title: Speak Now

text: Before "Speak Now" release, Big Machine shipped two million copies of the album to stores in the US. In the week ending November 13, 2010, the album debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, with first-week sales of 1,047,000 copies. It marked the highest single-week tally for a female country artist and became the first album since Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" (2008) to sell over one million copies in its first week of release. Media publications including "Billboard", MTV, and "The New York Times" noted "Speak Now" first-week sales figures in the context of declining record sales brought about by the emergence of music download platforms. According to "The New York Times", although the music industry in 2010 saw album sales "[plunging] by more than 50 percent in the last decade", the album's strong sales proved Swift "has transcended the limitations of genre and become a pop megastar". The "Guinness World Records" in 2010 recognized "Speak Now" as the fastest-selling album in the US by a female country artist.


title: Speak Now

text: In "Speak Now" first charting week, 11 of the standard edition's 14 tracks charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, making Swift the first female artist to have 11 songs on the Hot 100 at the same time. After the digital release of the deluxe edition tracks in November 2011, "If This Was a Movie" charted at number 10 on the Hot 100, making Swift the first artist to have eight songs debut in the top 10. With this achievement, "Speak Now" had three songs peaking in the top 10 of the "Billboard" Hot 100—"Mine", "Back to December", and "If This Was a Movie". The album spent six non-consecutive weeks atop the "Billboard" 200. "Speak Now" was the third-best-selling album of 2010 in the US with sales of 2,960,000 copies. By October 2020, it had sold 4,710,000 copies in the US. The RIAA certified the album six-times platinum, denoting six million album-equivalent units based on sales, song downloads, and streaming.


title: Speak Now

text: "Speak Now" was a chart success in the wider English-speaking world, peaking atop the albums charts of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. It charted at number four in Norway; number six in Ireland, Japan, and the United Kingdom; number eight in Mexico; and number ten in Spain. It was certified double-platinum in Australia and triple-platinum in Canada.


title: Speak Now

text: "Speak Now" received generally positive reviews from contemporaneous critics. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, gave the album an average score of 77 that was based on 20 reviews. AnyDecentMusic? compiled 10 reviews and gave it an average score of 6.9 out of 10.


title: Speak Now

text: Most critics approved of Swift's grown-up perspective on love and relationships. Reviews published in AllMusic, "Entertainment Weekly", "The Guardian", the "Los Angeles Times", and "Rolling Stone" complimented the songs for portraying emotions with engaging narratives and vivid details. In AllMusic's review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote; "[Swift] writes from the perspective of the moment yet has the skill of a songwriter beyond her years". "American Songwriter" approved of Swift's self-penned material and artistic control. In his consumer guide, Robert Christgau commented although the album is "overlong and overworked", the songs "evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care—that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense".


title: Speak Now

text: The album's dramatic themes of heartbreak and vengeance received mixed reviews. "Spin" and "Now" said although it includes some memorable tracks, "Speak Now" is blemished by celebrity, rage, and grievances. "Slant Magazine" lauded Swift's melodic songwriting for offering radio-friendly pop hooks but criticized the lyrics of "Dear John", "Mean", "Innocent", and "Better than Revenge" as shallow and shortsighted. According to Steven Hyden from "The A.V. Club", those tracks are "Speak Now" strength; "Swift's niftiest trick is being at her most likeable when she's indulging in such overt nastiness". "Entertainment Weekly" agreed, deeming those tracks inevitable for Swift's artistic evolution. "The Village Voice" said Swift's songwriting is "not confessional, but dramatic", and found it more nuanced and mature compared to that of "Fearless".


title: Speak Now

text: Other reviews focused on "Speak Now" production. Reviews published in "Paste" and "Slant Magazine" call it a catchy album with radio-friendly pop tunes; "Paste" was impressed by the crossover appeal but deemed the overall production dull. "The Village Voice" took issue with Swift's weak and strained vocals. BBC Music found the album's track list too long but called it overall a "sparky and affecting record". "Now" approved of Swift's experimentation with styles other than country but considered it "too safe" and said the album is tarnished by "slickly produced power pop and a sugary sameness [that is] indiscernible from any number of today's radio-oriented artists". Ann Powers appreciated "Speak Now" soft, introspective tracks for personalizing pop music. Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" lauded the experimentation with genres such as blues and pop punk, and called "Speak Now" a bold step for Swift.


title: Speak Now

text: "Speak Now" was ranked 13th on "Rolling Stone"s list of the best albums of 2010. "The New York Times" Jon Caramanica ranked the album number two (behind Rick Ross's "Teflon Don") in his 2010 year-end list. The album appeared on lists of the best country albums of 2010; "PopMatters" ranked it fifth and "The Boot" ranked it second. In 2012, "Speak Now" appeared at number 45 on "Rolling Stone" list of the "50 Best Female Albums of All Time"; the magazine commented: "She might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days, with a flawless ear for what makes a song click." In 2019, "Billboard" listed "Speak Now" in 51st place on its list of the best albums of the 2010s and second on its list of best country albums of the same decade. The album also ranked 37th on "Spin" 2010s decade-end list and 71st on that of Cleveland.com; and "Taste of Country" named it the fourth-best country album of the 2010s.


title: Speak Now

text: "Speak Now" received industry awards and nominations. In the US, it was nominated for Album of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, the American Country Awards, and in 2011 the Country Music Association Awards. At the 2011 "Billboard" Music Awards, "Speak Now" was nominated for Top "Billboard" 200 Album and won Top Country Album. It won Favorite Album (Country) at the 2011 American Music Awards and Top Selling Album of 2011 by the Canadian Country Music Association; and was nominated for International Album of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards and for International Album of the Year at the 2012 Canadian Independent Music Awards. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, "Speak Now" was nominated for Best Country Album, and its single "Mean" won Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song.


title: Speak Now

text: Musicologist James E. Perone reflected that "Speak Now" came "at a curious point" in Swift's career. After her 2006 debut album marked her as a "singer-songwriter prodigy", and her 2008 album "Fearless" transformed her into a "bona fide star", "Speak Now" signified Swift's artistic maturity with nuanced observations, reflecting her young adulthood. In a 2019 "Rolling Stone" cover story, Swift said she wrote the album by herself as a reaction to her critics' doubts about her songwriting ability. Communication professor Myles McNutt argued that the self-written "Speak Now" was Swift's definite move to claim authorship to her music and career, contrary to other artists being commodified by their labels. Its commercial success contributed to her fame as a pop star transcending her self-identity as a country-music artist. "Pitchfork" Sam Sodomsky, reviewing the album in 2019, contended that her country-music identity served as an indicator of her autobiographical songwriting rather than musical style.


title: Speak Now

text: Critics and academics noted "Speak Now" in the context of Swift's celebrity. Some viewed the songs inspired by Swift's public experience, including relationships with high-profile celebrities and the 2009 MTV Awards incident, as a precedent to Swift's songwriting on subsequent albums, which received media attention throughout her career. As observed by gender studies professor Adriane Brown, the songs about idealized romance and her innocent, "good-girl" image made her stand out in a contemporary pool of sexualized female pop artists. Brown commented that Swift's unwillingness to openly discuss sex and tendency to criticize females who "whore themselves out", as in the lyrics of "Better than Revenge", were problematic. In "Vulture", Maura Johnston remarked that although the songs about Swift's public experience were missteps, they hinted at her 2017 album "Reputation", which explores Swift's public image and confrontation against her critics.


title: DARPA

text: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.


title: DARPA

text: Originally known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the agency was created on February 7, 1958, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957. By collaborating with academia, industry, and government partners, DARPA formulates and executes research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, often beyond immediate U.S. military requirements.


title: DARPA

text: "The Economist" has called DARPA the agency "that shaped the modern world," and pointed out that "Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine sits alongside weather satellites, GPS, drones, stealth technology, voice interfaces, the personal computer and the internet on the list of innovations for which DARPA can claim at least partial credit." Its track record of success has inspired governments around the world to launch similar research and development agencies.


title: DARPA

text: DARPA is independent of other military research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA comprises approximately 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who together oversee about 250 research and development programs.


title: DARPA

text: The name of the organization first changed from its founding name, ARPA, to DARPA, in March 1972, changing back to ARPA in February 1993, then reverted to DARPA in March 1996.


title: DARPA

text: , their mission statement is "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security".


title: DARPA

text: The creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 for the purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, and able to reach far beyond immediate military requirements. The two relevant acts are the Supplemental Military Construction Authorization (Air Force) (Public Law 85-325) and Department of Defense Directive 5105.15, in February 1958. It was placed within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and counted approximately 150 people. Its creation was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnik and to U.S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Initial funding of ARPA was $520 million. ARPA's first director, Roy Johnson, left a $160,000 management job at General Electric for an $18,000 job at ARPA. Herbert York from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was hired as his scientific assistant.


title: DARPA

text: Johnson and York were both keen on space projects, but when NASA was established later in 1958 all space projects and most of ARPA's funding were transferred to it. Johnson resigned and ARPA was repurposed to do "high-risk", "high-gain", "far out" basic research, a posture that was enthusiastically embraced by the nation's scientists and research universities. ARPA's second director was Brigadier General Austin W. Betts, who resigned in early 1961 and was succeeded by Jack Ruina who served until 1963. Ruina, the first scientist to administer ARPA, managed to raise its budget to $250 million. It was Ruina who hired J. C. R. Licklider as the first administrator of the Information Processing Techniques Office, which played a vital role in creation of ARPANET, the basis for the future Internet.


title: DARPA

text: Additionally, the political and defense communities recognized the need for a high-level Department of Defense organization to formulate and execute R&D projects that would expand the frontiers of technology beyond the immediate and specific requirements of the Military Services and their laboratories. In pursuit of this mission, DARPA has developed and transferred technology programs encompassing a wide range of scientific disciplines that address the full spectrum of national security needs.


title: DARPA

text: From 1958 to 1965, ARPA's emphasis centered on major national issues, including space, ballistic missile defense, and nuclear test detection. During 1960, all of its civilian space programs were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the military space programs to the individual services.


title: DARPA

text: This allowed ARPA to concentrate its efforts on the Project Defender (defense against ballistic missiles), Project Vela (nuclear test detection), and Project AGILE (counterinsurgency R&D) programs, and to begin work on computer processing, behavioral sciences, and materials sciences. The DEFENDER and AGILE programs formed the foundation of DARPA sensor, surveillance, and directed energy R&D, particularly in the study of radar, infrared sensing, and x-ray/gamma ray detection.


title: DARPA

text: ARPA at this point (1959) played an early role in Transit (also called NavSat) a predecessor to the Global Positioning System (GPS). "Fast-forward to 1959 when a joint effort between DARPA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory began to fine-tune the early explorers' discoveries. TRANSIT, sponsored by the Navy and developed under the leadership of Dr. Richard Kirschner at Johns Hopkins, was the first satellite positioning system."


title: DARPA

text: During the late 1960s, with the transfer of these mature programs to the Services, ARPA redefined its role and concentrated on a diverse set of relatively small, essentially exploratory research programs. The agency was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972, and during the early 1970s, it emphasized direct energy programs, information processing, and tactical technologies.


title: DARPA

text: Concerning information processing, DARPA made great progress, initially through its support of the development of time-sharing. All modern operating systems rely on concepts invented for the Multics system, developed by a cooperation among Bell Labs, General Electric and MIT, which DARPA supported by funding Project MAC at MIT with an initial two-million-dollar grant.


title: DARPA

text: DARPA supported the evolution of the ARPANET (the first wide-area packet switching network), Packet Radio Network, Packet Satellite Network and ultimately, the Internet and research in the artificial intelligence fields of speech recognition and signal processing, including parts of Shakey the robot. DARPA also supported the early development of both hypertext and hypermedia. DARPA funded one of the first two hypertext systems, Douglas Engelbart's NLS computer system, as well as The Mother of All Demos. DARPA later funded the development of the Aspen Movie Map, which is generally seen as the first hypermedia system and an important precursor of virtual reality.


title: DARPA

text: The Mansfield Amendment of 1973 expressly limited appropriations for defense research (through ARPA/DARPA) only to projects with direct military application.


title: DARPA

text: The resulting "brain drain" is credited with boosting the development of the fledgling personal computer industry. Some young computer scientists left the universities to startups and private research laboratories such as Xerox PARC.


title: DARPA

text: Between 1976 and 1981, DARPA's major projects were dominated by air, land, sea, and space technology, tactical armor and anti-armor programs, infrared sensing for space-based surveillance, high-energy laser technology for space-based missile defense, antisubmarine warfare, advanced cruise missiles, advanced aircraft, and defense applications of advanced computing. These large-scale technological program demonstrations were joined by integrated circuit research, which resulted in submicrometer electronic technology and electron devices that evolved into the Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) Program and the Congressionally-mandated charged particle beam program.


title: DARPA

text: Many of the successful programs were transitioned to the Services, such as the foundation technologies in automatic target recognition, space based sensing, propulsion, and materials that were transferred to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), later known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), now titled the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).


title: DARPA

text: During the 1980s, the attention of the Agency was centered on information processing and aircraft-related programs, including the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) or Hypersonic Research Program. The Strategic Computing Program enabled DARPA to exploit advanced processing and networking technologies and to rebuild and strengthen relationships with universities after the Vietnam War. In addition, DARPA began to pursue new concepts for small, lightweight satellites (LIGHTSAT) and directed new programs regarding defense manufacturing, submarine technology, and armor/anti-armor.


title: DARPA

text: In 1981, two engineers, Robert McGhee and Kenneth Waldron, started to develop the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle (ASV) nicknamed the "Walker" at the Ohio State University, under a research contract from DARPA. The vehicle was 17 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 10.5 feet high, and had six legs to support its three-ton aluminum body, in which it was designed to carry cargo over difficult terrains. However, DARPA lost interest in the ASV, after problems with cold-weather tests.


title: DARPA

text: On February 4, 2004, the agency shut down its so called "LifeLog Project". The project's aim would have been, "to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does".


title: DARPA

text: On October 28, 2009, the agency broke ground on a new facility in Arlington County, Virginia a few miles from The Pentagon.


title: DARPA

text: In fall 2011, DARPA hosted the 100-Year Starship Symposium with the aim of getting the public to start thinking seriously about interstellar travel.


title: DARPA

text: On June 5, 2016, NASA and DARPA announced that it planned to build new X-planes with NASA's plan setting to create a whole series of X planes over the next 10 years.


title: DARPA

text: Between 2014 and 2016, DARPA shepherded the first machine-to-machine computer security competition, the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC),


title: DARPA

text: bringing a group of top-notch computer security experts to search for security vulnerabilities, exploit them, and create fixes that patch those vulnerabilities in a fully-automated fashion.


title: DARPA

text: In June 2018, DARPA leaders demonstrated a number of new technologies that were developed within the framework of the GXV-T program. The goal of this program is to create a lightly armored combat vehicle of not very large dimensions, which, due to maneuverability and other tricks, can successfully resist modern anti-tank weapon systems.


title: DARPA

text: In September 2020, DARPA and the US Air Force announced that the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) are ready for free-flight tests within the next year.


title: DARPA

text: In recent years, DARPA officials have contracted out core functions to corporations. For example, during fiscal year 2020, Chenega ran physical security on DARPA's premises, System High Corp. carried out program security, and Agile Defense ran unclassified IT services. General Dynamics runs classified IT services. Strategic Analysis Inc. provided support services regarding engineering, science, mathematics, and front office and administrative work.


title: DARPA

text: DARPA has six technical offices that manage the agency's research portfolio, and two additional support offices that manage special projects and transition efforts. All offices report to the DARPA director, including:


title: DARPA

text: A list of DARPA's active and archived projects is available on the agency's website. Because of the agency's fast pace, programs constantly start and stop based on the needs of the U.S. government. Structured information about some of the DARPA's contracts and projects is publicly available.


title: DARPA

text: DARPA is well known as a high-tech government agency, and as such has many appearances in popular fiction. Some realistic references to DARPA in fiction are as "ARPA" in "Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X" (DARPA consults on a technical threat), in episodes of television program "The West Wing" (the ARPA-DARPA distinction), the television program "Numb3rs", and the Netflix film "Spectral".


title: Harpy eagle

text: The harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a neotropical species of eagle. It is also called the American harpy eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan eagle, which is sometimes known as the New Guinea harpy eagle or Papuan harpy eagle. It is the largest and most powerful raptor found throughout its range, and among the largest extant species of eagles in the world. It usually inhabits tropical lowland rainforests in the upper (emergent) canopy layer. Destruction of its natural habitat has caused it to vanish from many parts of its former range, and it is nearly extirpated from much of Central America. In Brazil, the harpy eagle is also known as royal-hawk (in ). The genus "Harpia", together with "Harpyopsis" and "Morphnus", form the subfamily Harpiinae.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The harpy eagle was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of "Systema Naturae" as "Vultur harpyja", after the mythological beast harpy. The only member of the genus "Harpia", the harpy eagle is most closely related to the crested eagle ("Morphnus guianensis") and the New Guinea harpy eagle ("Harpyopsis novaeguineae"), the three composing the subfamily Harpiinae within the large family Accipitridae. Previously thought to be closely related, the Philippine eagle has been shown by DNA analysis to belong elsewhere in the raptor family, as it is related to the Circaetinae.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The specific name "harpyja" and the word "harpy" in the common name both come from Ancient Greek "harpyia" (). They refer to the harpies of Ancient Greek mythology. These were wind spirits that took the dead to Hades or Tartarus, and were said to have a body like a vulture and the face of a woman.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The upperside of the harpy eagle is covered with slate-black feathers, and the underside is mostly white, except for the feathered tarsi, which are striped black. A broad black band across the upper breast separates the gray head from the white belly. The head is pale grey, and is crowned with a double crest. The upperside of the tail is black with three gray bands, while the underside of it is black with three white bands. The irises are gray or brown or red, the cere and bill are black or blackish and the tarsi and toes are yellow. The plumage of males and females is identical. The tarsus is up to long.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Female harpy eagles typically weigh . One source states that adult females can weigh up to . An exceptionally large captive female, "Jezebel", weighed . Being captive, this large female may not be representative of the weight possible in wild harpy eagles due to differences in the food availability. The male, in comparison, is much smaller and may range in weight from . The average weight of adult males has been reported as against an average of for adult females, a 35% or higher difference in mean body mass. Harpy eagles may measure from in total length and have a wingspan of . Among the standard measurements, the wing chord measures , the tail measures , the tarsus is long, and the exposed culmen from the cere is . Mean talon size is 8.6 cm in males, and 12.3 cm in females.


title: Harpy eagle

text: It is sometimes cited as the largest eagle alongside the Philippine eagle, which is somewhat longer on average (between sexes averaging ) but weighs slightly less, and the Steller's sea eagle, which is perhaps slightly heavier on average (mean of three unsexed birds was ). The harpy eagle may be the largest bird species to reside in Central America, though large water birds such as American white pelicans ("Pelecanus erythrorhynchos") and jabirus ("Jabiru mycteria") have scarcely lower mean body masses. The wingspan of the harpy eagle is relatively small, though the wings are quite broad, an adaptation that increases maneuverability in forested habitats and is shared by other raptors in similar habitats. The wingspan of the harpy eagle is surpassed by several large eagles that live in more open habitats, such as those in the "Haliaeetus" and "Aquila" genera. The extinct Haast's eagle was significantly larger than all extant eagles, including the harpy.


title: Harpy eagle

text: This species is largely silent away from the nest. There, the adults give a penetrating, weak, melancholy scream, with the incubating males' call described as "whispy screaming or wailing". The females' calls while incubating are similar, but are lower-pitched. While approaching the nest with food, the male calls out "rapid chirps, goose-like calls, and occasional sharp screams". Vocalization in both parents decreases as the nestlings age, while the nestlings become more vocal. The nestlings call "chi-chi-chi...chi-chi-chi-chi", seemingly in alarm in response to rain or direct sunlight. When humans approach the nest, the nestlings have been described as uttering croaks, quacks, and whistles.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Rare throughout its range, the harpy eagle is found from Mexico, through Central America and into South America to as far south as Argentina. In rainforests, they live in the emergent layer. The eagle is most common in Brazil, where it is found across the entire national territory. With the exception of some areas of Panama, the species is almost extinct in Central America, subsequent to the logging of much of the rainforest there. The harpy eagle inhabits tropical lowland rainforests and may occur within such areas from the canopy to the emergent vegetation. They typically occur below an elevation of , but have been recorded at elevations up to . Within the rainforest, they hunt in the canopy or sometimes on the ground, and perch on emergent trees looking for prey. They do not generally occur in disturbed areas, but regularly visit semiopen forest/pasture mosaic, mainly in hunting forays. Harpies, however, can be found flying over forest borders in a variety of habitats, such as cerrados, caatingas, buriti palm stands, cultivated fields, and cities. They have been found in areas where high-grade forestry is practiced.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Full grown harpy eagles are at the top of a food chain. They possess the largest talons of any living eagle and have been recorded as carrying prey weighing up to their own body weight. This allows them to snatch from tree branches a live sloth and other large prey items. Most commonly, harpy eagles use perch hunting, in which they scan for prey activity while briefly perched between short flights from tree to tree. Upon spotting prey, the eagle quickly dives and grabs it. Sometimes, harpy eagles are "sit-and-wait" predators (common in forest-dwelling raptors), perching for long periods on a high point near an opening, a river, or a salt lick, where many mammals go to attain nutrients. On occasion, they may also hunt by flying within or above the canopy. They have also been observed tail-chasing: pursuing another bird in flight, rapidly dodging among trees and branches, a predation style common to hawks (genus "Accipiter") that hunt birds.


title: Harpy eagle

text: A recent literature review and research using camera traps list a total of 116 prey species. Its main prey are tree-dwelling mammals, and a majority of the diet has been shown to focus on sloths. Research conducted by Aguiar-Silva between 2003 and 2005 in a nesting site in Parintins, Amazonas, Brazil, collected remains from prey offered to the nestling by its parents. The researchers found that 79% of the harpy's prey was accounted for by sloths from two species: 39% brown-throated sloth ("Bradypus variegatus"), and 40% Linnaeus's two-toed sloth ("Choloepus didactylus"). Similar research in Panama, where two captive-bred subadults were released, found that 52% of the male's captures and 54% of the female's were of two sloth species (brown-throated sloth and Hoffmann's two-toed sloth ("Choloepus hoffmanni"). Harpy eagles are capable of hunting all size of sloths, including full-grown adult two-toed sloths weighing up to .


title: Harpy eagle

text: Another major prey of harpy eagles is monkeys. At several nests in Guyana, monkeys made up about 37% of the prey remains found at the nests. Similarly, cebid monkeys made up 35% of the remains found at 10 nests in Amazonian Ecuador. Monkeys regularly taken include capuchin monkeys, saki monkeys, howler monkeys, titi monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and spider monkeys. Smaller monkeys, such as tamarins and marmosets, are seemingly ignored as prey by this species. Small monkeys typically weighing between , such as Wedge-capped capuchin ("Cebus olivaceus"), tufted capuchin ("Sapajus apella"), and white-faced saki ("Pithecia pithecia") are the most frequently taken. larger monkeys such as Colombian red howler ("Alouatta seniculus"), usually weighing in females and in males are also taken. Other large monkeys such as adult woolly monkey ("Lagothrix cana") and Peruvian spider monkey ("Ateles chamek"), mantled howler ("Alouatta palliata"), and red-faced spider monkey ("Ateles paniscus") which can weigh around and possibly up to , can be taken by female harpy eagle. In another study, breeding harpy eagles hunted Yucatán black howler ("Alouatta pigra") which can weigh between , although the ages of the monkeys taken by these eagles are unknown.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Other partially arboreal and even land mammals are also preyed on given the opportunity. In the Pantanal, a pair of nesting eagles preyed largely on the porcupine ("Coendou prehensilis") and the agouti ("Dasyprocta azarae"). Both species of tamanduas ("Tamandua mexicana" & "T. tetradactyla") are taken and armadillos, especially nine-banded armadillo (" Dasypus novemcinctus") are also taken. carnivores such as kinkajous ("Potos flavus"), coatis ("Nasua nasua" & "N.narcia"), tayras ("Eira barbara"), and occasionally margays ("Leopardus wiedii") and crab-eating foxes ("Cerdocyon thous"). Carnivoran prey species usually weighs around , but there is a report that harpy eagles prey on larger carnivores such as ocelot ("Leopardus pardalis") and crab-eating raccoon respectively. Other mammals, such as young peccaries, deer fawns, squirrels and opossums are additionally taken.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The eagle may also attack bird species such as macaws: At the Parintins research site, the red-and-green macaw ("Ara chloropterus") made up for 0.4% of the prey base, with other birds amounting to 4.6%. Other parrots have also been preyed on, as well as cracids such as curassows and other birds like seriemas. In one occasion, dependent juvenile male eagle quickly learned how to hunt black vultures ("Coragyps atratus") and accounted for 9 of our 10 records of harpy predation on vultures. Additional prey items reported include reptiles such as iguanas, tegus, and snakes. In Suriname, green iguanas ("Iguana iguana") can be important prey source, and predation on yellow-footed tortoise ("chelonoidis denticulata") have been recorded twice.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The eagle has been recorded as taking domestic livestock, including chickens, lambs, goats, and young pigs, but this is extremely rare under normal circumstances. They control the population of mesopredators such as capuchin monkeys, which prey extensively on bird's eggs and which (if not naturally controlled) may cause local extinctions of sensitive species.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Males usually take relatively smaller prey, with a typical range of or about half their own weight. The larger females take larger prey, with a minimum recorded prey weight of around . Adult female harpies regularly grab large male howler or spider monkeys or mature sloths weighing in flight and fly off without landing, an enormous feat of strength.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Prey items taken to the nest by the parents are normally medium-sized, having been recorded from . The prey brought to the nest by males averaged , while the prey brought to the nest by females averaged . In another study, floaters (i.e. birds not engaging in breeding at that time) were found to take larger prey, averaging , than those that were nesting, for which prey averaged , with prey species estimated to weigh a mean of (for common opossum) to (for adult crab-eating raccoon). Overall, harpy eagle prey weigh between 0.3 kg to 6.5 kg, with the mean prey size equalling 2.6 ± 0.8 kg


title: Harpy eagle

text: In ideal habitats, nests would be fairly close together. In some parts of Panama and Guyana, active nests were located away from one another, while they are within of each other in Venezuela. In Peru, the average distance between nests was and the average area occupied by each breeding pairs was estimated at . In less ideal areas, with fragmented forest, breeding territories were estimated at . The female harpy eagle lays two white eggs in a large stick nest, which commonly measures deep and across and may be used over several years. Nests are located high up in a tree, usually in the main fork, at , depending on the stature of the local trees. The harpy often builds its nest in the crown of the kapok tree, one of the tallest trees in South America. In many South American cultures, cutting down the kapok tree is considered bad luck, which may help safeguard the habitat of this stately eagle. The bird also uses other huge trees on which to build its nest, such as the Brazil nut tree. A nesting site found in the Brazilian Pantanal was built on a "cambará" tree ("Vochysia divergens").


title: Harpy eagle

text: No display is known between pairs of eagles, and they are believed to mate for life. A pair of harpy eagles usually only raises one chick every 2–3 years. After the first chick hatches, the second egg is ignored and normally fails to hatch unless the first egg perishes. The egg is incubated around 56 days. When the chick is 36 days old, it can stand and walk awkwardly. The chick fledges at the age of 6 months, but the parents continue to feed it for another 6 to 10 months. The male captures much of the food for the incubating female and later the eaglet, but also takes an incubating shift while the female forages and also brings prey back to the nest. Breeding maturity is not reached until birds are 4 to 6 years of age. Adults can be aggressive toward humans who disturb the nesting site or appear to be a threat to their young.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Although the harpy eagle still occurs over a considerable range, its distribution and populations have dwindled considerably. It is threatened primarily by habitat loss due to the expansion of logging, cattle ranching, agriculture, and prospecting. Secondarily, it is threatened by being hunted as an actual threat to livestock and/or a supposed one to human life, due to its great size. Although not actually known to prey on humans and only rarely on domestic stock, the species' large size and nearly fearless behaviour around humans reportedly make it an "irresistible target" for hunters. Such threats apply throughout its range, in large parts of which the bird has become a transient sight only; in Brazil, it was all but wiped out from the Atlantic rainforest and is only found in appreciable numbers in the most remote parts of the Amazon basin; a Brazilian journalistic account of the mid-1990s already complained that at the time it was only found in significant numbers in Brazilian territory on the northern side of the Equator. Scientific 1990s records, however, suggest that the harpy Atlantic Forest population may be migratory. Subsequent research in Brazil has established that, as of 2009, the harpy eagle, outside the Brazilian Amazon, is critically endangered in Espírito Santo, São Paulo and Paraná, endangered in Rio de Janeiro, and probably extirpated in Rio Grande do Sul (where a recent (March 2015) record was set for the Parque Estadual do Turvo) and Minas Gerais – the actual size of their total population in Brazil is unknown.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Globally, the harpy eagle is considered near threatened by IUCN and threatened with extinction by CITES (appendix I). The Peregrine Fund until recently considered it a "conservation-dependent species", meaning it depends on a dedicated effort for captive breeding and release to the wild, as well as habitat protection, to prevent it from reaching endangered status, but now has accepted the near threatened status. The harpy eagle is considered critically endangered in Mexico and Central America, where it has been extirpated in most of its former range; in Mexico, it used to be found as far north as Veracruz, but today probably occurs only in Chiapas in the Selva Zoque. It is considered as near threatened or vulnerable in most of the South American portion of its range; at the southern extreme of its range, in Argentina, it is found only in the Parana Valley forests at the province of Misiones. It has disappeared from El Salvador, and almost so from Costa Rica.


title: Harpy eagle

text: Various initiatives for restoration of the species are in place in various countries. Since 2002, the Peregrine Fund initiated a conservation and research program for the harpy eagle in the Darién Province. A similar—and grander, given the dimensions of the countries involved—research project is occurring in Brazil, at the National Institute of Amazonian Research, through which 45 known nesting locations (updated to 62, only three outside the Amazonian basin and all three inactive) are being monitored by researchers and volunteers from local communities. A harpy eagle chick has been fitted with a radio transmitter that allows it to be tracked for more than three years via a satellite signal sent to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research. Also, a photographic recording of a nest site in the Carajás National Forest was made for the Brazilian edition of "National Geographic Magazine".


title: Harpy eagle

text: In Panama, the Peregrine Fund carried out a captive-breeding and release project that released a total of 49 birds in Panama and Belize. The Peregrine Fund has also carried out a research and conservation project on this species since the year 2000, making it the longest-running study on harpy eagles.


title: Harpy eagle

text: In Belize, the Belize Harpy Eagle Restoration Project began in 2003 with the collaboration of Sharon Matola, founder and director of the Belize Zoo and the Peregrine Fund. The goal of this project was the re-establishment of the harpy eagle within Belize. The population of the eagle declined as a result of forest fragmentation, shooting, and nest destruction, resulting in near extirpation of the species. Captive-bred harpy eagles were released in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in Belize, chosen for its quality forest habitat and linkages with Guatemala and Mexico. Habitat linkage with Guatemala and Mexico were important for conservation of quality habitat and the harpy eagle on a regional level. As of November 2009, 14 harpy eagles have been released and are monitored by the Peregrine Fund, through satellite telemetry.


title: Harpy eagle

text: In January 2009, a chick from the all-but-extirpated population in the Brazilian state of Paraná was hatched in captivity at the preserve kept in the vicinity of the Itaipu Dam by the Brazilian/Paraguayan state-owned company Itaipu Binacional. In September 2009, an adult female, after being kept captive for 12 years in a private reservation, was fitted with a radio transmitter before being restored to the wild in the vicinity of the Pau Brasil National Park (formerly Monte Pascoal NP), in the state of Bahia.


title: Harpy eagle

text: In December 2009, a 15th harpy eagle was released into the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in Belize. The release was set to tie in with the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, in Copenhagen. The 15th eagle, nicknamed "Hope" by the Peregrine officials in Panama, was the "poster child" for forest conservation in Belize, a developing country, and the importance of these activities in relation to climate change. The event received coverage from Belize's major media entities, and was supported and attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Belize, Vinai Thummalapally, and British High Commissioner to Belize, Pat Ashworth.


title: Harpy eagle

text: In Colombia, as of 2007, an adult male and a subadult female confiscated from wildlife trafficking were restored to the wild and monitored in Paramillo National Park in Córdoba, and another couple was being kept in captivity at a research center for breeding and eventual release. A monitoring effort with the help of volunteers from local Native American communities is also being made in Ecuador, including the joint sponsorship of various Spanish universities—this effort being similar to another one going on since 1996 in Peru, centred around a native community in the Tambopata Province, Madre de Dios Region. Another monitoring project, begun in 1992, was operating as of 2005 in the state of Bolívar, Venezuela.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The harpy eagle is the national bird of Panama and is depicted on the coat of arms of Panama. The 15th harpy eagle released in Belize, named "Hope", was dubbed "Ambassador for Climate Change", in light of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009.


title: Harpy eagle

text: The harpy eagle was the inspiration behind the design of Fawkes the Phoenix in the Harry Potter film series. A live harpy eagle was used to portray the now-extinct Haast's eagle in BBC's "Monsters We Met".


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the "CBS Evening News" for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; the Dawson's Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award. Cronkite is known for his departing catchphrase, "And that's the way it is", followed by the date of the broadcast.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was born on November 4, 1916, in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the son of Helen Lena (née Fritsche) and Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite, a dentist.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite lived in Kansas City, Missouri, until he was ten, when his family moved to Houston, Texas. He attended elementary school at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School (now Baker Montessori School), junior high school at Lanier Junior High School (now Lanier Middle School) in Houston, and high school at San Jacinto High School, where he edited the high school newspaper. He was a member of the Boy Scouts. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), entering in the fall term of 1933, where he worked on the "Daily Texan" and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay, a Masonic fraternal organization for boys. While attending UT, Cronkite had his first taste of performance, appearing in a play with fellow student Eli Wallach. He dropped out in 1935, not returning for the fall term, to concentrate on journalism.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite left college in his junior year, in the fall term of 1935, after starting a series of newspaper reporting jobs covering news and sports. He entered broadcasting as a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1936, he met his future wife, Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, while working as the sports announcer for KCMO (AM) in Kansas City, Missouri. His broadcast name was "Walter Wilcox". He would explain later that radio stations at the time did not want people to use their real names for fear of taking their listeners with them if they left. In Kansas City, he joined the United Press International in 1937.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: With his name now established, he received a job offer from Edward R. Murrow at CBS News to join the Murrow Boys team of war correspondents, relieving Bill Downs as the head of the Moscow bureau. CBS offered Cronkite $125 ($2,235 in 2020 money) a week along with "commercial fees" amounting to $25 ($447 in 2020) for almost every time Cronkite reported on air. Up to that point, he had been making $57.50 ($1,027 in 2020) per week at UP, but he had reservations about broadcasting. He initially accepted the offer. When he informed his boss Harrison Salisbury, UP countered with a raise of $17.50 ($312 in 2020) per week; Hugh Baillie also offered him an extra $20 ($357 in 2020) per week to stay. Cronkite ultimately accepted the UP offer, a move which angered Murrow and drove a wedge between them that would last for years.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite became one of the top American reporters in World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe. He was on board starting in Norfolk, Virginia, through her service off the coast of North Africa as part of Operation Torch, and thence back to the US. On the return trip, Cronkite was flown off "Texas" in one of her Vought OS2U Kingfisher aircraft when Norfolk was within flying distance. He was granted permission to be flown the rest of the distance to Norfolk so that he could outpace a rival correspondent on to return to the US and to issue the first uncensored news reports to be published about Operation Torch. Cronkite's experiences aboard "Texas" launched his career as a war correspondent. Subsequently, he was one of eight journalists selected by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress as part of group called The Writing 69th, and during a mission fired a machine gun at a German fighter. He also landed in a glider with the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden and covered the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg trials and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow from 1946 to 1948.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division, again recruited by Murrow. Cronkite began working at WTOP-TV (now WUSA), the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.. He originally served as anchor of the network's 15-minute late-Sunday-evening newscast "Up To the Minute", which followed "What's My Line?" at 11:00 pm ET from 1951 through 1962.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Although it was widely reported that the term "anchor" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, marking the first nationally televised convention coverage, other news presenters bore the title before him. Cronkite anchored the network's coverage of the 1952 presidential election as well as later conventions. In 1964 he was temporarily replaced by the team of Robert Trout and Roger Mudd; this proved to be a mistake, and Cronkite returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program "You Are There", which reenacted historical events, using the format of a news report. His famous last line for these programs was: "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times ... and you were there." In 1971, the show was revived and redesigned to attract an audience of teenagers and young adults, hosted again by Cronkite on Saturday mornings. In 1957, he began hosting "The Twentieth Century" (eventually renamed "The 20th Century"), a documentary series about important historical events of the century composed almost exclusively of newsreel footage and interviews. A long-running hit, the show was again renamed as "The 21st Century" in 1967 with Cronkite hosting speculative reporting on the future for another three years. Cronkite also hosted "It's News to Me", a game show based on news events.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: During the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956 Cronkite hosted the CBS news-discussion series "Pick the Winner".


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Another of his network assignments was "The Morning Show", CBS' short-lived challenge to NBC's "Today" in 1954. His on-air duties included interviewing guests and chatting with a lion puppet named Charlemane about the news. He considered this discourse with a puppet as "one of the highlights" of the show. He added, "A puppet can render opinions on people and things that a human commentator would not feel free to utter. I was and I am proud of it." Cronkite also angered the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the show's sponsor, by grammatically correcting its advertising slogan. Instead of saying "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" verbatim, he substituted "as" for "like."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: He was the lead broadcaster of the network's coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics, the first-ever time such an event was televised in the United States. He replaced Jim McKay, who had suffered a mental breakdown.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On April 16, 1962, Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS's nightly feature newscast, tentatively renamed "Walter Cronkite with the News", but later the "CBS Evening News" on September 2, 1963, when the show was expanded from 15 to 30 minutes, making Cronkite the anchor of American network television's first nightly half-hour news program. Cronkite's tenure as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" made him an icon in television news.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: During the early part of his tenure anchoring the "CBS Evening News", Cronkite competed against NBC's anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who anchored "The Huntley–Brinkley Report". For much of the 1960s, "The Huntley–Brinkley Report" had more viewers than Cronkite's broadcast. A key moment for Cronkite came during his coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. Another factor in Cronkite and CBS' ascendancy to the top of the ratings was that, as the decade progressed, RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels that CBS provided for its news broadcasts. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for greater accuracy and depth in coverage. This reputation meshed well with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1967 the "CBS Evening News" began to surpass "The Huntley–Brinkley Report" in viewership during the summer months.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1969, during the Apollo 11 (with co-host and former astronaut Wally Schirra) and Apollo 13 Moon missions, Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most-watched television network for the missions. In 1970, when Huntley retired, the "CBS Evening News" finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor, Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top-rated until his retirement in 1981.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: One of Cronkite's trademarks was ending the "CBS Evening News" with the phrase "...And that's the way it is," followed by the date. Keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary. Beginning with January 16, 1980, Day 50 of the Iran hostage crisis, Cronkite added the length of the hostages' captivity to the show's closing in order to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on Day 444, January 20, 1981.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite is vividly remembered for breaking the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. Cronkite had been standing at the United Press International wire machine in the CBS newsroom as the bulletin of the President's shooting broke and he clamored to get on the air to break the news as he wanted CBS to be the first network to do so.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: There was a problem facing the crew in the newsroom, however. There was no television camera in the studio at the time, as the technical crew was working on it. Eventually, the camera was retrieved and brought back to the newsroom. Because of the magnitude of the story and the continuous flow of information coming from various sources, time was of the essence but the camera would take at least twenty minutes to become operational under normal circumstances. The decision was made to dispatch Cronkite to the CBS Radio Network booth to report the events and play the audio over the television airwaves while the crew worked on the camera to see if they could get it set up quicker.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Meanwhile, CBS was ten minutes into its live broadcast of the soap opera "As the World Turns (ATWT)", which had begun at the very minute of the shooting. A "CBS News Bulletin" bumper slide abruptly broke into the broadcast at 1:40 pm EST. Over the slide, Cronkite began reading what would be the first of three audio-only bulletins that were filed in the next twenty minutes:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: While Cronkite was reading this bulletin, a second one arrived, mentioning the severity of Kennedy's wounds:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Just before the bulletin cut out, a CBS News staffer was heard saying "Connally too," apparently having just heard the news that Texas Governor John Connally had also been shot while riding in the presidential limousine with his wife Nellie and Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: CBS then rejoined the telecast of "ATWT" during a commercial break, which was followed by show announcer Dan McCullough's usual fee plug for the first half of the program and the network's 1:45 pm station identification break. Just before the second half of "ATWT" was to begin, the network broke in with the bumper slide a second time. In this bulletin Cronkite reported in greater detail about the assassination attempt on the President, while also breaking the news of Governor Connally's shooting.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite then recapped the events as they had happened: that the President and Governor Connally had been shot and were in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital, and no one knew their condition as yet. CBS then decided to return to "ATWT", which was now midway through its second segment.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: The cast had continued to perform live while Cronkite's bulletins broke into the broadcast, unaware of the unfolding events in Dallas. "ATWT" then took another scheduled commercial break. The segment before the break would be the last anyone would see of any network's programming until Tuesday, November 26. During the commercial, the bumper slide interrupted the proceedings again and Cronkite updated the viewers on the situation in Dallas. This bulletin went into more detail than the other two, revealing that Kennedy had been shot in the head, Connally in the chest. Cronkite remained on the air for the next ten minutes, continuing to read bulletins as they were handed to him, and recapping the events as they were known. He also related a report given to reporters by Texas Congressman Albert Thomas that the President and Governor were still alive, the first indication of their condition. At 2:00 pm EST, with the top of the hour station break looming, Cronkite told the audience that there would be a brief pause so that all of CBS' affiliates, including those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones which were not on the same schedule, could join the network. He then left the radio booth and went to the anchor desk in the newsroom.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Within twenty seconds of the announcement, every CBS affiliate except Dallas' KRLD (which was providing local coverage) was airing the network's feed. The camera was finally operational by this time and enabled the audience to see Cronkite, who was clad in shirt and tie but without his suit coat, given the urgent nature of the story. Cronkite reminded the audience, again, of the attempt made on the life of the President and tossed to KRLD news director Eddie Barker at the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was supposed to be making a speech before he was shot. Barker relayed information that Kennedy's condition was extremely critical. Then, after a prayer for Kennedy, Barker quoted an unofficial report that the President was dead but stressed it was not confirmed.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: After several minutes, the coverage came back to the CBS newsroom where Cronkite reported that the President had been given blood transfusions and two priests had been called into the room. He also played an audio report from KRLD that someone had been arrested in the assassination attempt at the Texas School Book Depository. Back in Dallas Barker announced another report of the death of the President, mentioning that it came from a reliable source. Before the network left KRLD's feed for good, Barker first announced, then retracted, a confirmation of Kennedy's death.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: CBS cut back to Cronkite reporting that one of the priests had administered last rites to the president. In the next few minutes, several more bulletins reporting that Kennedy had died were given to Cronkite, including one from CBS's own correspondent Dan Rather that had been reported as confirmation of Kennedy's demise by CBS Radio. As these bulletins came into the newsroom, it was becoming clearer that Kennedy had in fact lost his life. Cronkite, however, stressed that these bulletins were simply reports and not any official confirmation of the President's condition; some of his colleagues recounted in 2013 that his early career as a wire service reporter taught him to wait for official word before reporting a story. Still, as more word came in, Cronkite seemed to be resigned to the fact that it was only a matter of time before the assassination was confirmed. He appeared to concede this when, several minutes after he received the Rather report, he received word that the two priests who gave the last rites to Kennedy told reporters on the scene that he was dead. Cronkite said that report "seems to be as close to official as we can get", but would not declare it as such. Nor did he do so with a report from Washington, DC that came moments later, which said that government sources were now reporting the President was dead (this information was passed on to ABC as well, which took it as official confirmation and reported it as such; NBC did not report this information at all and chose instead to rely on reports from Charles Murphy and Robert MacNeil to confirm their suspicions).


title: Walter Cronkite

text: At 2:38 pm EST, while filling in time with some observations about the security presence in Dallas, which had been increased due to violent acts against United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson in the city earlier that year, Cronkite was handed a new bulletin. After looking it over for a moment, he took off his glasses, and made the official announcement:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: After making that announcement, Cronkite paused briefly, put his glasses back on, and swallowed hard to maintain his composure. With noticeable emotion in his voice he intoned the next sentence of the news report:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: With emotion still in his voice and eyes watering, Cronkite once again recapped the events after collecting himself, incorporating some wire photos of the visit and explaining the significance of the pictures now that Kennedy was dead. He reminded the viewers that Vice President Johnson was now the President and was to be sworn in, that Governor Connally's condition was still unknown, and that there was no report of whether the assassin had been captured. He then handed the anchor position to Charles Collingwood, who had just entered the newsroom, took his suit coat, and left the room for a while.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: At about 3:30 pm EST, Cronkite came back into the newsroom to relay some new information. The two major pieces of information involved the Oath of Office being administered to now-President Johnson, which officially made him the thirty-sixth President, and that Dallas police had arrested a man named Lee Harvey Oswald whom they suspected had fired the fatal shots. After that, Cronkite left again to begin preparing for that night's "CBS Evening News", which he returned to anchor as normal. For the next four days, along with his colleagues, Cronkite continued to report segments of uninterrupted coverage of the assassination, including the announcement of Oswald's death in the hands of Jack Ruby on Sunday. The next day, on the day of the funeral, Cronkite concluded "CBS Evening News" with the following assessment about the events of the last four dark days:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Referring to his coverage of Kennedy's assassination, in a 2006 TV interview with Nick Clooney, Cronkite recalled,


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In a 2003 CBS special commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination, Cronkite recalled his reaction upon having the death confirmed to him, he said,


title: Walter Cronkite

text: According to historian Douglas Brinkley, Cronkite provided a sense of perspective throughout the unfolding sequence of disturbing events.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In mid-February 1968, on the urging of his executive producer Ernest Leiser, Cronkite and Leiser journeyed to Vietnam to cover the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. They were invited to dine with General Creighton Abrams, the commander of all forces in Vietnam, whom Cronkite knew from World War II. According to Leiser, Abrams told Cronkite, "we cannot win this Goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Upon return, Cronkite and Leiser wrote separate editorial reports based on that trip. Cronkite, an excellent writer, preferred Leiser's text over his own. On February 27, 1968, Cronkite closed "Report from Vietnam: Who, What, When, Where, Why?" with that editorial report:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Following Cronkite's editorial report, President Lyndon B. Johnson is claimed by some to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." However, this account of Johnson has been questioned by other observers in books on journalistic accuracy. At the time the editorial aired, Johnson was in Austin, Texas, attending Texas Governor John Connally's birthday gala and was giving a speech in his honor.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In his book "This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV", CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer, who was serving as a reporter for the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" when Cronkite's editorial aired, acknowledged that Johnson did not see the original broadcast but also defended the allegation that Johnson had made the remark. According to Schieffer, Johnson's aide George Christian "told me that the President apparently saw some clips of it the next day" and that "That's when he made the remark about Cronkite. But he knew then that it would take more than Americans were willing to give it." When asked about the remark during a 1979 interview, Christian claimed he had no recollection about what the President had said. In his 1996 memoir "A Reporter's Life", Cronkite claimed he was at first unsure about how much of an impact his editorial report had on Johnson's decision to drop his bid for re-election, and what eventually convinced him the President had made the statement was a recount from Bill Moyers, a journalist and former aide to Johnson.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Several weeks later, Johnson, who sought to preserve his legacy and was now convinced his declining health could not withstand growing public criticism, announced he would not seek reelection.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Cronkite was anchoring the CBS network coverage as violence and protests occurred outside the convention, as well as scuffles inside the convention hall. When Dan Rather was punched to the floor (on camera) by security personnel, Cronkite commented, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: The first publicly transmitted live trans-Atlantic program was broadcast via the Telstar satellite on July 23, 1962, at 3:00 pm EDT, and Cronkite was one of the main presenters in this multinational broadcast. The broadcast was made possible in Europe by Eurovision and in North America by NBC, CBS, ABC, and the CBC. The first public broadcast featured CBS's Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels. Cronkite was in the New York studio at Rockefeller Plaza as the first pictures to be transmitted and received were the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The first segment included a televised major league baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. From there, the video switched first to Washington, D.C.; then to Cape Canaveral, Florida; then to Quebec City, Quebec, and finally to Stratford, Ontario. The Washington segment included a press conference with President Kennedy, talking about the price of the American dollar, which was causing concern in Europe. This broadcast inaugurated live intercontinental news coverage, which was perfected later in the sixties with "Early Bird" and other Intelsat satellites.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to his former Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) headquarters for an interview by Cronkite on the CBS News Special Report "D-Day + 20", telecast on June 6, 1964.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite is also remembered for his coverage of the United States space program, and at times was visibly enthusiastic, rubbing his hands together on camera with a smile and uttering, "Whew...boy" on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission put the first men on the Moon.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite participated in Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. Because Cronkite was colorblind, he had to ask others what color of coat First Lady Pat Nixon was wearing when they disembarked in Peking (Beijing).


title: Walter Cronkite

text: According to the 2006 PBS documentary on Cronkite, there was "nothing new" in his reports on the Watergate affair; however, Cronkite brought together a wide range of reporting, and his credibility and status is credited by many with pushing the Watergate story to the forefront with the American public, ultimately resulting in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974. Cronkite had anchored the CBS coverage of Nixon's address, announcing his impending resignation, the night before.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: The January 22, 1973, broadcast of the "CBS Evening News" saw Cronkite break the news of the death of another notable American political figure: former president Lyndon B. Johnson. At approximately 6:38 pm Eastern Time, while a pre-recorded report that the Vietnam peace talks in Paris had been successful was being played for the audience, Cronkite received a telephone call in the studio while off camera. The call was from Tom Johnson, the former press secretary for President Johnson who was at the time serving the former chief executive as station manager at KTBC-TV in Austin, Texas, which was affiliated with CBS at the time and was owned by the Johnson family. During the conversation the production staff cut away from the report back to the live camera in studio as Cronkite was still on the phone. After he was made aware that he was back on camera, Cronkite held up a finger to let everyone watching know he required a moment to let Johnson finish talking. Once Cronkite got what he needed, he thanked Johnson and asked him to stay on the line. He then turned to the camera and began to relay what Johnson had said to him.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: During the final ten minutes of that broadcast, Cronkite reported on the death, giving a retrospective on the life of the nation's 36th president, and announced that CBS would air a special on Johnson later that evening. This story was re-told on a 2007 CBS-TV special honoring Cronkite's 90th birthday.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: NBC-TV's Garrick Utley, anchoring "NBC Nightly News" that evening, also interrupted his newscast in order to break the story, doing so about three minutes after Cronkite on CBS. The news was not reported on that night's "ABC Evening News", which was anchored by Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner, because ABC at the time fed their newscast live at 6:00 pm Eastern instead of 6:30 to get a head start on CBS and NBC for those stations that aired "ABC Evening News" live (although not every affiliate did).


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On November 22, 1963, Cronkite introduced The Beatles to the United States by airing a four-minute story about the band on "CBS Morning News". The story was scheduled to be shown again on the "CBS Evening News" that same day, but the assassination of John F. Kennedy prevented the broadcast of the regular evening news. The Beatles story was aired on the evening news program on December 10.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On February 14, 1980, Cronkite announced that he intended to retire from the "CBS Evening News"; at the time, CBS had a policy of mandatory retirement by age 65. Although sometimes compared to a father figure or an uncle figure, in an interview about his retirement he described himself as being more like a "comfortable old shoe" to his audience. His last day in the anchor chair at the "CBS Evening News" was on March 6, 1981; he was succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On the eve of Cronkite's retirement, he appeared on "The Tonight Show" hosted by Johnny Carson. The following night, Carson did a comic spoof of his on-air farewell address.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: As he had promised on his last show as anchor in 1981, Cronkite continued to broadcast occasionally as a special correspondent for CBS, CNN, and NPR into the 21st century; one such occasion was Cronkite anchoring the second space flight by John Glenn in 1998 as he had Glenn's first in 1962. Cronkite hosted "Universe" until its cancellation in 1982. In 1983, he reported on the British general election for the ITV current affairs series "World In Action", interviewing, among many others, the victorious Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Cronkite hosted the annual Vienna New Year's Concert on PBS from 1985 to 2008, succeeded by Julie Andrews in 2009. For many years, until 2002, he was also the host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1998, Cronkite hosted the 90-minute documentary, "Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance", produced by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association. The film documented Silicon Valley's rise from the origin of Stanford University to the current high-technology powerhouse. The documentary was broadcast on PBS throughout the United States and in 26 countries. Prior to 2004, he could also be seen in the opening movie "Back to Neverland" shown in the Walt Disney World attraction "The Magic of Disney Animation", interviewing Robin Williams as if he is still on the CBS News channel, ending his on-camera time with Cronkite's famous catchphrase. In the feature, Cronkite describes the steps taken in the creation of an animated film, while Williams becomes an animated character (and even becomes Cronkite, impersonating his voice). He also was shown inviting Disney guests and tourists to the Disney Classics Theater.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On May 21, 1999, Cronkite participated in a panel discussion on "Integrity in the Media" with Ben Bradlee and Mike McCurry at the Connecticut Forum in Hartford, Connecticut. Cronkite provided an anecdote about taking a picture from a house in Houston, Texas, where a newsworthy event occurred and being praised for getting a unique photograph, only to find out later that the city desk had provided him with the wrong address.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite narrated the IMAX film about the Space Shuttle, "The Dream is Alive", released in 1985. From May 26, 1986, to August 15, 1994, he was the narrator's voice in the EPCOT Center attraction "Spaceship Earth", at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He provided the pivotal voice of Captain Neweyes in the 1993 animated film "We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story", delivering his trademark line at the end. In 1995, he made an appearance on Broadway, providing the voice of the titular book in the 1995 revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying".


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was a finalist for NASA's Journalist in Space program, which mirrored the Teacher in Space Project, an opportunity that was suspended after the "Challenger" disaster in 1986. He recorded voice-overs for the 1995 film "Apollo 13", modifying the script he was given to make it more "Cronkitian." In 2002, Cronkite was the voice of Benjamin Franklin in the educational television cartoon "Liberty's Kids", which included a news segment ending with the same phrase he did back on the "CBS Evening News". This role earned him Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series, in 2003 and 2004, but he did not win. His distinctive voice provided the narration for the television ads of the University of Texas, Austin, his alma mater, with its 'We're Texas' ad campaign.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: He held amateur radio operator license KB2GSD and narrated a 2003 American Radio Relay League documentary explaining amateur radio's role in disaster relief. The video tells Amateur Radio's public service story to non-hams, focusing on ham radio's part in helping various agencies respond to wildfires in the Western US during 2002, ham radio in space and the role Amateur Radio plays in emergency communications. "Dozens of radio amateurs helped the police and fire departments and other emergency services maintain communications in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC," narrator Cronkite intoned in reference to ham radio's response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Unusually, Cronkite was a Novice-class licensee—the entry level license—for his entire, and long, tenure in the hobby.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On February 15, 2005, he went into the studio at CBS to record narration for "WCC Chatham Radio", a documentary about Guglielmo Marconi and his Chatham station, which became the busiest ship-to-shore wireless station in North America from 1914 to 1994. The documentary was directed by Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films and premiered at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center in April 2005. In 2006, Cronkite hosted the "World War One Living History Project," a program honoring America's final handful of veterans from the First World War. The program was created by Treehouse Productions and aired on NPR on November 11, 2006. In May 2009, "Legacy of War", produced by PBS, was released. Cronkite chronicles, over archive footage, the events following World War II that resulted in America's rise as the dominant world power.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Prior to his death, "Uncle Walter" hosted a number of TV specials and was featured in interviews about the times and events that occurred during his career as America's "most trusted" man. In July 2006, the 90-minute documentary "Walter Cronkite: Witness to History" aired on PBS. The special was narrated by Katie Couric, who assumed the "CBS Evening News" anchor chair in September 2006. Cronkite provided the voiceover introduction to Couric's "CBS Evening News", which began on September 5, 2006. Cronkite's voiceover was notably not used on introducing the broadcast reporting his funeral – no voiceover was used on this occasion.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite made a cameo appearance on a 1974 episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", in which he met with Lou Grant in his office. Ted Baxter, who at first tried to convince Cronkite that he (Baxter) was as good a newsman as Eric Sevareid, pleaded with Cronkite to hire him for the network news, at least to give sport scores, and gave an example: "The North Stars 3, the Kings Oh!" Cronkite turned to Grant and said, "I'm gonna get you for this!" Cronkite later said that he was disappointed that his scene was filmed in one take, since he had hoped to sit down and chat with the cast.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In the late 1980s and again in the 1990s, Cronkite appeared on the news-oriented situation comedy "Murphy Brown" as himself. Both episodes were written by the Emmy Award-winning team of Tom Seeley and Norm Gunzenhauser. He also continued hosting a variety of series. In the early 1980s, he was host of the documentary series "World War II with Walter Cronkite". In 1991, he hosted the TV documentary "Dinosaur!" on A&E (not related to the documentary of the same title hosted by Christopher Reeve on CBS six years earlier), and a 1994 follow-up series, "Ape Man: The Story of Human Evolution". In 1995, he narrated the World Liberty Concert held in the Netherlands.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite appeared briefly in the 2005 dramatic documentary "The American Ruling Class" written by Lewis Lapham; the 2000 film "Thirteen Days" reporting on the Cuban Missile Crisis; and provided the opening synopsis of the American Space Program leading to the events in Apollo 13 for the 1995 Ron Howard film of the same name.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite wrote a syndicated opinion column for King Features Syndicate. In 2005 and 2006, he contributed to "The Huffington Post". Cronkite was the honorary chairman of The Interfaith Alliance. In 2006, he presented the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award to actor and activist George Clooney on behalf of his organization at its annual dinner in New York.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was a vocal advocate for free airtime for political candidates. He worked with the Alliance for Better Campaigns and Common Cause, for instance, on an unsuccessful lobbying effort to have an amendment added to the McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2001 that would have required TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to candidates. Cronkite criticized the present system of campaign finance which allows elections to "be purchased" by special interests, and he noted that all the European democracies "provide their candidates with extensive free airtime." "In fact," Cronkite pointed out, "of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven – just seven – do not offer free airtime" This put the United States on a list with Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago. Cronkite concluded that "The failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy." During the elections held in 2000, the amount spent by candidates in the major TV markets approached $1 billion. "What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall, less than 1 percent, to fund free airtime."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: He was a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee. He also supported the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1998, he supported President Bill Clinton during Clinton's impeachment trial. He was also a proponent of limited world government on the American federalist model, writing fundraising letters for the World Federalist Association (now Citizens for Global Solutions). In accepting the 1999 Norman Cousins Global Governance Award at the ceremony at the United Nations, Cronkite said:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order. But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect unions the world has ever seen.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite contrasted his support for accountable global government with the opposition to it by politically active Christian fundamentalists in the United States:


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Even as with the American rejection of the League of Nations, our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation's conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing. Their leader, Pat Robertson, has written that we should have a world government but only when the messiah arrives. Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil! Well join me... I'm glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 2003, Cronkite, who owned property on Martha's Vineyard, became involved in a long-running debate over his opposition to the construction of a wind farm in that area. In his column, he repeatedly condemned President George W. Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Cronkite appeared in the 2004 Robert Greenwald film "Outfoxed", where he offered commentary on what he said were unethical and overtly political practices at the Fox News Channel. Cronkite remarked that when Fox News was founded by Rupert Murdoch, "it was intended to be a conservative organization – beyond that; a far-right-wing organization". In January 2006, during a press conference to promote the PBS documentary about his career, Cronkite said that he felt the same way about America's presence in Iraq as he had about their presence in Vietnam in 1968 and that he felt America should recall its troops.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite spoke out against the War on Drugs in support of the Drug Policy Alliance, writing a fundraising letter and appearing in advertisements on behalf of the DPA. In the letter, Cronkite wrote: "Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs. And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was married for nearly 65 years to Mary Elizabeth 'Betsy' Maxwell Cronkite, from March 30, 1940, until her death from cancer on March 15, 2005. They had three children: Nancy Cronkite, Mary Kathleen (Kathy) Cronkite, and Walter Leland (Chip) Cronkite III (who is married to actress Deborah Rush). Cronkite dated singer Joanna Simon from 2005 to 2009.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: A grandson, Walter Cronkite IV, now works at CBS. Cronkite's cousin is former Mayor of Kansas City and 2008 Democratic nominee for Missouri's 6th congressional district Kay Barnes.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was an accomplished sailor and enjoyed sailing coastal waters of the United States in his custom-built 48-foot Sunward "Wyntje". Cronkite was a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, with the honorary rank of commodore. Throughout the 1950s, he was an aspiring sports car racer, even racing in the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was reported to be a fan of the game "Diplomacy", which was rumored to be Henry Kissinger's favorite game.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In June 2009, Cronkite was reported to be terminally ill. He died on July 17, 2009, at his home in New York City aged 92. He is believed to have died from cerebrovascular disease.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite's funeral took place on July 23, 2009, at St. Bartholomew's Church in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Among many journalists who attended were Tom Brokaw, Connie Chung, Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Matt Lauer, Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Diane Sawyer, Bob Schieffer, Meredith Vieira, Barbara Walters, and Brian Williams. At his funeral, his friends noted his love of music, including, recently, drumming. He was cremated and his remains buried next to his wife, Betsy, in the family plot in Kansas City.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: For many years, until a decade after he left his post as anchor, Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted figures in the United States. For most of his 19 years as anchor, he was the "predominant news voice in America." Affectionately known as "Uncle Walter," he covered many of the important news events of the era so effectively that his image and voice are closely associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the Watergate scandal. "USA Today" wrote that "few TV figures have ever had as much power as Cronkite did at his height." Enjoying the cult of personality surrounding Cronkite in those years, CBS allowed some good-natured fun-poking at its star anchorman in some episodes of the network's popular situation comedy "All in the Family", during which the lead character Archie Bunker would sometimes complain about the newsman, calling him "Pinko Cronkite."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite trained himself to speak at a rate of 124 words per minute in his newscasts, so that viewers could clearly understand him. In contrast, Americans average about 165 words per minute, and fast, difficult-to-understand talkers speak close to 200 words per minute.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1968, the faculty of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University voted to award Cronkite the Carr Van Anda Award "for enduring contributions to journalism." In 1970, Cronkite received a "Freedom of the Press" George Polk Award and the Paul White Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1972, in recognition of his career, Princeton University's American Whig-Cliosophic Society awarded Cronkite the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 1977, Cronkite was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, for which he was a proactive supporter and member, even participating in educational video materials for the society's 175th anniversary. In 1981, the year he retired, former president Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In that year, he also received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards, and the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement from the Radio Television Digital News Association. In 1985, Cronkite was honored with the induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. In 1989 he received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Speech. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1994. In 1995, he received the Ischia International Journalism Award. In 1999, Cronkite received the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement's Corona Award in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in space exploration. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. On March 1, 2006, Cronkite became the first non-astronaut to receive NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award. Among Cronkite's numerous awards were four Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 2003, Cronkite was honored by the Vienna Philharmonic with the Franz Schalk Gold Medal, in view of his contributions to the New Year's Concert and the cultural image of Austria.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: A few years after Cronkite retired, Tom Chauncey, a former owner of KOOL-TV, the then-CBS affiliate in Phoenix, contacted Cronkite, an old friend, and asked him if he would be willing to have the journalism school at Arizona State University named after him. Cronkite immediately agreed. The ASU program acquired status and respect from its namesake.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Cronkite was not just a namesake, but he also took the time to interact with the students and staff of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Cronkite made the trip to Arizona annually to present the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to a leader in the field of media.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: "The values that Mr. Cronkite embodies – excellence, integrity, accuracy, fairness, objectivity – we try to instill in our students each and every day. There is no better role model for our faculty or our students," said Dean Christopher Callahan.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: The school, with approximately 1,700 students, is widely regarded as one of the top journalism schools in the country. It is housed in a new facility in downtown Phoenix that is equipped with 14 digital newsrooms and computer labs, two TV studios, 280 digital student work stations, the Cronkite Theater, the First Amendment Forum, and new technology. The school's students regularly finish at the top of national collegiate journalism competitions, such as the Hearst Journalism Awards program and the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards. In 2009, students won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for college print reporting.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: In 2008, the state-of-the-art journalism education complex in the heart of ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus was also built in his honor. The Walter Cronkite Regents Chair in Communication seats the Texas College of Communications dean.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: The Walter Cronkite papers are preserved at the curatorial Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. Occupying 293 linear feet (almost 90 metres) of shelf space, the papers document Cronkite's journalism career. Amongst the collected material are Cronkite's early beginnings while he still lived in Houston. They encompass his coverage of World War II as a United Press International correspondent, where he cemented his reputation by taking on hazardous overseas assignments. During this time he also covered the Nuremberg war crimes trial serving as the chief of the United Press bureau in Moscow. The main content of the papers documents Cronkite's career with CBS News between 1950 and 1981.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: The Cronkite Papers assemble a variety of interviews with U.S. presidents, including Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan. President Lyndon Johnson requested a special interview with Cronkite while he was broadcasting live on CBS.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: Between 1990 and 1993, Don Carleton, executive director for the Center for American History, assisted Cronkite as he compiled an oral history to write his autobiography, "A Reporter's Life", which was published in 1996. The taped memoirs became an integral part of an eight-part television series "Cronkite Remembers", which was shown on the Discovery Channel.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: As a newsman, Cronkite devoted his attention to the early days of the space program, and the "space race" between the United States and the Soviet Union. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration honored Cronkite on February 28, 2006. Michael Coats, director of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, presented Cronkite with the Ambassador of Exploration Award. Cronkite was the first non-astronaut thus honored.


title: Walter Cronkite

text: NASA presented Cronkite with a Moon rock sample from the early Apollo expeditions spanning 1969 to 1972. Cronkite passed on the Moon rock to Bill Powers, president of the University of Texas at Austin, and it became part of the collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Carleton said at this occasion, "We are deeply honored by Walter Cronkite's decision to entrust this prestigious award to the Center for American History. The Center already serves as the proud steward of his professional and personal papers, which include his coverage of the space program for CBS News. It is especially fitting that the archive documenting Walter's distinguished career should also include one of the moon rocks that the heroic astronauts of the Apollo program brought to Earth."


title: Walter Cronkite

text: On November 4, 2013, Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, dedicated the Walter Cronkite Memorial. The nearly 6,000 square-foot memorial includes images, videos and memorabilia from Cronkite's life and the many events he covered as a journalist. The memorial includes a replica of the newsroom from which Cronkite broadcast the news during the 1960s and 1970s. In 2014, the Memorial received the Missouri Division of Tourism's Spotlight Award.


title: Granite

text: Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in size from dikes only a few centimeters across to batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers.


title: Granite

text: Granite is typical of a larger family of "granitic rocks", or "granitoids", that are composed mostly of coarse-grained quartz and feldspars in varying proportions. These rocks are classified by the relative percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase (the QAPF classification), with true granite representing granitic rocks rich in quartz and alkali feldspar. Most granitic rocks also contain mica or amphibole minerals, though a few (known as leucogranites) contain almost no dark minerals.


title: Granite

text: Granite is nearly always massive (lacking any internal structures), hard, and tough. These properties have made granite a widespread construction stone throughout human history.


title: Granite

text: The word "granite" comes from the Latin "granum", a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a completely crystalline rock. Granitic rocks mainly consist of feldspar, quartz, mica, and amphibole minerals, which form an interlocking, somewhat equigranular matrix of feldspar and quartz with scattered darker biotite mica and amphibole (often hornblende) peppering the lighter color minerals. Occasionally some individual crystals (phenocrysts) are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks. Petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. Granites can be predominantly white, pink, or gray in color, depending on their mineralogy.


title: Granite

text: The alkali feldspar in granites is typically orthoclase or microcline and is often perthitic. The plagioclase is typically sodium-rich oligoclase. Phenocrysts are usually alkali feldspar.


title: Granite

text: Granitic rocks are classified according to the QAPF diagram for coarse grained plutonic rocks and are named according to the percentage of quartz, alkali feldspar (orthoclase, sanidine, or microcline) and plagioclase feldspar on the A-Q-P half of the diagram. True granite (according to modern petrologic convention) contains between 20% and 60% quartz by volume, with 35% to 90% of the total feldspar consisting of alkali feldspar. Granitic rocks poorer in quartz are classified as syenites or monzonites, while granitic rocks dominated by plagioclase are classified as granodiorites or tonalites. Granitic rocks with over 90% alkali feldspar are classified as alkali feldspar granites. Granitic rock with more than 60% quartz, which is uncommon, is classified simply as quartz-rich granitoid or, if composed almost entirely of quartz, as quartzolite.


title: Granite

text: True granites are further classified by the percentage of their total feldspar that is alkali feldspar. Granites whose feldspar is 65% to 90% alkali feldspar are syenogranites, while the feldspar in monzogranite is 35% to 65% alkali feldspar. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or "two-mica" granite. Two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites, as described below.