title: IndyCar Series

text: Dana was killed in a crash in 2006, but the IRL had already begun a transition to ethanol fuel. For the 2006 season the fuel was a 90%/10% mixture of methanol and ethanol. Starting in 2007, the league advertised "100% Fuel Grade Ethanol," the first competitive series to utilize renewable fuel. The mixture was actually 98% ethanol and 2% gasoline, provided by Lifeline Foods of Saint Joseph, Missouri. The additives satisfy the U.S. government's demand that the alcohol is unfit for human consumption and add visible color in case of fire. However, 2010 São Paulo Indy 300, held in Brazil –outside of the U.S. regulations– utilized a full E100 mixture, the first instance in the sport.


title: IndyCar Series

text: To compensate for the loss of power due to the use of ethanol, the displacement was increased back to 3.5 liters. Since ethanol gets better fuel mileage than methanol, the fuel tanks in the car were decreased.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Compared to methanol, human contact with the current ICS fuel is much less harsh, and the fumes much less irritating. The fumes are often compared with the sweet smell of apple cider or apple cobbler. Unlike methanol, ethanol is not caustic and does not cause chemical burns when it comes in contact with the skin. It also is less polluting when spilled compared to methanol.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In May 2010, Sunoco became the official fuel of the series starting in mid-2010 with an immediate effect, running through 2018. For the 2012 season, the ethanol fuel blend rate was reduced to 85% blend in a reference of road car relevance. Speedway LLC took over as series official fuel supplier beginning from 2019 season onwards, but the E85 formula still retained until at 2022.


title: IndyCar Series

text: From 2023 onwards Shell USA (North American division of Shell plc) will supply 100% Ethanol-sourced fuel for the first time since 2011.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The fuel cell for all current IndyCar Series cars are made of rubber and are covered with a Kevlar-fitted blanket for extra protection in side impacts. Since 2012 the capacity has been . Previous capacities were in 2007–2011, in 2004–2006, and in 1997–2003.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The initial 1996 IRL season, as well as the first two races of the 1996–97 season, featured engines with specifications leftover from the rival CART series competition. Those chassis/engine combinations were essentially under the same rules utilized by teams that participated in the 1995 Indianapolis 500, which was sanctioned by USAC. V-8 powerplants were allowed the typical of pressure boost. The Menard-Buick V6 engine used in 1996, however, was an updated powerplant from the 1995 version. In addition, the V-6 stock block engines (Buick-Menard) were allowed of boost at all races, instead of just at Indianapolis. During the CART era, V-6 stock blocks were only allowed at all races outside of Indy, which was a decided disadvantage and left the engine out of favor.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Ford-Cosworth reluctantly provided support to teams wishing to run their older-spec engines in the IRL, a major point of contention for CART management, to whom Ford-Cosworth was an official engine supplier. The Ilmor Mercedes V-8 engine, also a mainstay CART powerplant, was permitted, but the only time it was used as a one-off at the 1996 Indy 500 by Galles Racing.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Starting in 1997, IRL cars were powered by 4.0-litre V8, four-stroke piston, Otto cycle methanol-burning, production prototype-based, naturally-aspirated internal combustion engines and electronic indirect multi-point port fuel injection, produced by General Motors (under the Oldsmobile Aurora label) and Nissan (badged as Infiniti). Per IRL rules, the engines sold for no more than $80,000 (with an exception of full-works IndyCar Series teams that usually received a free engines due to direct partnership with an each engine manufacturer), and were rev-limited to over 10,000 rpm and weighed up to (excl. headers, clutch, ECU, spark box or filters). They produced around . These engines utilized 90° crankshafts, and while the engine blocks were to be production-based, they were not "stock blocks" like the Buick or Menard engines of the 1980s and 1990s. They were purpose-built racing engines.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The engine formula was changed with the 2000–2004 formula. The displacement was dropped down from , and the requirement for the block to be production-based was dropped. The engines also switched to 180° crankshafts, and the rev limits were adjusted from time to time. These engines made , ran on 109-octane methanol racing fuel, and revved to 10,300 rpm, all while weighing only . This formula was used through 2003. In 2004, in the wake of several crashes including the fatal crash of Tony Renna and the severe crash of Kenny Bräck, the displacement was reduced to 3.0-liters using the existing engine blocks to curb top speeds (started from the 2004 Indianapolis 500).


title: IndyCar Series

text: Infiniti's engines, though reliable, were significantly down on power compared to the Auroras in 1997, leading many of the teams that had initially opted for the Infiniti to switch. By the end of the 1998 season, only a handful of low-budget teams were using the Infiniti. However, early in the 1999 season, Cheever Racing, a well-funded team, was brought on to develop the engine with team owner Eddie Cheever expanding the team to two cars and bringing on his brother Ross Cheever as a test driver. By 2000, the engine had improved markedly and Cheever captured the marque's first win at Pikes Peak International Raceway. However, despite the improved success, few teams made the switch to the Infiniti and the company left the series after the 2002 season to focus on powering the league's new Infiniti Pro Series (now Firestone Indy Lights).


title: IndyCar Series

text: As part of General Motors' discontinuance of the Oldsmobile name, the Olds engine was rebadged as the Chevrolet starting with the 2002 season. However, the effort would lack in competitiveness against Toyota and Honda, which came to the IRL in 2003 from the rival CART series. In August 2003, Chevrolet announced to the public its "Gen IV" motor, a rebadged Cosworth motor for competition. At the time, Cosworth was owned by Ford. On November 4, 2004, Chevrolet stated that it would be ending its IRL engine program effective with the end of the 2005 season, citing costs that exceeded value, according to then GM Racing Director Doug Duchardt, "The investment did not meet our objectives."


title: IndyCar Series

text: Toyota won its first race in Miami, as well as the Indianapolis 500 and the series title. However, Toyota had just one podium in the last seven races of 2004, and only Penske Racing fielded competitive Toyota-powered cars in 2005, while Honda became the dominant engine manufacturer within the series. In November 2005, Toyota company officials announced the company's withdrawal from American open-wheel racing and the immediate discontinuation of its IRL program, coinciding with its entrance into NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series in 2004, and its discontinuation of its IMSA program.


title: IndyCar Series

text: After Chevrolet and Toyota elected to shut down their IRL involvement after 2005 season (Chevrolet temporarily hiatus from IndyCar Series for six years while Toyota USA elected to focus on NASCAR involvement), Honda became the only standard spec-engine manufacturer in the IndyCar Series starting in 2006 and continued in that capacity through 2011 as it was announced by Indy Racing League president & chief operating officer Brian Barnhart and Honda Performance Development president Robert Clarke on December 15, 2005. The IndyCar Series carried on with only one engine manufacturer in spite of the television agreement required at least two or three engine manufacturers to participate in the series to ensure future continuity. The Honda Indy V8 engine was partnered and co-developed by Ilmor, which is part owned by Roger Penske for tune-up, engine maintenance, arrangement and trackside support. The engine displacement was reverted from beginning from 2007 season. Leading IndyCar teams like Penske Racing, Andretti Green Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Rahal Letterman Racing and A. J. Foyt Enterprises received free engines from Honda due to direct works partnership but the rest of them were utilizing engine purchase payment system.


title: IndyCar Series

text: During that time, since the IndyCar Series had only one engine manufacturer, Honda focused on minimizing engine failure and minimizing costs instead of defeating rivals. As such, the engines were moderately de-tuned. The engines proved themselves to be quite durable — there had been no engine failures at Indy from 2006 to 2010, which also lowered the number of crashes. Most of the engines, including those used for the Indy 500, are used for multiple races and were intended to last between rebuilds. The Honda engines were only available via lease arrangement from Honda, which, for the 2010 full season, cost $935,000 U.S. per season, per car.


title: IndyCar Series

text: IndyCar Series engines were rev-limited to 10,300 rpm and produce approximately 650 hp. A 'push-to-pass' system was intermitently adopted since the middle portion of the 2009 season, which increased the numbers to 10.500 rpm and 690 hp when employed. The valve train is a dual overhead camshaft configuration with four valves per cylinder. The fuel feed of Honda Indy V8 engine was an electronic indirect multipoint port fuel injection. The crankshaft is made of alloy steel, with five main bearing caps. The pistons are forged aluminum alloy, while the connecting rods are machined alloy steel. The electronic engine management system is supplied by Motorola, firing a CDI digital inductive ignition system. The engine lubrication is a dry-sump type, cooled by a single water pump. In 2009, Honda froze the Indy V8 engine development for the 2009–2011 seasons due to Honda focusing on a new third-generation V6 turbo engine for the 2012 season.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The current, third-generation IndyCar formula was introduced in 2012 including two new manufacturers, and marked the return of the IndyCar Series engine manufacturer competition war since the 2005 season. The engines are now fuel-efficient DOHC 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 with four-stroke piston Otto cycle developing an estimated 550–750 hp depending on the level of boost used and no inter-cooling systems. They are limited to 12,000 rpm and weighed up to . Engines are currently supplied by Chevrolet and Honda. Since the 2012 season, McLaren has supplied its TAG-400i engine control unit. The current engine fuel injector delivery now combines direct and electronic indirect injection which produces roughly of rail pressure. No fuel flow restriction exists in the IndyCar Series engine configuration. Chevrolet returned to the series in 2012 to provide all-new, Ilmor developed and engineered, V6 twin-turbocharged engines after six-year hiatus while Honda still remain committed to the series also to provide all-new V6 single-turbocharged engines in the same year. Lotus Cars provided an engine developed by Judd in 2012, but left the series in 2013 after lack of interest from teams in running the underdeveloped and uncompetitive Lotus engine. The push-to-pass overtake system was reintroduced during 2012 Honda Indy Toronto round and still being used currently that produced roughly with a duration about 6–200 seconds of usage rechargeable (varies track shape). Porsche also expressed interest in joining the series as a third engine supplier in 2019. Ultimately Porsche backed out when IndyCar refused to allow them to field a hybrid powertrain. Coincidentally, IndyCar announced its plans for a hybrid powertrain one month later. Chevrolet was the first engine manufacturer to utilize the twin-turbocharged configuration alongside Lotus in 2012 while Honda was utilized the single-turbocharger in 2012–2013. Honda abandoned the single-turbocharged after 2013 in favor of twin-turbochargers from 2014 until the present.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Turbochargers were reintroduced from the start of 2012 season. The turbo configuration is currently twin-turbocharged that mandated since 2014 and producing the turbo boost level pressure range restricted to depending on track shape. American turbocharger company BorgWarner Inc. currently supplies exclusive turbocharger kits including wastegate for all IndyCar Series cars from 2014 season onwards using an EFR7163 model in order to save costs. Previously a BorgWarner EFR9180 single turbo was used exclusively by Honda-powered cars while BorgWarner EFR6758 twin turbos were used exclusively by Chevrolet and Lotus (2012) powered cars. The turbochargers of all IndyCar Series engines are incorporated with intercoolers.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The 2024 season will see the displacement of the V6 twin-turbo engines increase from and power increase from . hybrid systems will be introduced, consisting of a multi-phase motor, inverter, and battery that will create energy recovery from the car's braking system.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Bosch (Chevrolet) and NGK (Honda) have provided spark plugs for all IndyCar Series cars since 2012. Previously NGK was an exclusive spark plugs supplier in 2006–2011 when Honda was the standard IndyCar Series engine supplier. Previously Denso also was a sparkplugs supplier in 2003–2005 for Toyota-powered cars.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The current IndyCar Series car top speed is approximately on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval layout only. On intermediate and long ovals the top speed is approximately , and on road/street courses and short ovals, it is approximately depending on downforce setup.


title: IndyCar Series

text: After the split from IndyCar World Series, the Indy Racing League began as a pure oval race series. Alongside the prestigious Indy 500, the 1-mile oval tracks of Phoenix and Loudon were added to the schedule. In addition, the Hulman family oversaw the planning for the construction of a new track at Walt Disney World in Florida. On the new Walt Disney World Speedway the first IRL race took place in January 1996.


title: IndyCar Series

text: After the series was established, ovals used mainly by NASCAR were raced on. These included the newly built racetracks in Las Vegas and Fort Worth as well as the existing speedways of Charlotte and Atlanta. After a series of major accidents at Charlotte and Atlanta and a lack of spectator turnout, however, the ovals of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Las Vegas were removed from the calendar. For the 2001 season, the IRL also began to race on ovals that were being used by CART. The circuits of Homestead and Gateway changed from CART to the calendar of the IRL, with the race at Walt Disney World being dropped in favor of Homestead. In addition, the new 1.5-mile ovals of Kansas, Kentucky, and Chicagoland were added. These tracks were the backbone of the IRL until 2011. After Roger Penske sold his racetracks (Fontana, Michigan, and Nazareth) to the International Speedway Corporation, the IRL began racing at these tracks in the 2002 season. Nazareth Speedway only held three races before ISC closed the track in 2004. Michigan Speedway was raced until the 2007 season and the Auto Club Speedway, formerly California Speedway, until the 2015 season.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The first major change took place in the 2005 season. For the first time in the history of the IRL, races were held at road and street courses. A street course race in St. Petersburg has been added to the calendar. In addition, races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, the two NASCAR road course circuits were added. In 2007, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was added. After the Champ Car World Series was dissolved in 2008, some of their races were taken over by the IndyCar Series. These are the street races of Long Beach, Detroit, and Toronto, and starting in 2016, Road America. In addition, a road course race at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham and an oval race at Iowa Speedway were scheduled and held.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The second big change took place in the 2012 season. In 2011, the series returned to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time since 2000. However, the circuit had been rebuilt for NASCAR, increasing the banking of 12 degrees to progressive banking up to 20 degrees. This new configuration led to tight pack racing. Additionally, a $5 million bonus was offered if a driver from another series or racing discipline win the race, as it would be the last race for the current chassis, and a record 34 cars entered this race (the Indy 500 field, by comparison, is capped at 33 cars). As a result of pack racing in combination with many cars and inexperienced drivers, a major crash occurred on lap 11, injuring several drivers and resulting in the death of defending Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon. This event led to massive media criticism of oval races for open-wheel vehicles. As a result, and also because of the gradual loss of spectators in the previous seasons, all oval races on 1.5-mile speedways, except Texas Motor Speedway, were removed from the calendar. Only the oval races in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Iowa, Texas, and Fontana remained for the next three seasons. Instead, more races were held in cities, including Houston, Baltimore, and São Paulo. In the following years, the calendar stabilized, with the return of races in Phoenix, Pocono, and Gateway, although the races at Fontana, Pocono, Phoenix, and Milwaukee were later removed from the schedule due to insufficient crowds or severe crashes, including the fatal crash of Justin Wilson at Pocono in 2015.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Since the 2012 season, the calendar has roughly consisted of 1/3 of oval races, 1/3 of races on permanent natural road courses, and 1/3 of races on temporary street courses in larger cities. In 2019, an IndyCar race was held for the first time on a current Formula 1 racetrack, the "Indycar Classics" at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Due to government restrictions on major events in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many races that were scheduled for the 2020 season were affected. For the first time since 1911, the Indianapolis 500 was not held on the traditional Sunday before Memorial Day. In addition, traditional street races in Long Beach, Detroit, and Toronto were canceled. As compensation, double-header races took place in Road America, Iowa, Mid-Ohio, and Gateway.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Like other governing bodies, IndyCar awards points based upon where a driver finishes in a race. The winner of a race gets 50 points. The top four drivers are separated by ten, five and three points respectively. The fourth through tenth-place finishers are separated by two points each. Eleventh through twenty-fifth are separated by one point each. All other drivers who start the race score five points. Bonus points are awarded as follows: one point to the driver that earns the pole each race (except at Indianapolis), one point to any driver that leads at least one lap in a race, and two additional bonus points to the driver that leads the most laps each race.


title: IndyCar Series

text: For the Indianapolis 500, qualifying points are awarded for all 33 cars at the Indianapolis 500. The point scale slides based on the teams that qualify for the top-nine shootout, then descending by speed and position.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In the case of a tie, the IndyCar Series will determine the champion based on the most first-place finishes. If there is still a tie, IndyCar Series will determine the champion by the most second-place finishes, then the most third-place finishes, etc., until a champion is determined. IndyCar Series will apply the same system to other ties in the rankings at the close of the season and at any other time during the season.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The following table is a list of championships going only as far back as the latest sanctioning body's existence. However, championships that took place before that period (under previously existed sanctioning bodies) are also counted as part of one continuous championship following the merger of CART/Champ Car into the Indy Racing League in 2008. That is when the IRL acquired all intellectual property and historic records, going as far back as 1909.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Starting in 2010, the series began recognizing two sub-set championship trophies alongside the season championship. The two primary disciplines of IndyCar (ovals and road courses) were named after respective legends of the sport:


title: IndyCar Series

text: A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti, respectively. The discipline trophies were created as the series moved closer to a 50/50 split of oval and road races, and to encourage incentive for part-time entries – specifically, those that might prefer to compete in one discipline over the other.


title: IndyCar Series

text: This arrangement also creates a reasonable opportunity for a team to employ the services of two drivers for one season entry. A team could hire a specialist for ovals and a specialist for road/street courses, who combined would maintain the entry's total owner points but individually work towards their own separate disciplines.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Note that street courses are included as part of the road racing discipline. Since 2013, the individual discipline trophies have received markedly less fanfare.


title: IndyCar Series

text: The three-race inaugural season was televised on ABC. The 1996–97 season was broadcast by ABC, CBS and ESPN. In 1998, TNN was added to the rotation. In 1999, Fox Sports Net aired the majority of the races, and the remaining ones aired on Fox, ABC and ESPN2. From 2000 to 2008, ABC and ESPN were the exclusive television partners of the Indy Racing League.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In 2009, Versus (later NBCSN) began a 10-year deal to broadcast 13 IndyCar races per season, whereas the remaining races, including the Indianapolis 500, would remain on ABC through 2018. As of the 2018 season, ABC aired 5 races per-season (plus two days of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500), with NBCSN or other NBCUniversal networks (in the event of scheduling conflicts) airing the remainder of the schedule. On March 21, 2018, it was announced that NBC Sports would become the sole U.S. rightsholder of the IndyCar Series beginning in 2019, under a new three-year contract. NBCSN will continue as the primary broadcast outlet for most races, and overflow content will be available through its subscription service NBC Sports Gold. Eight races per-season will be televised by NBC—including the Indianapolis 500, marking the first time in 54 years that the race was not televised by ABC. With the shut down of NBCSN in 2021, the rights to the IndyCar races moved to USA Network beginning with the 2022 season.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In the United Kingdom, since the launch of BT Sport in August 2013 races are shown on one of the BT branded channels or ESPN. Previous to August 2013, the IndyCar Series races were broadcasts on the Sky Sports family of networks, with the viewing figures of the IndyCar races in the UK outnumbering those of NASCAR races. The IndyCar Series also had highlights of all the races on the channel Five British terrestrial channel and Five USA, but has since been discontinued since the 2009 season. For the 2019 season broadcasts returned to Sky Sports, with the series being shown on their F1 channel.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In February 2013, Sportsnet announced that it would become the official Canadian broadcaster of the IndyCar Series beginning in the 2013 season in a five-year deal with the series. The new contract will include broadcasts on the Sportsnet regional networks, Sportsnet One, and City, along with mobile coverage and French rights sub-licensed to TVA Sports. Additionally, Sportsnet would also originate coverage from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Indianapolis 500, and Honda Indy Toronto with Bill Adam, Todd Lewis, and Rob Faulds. Canadian driver Paul Tracy also joined Sportsnet as an analyst.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In Australia, Stan Sport is IndyCar's broadcast partner with highlights also broadcast on Nine Network.


title: IndyCar Series

text: In Brazil, DAZN is IndyCar's broadcast partner in that country since 2019, with all races, qualifying and practice sessions live. Previously, SBT broadcast the first two races of IRL, but following complaints by Tony George because of the schedule of the transmission (VTs at 1:30AM), and because they also aired the CART series, he took the transmission rights from Emerson Fittipaldi gave them to Rede Bandeirantes to broadcast that year's season from the Indy 500 onwards. Band aired the series from 1996 to 2001 and from 2004 until 2020 (the latter period together with BandSports). SporTV also broadcast races from 2001 until 2004. In 2021, the event was broadcast by TV Cultura. The 2022 season will also be broadcast by ESPN (in cable and streaming by Star+).


title: IndyCar Series

text: ESPN is the international broadcast partner of IndyCar Series in the rest of Latin America until 2018 and again since 2022 season.


title: IndyCar Series

text: Eurosport has been the international broadcast partner of IndyCar in most of Europe (except in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, and the United Kingdom).


title: IndyCar Series

text: In the late 2000s, the official website streamed online all races, qualifying and practice sessions unrestricted. That service is now limited in the United States to subscribers of the broadcast partner streaming service (currently Peacock). In 2022, IndyCar launched its streaming service (branded as IndyCar Live) to viewers in certain international territories without local broadcast partner.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. An intellectual and diplomat, he held various academic posts and served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and president of the World Federalist Movement.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards during his life, including two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTA Awards for acting, and a Grammy Award for best recording for children, as well as the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He also displayed a unique cultural versatility which frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, composer of the music for "Quo Vadis" and of numerous concert works, dedicated his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 22 (1950) to Ustinov.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: In 2003, Durham University changed the name of its Graduate Society to Ustinov College in honour of the significant contributions Ustinov had made as chancellor of the university from 1992 until his death.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov was born at 45 Belsize Park, London, England. His father, Jona Freiherr von Ustinov, was of Russian, German, Polish, Ethiopian and Jewish descent. Peter's paternal grandfather was Baron Plato von Ustinov, a Russian noble, and his grandmother was Magdalena Hall, of mixed German-Ethiopian-Jewish origin. Ustinov's great-grandfather Moritz Hall, a Jewish refugee from Kraków and later a Christian convert and colleague of Swiss and German missionaries in Ethiopia, married into a German-Ethiopian family.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Peter's paternal great-great-grandparents (through Magdalena's mother) were the German painter Eduard Zander and the Ethiopian aristocrat Court-Lady Isette-Werq of Gondar.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov's mother, Nadezhda Leontievna Benois, known as Nadia, was a painter and ballet designer of French, German, Italian, and Russian descent. Her father, Leon Benois, was an Imperial Russian architect and owner of Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Benois Madonna". Leon's brother Alexandre Benois was a stage designer who worked with Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Their paternal ancestor Jules-César Benois was a chef who had left France for St. Petersburg during the French Revolution and became a chef to Emperor Paul I of Russia.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Jona (or Iona) worked as a press officer at the German Embassy in London in the 1930s and was a reporter for a German news agency. In 1935, two years after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Jona von Ustinov began working for the British intelligence service MI5 and became a British citizen, thus avoiding internment during the war. The statutory notice of his application for citizenship was published in a Welsh newspaper so as not to alert the Germans. He was the controller of Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz, an MI5 spy in the German embassy in London, who furnished information on Hitler's intentions before the Second World War. (Peter Wright mentions in his book "Spycatcher" that Jona was possibly the spy known as U35; Ustinov says in his autobiography that his father hosted secret meetings of senior British and German officials at their London home).


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov was educated at Westminster School and had a difficult childhood because of his parents' constant fighting. While at school, Ustinov considered anglicising his name to "Peter Austin", but was counselled against it by a fellow pupil who said that he should "Drop the 'von' but keep the 'Ustinov. In his late teens he trained as an actor at the London Theatre Studio. While there, on 18 July 1938 he made his first appearance on the stage at the Barn Theatre, Shere, playing Waffles in Chekhov’s "The Wood Demon", and his London stage début later that year at the Players' Theatre, becoming quickly established. He later wrote, "I was not irresistibly drawn to the drama. It was an escape road from the dismal rat race of school".


title: Peter Ustinov

text: In 1939, he appeared in "White Cargo" at the Aylesbury Rep, where he performed in a different accent every night. Ustinov served as a private in the British Army during the Second World War, including time spent as batman to David Niven while writing the Niven film "The Way Ahead". The difference in their ranksNiven was a lieutenant-colonel and Ustinov a privatemade their regular association militarily impossible; to solve the problem, Ustinov was appointed as Niven's batman. He also appeared in propaganda films, debuting in "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" (1942), in which he was required to deliver lines in English, Latin, and Dutch. In 1944, under the auspices of ENSA -->, he presented and performed the role of Sir Anthony Absolute, in Sheridan's "The Rivals", with Dame Edith Evans, at the theatre in Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, England.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: After the war, he began writing; his first major success was with the play "The Love of Four Colonels" (1951). He starred with Humphrey Bogart and Aldo Ray in "We're No Angels" (1955). His career as a dramatist continued, his best-known play being "Romanoff and Juliet" (1956). His film roles include Roman emperor Nero in "Quo Vadis" (1951), Lentulus Batiatus in "Spartacus" (1960), Captain Blackbeard in the Disney film "Blackbeard’s Ghost" (1968), and an old man surviving a totalitarian future in "Logan's Run" (1976). Ustinov voiced the anthropomorphic lions Prince John and King Richard in the 1973 Disney animated film "Robin Hood". He also worked on several films as writer and occasionally director, including "The Way Ahead" (1944), "School for Secrets" (1946), "Hot Millions" (1968), and "Memed, My Hawk" (1984).


title: Peter Ustinov

text: In half a dozen films, he played Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot, first in "Death on the Nile" (1978) and then in 1982's "Evil Under the Sun", 1985's "Thirteen at Dinner" (TV movie), 1986's "Dead Man's Folly" (TV movie), 1986's "Murder in Three Acts" (TV movie), and 1988's "Appointment with Death".


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in "Spartacus" (1960) and "Topkapi" (1964). He also won a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor for the film "Quo Vadis" (he set the Oscar and Globe statuettes up on his desk as if playing doubles tennis; the game was a love of his life, as was ocean yachting). Ustinov was also the winner of three Emmys and one Grammy and was nominated for two Tony Awards.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Between 1952 and 1955, he starred with Peter Jones in the BBC radio comedy "In All Directions". The series featured Ustinov and Jones as themselves in a London car journey perpetually searching for Copthorne Avenue. The comedy derived from the characters they met, whom they often also portrayed. The show was unusual for the time, as it was improvised rather than scripted. Ustinov and Jones improvised on a tape, which was difficult, and then edited for broadcast by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who also sometimes took part.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: During the 1960s, with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi", Ravel's "L'heure espagnole", Schoenberg's "Erwartung", and Mozart's "The Magic Flute". Further demonstrating his great talent and versatility in the theatre, Ustinov later undertook set and costume design for "Don Giovanni". In 1962 he adapted Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman's critically successful Broadway play "Billy Budd" into a film; penning the screenplay, producing, directing, and starring as Captain Fairfax.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: In 1968, he was elected the first rector of the University of Dundee and served two consecutive three-year terms.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: His autobiography, "Dear Me" (1977), was well received and had him describe his life (ostensibly his childhood) while being interrogated by his own ego, with forays into philosophy, theatre, fame, and self-realisation. From 1969 until his death, his acting and writing took second place to his work on behalf of UNICEF, for which he was a goodwill ambassador and fundraiser. In this role, he visited some of the neediest children and made use of his ability to make people laugh, including many of the world's most disadvantaged children. "Sir Peter could make anyone laugh", UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy is quoted as saying. On 31 October 1984, Ustinov was due to interview Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi for Irish television. She was assassinated on her way to the meeting.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov also served as president of the World Federalist Movement from 1991 until his death. He once said, "World government is not only possible, it is inevitable, and when it comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest, in its only sense, the patriotism of men who love their national heritages so deeply that they wish to preserve them in safety for the common good".


title: Peter Ustinov

text: He was a frequent guest of Jack Paar's "Tonight Show" in the early 1960s and was a guest on the "upside down" episode of the American talk show "Late Night", during which the camera, mounted on a slowly revolving wheel, gradually rotated the picture 360° during the course of an hour; Ustinov appeared midway through and was photographed upside down in close-up as he spoke, while his host appeared only in long shots. Towards the end of Ustinov's life, he undertook some one-man stage shows in which he let loose his raconteur streak; he told the story of his life, including some moments of tension with the society into which he was born. For example, he took a test as a child, asking him to name a Russian composer; he wrote Rimsky-Korsakov, but was marked down. He was then told the correct answer, Tchaikovsky, since he had been studying him in class and was told to stop showing off.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" on two occasions, in November 1977 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Pinewood Studios on the set of "Death on the Nile" and a week before, he was surprised at a book signing at book printers Butler and Tanner in Frome, Somerset. This footage was not used, as Ustinov flatly refused to take part and swore at Andrews. His wife persuaded him to change his mind. He was surprised again in December 1994, when Michael Aspel approached him at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: A car enthusiast since the age of four, he owned a succession of interesting machines ranging from a Fiat Topolino, several Lancias, a Hispano-Suiza, a preselector gearbox Delage, and a special-bodied Jowett Jupiter. He made records like Phoney Folklore that included the song of the Russian peasant "whose tractor had betrayed him" and his "Grand Prix of Gibraltar" was a vehicle for his creative wit and ability at car-engine sound effects and voices.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: He spoke English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian fluently, as well as some Turkish and modern Greek. He was proficient in accents and dialects in all his languages. Ustinov provided his own German and French dubbing for some of his roles, both of them for "Lorenzo's Oil". As Hercule Poirot, he provided his own voice for the French versions of "Thirteen at Dinner", "Dead Man's Folly", "Murder in Three Acts", "Appointment with Death", and "Evil under the Sun", but unlike Jane Birkin, who had dubbed herself in French for this film and "Death on the Nile", Ustinov did not provide his voice for the latter (his French voice being provided by Roger Carel, who had already dubbed him in "Spartacus" and other films). He dubbed himself in German as Poirot only in "Evil under the Sun" (his other Poirot roles being undertaken by three actors). However, he provided only his English and German voices for Disney's "Robin Hood" and NBC's "Alice in Wonderland".


title: Peter Ustinov

text: In the 1960s, he became a Swiss resident. He was knighted in 1990 and was appointed chancellor of Durham University in 1992, having previously been elected as the first rector of the University of Dundee in 1968 (a role in which he moved from being merely a figurehead to taking on a political role, negotiating with student protesters). Ustinov was re-elected to the post for a second three-year term in 1971, narrowly beating Michael Parkinson after a disputed recount. He received an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov was a frequent defender of the Chinese government, stating in an address to Durham University in 2000, "People are annoyed with the Chinese for not respecting more human rights. But with a population that size it's very difficult to have the same attitude to human rights." In 2003, Durham's postgraduate college (previously known as the Graduate Society) was renamed Ustinov College. Ustinov went to Berlin on a UNICEF mission in 2002 to visit the circle of United Buddy Bears that promote a more peaceful world between nations, cultures, and religions for the first time. He was determined to ensure that Iraq would also be represented in this circle of about 140 countries. Ustinov also presented and narrated the official video review of the 1987 Formula One season and narrated the documentary series "Wings of the Red Star". In 1988, he hosted a live television broadcast entitled "The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper". Ustinov gave his name to the Foundation of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award, given annually to a young television screenwriter.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov was married three times—first to Isolde Denham (1920–1987), daughter of Reginald Denham and Moyna Macgill. The marriage lasted from 1940 to their divorce in 1950, and they had one child, daughter Tamara Ustinov. Isolde was the half-sister of Angela Lansbury, who appeared with Ustinov in "Death on the Nile". His second marriage was to Suzanne Cloutier, which lasted from 1954 to their divorce in 1971. They had three children: two daughters, Pavla Ustinov and Andrea Ustinov, and a son, Igor Ustinov (). His third marriage was to Helene du Lau d'Allemans, which lasted from 1972 to his death in 2004.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov was a secular humanist. He was listed as a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association, and had once served on their advisory council.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov died on 28 March 2004 of heart failure in a clinic in Genolier, near his home in Bursins, Switzerland, aged 82. He had suffered from diabetes and heart disease. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy spoke at his funeral, representing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Ustinov was the president of the World Federalist Movement (WFM) from 1991 to 2004, the time of his death. WFM is a global nongovernmental organization that promotes the concept of global democratic institutions. WFM lobbies those in powerful positions to establish a unified human government based on democracy and civil society. Under its plan, the United Nations and other world agencies would become the institutions of a World Federation. The UN would be the federal government and nation states would become similar to provinces.


title: Peter Ustinov

text: Until his death, Ustinov was a member of English PEN, part of the PEN International network that campaigns for freedom of expression.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Elizabeth Berkley (born July 28, 1974) is an American actress. She played Jessie Spano in the television series "Saved by the Bell" and Nomi Malone/Polly Ann Costello in the 1995 Paul Verhoeven film "Showgirls". She voiced the title role of the anime film "Armitage III: Poly-Matrix" and had supporting roles in the films "The First Wives Club" and "Roger Dodger". In theater, she received critical acclaim for her performance in "Hurlyburly".


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Berkley was born and raised in Farmington Hills located in a Detroit northern suburb community in affluent Oakland County, Michigan. She is the daughter of Jere, a gift-basket business owner and Fred Berkley, a lawyer. She has an older brother, Jason. Her family is Jewish. She was raised in a Conservative Jewish household and had a bat mitzvah.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: She was born with partial heterochromia, a condition of differently colored irises; her right eye is half green and half brown and her left eye is all green. She graduated in 1990 from North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, Mi.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: From a young age, she danced and practiced in a room her parents set up for her in the basement. She auditioned for the lead role in the film "Annie". When she became interested in pursuing dance professionally, she traveled to New York City to train with dancers and choreographers. She performed in several ballets, including "Swan Lake", and in 1983 she appeared in some musicals.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Berkley was a teenage model for Elite before pursuing an acting career. She made her television debut in the 1987 television film "Frog", while making a number of guest appearances on other TV shows. In 1989, at the age of 15, she auditioned for the role of Kelly Kapowski in "Saved by the Bell", but the producers of the show could not decide whether to cast Tiffani-Amber Thiessen or her. In the end, they created for Berkley the character Jessie Spano, a role she played from 1989 to 1993 in both of the show's television and film installments.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: After leaving "Saved by the Bell" to pursue a film career, Berkley won the role of Nomi Malone, the lead character in the controversial Paul Verhoeven film "Showgirls" (1995). The sex and nudity-laden film was given a NC-17 rating in the United States (the first big-budget film to receive the rating), was a box office bomb during its original, theatrical run, and was widely panned by critics. Berkley's performance received negative reviews, with Todd McCarthy describing it in "Variety" as "harsh, graceless and quickly tiresome", and Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" writing that Berkley displayed "the open-mouthed, vacant-eyed look of an inflatable party doll."


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In the wake of the film's negative fallout, Berkley made a reportedly "tempestuous" exit from her talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, and spent the following week meeting with ICM, William Morris Agency and United Talent Agency, eventually signing with the latter. In January 1996, she landed a supporting role in "The First Wives Club", a comedy starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler. She then played a Madonna body-double named Tina in the independent film "The Real Blonde". Berkley was cast in the title role in the anime film "Armitage III: Poly Matrix", which also starred Kiefer Sutherland and booked supporting roles in independent films such as "The Taxman", "Tail Lights Fade", the acclaimed "Roger Dodger" (winner of the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival), and "Moving Malcolm". She also had a small role as a call girl hired by Al Pacino's character in Oliver Stone's sports drama "Any Given Sunday", as well as a key supporting role in Woody Allen's "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion". She appeared on stage with Eddie Izzard as Honey in the London stage version of "Lenny" in 1999.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Berkley made her Broadway debut in the comedy "Sly Fox" with Richard Dreyfuss in February 2004, three months after her marriage to artist Greg Lauren.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: She replaced Catherine Kellner as Bonnie in the 2005 off-Broadway production of David Rabe's "Hurlyburly", appearing with Ethan Hawke, Parker Posey, and Bobby Cannavale. Berkley received praise for her role in the show, with Charles Isherwood of "The New York Times", even going as far as apologizing to her for his past criticisms of her ability, stating that the fact she held "her own among this skilled company of scene-stealers is a testament to how much her talent has grown." In 2006, she appeared at the sixth annual "24 Hour Plays" alongside Jennifer Aniston, Rosie Perez, and Lili Taylor, in which six writers, six directors, 24 actors, and production crews have 24 hours to write, direct, and perform six 10-minute plays.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Berkley has been seen in many dramatic television roles, guest-starring on series such as "", "NYPD Blue", "Without a Trace", "Threshold", and "". She had a recurring role in the successful and critically acclaimed sitcom "Titus", playing the title character's sister Shannon. She also starred in the Lifetime television film "Student Seduction", where she played Christie Dawson, a high-school teacher wrongfully accused of sexual harassment by one of her students, who becomes obsessed with her. It was followed by another made-for-television film in 2007, "Black Widow", where she played a woman suspected of killing her husbands for their money. The film "Meet Market", where she starred with Julian McMahon, Krista Allen, and Aisha Tyler, was released straight to DVD in 2008.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2008, Berkley signed on to appear in a multiepisode arc of "CSI: Miami", in which she plays Horatio Caine's (David Caruso) ex-lover, Julia Winston, who is also the mother of his recently discovered son. The episodes in which Berkley appeared were very highly rated and all of them featured in the top-10 Nielsen ratings chart. She has since appeared in the show's season-six finale.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Berkley hosted Bravo's reality series, "Step It Up and Dance", a competition featuring the exploits of 10 wannabe dancers who compete against each other to win a cash prize of $100,000, and the opportunity to work with and perform for some of the country's top choreographers. The show premiered in April 2008 on Bravo, and was canceled after the first season. The show came out as the network's strongest ever in its time slot (10/11 C) with 826,000 viewers. The show continued to perform well throughout its run, averaging 756,000 viewers each week (of whom 522,000 were aged 18 to 49) and helped contribute to Bravo's highest-rated April ever. According to Berkley, hosting the show is a very fulfilling job. She was quoted as saying that she gets "invested in the dancers" because she has befriended many of them offstage.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: During the press tour for "Step It Up and Dance", Berkley appeared on various shows, including various morning news programs, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Fuse TV's "The Sauce", E!'s "Chelsea Lately", CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch", and ABC's "The View". While on "The View", she spoke of her admiration for co-host Whoopi Goldberg, calling her "an extraordinary being". Her appearance on the show was unique in that she brought the ladies of the show tap shoes and taught them a short dance routine. Berkley starred alongside Thomas Jane in the David Arquette-directed short film "The Butler's in Love", which premiered at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles in June 2008.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2009, Berkley starred in a multi-episode arc of the Showtime series "The L Word" during its sixth and final season. She played Kelly Wentworth, a straight girl who got away from Jennifer Beals' character Bette Porter in college. Berkley and Beals are best friends in real life, having previously worked on the 2002 independent film "Roger Dodger". Berkley continued with television work, reprising her role as Julia Winston in "CSI: Miami", appearing in three more episodes, including the season-seven finale. In the sequel to the cult hit "Donnie Darko", "S. Darko", she played Trudy, a former drug addict turned born-again Christian, who becomes infatuated with her pastor. She also appeared as Tracy in the 2009 comedy "Women in Trouble".


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: During Berkley's guest appearance on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" in June 2009, her "Saved by the Bell" co-star Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris expressed his desire to take part in Jimmy Fallon's "class reunion" of the show's original cast members, revealing that Berkley had also agreed to take part in the reunion. Dennis Haskins, Lark Voorhies, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Mark-Paul Gosselaar agreed to a reunion. Gosselaar reprised his role as Zack Morris on the June 8, 2009 "Late Night", while promoting his then-current TNT drama, "Raising the Bar". The spoof interview closed with a performance of "Friends Forever" originally by Zack Attack, where Zack played guitar and sang with backing from Fallon's house band, the Roots. Tiffani Thiessen posted a parody video to the online website Funny or Die, where she said she was just too busy to join in a reunion.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2011, Berkley played the lead female role in the Hallmark Channel original film "Lucky Christmas", about a woman who wins the lottery, only to have to recover the ticket from the glove compartment of her stolen car. The film premiered there on November 12, 2011.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In September 2013, Berkley was announced as one of the contestants on the 17th season of "Dancing with the Stars". She partnered with Valentin Chmerkovskiy. They were eliminated on the 9th week of competition, and landed in 6th place, despite receiving high judge scores. Several perfect scores were earned and awarded by the expert panel judges. Ultimately, however, the public vote eliminated her team based upon popularity metrics used by the show.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2014, the TV film "The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story" aired, with actress Tiera Skovbye portraying Berkley. On February 4, 2015, Berkley reunited with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Dennis Haskins, and Tiffani Thiessen on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", where they appeared in a "Saved by the Bell" sketch with Fallon. In November 2020, Berkely reprised the role of Jessie Spano in the "Saved by the Bell" sequel series.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2010, Berkley set up the now-defunct self-help program online for teen girls called Ask-Elizabeth. The website was created when husband Greg Lauren commented on the number of girls who came to her asking for advice and joked that she should have her own column. She regularly meets with young girls to discuss different issues and topics and to help them with any problems that they are going through, speaking of her own troubles in the past.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: "Ask-Elizabeth" was also the working title of a reality series focusing on the program's success and its continued efforts to help girls throughout the country. The show, produced by MV, featured Berkley traveling around the United States looking at the issues and topics most important to teenaged girls. Amy Bailey, vice president of development in MTV's News and Documentaries division, said Berkley approached MTV with the idea. "She does these workshops around the country with teen girls and gets them to really open up about self-esteem and body issues", said Bailey. "We had been looking for a program that tackled the same issues, so it seemed like a perfect match." The status of the show itself is unknown, as it was originally expected to premiere in late 2008, but never got off the ground.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2011, Berkley published "Ask-Elizabeth", a self-help book for teenaged girls, which drew from the workshops she conducted for the "Ask-Elizabeth" program.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: In 2000, Berkley was tangentially involved in a $45 million lawsuit when actor and screenwriter Roger Wilson filed suit against Leonardo DiCaprio, claiming that DiCaprio had encouraged his friends to assault Wilson in a street fight, related to invitations to socialize directed at Berkley. DiCaprio was alleged to have pursued Berkley while she was in a relationship with Wilson, and Wilson confronted DiCaprio over the accusation.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: On November 1, 2003, Berkley married artist and actor Greg Lauren at the Esperanza Hotel in Cabo San Lucas. She formally changed her name to Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, but she still uses her maiden name professionally. She gave birth to their son in July 2012.


title: Elizabeth Berkley

text: Berkley's birth year is often incorrectly listed as 1972. In a 2008 interview, Berkley states that she was actually born in 1974, citing both her mother and her birth certificate.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The initial nations targeted were Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, though the embargo also later extended to Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen nearly 300%, from US to nearly globally; US prices were significantly higher. The embargo caused an oil crisis, or "shock", with many short- and long-term effects on global politics and the global economy. It was later called the "first oil shock", followed by the 1979 oil crisis, termed the "second oil shock".


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Ever since the recreation of the State of Israel in 1948 there has been Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East. There have been several wars involving Israel and Arab States. The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli war, was sparked by Israel's southern port Eilat being blockaded by Egypt and Egypt nationalizing the Suez Canal from mainly French and British investors. The Israeli invasion's goal was regime change and removal of Gamal Abdel Nasser who was aligning with the Soviet Union. The war closed the Suez canal for several months in 1956-1957.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The Six-Day War of 1967 was the invasion of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt all the way to the Suez Canal and its subsequent occupation by Israel. Egypt closed the Suez Canal for eight years during the occupation. The canal was cleared in 1974 and opened in 1975 after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when Egypt tried to take back the occupied land of the Sinai Peninula. OAPEC countries cut production of oil and placed an embargo on oil exports to the United States when Richard Nixon requested $2.2 billion on October 19, 1973 to support Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The embargo lasted only until January 1974, but the price of oil remained high afterward.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: By 1969, American domestic output of oil was peaking and could not keep pace with increasing demand from vehicles. The U.S. was importing per year by the late 1950s, mostly from Venezuela and Canada. Because of transportation costs and tariffs, it never purchased much oil from the Middle East. In 1973, US production had declined to 16% of global output. Eisenhower imposed quotas on foreign oil that would stay in place between 1959 and 1973. Critics called it the "drain America first" policy. Some scholars believe the policy contributed to the decline of domestic US oil production in the early 1970s.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: When Richard Nixon became president in 1969, he assigned George Shultz to head a committee to review the Eisenhower-era quota program. Shultz's committee recommended that the quotas be abolished and replaced with tariffs but Nixon decided to keep the quotas due to vigorous political opposition. Nixon imposed a price ceiling on oil in 1971 as demand for oil was increasing and production was declining, which increased dependence on foreign oil imports as consumption was bolstered by low prices. In 1973, Nixon announced the end of the quota system. Between 1970 and 1973 US imports of crude oil had nearly doubled, reaching 6.2 million barrels per day in 1973. Until 1973, an abundance of oil supply had kept the market price of oil lower than the posted price.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In 1970, American oil production peaked and the United States began to import more and more oil as oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972. By 1972, 83% of the American oil imports came from the Middle East. Throughout the 1960s, the price for a barrel of oil remained at $1.80, meaning that with the effects of inflation considered the price of oil in real terms got progressively lower and lower throughout the decade with Americans paying less for oil in 1969 than they had in 1959. Even after a price for a barrel of oil rose to $2.00 in 1971, adjusted for inflation, people in the Western nations were paying less for oil in 1971 than they had in 1958. The extremely low price of oil served as the basis for the "long summer" of prosperity and mass affluence that began in 1945.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was founded by five oil producing countries at a Baghdad conference on September 14, 1960. The five founding members of OPEC were Venezuela, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait. OPEC was organized after the oil companies slashed the posted price of oil, but the posted price of oil remained consistently higher than the market price of oil between 1961 and 1972.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In 1963, the Seven Sisters controlled 86% of the oil produced by OPEC countries, but by 1970 the rise of "independent oil companies" had decreased their share to 77%. The entry of three new oil producers—Algeria, Libya and Nigeria—meant that by 1970, 81 oil companies were doing business in the Middle East.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In the early 1960s Libya, Indonesia and Qatar joined OPEC. OPEC was generally regarded as ineffective until political turbulence in Libya and Iraq strengthened their position in 1970. Additionally, increasing Soviet influence provided oil producing countries with alternative means of transporting oil to markets.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Under the Tehran Price Agreement of 1971, the posted price of oil was increased and, due to a decline in the value of the US dollar relative to gold, certain anti-inflationary measures were enacted.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In September 1973, President Nixon said, "Oil without a market, as Mr. Mossadegh learned many, many years ago, does not do a country much good", referring to the 1951 nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, but between October 1973 and February 1974 the OPEC countries raised by posted price fourfold to nearly $12.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Because oil was priced in dollars, oil producers' real income decreased when the dollar started to float free of the old link to gold. In September 1971, OPEC issued a joint communiqué stating that from then on, they would price oil in terms of a fixed amount of gold.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: This contributed to the "oil shock". After 1971, OPEC was slow to readjust prices to reflect this depreciation. From 1947 to 1967, the dollar price of oil had risen by less than two percent per year. Until the oil shock, the price had also remained fairly stable versus other currencies and commodities. OPEC ministers had not developed institutional mechanisms to update prices in sync with changing market conditions, so their real incomes lagged. The substantial price increases of 1973–1974 largely returned their prices and corresponding incomes to Bretton Woods levels in terms of commodities such as gold.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Arab oil producing countries had attempted to use oil as leverage to influence political events on two prior occasions—the first was the Suez Crisis in 1956 when the United Kingdom, France and Israel invaded Egypt. During the conflict the Syrians sabotaged both the Trans-Arabian Pipeline and the Iraq–Baniyas pipeline, which disrupted the supply of oil to Western Europe. The second instance was when war broke out between Egypt and Israel in 1967, but despite continued Egyptian and Syrian enmity against Israel, the embargo lasted only a few months. Most scholars agree that the 1967 embargo was ineffective.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Although some members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) supported the use of oil as a weapon to influence the political outcome of the Arab–Israeli conflict, Saudi Arabia had traditionally been the strongest supporter of separating oil from politics. The Saudis were wary of the tactic due to the availability of oil from non-Arab oil producing countries, and in the decades leading up to the crisis, the region's conservative monarchies had grown dependent on Western support to ensure their continued survival as Nasserism gained traction. On the other hand, Algeria, Iraq and Libya had strongly supported the use of oil as a weapon in the conflict. Arab newspapers like the Egyptian "Al-Ahram", Lebanese "An-Nahar" and Iraqi "Al-Thawra" had historically been supportive of the use of oil as a weapon.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In 1970, President Nasser of Egypt died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat, a man who believed in the diplomacy of surprise, in engaging in sudden moves to upset the diplomatic equilibrium. Sadat liked to say that his favourite game was backgammon, a game where skill and persistence was rewarded, but was best won by sudden gambles, making an analogy between how he played backgammon and conducted his diplomacy. Under Nasser, Egypt and Saudi Arabia had engaged what was known as the Arab Cold War, but Sadat got along very well with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, forming an alliance between the most populous Arab state and the wealthiest Arab state. Unlike the secularist Nasser, Sadat was a pious Muslim and he had a strong personal rapport with King Faisal, who was an equally pious Muslim. The man largely in charge of American foreign policy, the National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, later admitted that he was engrossed with the Paris peace talks to end Vietnam war that he and others in Washington missed the significance of the Egyptian-Saudi alliance. At the same time that Sadat moved closer to Saudi Arabia, he also wanted a rapprochement with the United States and to move Egypt away from its alliance with the Soviet Union. In 1971, the US had information that the Arab states were willing to implement another embargo. In July 1972, Sadat expelled all 16,000 of the Soviet military personnel in Egypt in a signal that he wanted better relations with the United States. Kissinger was taken completely by surprise by Sadat's move, saying: "Why has he done me this favor? Why didn't he demand all sorts of concessions first?"


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Sadat expected as a reward that the United States would respond by pressuring Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt, but after his anti-Soviet move prompted no response from the United States, by November 1972 Sadat moved again closer to the Soviet Union, buying a massive amount of Soviet arms for a war he planned to launch against Israel in 1973. For Sadat, cost was no object as the money to buy Soviet arms came from Saudi Arabia. At the same time, Faisal promised Sadat that if it should come to war, Saudi Arabia would embargo oil to the West. In April 1973, the Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani visited Washington to meet Kissinger and told him that King Faisal was becoming more and more unhappy with the United States, saying he wanted America to pressure Israel to return all the lands captured in the Six Day War of 1967. In a later interview, Yamani accused Kissinger of not taking his warning seriously, saying all he did was to ask him not to speak anymore of this threat. Angry at Kissinger, Yamani in an interview with the "Washington Post" on 19 April 1973 warned that King Faisal was considering an oil embargo. At the time, the general feeling in Washington was the Saudis were bluffing and nothing would come of their threat to impose an oil embargo. The fact that Faisal's ineffectual half brother King Saud had imposed a cripplingly oil embargo on Britain and France during the Suez War of 1956 was not considered an important precedent. The CEOs of four of America's oil companies had after speaking to Faisal arrived in Washington in May 1973 with the warning that Faisal was considerably more tougher, intelligent and ruthless than his half-brother Saud whom he had deposed in 1964, and his threats were serious. Kissinger declined to meet the four CEOs.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In an assessment done by Kissinger and his staff about the Middle East in the summer of 1973, the repeated statements by Sadat about waging  "jihad" against Israel were dismissed as empty talk while the warnings from King Faisal were likewise regarded as inconsequential. In September 1973, Nixon fired Rogers as Secretary of State and replaced him with Kissinger. Kissinger was later to state he had not been given enough time to know the Middle East as he settled into the State Department's office at Foggy Bottom as Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on 6 October 1973.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: On October 6, 1973, Egypt attacked the Bar Lev Line in the Sinai Peninsula and Syria launched an offensive in the Golan Heights, both of which had been occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Kissinger promised the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir the United States would replace its losses in equipment after the war, but sought initially to delay arm shipments to Israel as he believed it would improve the odds of making peace along the lines of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calling for a "land for peace" deal if an armistice was signed with Egypt and Syria gaining some territory in the Sinai and the Golan Heights respectively. The Arab concept of the "peace of the brave" (i.e. a victorious leader being magnanimous to his defeated opponents) meant there was a possibility that Sadat at least would make peace with Israel provided that the war ended in such a way that Egypt was not perceived to be defeated. Likewise, Kissinger regarded Meir as being rather arrogant and believed that an armistice that ended the war in a manner that was not an unambiguous Israeli victory would make her more humble.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: As both Syria and Egypt lost much equipment during the fighting, the Soviet Union began to fly new equipment in starting on 12 October, and the Soviet flights to Syria and Egypt were recorded by the British radar stations in Cyprus. Though the Soviets were flying in an average of 60 flights per day, exaggerated accounts appeared in Western newspapers speaking of "one hundred flights per day". At this point, both Nixon and Kissinger began to see the October War more in terms of the Cold War rather than Middle Eastern politics, both seeing the Soviet arms lifts to Egypt and Syria as a Soviet power play that required an American answer. On October 12, 1973, US president Richard Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass, a strategic airlift to deliver weapons and supplies to Israel in order to replace its materiel losses, after the Soviet Union began sending arms to Syria and Egypt. On October 17, Arab oil producers cut production by 5% and instituted an oil embargo against Israel's allies: the United States, the Netherlands, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal. On 17–19 October 1973, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Omar Saqqaf, visited Washington together with the foreign ministers of Algeria, Kuwait and Morocco to warn that there was a real possibility of an oil embargo being imposed. During a press conference, an American reporter mocked the threat, contemptuously saying the Saudis "could drink their oil", leading Saqqaf to reply in anger "All right, we will!". Saqqaf met with Nixon in the Oval Office who promised him that the United States would mediate a settlement to the war that would be "peaceful, just and honorable" to both sides. Saqqaf reported to King Faisal that Nixon told him that he ended the Vietnam war on an honorable basis and now intended to end the October war in the same manner.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Israel took heavy losses in men and material during the fighting against Egypt and Syria, and on 18 October 1973 Meir requested $850 million worth of American arms and equipment to replace its material losses. Nixon decided characteristically to act on an epic scale and instead of the $850 million worth of arms requested sent a request to Congress for some $2.2 billion worth of arms to Israel, which was promptly approved. Nixon later boasted in his memoirs that the U.S. Air Force flew more sorties to Israel in October 1973 than it had during the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49, flying in a gargantuan quantity of arms, though he also admitted that by the time the arms lift had begun, the Israelis had already "turned the tide of battle" in their favor, making the arms lift irrelevant to the outcome of the war. In an interview with the British historian Robert Lacey in 1981, Kissinger later admitted about the arms lift to Israel: "I made a mistake. In retrospect it was not the best considered decision we made". The arms lift enraged King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and he retaliated on 20 October 1973 by placing a total embargo on oil shipments to the United States, to be joined by all of the other oil-producing Arab states except Iraq and Libya. Faisal was angry that Israel had only asked for $850 million worth of American weapons, and instead received an unsolicited $2.2 billion worth of weapons, which he perceived as a sign of the pro-Israeli slant of American foreign policy. Faisal also felt insulted that Nixon had just promised Saqqaf a "honorable" peace the day before he submitted the request to Congress for some $2.2 billion worth of arms for Israel, which he saw as an act of duplicity on Nixon's part. Faisal had been opposed to a total embargo and only agreed to the 5% cut on 17 October under pressure from other Arab states. Faisal felt his efforts on behalf the United States were not being appreciated in Washington, which increased his fury at Nixon.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Saudi Arabia only consented to the embargo after Nixon's promise of $2.2 billion in military aid to Israel. On the afternoon of 19 October 1973, Faisal was in his office when he learned about the United States sending $2.2 billion worth of weapons to Israel, and discussed the issue with two of his closest advisers, Abdullah ibn Abdul Rahman and Rashad Pharaon. The king called Yamani at about 8 pm, and told him he was needed at the Riyassa Palace immediately. Yamani told the king: "The TV news goes out at nine. If you make a decision now, we can get it announced at once". The king replied "Write this down" and announced he was placing a total embargo on the United States.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The embargo was accompanied by gradual monthly production cuts—by December, production had been cut to 25% of September levels. This contributed to a global recession and increased tension between the United States and several of its European allies, who faulted the US for provoking an embargo by providing what many viewed as unconditional assistance to Israel. OAPEC demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from all territories beyond the 1949 Armistice border.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The embargo lasted from October 1973 to March 1974. During a summit in Cairo on 6 November, Kissinger asked Sadat what Faisal was like and was told: "Well, Dr. Henry, he will probably go on with you about Communism and the Jews". King Faisal's two great hatreds were Communism and Zionism as he believed that the Soviet Union and Israel were plotting together against Islam. When King Faisal was shown a translation into Arabic of "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", he instantly believed in the authenticity of "The Protocols" and therefore talked to anyone who would listen about what he had learned, despite the fact that "The Protocols" had been exposed as a forgery in 1921.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: On 7 November 1973, Kissinger flew to Riyadh to meet King Faisal and ask him to end the oil embargo in exchange for promising to be "evenhanded" with the Arab-Israeli dispute. As the plane carrying him prepared to land in Riyadh, Kissinger was clearly nervous at the prospect of negotiating with the stern Wahhabi Faisal who had a marked dislike of Jews. Kissinger discovered that King Faisal was a worthy companion to Lê Đức Thọ in terms of stubbornness as the king accused the United States of being biased in favor of Israel, going on in a long rant about the balefulness of "Jewish Communists" in Russia and Israel, and despite all of Kissinger's efforts to charm him, refused to end the oil embargo. Faisal told Kissinger: "The United States used to stand up to aggression-you did that in World War Two and in 1956 during the Suez War. If the United States had done the same after 1967, we would not have witnessed the this deterioration... Before the Jewish State was established, there existed nothing to harm good relations between Arabs and Jews. There were many Jews in Arab countries. When the Jews were persecuted in Spain, Arabs protected them. When the Romans drove the Jews out, Arabs protected them. At Yalta, it was Stalin who said there had to be a Jewish state...Israel is advancing Communist objectives...Among those of the Jewish faith there are those who embrace Zionism...Most of the immigration to Israel is from the Soviet Union...They want to establish a Communist base right in the Middle East...And now, all over the world, the Jews are putting themselves into positions of authority". On 22 February 1974, King Faisal chaired the second summit of Islamic states in Islamabad (which unlike the first summit Faisal had chaired in 1969 was not boycotted by Iraq and Syria), where he was acclaimed as a conquering hero who humiliated and humbled the West by wrecking its economy. The prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, opened the conference by stating: "The armies of Pakistan are the armies of Islam. We shall enter Jerusalem as brothers-in-arms!"


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Only on 19 March 1974 did the king end the oil embargo after Sadat, whom he trusted, reported to him that the United States was being more "evenhanded" and after Kissinger had promised to sell Saudi Arabia weapons that it had previously denied under the grounds that they might be used against Israel. More importantly, Saudi Arabia had billions of dollars invested in Western banks, and the massive bout of inflation set off by the oil embargo was a threat to this fortune as inflation eroded the value of the money, giving Faisal a vested interest in helping to contain the damage he himself inflicted on the economies of the West.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Since Israeli forces did not withdraw to the 1949 Armistice Line, the majority of scholars believe that the embargo was a failure. Roy Licklieder, in his 1988 book "Political Power and the Arab Oil Weapon", concluded that the embargo was a failure because the countries that were targeted by the embargo did not change their policies on the Arab–Israeli conflict. Licklieder believed that any long term changes were caused by the OPEC increase in the posted price of oil, and not the OAPEC embargo. Daniel Yergin, on the other hand, has said that the embargo "remade the international economy". Lacey wrote: "King Faisal's momentous oil embargo of 20 October 1973 did not achieve a single one of its stated objectives. The ceasefire which the USA and the USSR together imposed two days later upon Israel, Syria and Egypt would have been imposed in any case; Israel ended the October war, thanks to US aid, better equipped militarily than she had ever been before, and Faisal's ambition to shrink Israel back inside her pre-1949 boundaries remains unfulfilled to this day. Nor did the withholding of the 638, 500 barrels of oil which the Saudi Arabia had been selling to America every day for the first 10 months of 1973 ever come, in itself, to jeopardizing the power or diverting the policies of the United States, since it accounted for less than 4 percent of America's daily 17 million barrel consumption. It was the interaction which Faisal's embargo had with other forces that made it so decisive. Arab politics had an immediate multiplier effect. 'If Saudi Arabia moves from A to B', remarked a Beirut oil consultant in 1974, 'every other oil producer must move at least as far, if not to C'".


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Because every Arab state except for Iraq and Libya joined the oil embargo, oil exports from the Middle East to the West were down by 60%-70% by November 1973. Japan and the nations of western Europe imported some 75% of their oil from the Near East, and the embargo led to immediate and sharp price raises as Lacey noted that "competing desperately for dwindling supplies, consumers showed themselves willing to pay unparalleled money for their oil". When the Iranian state oil company held an auction on 16 December 1973, bids for some $17 US dollars per barrel of oil were made. In late December 1973, OPEC held a conference in Vienna when it was announced the price for a barrel of oil was to from $5 US dollars per barrel to $11.65 US dollars per barrel. Faisal was opposed to the price increase, which was largely the work of the Iranian delegation.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Over the long term, the oil embargo changed the nature of policy in the West towards increased exploration, alternative energy research, energy conservation and more restrictive monetary policy to better fight inflation.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The effects of the embargo were immediate. OPEC forced oil companies to increase payments drastically. The price of oil quadrupled by 1974 from US$3 to nearly US$12 per 42 gallon barrel ($75 per cubic meter), equivalent in 2018 dollars to a price rise from $ to $ per barrel.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The crisis eased when the embargo was lifted in March 1974 after negotiations at the Washington Oil Summit, but the effects lingered throughout the 1970s. The dollar price of energy increased again the following year, amid the weakening competitive position of the dollar in world markets.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The Arab oil embargo ended the long period of prosperity in the West that had begun in 1945, throwing the world's economy into the steepest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Lacey wrote about the impact of the Arab oil embargo of 1973–74 that for people in the West life suddenly become "slower, darker and chiller" as gasoline was rationed, the lights were turned off in Times Square, the "gas guzzler" automobiles stopped selling, speed limits became common and restrictions were placed on weekend driving in a bid to conserve fuel. As the American automobile industry specialized in producing heavy "gas guzzler" vehicles, there was an immediate shift on the part of consumers to the lighter and more fuel efficient vehicles produced by the Japanese and West German automobile industries, sending the American automobile industry into decline. The years from 1945 to 1973 had been a period of unprecedented prosperity in the West, a "long summer" that many believed would never end, and its abrupt end in 1973 as the oil embargo which increased the price of oil by 400% within a matter of days threw the world's economy into a sharp recession with unemployment mounting and inflation raging came as a profound shock. The end of what the French called the "Trente Glorieuses" ("Glorious Thirty") led to a mood of widespread pessimism in the West with the "Financial Times" running a famous headline in late 1973 saying "The Future will be subject to Delay".


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: This price increase had a dramatic effect on oil exporting nations, for the countries of the Middle East who had long been dominated by the industrial powers were seen to have taken control of a vital commodity. The oil-exporting nations began to accumulate vast wealth.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Some of the income was dispensed in the form of aid to other underdeveloped nations whose economies had been caught between higher oil prices and lower prices for their own export commodities, amid shrinking Western demand. Much went for arms purchases that exacerbated political tensions, particularly in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia spent over 100 billion dollars in the ensuing decades for helping spread its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, known as Wahhabism, throughout the world, via religious charities such as the al-Haramain Foundation, which often also distributed funds to violent Sunni extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The oil embargo led a sudden interest in the Palestinian issue. On 8 November 1973, Kissinger became the first Secretary of State to visit Riyadh since 1953 as he met King Faisal to ask him to end the embargo. Within two week of the embargo being launched, all of the foreign ministers of the nations of the European Economic Community (now the European Union) met in a conference to issue a statement calling for Israel "to end the territorial occupation which has maintained since the conflict of 1967". On 11 December 1973, the Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ōhira flew in to Riyadh to meet King Faisal for "talks on improving bilateral relations". Shortly afterwards, the French foreign minister Michel Jobert arrived to sign an agreement that provided oil for France for the next twenty years. On 24 January 1974, as the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was coming off the ski slopes of St. Moritz, he was met by the British Chancellor of Exchequer, Anthony Barber, and the Trade Secretary, Peter Walker. In a role-reversal, Barber and Walker paid homage to the Shah, who promised them that his nation would sell the United Kingdom 5 million tons of oil in exchange for some £100 million of British goods to aid his plans to industrialize Iran.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: OPEC-member states raised the prospect of nationalization of oil company holdings. Most notably, Saudi Arabia nationalized Aramco in 1980 under the leadership of Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani. As other OPEC nations followed suit, the cartel's income soared. Saudi Arabia undertook a series of ambitious five-year development plans. The biggest began in 1980, funded at $250 billion. Other cartel members also undertook major economic development programs.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Control of oil became known as the "oil weapon". It came in the form of an embargo and production cutbacks from the Arab states. The weapon was aimed at the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. These target governments perceived that the intent was to push them towards a more pro-Arab position. Production was eventually cut by 25%. However, the affected countries did not undertake dramatic policy changes.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The risk that the Middle East could become another superpower confrontation with the USSR was of more concern to Washington than oil. Further, interest groups and government agencies more worried about energy were no match for Kissinger's dominance.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In the US production, distribution and price disruptions "have been held responsible for recessions, periods of excessive inflation, reduced productivity, and lower economic growth." Some researchers regard the 1973 "oil price shock" and the accompanying 1973–74 stock market crash as the first discrete event since the Great Depression to have a persistent effect on the US economy.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The embargo had a negative influence on the US economy by causing immediate demands to address the threats to U.S. energy security. On an international level, the price increases changed competitive positions in many industries, such as automobiles. Macroeconomic problems consisted of both inflationary and deflationary impacts. The embargo left oil companies searching for new ways to increase oil supplies, even in rugged terrain such as the Arctic. Finding oil and developing new fields usually required five to 10 years before significant production.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The average US retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose 43% from 38.5¢ in May 1973 to 55.1¢ in June 1974. State governments asked citizens not to put up Christmas lights. Oregon banned Christmas and commercial lighting altogether. Politicians called for a national gasoline rationing program. Nixon asked gasoline retailers to voluntarily not sell gasoline on Saturday nights or Sundays; 90% of gas station owners complied, which produced long lines of motorists wanting to fill up their cars while they still could.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The embargo was not uniform across Western Europe. The UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway banned flying, driving and boating on Sundays. Sweden rationed gasoline and heating oil. The Netherlands imposed prison sentences for those who used more than their ration of electricity.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Of the nine members of the European Economic Community (EEC), the Netherlands faced a complete embargo. By contrast Britain and France received almost uninterrupted supplies. That was their reward for refusing to allow the US to use their airfields and stopping arms and supplies to both the Arabs and the Israelis. The other six EEC nations faced partial cutbacks. The UK had traditionally been an ally of Israel, and Harold Wilson's government supported the Israelis during the Six-Day War. His successor, Ted Heath, reversed this policy in 1970, calling for Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The EEC was unable to achieve a common policy during the first month of the embargo. It issued a statement on November 6, after the embargo and price rises had begun. It was widely viewed as pro-Arab, supporting the Franco-British line on the war. OPEC duly lifted its embargo from all EEC members. The price rises had a much greater impact in Europe than the embargo.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Despite facing little direct effect from the embargo, the UK nonetheless faced an energy crisis of its own—a series of strikes by coal miners and railroad workers over the winter of 1973–74 became a major factor in the defeat of Edward Heath's Conservative government in February 1974 general elections. The new Labour government told the British to heat only one room in their houses over the winter.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Japan was hard hit since it imported 90% of its oil from the Middle East. It had a stockpile good for 55 days, and another 20-day supply was en route. Facing its most serious crisis since 1945 the government ordered a 10% cut in the consumption of industrial oil and electricity. In December it ordered an immediate 20% cut in oil use and electric power to Japan's major industries, and cutbacks in leisure automobile usage. Economist predicted the growth rate would plunge from 5% annually down to zero or even negative territory. Inflation hit 9%. Seeking to take advantage of the crisis, Japanese business called on the government to relax its controls on air pollution and water pollution. The government refused. Moscow tried to take advantage by promising energy assistance if Japan returned the Kurile Islands. Tokyo refused. Instead it made $3.3 billion of dollars in loans to the Arab states and called on Israel to step back. Japan's defensive strategy was explained to Kissinger when he met with top leaders in Tokyo in November 1973. In the long run Japan never wavered in its determination to maintain very strong close ties to the United States, while in self-defense briefly providing the Arab powers with the rhetoric they demanded in return for resuming oil shipments in early 1974.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: To assure future oil flows, Japan added suppliers outside of the Middle East; invested in nuclear power; imposed conservation measures; and provided funding for Arab governments and the Palestinians. The crisis was a major factor in the long-run shift of Japan's economy away from oil-intensive industries. Investment shifted to electronics. Japanese auto makers also benefited from the crisis. The jump in gasoline prices helped their small, fuel-efficient models to gain market share from the "gas-guzzling" Detroit competition. This triggered a drop in American sales of American brands that lasted into the 1980s.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The oil shock destroyed the economy of South Vietnam. A spokesman for Nguyễn Văn Thiệu admitted in a TV interview that the government was being "overwhelmed" by the inflation caused by the oil shock, while an American businessman living in Saigon stated after the oil shock that attempting to make money in South Vietnam was "like making love to a corpse". In December 1973, Vietcong sappers attacked and destroyed the petroleum depot of Nha Be, further depleting fuel sources. By the summer of 1974, the U.S. embassy in Saigon reported that morale in the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) had fallen to dangerously low levels and it was uncertain how much more longer South Vietnam would last. As inflation eroded the value of the South Vietnamese "đồng", it became common by the summer of 1974 to see ARVN soldiers and their families begging in the streets for food. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese PAVN (People's Army of Vietnam) launched an offensive in the Central Highlands, which far more successful than expected as the ARVN, which was suffering from low morale, put up a feeble resistance. On 1 March 1975, the PAVN launched a major offensive that saw them quickly overrun the Central Highlands, by 25 March, Hue had fallen. Following their victory in the Central Highlands, the North Vietnamese launched the "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" that saw Saigon fall on 30 April 1975.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Price controls exacerbated the crisis in the US. The system limited the price of "old oil" (that which had already been discovered) while allowing newly discovered oil to be sold at a higher price to encourage investment. Predictably, old oil was withdrawn from the market, creating greater scarcity. The rule also discouraged development of alternative energies. The rule had been intended to promote oil exploration. Scarcity was addressed by rationing (as in many countries). Motorists faced long lines at gas stations beginning in summer 1972 and increasing by summer 1973.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In 1973, Nixon named William E. Simon as the first Administrator of the Federal Energy Office, a short-term organization created to coordinate the response to the embargo. Simon allocated states the same amount of domestic oil for 1974 that each had consumed in 1972, which worked for states whose populations were not increasing. In other states, lines at gasoline stations were common. The American Automobile Association reported that in the last week of February 1974, 20% of American gasoline stations had no fuel.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Odd–even rationing allowed vehicles with license plates having an odd number as the last digit (or a vanity license plate) to buy gas only on odd-numbered days of the month, while others could buy only on even-numbered days.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In some states, a three-color flag system was used to denote gasoline availability at service stations—green for unrationed availability, yellow for restricted/rationed sales and red for out of stock.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Rationing led to violent incidents, when truck drivers chose to strike for two days in December 1973 over the limited supplies that Simon had allocated for their industry. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, non-striking truckers were shot at by striking truckers, and in Arkansas, trucks of non-strikers were attacked with bombs.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: America had controlled the price of natural gas since the 1950s. With the inflation of the 1970s, the price was too low to encourage the search for new reserves. America's natural gas reserves dwindled from 237 trillion in 1974 to 203 trillion in 1978. The price controls were not changed, despite president Gerald Ford's repeated requests to Congress.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: To help reduce consumption, in 1974 a national maximum speed limit of 55 mph (89 km/h) was imposed through the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act. Development of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve began in 1975, and in 1977 the cabinet-level Department of Energy was created, followed by the National Energy Act of 1978. On November 28, 1995, President Bill Clinton signed the National Highway Designation Act, ending the federal 55 mph speed limit which allowed states to restore their prior maximum speed limit. Year-round daylight saving time was implemented from January 6, 1974, to October 27, 1975, with a break between October 27, 1974, and February 23, 1975, when the country observed standard time. Parents complained that it forced many children to travel to school before sunrise. The prior rules were restored in 1976.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The crisis prompted a call to conserve energy, most notably a campaign by the Advertising Council using the tagline "Don't Be Fuelish". Many newspapers carried advertisements featuring cut-outs that could be attached to light switches, reading "Last Out, Lights Out: Don't Be Fuelish".


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Although not regulated by the new legislation, auto racing groups voluntarily began conserving. In 1974, NASCAR reduced all race distances by 10%; the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring race were cancelled.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In 1975, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act was passed, leading to the creation of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that required improved fuel economy for cars and light trucks.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: In 1976, Congress created the Weatherization Assistance Program to help low-income homeowners and renters reduce their demand for heating and cooling through better insulation.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: By 1980, domestic luxury cars with a wheelbase and gross weights averaging 4,500 pounds (2,041 kg) were no longer made. The automakers had begun phasing out the traditional front engine/rear-wheel drive layout in compact cars in favor of lighter front engine/front-wheel drive designs. A higher percentage of cars offered more efficient four-cylinder engines. Domestic auto makers also began offering more fuel efficient diesel powered passenger cars as well.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The energy crisis led to greater interest in renewable energy, nuclear power and domestic fossil fuels. According to Peter Grossman, American energy policies since the crisis have been dominated by crisis-mentality thinking, promoting expensive quick fixes and single-shot solutions that ignore market and technology realities. He wrote that instead of providing stable rules that support basic research while leaving plenty of scope for entrepreneurship and innovation, Congresses and presidents have repeatedly backed policies which promise solutions that are politically expedient, but whose prospects are doubtful.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: The Brazilian government implemented its "Proálcool" (pro-alcohol) project in 1975 that mixed ethanol with gasoline for automotive fuel.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Israel was one of the few countries unaffected by the embargo, since it could extract sufficient oil from the Sinai. But to supplement Israel's over-taxed power grid, Harry Zvi Tabor, the father of Israel's solar industry, developed the prototype for a solar water heater now used in over 90% of Israeli homes.


title: 1973 oil crisis

text: Western central banks decided to sharply cut interest rates to encourage growth, deciding that inflation was a secondary concern. Although this was the orthodox macroeconomic prescription at the time, the resulting stagflation surprised economists and central bankers. The policy is now considered by some to have deepened and lengthened the adverse effects of the embargo. Recent research claims that in the period after 1985 the economy became more resilient to energy price increases.