title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Eliza and her husband would not get to enjoy their newly built home together long, for only two years later, in July 1804, Alexander Hamilton became involved in a similar "affair of honor," which led to his infamous duel with Aaron Burr and untimely death. Before the duel, he wrote Eliza two letters, telling her:The consolations of Religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. With my last idea; I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world. Adieu best of wives and best of Women. Embrace all my darling Children for me.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, with Eliza and all seven of his surviving children by his side.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: In the year before the duel, Eliza's mother Catherine had died suddenly, and only a few months after Hamilton's death Eliza's father died as well. By this time, two of her siblings, Peggy and John, had also died.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: After her husband's death in 1804, Eliza was left to pay Hamilton's debts. The Grange, their house on a 35-acre estate in upper Manhattan, was sold at public auction; however, she was later able to repurchase it from Hamilton's executors, who had decided that Eliza could not be publicly dispossessed of her home, and purchased it themselves to sell back to her at half the price. In November 1833, at the age of 76, Eliza resold The Grange for $25,000, funding the purchase of a New York townhouse (now called the Hamilton-Holly House) where she lived for nine years with two of her grown children, Alexander Hamilton Jr. and Eliza Hamilton Holly, and their spouses. Eliza was also able to collect Alexander's pension from his service in the army from congress in 1836 for money and land. In 1848, she left New York for Washington, D.C., where she lived with her widowed daughter Eliza until 1854.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: In 1798, Eliza had accepted her friend Isabella Graham's invitation to join the descriptively named Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children that had been established the previous year. In 1806, two years after her husband's death, she, along with several other women including Joanna Bethune, founded the Orphan Asylum Society. Eliza was appointed second directress, or vice-president. In 1821, she was named first directress, and served for 27 years in this role, until she left New York in 1848. In those roles, she raised funds, collected needed goods, and oversaw the care and education of over 700 children. By the time she left she had been with the organization continuously since its founding, a total of 42 years. The New York Orphan Asylum Society continues to exist as a social service agency for children, today called Graham Windham. Eliza's philanthropic work in helping create the Orphan Asylum Society has led to her induction into the philanthropy section of the National Museum of American History, showcasing the early generosity of Americans that reformed the nation.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Eliza defended Alexander against his critics in a variety of ways following his death, including by supporting his claim of authorship of George Washington's Farewell Address and by requesting an apology from James Monroe over his accusations of financial improprieties. Eliza wanted a full official apology from Monroe which he would not give until they met in person to talk about Alexander shortly before his passing. Elizabeth Hamilton petitioned Congress to publish her husband Alexander Hamilton's writings (1846).


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Eliza remained dedicated to preserving her husband's legacy. She re-organized all of Alexander's letters, papers, and writings with the help of her son, John Church Hamilton, and persevered through many setbacks in getting his biography published. With Eliza's help John C. Hamilton would go on to publish "History of the Republic of the United States America, as Traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries. History of the Republic" would set the bar for future biographies of Alexander Hamilton that would grow as time went on. She was so devoted to Alexander's writings that she wore a small package around her neck containing the pieces of a sonnet that Alexander wrote for her during the early days of their courtship. The writings that historians have today by Alexander Hamilton can be attributed to efforts from Eliza. In June 1848, when Eliza was in her nineties, she made an effort for Congress to buy and publish her late husband's works. In August, her request was granted and Congress bought and published Alexander's works, adding them to the Library of Congress and helping future historians of Hamilton view his works today. Along with getting Alexander's works stored while Eliza was in her 90s, she remained dedicated to charity work. After moving to Washington, D.C., she helped Dolley Madison and Louisa Adams raise money to build the Washington Monument.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: By 1846, Eliza was suffering from short-term memory loss but was still vividly recalling her husband. Eliza died in Washington, D.C. on November 9, 1854, at age 97. She had outlived her husband by 50 years, and had outlived all but one of her siblings (her youngest sister, Catherine, 24 years her junior). Eliza was buried near her husband in the graveyard of Trinity Church in New York City. Angelica was also laid to rest at Trinity, in the Livingstons' private vault, while Eliza's eldest son Philip had an unmarked grave near the churchyard.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: The Hamiltons also raised Frances (Fanny) Antill, an orphan who lived with them for ten years beginning in 1787 when she was 2 years old.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Persuasion is the last novel completed by Jane Austen. It was published on December 20, 1817, along with "Northanger Abbey", six months after her death, although the title page is dated 1818.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The story concerns Anne Elliot, an Englishwoman of 27 years, whose family moves to lower their expenses and reduce their debt by renting their home to an Admiral and his wife. The wife's brother, Captain Frederick Wentworth, was engaged to Anne in 1806, but the engagement was broken when Anne was persuaded by her friends and family to end their relationship. Anne and Captain Wentworth, both single and unattached, meet again after a seven-year separation, setting the scene for many humorous encounters as well as a second, well-considered chance at love and marriage for Anne.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The novel was well-received in the early 19th century, but its greater fame came later in the century and continued into the 20th and 21st centuries. Much scholarly debate on Austen's work has since been published. Anne Elliot is noteworthy among Austen's heroines for her relative maturity. As "Persuasion" was Austen's last completed work, it is accepted as her most maturely written novel, showing a refinement of literary conception indicative of a woman approaching 40 years of age. Her use of free indirect speech in narrative was in full evidence by 1816.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: "Persuasion" has been the subject of several adaptations, including four made-for-television adaptations, theatre productions, radio broadcasts, and other literary works.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The story begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to Frederick Wentworth: Having just turned nineteen years old, Anne fell in love and had accepted a proposal of marriage from Wentworth, then a young and undistinguished naval officer. Wentworth was considered clever, confident and ambitious, but his low social status made Anne's friends and family view him as an unsuitable partner. Anne's father, Sir Walter Elliot, and her older sister, Elizabeth, maintained that Wentworth was no match for a woman of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Furthermore, Lady Russell, a distant relative whom Anne considers to be a second mother to her after her own died, also saw the relationship as imprudent for one so young and persuaded Anne to break off the engagement. Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Lady Russell are the only family members who knew about the short engagement, as Anne's younger sister Mary was away at school.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Several years later, the Elliot family are in financial trouble on account of their lavish spending, so they lease out Kellynch Hall and decide to settle in a cheaper home in Bath until their finances improve. Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's new companion, Mrs Clay, look forward to the move. Anne is less sure she will enjoy Bath, but cannot go against her family. Mary is now married to Charles Musgrove of Uppercross Hall, the heir to a respected local squire. Anne visits Mary and her family, where she is well-loved. As the war against France is over, the new tenants of Kellynch Hall, Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia, (Frederick's sister), have returned home. Captain Wentworth, now wealthy and famous for his service in the war, visits his sister and meets the Uppercross family, where he crosses paths with Anne.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The Musgroves, including Mary, Charles, and Charles' sisters Henrietta and Louisa, welcome the Crofts and Captain Wentworth, who makes it known that he is ready to marry. Henrietta is engaged to her cousin, clergyman Charles Hayter, who is absent when Wentworth is introduced to their social circle. Both the Crofts and Musgroves enjoy speculating about which sister Captain Wentworth might marry. Once Hayter returns, Henrietta turns her affections to him again. Anne still loves Wentworth, so each meeting with him requires preparation for her own strong emotions. She overhears a conversation in which Louisa tells Wentworth that Charles Musgrove first proposed to Anne, who turned him down. This news startles Wentworth, and Anne realises that he has not yet forgiven her for letting herself be persuaded to end their engagement years ago.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Anne and the young adults of the Uppercross family accompany Captain Wentworth on a visit to see two of his fellow officers, Captains Harville and Benwick, in the coastal town of Lyme Regis. Captain Benwick is in mourning over the death of his fiancée, Captain Harville's sister, and he appreciates Anne's sympathy and understanding, helped by their mutual admiration for the Romantic poets. Anne attracts the attention of Mr William Elliot, her cousin and a wealthy widower who is heir to Kellynch Hall despite having broken ties with her father years earlier. On the last morning of the visit, the youthful Louisa sustains a serious concussion at the sea wall while under Captain Wentworth's supervision. Anne coolly organizes the others to summon assistance. Wentworth is impressed with Anne's quick thinking and cool-headedness, but feels guilty about his actions with Louisa, causing him to re-examine his feelings for Anne. Louisa, due to her delicate condition, is forced to recover at the Harvilles' home in Lyme for months. Captain Benwick, who was a guest as well, helps in Louisa's recovery by attending and reading to her.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Following Louisa's accident, Anne joins her father and sister in Bath with Lady Russell while Louisa and her parents stay at the Harvilles' in Lyme Regis for her recovery. Captain Wentworth visits his older brother Edward in Shropshire. Anne finds that her father and sister are flattered by the attentions of their cousin William Elliot, thinking that if he marries Elizabeth, the family fortunes will be restored. William flatters Anne and offhandedly mentions that he was "fascinated" with the name of his future wife already being an "Elliot" who would rightfully take over for her late mother. Although Anne wants to like William, the attention and his manners, she finds his character opaque and difficult to judge.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Admiral Croft and his wife arrive in Bath with the news that Louisa is engaged to Captain Benwick. Wentworth travels to Bath, where his jealousy is piqued by seeing William trying to court Anne. Captain Wentworth and Anne renew their acquaintance. Anne visits Mrs Smith, an old school friend, who is now a widow living in Bath under strained circumstances. From her, Anne discovers that beneath William's charming veneer, he is a cold, calculating opportunist who led Mrs Smith's late husband into debt. As executor to her husband's will, William has done nothing to improve Mrs Smith's situation. Although Mrs Smith believes that William is genuinely attracted to Anne, she feels that his primary aim is to prevent Mrs Clay from marrying Sir Walter, as a new marriage might mean a new son, displacing him as heir to Kellynch Hall.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The Musgroves visit Bath to purchase wedding clothes for Louisa and Henrietta, both soon to marry. Captains Wentworth and Harville encounter them and Anne at the Musgroves' hotel in Bath, where Wentworth overhears Anne and Harville discussing the relative faithfulness of men and women in love. Deeply moved by what Anne says about women not giving up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost, Wentworth writes her a note declaring his feelings for her. Outside the hotel, Anne and Wentworth reconcile, affirm their love for each other, and renew their engagement. William leaves Bath; Mrs Clay soon follows him and becomes his mistress, making it more likely that he will inherit Kellynch Hall. Lady Russell admits she was wrong about Wentworth and befriends the new couple. Once Anne and Wentworth have married, Wentworth helps Mrs Smith recover the remaining assets that William had kept from her. Anne settles into her new life as the wife of a Navy captain.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Anne Elliot – The second daughter of Sir Walter. Anne is intelligent, accomplished and attractive, and she is unmarried at 27, having broken off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, then a naval commander, seven years earlier. Anne fell in love with Wentworth but was persuaded by her mentor, Lady Russell, to reject his proposal because of his poverty, uncertain future, and Anne's youth. Anne rejects Charles Musgrove's proposal a few years later, knowing she still loves Wentworth, but it is only when Wentworth returns from fighting abroad that she finally confronts her unfulfilled feelings for him.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Captain Frederick Wentworth – A naval officer, about 31 years old, who proposed to Anne some seven years earlier. At the time, he had no fortune and uncertain prospects, but owing to his achievements in the Napoleonic Wars, he advanced in rank and in fortunes. He is one of Sophia Croft's two brothers. He gained his step to post Captain, and gained wealth amounting to about £25,000 from prize money awarded for capturing enemy vessels. He is an eminently eligible bachelor, eager to settle down with a good woman.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Sir Walter Elliot, Bt. – A vain, self-satisfied baronet. Sir Walter is a man whose extravagance since the death of his prudent wife thirteen years before puts his family into dire financial straits, forcing him to lease his estate, Kellynch Hall, to Admiral Croft and take a more economical residence in Bath. Despite being strongly impressed by wealth and status, he allows Mrs Clay, who is beneath him in social standing, to join his household as a companion to his eldest daughter.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Elizabeth Elliot – The eldest and most beautiful of Sir Walter's three daughters. Elizabeth encourages her father's imprudent spending and extravagance, while she herself desires marriage after spending most of her young life managing the family home in her mother's place. She and her father regard Anne as inconsequential, wanting to ensure only that she marries a man who can enhance the Elliot family's social standing.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Mary Musgrove – The youngest daughter of Sir Walter, married to Charles Musgrove. Mary is attention-seeking, always looking for ways she might have been slighted, and often claims illness when she is upset. She is just as obsessed with social standing and wealth as the rest of her family, and opposes sister-in-law Henrietta's interest in marrying a cousin, Charles Hayter, who Mary feels is unworthy of being married to a woman of means.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Charles Musgrove Jr. – Son of Charles Musgrove Sr. Husband of Mary and heir to the Musgrove estate. He first proposes to Anne, who says no as she does not truly love him. He marries Mary about five years before the story opens, and they have two sons. He is a cheerful man, who loves hunting and easily endures his wife's faults.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Lady Russell – An intimate friend of the late Lady Elliot and the godmother of Anne, of whom she is particularly fond. She is instrumental in Sir Walter's decision to leave Kellynch Hall and avoid financial crisis. She values social rank and finds in Anne the Elliot daughter most like her late friend, which leads her to persuade the young girl not to marry Wentworth seven years earlier on account of his lack of wealth.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Penelope Clay – A poor widow with children, daughter of Sir Walter's lawyer, and companion of Elizabeth Elliot. She aims to flatter Sir Walter into marriage while her oblivious friend looks on. Later, she abandons the family to become the unmarried mistress of William Elliot.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Admiral Croft – A good-natured, plainspoken tenant at Kellynch Hall and brother-in-law of Captain Wentworth. In his naval career, he was a captain when he married, present at the major Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, then assigned to the East Indies, and now holds the rank of rear admiral of the white.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Sophia Croft – Sister of Captain Wentworth and wife of Admiral Croft for the last fifteen years. She is 38 years old. She offers Anne an example of a strong-minded woman who has married for love instead of money and who has a good life as a naval wife.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Louisa Musgrove – Second sister of Charles Musgrove, aged about 19. Louisa is a high-spirited young lady who has returned with her sister from school. She likes Captain Wentworth and seeks his attention. She is ultimately engaged to Captain Benwick after recovering from her serious fall. Her brother Charles notices that she is less lively after suffering the concussion.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Henrietta Musgrove – Eldest sister of Charles Musgrove. Henrietta, aged about 20, is informally engaged to her cousin, Charles Hayter, but is tempted by the more dashing Captain Wentworth. Once Hayter returns home, she again connects with him.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Captain Harville – A friend of Captain Wentworth. Wounded two years previously, he is slightly lame. Wentworth has not seen his friend since the time of that injury, and is eager to reconnect. Harville and his family are settled in nearby Lyme for the winter. His wife tends to Louisa, and the children come to stay with the Musgroves for the Christmas holiday.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Captain James Benwick – A friend of Captains Harville and Wentworth. Benwick was engaged to marry Captain Harville's sister Fanny, but she died while Benwick was at sea. He gained prize money as a lieutenant and was promoted to commander (thus earning the right to be called Captain). Benwick's enjoyment of reading gives him a connection with Anne as does her willingness to listen to him in his time of deep sadness. Benwick was with Louisa Musgrove during her recovery, at the end of which they become engaged to marry.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: William Elliot – A distant relation ("great grandson of the second Sir Walter" when it is not stated from which Sir Walter the present one descends) and the heir presumptive of Sir Walter. It is later revealed that, beneath his charming veneer, Mr Elliot is a cold, calculating opportunist. He became estranged from the family when he married a woman of lower social rank for her fortune and actively insulted his uncle; his relatives cast him aside, until he returned as a wealthy man when they desperately needed money. Despite rumours that he is interested in Elizabeth, he instead turns his attentions towards Anne. He is a widower, eager to claim the social value of the title that he will someday inherit. He also has an interest in Mrs Clay, Elizabeth's companion, and she later becomes his mistress, although this turns out largely to be an attempt by William to stop his uncle from remarrying and potentially producing a son who would also have a claim to his inheritance.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Mrs Smith – A friend of Anne Elliot who lives in Bath. Mrs Smith is a widow who suffers ill health and financial difficulties. She keeps abreast of the doings of Bath society through news she gets from her nurse, Rooke, who tends the wife of a friend of William Elliot's. Her financial problems could have been straightened out with assistance from William Elliot, her husband's friend and executor of his will, but Elliot's greed led him to hide most of her remaining fortune with the expectation that he would eventually be able to take it for himself. Wentworth eventually acts on her behalf when William departs Bath, allowing Mrs Smith to claim her money.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Lady Dalrymple – A viscountess, cousin to Sir Walter. She occupies an exalted position in society by virtue of wealth and rank. Sir Walter and Elizabeth are eager to be seen at Bath in the company of this great relation and her daughter, Miss Carteret, at a time when their own social status is in question.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Miss Carteret – Daughter of Lady Dalrymple, who is always in tow behind the viscountess. Considered by Anne and others to be undeserving and very ordinary in intelligence and social graces. Elizabeth, who is more socially motivated, tolerates her company.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Readers of "Persuasion" might conclude that Austen intended "persuasion" to be the unifying theme of the story, as the idea of persuasion runs through the book, with vignettes within the story as variations on that theme. British literary scholar Gillian Beer establishes that Austen had profound concerns about the levels and applications of "persuasion" employed in society, especially as it related to the pressures and choices facing the young women of her day. Beer asserts that persuasion was indeed "fraught with moral dangers" for Austen and her contemporary readers; she notes particularly that Austen personally was appalled by what she came to regard as her own misguided advice to her beloved niece Fanny Knight on the very question of whether Fanny ought to accept a particular suitor, even though it would have meant a protracted engagement. Beer writes:


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Thus, Beer explains, Austen was keenly aware that the human quality of persuasion—to persuade or to be persuaded, rightly or wrongly—is fundamental to the process of human communication, and that, in her novel "Jane Austen gradually draws out the implications of discriminating 'just' and 'unjust' persuasion." Indeed, the narrative winds through a number of situations in which people influence or attempt to influence other people, or themselves. Finally, Beer calls attention to "the novel's entire brooding on the power pressures, the seductions, and also the new pathways opened by persuasion."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Canadian scholar Sheila Johnson Kindred states that parts of "Persuasion" were inspired by the career of Austen's brother Charles Austen, a Royal Navy officer as there are some similarities between the career of the real-life Captain Austen and the fictional Captain Wentworth: both began their careers in command of sloops in the North America station at about the same age; both were popular with their crews; both progressed to the command of frigates; both were keen to share their prize money with their crews, though Captain Wentworth ended up considerably richer as a result of his prize money than did Captain Austen.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Likewise, Captain Austen's wife Fanny, whom he married in Bermuda in 1807, bears some similarities to Mrs Croft, who, like Fanny Austen, lived aboard naval vessels for a time; lived alternatively in Bermuda and Halifax (the two ports that hosted the Royal Navy's North America station); crossed the Atlantic five times, though Mrs Croft was middle-aged in the novel while Fanny Austen was 15 when she married Captain Austen.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Jane Austen liked Fanny Austen, whom she admired for her "unfussiness and gallant good sense." Even after the outbreak of the War of 1812, Fanny Austen was anxious to follow her husband back to the North America station despite the danger of American attacks on Bermuda and Halifax. Jane Austen was impressed with her devotion according to Kindred, seeing Fanny's desire to be with her husband no matter the danger as an attractive trait. Likewise, in "Persuasion," Mrs Croft follows her husband everywhere despite the dangers.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: In a letter to her niece Fanny Knight in March 1817, Austen wrote that she had a novel "which may appear about a twelvemonth hence." John Murray published "Persuasion" together with "Northanger Abbey" in a four-volume set, printed in December 1817 but dated 1818. The first advertisement appeared on 17 December 1817. The Austen family retained copyright of the 1,750 copies, which sold rapidly. The later editions of both were published separately.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The book's title is not Jane Austen's but her brother Henry's, who named it after her early death. There is no known source that documents what Austen intended to call her novel. Whatever her intentions might have been, Austen spoke of the novel as "The Elliots," according to family tradition, and some critics believe that is probably the title she planned for it.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Henry Austen supplied a "Biographical Notice" of his sister in which her identity was revealed; she was no longer an anonymous author.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Unlike "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice", "Persuasion" was not rewritten from earlier drafts of novels that Austen had originally started before 1800.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: American literary historian A Walton Litz has emphasized the special quality of "Persuasion" among Austen's novels, as it was written over a relatively narrow space of two or three years from start to finish. Almost all of Austen's novels were written in the form of first drafts (now lost) from before 1800, over a decade before their first publication in the last years of Austen's life. Since "Persuasion" was written over such a narrow time frame, Litz was able to locate and publish Austen's early handwritten drafts as she refined the text of the novel into its final published form. "Persuasion" is unique among Austen's novels in allowing such a close inspection, as recorded by Litz, of her editorial prowess in revising and enhancing early drafts of her own writing. Litz, citing the research of Norman Page, gives an example of Austen's meticulous editing by excerpting a passage of Austen's cancelled Chapter Ten of the novel and comparing it to the revised version. In its original version, the manuscript stated:


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: [Wentworth] found that he was considered by his friend Harville an engaged man. The Harvilles entertained not a doubt of a mutual attachment between him and Louisa; and though this to a degree was contradicted instantly, it yet made him feel that perhaps by "her" family, by everybody, by "herself" even, the same idea might be held, and that he was not "free" in honour, though if such were to be the conclusion, too free alas! in heart. He had never thought justly on this subject before, and he had not sufficiently considered that his excessive intimacy at Uppercross must have its danger of ill consequence in many ways; and that while trying whether he could attach himself to either of the girls, he might be exciting unpleasant reports if not raising unrequited regard./ He found too late that he had entangled himself, (cancelled version, as published in Chapman's edition of Austen).


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: "I found", said he, "that I was considered by Harville an engaged man! That neither Harville nor his wife entertained a doubt of our mutual attachment. I was startled and shocked. To a degree, I could contradict this instantly; but, when I began to reflect that others might have felt the same—her own family, nay, perhaps herself, I was no longer at my own disposal. I was hers in honour if she wished it. I had been unguarded. I had not thought seriously on this subject before. I had not considered that my excessive intimacy must have its danger of ill consequence in many ways; and that I had no right to be trying whether I could attach myself to either of the girls, at the risk of raising even an unpleasant report, were there no other ill effects. I had been grossly wrong, and must abide the consequences"./ He found too late, in short, that he had entangled himself (final version).


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: To this may be added the surviving version of Austen's handwritten copy of the original draft before the editing process outlined above had even started where Austen wrote it in the following nascent form:


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: He found that he was considered by his friend Harville, as an engaged Man. The Harvilles entertained not a doubt of a mutual attachment between him & Louisa—and though this to "a degree" was contradicted instantly—it yet made him feel that perhaps by "her" family, be everyone, by "herself" even, the same idea might be held—and that he was not "free" alas! in Heart.—He had never thought justly on this subject before—he had not sufficiently considered that this excessive Intimacy at Uppercross must have it's (sic?) danger of ill consequence in many ways, and that while trying whether he c-d (sic) attach himself to either of the Girls, he might be exciting unpleasant reports, if not, raising unrequited regard!—He found, too late, that he had entangled himself—."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: In his essay titled ""Persuasion": forms of estrangement," A Walton Litz gives a concise summary of the various issues critics have raised with "Persuasion" as a novel."Persuasion" has received highly intelligent criticism in recent years, after a long period of comparative neglect, and the lines of investigation have followed Virginia Woolf's suggestive comments. Critics have been concerned with the "personal" quality of the novel and the problems it poses for biographical interpretation; with the obvious unevenness in narrative structure; with the "poetic" use of landscape, and the hovering influence of Romantic poetry; with the pervasive presence of Anne Elliot's consciousness; with new effects in style and syntax; with the "modernity" of Anne Elliot, an isolated personality in a rapidly changing society.Susan Morgan in her 1980 book on Austen, challenges Litz on naming "Persuasion" as a novel showing Austen's assimilation of the new romantic poetry as this raises difficulties. Morgan notes Litz's comment on "the deeply physical impact of "Persuasion""; he remarks that ""Mansfield Park" is about the loss and return of principles, "Emma" about the loss and return of reason, "Persuasion" about the loss and return of 'bloom'." Litz acknowledges the crudeness of these formulations and we recognize that he is attempting to discuss a quality of the novel which is hard to describe. But such summaries, even tentatively offered, only distort. The few brief nature scenes in "Persuasion" (and they are brief out of all proportion to the commentary on them), the walk to Winthrop and the environs of Pinny and Lyme, are certainly described with sensibility and appreciation. And in Anne's mind they are just as certainly bound up with 'the sweets of poetical despondence'."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: "Persuasion" is the first of Austen's novels to feature as the central character a woman who, by the standards of the time, is past the first bloom of youth. British literacy critic Robert P Irvine writes that "Persuasion" "is in many ways a radical departure" from Austen's earlier novels. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin characterizes the book as Austen's "present to herself, to Miss Sharp, to Cassandra, to Martha Lloyd...to all women who had lost their chance in life and would never enjoy a second spring."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: A recurring debate held in 18th century Britain concerned the power of books over women; namely were women more susceptible to the power of reading than men, and if so, was reading a benign or malign influence on women? Austen first addressed this question in "Northanger Abbey" where reading Gothic books has comic effects for Catherine Morland, and also gives her a more acute sense of reality and to understand people. The American scholar Adela Pinch writes that Austen returns to this theme in "Persuasion" but in a more mature and probing manner as "Persuasion" is concerned with "...what it feels like to be a reader. It does so by connecting this feeling to what the presence of other people feel like. It explores, that is, the influence reading can have on one's mind by comparing it to the influence of one person's mind over another's."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Pinch writes that "Persuasion" has been called the most lyrical of Austen's novels; "Its emphasis on memory and subjectivity has been called Wordsworthian, its emotional tone has been likened to Shelley and Keats, and its epistemological strategies compared to Coleridge's conversation poems. Its modernity has been hinted through allusions to the lyric fiction of Virginia Woolf."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Pinch also writes that Austen is more concerned with spatial matters as various families, especially the Musgrove family, are portrayed in terms of the amount of space they take up and the amount of noise they generate. For example, Captain Wentworth and Elliot are prevented from embracing by grossly obese Mrs Musgrove, and Sir Walter comments after seeing some Royal Navy sailors are "fit not to be seen" as Austen notes how people look and the brain registers visual information. Pinch describes "Persuasion" as a novel of "... repetitions, of things happening within a strong context of memory." Anne is often lost in her own world of thought, and recurring phrase throughout the book is "Anne found herself". Concerning Anne Elliot's walk at Winthrop on a November day, Anne ruminates on various aspects of her life and of the books she has read, where Austen seems to suggest that reading books is insufficient consolation for a woman's pain, but also unavoidable if one wishes for her comfort.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The literary scholar Stuart Tave, in his essay concerning "Persuasion's" main character Anne Elliot, notes the melancholy qualities of Anne's reality in her world after she turns away the original proposal of marriage from Captain Wentworth. For Tave, Austen portrays Anne as a character with many admirable traits, usually exceeding the quality of these traits as they are found in the other characters which surround her. Tave singles out Austen's portrayal of Anne at the end of the novel in her conversation with Captain Harville where the two of them discuss the relative virtues of gender and their advantages compared to one another; Tave sees Anne as depicting a remarkable intelligence. Tave quotes from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" where Woolf states, "It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex." Tave applies Woolf's insight to "Persuasion" when he continues: "All histories are against you, Captain Harville says to Anne in their disagreement about man's nature and woman's nature, 'all stories, prose and verse.' He could bring fifty quotations in a moment to his side of the argument, from books, songs, proverbs. But they were all written by men. 'Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story,' as Anne says. "Persuasion" is the story told by a woman."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: In her book on Austen, the critic Julia Prewitt Brown finds significance in the comparison of "Persuasion" to Austen's earlier novel "Emma" regarding Austen's ability to vary her narrative technique with respect to her authorial intentions. As Brown states:


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The coolness to the reader (conveyed by Austen's narrative) contrasts with an intensity of feeling for the characters in the story, particularly for the heroine. The reason for this contradiction is that Anne Elliot is the central intelligence of the novel. Sir Walter is seen as Anne sees him, with resigned contempt. For the first time Jane Austen gives over the narrator's authority to a character almost completely, In "Emma", many events and situations are seen from Emma's point of view, but the central intelligence lies somewhere between the narrator and the reader, who together see that Emma sees wrongly. In "Persuasion", Anne Elliot's feelings and evaluations correspond to those of the narrator in almost every situation, although there are several significant lapses...It seems that this transfer of authority placed a strain on Jane Austen's accustomed narrative tendencies and that she could not maintain it completely.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Unlike the other Austen heroes who are either part of the gentry, the aristocracy or the Church of England, Robert Irvine writes of how Captain Wentworth is a self-made man who has become rich via prize money allowed to those who served in the Royal Navy of that era. Sir Walter disparages naval officers like Wentworth and Croft because they "spoil" their complexions outside on the sea and says these men have risen "too quickly" in social status. However, Sir Walter is portrayed as financially incompetent, having squandered his inherited wealth, whereas Wentworth uses his prize money won via his victories at sea wisely. Sir Walter's dismissal of the navy men who played such a prominent role in defeating Napoleon is considered unpatriotic and ungrateful. The scholar Gary Kelly states that Sir Walter is a stand-in for the notoriously spendthrift and snobbish Prince Regent George—who Austen deeply disapproved of—as the Prince of Wales was infamous for his womanizing, gambling, drinking, and inability to pay his colossal debts. At the time, there was a widespread belief that Britain defeated France despite the debauched Prince Regent rather than because of him, and Kelly states that a character like Sir Walter—who did nothing to defeat Napoleon—attacking someone like Wentworth was Austen's way of expressing her frustration at the Prince Regent taking credit for defeating Napoleon.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Anne and Wentworth, once married, do not become part of the land-owning gentry, with Austen stating the two were destined for "settled life." Irvine states that the sailors in "Persuasion" are the "most subversive characters" in all of the Austen books as they possess "national importance" only by the virtue of their role in defeating Napoleon and do not own land nor do they ask for social recognition from the gentry. The Royal Navy in "Persuasion" is a meritocracy where one rises up via one's talents, not via birth and land, which, Irvine writes makes "Persuasion" the most radical of all of Austen's novels.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Irvine notes that the gentry characters in "Persuasion" are an "unimpressive lot." Sir Walter Eliot is portrayed as a vain, pompous, and incapable of providing love for his children, while the Musgrove family lack class and elegance. John Wiltshire writes that Sir Walter obsessively reads books relating only to the baronetage, and the Musgrove family are relentlessly philistine in their tastes. Admiral and Mrs Croft do not plan to buy an estate, being content to rent Kellynch Hall, and are described as taking better care of the estate than Sir Walter, whose family has owned Kellynch Hall for three generations. Wiltshire considers that the narrowness of vision and taste from both the Musgroves and Sir Walter highlight the heightened state of Anne's consciousnesses.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Charles Musgrove, though friendly and respectable, is portrayed as unsuitable for Anne as his only interests are guns, hunting, dogs and horses. Irvine notes that in British fiction at the time, it was a normal plot device for women—who were portrayed as more sensitive and poetical than men—to improve someone like Charles Musgrove by showing him that there is more to life than hunting, but Anne rejects this role, and the narrator suggests that she was right to do so. The marriage of Anne's parents is presented as such a match with Anne's mother attempting to "improve" Sir Walter, and her life becoming thoroughly miserable as a result. However, the possibility of such a marriage seems to exist for Captain Benwick and Louisa Musgrove as the narrator notes "he would gain cheerfulness and she would learn to be an enthusiast for Scott and Lord Byron." Irvine states that Benwick and Anne are similar characters, who have a profound sense of loss, but Anne's heart still belongs to Captain Wentworth although Benwick is described as "younger in feelings, if not in fact; younger as a man. He will rally again, and be happy with another".


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Irvine writes of the differences between the Elliot sisters and Austen's other sibling relationships. In contrast to the Dashwood sisters ("Sense and Sensibility") and the Bennet sisters ("Pride and Prejudice"), Anne is not close to her sisters.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Lady Russell persuades Anne to reject Captain Wentworth's first offer of marriage when Anne was younger. Lady Russell never expresses any guilt about breaking up Anne's relationship with Wentworth, as the book describes "her heart revelled in angry pleasure, in pleased contempt." although this is said when Lady Russell reflects that Wentworth, who had once seemed to appreciate the superior qualities of Anne Elliot, now appeared to be attracted to Louisa Musgrove, who, although pleasant, is vastly inferior to Anne in character.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: John Wiltshire notes that Wentworth is a man of action as opposed to words, which makes Anne the only self-reflective character in the novel. Anne becomes steadily more assertive, telling Mr Elliot at one point "My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company."


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Considering the plot of Austen's novel, Robert Irvine writes that, apart of Austen's novels, a "non-event" at the beginning of the novel where Anne did not marry Captain Wentworth shapes the rest of the plot as the hero and heroine must defeat the consequences of their shared history. Irvine also states that "Persuasion's" plot depends upon the main characters remaining the same, and the need for the characters to remain true to themselves, to cherish the memory of the ones they love, is emphasized by the signs of social decay around Anne; the gentry characters neglect their estates and treat the values they are supposed to uphold. Anne's love for Wentworth is the only fixed point in an otherwise fluid world.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: Irvine states that key moments in "Persuasion" occur when a third party overhears somebody's else conversation, whereas conversation is a means for members of the elite to confirm their membership of a common group in Austen's other novels. Louisa Musgrove discusses Admiral Croft's carriage driving with Wentworth, which leads her to say "...If I loved a man, as she loves the Admiral, I would be always with him, nothing should ever separate us, and I would rather be overturned by him, than driven safely by anybody else." Irvine states that overhearing this conversation brings back Anne's memories of her love for Wentworth and brings her sorrow as she fears that he is falling in love with Louisa. Another overheard conversation occurs during the climax of the novel when Anne debates with Captain Harville about the respective capacity for faithfulness of men and women, which Wentworth overhears. Not realising that Wentworth is listening in, Anne says "All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone." The narrator notes that after saying this "She [Anne] could not immediately have uttered another sentence; her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed." As Captain Wentworth fears a second rejection by Anne, John Wiltshire, known for his work on psychoanalysis and literature, feels that much of the novel is concerned with incidents that bring the two together and relies upon relating Anne's psychological state as she comes close to the man who once proposed marriage to her, making more of a psychological study.


title: Persuasion (novel)

text: The novel is described in the introduction to the Penguin Classics edition as a great Cinderella story. It features a heroine who is generally unappreciated and to some degree exploited by those around her; a handsome prince who appears on the scene but seems more interested in the "more obvious" charms of others; a moment of realisation; and the final happy ending. It has been said that it is not that Anne is unloved, but rather that those around her no longer see her clearly: she is such a fixed part of their lives that her likes and dislikes, wishes and dreams are no longer considered, even by those who claim to value her, like Lady Russell.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the group stage in women's football, began on 25 July at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, followed by the opening ceremony on 27 July. 10,768 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the 2012 Olympics.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Following a bid headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe and the then-London mayor Ken Livingstone, London was selected as the host city at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore on 6 July 2005, defeating bids from Moscow, New York City, Madrid, and Paris. London became the first city to host the modern Olympics three times, having previously hosted the Summer Games in 1908 and 1948. Construction for the Games involved considerable redevelopment, with an emphasis on sustainability. The main focus was a new Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site in Stratford, East London. The Games also made use of venues that already existed before the bid.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The United States topped the medal table, winning the most gold medals (46) and the highest number of medals overall (104). China finished second with a total of 91 medals (38 gold) and Great Britain came third with 65 medals overall (29 gold). Michael Phelps of the United States became the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, winning his 22nd medal. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei entered female athletes for the first time, meaning that every currently eligible country has now sent a female competitor to at least one Olympic Games. Women's boxing was included for the first time, and the 2012 Games became the first at which every sport had female competitors.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Games received considerable praise for their organisation, with the volunteers, the British military and public enthusiasm commended particularly highly. The opening ceremony, directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle, received widespread acclaim. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Belgian Jacques Rogge, who was succeeded by German Thomas Bach the next year.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: A number of countries won their first Olympic medals, Bahrain, Botswana, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada, Guatemala and Montenegro, with Bahrain and Grenada's winning gold medals for their first Olympic medals.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: London was chosen over Birmingham to represent Great Britain's bid by the British Olympic Association.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: By 15 July 2003—the deadline for interested cities to submit bids to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—nine cities had submitted bids to host the 2012 Summer Olympics: Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York City, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. On 18 May 2004, as a result of a scored technical evaluation, the IOC reduced the number of cities to five: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris. All five submitted their candidate files by 19 November 2004 and were visited by the IOC inspection team during February and March 2005. The Paris bid suffered two setbacks during the IOC inspection visit: a number of strikes and demonstrations coinciding with the visits, and a report that a key member of the bid team, Guy Drut, would face charges over alleged corrupt party political finances.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Throughout the process, Paris was widely seen as the favourite, particularly as this was its third bid in recent years. London was initially seen as lagging behind Paris by a considerable margin. Its position began to improve after the appointment of Lord Coe as the new chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) on 19 May 2004. In late August 2004, reports predicted a tie between London and Paris.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: On 6 June 2005, the IOC released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. They did not contain any scores or rankings, but the report for Paris was considered the most positive. London was close behind, having closed most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in 2004. New York and Madrid also received very positive evaluations. On 1 July 2005, when asked who would win, Jacques Rogge said, "I cannot predict it since I don't know how the IOC members will vote. But my gut feeling tells me that it will be very close. Perhaps it will come down to a difference of say ten votes, or maybe less."


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: On 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York and Madrid. The final two contenders were London and Paris. At the end of the fourth round of voting, London won the right to host the 2012 Games with 54 votes to 50.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The celebrations in London were short-lived, being overshadowed by bombings on London's transport system less than 24 hours after the announcement.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) was created to oversee the staging of the Games, and held its first board meeting on 3 October 2005. The committee, chaired by Lord Coe, was in charge of implementing and staging the Games, while the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), established in April 2006, was in charge of construction of the venues and infrastructure.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Government Olympic Executive (GOE), a unit within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), was the lead government body for coordinating the London 2012 Olympics. It focused on oversight of the Games, cross-programme management, and the London 2012 Olympic Legacy before and after the Games that would benefit London and the wider United Kingdom. The organisation was also responsible for the supervision of the £9.3 billion of public sector funding.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: In August 2011, security concerns arose surrounding the hosting of the Olympic Games in London, following the 2011 England riots. Some countries expressed safety concerns, despite the IOC's assurance that the riots would not affect the Games.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The IOC's Coordination Commission for the 2012 Games completed its tenth and final visit to London in March 2012. Its members concluded that "London is ready to host the world this summer".


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games used a mixture of new venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. After the Games, some of the new facilities would be reused in their Olympic form, while others will be resized or relocated.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The majority of venues were divided into three zones within Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition there were a few venues that, by necessity, were outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy some southwest of London, which hosted the sailing events. The football tournament was staged at several grounds around the UK. Work began on the Park in December 2006, when a sports hall in Eton Manor was pulled down. The athletes' village in Portland was completed in September 2011.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: In November 2004, the 200-hectare (500-acre) Olympic Park plans were revealed. The plans for the site were approved in September 2004 by Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest. The redevelopment of the area to build the Olympic Park required compulsory purchase orders of property. The London Development Agency was in dispute with London and Continental Railways about the orders in November 2005. By May 2006, 86% of the land had been bought as businesses fought eviction. Residents who opposed the eviction tried to find ways to stop it by setting up campaigns, but they had to leave as 94% of land was bought and the other 6% bought as a £9 billion regeneration project started.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: There were some issues with the original venues not being challenging enough or being financially unviable. Both the Olympic road races and the mountain bike event were initially considered to be too easy, so they were eventually scheduled on new locations. The Olympic marathon course, which was set to finish in the Olympic stadium, was moved to The Mall, since closing Tower Bridge was deemed to cause traffic problems in central London. North Greenwich Arena 2 was scrapped in a cost-cutting exercise, Wembley Arena being used for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events instead.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Test events were held throughout 2011 and 2012, either through an existing championship such as 2012 Wimbledon Championships or as a specially created event held under the banner of "London Prepares".


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Team GB House was the British Olympic Association's operational HQ up to and during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Designed by architects Gebler Tooth on the top floor of an office building in Westfield Stratford City, it combined the team HQ, athletes' "Friends and Family" lounge, Press Centre, and VIP lounge.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: London's public transport scored poorly in the IOC's initial evaluation; however, it felt that, if the improvements were delivered in time for the Games, London would cope. Transport for London (TfL) carried out numerous improvements in preparation for 2012, including the expansion of the London Overground's East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line, and the introduction of a new "Javelin" high-speed rail service. According to Network Rail, an additional 4,000 train services operated during the Games, and train operators ran longer trains during the day. During the Games, Stratford International station was not served by any international services (just as it had not been before the Games), westbound trains did not stop at Hackney Wick railway station, and Pudding Mill Lane DLR station closed entirely during the Games.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: TfL also built a £25 million cable car across the River Thames, called the Emirates Air Line, to link 2012 Olympics venues. It was inaugurated in June 2012 and crosses the Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks, carrying up to 2,500 passengers an hour, cutting journey times between the O2 arena and the ExCeL exhibition centre and providing a crossing every 30 seconds.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The plan was to have 80% of athletes travel less than 20 minutes to their event and 93% of them within 30 minutes of their event. The Olympic Park would be served by ten separate railway lines with a combined capacity of 240,000 passengers per hour. In addition, LOCOG planned for 90% of the venues to be served by three or more types of public transport. Two park-and-ride sites off the M25 with a combined capacity of 12,000 cars were 25 minutes away from the Olympic Park. Another park-and-ride site was planned in Ebbsfleet with a capacity for 9,000 cars where spectators could board a 10-minute shuttle train service. To get spectators to Eton Dorney, four park-and-ride schemes were set up. These Park and Ride services were operated by First Games Transport.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: TfL defined a network of roads leading between venues as the Olympic Route Network; roads connecting all of the Olympic venues located within London. Many of these roads also contained special "Olympic lanes" marked with the Olympic ringsreserved for the use of Olympic athletes, officials, and other VIPs during the Games. Members of the public driving in an Olympic lane were subject to a fine of £130. Additionally, London buses would not include roads with Olympic lanes on their routes. The painting of Olympic lane indicators in mid-July led to confusion from commuters, who wrongly believed that the Olympic lane restrictions had already taken effect (they were to take effect on 27 July). The A4 experienced traffic jams due to drivers avoiding the Olympic lane, and likewise on a section of Southampton Row, where the only lanes available in one direction were the Olympic lane and the bus lane.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Concerns were expressed at the logistics of spectators travelling to the events outside London. In particular, the sailing events at Portland had no direct motorway connections, and local roads are heavily congested by tourist traffic in the summer. However, a £77 million relief road connecting Weymouth to Dorchester was built and opened in 2011. Some £16 million was put aside for the rest of the improvements.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: TfL created a promotional campaign and website, "Get Ahead of the Games", to help provide information related to transport during the Olympics and Paralympics. Through the campaign, TfL also encouraged the use of cycling as a mode of transport during the Games. However, despite this encouragement to use bicycles, members of the public protested that riding bikes on London roads would be more dangerous due to the blocked Olympic lanes, and also protested against a decision to close the Lea Valley towpath during the Olympics and Paralympics due to security concerns.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The 2012 Games were a unique operational task and a massive challenge for Heathrow airport. A temporary terminal was created at Heathrow Airport to be used by 10,100 departing athletes after the Games. Up to 35% more bags than normal were expected on 13 August, which was predicted to be the busiest day in the airport's history, according to Nick Cole, head of Olympic and Paralympic planning at Heathrow.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: A study from Oxford University found that the sports-related costs of London 2012 amounted to US$15 billion, compared with $4.6 billion for Rio 2016, $40–44 billion for Beijing 2008, and $51 billion for Sochi 2014 (the most expensive Olympics in history). London 2012 went over budget by 76% in real terms, measured from bid to completion. Cost per athlete was $1.4 million. This does not include wider costs for urban and transport infrastructure, which often equal or exceed the sports-related costs.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The costs of staging the Games were separate from those for building the venues and infrastructure and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games were privately funded, the venues and infrastructure were largely financed using public money.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: According to "The Wall Street Journal", the original budget for the Games was increased to about £9.3 billion (US$15.28 billion) in 2007. The revised figures were announced to the House of Commons on 15 March 2007 by Tessa Jowell. Along with East End regeneration costs, the breakdown was:


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Unpaid volunteers known as Games Makers performed a variety of tasks before and during the Games. A target of 70,000 volunteers was set as early as 2004. When recruitment took place in 2010, over 240,000 applications were received. Sebastian Coe said in February 2012, "Our Games Makers will contribute a total of around eight million volunteer hours during the Games and the Games simply wouldn't happen without them". The volunteers wore clothing which included purple and red polo shirts and jackets, beige trousers, grey socks and grey-and-white trainers which they collected from the Uniform Distribution and Accreditation Centre. Volunteers also wore photo accreditation badges which were also worn by officials, athletes, family members and media which gained them access to specific venues and buildings around the site.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Organisers estimated that some 8 million tickets would be available for the Olympic Games, and 1.5 million tickets for the Paralympic Games. LOCOG aimed to raise £375–£400 million in ticket sales. There were also free events such as marathon, triathlon and road cycling, although, for the first time in Olympic history, the sailing events were ticketed. Eventually, more than 7,000,000 tickets were sold. Following IOC rules, people applied for tickets from the NOC of their country of residence. European Union residents were able to apply for tickets in any EU country.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: In Great Britain, ticket prices ranged from £20 for many events to £2,012 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony. Some free tickets were given to military personnel as part of the Tickets For Troops scheme, as well as to survivors and families of those who died during 7 July 2005 London bombings. Initially, people were able to apply for tickets via a website from 15 March until 26 April 2011. There was a huge demand for tickets, with a demand of over three times the number of tickets available. The process was widely criticised as more than 50% of the sessions went to a random ballot, and over half the people who applied got no tickets. On 11 May 2012 a round of nearly one million "second chance" tickets went on sale over a 10-day period between 23 June and 3 July 2011. About 1.7 million tickets were available for football and 600,000 for other sports, including archery, field hockey, football, judo, boxing and volleyball. Although technical difficulties were encountered, ten sports had sold out by 8 am of the first day.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: During the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, the Olympic Flag was formally handed over from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London. This was followed by a section highlighting London, One month later, the Olympic and Paralympic flags were raised outside the London City Hall.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: A countdown clock in Trafalgar Square was unveiled, 500 days before the Games. The clock broke down the following day, but was later fixed. It was a two-sided clock with the Paralympic countdown on the other side.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The countdown to the start of the Olympics began with a ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The police led the security operation, with 10,000 officers available, supported by 13,500 members of the armed forces. Naval and air assets, including ships situated in the Thames, Typhoon fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles, were deployed as part of the security operation, named Operation Olympics by the Ministry of Defence; the biggest security operation Britain had faced for decades. The cost of security increased from £282 million to £553 million, and the figure of 13,500 armed forces personnel was more than Britain currently had deployed in Afghanistan. The Metropolitan Police and the Royal Marines carried out security exercises in preparation for the Olympics on 19 January 2012, with 50 marine police officers in rigid inflatables and fast response boats, joined by up to 100 military personnel and a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Ministry of Defence distributed leaflets to residents of the Lexington building in Bow, announcing that a missile system was to be stationed on top of the water tower. This caused concern to some residents. The Ministry said it probably would use Starstreak missiles and that site evaluations had taken place, but that no final decision had taken place.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Approximately 4,700 Olympic and Paralympic medals were produced by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant. They were designed by David Watkins (Olympics) and Lin Cheung (Paralympics). 99% of the gold, silver and copper was donated by Rio Tinto from a mine in Salt Lake County, Utah in the U.S. The remaining 1% came from a Mongolian mine. Each medal weighs , has a diameter of and is thick, with the sport and discipline engraved on the rim. The obverse, as is traditional, features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stepping from the Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, with Parthenon in the background; the reverse features the Games logo, the River Thames and a series of lines representing "the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together". The medals were transferred to the Tower of London vaults on 2 July 2012 for storage.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Each gold medal is 92.5 percent silver and 1.34 percent gold, with the remainder copper. The silver medal is 92.5 percent silver, with the remainder copper. The bronze medal is made up of 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc, and 0.5 per cent tin. The value of the materials in the gold medal was about £410 (US$644), the silver about £210 (US$330), and the bronze about £3 (US$4.71) as of 30 July 2012.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Olympics torch relay ran from 19 May to 27 July 2012, before the Games. Plans for the relay were developed in 2010–11, with the torch-bearer selection process announced on 18 May 2011. The torch was designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: On 18 May 2012 the Olympic flame arrived at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall from Greece on flight BA2012, operated by a British Airways Airbus A319 named "Firefly".


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The relay lasted 70 days, with 66 evening celebrations and six island visits, and involved some 8,000 people carrying the torch about , starting from Land's End in Cornwall. The torch had three days outside the United Kingdom when it visited the Isle of Man on 2 June, Dublin in Ireland, on 6 June, and both Guernsey and Jersey on 15 July.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The relay focused on National Heritage Sites, locations with sporting significance, key sporting events, schools registered with the Get Set School Network, green spaces and biodiversity, Live Sites (city locations with large screens), and festivals and other events. Dumfries and Galloway was the only Region in the whole of the United Kingdom that had the Olympic Torch pass through it twice. A group of young athletes, nominated by retired Olympic athletes, ran the torch around the stadium. These torchbearers were Callum Airlie, Jordan Duckitt, Desiree Henry, Katie Kirk, Cameron MacRitchie, Aidan Reynolds, and Adelle Tracey. Together the torchbearers each lit a petal which spread the fire to the 204 petals of the cauldron, representing the countries that participated in the Games. The cauldron was designed by Thomas Heatherwick.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Olympic Park was planned to incorporate 45 hectares of wildlife habitat, with a total of 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes. Local waterways and riverbanks were enhanced as part of the process. Renewable energy also featured at the Olympics. It was originally planned to provide 20% of the energy for the Olympic Park and Village from renewable technologies; however, only 9% of it was achieved. Proposals to meet the original target included large-scale on-site wind turbines and hydroelectric generators in the River Thames. These plans were scrapped for safety reasons. The focus subsequently moved to installing solar panels on some buildings, and providing the opportunity to recover energy from waste. Food packaging at the Olympics was made from compostable materials – like starch and cellulose-based bioplastics – where it cannot be reused or recycled. This included fast-food wrappers, sandwich boxes and drink cartons. After they had been used, many of these materials were suitable for anaerobic digestion (AD), allowing them to be made into renewable energy.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Buildings like the Water Polo Arena were, post-event, relocated elsewhere. Building parts like roofing covers and membranes of different temporary venues were recycled via Vinyloop. This allowed organisers to meet the standards of the Olympic Delivery Authority concerning environmental protection.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: London 2012 inaugurated Olympic Games guidelines that included the recycling of PVC, which was used for temporary buildings such as the Basketball Arena and for the temporary parts of permanent venues such as the Olympic Stadium. In the Water Polo Arena, PVC roofing was made from recycled cushions to provide insulation. Through this recycling process, the Olympic Games PVC Policy was fulfilled. It says that


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: "The majority of temporary facilities created for the Olympic Games including the Aquatic centre temporary stands, basketball arena, Water Polo Arena, and the shooting facilities at the Royal Artillery Barracks, are essentially big tents. Basically, PVC stretched over lightweight steel frame. This design solution makes them efficient to install, reduces the need for any significant foundations and are, of course, reusable. We were challenged by the public around the use of PVC; but we considered it to be the right material for certain functions. We therefore challenged the PVC supply chain to have certain environmental performance criteria in place, including a take back and recycle scheme" said Kirsten Henson, Materials Manager for the London 2012 Olympic Park.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Olympic Charter, the set of rules and guidelines for the organization of the Olympic Games and for governing the Olympic Movement, states that


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: LOCOG shall organise a programme of cultural events which must cover at least the entire period during which the Olympic Village is open.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Cultural Olympiad comprised many programmes, with over 500 events spread over four years across the whole of the United Kingdom, and culminating in the London 2012 Festival.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The opening ceremony officially began at 9:00 pm British Summer Time (UTC+1) on 27 July in the Olympic Stadium and was called "Isles of Wonder". Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle was its artistic director, with music direction by Rick Smith of Underworld.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The Games were officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It was the second Olympic Games opened personally by the Queen, the first being in 1976 in Montreal. The ceremony included a short comic film starring Daniel Craig as secret agent James Bond and the Queen as herself, and another starring Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Live musical performers included Frank Turner, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Mike Oldfield, the London Symphony Orchestra, Dizzee Rascal, Arctic Monkeys, and Sir Paul McCartney who performed "Hey Jude" as the closing act. The ceremony transmitted live on BBC One attracted a peak viewing audience of over 27 million in the UK.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The closing ceremony was held on 12 August. It featured a flashback fiesta to British music with The Who closing the performance. The ceremony also included a handover of the Olympic flag by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, to Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Around 10,700 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) took part, (85 countries acquired at least one medal: gold, silver or bronze) surpassing the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester as the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the United Kingdom.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Three athletes from the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee, which the IOC Executive Committee had ceased to recognise at the IOC session of July 2011, and one athlete from South Sudan which had no recognized NOC until 2015, participated independently under the Olympic flag.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: During the Games, some countries and continents had a "national house". These temporary meeting places for supporters, athletes and other followers were located throughout London.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The 2012 Summer Olympics featured 26 different sports encompassing 39 disciplines and 302 events. In the list below, the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Women's boxing was included in the programme for the first time, and 36 women competed in three weight classes. There was a special dispensation for the shooting events, which would otherwise have been illegal under UK gun law. In tennis, mixed doubles returned to the Olympic programme for the first time since 1924.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: London's bid featured the same 28 sports that had been included in other recent Summer Olympics, but the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 Games just two days after London had been selected as the host city. There was an appeal, but the IOC voted to uphold the decision, and the two sports were scheduled to be discontinued after their last appearance at the 2008 Olympics. The IOC then voted on whether or not to replace them; karate, squash, golf, roller sports and rugby sevens were considered. Karate and squash were the two final nominees, but neither received enough votes to reach the required two-thirds majority.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Although formal demonstration sports were eliminated after the 1992 Summer Olympics, special tournaments for non-Olympic sports can be run during the Games, such as the Wushu tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics. There were attempts to run Twenty20 cricket and netball tournaments alongside the 2012 Games, but neither campaign was successful.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: These Olympic Games resulted in 32 world records in eight sports. The largest number of records were set in swimming, at eight. China, Great Britain and the United States set the most records, at five each.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: A total of 85 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) won medals, 54 of those countries winning at least one gold medal. Seven NOCs won their first ever Olympic medal: Bahrain (gold), Botswana (silver), Cyprus (silver), Gabon (silver), Grenada (gold), Guatemala (silver), and Montenegro (silver). The United States finished at the top of the table, winning 47 gold medals and a total of 104 medals. China finished second with 38 gold medals and 91 medals overall, and hosts Great Britain came in third place, winning 29 gold medals and 65 medals overall in their best performance since London hosted its first Summer Olympics in 1908, pushing Russia—who won 18 gold medals and 66 medals in total, after doping redistributions (initially 24 gold and 82 total)—into fourth place.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The host broadcaster was Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), an agency of the IOC. The OBS used its own cameras and crews subcontracted from other Olympic broadcasters to cover the events. The base video and audio were sold to other broadcasters, who added their own commentary and presentation.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The official recording format of the 2012 Summer Olympics used Panasonic's digital technologies. The official video was produced and distributed from the International Broadcast Centre in 1080/50i High-Definition (HD) format. Panasonic announced that DVCPRO HD would be the official recording format. OBS London used P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorders.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The IOC wanted television coverage to reach as broad a worldwide audience as possible, and several national and regional broadcasters covered London 2012. In the UK, the BBC carried the Olympics and Channel 4 the Paralympics. The BBC aimed to broadcast all 5,000 hours of the Games. BBC Parliament's Freeview channel was suspended, BBC Three's on-air time was extended so that it could show Olympic events in the daytime, and 24 additional BBC Olympics channels were available via cable, satellite and the internet in the UK.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The US television rights, owned by NBC, accounted for over half the rights revenue for the IOC. Despite high viewership, many viewers were disappointed with NBC's coverage. The operations of broadcasters granted rights to the Games were hosted in the dedicated International Broadcast Centre inside the security cordon of the Olympic Park. YouTube planned to stream the Games in 64 territories in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where there were no official broadcasters.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: In Sri Lanka a dispute occurred between Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and MBC Networks (MTV/MBC) as to who was the official broadcaster of the Games. This problem was caused as Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) had offered the official broadcasting rights to both networks, as both of the networks were ABU members. So SLRC filed a case against MBC Networks for broadcasting rights at the Colombo Magistrate's Court. Considering the case, the court issued a special court order preventing MBC Networks' Olympic broadcast and stated that SLRC should be the sole broadcaster. However, when the Games started, both networks broadcast most of the events simultaneously. Another dispute had previously occurred between Carlton Sports Network (CSN) and SLRC, but the Sports Minister, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, had stated that SLRC had the exclusive rights.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: In November 2012, the IOC announced the winners of the Golden Ring Awards for the best broadcast coverage of the Games. Best Olympic Sports Production was awarded to the sailing, produced by Christopher Lincoln, Gary Milkis, and Ursula Romero. The production for the canoe/kayak slalom and the rowing/canoe sprint came second and third respectively. The award for Best On Air Promotion went to NBC with Foxtel and ZDF finishing second and third. NBC Olympics also won the Best Olympic Feature category, as Sky Italia came second and ZDF third. The Best Athlete Profile award went to TV Record's profile of Sarah Menezes, NBC came second with their profile of David Rudisha, and ESPN Latin America took third place with a profile of Miguel Correa and Ruben Rezola. The award for Best Olympic Programme went to NBC, host broadcasters the BBC took second place for Super Saturday (the middle Saturday of the Games), and third place was claimed by the Nine Network for their live coverage of Day 16 of the Games.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: "Survival" by Muse was announced as the official song of the Olympics, to be played by international broadcasters reporting on the Games. In August 2009, the Royal Mail commissioned artists and illustrators to design 30 stamps, which were released in batches of 10 between 2009 and 2011. The last ones were released on 22 July 2011. Two £5 coins designed by Saiman Miah have been made to commemorate the Olympics. As with other Olympics since 1952, the Royal Mint will strike a set of commemorative one-kilogram gold and silver coins.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The official motto for the 2012 Summer Olympics is "Inspire a generation". It was chosen to highlight the organisers' commitment to inspire the world, including younger generations, to get involved in sporting events through the Games' legacy.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: There have been two London 2012 logos: one used for the bidding process, and the other used in the branding for the Games themselves. The bid logo, created by Kino Design, was a ribbon with blue, yellow, black, green, and red stripes winding through the text "LONDON 2012", making the shape of the River Thames in East London. The main logo, designed by Wolff Olins and published on 4 June 2007, is a representation of the number 2012, with the Olympic Rings embedded within the zero.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Public reaction to the main logo in a June 2007 BBC poll was largely negative; more than 80% of votes gave it the lowest possible rating. Several newspapers ran their own logo competitions, displaying alternative submissions from their readers, and several writers from news agencies criticised the logo. A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was reported to trigger seizures in a small number of people with photosensitive epilepsy, and a short segment was removed from the London 2012 website in response. It was suggested that the logo resembled the cartoon character Lisa Simpson performing fellatio on her brother Bart Simpson.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: In February 2011, Iran threatened to boycott the Olympics, complaining that the logo appeared to spell out the word "Zion". However, this boycott did not occur.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The official London 2012 Olympic typeface was called Headline 2012 and also suffered some criticism. Journalist Simon Garfield made it number 1 in the list of the "8 Worst Fonts in the World" in his 2010 book "Just My Type", commenting that "the uncool font is based on jaggedness and crudeness", although he conceded that it was "a brilliant piece of corporate branding". The magazine "Wired" pointed out that the typeface was intended for "awareness, impact and memorability as a headline typeface" rather than elegance or readability in long sections of text.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The four main colours used in the branding of the Games were pink, blue, green, and orange. These colours were chosen to showcase the spirit of the Games: energetic, spirited, youthful, and bright.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The official mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games were unveiled on 19 May 2010. Wenlock and Mandeville are animations depicting two drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton. They are named after Much Wenlock, a town in Shropshire that holds a forerunner of the current Olympic Games, and Stoke Mandeville, a village in Buckinghamshire where a forerunner of the Paralympic Games was first held. The writer Michael Morpurgo wrote the story concept for the mascots, and an animation was produced. Two stories have been created about the mascots: "Out Of A Rainbow" and "Adventures On A Rainbow".


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: "Creative Review" magazine liked the mascots, but elsewhere their design was greeted with some disdain. One columnist jested that they were the product of a "drunken one-night stand between a Teletubby and a Dalek". Others have compared them to Izzy, the much disparaged mascot of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. Still others have likened them to Kang and Kodos from "The Simpsons". However, the mascots' creators claim that young people find the duo appealing.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: The 1981 Best Picture Oscar–winning film "Chariots of Fire", which tells the story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics, was a recurring theme in promotions for the 2012 Olympics. A digitally re-mastered version of "Chariots of Fire" was released on 13 July 2012 and screened in over 100 UK cinemas as part of the celebrations, and a 2012 stage adaptation ran in London theatres from 9 May 2012 to 5 January 2013. The film's theme tune was performed during the opening ceremony by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle. The performance was accompanied by a comedic skit by Rowan Atkinson, which included the opening beach-running footage from the film. A new orchestration of the film's theme tune was played during each medal presentation of the Games.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: LOCOG and the IOC agreed sponsorship deals with several companies, each assigned to one of four categories; worldwide, tier one, tier two and tier three. The worldwide partners were: Acer, Atos, Coca-Cola, Dow, General Electric, McDonald's, Omega SA, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and Visa. Tier one partners were: Adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT Group, EDF Energy and Lloyds TSB. The tier two partners were: Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Deloitte, Thomas Cook Group, Cisco Systems and United Parcel Service. Tier three partners were: Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, The Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, G4S, GlaxoSmithKline, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken, Holiday Inn, John Lewis & Partners, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, Nature Valley, Next, Nielsen Company, Populous (company), Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto (corporation), Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield Group. The companies provided £1.4 billion of funding altogether, allocated evenly between the IOC and LOCOG.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: During the lead-up to the Games, there were controversies over sponsorship, the athletes' use of social media, and several political issues. After a complicated lottery process, thousands of people failed to secure seats for the events they wanted, but a large number of empty seats were observed throughout the Games, even at some of the most popular events. There was speculation that this was due to a failure of corporate sponsors to make use of tickets they had received.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: During the Games, eight competitors in the badminton women's doubles were disqualified for "not using best efforts", when they tried to lose matches in the group stage to obtain more favourable fixtures in the knockout rounds. A number of results in boxing, gymnastics and judo were overturned by officials after initial decisions were appealed against.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Ye Shiwen faced doping allegations after her gold medal in the women's 400m Individual Medley as she came from being behind the world record in the final 50m to beating it by 1.02 seconds. Furthermore, she swam her last 50m 0.17 seconds quicker than the men's winner of the corresponding race. All charges were later dropped.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Just before the start of the Men's 100m Final, a spectator threw a plastic bottle into Tyson Gay's lane, intended to hit Usain Bolt who was three lanes outside in Lane 7. The race was unaffected, and Bolt would go on to become the second man in history to defend a 100m Olympic title. The spectator, later identified as Ashley Gill-Webb, was soon arrested after he was struck on the head by Dutch judoka and bronze medalist Edith Bosch, whom he happened to be sitting next to. LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe later stated: "I'm not suggesting vigilantism, but it was actually poetic justice that they happened to be sitting next to a judo player". Gill-Webb later pleaded not guilty to a charge of using threatening words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress at Stratford Magistrates' Court. He was later found guilty.


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: Iran lodged a formal complaint with the International Olympic Committee after they claimed that the logo spelt the word 'Zion'. The complaint was dismissed by the president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, who said that the complaint "can't be serious."


title: 2012 Summer Olympics

text: It was announced before the Summer Games that half of all the competitors would be tested for drugs, with 150 scientists set to take 6,000 samples between the start of the Games and the end of the Paralympic Games. Every competitor who won a medal was also tested. The Olympic laboratory tested up to 400 samples every day for more than 240 prohibited substances. As of late 2022, 40 medals have been stripped due to doping violations, 17 of which were originally awarded to Russian athletes.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (July 26, 1947 – February 9, 1985) was an American intelligence officer for the United States (DEA). In February 1985 Camarena was kidnapped by drug traffickers hired by Mexican politicians in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was interrogated under torture and murdered. Three leaders of the Guadalajara drug cartel were eventually convicted in Mexico for Camarena's murder. The U.S. investigation into Camarena's murder led to ten more trials in Los Angeles for other Mexican nationals involved in the crime. The case continues to trouble U.S.–Mexican relations, most recently when one of the three convicted traffickers, Rafael Caro Quintero, was released from a Mexican prison in 2013. Caro Quintero was again captured by Mexican Forces in July 2022.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Enrique Camarena was born on July 26, 1947, in the border city of Mexicali, Mexico. The family—three brothers and three sisters—immigrated to Calexico, California, when Camarena was a child. Camarena's parents divorced when he was young and the family endured considerable poverty after their move. His oldest brother Eduardo joined the Marines and was killed while serving in Vietnam in 1965. His other brother Ernesto had a troubled police record, including drug problems. Despite the family's difficulties, Camarena graduated from Calexico High School in 1966.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: After graduating from high school, Camarena joined the Marines. Following his discharge in 1970, he returned to Calexico and joined the police department. From regular police work, he moved on to undercover narcotics work as a Special Agent on the Imperial County Narcotic Task Force (ICNTF).


title: Kiki Camarena

text: After the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was established in 1973, it quickly instituted a hiring program for Spanish speaking agents. Both Camarena and his sister Myrna joined the new agency in 1973, Myrna as a secretary and Enrique as a special agent in the DEA's Calexico resident office.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In 1977, Camarena transferred to the agency's Fresno field office, where he worked undercover on smuggling activities in the San Joaquin Valley. Author Elaine Shannon describes Camarena as "a natural in the theater of the street", able to "slip effortlessly into a Puerto Rican accent or toss off Mexican gutter slang—whatever the role demanded." Colleagues described him as driven, even by the standards of job-focused DEA agents.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In 1980, a colleague and close friend who had moved from Fresno to the DEA resident office in Guadalajara suggested that Camarena also apply for an assignment at the office, where a position was open. Foreign assignments were important for job advancement in the DEA and the Guadalajara office was seeing a surge in work, foreshadowing the explosion in drug trafficking of the 1980s. By this time, Camarena was married and had three sons. Guadalajara's spring-like weather and the city's American school and favorable exchange rate convinced Camarena and his family that the move would be good for the family as well.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: American anti-narcotic efforts in Mexico long predate the Camarena case. Mexican heroin and marijuana production became a concern to U.S. drug enforcement by the 1960s, but the first major American joint actions with the Mexican government did not begin until the 1970s.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: When the French heroin connection was shut down in the early 1970s, Mexico took its place as an important source of American heroin. Mexican marijuana production boomed in the early 1970s as well, and was later a major component of the Guadalajara cartel's production and trafficking. At this point Mexico was not yet a major transshipment point for cocaine, which is produced primarily in the Andean countries of Peru and Bolivia.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In response to strong American pressure, and to domestic law enforcement concerns, Mexico began eradication programs of opium and marijuana plantations, with large infusions of U.S. assistance. The first programs were on a smaller scale and used mostly manual eradication, such as "Operation Cooperation" in 1970. As plantation sizes grew, the eradication efforts also grew. In 1975, Mexican president Luis Echeverría approved "Operation Trizo", which used aerial surveillance and spraying of herbicides and defoliants from a fleet of dozens of planes and helicopters.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: The spraying programs required extensive American involvement, both for funding and operations. DEA pilots performed important operational roles; in addition to training Mexican pilots, they helped spot fields for spraying and verified that spraying runs had destroyed targeted fields. As part of the program, DEA was allowed to freely fly Mexican airspace.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: These flights produced positive results, reducing acreage planted and eventually a reduction in Mexican heroin quality and quantity. Mexican law enforcement on the ground also had some positive results. Alberto Sicilia Falcon, a major trafficker who was one of the first to transship cocaine through Mexico, was arrested in 1975. Pedro Avilés Pérez, an important Sinaloa trafficker was killed in a shoot-out with Mexican Federal Police in 1978.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: As part of these efforts, the first American narcotics law enforcement office was opened in Mexico City in the mid-1960s by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a branch of the Treasury Department. A Guadalajara office was opened in 1969. These and other offices opened by various agencies remained in place as American drug enforcement agencies first proliferated, then finally merged into the DEA. While the offices were opened with Mexican government permission, they later became controversial, particularly during the Camarena case.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: DEA agents stationed in Mexico and other countries then and now are subject to a number of restrictions by the host country. They have no law enforcement powers, instead performing intelligence, liaison, and advisory functions, collecting and passing along information on drug trafficking, and advising on local anti-narcotics programs. In Mexico, although there had been an informal agreement with the Mexican federal government that agents could carry personal weapons, it was illegal for foreigners to do so and local officials were free to arrest them for this. DEA agents accredited to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City had full diplomatic status, but agents in the resident offices did not and could be arrested and imprisoned without any official protections.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: American law also restricts DEA activities abroad. As a practical result of host country restrictions, DEA policy prohibits agents from doing undercover work abroad. A law known as the Mansfield amendment, introduced by Senator Mike Mansfield and passed by Congress in 1975, prohibited DEA personnel to even be present at the scene of an arrest outside the U.S. It also banned agents from using force, except where lives were threatened. This later complicated DEA efforts in the investigation of Camarena's death.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: By the time Camarena took up his post in Guadalajara in the summer of 1980, drug trafficking in Mexico was on the rise. There were several reasons for this.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Under Mexican President José López Portillo, the aerial spotting and eradication endorsed by President Echeverría were curtailed, and American participation in these activities ended in 1978. This made it easier for producers to build the large plantations discovered later in the 1980s and harder to verify that areas identified had actually been sprayed.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In addition, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, cocaine trafficking, driven mostly by Colombian smugglers, grew rapidly in the United States and became a primary target of DEA, leaving Mexican enforcement a secondary concern.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Finally, during Camarena's four-and-a-half years in Guadalajara, major traffickers arose to take the place of the figures arrested and killed in the 1970s. The best known of these were Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero. These three often coordinated their production and operations, and formed the core of what came to be called the Guadalajara Cartel. All three were eventually found guilty of having participated in Camarena's kidnap and murder.