title: Kirov-class battlecruiser

text: The "Kirov" class's main weapons are 20 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) missiles mounted in deck, designed to engage large surface targets. Air defense is provided by twelve octuple S-300F launchers with 96 missiles and a pair of Osa-MA batteries with 20 missiles each. "Pyotr Velikiy" carries some S-300FM missiles and is the only ship in the Russian Navy capable of ballistic missile defence. The ships had some differences in sensor and weapons suites: "Kirov" came with SS-N-14 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missiles, while on subsequent ships these were replaced with 3K95 Kinzhal (Russian: Кинжал – dagger) surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. The "Kinzhal" installation is in fact mounted further forward of the old SS-N-14 mounting, in the structure directly behind the blast shield for the bow mounted RBU ASW rocket launcher. "Kirov" and "Frunze" had eight AK-630 close-in weapon systems, which were supplanted with the Kortik air-defence system on later ships.


title: Kirov-class battlecruiser

text: Other weapons are the automatic AK-130 gun system (except in "Kirov" which had two single guns instead), 10 torpedo/missile tubes (capable of firing SS-N-15 ASW missiles on later ships) and "Udav"-1 with 40 anti-submarine rockets and two sextuple RBU-1000 launchers.


title: Kirov-class battlecruiser

text: Russia is developing a new anti-ship missile to equip "Kirov"s called the 3M22 Tsirkon, which is capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds out to at least .


title: Emerald

text: Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (BeAl(SiO)) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale. Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor. Emerald is a cyclosilicate.


title: Emerald

text: The word "emerald" is derived (via and ), from Vulgar Latin: "esmaralda"/"esmaraldus", a variant of Latin "smaragdus", which was a via (smáragdos; "green gem") from a Semitic language. According to Webster's Dictionary the term emerald was first used in the 14th century.


title: Emerald

text: Emeralds, like all colored gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four "C"s of connoisseurship: "color", "clarity," "cut" and "carat weight". Normally, in the grading of colored gemstones, color is by far the most important criterion. However, in the grading of emeralds, clarity is considered a close second. A fine emerald must possess not only a pure verdant green hue as described below, but also a high degree of transparency to be considered a top gemstone.


title: Emerald

text: This member of the beryl family ranks among the traditional "big four" gems along with diamonds, rubies and sapphires.


title: Emerald

text: In the 1960s, the American jewelry industry changed the definition of "emerald" to include the green vanadium-bearing beryl. As a result, "vanadium emeralds" purchased as emeralds in the United States are not recognized as such in the United Kingdom and Europe. In America, the distinction between traditional emeralds and the new vanadium kind is often reflected in the use of terms such as "Colombian emerald".


title: Emerald

text: In gemology, color is divided into three components: "hue", "saturation", and "tone". Emeralds occur in hues ranging from yellow-green to blue-green, with the primary hue necessarily being green. Yellow and blue are the normal secondary hues found in emeralds. Only gems that are medium to dark in tone are considered emeralds; light-toned gems are known instead by the species name "green beryl". The finest emeralds are approximately 75% tone on a scale where 0% tone is colorless and 100% is opaque black. In addition, a fine emerald will be saturated and have a hue that is bright (vivid). Gray is the normal saturation modifier or mask found in emeralds; a grayish-green hue is a dull-green hue.


title: Emerald

text: Emeralds tend to have numerous inclusions and surface-breaking fissures. Unlike diamonds, where the loupe standard, i.e. 10× magnification, is used to grade clarity, emeralds are graded by eye. Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye (assuming normal visual acuity) it is considered flawless. Stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare and therefore almost all emeralds are treated ("oiled", see below) to enhance the apparent clarity. The inclusions and fissures within an emerald are sometimes described as "jardin" (French for "garden"), because of their mossy appearance. Imperfections are unique for each emerald and can be used to identify a particular stone. Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue (as described above), with no more than 15% of any secondary hue or combination (either blue or yellow) of a medium-dark tone, command the highest prices. The relative non-uniformity motivates the cutting of emeralds in cabochon form, rather than faceted shapes. Faceted emeralds are most commonly given an oval cut, or the signature emerald cut, a rectangular cut with facets around the top edge.


title: Emerald

text: Most emeralds are oiled as part of the post-lapidary process, in order to fill in surface-reaching cracks so that clarity and stability are improved. Cedar oil, having a similar refractive index, is often used in this widely adopted practice. Other liquids, including synthetic oils and polymers with refractive indexes close to that of emeralds, such as "Opticon", are also used. The least expensive emeralds are often treated with epoxy resins, which are effective for filling stones with many fractures. These treatments are typically applied in a vacuum chamber under mild heat, to open the pores of the stone and allow the fracture-filling agent to be absorbed more effectively. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires the disclosure of this treatment when an oil-treated emerald is sold. The use of oil is traditional and largely accepted by the gem trade, although oil-treated emeralds are worth much less than untreated emeralds of similar quality. Untreated emeralds must also be accompanied by a certificate from a licensed, independent gemology laboratory. Other treatments, for example the use of green-tinted oil, are not acceptable in the trade. Gems are graded on a four-step scale; "none", "minor", "moderate" and "highly" enhanced. These categories reflect levels of enhancement, not "clarity". A gem graded "none" on the enhancement scale may still exhibit visible inclusions. Laboratories apply these criteria differently. Some gemologists consider the mere presence of oil or polymers to constitute enhancement. Others may ignore traces of oil if the presence of the material does not improve the look of the gemstone.


title: Emerald

text: Emeralds in antiquity were mined in Ancient Egypt at locations on Mount Smaragdus since 1500 BC, and India and Austria since at least the 14th century AD. The Egyptian mines were exploited on an industrial scale by the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and later by Islamic conquerors. Mining in Egypt ceased with the discovery of the Colombian deposits. Today, only ruins remain.


title: Emerald

text: Colombia is by far the world's largest producer of emeralds, constituting 50–95% of the world production, with the number depending on the year, source and grade. Emerald production in Colombia has increased drastically in the last decade, increasing by 78% from 2000 to 2010. The three main emerald mining areas in Colombia are Muzo, Coscuez, and Chivor. Rare "trapiche" emeralds are found in Colombia, distinguished by ray-like spokes of dark impurities.


title: Emerald

text: Zambia is the world's second biggest producer, with its Kafubu River area deposits (Kagem Mines) about southwest of Kitwe responsible for 20% of the world's production of gem-quality stones in 2004. In the first half of 2011, the Kagem Mines produced 3.74 tons of emeralds.


title: Emerald

text: Emeralds are found all over the world in countries such as Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In the US, emeralds have been found in Connecticut, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In 1997, emeralds were discovered in the Yukon Territory of Canada.


title: Emerald

text: Since the onset of concerns regarding diamond origins, research has been conducted to determine if the mining location could be determined for an emerald already in circulation. Traditional research used qualitative guidelines such as an emerald's color, style and quality of cutting, type of fracture filling, and the anthropological origins of the artifacts bearing the mineral to determine the emerald's mine location. More recent studies using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy methods have uncovered trace chemical element differences between emeralds, including ones mined in close proximity to one another. American gemologist David Cronin and his colleagues have extensively examined the chemical signatures of emeralds resulting from fluid dynamics and subtle precipitation mechanisms, and their research demonstrated the chemical homogeneity of emeralds from the same mining location and the statistical differences that exist between emeralds from different mining locations, including those between the three locations: Muzo, Coscuez, and Chivor, in Colombia, South America.


title: Emerald

text: Both hydrothermal and "flux-growth" synthetics have been produced, and a method has been developed for producing an emerald overgrowth on colorless beryl. The first commercially successful emerald synthesis process was that of Carroll Chatham, likely involving a lithium vanadate flux process, as Chatham's emeralds do not have any water and contain traces of vanadate, molybdenum and vanadium. The other large producer of flux emeralds was Pierre Gilson Sr., whose products have been on the market since 1964. Gilson's emeralds are usually grown on natural colorless beryl seeds, which are coated on both sides. Growth occurs at the rate of 1 mm per month, a typical seven-month growth run produces emerald crystals 7 mm thick.


title: Emerald

text: Hydrothermal synthetic emeralds have been attributed to IG Farben, Nacken, Tairus, and others, but the first satisfactory commercial product was that of Johann Lechleitner of Innsbruck, Austria, which appeared on the market in the 1960s. These stones were initially sold under the names "Emerita" and "Symeralds", and they were grown as a thin layer of emerald on top of natural colorless beryl stones. Later, from 1965 to 1970, the Linde Division of Union Carbide produced completely synthetic emeralds by hydrothermal synthesis. According to their patents (attributable to E.M. Flanigen), acidic conditions are essential to prevent the chromium (which is used as the colorant) from precipitating. Also, it is important that the silicon-containing nutrient be kept away from the other ingredients to prevent nucleation and confine growth to the seed crystals. Growth occurs by a diffusion-reaction process, assisted by convection. The largest producer of hydrothermal emeralds today is Tairus, which has succeeded in synthesizing emeralds with chemical composition similar to emeralds in alkaline deposits in Colombia, and whose products are thus known as “Colombian created emeralds” or “Tairus created emeralds”. Luminescence in ultraviolet light is considered a supplementary test when making a natural versus synthetic determination, as many, but not all, natural emeralds are inert to ultraviolet light. Many synthetics are also UV inert.


title: Emerald

text: Synthetic emeralds are often referred to as "created", as their chemical and gemological composition is the same as their natural counterparts. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has very strict regulations as to what can and what cannot be called a "synthetic" stone. The FTC says: "§ 23.23(c) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "laboratory-grown", "laboratory-created", "[manufacturer name]-created", or "synthetic" with the name of any natural stone to describe any industry product unless such industry product has essentially the same optical, physical, and chemical properties as the stone named."


title: Emerald

text: Emerald is regarded as the traditional birthstone for May as well as the traditional gemstone for the astrological sign of Cancer (June/July)


title: Emerald

text: The virtue of the Emerald is to counteract poison. They say that if a venomous animal should look at it, it will become blinded. The gem also acts as a preservative against epilepsy; it cures leprosy, strengthens sight and memory, checks copulation, during which act it will break, if worn at the time on the finger.


title: Emerald

text: According to French writer Brantôme ( 1540-1614) Cortez had one of the emerald's which he had looted from Mexico text engraved, "Inter Natos Mulierum non surrexit major" ("Among those born of woman there hath not arisen a greater," Matthew 11:11), in reference to John the Baptist. Brantôme considered engraving such a beautiful and simple product of nature sacrilegious and considered this act the cause for Cortez's loss in 1541 of an extremely precious pearl


title: Emerald

text: (to which he dedicated a work, "A beautiful and incomparable pearl"), and even for the death of King Charles IX of France, who died (1574) soon afterward.


title: Emerald

text: In American author L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", and the 1939 MGM film adaptation, the protagonist must travel to an Emerald City to meet the eponymous character, the Wizard.


title: Emerald

text: The chief deity of one of India's most famous temples, the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, is the goddess Meenakshi, whose idol is traditionally thought to be made of emerald.


title: Israelites

text: The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.


title: Israelites

text: The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt, dated to about 1200 BCE. According to the modern archaeological account, the Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples and their cultures through the development of a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion centred on the national god Yahweh. They spoke an archaic form of the Hebrew language, which was a regional variety of the Canaanite language, known today as Biblical Hebrew.


title: Israelites

text: According to the Bible, the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob, who was later renamed Israel. Following a severe drought, Jacob and his twelve sons fled to Egypt, where they eventually formed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Israelites were later led out of slavery in Egypt and subsequently brought to Canaan by Moses; they eventually conquered Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. Modern scholars agree that the Bible does not provide an authentic account of the Israelites' origins, and instead view it as constituting their national myth. However, it is accepted that this narrative does have a "historical core" to it.


title: Israelites

text: A tribal period was followed by the rise of two Israelite kingdoms: Israel and Judah. The Bible portrays Israel and Judah as the successors of an earlier United Kingdom of Israel, although its historicity is disputed. The Kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria, fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE; while the Kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. Some of the Judean population was exiled to Babylon, but returned to Israel after Cyrus the Great conquered the region.


title: Israelites

text: The Jews and the Samaritans are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Jews claim lineage from the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin, and partially from the Tribe of Levi since the ten northern tribes were considered lost following the Assyrian captivity. The Samaritans claim descent from the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh (two sons of Joseph) as well as from the Tribe of Levi. Other groups have also claimed affiliation with the Israelites throughout history.


title: Israelites

text: In the Hebrew Bible, the term "Israelites" is used interchangeably with the term "Twelve Tribes of Israel". Although related, the terms "Hebrews", "Israelites", and "Jews" are not interchangeable in all instances. "Israelites" ("Yisraelim") refers to the people whom the Hebrew Bible describes specifically as the direct descendants of any of the sons of the patriarch Jacob (later called Israel), and his descendants as a people are also collectively called "Israel", including converts to their faith in worship of the national god of Israel, Yahweh. "Hebrews" ("ʿIvrim"), on the contrary, is used to denote the Israelites' immediate forebears who dwelt in the land of Canaan, the Israelites themselves, and the Israelites' ancient and modern descendants (including Jews and Samaritans). "Jews" ("Yehudim") is used to denote the descendants of the Israelites who coalesced when the Tribe of Judah absorbed the remnants of the northern Israelite tribes.


title: Israelites

text: During the period of the divided monarchy, "Israelites" was only used to refer to the inhabitants of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and it is only extended to cover the people of the southern Kingdom of Judah in post-exilic usage.


title: Israelites

text: Efforts to confirm the Israelites' biblical origins through archaeology, once widespread, have been largely abandoned as unproductive, with many scholars viewing the stories as inspiring national myth narratives with little historical value. Scholars posit that a small group of people of Egyptian origin may have joined the early Israelites, and then contributed their own Egyptian Exodus story to all of Israel. William G. Dever cautiously identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with the Tribe of Levi.


title: Israelites

text: Based on the archaeological evidence, according to the modern archaeological account, the Israelites and their culture did not overtake the region by force, but instead branched out of the indigenous Canaanite peoples that long inhabited the Southern Levant, Syria, ancient Israel, and the Transjordan region through a gradual evolution of a distinct monolatristic (later monotheistic) religion centered on Yahweh. The outgrowth of Yahweh-centric monolatrism from Canaanite polytheism started with Yahwism, the belief in the existence of the many gods and goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon but with the consistent worship of only Yahweh. Along with a number of cultic practices, this gave rise to a separate Israelite ethnic group identity. The final transition of their Yahweh-based religion to monotheism and rejection of the existence of the other Canaanite gods set the Israelites apart from their fellow Canaanite brethren. The Israelites, however, continued to retain various cultural commonalities with other Canaanites, including use of one of the Canaanite dialects, Hebrew, which is today the only living descendant of that language group.


title: Israelites

text: According to the religious narrative of the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites' origin is traced back to the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham and his wife Sarah, through their son Isaac and his wife Rebecca, and their son Jacob (who was later called Israel, whence they derive their name) with his wives Leah and Rachel and the handmaids Zilpa and Bilhah. Modern Jews and Samaritans can trace their ancestry to the Israelites. Modern Jews are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah, particularly the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Simeon and partially Levi. Many Israelites took refuge in the Kingdom of Judah following the collapse of the Kingdom of Israel.


title: Israelites

text: Finally, in Judaism, the term "Israelite" is, broadly speaking, used to refer to a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי ("Yehudi"), meaning Jew, is rarely used, and instead the ethnonym ישראלי ("Yisraeli"), or Israelite, is widely used to refer to Jews. Samaritans are not and never call themselves "Jews" יהודים ("Yehudim"), but commonly refer to themselves and to Jews collectively as Israelites, and they describe themselves as Israelite Samaritans.


title: Israelites

text: The name "Israel" first appears in non-biblical sources c. 1209 BCE, in an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah. The inscription is very brief and says simply: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The inscription refers to a people, not to an individual or a nation state.


title: Israelites

text: Three Egyptologists have suggested that the name "Israel" appears in a topographical relief that either dates to the period of the Nineteenth Dynasty (perhaps during the reign of Ramesses II) or even earlier during the Eighteenth Dynasty. This reading remains controversial.


title: Israelites

text: The name "Israel" first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32:29 where it is given to Jacob by the angel with whom he has wrestled because he has "striven with God and with men, and ha[th] prevailed.". The folk etymology given in the text derives Israel from "yisra," "to prevail over" or "to struggle with", and "El" (god). However, modern scholarship interprets "El" as the subject, "El rules/struggles", from "sarar" (שָׂרַר) 'to rule' (cognate with "sar" (שַׂר) 'ruler', Akkadian "šarru" 'ruler, king'), which is likely cognate with the similar root "sara" (שׂרה) "fought, strove, contended".


title: Israelites

text: The Israelite story begins with some of the culture heroes of the Jewish people, the patriarchs. The Torah traces the Israelites to the patriarch Jacob, grandson of Abraham, who was renamed Israel after a mysterious incident in which he wrestles all night with God or an angel. Jacob's twelve sons (in order of birth), Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, become the ancestors of twelve tribes, with the exception of Joseph, whose two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, become tribal eponyms ().


title: Israelites

text: Jacob and his sons are forced by famine to go down into Egypt, although Joseph was already there, as he had been sold into slavery while young. When they arrive they and their families are 70 in number, but within four generations they have increased to 600,000 men of fighting age, and the Pharaoh of Egypt, alarmed, first enslaves them and then orders the death of all male Hebrew children. A woman from the tribe of Levi hides her child, places him in a woven basket, and sends him down the Nile river. He is named Mosheh, or Moses, by the Egyptian woman who finds him. Being a Hebrew baby, they award a Hebrew woman the task of raising him, the mother of Moses volunteers, and the child and his mother are reunited.


title: Israelites

text: At the age of forty Moses kills an Egyptian, after he sees him beating a Hebrew to death, and escapes as a fugitive into the Sinai desert, where he is taken in by the Midianites and marries Zipporah, the daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. When he is eighty years old, Moses is tending a herd of sheep in solitude on Mount Sinai when he sees a desert shrub that is burning but is not consumed. The God of Israel calls to Moses from the fire and reveals his name, Yahweh, and tells Moses that he is being sent to Pharaoh to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt.


title: Israelites

text: Yahweh tells Moses that if Pharaoh refuses to let the Hebrews go to say to Pharaoh "Thus says Yahweh: Israel is my son, my first-born and I have said to you: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will slay your son, your first-born". Moses returns to Egypt and tells Pharaoh that he must let the Hebrew slaves go free. Pharaoh refuses and Yahweh strikes the Egyptians with a series of horrific plagues, wonders, and catastrophes, after which Pharaoh relents and banishes the Hebrews from Egypt. Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage toward the Red Sea, but Pharaoh changes his mind and arises to massacre the fleeing Hebrews. Pharaoh finds them by the sea shore and attempts to drive them into the ocean with his chariots and drown them.Yahweh causes the Red Sea to part and the Hebrews pass through on dry land into the Sinai. After the Israelites escape from the midst of the sea, Yahweh causes the ocean to close back in on the pursuing Egyptian army, drowning them. In the desert Yahweh feeds them with manna that accumulates on the ground with the morning dew. They are led by a column of cloud, which ignites at night and becomes a pillar of fire to illuminate the way, southward through the desert until they come to Mount Sinai. The twelve tribes of Israel encamp around the mountain, and on the third day Mount Sinai begins to smolder, then catches fire, and Yahweh speaks the Ten Commandments from the midst of the fire to all the Israelites, from the top of the mountain.


title: Israelites

text: Moses ascends Mount Sinai and fasts for forty days while he writes down the Torah as Yahweh dictates, beginning with Bereshith and the creation of the universe and earth. He is shown the design of the Mishkan and the Ark of the Covenant, which Bezalel is given the task of building. Moses descends from the mountain forty days later with the Sefer Torah he wrote, and with two rectangular lapis lazuli tablets, into which Yahweh had carved the Ten Commandments. In his absence, Aaron has constructed an image of Yahweh, depicting him as a young golden calf, and has presented it to the Israelites, declaring "Behold O Israel, this is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt". Moses smashes the two tablets and grinds the golden calf into dust, then throws the dust into a stream of water flowing out of Mount Sinai, and forces the Israelites to drink from it.


title: Israelites

text: Moses ascends Mount Sinai for a second time and Yahweh passes before him and says: 'Yahweh, Yahweh, a god of compassion, and showing favor, slow to anger, and great in kindness and in truth, who shows kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving wrongdoing and injustice and wickedness, but will by no means clear the guilty, causing the consequences of the parent's wrongdoing to befall their children, and their children's children, to the third and fourth generation' Moses then fasts for another forty days while Yahweh carves the Ten Commandments into the second set of stone tablets. After the tablets are completed, light emanates from the face of Moses for the rest of his life, causing him to wear a veil so he does not frighten people.


title: Israelites

text: follow all the laws of the Torah. Moses prophesies if they forsake the Torah, Yahweh will exile them for the total number of years they did not observe the shmita. Bezael constructs the Ark of the Covenant and the Mishkan, where the presence of Yahweh dwells on earth in the Holy of Holies, above the Ark of the Covenant, which houses the Ten Commandments. Moses sends spies to scout out the Land of Canaan, and the Israelites are commanded to go up and conquer the land, but they refuse, due to their fear of warfare and violence. In response, Yahweh condemns the entire generation, including Moses, who is condemned for striking the rock at Meribah, to exile and death in the Sinai desert.


title: Israelites

text: Before Moses dies he gives a speech to the Israelites where he paraphrases a summary of the mizwoth given to them by Yahweh, and recites a prophetic song called the Ha'azinu. Moses prophesies that if the Israelites disobey the Torah, Yahweh will cause a global exile in addition to the minor one prophesied earlier at Mount Sinai, but at the end of days Yahweh will gather them back to Israel from among the nations when they turn back to the Torah with zeal. The events of the Israelite exodus and their sojourn in the Sinai are memorialized in the Jewish and Samaritan festivals of Passover and Sukkoth, and the giving of the Torah in the Jewish celebration of Shavuoth.


title: Israelites

text: Forty years after the Exodus, following the death of the generation of Moses, a new generation, led by Joshua, enters Canaan and takes possession of the land in accordance with the promise made to Abraham by Yahweh. The land is allocated to the tribes by lottery. Eventually, the Israelites ask for a king, and Yahweh gives them Saul. David, the youngest (divinely favored) son of Jesse of Bethlehem would succeed Saul. Under David, the Israelites establish the united monarchy, and under David's son Solomon they construct the First Temple in Jerusalem, using the 400-year-old materials of the Tabernacle, where Yahweh continues to tabernacle himself among them. On the death of Solomon and reign of his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom is divided in two.


title: Israelites

text: In the biblical narrative, the kings of the northern Kingdom of Israel are uniformly bad, permitting the worship of other gods and failing to enforce the worship of Yahweh alone, and so Yahweh eventually allows them to be conquered and dispersed among the peoples of the earth; and strangers rule over their remnant in the northern land. In Judah some kings are good and enforce the worship of Yahweh alone, but many are bad and permit other gods, even in the Holy Temple itself, and at length Yahweh allows Judah to fall to her enemies, the people taken into captivity in Babylon, the land left empty and desolate, and the Holy Temple itself destroyed.


title: Israelites

text: Yet despite these events, Yahweh does not forget his people but sends Cyrus, king of Persia to deliver them from bondage. The Israelites are allowed to return to Judah and Benjamin, the Holy Temple is rebuilt, the priestly orders restored, and the service of sacrifice resumed. Through the offices of the sage Ezra, Israel is constituted as a holy nation, bound by the Torah and holding itself apart from all other peoples.


title: Israelites

text: The name Israel first appears c. 1209 BCE, at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the very beginning of the period archaeologists and historians call Iron Age I, on the Merneptah Stele raised by the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah.


title: Israelites

text: As distinct from the cities named (Ashkelon, Gezer, Yenoam) which are written with a toponymic marker, Israel is written hieroglyphically with a demonymic determinative indicating that the reference is to a human group, variously located in central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria.


title: Israelites

text: Several theories exist proposing the origins of the Israelites in raiding groups, infiltrating nomads or emerging from indigenous Canaanites driven from the wealthier urban areas by poverty to seek their fortunes in the highland. Various, ethnically distinct groups of itinerant nomads such as the Habiru and Shasu recorded in Egyptian texts as active in Edom and Canaan could have been related to the later Israelites, which does not exclude the possibility that the majority may have had their origins in Canaan proper. The name Yahweh, the god of the later Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of Mount Seir in Edom.


title: Israelites

text: The prevailing academic opinion today is that the Israelites were a mixture of peoples predominantly indigenous to Canaan, although an Egyptian matrix of peoples may also have played a role in their ethnogenesis (giving birth to the saga of The Exodus), with an ethnic composition similar to that in Ammon, Edom and Moab, and including Habiru and Shasu. The Israelites as a group had both ethnic and religious elements. In the ancient Near East religion was tribal, and so was the religion of the Israelites; religion in this context was as much related to ethnicity as it was to spirituality. For the Israelites, Yahweh was their national god, with whom they believed they had a special covenant. The distinct ethnic identity of Israelites was strengthened by conflicts with other peoples such as the Philistines.


title: Israelites

text: The origins of the god Yahweh are currently uncertain, since the early Israelites seemed to worship the Caanaanite god El as their national deity, only to later replace it with Yahweh. It has been speculated by some scholars that the cult of Yahweh may have been brought into Israel by a group of Caananite slaves fleeing from Egypt, who later merged with the Israelites.


title: Israelites

text: Over the next two hundred years (the period of Iron Age I) the number of highland villages increased from 25 to over 300 and the settled population doubled to 40,000.


title: Israelites

text: According to the Hebrew Bible, the various tribes of Israel united in the 10th century BCE and formed the United Kingdom of Israel, under the leadership of Saul, who was later overthrown by David; after the death of David, his son Solomon ascended to the throne and reigned until his death, after which the Kingdom split into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.


title: Israelites

text: The historicity of the United Monarchy is heavily debated among archaeologists and biblical scholars: biblical maximalists and centrists (Kenneth Kitchen, William G. Dever, Amihai Mazar, Baruch Halpern and others) believe that the biblical account can be considered as more or less accurate, biblical minimalists (Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, Thomas L. Thompson and others) believe that the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah developed as separate states and there was never a United Monarchy. The debate has not yet been resolved, although recent archaeological discoveries by Israeli archaeologists Eilat Mazar and Yosef Garfinkel seem to support the existence of a united monarchy. From 850 BCE onwards a series of inscriptions are evidence of a kingdom which its neighbors refer to as the "House of David."


title: Israelites

text: Historians and archaeologists agree that a Kingdom of Israel existed by 900 BCE and that a Kingdom of Judah existed by 700 BCE. The political power of Judah was concentrated within the tribe of Judah, Israel was dominated by the tribe of Ephraim and the House of Joseph; the region of Galilee was associated with the tribe of Naphtali, the most eminent tribe of northern Israel.


title: Israelites

text: The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.


title: Israelites

text: The Kingdom of Judah later became a client state of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then the Neo-Babylonian Empire. A revolt against the latter led to its destruction by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. According to the Hebrew Bible, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The defeat was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.


title: Israelites

text: Following the fall of Babylon to the Persian Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE, the Jews who had been deported in the aftermath of the Babylonian conquest of Judah were eventually allowed to return following a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great that was issued after the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire. The returned Jewish population in Judah were allowed to self-rule under Persian governance. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great, 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple.


title: Israelites

text: Around the same era, the Samaritans emerged as an ethnic and religious community in the region of Samaria. With their temple on Mount Gerizim, they continued to thrive for centuries. Many Jewish authorities contest their lineage, deeming them to have been conquered foreigners who were settled in the Land of Israel by the Assyrians, as was the typical Assyrian policy to obliterate national identities. Most scholars believe the Samaritans are a blend of Israelites with other nationalities whom the Assyrians had resettled in the area.


title: Israelites

text: The terms "Jews" and "Samaritans" largely replaced the title "Children of Israel" as the commonly used ethnonym for each respective community. The Greek term "Ioudaios" (Jew) was an exonym originally referring to members of the Tribe of Judah, and by extension the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah and the Judean region, and was later adopted as a self-designation by people in the Jewish diaspora who identified themselves as loyal to the God of Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans' ethnonym is derived either from "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers [of the Law/Torah]", or after the region of Samaria.


title: Israelites

text: A 2004 study (by Shen et al.) comparing Samaritans to several Jewish populations (including Ashkenazi Jews, Iraqi Jews, Libyan Jews, Moroccan Jews, and Yemenite Jews, as well as Israeli Druze and Palestinians) found that "the principal components analysis suggested a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in what is today identified as the paternally inherited Israelite high priesthood (Cohanim), with a common ancestor projected to the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel."


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete (haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote that develops into an organism composed of cells with two sets of chromosomes (diploid). This is typical in animals, though the number of chromosome sets and how that number changes in sexual reproduction varies, especially among plants, fungi, and other eukaryotes.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Sexual reproduction is the most common life cycle in multicellular eukaryotes, such as animals, fungi and plants. Sexual reproduction also occurs in some unicellular eukaryotes. Sexual reproduction does not occur in prokaryotes, unicellular organisms without cell nuclei, such bacteria and archaea. However, some process in bacteria may be considered analogous to sexual reproduction in that they incorporate new genetic information, including bacterial conjugation, transformation and transduction. Some proteins and other features that are key for sexual reproduction may have arisen in bacteria, but sexual reproduction is believed to have developed in an ancient eukaryotic ancestor.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: In the production of gametes in eukaryotes, diploid precursor cells divide to produce haploid cells in a process called meiosis. In meiosis, DNA is replicated to produce a total of four copies of each chromosome. This is followed by two cell divisions to generate haploid gametes. After the DNA is replicated in meiosis, the homologous chromosomes pair up so that their DNA sequences are aligned with each other. During this period before cell divisions, genetic information is exchanged between homologous chromosomes in a process known as genetic recombination. Homologous chromosomes contain highly similar but not identical information, and by exchanging these similar but not identical regions, genetic recombination increases genetic diversity among future generations.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Gametes may be stored in the parents' gonads for later sexual reproduction, which involves the combination of gametes. During sexual reproduction, two haploid gametes combine into one diploid cell known as a zygote in a process called fertilization. The nuclei from the gametes fuse, and each gamete contributes half of the genetic material of the zygote. Multiple cell divisions by mitosis (without change in the number of chromosomes) then develop into a multicellular diploid phase or generation.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: In human reproduction, each diploid cell contains 46 chromosomes, or 23 pair chromosomes. Meiosis in the parents' gonads produces gametes that each contain only 23 chromosomes that were genetically recombined in each gamete. When the nuclei of the gametes come together to form a fertilized egg or zygote, each cell of the resulting offspring will have 23 chromosomes from each parent, or 46 in total.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: In plants, the diploid phase, known as the sporophyte, produces spores by meiosis. These spores then germinate and divide by mitosis to form a haploid multicellular phase, the gametophyte, which produces gametes directly by mitosis. This type of life cycle, involving alternation between two multicellular phases, the sexual haploid gametophyte and asexual diploid sporophyte, is known as alternation of generations.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: The evolution of sexual reproduction is considered paradoxical, because asexual reproduction should be able to outperform it as every young organism created can bear its own young. This implies that an asexual population has an intrinsic capacity to grow more rapidly with each generation. This 50% cost is a fitness disadvantage of sexual reproduction. The two-fold cost of sex includes this cost and the fact that any organism can only pass on 50% of its own genes to its offspring. However, one definite advantage of sexual reproduction is that it increases genetic diversity and impedes the accumulation of genetic mutations.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which some individuals out-reproduce others of a population because they are better at securing mates for sexual reproduction. It has been described as "a powerful evolutionary force that does not exist in asexual populations".


title: Sexual reproduction

text: The first fossilized evidence of sexual reproduction in eukaryotes is from the Stenian period, about 1.05 billion years old.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Biologists studying evolution propose several explanations for the development of sexual reproduction and its maintenance. These reasons include reducing the likelihood of the accumulation of deleterious mutations, increasing rate of adaptation to changing environments, dealing with competition, DNA repair, masking deleterious mutations, and reducing genetic variation on the genomic level. All of these ideas about why sexual reproduction has been maintained are generally supported, but ultimately the size of the population determines if sexual reproduction is entirely beneficial. Larger populations appear to respond more quickly to some of the benefits obtained through sexual reproduction than do smaller population sizes.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Maintenance of sexual reproduction has been explained by theories that work at several levels of selection, though some of these models remain controversial. However, newer models presented in recent years suggest a basic advantage for sexual reproduction in slowly reproducing complex organisms.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Sexual reproduction allows these species to exhibit characteristics that depend on the specific environment that they inhabit, and the particular survival strategies that they employ.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: In order to reproduce sexually, both males and females need to find a mate. Generally in animals mate choice is made by females while males compete to be chosen. This can lead organisms to extreme efforts in order to reproduce, such as combat and display, or produce extreme features caused by a positive feedback known as a Fisherian runaway. Thus sexual reproduction, as a form of natural selection, has an effect on evolution. Sexual dimorphism is where the basic phenotypic traits vary between males and females of the same species. Dimorphism is found in both sex organs and in secondary sex characteristics, body size, physical strength and morphology, biological ornamentation, behavior and other bodily traits. However, sexual selection is only implied over an extended period of time leading to sexual dimorphism.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Insect species make up more than two-thirds of all extant animal species. Most insect species reproduce sexually, though some species are facultatively parthenogenetic. Many insects species have sexual dimorphism, while in others the sexes look nearly identical. Typically they have two sexes with males producing spermatozoa and females ova. The ova develop into eggs that have a covering called the chorion, which forms before internal fertilization. Insects have very diverse mating and reproductive strategies most often resulting in the male depositing spermatophore within the female, which she stores until she is ready for egg fertilization. After fertilization, and the formation of a zygote, and varying degrees of development, in many species the eggs are deposited outside the female; while in others, they develop further within the female and are born live.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: There are three extant kinds of mammals: monotremes, placentals and marsupials, all with internal fertilization. In placental mammals, offspring are born as juveniles: complete animals with the sex organs present although not reproductively functional. After several months or years, depending on the species, the sex organs develop further to maturity and the animal becomes sexually mature. Most female mammals are only fertile during certain periods during their estrous cycle, at which point they are ready to mate. Individual male and female mammals meet and carry out copulation. For most mammals, males and females exchange sexual partners throughout their adult lives.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: The vast majority of fish species lay eggs that are then fertilized by the male. Some species lay their eggs on a substrate like a rock or on plants, while others scatter their eggs and the eggs are fertilized as they drift or sink in the water column.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Some fish species use internal fertilization and then disperse the developing eggs or give birth to live offspring. Fish that have live-bearing offspring include the guppy and mollies or "Poecilia". Fishes that give birth to live young can be ovoviviparous, where the eggs are fertilized within the female and the eggs simply hatch within the female body, or in seahorses, the male carries the developing young within a pouch, and gives birth to live young. Fishes can also be viviparous, where the female supplies nourishment to the internally growing offspring. Some fish are hermaphrodites, where a single fish is both male and female and can produce eggs and sperm. In hermaphroditic fish, some are male and female at the same time while in other fish they are serially hermaphroditic; starting as one sex and changing to the other. In at least one hermaphroditic species, self-fertilization occurs when the eggs and sperm are released together. Internal self-fertilization may occur in some other species. One fish species does not reproduce by sexual reproduction but uses sex to produce offspring; "Poecilia formosa" is a unisex species that uses a form of parthenogenesis called gynogenesis, where unfertilized eggs develop into embryos that produce female offspring. "Poecilia formosa" mate with males of other fish species that use internal fertilization, the sperm does not fertilize the eggs but stimulates the growth of the eggs which develops into embryos.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Animals have life cycles with a single diploid multicellular phase that produces haploid gametes directly by meiosis. Male gametes are called sperm, and female gametes are called eggs or ova. In animals, fertilization of the ovum by a sperm results in the formation of a diploid zygote that develops by repeated mitotic divisions into a diploid adult. Plants have two multicellular life-cycle phases, resulting in an alternation of generations. Plant zygotes germinate and divide repeatedly by mitosis to produce a diploid multicellular organism known as the sporophyte. The mature sporophyte produces haploid spores by meiosis that germinate and divide by mitosis to form a multicellular gametophyte phase that produces gametes at maturity. The gametophytes of different groups of plants vary in size. Mosses and other pteridophytic plants may have gametophytes consisting of several million cells, while angiosperms have as few as three cells in each pollen grain.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Flowering plants are the dominant plant form on land and they reproduce either sexually or asexually. Often their most distinguishing feature is their reproductive organs, commonly called flowers. The anther produces pollen grains which contain the male gametophytes that produce sperm nuclei. For pollination to occur, pollen grains must attach to the stigma of the female reproductive structure (carpel), where the female gametophytes are located within ovules enclose within the ovary. After the pollen tube grows through the carpel's style, the sex cell nuclei from the pollen grain migrate into the ovule to fertilize the egg cell and endosperm nuclei within the female gametophyte in a process termed double fertilization. The resulting zygote develops into an embryo, while the triploid endosperm (one sperm cell plus two female cells) and female tissues of the ovule give rise to the surrounding tissues in the developing seed. The ovary, which produced the female gametophyte(s), then grows into a fruit, which surrounds the seed(s). Plants may either self-pollinate or cross-pollinate.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: In 2013, flowers dating from the Cretaceous (100 million years before present) were found encased in amber, the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction in a flowering plant. Microscopic images showed tubes growing out of pollen and penetrating the flower's stigma. The pollen was sticky, suggesting it was carried by insects.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Ferns produce large diploid sporophytes with rhizomes, roots and leaves. Fertile leaves produce sporangia that contain haploid spores. The spores are released and germinate to produce small, thin gametophytes that are typically heart shaped and green in color. The gametophyte prothalli, produce motile sperm in the antheridia and egg cells in archegonia on the same or different plants. After rains or when dew deposits a film of water, the motile sperm are splashed away from the antheridia, which are normally produced on the top side of the thallus, and swim in the film of water to the archegonia where they fertilize the egg. To promote out crossing or cross fertilization the sperm are released before the eggs are receptive of the sperm, making it more likely that the sperm will fertilize the eggs of different thallus. After fertilization, a zygote is formed which grows into a new sporophytic plant. The condition of having separate sporophyte and gametophyte plants is called alternation of generations. Other plants with similar life cycles include "Psilotum", "Lycopodium" and "Equisetum".


title: Sexual reproduction

text: The bryophytes, which include liverworts, hornworts and mosses, reproduce both sexually and vegetatively. They are small plants found growing in moist locations and like ferns, have motile sperm with flagella and need water to facilitate sexual reproduction. These plants start as a haploid spore that grows into the dominant gametophyte form, which is a multicellular haploid body with leaf-like structures that photosynthesize. Haploid gametes are produced in antheridia (male) and archegonia (female) by mitosis. The sperm released from the antheridia respond to chemicals released by ripe archegonia and swim to them in a film of water and fertilize the egg cells thus producing a zygote. The zygote divides by mitotic division and grows into a multicellular, diploid sporophyte. The sporophyte produces spore capsules (sporangia), which are connected by stalks (setae) to the archegonia. The spore capsules produce spores by meiosis and when ripe the capsules burst open to release the spores. Bryophytes show considerable variation in their reproductive structures and the above is a basic outline. Also in some species each plant is one sex (dioicous) while other species produce both sexes on the same plant (monoicous).


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Fungi are classified by the methods of sexual reproduction they employ. The outcome of sexual reproduction most often is the production of resting spores that are used to survive inclement times and to spread. There are typically three phases in the sexual reproduction of fungi: plasmogamy, karyogamy and meiosis. The cytoplasm of two parent cells fuse during plasmogamy and the nuclei fuse during karyogamy. New haploid gametes are formed during meiosis and develop into spores. The adaptive basis for the maintenance of sexual reproduction in the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota (dikaryon) fungi was reviewed by Wallen and Perlin. They concluded that the most plausible reason for maintaining this capability is the benefit of repairing DNA damage, caused by a variety of stresses, through recombination that occurs during meiosis.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Three distinct processes in prokaryotes are regarded as similar to eukaryotic sex: bacterial transformation, which involves the incorporation of foreign DNA into the bacterial chromosome; bacterial conjugation, which is a transfer of plasmid DNA between bacteria, but the plasmids are rarely incorporated into the bacterial chromosome; and gene transfer and genetic exchange in archaea.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Bacterial transformation involves the recombination of genetic material and its function is mainly associated with DNA repair. Bacterial transformation is a complex process encoded by numerous bacterial genes, and is a bacterial adaptation for DNA transfer. This process occurs naturally in at least 40 bacterial species. For a bacterium to bind, take up, and recombine exogenous DNA into its chromosome, it must enter a special physiological state referred to as competence (see Natural competence). Sexual reproduction in early single-celled eukaryotes may have evolved from bacterial transformation, or from a similar process in archaea (see below).


title: Sexual reproduction

text: On the other hand, bacterial conjugation is a type of direct transfer of DNA between two bacteria mediated by an external appendage called the conjugation pilus. Bacterial conjugation is controlled by plasmid genes that are adapted for spreading copies of the plasmid between bacteria. The infrequent integration of a plasmid into a host bacterial chromosome, and the subsequent transfer of a part of the host chromosome to another cell do not appear to be bacterial adaptations.


title: Sexual reproduction

text: Exposure of hyperthermophilic archaeal Sulfolobus species to DNA damaging conditions induces cellular aggregation accompanied by high frequency genetic marker exchange. Ajon et al. hypothesized that this cellular aggregation enhances species-specific DNA repair by homologous recombination. DNA transfer in "Sulfolobus" may be an early form of sexual interaction similar to the more well-studied bacterial transformation systems that also involve species-specific DNA transfer leading to homologous recombinational repair of DNA damage.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has combined record sales of over 35 million albums. He was ranked number 28 in "Rolling Stone"s 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and number 47 in the 2011 list. Stills became the first person to be inducted twice with his groups on the same night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. According to Neil Young, "Stephen is a genius."


title: Stephen Stills

text: Beginning his professional career with Buffalo Springfield, he composed "For What It's Worth", which became one of the most recognizable songs of the 1960s. Other notable songs he contributed to the band were "Sit Down, I Think I Love You", "Bluebird", and "Rock & Roll Woman". According to bandmate Richie Furay, he was "the heart and soul of Buffalo Springfield".


title: Stephen Stills

text: After Buffalo Springfield disbanded, Stills began working with David Crosby and Graham Nash as a trio called Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN). In addition to writing many of the band's songs, Stills played bass, guitar, and keyboards on their debut album. The album sold over four million copies and at that point had outsold anything from the three members' prior bands: the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the Hollies. The album won the trio a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills's first solo album, "Stephen Stills", earned a gold record and is the only album to feature both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Its hit single "Love the One You're With" became his biggest solo hit, peaking at number 14 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Stills followed this with a string of solo albums, as well as starting a band with Chris Hillman called Manassas in 1972. In the summer 1974, Young reunited with CSN after a four-year hiatus for a concert tour that was recorded and released in 2014 as "CSNY 1974". It was one of the first stadium tours and the largest tour the band has done to date. CSN reunited in 1977 for their album "CSN", which became the trio's best-selling record. CSN and CSNY continued to have platinum albums through the 1980s.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills was born in Dallas, the son of William Arthur Stills (1915–1986) and Talitha Quintilla Collard (1919–1996). Raised in a military family, he moved around as a child and developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his youth in Gainesville and Tampa, Florida, as well as Covington, Louisiana, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal Zone, and El Salvador. Stills attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida and Saint Leo College Preparatory School in Saint Leo, Florida, before graduating from Lincoln High School in Costa Rica.


title: Stephen Stills

text: When he was nine years old, he was diagnosed with a partial hearing loss in one ear. The hearing loss increased as he got older.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills dropped out of Louisiana State University in the early 1960s. He played in a series of bands, including the Continentals, which then featured future Eagles guitarist Don Felder. Stills also sang as a solo artist at Gerde's Folk City, a well-known coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. Stills eventually ended up in a nine-member vocal harmony group, the house act at the famous Cafe au Go Go in New York City, called the Au Go Go Singers, which included his future Buffalo Springfield bandmate Richie Furay. This group did some touring in the Catskills and in the South, released one album in 1964, and then broke up in 1965. Afterwards, Stills formed a folk-rock group called The Company with four other former members of the Au Go Go Singers. The Company embarked on a six-week tour of Canada, where Stills met guitarist Neil Young. On the VH1 "CSNY Legends" special, Stills said that Young was doing what he always wanted to do, "play folk music in a rock band." The Company broke up in New York within four months; Stills did session work and went to various auditions. In 1966 he convinced a reluctant Furay, then living in Massachusetts, to move with him to California.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills, Furay, and Young reunited in Los Angeles and formed the core of Buffalo Springfield. Legend has it that Stills and Furay recognized Young's converted hearse and flagged him down, a meeting described in a recent solo track "Round the Bend". Buffalo Springfield performed a mixture of folk, country, psychedelia, and rock. Its sound was lent a hard edge by the twin lead guitars of Stills and Young, and that combination helped make Buffalo Springfield a critical success. The band's first record "Buffalo Springfield" (1966) sold well after Stills's topical song "For What It's Worth" became a top ten hit, reaching number 7 on the US charts. According to "Rolling Stone", the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other sources, Buffalo Springfield helped create the genres of folk rock and country rock. Distrust of their management along with the arrest and deportation of bassist Bruce Palmer worsened the already strained relations among the group members and led to Buffalo Springfield's demise. A second album, "Buffalo Springfield Again", was released in late 1967 and featured Stills songs "Bluebird" and "Rock And Roll Woman". In May 1968, the band split up for good, but contractual obligations required the recording and release of a final studio album, "Last Time Around". The album was primarily composed of tracks laid down earlier that year. A Stills song from their debut album, "Sit Down, I Think I Love You," was a minor hit for the Mojo Men in 1967.


title: Stephen Stills

text: After the disintegration of Buffalo Springfield, Stills played on half of the "Super Session" album with Al Kooper in 1968, including a cover of Donovan's "Season Of The Witch" that received heavy radio play on progressive FM radio formats. Mike Bloomfield was due to play on all of the album but failed to turn up for the second day of recording. The album sold well and charted at number 12 on the US charts while being certified Gold in December 1970.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In late 1968 Stills joined David Crosby from the Byrds and Graham Nash from The Hollies to form Crosby, Stills & Nash. Several of Stills's songs on the group's debut album, including "" and "You Don't Have To Cry", were inspired by his on-again off-again relationship with singer Judy Collins. The album reached number 6 on the US charts and was certified quadruple platinum. Stills dominated the recording of the album. Crosby and Nash played guitar on their own songs respectively, while drummer Dallas Taylor played on four tracks and drummer Jim Gordon on a fifth. Stills played all the bass, organ, and lead guitar parts, as well as acoustic guitar on his own songs. "The other guys won't be offended when I say that one was my baby, and I kind of had the tracks in my head," Stills said.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Wanting to be able to tour and needing additional musicians to strengthen the sound, the band invited Neil Young to join them for their first tour and second album to make the group the quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, (initialized as CSNY). The first tour started in August 1969 and finished in January 1970. They recorded their album "Déjà Vu" at this time and released it in March 1970. During the recording the musicians frequently argued, particularly Young and Stills, who both fought for control. Stills brought to the album the songs "Carry On" and "4+20" and wrote "Everybody I Love You" with Neil Young. He also brought his version of Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock" for the band to cover. The album hit number 1 on the US charts and was certified 7 times platinum there, selling over 8 million copies. In May 1970 CSNY recorded Young's "Ohio" following the Kent State massacre on May 4. The single's B side was Stills's "Find The Cost Of Freedom". The record was immediately released as a single by Atlantic Records, even though the group's "Teach Your Children" was still climbing the singles charts. After an extended second tour finishing in July 1970, the band split up, and Stills then moved to England and started recording his debut solo album.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In April 1971, CSNY released "4 Way Street", a double live album recorded in 1970. The album reached number 1 in 1971 on the US charts and was certified quadruple platinum in the US.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Having played at the Monterey Pop Festival with Buffalo Springfield and both Woodstock and Altamont with CSNY, Stills (along with Crosby) performed at three of the most iconic U.S. rock festivals of the 1960s. During Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's set at Altamont Free Concert, Stills was reported to be repeatedly stabbed in the leg by a "stoned-out" Hells Angel, with a sharpened bicycle spoke. At the band's request, their performance was not included in the subsequent film "Gimme Shelter" (1970).


title: Stephen Stills

text: In the wake of CSNY's success, all four members recorded high-profile solo albums. In 1970, Stills released his eponymous solo debut album which featured guests Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Cass Elliot, Booker T. Jones and Ringo Starr (credited only as "Richie") as well as David Crosby, Graham Nash, Rita Coolidge and CSNY drummers Dallas Taylor and Johnny Barbata. It provided Stills with the U.S. No. 14 hit single "Love the One You're With.", and another US top 40 hit "Sit Yourself Down", peaking at 37. The album peaked at no 3 on the US charts, a solo career peak. At the time of release Stills's solo album was the highest selling solo album out of the four. It was recorded in the UK, where Stills bought Ringo Starr's old mansion in Surrey, England.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills followed this album with "Stephen Stills 2" only 6 months later, recorded in Miami, which featured "Change Partners" and "Marianne". Both these singles narrowly missed the US top 40, hitting 43 and 42 respectively, while the album reached number 8 on the charts. This album was certified US Gold only a month after release. Even though "Change Partners" was written before CSN formed, Nash saw it as a metaphor for the many relationships in CSNY. Stills recorded 23 songs for the album and originally wanted to release a double album but Atlantic wouldn't let him. In support of this album Stills went on his first solo tour with an 8 piece band including the Memphis Horns, playing major arenas across the USA. It was during this tour he sold out Madison Square Garden, The Philadelphia Spectrum, LA Forum and the Boston Garden, arguably at his solo commercial peak. He sold out MSG the day before George Harrison organised the Concert For Bangladesh, and Stills donated his stage, sound, lighting system and production manager but was upset when Harrison "neglected to invite him to perform, mention his name, or say thank you". Stills then spent the show drunk in Ringo Starr's dressing room, "barking at everyone". Stills's Madison Square Garden show was professionally recorded and filmed but has never been released, although a filmed recording of "Go Back Home" was played in early 1972 on the Old Grey Whistle Test, and two acoustic tracks were released on Stills 2013 box set "Carry On".


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1971, Billboard magazine ranked him at number 34 top singles artist, number 44 top album artist, number 14 top singles male vocalist, number 12 top new singles vocalist, number 17 top album male vocalists, number 14 top new album artist, number 73 top producers, and ranked his debut album number 70 in the year end album charts. Cashbox magazine, ranked "Stephen Stills 2" as the number 51 album of 1971, and his debut as number 52, they ranked Stills as the number 3 best new vocalist, and the number 2 new male of 1971.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Also in 1971, Stills played guitar for the Bill Withers album, "Just as I Am", including the Grammy-winning song, "Ain't No Sunshine".


title: Stephen Stills

text: In late 1971, Stills teamed up with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman to form the band Manassas. Their self-titled double album was a mixture of rock, country, blues, bluegrass and Latin music divided into different sections and peaked at number 4 in the US. It was certified US Gold a month after release but did not yield any more top 40 hits, only "It Doesn't Matter" reached 61 on the US charts. Stills spent the majority of 1972 playing live with Manassas on a world tour, which included headlining festivals in Australia, playing more arenas in the US including the Nassau Coliseum, and the Boston Garden. His concert at The Rainbow Theatre, London was recorded for BBC TV Special titled Stephen Stills Manassas: In Concert. He moved to Boulder, Colorado after this world tour finished and in March 1973 married French singer-songwriter Veronique Sanson in London England, after having met while at a Manassas gig in France, 1972. In early 1972, Stills appeared in a UK documentary about himself called Sounding Out. Cashbox magazine ranked Stills as the number 52 top male vocalist of 1972. Billboard ranked Manassas as the number 53 album of 1972, and Stills as the number 75 album artist.


title: Stephen Stills

text: All of Stills's albums after Buffalo Springfield had gone either gold or platinum; the Manassas follow-up album the next year "Down the Road" was his first LP that did not, but still managed to reach 26 in the US charts. It was recorded less than a year after the debut double album, and encountered some issues with recording and not having enough Stills songs on the album. Also Atlantic were pushing for a far more commercially viable CSNY reunion. Which in June and July 1973, between the two 1973 Manassas tours at the start and end of the year, happened in Maui. As CSNY attempted to record an album tentatively called "Human Highway". This album was never finished due to infighting. But after one final 1973 Manassas tour, during which CSN and CSNY reunited during the acoustic sections both at Winterland Arena concerts, a reunion was in the cards, and Manassas was over. Stills then sold his Surrey home and relocated to Colorado. The last date of the first 1973 Manassas tour was recorded for ABC In Concert. Cashbox magazine ranked Manassas as the number 58 group of 1973. Billboard ranked Down The Road as the number 36 of new album artists.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1972/73, Stephen left the services of David Geffen and set up his own publishing company with Ken Weiss, called Gold Hill Publishing, named after his home in Boulder, Colorado.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills spent early 1974 on a sold out East coast tour where he played well respected theatres, including Carnegie Hall. The 1975 live album Stephen Stills Live was made up of recordings from this tour. It was also during this tour that Stills announced the 1974 CSNY reunion concert tour. The CSNY reunion tour sold out shows through July and August in both the US and the UK, with an average concert attendance of 80,000. Due to poor management, the tour made little money for the group, but album sales saw a boost: the CSNY compilation album So Far reached number 1 in the US and sold 6 million copies. After another aborted attempt at recording another CSNY album after the tour, Stills signed with Columbia Records in late 1974. In 1973–1974, Stills was recording another solo album called "As I Come Of Age", which was put aside for the CSNY reunion tour. Many songs were used for the 1975 "Stills" album. In 1974, Stills played bass, and help mix his wife, Veronique Sanson's, record "Le Maudit". He also played bass for her at two of her concerts in Paris in October 1974. On 29 October, Stills played two short acoustic shows at Chances Are, a nightclub in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a benefit for Democrat John Reuther's campaign. The next night, 30 October, Stills played two shows for Democratic congressional candidate Bob Carr at the Stables, East Lansing, Michigan, then another unannounced acoustic slot at a Michigan University frat party.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills signed to Columbia Records for three albums: "Stills" in 1975, "Illegal Stills" in 1976; and "Thoroughfare Gap" in 1978. "Stills" released in June 1975, was the highest-charting release of the three at number 22 on the US charts, and also the most critically successful of the three. Stills then spent the rest of year touring the US, doing a summer and winter tour playing to 10,000 seat arenas, including the LA Forum, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Stills played an acoustic set at the Bob Dylan-organised Night of the Hurricane Benefit at the Houston Astrodome in January 1976. He next released "Illegal Stills" in May 1976, which reached number 31 on the US charts, but was not critically well received, nor produced any charting singles. Around this time Stills played percussion on the Bee Gees' song "You Should Be Dancing" and wrote an unreleased song with Barry Gibb. In retrospect Stills has commented on his mid-70s solo period saying he "short-circuited for a while, things were moving too fast. I got a little crazed. Too much drinking, too many drugs. What can I say." Cashbox magazine ranked Stills as the number 29 top male vocalist of 1975.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1976 after the release of "Illegal Stills", Stills attempted a reunion with Neil Young. At one point, "Long May You Run" was slated to be a CSNY record, but when Crosby and Nash left to fulfill recording and touring obligations, they returned to find the other pair had wiped their vocals from the recordings, as Stills and Young decided to go on without them as the Stills-Young Band. However, Young would leave midway through the resulting tour due to an apparent throat infection. Stills was contractually bound to finish the tour, which he did for three dates before it was cancelled with Chris Hillman helping him, but upon returning home, his wife, French singer-songwriter Véronique Sanson, announced she wanted a divorce and wished to move back to France, although they temporarily reunited.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills went out on tour, in November 1976, as a three piece, Stills on guitar, vocals, piano, George Perry on Bass, and Joe Vitale on drums. It was around this time Stills reunited with Crosby and Nash shortly afterwards, thanks to the efforts of Nash's future wife Susan, who got Nash to forgive Stills for wiping the Crosby and Nash vocals from "Long May You Run". Not before Atlantic records released a compilation album from Stills first two solo albums, and the two Manassas albums in December 1976 called "". Cashbox magazine ranked Stills at number 27 for the top male vocalist of 1976, and Stills and Young as the number 6 duo, number 3 new duo, and number 20 best new artist of 1976. Stills, as Gold Hill publishing was having hits publishing for the band Firefall and Joey Stec, during this time, so much so that Billboard ranked him as the number 97 publisher of 1976.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills's performances with Crosby and Nash in late 1976 and early 1977 led to the permanent reunion of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. They released the "CSN" album in 1977 and unsuccessfully attempted another album in 1978. The band toured major arenas including Madison Square Garden and the LA Forum in 1977 and 1978, and during the 1977 tour they visited President Jimmy Carter in the White House. Stills released his final album on Columbia Records entitled "Thoroughfare Gap" in October 1978. It was comparatively unsuccessful and reached number 84 on the US charts. In 1977 and 1978, Stills played only one solo engagement, at the Bread and Roses Festival in 1978.


title: Stephen Stills

text: After a four-day residency at the Roxy in January 1979 with original CSN bandmate Dallas Taylor on drums, Stills spent most of 1979 on tour in the US playing with his California Blues Band. One of these dates in early 1979 included a trip to Cuba to participate in the Havana Jam festival that took place between March 2 and 4, alongside Weather Report, the Trio of Doom, Fania All-Stars, Billy Swan, Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnigan, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge and Billy Joel, as well as an array of Cuban artists such as Irakere, with whom he toured the US after the Havana concerts. His performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary "Havana Jam '79".


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1979, Stills recorded one of the first entirely digital albums; however, it remains unreleased, as the record company did not feel it was commercial enough. The songs recorded for this album include "Spanish Suite" and "Cuba al Fin" and the 1982 CSN hit "Southern Cross". The album was produced by Barry Beckett and was slated for release in 1979 or 1980.


title: Stephen Stills

text: CSN played only two dates in 1979, both at Madison Square Garden for Musicians United for Safe Energy. Their performance was released on "."


title: Stephen Stills

text: After playing some European dates in 1980, and with Graham Nash joining him for the German dates supporting Angelo Branduardi, Stills and Nash decided to record a duo album together. The record company refused to release this album without David Crosby, so they added him and CSN's Daylight Again was released in 1982, reaching number 8 in the US and was certified Platinum. The album featured the Stills-written top twenty hit "Southern Cross". In 1983, the CSN live album Allies, was released featuring Stills's number 45 hit song "War Games". CSN toured yearly from 1982 to 1989, except during 1986, due to David Crosby's prison sentence.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1984, Stills released his first solo album in 6 years, "Right by You" on Atlantic Records"." This would be the final Stills album to make the "Billboard" 200 album chart and featured Jimmy Page on guitar. It was his last solo release on a major label.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1988, CSNY reunited for the album "American Dream," which reached number 12 on the US charts and was certified platinum in the US. However no tour was taken in support of the album.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1990, CSN released the album "Live It Up", their first not to be certified in the US since their debut.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Having spent most of 1990 playing acoustic with CSN and solo he released the solo album "Stills Alone" in 1991, with the aim of releasing a solo electric album in 1992. However this solo electric album was never released.


title: Stephen Stills

text: From 1993 to 1995 part owned a restaurant in New Orleans, called Toucan Du. He married his third wife, Kristen Hathaway, on May 27, 1996.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1997, Stills became the first person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice on the same night for his work with CSN and Buffalo Springfield. Fender Guitars Custom Shop crafted a guitar and presented it to Stills to commemorate the occasion, a Telecaster 1953 reissue guitar serial R2674 bearing an inscription on the neck plate; "Stephen Stills R & R Hall of Fame May 6, 1997 "


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 1999, CSNY reunited to release the album "Looking Forward"; it reached number 26 on the US charts.


title: Stephen Stills

text: This CSNY reunion resulted in CSNY reunion tours 2000 CSNY2K, 2002 and 2006 reunion tours, their first since 1974. The CSNY2K tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet earned US$42.1 million, making it the eighth largest grossing tour of 2000. The 2006 CSNY tour was the Freedom Of Speech tour, which was released on the album "Deja Vu Live".. Stills also toured with CSN in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The 2005 tour supported their Gold certified album "Greatest Hits", their 2009 tour supported the CSN demos album "Demos".


title: Stephen Stills

text: 2005 saw Stills release "Man Alive!", his first solo offering in 14 years. "Man Alive!" was released on the small English independent folk rock label Talking Elephant, and was not widely reviewed. The record did not chart on either side of the Atlantic, and was received lukewarmly by the few critics who did review it. It featured songs dating from the 70s to the present, including "Spanish Suite", originally recorded in the late 70s with Herbie Hancock.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Throughout 2006 and 2007, Stills toured regularly as a solo artist with "the Quartet", which consisted of drummer Joe Vitale, either Mike Finnigan or session player Todd Caldwell on keyboards, and either Kevin McCormick or Kenny Passarelli on bass. On May 28, 2007, Stills sang the national anthem for Game 1 of the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators in Anaheim, California. On December 17, 2007, Graham Nash revealed on "Larry King Live" that Stills had been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer and that his operation would take place on January 3, 2008, which is Stills's birthday. Stills said later in January 2008 that he had come through the operation with "flying colors."


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 2007 he released "Just Roll Tape", a recently found tape of Stills singing demos of his unreleased songs in 1968 after the breakup of the Buffalo Springfield, during the last hour of a Judy Collins session.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills toured Europe as a solo artist for the first time during October 2008, resulted in the release of the 2009 live album and video "Live At Shepherds Bush", recorded in London, England.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Also in 2009, he released his second archival release "Pieces" by Manassas, a selection of alternate takes and unreleased songs of Stills band recorded between 1971 and 1973. This was supposed to be the start in a series of archival releases, however none have appeared since.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 2011, Stills contributed a song, "Low Barefoot Tolerance," to the soundtrack of a documentary produced by J. Ralph, "Wretches & Jabberers".


title: Stephen Stills

text: Also in 2010, Stills reunited with Neil Young and Richie Furay to reform Buffalo Springfield with Young for the Bridge School Benefit 2010. This was supposed to be followed by a full tour in 2012 but this never materialised.


title: Stephen Stills

text: On August 27, 2013, Stills released the album, "Can't Get Enough" with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg as the blues band the Rides. The band toured to support this release in 2013. They released a follow up album called "Pierced Arrow" in 2016, this was followed by another tour to support this release in 2016 -2017.


title: Stephen Stills

text: On August 12, 2014, Watsky released the album "All You Can Do", featuring a song with Stills, "Cannonball."


title: Stephen Stills

text: In 2016, CSN split up after over 30 years together, and in December 2016 Stills independently released a song called "Look Each Other in the Eye" on SoundCloud.


title: Stephen Stills

text: On September 22, 2017, Stills and Judy Collins released an album "Everybody Knows" which entered the "Billboard 200" chart at number 195 and peaked at 45, it was their first joint album and was followed by a tour supporting the album.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills was involved with musician Judy Collins from 1968 to 1969 and wrote the song "" for her. He dated actress and singer-songwriter Nancy Priddy, who was the inspiration for the Buffalo Springfield song "Pretty Girl Why". Stills also had a short-term relationship with Rita Coolidge, as had Graham Nash, which apparently led to the initial breakup of CSNY, in 1970. During a Manassas tour in France, Stills met his first wife, French singer-songwriter Véronique Sanson. They were married on March 14, 1973. Their son Christopher was born in 1974. They divorced in 1979. In 1976, Stills told "Rolling Stone", "My hearing has gotten to be a terrible problem. If I keep playing and touring the way I have been, I'll go deaf." In 1988, he married American model Pamela Ann Jordan, with whom he had a daughter, Eleanor. His third wife is Kristen Hathaway, whom he married on May 27, 1996.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills's son, Justin Stills, was born in 1972 to Harriet Tunis. Justin was critically injured while snowboarding on Mt. Charleston, just outside Las Vegas, in 1997. An episode of Discovery Health's documentary series "" featured his treatment and recovery. Another son, Henry, has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and is profiled in the 2007 documentary "". Stills's daughter Eleanor is a photographer and graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Since Eleanor's graduation, she has been responsible for all recent Crosby, Stills & Nash photography. Stills has another daughter, Alex, who attends Emerson College in Boston and currently plays in the rock band Stilljill. His son Chris and daughter Jennifer are both recording artists. His youngest son, Oliver Ragland, was born in 2004 and named in honor of Neil Young, whose maternal family name is Ragland.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills has long been involved in liberal causes and politics. In 2000, he served as a member of the Democratic Party credentials committee from Florida during the Democratic National Convention, and was a delegate in previous years.


title: Stephen Stills

text: In December 2018, Stills received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he was a speaker at the commencement ceremony.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills is a guitarist whose music draws from myriad genres that include rock and roll, blues, gospel, country and folk music. In addition, Latin music has played a key role in both his approach to percussion and guitar and he is also a multi-instrumentalist, capable of playing keyboards, bass, percussion, congas, clavinet, electric piano, piano, organ, banjo and drums.


title: Stephen Stills

text: Stills experimented with the guitar itself, including soaking strings in barbecue sauce or flipping pickups to mimic Hendrix playing a right-handed guitar left-handed. He is also known for using alternate guitar tunings, particularly when performing acoustically. Often a long acoustic solo section of the show would showcase agile fingerstyle playing in standard and altered tunings. His primary alternate tuning is usually D A D F♯ A D, or "Palmer modal tuning which is 'E E E E B E' ", which can be heard in "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Carry On," and "4 + 20."


title: Stephen Stills

text: For the CSN debut album in 1969, Graham Nash commented that "Stephen had a vision, and David and I let him run with it." Stills played every instrumental part on "Crosby, Stills and Nash" with the exception of some guitar by Crosby and Nash, and drums by Dallas Taylor.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) after World War II. The JMSDF has a fleet of 154 ships, 346 aircraft and 50,800 personnel.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: Following Japan's defeat in World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy was dissolved by the Potsdam Declaration acceptance. Ships were disarmed, and some of them, such as the battleship , were taken by the Allied Powers as reparation. The remaining ships were used for repatriation of the Japanese soldiers from abroad and also for minesweeping in the area around Japan, initially under the control of the "Second Bureau of the Demobilization Ministry". The minesweeping fleet was eventually transferred to the newly formed Maritime Safety Agency, which helped maintain the resources and expertise of the navy.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: Japan's 1947 Constitution was drawn up after the conclusion of the war, Article 9 specifying that "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." The prevalent view in Japan is that this article allows for military forces to be kept for the purposes of self-defense. Due to Cold War pressures, the United States was also happy for Japan to provide part of its own defense, rather than have it fully rely on American forces.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: In 1952, the Safety Security Force was formed within the Maritime Safety Agency, incorporating the minesweeping fleet and other military vessels, mainly destroyers, given by the United States. In 1954, the SSF was separated, and the JMSDF was formally created as the naval branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), following the passage of the 1954 Self-Defense Forces Law.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: The first ships in the JMSDF were former U.S. Navy destroyers, transferred to Japanese control in 1954. In 1956, the JMSDF received its first domestically produced destroyer since World War II, "Harukaze". Due to the Cold War threat posed by the Soviet Navy's sizable and powerful submarine fleet, the JMSDF was primarily tasked with an anti-submarine role.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: Following the end of the Cold War, the role of the JMSDF has vastly changed. In 1991, after much international pressure, the JMSDF dispatched four minesweepers, a fleet oiler (JDS "Tokiwa") and a minesweeping tender (JDS "Hayase") to the Persian Gulf in the aftermath of the Gulf War, under the name of Operation Gulf Dawn, to clear mines sown by Saddam Hussein's defending forces. Starting with a mission to Cambodia in 1993 when JSDF personnel were supported by JDS "Towada", it has been active in a number of UN-led peacekeeping operations throughout Asia.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: In 1993, it commissioned its first Aegis-equipped destroyer, . It has also been active in joint naval exercises with other countries, such as the United States. The JMSDF has dispatched a number of its destroyers on a rotating schedule to the Indian Ocean in an escort role for allied vessels as part of the UN-led Operation Enduring Freedom.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: The JMSDF, along with the Japan Coast Guard, has also been active in preventing North Korean infiltrators from reaching Japan and on 22 December 2001, engaged and sank a North Korean spy ship in the Battle of Amami-Ōshima.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: In 2002, the JMSDF deployed ships to the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Anaconda during the War in Afghanistan.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: In August 2003, a new "helicopter carrier" class was ordered, the . Due to the size and features of the ship, including a full-length flight deck, it was classified as a helicopter carrier by Lloyd's Register — similar to the United Kingdom's . There was discussion about whether an aircraft carrier would be prohibited by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, since aircraft carriers are generally considered offensive weapons. In April 1988, the former chief of the Defense Agency, Tsutomu Kawara, said, "The Self-Defense Forces are not allowed to possess ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), strategic bombers, or attack aircraft carriers."


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: Historically (until about 1975 in the U.S. Navy) large-scale carriers were classified as "attack aircraft carriers" and the smaller carriers as "anti-submarine aircraft carriers". Since helicopter carriers have little built-in attack capability and they primarily fulfill defensive roles such as anti-submarine warfare, the Japanese government argues that the prohibition does not extend to helicopter carriers.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: With an increase in tensions with North Korea following the 1993 test of the Nodong-1 missile and the 1998 test of the Taepodong-1 missile over northern Japan, the JMSDF has stepped up its role in air defense. A ship-based anti-ballistic missile system was successfully test-fired on 18 December 2007 and has been installed on Japan's Aegis-equipped destroyers.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: In November 2009, the JMSDF announced plans for a larger "helicopter carrier", the . The first one of these ships was laid down in 2012 and was launched on 6 August 2013.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: The submarine fleet of the JMSDF consists of some of the most technologically advanced diesel-electric submarines in the world. This is due to careful defense planning in which the submarines are routinely retired from service ahead of schedule and replaced by more advanced models. In 2010 it was announced that the Japanese submarine fleet would be increased in size for the first time in 36 years.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: After a meeting between the Japanese Foreign Minister and U.S. Ambassador to Japan on 4 March 2014, the Japanese Defense Ministry and U.S. Department of Defense announced they would hold studies for the joint development of the littoral vessel under the bilateral Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement. The vessel is planned to be a high-speed trimaran designed for operations in shallow coastal waters capable of carrying helicopters, possibly a lighter variant of the American littoral combat ship.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: The study is in response to the growth of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy and budgetary issues with the U.S. military that may affect their ability to operate in the Pacific. The J-LCS would be used to intervene during Chinese ship incursions near the Senkaku Islands and other contested areas in the East China Sea, and possibly counter similar Chinese vessels like the Type 056 corvette and Type 022 missile boat. A J-LCS with an enlarged hull could operate the SH-60K anti-submarine helicopter or the MCH-101 airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) helicopter.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: On May 1, 2017, was dispatched to protect a U.S Navy supply vessel in the Pacific. This was the first time the JMSDF has been used to defend allied vessels since the 2016 amendment to the Japanese Constitution.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: Japan christened the long, JS "Ōryū" submarine on October 4, 2018. It is Japan's first submarine powered by lithium-ion batteries and was developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will utilize it by March 2020.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: Japan and the United States conducted the biggest military exercise around Japan thus far in the biennial Keen Sword from 29 October to 2 November 2018. It included a total of 57,000 sailors, marines and airmen. 47,000 service members were from the JSDF and 10,000 from the U.S. Armed Forces. A naval supply ship and a frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy also participated. There were simulations of air combat, ballistic missile defense and amphibious landings.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: On 18 December 2018, Japan announced it will refit the "Izumo"-class destroyers to carry US-designed F-35B fighter jets. This makes them de facto aircraft carriers. To avoid controversy, the ruling parties call it a "multi-purpose operation destroyer". It would be the first such ship in the JMSDF since World War II.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: On 23 May 2019, retired MSDF vice-admiral Toshiyuki Ito stated that Japan requires at least four "Izumo"-class destroyers to be viable for real naval combat operations. He said "If you only have two vessels, you can only use them for training personnel for taking off and landing operations, so this plan doesn't make sense for MSDF officers, frankly speaking." As aircraft carriers, the "Izumo"-class destroyers are relatively small. Each ship can only carry approximately 10 F-35Bs. That is too few aircraft for effective air defense of a naval fleet.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: The Diet of Japan approved in 2019 the order of 42 STOVL Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft in addition to 135 F-35A model conventional takeoff and landing fighters for the Japanese Air Self Defense Force to operate from their land bases; the F-35B is same model aircraft that the US Marines operate from US Navy aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, the US Marines also plan to fly from the Japanese "Izumo" class after the STOVL modifications and refit.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: On October 14, 2020 the 3,000-ton submarine was unveiled. This is the first vessel of the "Taigei" class and the 22nd submarine vessel of the JMSDF. It will enter service in March 2022.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: On 30 June 2022, the Japan Ministry of Defense announced the construction of 12 offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) by Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU) for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) at a cost of ¥ 9 billion ($66 million USD) per ship. The purpose of this OPV program is to provide enhanced maritime security, particularly around the southwestern Ryukyu Islands, including the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, by boosting JMSDF patrol activities in the region. These vessels are highly automated and configurable to meet a wide range of missions involving “enhanced steady-state intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) in the waters around Japan.” Under the contract, JMU is charged with delivering the 12 vessels to the JMSDF from fiscal year 2023, which starts on April 1, 2023.


title: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

text: On August 31, 2022, the Japan Ministry of Defense announced that JMSDF will operate two "Aegis system equipped ships" (イージス・システム搭載艦 in Japanese) to replace the earlier plan of Aegis Ashore installations, commissioning one by the end of fiscal year 2027, and the other by the end of FY2028. The budget for design and other related expenses are to be submitted in the form of “item requests”, without specific amounts, and the initial procurement of the lead items are expected to clear legislation by FY2023. Construction is to begin in the following year of FY2024. At 20,000 tons each, both vessels will be the largest surface combatant warships operated by the JMSDF, and according to "Popular Mechanics", they will "arguably [be] the largest deployable surface warships in the world.".