress down the African coast, each voyage reaching a point further along than the last. This resulted in a series of trading posts along the route, where fresh water and food could be taken on board. After fifty years of coastal exploration, the Portuguese reached Elmina in 1471, during the reign of King Afonso V. Because Portuguese royalty had lost interest in African exploration as a result of meager returns, the Guinea trade was put under the oversight of the Portuguese trader, Fernão Gomes. Upon reaching present-day Elmina, Gomes discovered a thriving gold trade already established among the natives and visiting Arab and Berber traders. He established his own trading post. It became known to the Portuguese as "A Mina" (the Mine) because of the gold that could be found there.
=== Construction of the castle ===
Trade between Elmina and Portugal grew throughout the decade following the establishment of the trading post under Gomes. In 1481, the recently crowned João II decided to build a fort on the coast in order to ensure the protection of this trade, which was once again held as a royal monopoly. King João sent all of the materials needed to build the fort on ten caravels and two transport ships. The supplies, which included everything from heavy foundation stones to roof tiles, were sent in pre-fitted form, along with provisions for six hundred men. Under the command of Diogo de Azambuja, the fleet set sail on 12 December 1481 and arrived at Elmina, in a village called Of Two Parts a little over a month later, on 19 January 1482. Some historians note that Christopher Columbus was among those to make the voyage to the Gold Coast with this fleet.
Upon arrival, Azambuja contracted a Portuguese trader, who had lived at Elmina for some time, to arrange and interpret an official meeting with the local chief, Kwamin Ansah, interpreted from the Portuguese, "Caramansa." Azambuja told the chief of the great advantages in building a fort, including protection from the very powerful king of Portugal. During the meeting, Azambuja and Chief Kwamin Ansah both participated in a massive peace ritual that included a feast, musicians, and many participants, both Portuguese and native.
Chief Kwamin Ansah, while accepting Azambuja as he had any other Portuguese trader who arrived on his coast, was wary of a permanent settlement. However, with firm plans already in place, the Portuguese would not be deterred. After offering gifts, making promises, and hinting at the consequences of noncompliance, the Portuguese received Kwamin Ansah's reluctant agreement.
When construction began the next morning, the chief's reluctance was proved to be well-founded. In order to build the fort in the most defensible position on the peninsula, the Portuguese had to demolish the homes of some of the villagers, who consented only after they had been compensated. The Portuguese tried to quarry a nearby rock that the people of Elmina, who were animists, believed to be the home of the god of the nearby River Benya.
Prior to the demolition of the quarry and homes, Azambuja sent a Portuguese crew member, João Bernaldes, with gifts to deliver to Chief Kwamin Ansah and the villagers. Azambuja sent brass basins, shawls, and other gifts in hopes of winning the goodwill of the villagers so they would not be upset during the demolition of their homes and sacred rocks. However, João Bernaldes did not deliver the gifts until after construction began, by which time the villagers became upset upon witnessing the demolition without forewarning or compensation.
In response to this, the local people forged an attack that resulted in several Portuguese deaths. Finally, an understanding was reached. Continued opposition led the Portuguese to burn the local village in retaliation. Even in this tense atmosphere, the first story of the tower was completed after only twenty days. This was the result of having brought so many prefabricated building materials. The remainder of the fort and an accompanying church were completed soon afterwards, despite resistance.
=== Immediate impact ===
The fort was the first prefabricated building of European origin to have been planned and executed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon its completion, Elmina was established as a proper city. Azambuja was named governor, and King João added the title "Lord of Guinea" to his noble titles. São Jorge da Mina took on the military and economic importance that had previously been held by the Portuguese factory at Arguim Island, on the southern edge of Mauritania. At the height of the gold trade in the early sixteenth century, 24,000 ounces of gold were exported annually from the Gold Coast, accounting for one-tenth of the world's supply.
The new fort, signifying the permanent involvement of Europeans in West Africa, had a considerable effect on Africans living on the coast. At the urging of the Portuguese, Elmina declared itself an independent state, whose governor then took control of the town's affairs. The people of Elmina were offered Portuguese protection against attacks from neighbouring coastal tribes, with whom the Portuguese had much less genial relations, even though they were friendly with the powerful trading nations in the African interior.
If any locals attempted to trade with a nation other than Portugal, the Portuguese reacted with aggressive force, often by forming alliances with the betraying nation's enemies. Hostility between groups increased, and the traditional organization of native societies suffered, especially after the Portuguese introduced them to firearms, which made the dominance of the stronger nations easier.
Trade with the Europeans helped make certain goods, such as cloth and beads, more available to the coastal people. European involvement also disrupted traditional trade routes between coastal people and northern people by cutting out the African middlemen. The population of Elmina swelled with traders from other towns hoping to trade with the Portuguese, who gradually established a West African monopoly.
=== West African slave trade ===
From the outset, the Portuguese authorities determined that São Jorge da Mina would not engage directly in the slave trade, as they did not wish to disrupt the gold mining and trade routes of its hinterland with the wars necessary to capture free people and enslave them. Instead, the Portuguese traded captives with several states/tribes, notably those of the Slave Coast (Benin) and São Tomé. This way, São Jorge da Mina served as a transshipment entrepôt.
By the seventeenth century, most trade in West Africa concentrated on the sale of captives. São Jorge da Mina played a significant part in the West African slave trade. The castle acted as a depot where enslaved Africans were brought in from different Kingdoms in West Africa. The Africans, often captured in the African interior by the slave-catchers of coastal peoples, were sold to Portuguese, and later to Dutch traders in exchange for goods such as textiles and horses.
In 1596, the Dutch made a first unsuccessful attempt at capturing the castle, succeeded by a successful one in 1637, after which it was made the capital of the Dutch Gold Coast. During the period of Dutch control a new, smaller fortress was built on a nearby hill to protect St. George's Castle from inland attacks. This fort was called Fort Coenraadsburg. The Dutch continued the triangular Atlantic slave route until 1814, when they abolished the slave trade, pursuant to the Anglo-Dutch Slave Trade Treaty.
In 1872, the British took over the Dutch territory and the fort pursuant to the Anglo-Dutch Sumatra treaties of 1871.
=== Renovation ===
The castle was extensively restored by the Ghanaian government in the 1990s. Renovation of the castle continues. Today, Elmina's economy is sustained by tourism and fishing. Elmina Castle is preserved as a Ghanaian national museum. The monument was designated as a World Heritage Monument under UNESCO in 1979. It is a place of pilgrimage for many African Americans seeking to connect with their heritage.
== 3D documentation with terrestrial laser scanning ==
In 2006, the Zamani Project documented Elmina Castle with terrestrial 3D laser scanning. The 3D model, a panorama tour, elevations, sections and plans of Elmina Castle are available on the project's website. The non-profit research group specialises in 3D digital documentation of tangible cultural heritage. The data generated by the Zamani Project creates a permanent record that can be used for research, education, restoration, and conservation.
== Gallery ==
== In popular culture ==
Scenes from a season 6 episode of the FX series Snowfall were shot in Elmina Castle. The title of the episode, "Door of No Return", is a reference to the symbolic door that millions of Africans were pushed through when they entered a life of slavery through castles like this.
Elmina Castle also featured prominently in the 2015 Danish film Guldkysten (Gold Coast).
== Works ==
The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi
== See also ==
Diaspora tourism
Door of Return
List of castles in Ghana
Year of Return, Ghana 2019
Dutch government school of Elmina
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Andrea, Alfred J., and James H. Overfield. "African Colonialism", The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Fifth Edition, Volume 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
Bruner, Edward M. "Tourism in Ghana: The representation of slavery and the return of the Black Diaspora", American Anthropologist 98 (2): 290–304.
Claridge, Walton W. A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, Second Edition. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 1964.
Daaku, Kwame Yeboa. Trade & Politics on the Gold Coast 1600–1720. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.
DeCorse, Christopher R. An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.
Doortmont, Michel R.; Jinna Smit (2007). Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands. An annotated guide to the Dutch archives relating to Ghana and West Africa in the Nationaal Archief, 1593–1960s. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15850-4.
Hair, P. E. H. The Founding of the Castelo de São Jorge da Mina: an analysis of the sources. Madison: University of Wisconsin, African Studies Program, 1994. ISBN 0-942615-21-2
Pacheco, Duarte. Esmeraldo de situ orbis, c. 1505–1508.
World Statesmen-Ghana
== External links ==
www.zamaniproject.org Offers a 3D model, a panorama tour, elevations, sections and plans of Elmina Castle.
Ghana-pedia webpage - São Jorge da Mina |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Streamy_Awards#:~:text=The%201st%20Annual%20Streamy%20Awards,Theatre%20in%20Los%20Angeles%2C%20California. | 1st Streamy Awards | The 1st Annual Streamy Awards was the first ever awards ceremony dedicated entirely to web series and the first installment of the Streamy Awards. The awards were held on March 28, 2009, at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The event had over 1,300 audience members in attendance and was simultaneously broadcast live online. The Official Red Carpet Pre-Show was hosted by Shira Lazar and the award show was co-hosted by Tubefilter, NewTeeVee and Tilzy.TV. The web series The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog were the biggest winners of the night, winning four and six awards, respectively, out of the 25 award categories. The show was met by positive reception by celebrities in attendance and the media.
== Winners and nominees ==
The nominees were announced on March 13, 2009 and the finalists for the Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series were announced on March 17. The Streamy Craft Award winners were announced in a ceremony held on March 26, 2009. The remaining award categories were announced during the main ceremony at the Wadsworth Theatre on March 28. Winners of the categories were selected by the International Academy of Web Television except for the Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series which was put to a public vote.
Winners are listed first, in bold.
=== Web series with multiple nominations and awards ===
== Reception ==
The New York Times Magazine columnist Virginia Heffernan called the show "a goofy and a powerful experience." Heffernan, alongside Alexia Tsotsis writing for LA Weekly, were impressed by the celebrity presence at the show, with Tsotsis calling it "an Emmys for Web TV." Maria Russo, writing for TheWrap, and Patrick Orndorff, writing for Wired, praised the quality of the nominees. Russo opined of the show that although "[in] the big scheme of things it all feels very fledgling", the existence of the awards felt "like a cool glimpse into the future". Heffernan, Tsotsis, and Jill Weinberger of Gigaom, singled out the speeches of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog writer Joss Whedon and The Guild star Felicia Day as particularly memorable with Whedon praising the online content creators in attendance and Day saying of her awards "this is for everyone who ever said no to me." YouTuber and singer Tay Zonday was enthusiastic about the awards saying that they show "that people don't have to play the system to have their art acknowledged," and actor David Faustino said of the show "we're at a baby stage of something that's going to be amazingly giant and I'm excited to be on ground floor." Brian Lowry writing for Variety called the Streamys the "Worst Award Name Ever".
== See also ==
List of Streamy Award winners
== References ==
== External links ==
Streamy Awards website
1st Annual Streamy Awards at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Power_(India) | Ministry of Power (India) | The Ministry of Power is an Indian government ministry. The current Union Cabinet Minister is Manohar Lal Khattar.
The ministry is charged with overseeing electricity production and infrastructure development, including generation, transmission, and delivery, as well as maintenance projects.
The ministry acts as a liaison between the central government and state electricity operations, as well as with the private sector. The ministry also oversees rural electrification projects.
== History ==
The Ministry of Power became a ministry on July 2, 1992, during the P. V. Narasimha Rao government. Prior to that time it had been a department (the Department of Power) in the Ministry of Power, Coal and Non-Conventional Energy Sources. That ministry was split into the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, and Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (renamed the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in 2006).
In 2012, the Ministry of Power inaugurated the Smart Grid project in Puducherry.
== Agencies ==
=== Central Public Sector Undertakings ===
National Thermal Power Corporation Limited
Power Grid Corporation of India
Grid Controller of India Limited
North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited
National Hydroelectric Power Corporation
Power Finance Corporation
Power Finance Consulting Limited, a 100% subsidiary of PFC
PFC Projects Limited, a 100% subsidiary of PFC
Rural Electrification Corporation (REC)
REC Power Development and Consultancy Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of REC Ltd.
Bihar Grid Company Limited, a JV of Power Grid and BSP(H)CL
=== Commissions ===
1. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
=== Institutes ===
National Power Training Institute, Faridabad
=== Societies ===
Central Power Research Institute, Bangalore
=== Others ===
Bhakra Beas Management Board
Central Electricity Authority (CEA)
== Cabinet Ministers ==
Note: I/C – Independent Charge
Key: † Died in office
== Ministers of State ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_Law_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China | Contract Law of the People's Republic of China | The Contract Law of the People's Republic of China was a law in the PRC that came into force on October 1, 1999, and was abolished on Jan 1, 2021 with the enforcement of Civil Code of the People's Republic of China. It is the main source of contract law in the PRC. The most recent version combines many parts of Chinese contract law that were previously parts of other substantive laws, and has led to increased legal uniformity. The law includes both general and specific provisions and also has the legal rules that relate to the formation, fulfilment and breach of contracts. The law allows for various different types of contracts that can be entered into.
"The principles of the freedom of contract, of good faith, and of the fostering of transactions have informed and guided the formulation of the Contract Law and are embodied in many of its major provisions."
The main purpose of the law is stated in Article 1: "This Law is enacted for the purpose of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the parties to contracts, maintaining the socio-economic order and promoting the socialist modernization."
Article 2 has the definition for a contract: "For the purpose of this Law, a contract means an agreement on the establishment, alteration or termination of a civil right-obligation relationship between natural persons, legal persons or other organizations as subjects with equal status. Agreements on establishing such personal relationships as marriage, adoption and guardianship shall be governed by the provisions of other laws."
The Contract Law contains 23 chapters and 428 articles.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oesper_Award | Oesper Award | The Ralph and Helen Oesper Award or Oesper Award was first given in 1981 by the University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes "outstanding chemists for lifetime significant accomplishments in the field of chemistry with long-lasting impact on the chemical sciences". It was established with a bequest from Ralph E. Oesper and his wife, Helen Wilson Oesper.
== Awardees ==
2025, Melanie S. Sanford, University of Michigan
2021, James M. Tour, Rice University
2020, Nicholas A. Peppas, University of Texas at Austin
2019, R. Mark Wightman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2018, Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai, University of Texas at Austin
2017, Matthew Platz, Ohio State University,
2016, Maurice Brookhart, University of Houston and University of North Carolina
2015, Karen L. Wooley, Texas A&M University
2014, Isiah M. Warner, Louisiana State University
2013, Richard Eisenberg, University of Rochester
2012, Gary M. Hieftje, Indiana University
2011, Charles P. Casey, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2010, Kurt Wüthrich, The Scripps Research Institute, (Nobel, 2002)
2009, Susan Lindquist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2008, Alan G. Marshall, Florida State University
2007, James P. Collman, Stanford University
2006, Richard N. Zare, Stanford University
2005, V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institutes of Health
2004, George M. Whitesides, Harvard University
2003, Alan G. MacDiarmid, University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas at Dallas (Nobel, 2000)
2002, Royce W. Murray, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2001, Harry B. Gray, California Institute of Technology
2000, Mildred Cohn, University of Pennsylvania
1999, George S. Hammond, Bowling Green State University
1998, Jerome A. Berson, Yale University
1997, Rudolph A. Marcus, California Institute of Technology, (Nobel, 1992)
1996, Ralph N. Adams, University of Kansas
1995, Gregory R. Choppin, Florida State University
1994, Klaus Biemann, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1993, James D. Winefordner, University of Florida
1992, Walter H. Stockmayer, Dartmouth College
1991, Derek H. R. Barton, Texas A&M University (Nobel, 1969)
1990, Herbert C. Brown, Purdue University, (Nobel, 1979)
1989, Allen J. Bard, University of Texas at Austin
1988, Konrad E. Bloch, Harvard University and Florida State University (Nobel, 1964; Medicine)
1987, George C. Pimentel, University of California, Berkeley
1986, Henry Taube, Stanford University (Nobel, 1983)
1985, Fred McLafferty, Cornell University
1984, John A. Pople, Carnegie Mellon University (Nobel, 1998)
1983, Fred Basolo, Northwestern University
1982, John C. Sheehan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1981, Melvin Calvin, University of California, Berkeley (Nobel, 1961)
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Technology,_Srinagar#:~:text=In%20the%20same%20year%2C%20the,by%20the%20parliament%20of%20India. | National Institute of Technology, Srinagar | National Institute of Technology Srinagar (NIT Srinagar or NITSRI) is a public technical university located in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is one of the 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and, as such, is directly under the control of the Ministry of Education (MoE). It was established in 1960 as one of several Regional Engineering Colleges established as part of the Second Five-Year Plan (1956–61) by the Government of India. It is governed by the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007, which has declared it an Institute of National Importance.
NIT Srinagar admits its undergraduate students through the Joint Entrance Examination (Mains), previously AIEEE. It has 12 academic departments covering Engineering, Applied Sciences, Humanities, and Social Sciences programs. Also, the medium of instruction is English. Prof. Binod Kumar Kanuajia is an academic administrator currently serving as the director of the National Institute of Technology Srinagar. He is known for his contributions to the field of education, as well as his leadership in advancing the educational and research initiatives at NIT Srinagar.
== History ==
NIT Srinagar was established in 1960 as the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar. The first chairman was Wajahat Habibullah IAS (2004–2014). It was one of the first eight Regional Engineering Colleges established by the Government of India during the first Five-Year Plan. The institute shifted to its present campus in 1965. The Regional Engineering College, Srinagar, was upgraded to become the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, in July 2003. In the same year, the institution was granted Deemed University status with the approval of the University Grants Commission, All India Council of Technical Education, and the Government of India. On 15 August 2007, it became an Institute of National Importance under the NIT Bill passed by the parliament of India.
== Location ==
The institute is located on the western bank of Dal Lake near the Hazratbal Shrine in the north eastern region of Srinagar city.
The institute is located 23 km from the Srinagar International Airport and 13 km from Srinagar railway station.
== Admissions ==
The admissions to undergraduate through the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) (JEE-Main) or Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) (through SAT), for non-resident Indians. Admission to postgraduate courses is done based on Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) scores, through Centralized Counselling for M.Tech. (CCMT) for M.Tech. Courses and though Joint Admission Test for M.Sc. for M.Sc. courses.
== Academics ==
The university includes eight engineering departments, for Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, and Information Technology, as well as four Physical Sciences departments for Physics, Chemistry, Humanities, and Mathematics.
== Rankings ==
NIT Srinagar is ranked 79th among the engineering colleges of India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024. In "India Today's Annual Rankings 2022", NIT Srinagar secures 24th Rank among the best Engineering Colleges in India.
== Campus and student life ==
The NIT campus is located on the bank of Dal Lake. Hazratbal Shrine is at a walkable distance from the institute. The campus consists of academic buildings, student hostels with hostel accommodation for only non-locals, and some far-flung areas of the valley.
However, there are no residential facilities for PhD Scholars. The Health Centre provides medical care to students, teachers, staff, and family members.
The Central Library is automated and provides services seven days a week, catering to more than 3500 users belonging to 12 departments and centers. The library houses 75,000 books.
There are a campus-wide fibre optic and Wi-Fi network, which covers all the departments, teachers' quarters, and students' hostels. There are a central computer lab and computer labs in each Departments. Institute is also part of high speed National Knowledge Network.
The Institute provides separate hostels for the male and female students with separate mess facilities. There are also guesthouses available to meet additional temporary housing needs.
Halls of residence
Indus Boys Hostel (for 1st year B.Tech. students).
Chenab Boys Hostel (for 2nd year B.Tech. students)
Tawi Boys Hostel (for M.Tech and Ph.D. students)
Mansar and Manasbal hostel( For 3rd Year B.Tech. Students)
Jehlum Boys Hostel (for 4th year B.Tech. students)
8-Block Dal Boys' Hostel (For 4th and 3rd-year B.Tech. Students)
Dal Extension ' Hostel (Renovated)
Girls' Hostel (Combined for B.Tech., M.Tech.) (All Years)
For the first three years of Btech, each hostel room is shared by 5 students each while in the 4th year, each student is allotted a single room in the Jhelum hostel. The rooms in the Jhelum hostel are allotted based on CGPA(up to the 5th semester). The students who are not able to get a single room in the Jhelum hostel are allotted the Dal hostels, where the students reside in the ratio of 2 students per room. The M-tech students and Ph.D. scholars are allotted the Tawi hostel during their stay on the campus. In the Tawi hostel, each room is shared by three students.
There is a Common Hall, adjacent to the hostels, which provides facilities for indoor games like table tennis and carom, along with a gymnasium. The institute has a Maintenance Engineering Centre set up under the Indo-Italian collaboration. The center caters to the maintenance engineering needs of the Institute and the region as a whole in respect of research, consultancy, and academics.
=== Technical Festival ===
Techvaganza is the National Level Technical Festival (Tech-Fest) of NIT Srinagar. It usually occurs in the month of April every year.
3.
Techvaganza is a national level technical festival held annually at National institute of technology Srinagar in Srinagar. It is the first Techno-Management festival in region.
== Notable alumni ==
Subhash Kak, Computer Scientist, Regents Professor, and an Ex Head of Computer Science Department at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
Vijay Vaishnavi, Computer Information Systems Researcher and Scholar
Mansoor Ali Khan, Member of the 13th Lok Sabha
Davoud Danesh-Jafari, Minister of Economy and Finance Affairs of Iran.
Narinder Kumar Gupta, Academic and Padma Shri Awardee.
Sonam Wangchuk (engineer), Engineer, innovator, and education reformist
== See also ==
2016 NIT Srinagar Student Protests
Indian Institutes of Technology
Indian Institute of Science
Indian Institutes of Management
University of Kashmir
Srinagar
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Keen#Awards_and_honours | Harry Keen | Harry Keen CBE (3 September 1925 – 5 April 2013) was an English diabetologist and a professor of human metabolism at Guy's Hospital. He was the first to identify microalbuminuria as a predictor of kidney disease in diabetics, and was an international authority on diabetes.
== Early life ==
Keen was born in 1925 in London to a Jewish family; his parents were Sydney Keen, a tailor, and Esther (née Zenober), a teacher who had migrated to the United Kingdom from Poland. He attended St Ann's School in Hanwell and Ealing County Grammar School for Boys. He studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, graduating on 5 July 1948, the day that the National Health Service (NHS) was established.
== Career ==
Keen began his medical career as a house officer at London's West Middlesex Hospital in 1948–49. He then enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving for two years in Suez, Egypt. He returned to London in 1951, taking up a post at St Mary's Hospital under George Pickering. Keen assisted Pickering over several years on a large project studying hypertension in patients with diabetes and their first-degree relatives. In 1953, he began collaborating with Robert Daniel Lawrence, who headed the diabetes clinic at King's College Hospital, and spent seven years there studying diabetes and its long-term complications. He travelled to Bethesda, Maryland, in 1960 for a year-long research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, where he experimented with insulin assays and early attempts to isolate pancreatic islets.
When Keen returned to London from the United States in 1961, he was hired as a lecturer by Guy's Hospital and its associated medical school, where he would spend the rest of his career. In 1962, he conducted the Bedford Survey, in which every adult in Bedford was asked to provide a urine sample in order to study the population prevalence of diabetes; around 70% of the population provided samples, and 250 participants were found to have undiagnosed diabetes as a result. The study led to the first definition of prediabetes, which Keen called "borderline diabetes", and demonstrated the relationship between glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease at a population level. He and his colleagues became the first, in 1964, to show that trace amounts of the protein albumin in urine could predict kidney disease in diabetes, which is now the basis for routine kidney screening in diabetic patients. With the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, he conducted the Whitehall Survey in 1969, which led to the creation of different glucose thresholds for microvascular and macrovascular disease. He also pioneered the concept of the insulin pump, which delivers insulin continuously to type 1 diabetics who are reliant on insulin. In 1971, he was appointed professor of human metabolism at Guy's. He established one of the UK's first diabetes centres at Guy's Hospital.
Keen chaired the 1980 and 1985 World Health Organization expert committees on diabetes. He was involved in the St. Vincent Declaration of 1989, which set international goals and benchmarks for diabetes care. He retired from medicine in 1990, becoming professor emeritus at King's College London.
== Awards and honours ==
Keen chaired the British Diabetic Association between 1990 and 1996 and was appointed honorary president of the International Diabetes Federation in 1991. He was awarded a CBE and the first United Nations/UNESCO Hellmut Mehnert Award for the Prevention of Diabetes and its Complications in 1998. He received the American Diabetes Association's Kelly M. West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology and Harold Rifkin Award for Distinguished International Service in the Cause of Diabetes in 1989 and 1992 respectively.
== Personal life ==
Keen married Anna "Nan" Miliband, the sister of sociologist Ralph Miliband, in 1953; they had a son and a daughter. He was an uncle by marriage to Labour politicians Ed Miliband and David Miliband. He died on 5 April 2013.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Peev | Georgi Peev | Georgi Ivanov Peev (Bulgarian: Георги Пеев; born 11 March 1979) is a Bulgarian former footballer who played as a midfielder.
== Career ==
A youth product of Lokomotiv Sofia he spent three seasons in the Bulgarian A Group with the first team before switching to Dynamo Kyiv, winning six major honours with the Ukrainian club. In January 2007, he moved to Amkar Perm in Russia.
He was capped 45 times for Bulgaria from his debut in 1999, appearing at the UEFA Euro 2004.
== Career ==
Peev started his career in home town Sofia in local club Lokomotiv. He made his official debut for his native club in a match against Litex Lovech on 8 August 1998. He played for 13 minutes as a substitute. On 5 December 1998 he scored his first goal in professional football against Spartak Varna. He scored goal in the 10th minute. Peev was discovered at the age of 21 by Dynamo Kyiv manager Valery Lobanovsky, while playing for Lokomotiv, and signed for €2,5 million. He has also played for FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
On 16 January 2007, Peev signed with Amkar Perm for a reported fee of €500,000. In 2008, he was chosen the fans favorite player of the Russian Premier League and received a rare revolver from 1936 used by the Red Army.
== International career ==
A right back or right winger known for his pace and attacking attitude, he was part of the Bulgarian 2004 European Football Championship team who exited in the first round, finishing bottom of Group C, having finished top of Qualifying Group 8 in the pre-tournament phase. Between 1999 and 2007 Peev featured in 40 games for Bulgaria.
On 10 May 2010, following his strong performances for his club team, Peev was recalled to the national side for the friendly match against Belgium.
On 27 March 2011, Georgi Peev announced his retirement from international football.
== Honours ==
Dynamo Kyiv
Ukrainian Championship (3): 2001, 2003, 2004
Ukrainian Cup (2): 2003, 2005
Ukrainian Super Cup (1): 2004
== Personal ==
His brother Daniel Peev is also a professional footballer.
== References ==
== External links ==
Georgi Peev at National-Football-Teams.com
Georgi Peev at UAF (in Ukrainian) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_Whitney_R-1340_Wasp | Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp | The Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp is an aircraft engine of the reciprocating type that was widely used in American aircraft from the 1920s onward. It was the Pratt & Whitney aircraft company's first engine, and the first of the famed Wasp series. It was a single-row, nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial design, and displaced 1,344 cubic inches (22 L); bore and stroke were both 5.75 in (146 mm). A total of 34,966 engines were produced.
As well as numerous types of fixed-wing aircraft, it was used to power helicopters, the Agusta-Bell AB.102 and the Sikorsky H-19, and a class of airship, the K-class blimp.
In 2016, it received designation as a Historic Engineering Landmark from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
== Variants ==
Note: R for Radial and 1340 for 1340 cubic inch displacement.
R-1340-7
450 hp (340 kW), 600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-8
425 hp (317 kW)
R-1340-9
450 hp (340 kW), 525 hp (391 kW)
R-1340-16
550 hp (410 kW)
R-1340-17
525 hp (391 kW)
R-1340-19
600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-19F
600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-21G
550 hp (410 kW)
R-1340-22
550 hp (410 kW)
R-1340-23
575 hp (429 kW)
R-1340-30
550 hp (410 kW)
R-1340-31
550 hp (410 kW)
R-1340-33
600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-48
600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-49
600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-AN1
550 hp (410 kW), 600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-AN2
550 hp (410 kW), 3:2 geared prop shaft
R-1340-B
450 hp (340 kW)
R-1340-D
500 hp (370 kW)
R-1340-S1D1
525 hp (391 kW)
R-1340-S1H1-G
550 hp (410 kW), 600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-S3H1
600 hp (450 kW)
R-1340-T1D1
520 hp (390 kW)
== Applications ==
== Engines on display ==
There are a Wasp A and three Wasp C's on display at the New England Air Museum, Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, CT.
== Specifications (R-1340-S1H1-G) ==
Data from Jane's.
=== General characteristics ===
Type: Nine-cylinder single-row supercharged air-cooled radial engine
Bore: 5.75 in (146 mm)
Stroke: 5.75 in (146 mm)
Displacement: 1,344 cu in (22.02 L)
Length: 47.7 in (1,210 mm)
Diameter: 51.75 in (1,314 mm)
Dry weight: 930 lb (420 kg)
=== Components ===
Valvetrain: Two overhead valves per cylinder
Supercharger: Single-speed centrifugal type supercharger, 1:10 step-up
Fuel system: Two-barrel Stromberg carburetor
Fuel type: 91 octane rating gasoline
Cooling system: Air-cooled
Reduction gear: 3:2
=== Performance ===
Power output: 600 hp (450 kW) at 2,250 rpm at 6,200 ft (1,900 m)
Specific power: 0.45 hp/cu in (20.5 kW/L)
Compression ratio: 6:1
Power-to-weight ratio: 0.65 hp/lb (1.07 kW/kg)
== See also ==
Pratt & Whitney Wasp series
Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet
Related development
Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior
Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior
Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp
Related lists
List of aircraft engines
== References ==
=== Notes ===
=== Bibliography ===
Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1945-46. Hammersmith, London: HarperCollinsPublishers (1994 reprint). ISBN 000 470831-8
Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines: From the Pioneers to the Present Day. 5th edition, Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2006.ISBN 0-7509-4479-X
White, Graham. Allied Aircraft Piston Engines of World War II: History and Development of Frontline Aircraft Piston Engines Produced by Great Britain and the United States During World War II. Warrendale, Pennsylvania: SAE International, 1995. ISBN 1-56091-655-9
== External links ==
"Index of Wasp & R-1340 Designated Engines", a scanned Pratt & Whitney reference document from 1956 detailing the different Wasp versions, their specifications, and the aircraft they were installed in.
"Radial Engines". Covington Aircraft. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
There is a "Pratt & Whitney 1340N Radial Engine" in use on a T-6 Texan at Pacific Warbirds, Oahu, HI |
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