title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Some of the young patriots from the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul formed two football clubs called "Valideçeşme" and "Basiret" under the leadership of Şeref Bey. Local football clubs "Valideçeşme" and "Basiret" joined the club, in 1911.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: For years, the original colours of Beşiktaş were believed to be "Red and White"; and then temporarily changed into "Black and White", commemorating the martyrs of Balkan Wars, including players of the club. Although most written sources endorse this claim, a detailed study carried out for Beşiktaş's 100th anniversary documentary had shown that colour red was never used in club's first colours; and colours of the club were always "black and white".


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: With football becoming the main sport of the Ottoman Empire around 1910, Beşiktaş members slowly started to give more attention to football. In August 1911, Ahmed Şerafettin started the football team. With the outbreak of World War I following the Balkan Wars, sporting activities at the club effectively came to a halt as many athletes left to serve on the front lines. While the end of the war allowed surviving athletes to return, the team faced a difficult period during the Occupation of Istanbul, but was able to recover with the hard work of Şeref Bey. Beşiktaş did not enter the Istanbul Friday and Sunday leagues, and did not have any championships until 1918, when they won the Istanbul Turkish 1st Sports League.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: In 1921, that particular league's final season, they won it again. In 1924, Beşiktaş entered the Istanbul Football League along with Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and other Istanbul teams. Beşiktaş became the league's first champion of 1923–24 season, but was not able to have more success in the league. Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe were the two dominant teams through the middle of the 1930s.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Beşiktaş won their 2nd Istanbul League title in 1933–34 season, as well as their first Turkish Football Championship in the same year, beating Altay in the final 3–1 on 29 October 1934. In 1937, the Turkish National League was formed. In 1936–37 Istanbul Football League season prior to the National League's inaugural season, Beşiktaş finished in fourth place, which earned them a berth in the National League. Beşiktaş finished 3rd place in the National League, behind Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. In 1937–38 season, Beşiktaş finished in 3rd place in the Istanbul League and, 2nd place in the National League, behind Güneş. Beşiktaş won a record five consecutive Istanbul League championships between 1939 and 1943. In the National League, Beşiktaş finished 4th in 1939, 5th in 1940, 1st in 1941 and 3rd in 1943 (in 1942 the league was not held). The club won 1944–45 and 1945–46 seasons in Istanbul League, as well as the national league in 1944 and 1947.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Professionalism in football in Turkey entered into force in 1952. In 1959, the Millî Lig was formed, the nation's first professional football league. Finishing in 2nd place at White Group and failing to reach the 2-legged-final in inaugural year of the competition, Beşiktaş won their first title in the following season. In 1960, the club also participated in the European Cup, becoming the first Turkish team ever to participate in the tournament. In subsequent years, Beşiktaş finished third in both 1961 and 1962, as well as second in 1963, 1964 and 1965. In 1966 and 1967, meanwhile, the club won back-to-back championship titles, and in the latter year, they also won their first Turkish Super Cup. In 1968, Beşiktaş finished second.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: After 1967, Beşiktaş's performance declined slightly, finishing in 8th, 12th, 5th, 4th many times, while Trabzonspor, Fenerbahçe and, occasionally Galatasaray continued their success. Beşiktaş only finished in second place once in the decade, in 1973–74 season.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Following a period of 15 seasons with no league title, Beşiktaş put an end to their poor performances in 1981–82 season with a surprise championship title under the management of Yugoslav trainer Đorđe Milić, earning another in 1985–86 season. They finished the league as runners-up four times in the second half of the decade.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Hooliganism was a major problem that had started in Europe and had also spread throughout Turkey. Beşiktaş fan hooliganism had been an issue with many fights inside and outside the stadium, although this has become less of an issue in more recent years.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Beşiktaş had their most successful run in the Süper Lig with three consecutive championships under the management of Gordon Milne in the early 1990s. Three players of the squad – Metin Tekin, Ali Gültiken and Feyyaz Uçar – were notable for significant contributions to the team during this period. These players were known as Metin-Ali-Feyyaz ("MAF") and they formed the front of the team's line-up. The trio is regarded by supporters as the best ever attacking line of the club. The supporters composed various chants for the trio devoted to their delighting style on the pitch, their goals, and above all for their friendship and modesty.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: The only three-in-a-row title term in club history occurred in the 1989–90, 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons. Most notably, Beşiktaş became the first and only undefeated champions in Süper Lig history.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Under Milne's management, the team adopted the 4–4–2 system. By playing down the lines, crossing and winning balls in the air, the team were in fine form and scored many goals. On 15 October 1989, Beşiktaş broke the Süper Lig record for the biggest winning margin in a game with a 10–0 victory over Adana Demirspor. This match was designated as one of the 16 biggest matches in club history. Collecting 79 points in 34 matches, Beşiktaş won the 1994–95 1. Lig with the German coach Christoph Daum with 79 points, 3 points ahead of Trabzonspor.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: The club won the Süper Lig title in 2002–03, the centenary year of its existence, under management of Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu, Following a major squad change with 9 arrivals in summer transfer window, including the return of former players Sergen Yalçın and Serdar Topraktepe, winning all 4 Istanbul derbies, losing only 1 game in league fixtures, Beşiktaş secured the title in the penultimate round against Galatasaray with a last minute winner by Sergen Yalçın, concluding the game 1–0 at İnönü Stadium. They also reached the quarter-finals of the 2002–03 UEFA Cup. In the 2008–09 season, Beşiktaş won the league title with coach Mustafa Denizli.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Later on, Beşiktaş won the league three times in 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2020–21. In addition, they reached the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League Quarter-finals, and the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League Round of 16.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Since the establishment of football department, Beşiktaş played at varied grounds until 1924, when they had started to play their games at Taksim Stadium, by their participation to the Istanbul Football League. İnönü Stadium used to host the football home games of Beşiktaş between 1947 and 2013 for 66 years. The first football match had been played on 23 November 1947, when Beşiktaş hosted Swedish side AIK Solna, on a friendly game, ended 3–2 in favour of away team. The club hosted their testimonial game against Gençlerbirliği in 33st match-day of 2012–13 season, ended in favour of home side 3–0, on 11 May 2013, Saturday.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Since 2016, Beşiktaş play their home games at Vodafone Park, successor of İnönü Stadium. The inaugural encounter was held between Beşiktaş and Bursaspor at week 28 of 2015–16 season, ended 3–2 as the first ever win of the hosting Beşiktaş, on 11 April 2016.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: There are two players who served the club both as player and president, respectively Hakkı Yeten and Süleyman Seba, whom were also given title "Honorary President" by the club. Out of the two, Yeten served the club as first team manager between 1949 and 1951, as well. In cooperation with Beşiktaş Municipality, the club erected a statue of Süleyman Seba near their headquarters, in Akaretler neighbourhood of Beşiktaş, in October 2008.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: Along with Yeten and Seba, there are 11 players who spent their career entirely at Beşiktaş, including 9, whose spell lasted over 10 years with over 100 appearances for the club, except Süleyman Seba and Süleyman Oktay. Hakkı Yeten, Rıza Çalımbay, Samet Aybaba, Rasim Kara and Sergen Yalçın served the club both as player and manager. Amongst these persons, Yalçın is the only one who won Süper Lig titles both as player and manager. There are also 6 players who represented their nation with over 30 caps at senior level while playing at the club, those are Rıza Çalımbay (39 caps and 1 goal between 1981 and 1992), Recep Çetin (58 caps and 1 goal between 1988 and 1997), Mehmet Özdilek (31 caps between 1990 and 1997), Tayfur Havutçu (44 caps and 6 goals between 1994 and 2004), İbrahim Üzülmez (37 caps and 1 goal 2003 and 2009) and Oğuzhan Özyakup (43 caps and 1 goal since 2013). Five out of these six players possessed the team captaincy at least for two consecutive seasons, except Özyakup.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: In 2003, centennial year its foundation, the club held a survey through the validated votes from its supporters, in order to determine the "squads of century". Out or 110 players nominated, there were three eleven-man squads selected, respectively referred to as "golden", "silver" and "bronze" teams. Results of the poll were announced in a prom, held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the club, hosted by Beşiktaş fan celebrities Çağla Kubat and Yılmaz Erdoğan, on 21 June 2003.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: There are Beşiktaş players who represented their nations in top level international competitions governed by FIFA or UEFA. Former team captain Tayfur Havutçu and İlhan Mansız were part of Turkey's squad in 2002 FIFA World Cup, where they reached semi-finals. Mansız scored a golden goal in the quarter-final encounter against Senegal, advancing Turkey into semi-final against Brazil. Mansız also scored twice in 3rd place game against the hosting side South Korea. Ahmet Yıldırım and former club captain İbrahim Üzülmez competed at 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup in which Turkey finished in third place. Ricardo Quaresma was a part of Portugal winning Euro 2016, which saw the country win its first ever international title, scoring once at Round of 16 against Croatia. Domagoj Vida represented Croatia, his nation, in the final of 2018 FIFA World Cup up against France, which he lost eventually 4–2. In the final encounter, he also provided an assist to his compatriot Ivan Perišić.


title: Beşiktaş J.K.

text: The football team was managed by Turkish and European coaches over 100 years of its existence. The first known coach of the team was Şeref Bey who managed team between 1911 and 1925. He is also the longest serving coach of the team, coaching for 14 years. The most successful coach is Gordon Milne, winning the league three times in a row along with other trophies, as well.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem (; ; "") is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000, and it is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine. The economy is primarily tourist-driven, peaking during the Christmas season, when Christians make pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity. The important holy site of Rachel's Tomb is at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, though not freely accessible to the city's own inhabitants and in general Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank due to the Israeli West Bank barrier.


title: Bethlehem

text: The earliest known mention of Bethlehem was in the Amarna correspondence of 1350–1330 BCE when the town was inhabited by the Canaanites. The Hebrew Bible, which says that the city of Bethlehem was built up as a fortified city by Rehoboam, identifies it as the city David was from and where he was anointed as the king of Israel. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. Bethlehem was destroyed by the Emperor Hadrian during the second-century Bar Kokhba revolt; its rebuilding was promoted by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, who commissioned the building of its great Church of the Nativity in 327 CE. The church was badly damaged by the Samaritans, who sacked it during a revolt in 529, but was rebuilt a century later by Emperor Justinian I.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem became part of Jund Filastin following the Muslim conquest in 637. Muslim rule continued in Bethlehem until its conquest in 1099 by a crusading army, who replaced the town's Greek Orthodox clergy with a Latin one. In the mid-13th century, the Mamluks demolished the city's walls, which were subsequently rebuilt under the Ottomans in the early 16th century. Control of Bethlehem passed from the Ottomans to the British at the end of World War I. Bethlehem came under Jordanian rule during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was later captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Since the 1995 Oslo Accords, Bethlehem has been administered by the Palestinian Authority as part of Area A of the West Bank.


title: Bethlehem

text: While historically an Arab Christian town, Bethlehem has a Muslim majority, but is still home to a significant Palestinian Christian community. It is now encircled and encroached upon by dozens of Israeli settlements and the Israeli West Bank barrier, which separates both Muslim and Christian communities from their land and livelihoods, and sees a steady exodus from both communities.


title: Bethlehem

text: The current name for Bethlehem in local languages is in Arabic (), literally meaning "house of meat", and "" in Hebrew (), literally "house of bread", or "house of food". The city was called in , and in .


title: Bethlehem

text: The earliest mention of Bethlehem as a place appears in the Amarna correspondence (), in which it is referred to as "Bit-Laḫmi", a name for which the origins remain unknown. One longstanding suggestion in scholarship is that it derives from the Mesopotamian or Canaanite fertility god Laḫmu and his consort sister Lahamu – "lahmo" being the Chaldean word for "fertility". Biblical scholar William F. Albright believed that this hypothesis, first put forth by Otto Schroeder, was "certainly accurate". Albright noted that the pronunciation of the name had remained essentially the same for 3,500 years, but with different things: "'Temple of the God Lakhmu' in Canaanite, 'House of Bread' in Hebrew and Aramaic, 'House of Meat' in Arabic." While Schroeder's theory is not widely accepted, it continues to find favour in academic literature over the later literal translations. Another suggestion is an association with the root l-h-m, which means "to fight", but this is thought unlikely.


title: Bethlehem

text: The earliest reference to Bethlehem appears in the Amarna correspondence (). In one of his six letters to Pharaoh, Abdi-Heba, the Egyptian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, appeals for aid in retaking "Bit-Laḫmi" in the wake of disturbances by Apiru mercenaries: "Now even a town near Jerusalem, Bit-Lahmi by name, a village which once belonged to the king, has fallen to the enemy... Let the king hear the words of your servant Abdi-Heba, and send archers to restore the imperial lands of the king!"


title: Bethlehem

text: It is thought that the similarity of this name to its modern forms indicates that it was originally a settlement of Canaanites who shared a Semitic cultural and linguistic heritage with the later arrivals. "Laḫmu" was the Akkadian god of fertility, worshipped by the Canaanites as "Leḥem". Some time in the third millennium BCE, Canaanites erected a temple on the hill now known as the Hill of the Nativity, probably dedicated to Laḫmu. The temple, and subsequently the town that formed around it, was then known as "Beit Lahama", "House (Temple) of Lahmu". By 1200 BC, the area of Bethlehem, as well as much of the region, was conquered by the Philistines, which led the region to be known to the Greeks as ""Philistia"", later corrupted to "Palestine".


title: Bethlehem

text: A burial ground discovered in spring 2013, and surveyed in 2015 by a joint Italian-Palestinian team found that the necropolis covered 3 hectares (more than 7 acres) and originally contained more than 100 tombs in use between roughly 2200 BCE and 650 BCE. The archaeologists were able to identify at least 30 tombs.


title: Bethlehem

text: Archaeological confirmation of Bethlehem as a city in the Kingdom of Judah was uncovered in 2012 at the archaeological dig at the City of David in the form of a "bulla" (seal impression in dried clay) in ancient Hebrew script that reads "From the town of Bethlehem to the King." According to the excavators, it was used to seal the string closing a shipment of grain, wine, or other goods sent as a tax payment in the 8th or 7th century BCE.


title: Bethlehem

text: Biblical scholars believe Bethlehem, located in the "hill country" of Judea, may be the same as the Biblical Ephrath, which means "fertile", as there is a reference to it in the Book of Micah as Bethlehem Ephratah. The Hebrew Bible also calls it Beth-Lehem Judah, and the New Testament describes it as the "City of David". It is first mentioned in the Bible as the place where the matriarch Rachel died and was buried "by the wayside" (). Rachel's Tomb, the traditional grave site, stands at the entrance to Bethlehem. According to the Book of Ruth, the valley to the east is where Ruth of Moab gleaned the fields and returned to town with Naomi. In the Books of Samuel, Bethlehem is mentioned as the home of Jesse, father of King David of Israel, and the site of David's anointment by the prophet Samuel. It was from the well of Bethlehem that three of his warriors brought him water when he was hiding in the cave of Adullam.


title: Bethlehem

text: Writing in the 4th century, the Pilgrim of Bordeaux reported that the sepulchers of David, Ezekiel, Asaph, Job, Jesse, and Solomon were located near Bethlehem. There has been no corroboration of this.


title: Bethlehem

text: The Gospel of Matthew Matthew 1:18-2:23 and the Gospel of Luke Luke 2:1-39 represent Jesus as having been born in Bethlehem. Modern scholars, however, regard the two accounts as contradictory and the Gospel of Mark, the earliest gospel, mentions nothing about Jesus having been born in Bethlehem, saying only that he came from Nazareth. Current scholars are divided on the actual birthplace of Jesus: some believe he was actually born in Nazareth, while others still hold that he was born in Bethlehem.


title: Bethlehem

text: Nonetheless, the tradition that Jesus was born in Bethlehem was prominent in the early church. In around 155, the apologist Justin Martyr recommended that those who doubted Jesus was really born in Bethlehem could go there and visit the very cave where he was supposed to have been born. The same cave is also referenced by the apocryphal Gospel of James and the fourth-century church historian Eusebius. After the Bar Kokhba revolt ( 132–136 CE) was crushed, the Roman emperor Hadrian converted the Christian site above the Grotto into a shrine dedicated to the Greek god Adonis, to honour his favourite, the Greek youth Antinous.


title: Bethlehem

text: In around 395 CE, the Church Father Jerome wrote in a letter: "Bethlehem... belonging now to us... was overshadowed by a grove of Tammuz, that is to say, Adonis, and in the cave where once the infant Christ cried, the lover of Venus was lamented." Many scholars have taken this letter as evidence that the cave of the nativity over which the Church of the Nativity was later built had at one point been a shrine to the ancient Near Eastern fertility god Tammuz. Eusebius, however, mentions nothing about the cave having been associated with Tammuz and there are no other Patristic sources that suggest Tammuz had a shrine in Bethlehem. Peter Welten has argued that the cave was never dedicated to Tammuz and that Jerome misinterpreted Christian mourning over the Massacre of the Innocents as a pagan ritual over Tammuz's death. Joan E. Taylor has countered this contention by arguing that Jerome, as an educated man, could not have been so naïve as to mistake Christian mourning over the Massacre of the Innocents as a pagan ritual for Tammuz.


title: Bethlehem

text: In 326–328, the empress Helena, consort of the emperor Constantius Chlorus, and mother of the emperor Constantine the Great, made a pilgrimage to Syra-Palaestina, in the course of which she visited the ruins of Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity was built at her initiative over the cave where Jesus was purported to have been born. During the Samaritan revolt of 529, Bethlehem was sacked and its walls and the Church of the Nativity destroyed; they were rebuilt on the orders of the Emperor Justinian I. In 614, the Persian Sassanid Empire, supported by Jewish rebels, invaded Palestina Prima and captured Bethlehem. A story recounted in later sources holds that they refrained from destroying the church on seeing the magi depicted in Persian clothing in a mosaic.


title: Bethlehem

text: In 637, shortly after Jerusalem was captured by the Muslim armies, 'Umar ibn al-Khattāb, the second Caliph, promised that the Church of the Nativity would be preserved for Christian use. A mosque dedicated to Umar was built upon the place in the city where he prayed, next to the church. Bethlehem then passed through the control of the Islamic caliphates of the Umayyads in the 8th century, then the Abbasids in the 9th century. A Persian geographer recorded in the mid-9th century that a well preserved and much venerated church existed in the town. In 985, the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi visited Bethlehem, and referred to its church as the "Basilica of Constantine, the equal of which does not exist anywhere in the country-round." In 1009, during the reign of the sixth Fatimid Caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Church of the Nativity was ordered to be demolished, but was spared by local Muslims, because they had been permitted to worship in the structure's southern transept.


title: Bethlehem

text: In 1099, Bethlehem was captured by the Crusaders, who fortified it and built a new monastery and cloister on the north side of the Church of the Nativity. The Greek Orthodox clergy were removed from their sees and replaced with Latin clerics. Up until that point the official Christian presence in the region was Greek Orthodox. On Christmas Day 1100, Baldwin I, first king of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, was crowned in Bethlehem, and that year a Latin episcopate was also established in the town.


title: Bethlehem

text: In 1187, Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who led the Muslim Ayyubids, captured Bethlehem from the Crusaders. The Latin clerics were forced to leave, allowing the Greek Orthodox clergy to return. Saladin agreed to the return of two Latin priests and two deacons in 1192. However, Bethlehem suffered from the loss of the pilgrim trade, as there was a sharp decrease of European pilgrims. William IV, Count of Nevers had promised the Christian bishops of Bethlehem that if Bethlehem should fall under Muslim control, he would welcome them in the small town of Clamecy in present-day Burgundy, France. As a result, the Bishop of Bethlehem duly took up residence in the hospital of Panthenor, Clamecy, in 1223. Clamecy remained the continuous 'in partibus infidelium' seat of the Bishopric of Bethlehem for almost 600 years, until the French Revolution in 1789.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem, along with Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Sidon, was briefly ceded to the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem by a treaty between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil in 1229, in return for a ten-year truce between the Ayyubids and the Crusaders. The treaty expired in 1239, and Bethlehem was recaptured by the Muslims in 1244. In 1250, with the coming to power of the Mamluks under Rukn al-Din Baibars, tolerance of Christianity declined. Members of the clergy left the city, and in 1263 the town walls were demolished. The Latin clergy returned to Bethlehem the following century, establishing themselves in the monastery adjoining the Basilica of the Nativity. The Greek Orthodox were given control of the basilica and shared control of the Milk Grotto with the Latins and the Armenians.


title: Bethlehem

text: From 1517, during the years of Ottoman control, custody of the Basilica was bitterly disputed between the Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches. By the end of the 16th century, Bethlehem had become one of the largest villages in the District of Jerusalem, and was subdivided into seven quarters. The Basbus family served as the heads of Bethlehem among other leaders during this period. The Ottoman tax record and census from 1596 indicates that Bethlehem had a population of 1,435, making it the 13th largest village in Palestine at the time. Its total revenue amounted to 30,000 akce.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem paid taxes on wheat, barley and grapes. The Muslims and Christians were organized into separate communities, each having its own leader. Five leaders represented the village in the mid-16th century, three of whom were Muslims. Ottoman tax records suggest that the Christian population was slightly more prosperous or grew more grain than grapes (the former being a more valuable commodity).


title: Bethlehem

text: From 1831 to 1841, Palestine was under the rule of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty of Egypt. During this period, the town suffered an earthquake as well as the destruction of the Muslim quarter in 1834 by Egyptian troops, apparently as a reprisal for the murder of a favored loyalist of Ibrahim Pasha. In 1841, Bethlehem came under Ottoman rule once again and remained so until the end of World War I. Under the Ottomans, Bethlehem's inhabitants faced unemployment, compulsory military service, and heavy taxes, resulting in mass emigration, particularly to South America. An American missionary in the 1850s reported a population of under 4,000, nearly all of whom belonged to the Greek Church. He also noted that a lack of water limited the town's growth.


title: Bethlehem

text: Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that Bethlehem had a population of 179 Muslims in 59 houses, 979 "Latins" in 256 houses, 824 "Greeks" in 213 houses, and 41 Armenians in 11 houses, a total of 539 houses. The population count only included men. Hartmann found that Bethlehem had 520 houses.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem was administered by the British Mandate from 1920 to 1948. In the United Nations General Assembly's 1947 resolution to partition Palestine, Bethlehem was included in the international enclave of Jerusalem to be administered by the United Nations. Jordan captured the city during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Many refugees from areas captured by Israeli forces in 1947–48 fled to the Bethlehem area, primarily settling in what became the official refugee camps of 'Azza (Beit Jibrin) and 'Aida in the north and Dheisheh in the south. The influx of refugees significantly transformed Bethlehem's Christian majority into a Muslim one.


title: Bethlehem

text: Jordan retained control of the city until the Six-Day War in 1967, when Bethlehem was captured by Israel, along with the rest of the West Bank. Following the Six-Day War, Israel took control of the city.


title: Bethlehem

text: During the early months of First Intifada, on 5 May 1989, Milad Anton Shahin, aged 12, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Replying to a Member of Knesset in August 1990 Defence Minister Yitzak Rabin stated that a group of reservists in an observation post had come under attack by stone throwers. The commander of the post, a senior non-commissioned officer, fired two plastic bullets in deviation of operational rules. No evidence was found that this caused the boy's death. The officer was found guilty of illegal use of a weapon and sentenced to 5 months imprisonment, two of them actually in prison doing public service. He was also demoted.


title: Bethlehem

text: On December 21, 1995, Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem, and three days later the city came under the administration and military control of the Palestinian National Authority in accordance with the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During the Second Palestinian Intifada in 2000–2005, Bethlehem's infrastructure and tourism industry were damaged. In 2002, it was a primary combat zone in Operation Defensive Shield, a major military counteroffensive by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF besieged the Church of the Nativity, where dozens of Palestinian militants had sought refuge. The siege lasted 39 days. Several militants were killed. It ended with an agreement to exile 13 of the militants to foreign countries.


title: Bethlehem

text: Today, the city is surrounded by two bypass roads for Israeli settlers, leaving the inhabitants squeezed between thirty-seven Jewish enclaves, where a quarter of all West Bank settlers, roughly 170,000, live; the gap between the two roads is closed by the 8-metre high Israeli West Bank barrier, which cuts Bethlehem off from its sister city Jerusalem.


title: Bethlehem

text: Christian families that have lived in Bethlehem for hundreds of years are being forced to leave as land in Bethlehem is seized, and homes bulldozed, for construction of thousands of new Israeli homes. Land seizures for Israeli settlements have also prevented construction of a new hospital for the inhabitants of Bethlehem, as well as the barrier separating dozens of Palestinian families from their farmland and Christian communities from their places of worship.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem is located at an elevation of about above sea level, higher than nearby Jerusalem. Bethlehem is situated on the Judean Mountains.


title: Bethlehem

text: The city is located northeast of Gaza City and the Mediterranean Sea, west of Amman, Jordan, southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel and south of Jerusalem. Nearby cities and towns include Beit Safafa and Jerusalem to the north, Beit Jala to the northwest, Husan to the west, al-Khadr and Artas to the southwest, and Beit Sahour to the east. Beit Jala and the latter form an agglomeration with Bethlehem. The Aida and Azza refugee camps are located within the city limits.


title: Bethlehem

text: In the center of Bethlehem is its old city. The old city consists of eight quarters, laid out in a mosaic style, forming the area around the Manger Square. The quarters include the Christian an-Najajreh, al-Farahiyeh, al-Anatreh, al-Tarajmeh, al-Qawawsa and Hreizat quarters and al-Fawaghreh — the only Muslim quarter. Most of the Christian quarters are named after the Arab Ghassanid clans that settled there. Al-Qawawsa Quarter was formed by Arab Christian emigrants from the nearby town of Tuqu' in the 18th century. There is also a Syriac quarter outside of the old city, whose inhabitants originate from Midyat and Ma'asarte in Turkey. The total population of the old city is about 5,000.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem has a Mediterranean climate, with hot and dry summers and mild, wetter winters. Winter temperatures (mid-December to mid-March) can be cool and rainy. January is the coldest month, with temperatures ranging from 1 to 13 degree Celsius (33–55 °F). From May through September, the weather is warm and sunny. August is the hottest month, with a high of 30 degrees Celsius (86 °F). Bethlehem receives an average of of rainfall annually, 70% between November and January.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem's average annual relative humidity is 60% and reaches its highest rates between January and February. Humidity levels are at their lowest in May. Night dew may occur in up to 180 days per year. The city is influenced by the Mediterranean Sea breeze that occurs around mid-day. However, Bethlehem is affected also by annual waves of hot, dry, sandy and dust "Khamaseen" winds from the Arabian Desert, during April, May and mid-June.


title: Bethlehem

text: According to Ottoman tax records, Christians made up roughly 60% of the population in the early 16th century, while the Christian and Muslim population became equal by the mid-16th century. However, there were no Muslim inhabitants counted by the end of the century, with a recorded population of 287 adult male tax-payers. Christians, like all non-Muslims throughout the Ottoman Empire, were required to pay the jizya tax. In 1867, an American visitor describes the town as having a population of 3,000 to 4,000; of whom about 100 were Protestants, 300 were Muslims and "the remainder belonging to the Latin and Greek Churches with a few Armenians." Another report from the same year puts the Christian population at 3,000, with an additional 50 Muslims. An 1885 source put the population at approximately 6,000 of "principally Christians, Latins and Greeks" with no Jewish inhabitants.


title: Bethlehem

text: In 1948, the religious makeup of the city was 85% Christian, mostly of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations, and 13% Muslim. In the 1967 census taken by Israel authorities, the town of Bethlehem proper numbered 14,439 inhabitants, its 7,790 Muslim inhabitants represented 53.9% of the population, while the Christians of various denominations numbered 6,231 or 46.1%.


title: Bethlehem

text: In the PCBS's 1997 census, the city had a population of 21,670, including a total of 6,570 refugees, accounting for 30.3% of the city's population. In 1997, the age distribution of Bethlehem's inhabitants was 27.4% under the age of 10, 20% from 10 to 19, 17.3% from 20 to 29, 17.7% from 30 to 44, 12.1% from 45 to 64 and 5.3% above the age of 65. There were 11,079 males and 10,594 females. In the 2007 PCBS census, Bethlehem had a population of 25,266, of which 12,753 were males and 12,513 were females. There were 6,709 housing units, of which 5,211 were households. The average household consisted of 4.8 family members.


title: Bethlehem

text: After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the local Christians were Arabized even though large numbers were ethnically Arabs of the Ghassanid clans. Bethlehem's two largest Arab Christian clans trace their ancestry to the Ghassanids, including al-Farahiyyah and an-Najajreh. The former have descended from the Ghassanids who migrated from Yemen and from the Wadi Musa area in present-day Jordan and an-Najajreh descend from Najran. Another Bethlehem clan, al-Anatreh, also trace their ancestry to the Ghassanids.


title: Bethlehem

text: The percentage of Christians in the town has been in a steady decline since the mid-twentieth century. In 1947, Christians made up 85% of the population, but by 1998, the figure had declined to 40%. In 2005, the mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, explained that "due to the stress, either physical or psychological, and the bad economic situation, many people are emigrating, either Christians or Muslims, but it is more apparent among Christians, because they already are a minority." The Palestinian Authority is officially committed to equality for Christians, although there have been incidents of violence against them by the Preventive Security Service and militant factions. In 2006, the Palestinian Centre for Research and Cultural Dialogue conducted a poll among the city's Christians according to which 90% said they had had Muslim friends, 73.3% agreed that the PNA treated Christian heritage in the city with respect and 78% attributed the exodus of Christians to the Israeli blockade. The only mosque in the Old City is the Mosque of Omar, located in the Manger Square. By 2016, the Christian population of Bethlehem had declined to only 16%.


title: Bethlehem

text: A study by Pew Research Center concluded that the decline in the Arab Christian population of the area was partially a result of a lower birth rate among Christians than among Muslims, but also partially due to the fact that Christians were more likely to emigrate from the region than any other religious group. Amon Ramnon, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, stated that the reason why more Christians were emigrating than Muslims is because it is easier for Arab Christians to integrate into western communities than for Arab Muslims, since many of them attend church-affiliated schools, where they are taught European languages. A higher percentage of Christians in the region are urban-dwellers, which also makes it easier for them to emigrate and assimilate into western populations. A statistical analysis of the Christian exodus cited lack of economic and educational opportunity, especially due to the Christians' middle-class status and higher education. Since the Second Intifada, 10% of the Christian population have left the city. However, it is likely that there are many other factors, most of which are shared with the Palestinian population as a whole.


title: Bethlehem

text: Shopping is a major attraction, especially during the Christmas season. The city's main streets and old markets are lined with shops selling Palestinian handicrafts, Middle Eastern spices, jewelry and oriental sweets such as baklawa. Olive wood carvings are the item most purchased by tourists visiting Bethlehem. Religious handicrafts include ornaments handmade from mother-of-pearl, as well as olive wood statues, boxes, and crosses. Other industries include stone and marble-cutting, textiles, furniture and furnishings. Bethlehem factories also produce paints, plastics, synthetic rubber, pharmaceuticals, construction materials and food products, mainly pasta and confectionery.


title: Bethlehem

text: Cremisan Wine, founded in 1885, is a winery run by monks in the Monastery of Cremisan. The grapes are grown mainly in the al-Khader district. In 2007, the monastery's wine production was around 700,000 liters per year.


title: Bethlehem

text: In 2008, Bethlehem hosted the largest economic conference to date in the Palestinian territories. It was initiated by Palestinian Prime Minister and former Finance Minister Salam Fayyad to convince more than a thousand businessmen, bankers and government officials from throughout the Middle East to invest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A total of 1.4 billion US dollars was secured for business investments in the Palestinian territories.


title: Bethlehem

text: Tourism is Bethlehem's main industry. Unlike other Palestinian localities prior to 2000, the majority of the employed residents did not have jobs in Israel. More than 20% of the working population is employed in the industry. Tourism accounts for approximately 65% of the city's economy and 11% of the Palestinian National Authority. The city has more than two million visitors every year. Tourism in Bethlehem ground to a halt for over a decade after the Second Intifada, but gradually began to pick back up in the early 2010s.


title: Bethlehem

text: The Church of the Nativity is one of Bethlehem's major tourist attractions and a magnet for Christian pilgrims. It stands in the center of the city — a part of the Manger Square — over a grotto or cave called the Holy Crypt, where Jesus is believed to have been born. Nearby is the Milk Grotto where the Holy Family took refuge on their Flight to Egypt and next door is the cave where St. Jerome spent thirty years creating the Vulgate, the dominant Latin version of the Bible until the Reformation.


title: Bethlehem

text: There are over thirty hotels in Bethlehem. Jacir Palace, built in 1910 near the church, is one of Bethlehem's most successful hotels and its oldest. It was closed down in 2000 due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but reopened in 2005 as the Jacir Palace InterContinental at Bethlehem.


title: Bethlehem

text: In the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke says that Jesus' parents traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The Gospel of Matthew mentions Bethlehem as the place of birth, and adds that King Herod was told that a 'King of the Jews' had been born in the town, prompting Herod to order the killing of all the boys who were two years old or under in the town and surrounding area. Joseph, warned of Herod's impending action by an angel of the Lord, decided to flee to Egypt with his family and then later settled in Nazareth after Herod's death.


title: Bethlehem

text: Early Christian traditions describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem: in one account, a verse in the Book of Micah is interpreted as a prophecy that the Messiah would be born there. The second century Christian apologist Justin Martyr stated in his "Dialogue with Trypho" (written c. 155–161) that the Holy Family had taken refuge in a cave outside of the town and then placed Jesus in a manger. Origen of Alexandria, writing around the year 247, referred to a cave in the town of Bethlehem which local people believed was the birthplace of Jesus. This cave was possibly one which had previously been a site of the cult of Tammuz. The Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John do not include a nativity narrative, but refer to him only as being from Nazareth. In a 2005 article in "Archaeology" magazine, archaeologist Aviram Oshri points to an absence of evidence for the settlement of Bethlehem near Jerusalem at the time when Jesus was born, and postulates that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Galilee. In a 2011 article in "Biblical Archaeology Review" magazine, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor argues for the traditional position that Jesus was born in Bethlehem near Jerusalem.


title: Bethlehem

text: Christmas rites are held in Bethlehem on three different dates: December 25 is the traditional date by the Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations, but Greek, Coptic and Syrian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 6 and Armenian Orthodox Christians on January 19. Most Christmas processions pass through Manger Square, the plaza outside the Basilica of the Nativity. Roman Catholic services take place in St. Catherine's Church and Protestants often hold services at Shepherds' Fields.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem celebrates festivals related to saints and prophets associated with Palestinian folklore. One such festival is the annual Feast of Saint George (al-Khadr) on May 5–6. During the celebrations, Greek Orthodox Christians from the city march in procession to the nearby town of al-Khader to baptize newborns in the waters around the Monastery of St. George and sacrifice a sheep in ritual. The Feast of St. Elijah is commemorated by a procession to Mar Elias, a Greek Orthodox monastery north of Bethlehem.


title: Bethlehem

text: The women embroiderers of Bethlehem were known for their bridalwear. Bethlehem embroidery was renowned for its "strong overall effect of colors and metallic brilliance." Less formal dresses were made of indigo fabric with a sleeveless coat ("bisht") from locally woven wool worn over top. Dresses for special occasions were made of striped silk with winged sleeves with a short "taqsireh" jacket known as the Bethlehem jacket. The taqsireh was made of velvet or broadcloth, usually with heavy embroidery.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem work was unique in its use of couched gold or silver cord, or silk cord onto the silk, wool, felt or velvet used for the garment, to create stylized floral patterns with free or rounded lines. This technique was used for "royal" wedding dresses ("thob malak"), taqsirehs and the "shatwehs" worn by married women. It has been traced by some to Byzantium, and by others to the formal costumes of the Ottoman Empire's elite. As a Christian village, local women were also exposed to the detailing on church vestments with their heavy embroidery and silver brocade.


title: Bethlehem

text: The art of mother-of-pearl carving is said to have been a Bethlehem tradition since the 15th century when it was introduced by Franciscan friars from Italy. A constant stream of pilgrims generated a demand for these items, which also provided jobs for women. The industry was noted by Richard Pococke, who visited Bethlehem in 1727.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem is home to the Palestinian Heritage Center, established in 1991. The center aims to preserve and promote Palestinian embroidery, art and folklore. The International Center of Bethlehem is another cultural center that concentrates primarily on the culture of Bethlehem. It provides language and guide training, woman's studies and arts and crafts displays, and training.


title: Bethlehem

text: The Bethlehem branch of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music has about 500 students. Its primary goals are to teach children music, train teachers for other schools, sponsor music research, and the study of Palestinian folklore music.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem has four museums: The Crib of the Nativity Theatre and Museum offers visitors 31 three-dimensional models depicting the significant stages of the life of Jesus. Its theater presents a 20-minute animated show. The Badd Giacaman Museum, located in the Old City of Bethlehem, dates back to the 18th century and is primarily dedicated to the history and process of olive oil production. Baituna al-Talhami Museum, established in 1972, contains displays of Bethlehem culture. The International Museum of Nativity was built by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to exhibit "high artistic quality in an evocative atmosphere".


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem held its first municipal elections in 1876, after the "mukhtars" ("heads") of the quarters of Bethlehem's Old City (excluding the Syriac Quarter) made the decision to elect a local council of seven members to represent each clan in the town. A Basic Law was established so that if the victor for mayor was a Catholic, his deputy should be of the Greek Orthodox community.


title: Bethlehem

text: Throughout, Bethlehem's rule by the British and Jordan, the Syriac Quarter was allowed to participate in the election, as were the Ta'amrah Bedouins and Palestinian refugees, hence ratifying the number of municipal members in the council to 11. In 1976, an amendment was passed to allow women to vote and become council members and later the voting age was increased from 21 to 25.


title: Bethlehem

text: There are several branches of political parties on the council, including Communist, Islamist, and secular. The leftist factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian People's Party (PPP) usually dominate the reserved seats. Hamas gained the majority of the open seats in the 2005 Palestinian municipal elections.


title: Bethlehem

text: In the October 2012 municipal elections, Fatah member Vera Baboun won, becoming the first female mayor of Bethlehem.


title: Bethlehem

text: According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in 1997, approximately 84% of Bethlehem's population over the age of 10 was literate. Of the city's population, 10,414 were enrolled in schools (4,015 in primary school, 3,578 in secondary and 2,821 in high school). About 14.1% of high school students received diplomas. There were 135 schools in the Bethlehem Governorate in 2006; 100 run the Education Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority, seven by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and 28 were private.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem is home to Bethlehem University, a Catholic Christian co-educational institution of higher learning founded in 1973 in the Lasallian tradition, open to students of all faiths. Bethlehem University is the first university established in the West Bank, and can trace its roots to 1893 when the De La Salle Christian Brothers opened schools throughout Palestine and Egypt.


title: Bethlehem

text: Bethlehem has three bus stations owned by private companies which offer service to Jerusalem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Hebron, Nahalin, Battir, al-Khader, al-Ubeidiya and Beit Fajjar. There are two taxi stations that make trips to Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, Jerusalem, Tuqu' and Herodium. There are also two car rental departments: Murad and 'Orabi. Buses and taxis with West Bank licenses are not allowed to enter Israel, including Jerusalem, without a permit.


title: Bethlehem

text: The Israeli construction of the West Bank barrier has affected Bethlehem politically, socially, and economically. The barrier is located along the northern side of the town's built-up area, within distance of houses in the Aida refugee camp on one side, and the Jerusalem municipality on the other. Most entrances and exits from the Bethlehem agglomeration to the rest of the West Bank are currently subjected to Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks. The level of access varies based on Israeli security directives. Travel for Bethlehem's Palestinian residents from the West Bank into Jerusalem is regulated by a permit-system. Palestinians require a permit to enter the Jewish holy site of Rachel's Tomb. Israeli citizens are barred from entering Bethlehem and the nearby biblical Solomon's Pools.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: Craig Theodore Nelson (born April 4, 1944) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Hayden Fox in the sitcom "Coach" (for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series), Deputy Ward Wilson in the 1980 film "Stir Crazy", Steve Freeling in the 1982 film "Poltergeist", Burt Nickerson in "All The Right Moves" (1983), Peter Dellaplane in "Action Jackson", Chief Howard Hyde in "Turner & Hooch" (1989), Alex Cullen in "The Devil's Advocate" (1997), Chief Jack Mannion in "The District" (2000–2004), The Warden in "My Name is Earl", and the voice of Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible in the 2004 film "The Incredibles" and its 2018 sequel. He also starred as Zeek Braverman in the television series "Parenthood".


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: Nelson was born Craig Theodore Nelson in Spokane, Washington, on April 4, 1944. He was the son of Vera Margaret (née Spindler; 1906–1971), a dancer, and Armand Gilbert Nelson (1900–1964), a businessman.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: After high school, Nelson studied at Central Washington University. After flunking out, Nelson went to Yakima Valley College where he was inspired to study acting by his drama teacher, Mr. Brady. From Yakima, he went on to study drama at the University of Arizona on a scholarship.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: In 1969, Nelson dropped out of school and moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. When he first moved to California, he took up a job as a security guard at a soap factory until finding work as a comedy writer.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: Nelson began his show business career as a stand-up comedian. He was an early member of The Groundlings improv and sketch comedy troupe. Nelson, Barry Levinson, and Rudy De Luca formed their own comedy team and were regular performers at The Comedy Store and on the short-lived The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (1970). In 1973, Nelson left the comedy world, explaining "the standup comedy life was pretty unfulfilling for me" and he settled in Montgomery Creek, California where there was no electricity and no running water; "it was contentment, "The Waltons"", he said. Nelson had different jobs during that time including janitor, plumber, carpenter, surveyor, and high school teacher in Burney, CA. He returned to acting five years later.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: He was featured as a prosecuting attorney who opposes Al Pacino in the 1979 film "...And Justice for All", co-written by Levinson. In 1983, Nelson appeared in "Silkwood", directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep, as the high school football coach of Tom Cruise in the drama "All the Right Moves" and as one of the stars of director Sam Peckinpah's final film, "The Osterman Weekend".


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: He has appeared in many other motion pictures (most notably the "Poltergeist" series) and had featured roles in five television shows ("Coach", "Call to Glory", "The District", "My Name Is Earl", and "Parenthood"). "Coach" ran from 1989 to 1997, with Nelson starring as college football coach Hayden Fox.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: He provided the voice of Bob Parr (also known as Mr. Incredible) in the computer-animated superhero film, "The Incredibles", and returned to the role for its sequel, "Incredibles 2". Nelson also reprised the role again in the video games "" and in the "Disney Infinity" video game series, except for the video game and "", where he was replaced by actor Richard McGonagle.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: His latest films include 2009's "The Proposal" as Ryan Reynolds' skeptical father, 2010's "The Company Men" as a greedy CEO, and 2018's "Book Club". From 2010 to 2015, he starred in the television show "Parenthood" as Ezekiel "Zeek" Braverman, the family patriarch. His production company is Family Tree Productions.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: In 2017, Nelson joined the cast of Young Sheldon as Dale Ballard, a local sports store owner, Missy's baseball coach, and Meemaw's boyfriend.


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: Nelson has three children from his previous marriage to Robin McCarthy. His second wife Doria Cook-Nelson is a freelance writer, president of a martial arts association, karate instructor, tai chi teacher and a former film and television actress who had a featured role in the movie musical "Mame".


title: Craig T. Nelson

text: Nelson is a motorsports fan and an avid racer. He first participated in the 1991 Toyota Celebrity Long Beach Grand Prix and finished ninth. In 1992, he founded Screaming Eagles Racing with John Christie and entered and drove a Toyota-engined Spice SE90 in the IMSA 1994 WSC, a Lexus-engined Spice SE90 in 1995 and a Ford-engined Riley & Scott MkIII in the 1996 and 1997 championships.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Christine "Chris" Chubbuck (August 24, 1944 – July 15, 1974) was an American television news reporter who worked for stations WTOG and WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida. She was the first person to die by suicide on a live television broadcast.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Christine Chubbuck was born in Hudson, Ohio, the daughter of Margaretha D. "Peg" (1921–1994) and George Fairbanks Chubbuck (1918–2015). She had two brothers, Greg and Tim. Chubbuck attended the Laurel School for Girls in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. During her years at Laurel, she jokingly formed a "Dateless Wonder Club" with other "rejected" girls who did not have dates on Saturday nights. Chubbuck attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for one year, majoring in theater arts, then attended Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, before earning a degree in broadcasting at Boston University in 1965.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck worked for WVIZ in Cleveland between 1966 and 1967, and attended a summer workshop in radio and television at New York University in 1967. That same year, she worked in Canton, Ohio, and, for three months, at WQED-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as an assistant producer for two local shows, "Women's World" and "Keys to the City". In 1968, Chubbuck left WQED to spend four years as a hospital computer operator and two years with a cable television firm in Sarasota, Florida. Immediately before joining ABC affiliate WXLT-TV (now WWSB), she worked in the traffic department of WTOG in St. Petersburg.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Several years before her death, Chubbuck had moved into her family's summer cottage on Siesta Key. Sally Quinn of "The Washington Post" later reported that she had painted the bedroom and canopied bed to look like that of a young teenager. After Chubbuck's parents were divorced, her mother Peg and younger brother Greg came to live in the Florida home. When Greg left, her elder brother Tim moved in. Chubbuck had a close relationship with her family, describing her mother and Greg as her closest friends.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: WXLT's owner, Bob Nelson, hired Chubbuck as a reporter, but later gave her a community affairs talk show, "Suncoast Digest", which ran at 9:00am. Production Manager Gordon J. Acker described Chubbuck's new show to a local paper: "It will feature local people and local activities. It will give attention, for instance, to the storefront organizations that are concerned with alcoholics, drug users, and other 'lost' segments of the community." Page five of the article showed a smiling Chubbuck posed with a WXLT camera.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck took her position seriously, inviting local officials from Sarasota and Bradenton to discuss matters of interest to the growing beach community. After her death, the "Sarasota Herald-Tribune" reported that she had been nominated for a Forestry and Conservation Recognition Award by the Bradenton district office of the Florida Division of Forestry. Chubbuck was considered a "strong contender" by district forester Mike Keel. He had been scheduled to appear as a guest on Chubbuck's show the morning of her suicide, but cancelled because of the birth of his son. On occasion, Chubbuck incorporated homemade puppets she had used to entertain children with intellectual disabilities during her volunteer work at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck spoke to her family at length about her struggles with depression and suicidal tendencies, though she did not inform them of her intent to commit suicide on live television. She had attempted to overdose on drugs in 1970 and frequently made reference to that event. Chubbuck had been seeing a psychiatrist up until several weeks before her death. Her mother chose not to tell WXLT management about her daughter's suicidal tendencies because she feared Chubbuck would be fired.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck's focus on her lack of intimate relationships is generally considered to be the driving force for her depression. Her mother later summarized that "her suicide was simply because her personal life was not enough." She lamented to co-workers that her 30th birthday was approaching, and she was still a virgin who had never been on more than two dates with a man. Her brother Greg later recalled she had gone out with a man several times before moving to Sarasota, but agreed that she had trouble connecting socially in the beach resort town. He believed her constant self-deprecation for being "dateless" contributed to her ongoing depression.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: According to Quinn, Chubbuck had an unrequited crush on co-worker George Peter Ryan. She baked him a cake for his birthday and sought his romantic attention, only to find out he was already involved with sports reporter Andrea Kirby. Kirby had been the co-worker closest to Chubbuck, but she was offered a new job in Baltimore, which had further depressed Chubbuck. Her lack of a romantic partner was considered a tangent of her desperate need to have close friends, though co-workers said she tended to be brusque and defensive whenever they made friendly gestures toward her. She was self-deprecating, criticizing herself constantly and rejecting any compliments others paid her.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck had her right ovary removed in an operation the year before her suicide, and had been told that if she did not become pregnant within two to three years, it was unlikely she would ever be able to conceive.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: A week before her suicide, she told night news editor Rob Smith that she had bought a gun and joked about killing herself on air. Smith later stated that he did not respond to what he thought was Chubbuck's "sick" attempt at humor, and changed the subject.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: On the morning of July 15, 1974, Chubbuck confused co-workers by claiming she had to read a newscast to open "Suncoast Digest", something she had never done before. That morning's guest waited across the studio while Chubbuck sat at the news anchor's desk. During the first eight minutes of her program, Chubbuck covered three national news stories and then a shooting from the previous day at a local restaurant, Beef & Bottle, at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: The film reel of the restaurant shooting had jammed and would not run, so Chubbuck shrugged it off and said on-camera, "In keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide." She drew a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 36 revolver and shot herself behind her right ear. Chubbuck fell forward violently and the technical director faded the broadcast rapidly to black.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: The station quickly ran a standard public service announcement and then a movie. Some television viewers called the police, while others called the station to inquire if the shooting was staged.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: After the shooting, news director Mike Simmons found the papers from which Chubbuck had been reading her newscast contained a complete script of her program, including not only the shooting, but also a third-person account to be read by whichever staff member took over the broadcast after the incident. He said her script called for her condition to be listed as "critical".


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead fourteen hours later. Upon receiving the news, a WXLT staffer released the information to other stations using Chubbuck's script. For a time, WXLT aired reruns of the TV series "Gentle Ben" in place of "Suncoast Digest".


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: Chubbuck's body was cremated. The funeral ceremony was held on the beach, where her ashes were scattered into the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately 120 people attended, including local officials who had appeared on her show. Three songs by her favorite singer, Roberta Flack, were played. Presbyterian minister Thomas Beason delivered the eulogy, stating, "We suffer at our sense of loss, we are frightened by her rage, we are guilty in the face of her rejection, we are hurt by her choice of isolation and we are confused by her message."


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: "Suncoast Digest" stayed on the air for several years with new hosts. Simmons, the station director, said Chubbuck's suicide was unrelated to the station. "The crux of the situation was that she was a 29-year-old girl who wanted to be married and who wasn't", he said in 1977.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: The broadcast of Chubbuck's death has not been seen since its airing, and numerous theories on what happened to the recording have been advanced. One was that the station owner Robert Nelson kept it, and it was in the possession of his widow, Mollie. It was confirmed in June 2016 that the recording of Chubbuck's death exists and had indeed been in Nelson's possession, but was handed over to a "very large law firm" for safekeeping by Mollie. She has no plans to make it publicly available.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: In 2007, Greg Chubbuck spoke publicly about his sister for the first time since 1974 in an E! television special. In 2008, the suicide hoax blog 90 Day Jane would cite Chubbuck's death as inspiration.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: In 2003, Christopher Sorrentino published "Condition", a short story based on Chubbuck's suicide, in the literary magazine "Conjunctions".


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: In 2016, two films about Chubbuck played at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The first, "Christine," was directed by Antonio Campos, and starred Rebecca Hall as Christine Chubbuck and Michael C. Hall as George Peter Ryan. The second was the documentary "Kate Plays Christine", which depicts actress Kate Lyn Sheil's preparation for the part of Chubbuck.


title: Christine Chubbuck

text: In 2021, Rebecca Maye Holiday published the short story "Of Late I Think of Christine Chubbuck", originally written in 2017, in her anthology "A Blurred Estuary of Demons".


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of the most prolific Indian composers, in a career spanning over forty-five years, he has composed over 7,000 songs and provided film scores for over 1,000 films, apart from performing in over 20,000 concerts.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: several awards for his works throughout his career. In 2012, for his creative and experimental works in the field of music, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India; and was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2018, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India. He is a nominated Member of Parliament in the Indian upper house, Rajya Sabha, since July 2022.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanathesigan belonging to Pannaipuram, in present-day Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India, on 3 June 1943. In his later years, Ilaiyaraaja started to celebrate his birthday on 2 June instead, so that people of Tamil Nadu can celebrate only that of Karunanidhi on 3 June, as both their birthdays fall on the same date. It was done out of respect for the late politician who bestowed him the title "Isaignani".


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: At the time of joining school, his father changed his name from Gnanathesigan to "Rajaiya", and the people in his village called him "Raasayya". When he joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments, the master changed his name to "Raaja". While working for his first film "Annakili", Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added the prefix "Ilaiya" (Ilaiya meaning younger in Tamil language) to the name Raaja, and renamed him as "Ilaiyaraaja", as in the 1970s there was another popular music director with the same suffix, namely A. M. Rajah.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja grew up in a rural area and was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music in his formative years. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe named as "Pavalar Brothers", headed by his elder brother Pavalar Varadharajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout Southern India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical adaptation of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate, Kannadasan for India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), the course included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja was a gold medalist in classical guitar after completing the course through distance learning channel from Trinity College of Music, London. He learnt carnatic music from T.V.Gopalakrishnan.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: During 1970s in Chennai, Ilaiyaraaja played guitar in a band-for-hire, and worked as a session guitarist, keyboardist, and organist for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury from West Bengal. Chowdhury once said that Ilaiyaraaja is going to become the best composer in India. After being hired as the musical assistant to Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in Kannada cinema. As G. K. Venkatesh's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh. This is the time when Ilaiyaraaja learned the most about composing under the guidance of G. K. Venkatesh. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores. To listen to his compositions, he used to persuade Venkatesh's session musicians to play excerpts from his scores during their leisure times.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: At the start of his career, the music sensibility of Ilaiyaraaja was very different to the film music being composed in those days, so he spent a lot of his time in learning, but "wasn’t able to grasp how music was being made for films." However in 1975, film producer Panchu Arunachalam, impressed by a song casually sung by Ilaiyaraaja, commissioned him to compose the songs and film score for a Tamil film titled Annakili (The Parrot). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which resulted in creation of a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Initially he was little apprehensive about how his work would be received, and thought that musicians in the industry may write him off. Eventually, when Annakili released in 1976, the music became a huge hit. For his next following 12 films, Ilaiyaraaja based his compositions on the contemporary film music of the time, later when a new wave of films started to come, they opened the space for the kind of music he wanted to explore.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil folk music in his film scores injected new life in the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s, Ilaiyaraaja started gaining increasing stature as a composer and music director in the South Indian film industries. He has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Kannadasan, Vaali, Vairamuthu, O. N. V. Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, Veturi, Aacharya Aatreya, Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Chi. Udaya Shankar and Gulzar, and became well known for his association with filmmakers such as Bharathiraja, S. P. Muthuraman, Mahendran, Balu Mahendra, K. Balachander, Mani Ratnam, Sathyan Anthikkad, Priyadarshan, Fazil, Vamsy, K. Viswanath, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Bala, Shankar Nag, and R. Balki.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja's first two non-film albums were explorations in the fusion of Indian and Western classical music. The first, "How to Name It?" (1986), is dedicated to the Carnatic master Tyāgarāja and to J. S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and "ragas" with Bach partitas, fugues and Baroque musical textures. The second, "Nothing But Wind" (1988), was performed by flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and a 50-piece orchestra and takes the conceptual approach suggested in the title—that music is a "natural phenomenon akin to various forms of air currents".


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: He has composed a set of Carnatic "kritis" which were recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas for the album "Ilayaraaja's Classicals on the Mandolin" (1994). Ilaiyaraaja has also composed albums of religious/devotional songs. His "Guru Ramana Geetam" (2004) is a cycle of prayer songs inspired by the Hindu mystic Ramana Maharshi, and his "Thiruvasakam: A crossover" (2005) is an oratorio of ancient Tamil poems transcribed partially in English by American lyricist Stephen Schwartz and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Ilaiyaraaja's most recent release is a world music-oriented album called "The Music Messiah" (2006).


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: He has announced on his birthday that his ‘Isai OTT’ application will be launched soon and promised the app will contain much more than just his songs, like behind-the-scenes trivia about how each of his songs were conceived, produced, delivered and collaborations with other musicians.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja, once reflecting over his works ahead of turning seventy-five, said his "life experiences and learning" have been the fount from which his musical output poured, but sometimes felt that some of his compositions transcended them as if they were, "the reflection of the efforts of past lives — mine, or those of other musical exponents." When enquired if it was anyway similar to the case of mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, who insisted he received math formula in dreams from a goddess, Ilaiyaraaja said that unlike Ramanujan who felt a supernatural being guiding him, he always felt a moment of clarity when a composition came to his mind, "It is as if I am the subject and the object of art at the same time when that happens," he said.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja's musical style is characterised by an orchestration which is a synthesis of Indian folk music and Western classical music, with traditional Indian instruments and modes. He uses electronic music technology that integrates synthesizers, electric guitars and keyboards, drum machines, rhythm boxes and MIDI with large orchestras that feature traditional instruments such as the "veena", "venu", "nadaswaram", "dholak", "mridangam" and "tabla" as well as Western lead instruments such as saxophones and flutes.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: The basslines in his songs tend to be melodically dynamic, rising and falling in a dramatic fashion. Polyrhythms are also apparent, particularly in songs with Indian folk or Carnatic influences. The melodic structure of his songs demand considerable vocal virtuosity, and have found expressive platform amongst some of India's respected vocalists and playback singers, such as T. M. Soundararajan, S. Janaki, P. Susheela, K. J. Yesudas, K. S. Chithra, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, M. G. Sreekumar, Rajkumar, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Jayachandran, Uma Ramanan, S. P. Sailaja, Jency, Swarnalatha, Minmini, Sujatha, Malaysia Vasudevan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam and Shreya Ghoshal. Ilaiyaraaja has sung more than 400 of his own compositions for films, and is recognisable by his stark, deep voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil. It is widely believed that he is the only composer in the world to have composed a song only in the ascending notes. He considers M. S. Viswanathan as an overwhelming influence on his music.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja is nicknamed "Isaignani" (the musical genius), a title conferred by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. He is often referred to as "maestro", the title conferred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London. He was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music. This allowed him to craft a rich tapestry of sounds for films, and his themes and background score gained notice and appreciation among Indian film audiences. The range of expressive possibilities in Indian film music was broadened by Ilaiyaraaja's methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: He is reputed to be the world's most prolific composer having composed more than 7,000 songs, provided film scores for more than 1,000 movies and performed in more than 20,000 concerts. In 1993, he became the first Indian to compose a full symphony, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London and is also known to have written the entire symphony in less than a month. Composed by Ilaiyaraaja, the critically acclaimed "Thiruvasagam in Symphony" (2006) is the first Indian oratorio.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: According to musicologist P. Greene, Ilaiyaraaja's "deep understanding of so many different styles of music allowed him to create syncretic pieces of music combining very different musical idioms in unified, coherent musical statements". Ilaiyaraaja has composed Indian film songs that amalgamated elements of genres such as Afro-tribal, bossa nova, dance music (e.g., disco), doo-wop, flamenco, acoustic guitar-propelled Western folk, funk, Indian classical, Indian folk/traditional, jazz, march, pathos, pop, psychedelia and rock and roll.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: By virtue of this variety and his intermingling of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythmic folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic "Ragas", and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound. Ilaiyaraaja's sense of visualisation for composing music is always to match up with the story line of the running movie and possibly by doing so, he creates the best experience for the audience to feel the emotions flavoured through his musical score. He mastered this art of blending music to the narration, which very few others managed to adapt themselves over a longer time. Although Ilaiyaraaja uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja has been awarded five National Film Awards—three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India and the Padma Vibhushan in 2018, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India. In 2012, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practising artists, for his creative and experimental works in the music field. He is a gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, Distance Learning Channel.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC of more than half-a million people from 165 countries, his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 film "Thalapathi" was voted fourth in the top 10 most popular songs of all time.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In 2013, when the Indian news channel CNN-IBN conducted a poll commemorating 100 years of Indian cinema, Ilaiyaraaja, secured 49% of the people's vote and was adjudged as the country's greatest music composer, A. R. Rahman, stood second with 29% vote.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In 1986, he became the first Indian composer to record a soundtrack with computer for the film "Vikram". He was also one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Tamil film music, and the first South Asian to compose a full symphony. He also composed "Thiruvasagam in Symphony" (2006), the first Indian oratorio.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: According to Achille Forler, board member of the Indian Performing Right Society, the kind of stellar body of work that Ilaiyaraaja has created in the last 40 years should have placed him among the world's top 10 richest composers, somewhere between Andrew Lloyd Webber ($1.2 billion) and Mick Jagger (over $300 million).


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: On 6 July 2022, he has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha as Member of parliament by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple has three children—Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Bhavatharini—all film composers and singers. His wife Jeeva died on 31 October 2011. Ilaiyaraaja's brother, Gangai Amaran, is also a music director and lyricist in the Tamil film industry, and both were not in talking terms for 13 years.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja rarely performs his music live. His first major live performance since his debut was a four-hour concert held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, India on 16 October 2005. He performed in 2004 in Italy at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, an event-concert presented for the 14th edition of Angelica, Festival Internazionale Di Musica, co-produced with the L'Altro Suono Festival.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: On 23 October 2005, "A Time For Heroes", sponsored by different agencies including the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, saw Hollywood star Richard Gere, Tamil and Telugu stars converging on the city for an evening of "infotainment"—they spoke in one voice on HIV/AIDS.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: The event organised at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad, on Saturday, 22 October 2005, took off with maestro Ilaiyaraaja's composition rendered by singer Usha Uthup.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: A television retrospective titled "Ithu Ilaiyaraja" ("This is Ilaiyaraja") was produced, chronicling his career. He last performed live at the audio release function of the film "Dhoni" and before that, he performed a programme that was conducted and telecasted by Jaya TV titled "Enrendrum Raja" ("Everlasting Raja") on 28 December 2011, at Jahawarlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai. On 23 September 2012, he performed live in Bangalore at National High School Grounds.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: On 16 February 2013, Ilayaraja made his first appearance in North America performing at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada. The Toronto concert was promoted by Trinity Events for Vijay TV in India and produced by Sandy Audio Visual SAV Productions with PA+. Following his show at Toronto, Ilaiyaraaja also performed at the Prudential Center Newark, New Jersey on 23 February 2013, and at the HP Pavilion at San Jose on 1March 2013. After his North America tour he made a live performance at The O2 Arena in London on 24 August 2013, along with Kamal Haasan and his sons Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiaraaja and his team performed live in North America in 2016. In October 2017, he performed live for the first time in Hyderabad and in November in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In March 2018, he performed live again in Houston, Dallas, Chicago, San Jose, Connecticut, Washington D.C. and Toronto.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: For the first time in his career, Ilaiyaraaja has performed in Sydney with his orchestra in Hillsong Convention Centre on 11 August 2018. Also, in the same month as to celebrate his 75th birth anniversary, a concert was held in Singapore Star Performing Arts Theatre on 18 August.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: Ilaiyaraaja organised a concert titled "Isai Celebrates Isai" in Chennai as a part of his 76th birthday celebration on 2 June 2019. Usually the maestro's team consists of forty to fifty musicians, but for the first time ever the concert had close to a hundred artists sharing the stage. The four-hour live concert also saw the reunion of noted singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam after their fallout over royalties in 2017. The event was an effort to raise funds for Cine Musicians Association.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: For the first time, Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja hosted a live concert in Coimbatore on 9 June 2019. Titled Rajathi Raja, the event was held at the Codissia Grounds. Along with Ilaiyaraaja, singers SPB, Mano, Usha Uthup, Haricharan, Madhu Balakrishnan, and Bavatharini also performed at the event, backed by an orchestra from Hungary. Latha Rajinikanth and her daughter Aishwarya were also part of the event. The proceeds from the concert were donated to "Peace for Children", an NGO that the former runs.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In 2017, claiming copyright violations, Ilaiyaraaja sent legal notices to singers, S. P Balasubrahmanyam, his son S. P. Charan and Chithra, prohibiting them from singing his compositions without his consent, and warned they would have to pay huge royalties and face legal action if they do so. Ilaiyaraaja's brother Gangai Amaran criticized him, saying legal notice to SPB is 'foolishness'.


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In 2018, during a talk show in the US, Ilaiyaraaja expressed his doubts regarding the credibility of the Christian belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and claimed that resurrection happened only in the case of the Hindu saint Ramana Maharshi. In protest, a Christian group lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner of Trichy, demanding an apology or police action against Ilaiyaraaja for raising doubt about the "ultimate belief of Christians".


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In early 2022, talking about the state of music composers in industry, Ilaiyaraaja said, "There are no composers in the film industry today; there are only programmers."


title: Ilaiyaraaja

text: In April 2022, Ilaiyaraaja triggered a controversy by writing a foreword in the book titled, "Ambedkar & Modi — Reformer’s Ideas", in which he praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and compared him to B.R. Ambedkar.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Hispanic and Latino Americans (; ) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino regardless of ancestry. As of 2020, the Census Bureau estimated that there were almost 65.3 million Hispanics and Latinos living in the United States and its territories (which include Puerto Rico).


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: "Origin" can be viewed as the ancestry, nationality group, lineage or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States of America. People who identify as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. As one of the only two specifically designated categories of ethnicity in the United States (the other being "Not Hispanic or Latino"), Hispanics and Latinos form a pan-ethnicity incorporating a diversity of inter-related cultural and linguistic heritages. Most Hispanic and Latino Americans are of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Spanish, Salvadoran, Dominican, Brazilian, Guatemalan, Colombian, or Venezuelan origin. The predominant origin of regional Hispanic and Latino populations varies widely in different locations across the country.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: In 2012, Hispanic Americans were the second fastest-growing ethnic group by percentage growth in the United States after Asian Americans. Hispanics of Indigenous descent and Native Americans are the oldest ethnic groups to inhabit much of what is today the United States. Spain colonized large areas of what is today the American Southwest and West Coast, as well as Florida. Its holdings included present-day California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Florida, all of which constituted part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, based in Mexico City. Later, this vast territory became part of Mexico after its independence from Spain in 1821 and until the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848. Hispanic immigrants to the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area derive from a broad spectrum of Hispanic countries.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: The terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" refer to an ethnicity. The U.S. Census Bureau defines being Hispanic as being a member of an ethnicity, rather than being a member of a particular race and thus, people who are members of this group may also be members of any race. In a 2015 national survey of self-identified Hispanics, 56% said that being Hispanic is part of both their racial and ethnic background, while smaller numbers considered it part of their ethnic background only (19%) or racial background only (11%). Hispanics may be of any linguistic background; in a 2015 survey, 71% of American Hispanics agreed that it "is not necessary for a person to speak Spanish to be considered Hispanic/Latino". Hispanic and Latino people may share some commonalities in their language, culture, history, and heritage. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the term "Latino" includes peoples with Portuguese roots, such as Brazilians, as well as those of Spanish-language origin. In the United States, many Hispanics are of Iberian (primarily Spanish) and Indigenous American ancestry (mestizo). Others may have European, Middle Eastern (including Jewish), or Asian ancestry as well as Indigenous American ancestry. Many Hispanics from the Caribbean, as well as many Hispanics from other regions of the Hispanic world where African slavery was widespread, may also be of sub-Saharan African descent.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: The difference between the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" is ambiguous to some people. The US Census Bureau equates the two terms and defines them as referring to anyone from Spain or the Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas. After the Mexican–American War concluded in 1848, term "Hispanic" or "Spanish American" was primarily used to describe the Hispanos of New Mexico within the American Southwest. The 1970 United States Census controversially broadened the definition to "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race". This is now the common formal and colloquial definition of the term within the United States, outside of New Mexico. This definition is consistent with the 21st-century usage by the U.S. Census Bureau and OMB, as the two agencies use both terms Hispanic and Latino interchangeably. The Pew Research Center believes that the term "Hispanic" is strictly limited to Spain, Puerto Rico, and all countries where Spanish is the only official language whereas "Latino" includes all countries in Latin America (even Brazil) regardless of the fact that Portuguese is its only official language, but it does not include Spain.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: The term Latino is a condensed form of ""latinoamericano"", the Spanish term for a Latin American, or someone who comes from Latin America. The term "Latino" has developed a number of definitions. This definition, as a "male Latin American inhabitant of the United States", was the original and is therefore the oldest definition which is used in the United States, it was first used in 1946. Under this definition a Mexican American or Puerto Rican, for example, is both a Hispanic and a Latino. A Brazilian American is also a Latino by this definition, which includes those of Portuguese-speaking origin from Latin America. But also by this definition, Italian Americans are "not" considered "Latino", as they are for the most part descended from immigrants from Europe rather than Latin America, unless they happen to have had recent history in a Latin American country.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Preference of use between the terms among Hispanics in the United States often depends on where users of the respective terms reside. Those in the Eastern United States tend to prefer the term "Hispanic", whereas those in the West tend to prefer "Latino".


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: The U.S. ethnic designation "Latino" is abstracted from the longer form "latinoamericano". The element "latino-" is actually an indeclinable, compositional form in "-o" (i.e. an "elemento compositivo") that is employed to coin compounded formations (similar as "franco-" in "francocanadiense" 'French-Canadian′, or "ibero-" in "iberorrománico", etc.).


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: The term "Latinx" (and similar neologism "Xicanx") have gained some usage. The adoption of the "X" would be "[r]eflecting new consciousness inspired by more recent work by LGBTQI and feminist movements, some Spanish-speaking activists are increasingly using a yet more inclusive "x" to replace the "a" and "o", in a complete break with the gender binary. Among the advocates of the term "LatinX", one of most frequently cited complaints of gender bias in the Spanish language is that a group of mixed or unknown gender would be referred to as Latinos, whereas Latinas refers to a group of women only (but this is changed immediately to "Latinos", if even a single man joins this female group). A 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that about 3% of Hispanics use the term (mostly women), and only around 23% have even heard of the term. Of those, 65% said it should not be used to describe their ethnic group.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Some have pointed out that the term “Hispanic” refers to a pan-ethnic identity, one that spans a range of races, national origins, and linguistic backgrounds. “Terms like Hispanic and Latino do not fully capture how we see ourselves”, says Geraldo Cadava, an associate professor of history and Hispanic studies at Northwestern University.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: According to 2017 American Community Survey data, a small minority of immigrants from Brazil (2%), Portugal (2%), and the Philippines (1%) self-identified as Hispanic.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Spanish explorers were pioneers in the territory of the present-day United States. The first confirmed European landing in the continental United States was by Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened "La Florida". In the next three decades, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the Atlantic Coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Maine, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon. From 1528 to 1536, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three fellows (including an African named Estevanico), from a Spanish expedition that foundered, journeyed from Florida to the Gulf of California. In 1540, Hernando de Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present United States.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Also in 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican natives across today's Arizona–Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas, close to the exact geographic center of what is now the continental United States. Other Spanish explorers of the US territory include, among others: Alonso Alvarez de Pineda, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano, and Juan de Oñate, and non-Spanish explorers working for the Spanish Crown, such as Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. In 1565, the Spanish created the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida. Spanish missionaries and colonists founded settlements including in the present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico, El Paso, San Antonio, Tucson, Albuquerque, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: As late as 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War (a conflict in which Spain aided and fought alongside the rebels), Spain held claim to roughly half the territory of today's continental United States. From 1819 to 1848, the United States (through treaties, purchase, diplomacy, and the Mexican–American War) increased its area by roughly a third at Spanish and Mexican expense, acquiring its three currently most populous states—California, Texas, and Florida.. Many Hispanic natives lived in the areas that the United States acquired, and a new wave of Mexican, Central American, Caribbean, and South American immigrants had moved to the United States for new opportunities. This was the beginning of a demographic that would rise dramatically over the years.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: During the 20th and 21st centuries, Hispanic immigration to the United States increased markedly following changes to the immigration law in 1965. During the World Wars, Hispanic Americans and immigrants had helped stabilize the American economy from falling due to the industrial boom in the Midwest in states such as Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. While a percentage of Americans had fled their jobs for the war, Hispanics had taken their jobs in the Industrial world. This can explain why there is such a high concentration of Hispanic Americans in Metro Areas such as the Chicago-Elgin-Naperville, Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, and Cleveland-Elyria areas.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Hispanic contributions in the historical past and present of the United States are addressed in more detail below (See Notables and their contributions). To recognize the current and historic contributions of Hispanic Americans, on September 17, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated a week in mid-September as National Hispanic Heritage Week, with Congress's authorization. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan extended the observance to a month, designated National Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic Americans became the largest minority group in 2004.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: As of 2020, Hispanics accounted for 19-20% of the US population, or 62-65 million people. The U.S. Census Bureau later estimated that Hispanics were under-counted by 5.0% or 3.3 million persons in the U.S. Census, which explains the 3 million range in the number above. In contrast, Whites were over-counted by about 3 million. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007, period was 28.7%—about four times the rate of the nation's total population growth (at 7.2%). The growth rate from July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, alone was 3.4%—about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population growth (at 1.0%). Based on the 2010 census, Hispanics are now the largest minority group in 191 out of 366 metropolitan areas in the United States. The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050 is 132.8 million people, or 30.2% of the nation's total projected population on that date.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Of the nation's total Hispanic population, 49% (21.5 million) live in California or Texas. In 2022, New York City and Washington, D.C. began receiving significant numbers of Latino migrants from the state of Texas, mostly originating from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Honduras.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: Over half of the Hispanic population is concentrated in the Southwest region, mostly composed of Mexican Americans. California and Texas have some of the largest populations of Mexicans and Central American Hispanics in the United States. The Northeast region is dominated by Dominican Americans and Puerto Ricans, having the highest concentrations of both in the country. In the Mid Atlantic region, centered on the DC Metro Area, Salvadoran Americans are the largest of Hispanic groups. Florida is dominated by Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans. In both the Great Lakes states and the South Atlantic states, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans dominate. Mexicans dominate in the rest of the country, including the West, South Central and Great Plains states.


title: Hispanic and Latino Americans

text: As of 2018, approximately 61.9% of the nation's Hispanic population were of Mexican origin (see table). Another 15.1% were of Puerto Rican origin, and with about 3.9% each of Cuban and Salvadoran and about 3.5% Dominican origins. The remainder were of other Central American or of South American origin, or of origin directly from Spain. Two thirds of all Hispanic Americans were born in the United States.