title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The emigration was initially tolerated because of long-standing agreements with the communist Czechoslovak government, allowing free travel across their common border. However, this movement of people grew so large it caused difficulties for both countries. In addition, East Germany was struggling to meet loan payments on foreign borrowings; Egon Krenz sent Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski to unsuccessfully ask West Germany for a short-term loan to make interest payments.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 18 October 1989, longtime Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) leader Erich Honecker stepped down in favor of Krenz. Honecker had been seriously ill, and those looking to replace him were initially willing to wait for a "biological solution", but by October were convinced that the political and economic situation was too grave. Honecker approved the choice, naming Krenz in his resignation speech, and the Volkskammer duly elected him. Although Krenz promised reforms in his first public speech, he was considered by the East German public to be following his predecessor's policies, and public protests demanding his resignation continued. Despite promises of reform, public opposition to the regime continued to grow.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 1 November, Krenz authorized the reopening of the border with Czechoslovakia, which had been sealed to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Germany. On 4 November, the Alexanderplatz demonstration took place.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 6 November, the Interior Ministry published a draft of new travel regulations, which made cosmetic changes to Honecker-era rules, leaving the approval process opaque and maintaining uncertainty regarding access to foreign currency. The draft enraged ordinary citizens, and was denounced as "complete trash" by West Berlin Mayor Walter Momper. Hundreds of refugees crowded onto the steps of the West German embassy in Prague, enraging the Czechoslovaks, who threatened to seal off the East German-Czechoslovak border.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 7 November, Krenz approved the resignation of Prime Minister Willi Stoph and two-thirds of the Politburo; however Krenz was unanimously re-elected as General Secretary by the Central Committee.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 19 October, Krenz asked Gerhard Lauter to draft a new travel policy. Lauter was a former People's Police officer. After rising rapidly through the ranks he had recently been promoted to a position with the as head of the department responsible for issuing passports and the registration of citizens.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: At a Politburo meeting on 7 November it was decided to enact a portion of the draft travel regulations addressing permanent emigration immediately. Initially, the Politburo planned to create a special border crossing near Schirnding specifically for this emigration. and Stasi bureaucrats charged with drafting the new text, however, concluded this was not feasible, and crafted a new text relating to both emigration and temporary travel. It stipulated that East German citizens could apply for permission to travel abroad without having to meet the previous requirements for those trips. To ease the difficulties, the Politburo led by Krenz decided on 9 November to allow refugees to exit directly through crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including between East and West Berlin. Later the same day, the ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private, round-trip, travel. The new regulations were to take effect the next day.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The announcement of the regulations which brought down the Wall took place at an hour-long press conference led by Günter Schabowski, the party leader in East Berlin and the top government spokesman, beginning at 18:00 CET on 9 November and broadcast live on East German television and radio. Schabowski was joined by Minister of Foreign Trade Gerhard Beil and Central Committee members and .


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Schabowski had not been involved in the discussions about the new regulations and had not been fully updated. Shortly before the press conference, he was handed a note from Krenz announcing the changes, but given no further instructions on how to handle the information. The text stipulated that East German citizens could apply for permission to travel abroad without having to meet the previous requirements for those trips, and also allowed for permanent emigration between all border crossings—including those between East and West Berlin.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: At 18:53, near the end of the press conference, ANSA's Riccardo Ehrman asked if the draft travel law of 6 November was a mistake. Schabowski gave a confusing answer that asserted it was necessary because West Germany had exhausted its capacity to accept fleeing East Germans, then remembered the note he had been given and added that a new law had been drafted to allow permanent emigration at any border crossing. This caused a stir in the room; amid several questions at once, Schabowski expressed surprise that the reporters had not yet seen this law, and started reading from the note. After this, a reporter, either Ehrman or "Bild-Zeitung" reporter Peter Brinkmann, both of whom were sitting in the front row at the press conference, asked when the regulations would take effect. After a few seconds' hesitation, Schabowski replied, "As far as I know, it takes effect immediately, without delay" (). This was an apparent assumption based on the note's opening paragraph; as Beil attempted to interject that it was up to the Council of Ministers to decide when it took effect, Schabowski proceeded to read this clause, which stated it was in effect until a law on the matter was passed by the "Volkskammer". Crucially, a journalist then asked if the regulation also applied to the crossings to West Berlin. Schabowski shrugged and read item 3 of the note, which confirmed that it did.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: After this exchange, Daniel Johnson of "The Daily Telegraph" asked what this law meant for the Berlin Wall. Schabowski sat frozen before giving a rambling statement about the Wall being tied to the larger disarmament question. He then ended the press conference promptly at 19:00 as journalists hurried from the room.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: After the press conference, Schabowski sat for an interview with NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw in which he repeated that East Germans would be able to emigrate through the border and the regulations would go into effect immediately.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The news began spreading immediately: the West German Deutsche Presse-Agentur issued a bulletin at 19:04 which reported that East German citizens would be able to cross the inner German border "immediately". Excerpts from Schabowski's press conference were broadcast on West Germany's two main news programs that night—at 19:17 on ZDF's "heute", which came on the air as the press conference was ending, and as the lead story at 20:00 on ARD's "Tagesschau". As ARD and ZDF had broadcast to nearly all of East Germany since the late 1950s, were far more widely viewed than the East German channels, and had become accepted by the East German authorities, this is how most of the population heard the news. Later that night, on ARD's "Tagesthemen", anchorman Hanns Joachim Friedrichs proclaimed, "This 9 November is a historic day. The GDR has announced that, starting immediately, its borders are open to everyone. The gates in the Wall stand open wide."


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: In 2009, Ehrman claimed that a member of the Central Committee had called him and urged him to ask about the travel law during the press conference, but Schabowski called that absurd. Ehrman later recanted this statement in a 2014 interview with an Austrian journalist, admitting that the caller was , head of the East German news agency ADN, and he only asked if Ehrman would attend the press conference.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Despite the policy of state atheism in East Germany, Christian pastor Christian Führer regularly met with his congregation at St. Nicholas Church for prayer since 1982. Over the next seven years the church's congregation grew, despite authorities' barricading the adjacent streets, and peaceful candlelit marches took place following its services. The secret police issued death threats and even attacked some of the marchers, but the crowds still continued to gather. On 9 October 1989, the police and army units were given permission to use force against those assembled, but this did not deter the church service and march from taking place, which gathered 70,000 people and in which not a single shot was fired.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: After hearing the 9 November broadcast, East Germans began gathering at the Wall, at the six checkpoints between East and West Berlin, demanding that border guards immediately open the gates. The surprised and overwhelmed guards made many hectic telephone calls to their superiors about the problem. At first, they were ordered to find the "more aggressive" people gathered at the gates and stamp their passports with a special stamp that barred them from returning to East Germany—in effect, revoking their citizenship. However, this still left thousands of people demanding to be let through "as Schabowski said we can". It soon became clear that no one among the East German authorities would take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so the vastly outnumbered soldiers had no way to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens. Mary Elise Sarotte in a 2009 "Washington Post" story characterized the series of events leading to the fall of the Wall as an accident, saying "One of the most momentous events of the past century was, in fact, an accident, a semicomical and bureaucratic mistake that owes as much to the Western media as to the tides of history."


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Finally, at 22:45 (alternatively given as 23:30) on 9 November, Harald Jäger, commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing, yielded, allowing guards to open the checkpoints and letting people through with little or no identity-checking. As the "Ossis" swarmed through, they were greeted by "Wessis" waiting with flowers and champagne amid wild rejoicing. Soon afterward, a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall and were soon joined by East German youngsters. The evening of 9 November 1989 is known as the night the Wall came down.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Another border crossing to the south may have been opened earlier. An account by Heinz Schäfer indicates that he also acted independently and ordered the opening of the gate at Waltersdorf-Rudow a couple of hours earlier. This may explain reports of East Berliners appearing in West Berlin earlier than the opening of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Removal of the Wall began on the evening of 9 November 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks, with people nicknamed (wallpeckers) using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating several unofficial border crossings.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Television coverage of citizens demolishing sections of the Wall on 9 November was soon followed by the East German regime announcing ten new border crossings, including the historically significant locations of Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke, and Bernauer Straße. Crowds gathered on both sides of the historic crossings waiting for hours to cheer the bulldozers that tore down portions of the Wall to reconnect the divided roads. While the Wall officially remained guarded at a decreasing intensity, new border crossings continued for some time. Initially the East German Border Troops attempted repairing damage done by the "wallpeckers"; gradually these attempts ceased, and guards became more lax, tolerating the increasing demolitions and "unauthorized" border crossing through the holes.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The Brandenburg Gate in the Berlin Wall was opened on 22 December 1989; on that date, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked through the gate and was greeted by East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow. West Germans and West Berliners were allowed visa-free travel starting 23 December. Until then, they could only visit East Germany and East Berlin under restrictive conditions that involved application for a visa several days or weeks in advance and obligatory exchange of at least 25 DM per day of their planned stay, all of which hindered spontaneous visits. Thus, in the weeks between 9 November and 23 December, East Germans could actually travel more freely than Westerners.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 13 June 1990, the East German Border Troops officially began dismantling the Wall, beginning in Bernauer Straße and around the Mitte district. From there, demolition continued through Prenzlauer Berg/Gesundbrunnen, Heiligensee and throughout the city of Berlin until December 1990. According to estimates by the border troops, a total of around 1.7 million tonnes of building rubble was produced by the demolition. Unofficially, the demolition of the Bornholmer Straße began because of construction work on the railway. This involved a total of 300 GDR border guards and—after 3 October 1990—600 Pioneers of the Bundeswehr. These were equipped with 175 trucks, 65 cranes, 55 excavators and 13 bulldozers. Virtually every road that was severed by the Berlin Wall, every road that once linked from West Berlin to East Berlin, was reconstructed and reopened by 1 August 1990. In Berlin alone, of wall, border fence, signal systems and barrier ditches were removed. What remained were six sections that were to be preserved as a memorial. Various military units dismantled the Berlin/Brandenburg border wall, completing the job in November 1991. Painted wall segments with artistically valuable motifs were put up for auction in 1990 in Berlin and Monte Carlo.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 1 July 1990, the day East Germany adopted the West German currency, all "de jure" border controls ceased, although the inter-German border had become meaningless for some time before that. The demolition of the Wall was completed in 1994.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The fall of the Wall marked the first critical step towards German reunification, which formally concluded a mere 339 days later on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of East Germany and the official reunification of the German state along the democratic lines of the West German Basic Law.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: French President François Mitterrand and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher both opposed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the eventual reunification of Germany, fearing potential German designs on its neighbours using its increased strength. In September 1989, Margaret Thatcher privately confided to Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, François Mitterrand warned Thatcher that a unified Germany could make more ground than Adolf Hitler ever had and that Europe would have to bear the consequences.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 21 November 1989, Crosby, Stills & Nash performed the song "Chippin' Away" from Graham Nash's 1986 solo album "Innocent Eyes" in front of the Brandenburg Gate.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 25 December 1989, Leonard Bernstein gave a concert in Berlin celebrating the end of the Wall, including Beethoven's 9th symphony ("Ode to Joy") with the word "Joy" "()" changed to "Freedom" "()" in the lyrics sung. The poet Schiller may have originally written "Freedom" and changed it to "Joy" out of fear. The orchestra and choir were drawn from both East and West Germany, as well as the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. On New Year's Eve 1989, David Hasselhoff performed his song "Looking for Freedom" while standing atop the partly demolished Wall. Roger Waters performed the Pink Floyd album "The Wall" just north of Potsdamer Platz on 21 July 1990, with guests including Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Bryan Adams, Sinéad O'Connor, Cyndi Lauper, Thomas Dolby, Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Van Morrison.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Over the years, there has been a repeated controversial debate as to whether 9 November would make a suitable German national holiday, often initiated by former members of political opposition in East Germany, such as Werner Schulz. Besides being the emotional apogee of East Germany's peaceful revolution, 9 November is also the date of the 1918 abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and declaration of the Weimar Republic, the first German republic. However, 9 November is also the anniversary of the execution of Robert Blum following the 1848 Vienna revolts, the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch and the infamous "Kristallnacht" pogroms of the Nazis in 1938. Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel criticised the first euphoria, noting that "they forgot that 9 November has already entered into history—51 years earlier it marked the Kristallnacht." As reunification was not official and complete until 3 October (1990), that day was finally chosen as German Unity Day.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 9 November 1999, the 10th anniversary was observed with a concert and fireworks at the vid Brandenburg Gate. Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich played music by Johann Sebastian Bach, while German rock band Scorpions performed their 1990 song "Wind of Change". Wreaths were placed for victims shot down when they attempted to escape to the west, and politicians delivered speeches.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: On 9 November 2009, Berlin celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a "Festival of Freedom" with dignitaries from around the world in attendance for an evening celebration around the Brandenburg Gate. A high point was when over 1,000 colourfully designed foam domino tiles, each over tall, that were stacked along the former route of the Wall in the city center were toppled in stages, converging in front of the Brandenburg Gate.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: A Berlin Twitter Wall was set up to allow Twitter users to post messages commemorating the 20th anniversary. The Chinese government quickly shut down access to the Twitter Wall after internet users in China began using it to protest the Great Firewall.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: In the United States, the German Embassy coordinated a public diplomacy campaign with the motto "Freedom Without Walls", to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The campaign was focused on promoting awareness of the fall of the Berlin Wall among current college students. Students at over 30 universities participated in "Freedom Without Walls" events in late 2009. First place winner of the Freedom Without Walls Speaking Contest Robert Cannon received a free trip to Berlin for 2010.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: An international project called "Mauerreise" (Journey of the Wall) took place in various countries. Twenty symbolic Wall bricks were sent from Berlin starting in May 2009, with the destinations being Korea, Cyprus, Yemen, and other places where everyday life is characterised by division and border experience. In these places, the bricks would become a blank canvas for artists, intellectuals and young people to tackle the "Wall" phenomenon.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 3D online virtual world "Twinity" reconstructed a true-to-scale section of the Wall in virtual Berlin. The MTV Europe Music Awards, on 5 November, had U2 and Tokio Hotel perform songs dedicated to, and about the Berlin Wall. U2 performed at the Brandenburg Gate, and Tokio Hotel performed "World Behind My Wall".


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Palestinians in the town of Kalandia, West Bank pulled down parts of the Israeli West Bank barrier, in a demonstration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The International Spy Museum in Washington D.C., hosted a Trabant car rally where 20 Trabants gathered in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Rides were raffled every half-hour and a Trabant crashed through a Berlin Wall mock up. The Trabant was the East German people's car that many used to leave DDR after the collapse.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: The Allied Museum in the Dahlem district of Berlin hosted a number of events to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The museum held a Special Exhibition entitled "Wall Patrol – The Western Powers and the Berlin Wall 1961–1990" which focused on the daily patrols deployed by the Western powers to observe the situation along the Berlin Wall and the fortifications on the GDR border. A sheet of "Americans in Berlin" Commemorative Cinderella stamps designed by T.H.E. Hill was presented to the Museum by David Guerra, Berlin veteran and webmaster of the site www.berlinbrigade.com.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Berlin planned a weeklong arts festival from 4 to 10 November 2019 and a citywide music festival on 9 November to celebrate the 30th anniversary. On 4 November, outdoor exhibits opened at Alexanderplatz, the Brandenburg Gate, the East Side Gallery, Gethsemane Church, Kurfürstendamm, Schlossplatz, and the former Stasi headquarters in Lichtenberg.


title: Fall of the Berlin Wall

text: Hertha Berlin commemorated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by tearing a fake Berlin Wall in their match against RB Leipzig.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket, participating in both the first ODI, against England in the 1970–71 season and the first T20I, against New Zealand in the 2004–05 season, winning both games. The team draws its players from teams playing in the Australian domestic competitions – the Sheffield Shield, the Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament and the Big Bash League.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The national team has played 847 Test matches, winning 403, losing 227, drawing 215 and tying 2. , Australia is ranked first in the ICC Test Championship on 128 rating points. Australia is the most successful team in Test cricket history, in terms of overall wins, win–loss ratio and wins percentage.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Test rivalries include The Ashes (with England), the Border–Gavaskar Trophy (with India), the Frank Worrell Trophy (with the West Indies), the Trans-Tasman Trophy (with New Zealand), and with South Africa.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The team has played 975 ODI matches, winning 592, losing 340, tying 9 and with 34 ending in a no-result. , Australia is ranked third in the ICC ODI Championship on 107 rating points, though have been ranked first for 141 of 185 months since its introduction in 2002. Australia is the most successful team in ODI cricket history, winning more than 60 per cent of their matches, with a record seven World Cup final appearances (1975, 1987, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015) and have won the World Cup a record five times: 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015. Australia is the first (and only) team to appear in four consecutive World Cup finals (1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007), surpassing the old record of three consecutive World Cup appearances by the West Indies (1975, 1979 and 1983) and the first and only team to win 3 consecutive World Cups (1999, 2003 and 2007). The team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until the 2011 Cricket World Cup where Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets in the Group stage. It is also the second team to win a World Cup (2015) on home soil, after India (2011). Australia have also won the ICC Champions Trophy twice (2006 and 2009) making them the first and the only team to become back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments. As of 2021, Australia is the only team to win five Cricket World Cups; no other team has won more than two.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The national team has played 174 Twenty20 International matches, winning 91, losing 76, tying 3 and with 4 ending in a no-result. , Australia is ranked fifth in the ICC T20I Championship on 251 rating points. Australia have won the ICC Men's T20 World Cup once, defeating New Zealand in the 2021 final.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: On 12 January 2019, Australia won the first ODI against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 34 runs, to record their 1,000th win in international cricket.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The Australian cricket team participated in the first Test match at the MCG in 1877, defeating an English team by 45 runs, with Charles Bannerman making the first Test century, a score of 165 retired hurt. Test cricket, which only occurred between Australia and England at the time, was limited by the long distance between the two countries, which would take several months by sea. Despite Australia's much smaller population, the team was very competitive in early games, producing stars such as Jack Blackham, Billy Murdoch, Fred "The Demon" Spofforth, George Bonnor, Percy McDonnell, George Giffen and Charles "The Terror" Turner. Most cricketers at the time were either from New South Wales or Victoria, with the notable exception of George Giffen, the star South Australian all-rounder.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: A highlight of Australia's early history was the 1882 Test match against England at The Oval. In this match, Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the game's fourth innings to save the match by preventing England from making their 85-run target. After this match "The Sporting Times", a major newspaper in London at the time, printed a mock obituary in which the death of English cricket was proclaimed and the announcement made that "the body was cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." This was the start of the famous Ashes series in which Australia and England play a series of Test matches to decide the holder of the Ashes. To this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The so-called 'Golden Age' of Australian Test cricket occurred around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century with the team under the captaincy of Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill winning eight of ten tours. It is considered to have lasted from the 1897–98 English tour of Australia and the 1910–11 South African tour of Australia. Outstanding batsmen such as Joe Darling, Clem Hill, Reggie Duff, Syd Gregory, Warren Bardsley and Victor Trumper, brilliant all-rounders including Monty Noble, George Giffen, Harry Trott and Warwick Armstrong and excellent bowlers including Ernie Jones, Hugh Trumble, Tibby Cotter, Bill Howell, Jack Saunders and Bill Whitty, all helped Australia to become the dominant cricketing nation for most of this period.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Victor Trumper became one of Australia's first sporting heroes, and was widely considered Australia's greatest batsman before Bradman and one of the most popular players. He played a record (at the time) number of Tests at 49 and scored 3163 (another record) runs at a high for the time average of 39.04. His early death in 1915 at the age of 37 from kidney disease caused national mourning. The "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack", in its obituary for him, called him Australia's greatest batsman: ""Of all the great Australian batsmen Victor Trumper was by general consent the best and most brilliant.""


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The years leading up to the start of World War I were marred by conflict between the players, led by Clem Hill, Victor Trumper and Frank Laver, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket, led by Peter McAlister, who was attempting to gain more control of tours from the players. This led to six leading players (the so-called "Big Six") walking out on the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England, with Australia fielding what was generally considered a second-rate side. This was the last series before the war, and no more cricket was played by Australia for eight years; Tibby Cotter was killed in Palestine during the war.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Test cricket resumed in the 1920/21 season in Australia with a touring English team captained by Johnny Douglas losing all five Tests to Australia, captained by the "Big Ship" Warwick Armstrong. Several players from before the war, including Warwick Armstrong, Charlie Macartney, Charles Kelleway, Warren Bardsley and the wicket-keeper Sammy Carter, were instrumental in the team's success, as well as new players Herbie Collins, Jack Ryder, Bert Oldfield, the spinner Arthur Mailey and the so-called "twin destroyers" Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald. The team continued its success on the 1921 tour of England, winning three out of the five Tests in Warwick Armstrong's last series. The side was, on the whole, inconsistent in the latter half of the 1920s, losing its first home Ashes series since the 1911–12 season in 1928–29.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The 1930 tour of England heralded a new age of success for the Australian team. The team, led by Bill Woodfull – the "Great Un-bowlable" – featured legends of the game including Bill Ponsford, Stan McCabe, Clarrie Grimmett and the young pair of Archie Jackson and Don Bradman. Bradman was the outstanding batsman of the series, scoring a record 974 runs, including one century, two double centuries and one triple century, a massive score of 334 at Leeds which including 309 runs in a day. Jackson died of tuberculosis at the age of 23 three years later, after playing eight Tests. The team was widely considered unstoppable, winning nine of its next ten Tests.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The 1932–33 England tour of Australia is considered one of the most infamous episodes of cricket, due to the England team's use of bodyline, where captain Douglas Jardine instructed his bowlers Bill Voce and Harold Larwood to bowl fast, short-pitched deliveries aimed at the bodies of the Australian batsmen. The tactic, although effective, was widely considered by Australian crowds as vicious and unsporting. Injuries to Bill Woodfull, who was struck over the heart, and Bert Oldfield, who received a fractured skull (although from a non-bodyline ball), exacerbated the situation, almost causing a full-scale riot from the 50 000 fans at the Adelaide Oval for the third Test. The conflict almost escalated into a diplomatic incident between the two countries, as leading Australian political figures, including the Governor of South Australia, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, protested to their English counterparts. The series ended in a 4–1 win for England but the bodyline tactics used were banned the year after.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The Australian team put the result of this series behind them, winning their next tour of England in 1934. The team was led by Bill Woodfull on his final tour and was notably dominated by Ponsford and Bradman, who twice put on partnerships of over 380 runs, with Bradman once again scoring a triple century at Leeds. The bowling was dominated by the spin pair of Bill O'Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett, who took 53 wickets between them, with O'Reilly twice taking seven-wicket hauls.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Sir Donald Bradman is widely considered the greatest batsman of all time. He dominated the sport from 1930 until his retirement in 1948, setting new records for the highest score in a Test innings (334 vs England at Headingley in 1930), the most runs (6996), the most centuries (29), the most double centuries and the highest Test and first-class batting averages. His record for the highest Test batting average – 99.94 – has never been beaten. It is almost 40 runs per innings above the next highest average. He would have finished with an average of over 100 runs per innings if he had not been dismissed for a duck in his last Test. He was knighted in 1949 for services to cricket. He is generally considered one of Australia's all-time greatest sporting heroes, if not the greatest.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Test cricket was again interrupted by war, with the last Test series in 1938 made notable by Len Hutton scoring a world record 364 for England, and with Chuck Fleetwood-Smith conceding 298 runs in England's world record total of 7/903. Ross Gregory, a notable young batsman who played two Tests before the war, was killed in the war.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The team continued its success after the end of the Second World War with the first Test (also Australia's first against New Zealand) being played in the 1945–46 season against New Zealand. Australia was by far the most successful team of the 1940s, being undefeated throughout the decade, winning two Ashes series against England and its first Test series against India. The team capitalised on its ageing stars Bradman, Sid Barnes, Bill Brown and Lindsay Hassett while new talent, including Ian Johnson, Don Tallon, Arthur Morris, Neil Harvey, Bill Johnston and the fast bowling pair of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, who all made their debut in the latter half of the 1940s, and were to form the basis of the team for a good part of the next decade. The team that Don Bradman led to England in 1948 gained the moniker "The Invincibles", after going through the tour without losing a single game. Of 31 first-class games played during the tour, they won 23 and drew 8, including winning the five-match Test series 4–0 with one draw. The tour was particularly notable for the fourth Test of the series, in which Australia won by seven wickets chasing a target of 404, setting a new record for the highest run chase in Test cricket, with Arthur Morris and Bradman both scoring centuries, as well as for the final Test in the series, Bradman's last, where he finished with a duck in his last innings after needing only four runs to secure a career average of 100.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Australia was less successful in the 1950s, losing three consecutive Ashes series to England, including a horrendous 1956 Tour of England, where the 'spin twins' Laker and Lock destroyed Australia, taking 61 wickets between them, including Laker taking 19 wickets in the game (a first-class record) at Headingley, a game dubbed Laker's Match.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: However, the team rebounded to win five consecutive series in the latter half of the 1950s, first under the leadership of Ian Johnson, then Ian Craig and Richie Benaud. The series against the West Indies in the 1960–61 season was notable for the Tied Test in the first game at the Gabba, which was the first in Test cricket. Australia ended up winning the series 2–1 after a hard-fought series that was praised for its excellent standards and sense of fair play. Stand-out players in that series as well as through the early part of the 1960s were Richie Benaud, who took a then-record number of wickets as a leg-spinner and who also captained Australia in 28 Tests, including 24 without defeat; Alan Davidson, who was a notable fast-bowler and also became the first player to take 10 wickets and make 100 runs in the same game in the first Test; Bob Simpson, who also later captained Australia for two different periods of time; Colin McDonald, the first-choice opening batsman for most of the 1950s and early '60s; Norm O'Neill, who made 181 in the Tied Test; Neil Harvey, towards the end of his long career; and Wally Grout, an excellent wicket-keeper who died at the age of 41.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The Centenary Test was played in March 1977 at the MCG to celebrate 100 years since the first Test was played. Australia won the match by 45 runs, an identical result to the first Test match.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: In May 1977, Kerry Packer announced he was organising a breakaway competition – World Series Cricket (WSC) – after the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) refused to accept Channel Nine's bid to gain exclusive television rights to Australia's Test matches in 1976. Packer secretly signed leading international cricketers to his competition, including 28 Australians. Almost all of the Australian Test team at the time were signed to WSC – notable exceptions including Gary Cosier, Geoff Dymock, Kim Hughes and Craig Serjeant – and the Australian selectors were forced to pick what was generally considered a third-rate team from players in the Sheffield Shield. Former player Bob Simpson, who had retired 10 years previously after a conflict with the board, was recalled at the age of 41 to captain Australia against India. Jeff Thomson was named deputy in a team that included seven debutants. Australia managed to win the series 3–2, mainly thanks to the batting of Simpson, who scored 539 runs, including two centuries; and the bowling of Wayne Clark, who took 28 wickets. Australia lost the next series 3–1 against the West Indies, which was fielding a full strength team; and also lost the 1978–79 Ashes series 5–1, the team's worst Ashes result in Australia. Graham Yallop was named as captain for the Ashes, with Kim Hughes taking over for the 1979–80 tour of India. Rodney Hogg took 41 wickets in his debut series, an Australian record. WSC players returned to the team for the 1979–80 season after a settlement between the ACB and Kerry Packer. Greg Chappell was reinstated as captain.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The underarm bowling incident of 1981 occurred when, in an ODI against New Zealand, Greg Chappell instructed his brother Trevor to bowl an underarm delivery to New Zealand batsman Brian McKechnie with New Zealand needing a six to tie off the last ball. The aftermath of the incident soured political relations between Australia and New Zealand, with several leading political and cricketing figures calling it "unsportsmanlike" and "not in the spirit of cricket".


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Australia continued its success up until the early 1980s, built around the Chappell brothers, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson and Rod Marsh. The 1980s was a period of relative mediocrity after the turmoil caused by the Rebel Tours of South Africa and the subsequent retirement of several key players. The rebel tours were funded by the South African Cricket Board to compete against its national side, which had been banned—along with many other sports, including Olympic athletes—from competing internationally, due to the South African government's racist apartheid policies. Some of Australia's best players were poached: Graham Yallop, Carl Rackemann, Terry Alderman, Rodney Hogg, Kim Hughes, John Dyson, Greg Shipperd, Steve Rixon and Steve Smith amongst others. These players were handed three-year suspensions by the Australian Cricket Board which greatly weakened the player pool for the national sides, as most were either current representative players or on the verge of gaining honours.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The so-called 'Golden Era' of Australian cricket occurred around the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. This was a period in which Australian cricket recovered from the disruption caused by World Series Cricket to create arguably the strongest Test team in history.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Under the captaincy of Allan Border and the new fielding standards put in place by new coach Bob Simpson, the team was restructured and gradually rebuilt their cricketing stocks. Some of the rebel players returned to the national side after serving their suspensions, including Trevor Hohns, Carl Rackemann and Terry Alderman. During these lean years, it was the batsmen Border, David Boon, Dean Jones, the young Steve Waugh and the bowling feats of Alderman, Bruce Reid, Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes and to a lesser extent, Geoff Lawson who kept the Australian side afloat.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: With the emergence of players such as Ian Healy, Mark Taylor, Geoff Marsh, Mark Waugh, and Greg Matthews in the late 1980s, Australia was on the way back from the doldrums. Winning the Ashes in 1989, the Australians got a roll on beating Pakistan, Sri Lanka and then followed it up with another Ashes win on home soil in 1991. The Australians went on to the West Indies and had their chances but ended up losing the series. However, they bounced back and beat the Indians in their next Test series; with the retirement of the champion but defensive Allan Border, a new era of attacking cricket had begun under the leadership of firstly Mark Taylor and then Steve Waugh.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The 1990s and early 21st century were arguably Australia's most successful periods, unbeaten in all Ashes series played bar the famous 2005 series and achieving a hat-trick of World Cups. This success has been attributed to the restructuring of the team and system by Border, successive aggressive captains, and the effectiveness of several key players, most notably Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Hussey and Ricky Ponting.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Following the 2006–07 Ashes series which Australia won 5 nil, Australia slipped in the rankings after the retirements of key players. In the 2013/14 Ashes series, Australia again defeated England 5 nil and climbed back to third in the ICC International Test rankings. In February/March 2014, Australia beat South Africa, the number 1 team in the world, 2–1 and overtook them to return to the top of the rankings. In 2015, Australia won the World Cup, losing just one game for the tournament.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: , Australia are ranked first in the ICC Test Championship, fourth in the ICC ODI Championship and second in the ICC T20I Championship.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: On 25 March 2018, during the third Test match against hosts South Africa; players Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith, David Warner and the leadership group of the team were implicated in a ball tampering scandal. Smith and Bancroft admitted to conspiring to alter the condition of the ball by rubbing it with a piece of adhesive tape containing abrasive granules picked up from the ground (it was later revealed that sandpaper was used). Smith stated that the purpose was to gain an advantage by unlawfully changing the ball's surface in order to generate reverse swing. Bancroft had been filmed tampering with the ball and, after being informed he had been caught, he was seen to transfer a yellow object from a pocket to the inside front of his trousers to hide the evidence. Steve Smith and David Warner were stood down as captain and vice-captain during the third Test while head coach, Darren Lehmann was suspected to have assisted Cameron Bancroft to tamper the ball. The ICC imposed a one-match ban and 100%-match-fee fine on Smith, while Bancroft was fined 75 percent of his match fee and received 3 demerit points.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Smith and Warner were both stripped of their captaincy roles by Cricket Australia and sent home from the tour (along with Bancroft). Tim Paine was appointed as captain for the fourth Test. Cricket Australia then suspended Smith and Warner from playing for 12 months and Bancroft for 9 months. Smith and Bancroft could not be considered for leadership roles for 12 months after the suspension, while Warner is banned from leadership of any Cricket Australia team for life. In the aftermath of these events, Darren Lehmann announced his resignation as head coach at the end of the series, with Justin Langer replacing him. On 8 May 2018, Tim Paine was also named as the ODI captain while Aaron Finch was reinstated as T20I captain hours later, although Finch replaced Paine as the ODI captain after the 5-0 ODI series whitewash in England in June 2018.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: On 7 October 2018, Australia played their first Test match under new coach Justin Langer and a new leadership group, which included Tim Paine as Australia's 46th Test captain. After a 1–0 loss to Pakistan in a two match Test series against Pakistan in the UAE and a 2–1 defeat against India in a four match Test series, they found success against Sri Lanka, winning the two Test match series 2–0.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: In 2019, Australia played in the Cricket World Cup, where they finished second in the group stage before being knocked out by England at Edgbaston in the semi-final. Australia later went on to retain the Ashes during the 2019 Ashes series, the first time on English soil since 2001, by winning the fourth Test at Old Trafford.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: In 2020–21, Australia hosted India for 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is, and 4 Tests. They won the ODI series 2–1, but lost the T20I series 2–1. Then, the two teams competed for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which saw one of the greatest overseas Test triumphs by India in the 4th Test to win the series 2–1, with the 3rd Test being drawn.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: In 2021, Australia named a 15-member squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup with regular limited overs captain Aaron Finch leading the side. Australia were a part of Group 1, a group including England, West Indies and South Africa. Under Finch's leadership, Australia easily beat South Africa and Sri Lanka by 5 wickets and 7 wickets respectively before suffering an 8-wicket loss to England. After beating Bangladesh and the West Indies, Australia qualified for the semi-finals where they had to face Pakistan, at that point the only unbeaten side in the tournament. Australia won the match to reach the final, where they would face their trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand. After New Zealand scored 172/4 in the first innings, it was up to openers David Warner and captain Finch to get Australia off to a good start. Though Finch departed early, Warner and Mitchell Marsh stitched together a partnership that took the game away from New Zealand; with 66 runs needed from 46 balls, Marsh was joined by Glenn Maxwell, who reverse hit Tim Southee for the winning runs, winning their maiden T20 World Cup with 7 balls to spare.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: On 19 November 2021, Tim Paine resigned from the captaincy due to off-the-field misconduct, and was replaced by Pat Cummins, who became Australia's 47th Test captain, with Steve Smith named as his deputy.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: For Test matches, the team wears Cricket Whites, with an optional sweater or sweater-vest, with a green and gold V-neck for use in cold weather. The sponsor's (currently Alinta for home matches and Qantas for away matches) logo is displayed on the right side of the chest while the Cricket Australia emblem is displayed on the left. If the sweater is being worn the Cricket Australia emblem is displayed under the V-neck and the sponsor's logo is again displayed on the right side of the chest. The baggy green, the Australian Test cricket cap, is considered an essential part of the cricketing uniform and as a symbol of the national team, with new players being presented with one upon their selection in the team. The cap and the helmet both prominently display the Australian cricketing coat-of-arms instead of the Cricket Australia emblem. At the end of 2011, ASICS was named the manufacturer of the whites and limited over uniforms from Adidas, with the ASICS logo being displayed on the shirt and pants. Players may choose any manufacturer for their other gear (bat, pads, shoes, gloves, etc.).


title: Australia national cricket team

text: In One Day International (ODI) cricket and Twenty20 International cricket, the team wears uniforms usually coloured green and gold, the national colours of Australia. There has been a variety of different styles and layouts used in both forms of the limited-overs game, with coloured clothing (sometimes known as "pyjamas") being introduced for World Series Cricket in the late 1970s. The Alinta or Qantas logo is prominently displayed on the shirts and other gears. The current home ODI kit consists of green as the primary colour and gold as the secondary colour. The away kit is the opposite of the home kit, with gold as the primary colour and green as the secondary colour. The home Twenty20 kit consists of black, with the natural colours of Australia, green and gold strips. However, since Australia beat New Zealand at the MCG in the 2015 Cricket World Cup wearing the gold uniform, it has also become their primary colour, with the hats used being called 'floppy gold', formerly known as 'baggy gold', a limited-overs equivalent to a baggy green. Until the early 2000s and briefly in early 2020, in ODIs, Australia wore yellow helmets, before using green helmets as in test matches.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Former suppliers were Asics (1999), ISC (2000–2001), Fila (2002–2003) and Adidas (2004–2010) among others. Before Travelex, some of the former sponsors were Coca-Cola (1993–1998), Fly Emirates (1999) and Carlton & United Breweries (2000–2001).


title: Australia national cricket team

text: Cricket Australia released the list of their 2022-2023 national contracts on 7 April 2022. Players who miss out on the initial contract list can be upgraded during the year by earning selection in national teams. Players need to accrue 12 points to earn a contract, with Tests worth five points, ODIs two points and T20Is one point.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: This is a list of every active player contracted with Cricket Australia or who has played for Australia since November 2021 or was named in the recent Test, ODI or T20I squads. Uncapped players are listed in "italics".


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The team song is "Under the Southern Cross I Stand", which is sung by the players after every victory and "treated with reverential consideration and respect" within the team. The official lyrics are as follows, though when it is sung by the players, the word "little" in the last line is instead replaced by "bloody" or an expletive.


title: Australia national cricket team

text: The authorship of this "Under the Southern Cross I Stand" is credited to former wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, who was apparently inspired by Henry Lawson's 1887 poem, "Flag of the Southern Cross". Marsh initially had the role of leading the team in singing it and, on his retirement, passed it on to Allan Border. The other players to have taken on the role are David Boon (when Border took over the captaincy), Ian Healy (on Boon's retirement), Ricky Ponting (on Healy's retirement), Justin Langer (when Ponting took over the captaincy). The role was then passed on to Michael Hussey, who took it on when Langer retired in January 2007. Following Hussey's retirement on 6 January 2013, he announced that he would be handing the duties over to Nathan Lyon.


title: Castor oil

text: It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its density is 0.961 g/cm. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about 90% of fatty acids are ricinoleates. Oleic acid and linoleic acid are the other significant components.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil and its derivatives are used in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold-resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, and perfumes.


title: Castor oil

text: The name probably comes from a confusion between the "Ricinus" plant that produces it and another plant, the "Vitex agnus-castus". An alternative etymology, though, suggests that it was used as a replacement for castoreum.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil is well known as a source of ricinoleic acid, a monounsaturated, 18-carbon fatty acid. Among fatty acids, ricinoleic acid is unusual in that it has a hydroxyl functional group on the 12th carbon atom. This functional group causes ricinoleic acid (and castor oil) to be more polar than most fats. The chemical reactivity of the alcohol group also allows chemical derivatization that is not possible with most other seed oils. Because of its ricinoleic acid content, castor oil is a valuable chemical in feedstocks, commanding a higher price than other seed oils. As an example, in July 2007, Indian castor oil sold for about US$0.90/kg ($0.41/lb), whereas U.S. soybean, sunflower, and canola oils sold for about $0.30/kg ($0.14/lb).


title: Castor oil

text: Annually, 270,000–360,000 tonnes (600–800 million pounds) of castor oil are produced for a variety of uses.


title: Castor oil

text: In the food industry, food-grade castor oil is used in food additives, flavorings, candy (e.g., polyglycerol polyricinoleate in chocolate), as a mold inhibitor, and in packaging. Polyoxyethylated castor oil (e.g., Kolliphor EL) is also used in the food industries.


title: Castor oil

text: In India, Pakistan, and Nepal, food grains are preserved by the application of castor oil. It stops rice, wheat, and pulses from rotting. For example, the legume pigeon pea is commonly available coated in oil for extended storage.


title: Castor oil

text: Use of castor oil as a laxative is attested to in the "circa" 1550 BCE Ebers Papyrus, and was in use several centuries earlier.


title: Castor oil

text: Although used in traditional medicine to induce labor in pregnant women, there is no clinical evidence that castor oil is effective for dilating the cervix or inducing labor.


title: Castor oil

text: According to the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that castor oil on the skin cures cancer or any other disease."


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil has been used in cosmetic products included in creams and as a moisturizer. Small amounts of castor oil are frequently used in cold-process soap to increase lathering in the finished bar. It also has been used to enhance hair conditioning in other products and for supposed anti-dandruff properties.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil is used as a biobased polyol in the polyurethane industry. The average functionality (number of hydroxyl groups per triglyceride molecule) of castor oil is 2.7, so it is widely used as a rigid polyol and in coatings. One particular use is in a polyurethane concrete where a castor-oil emulsion is reacted with an isocyanate (usually polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) and a cement and construction aggregate. This is applied fairly thickly as a slurry, which is self-levelling. This base is usually further coated with other systems to build a resilient floor.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil is not a drying oil, meaning that it has a low reactivity with air compared with oils such as linseed oil and tung oil. Dehydration of castor oil yields linoleic acids, which do have drying properties. In this process, the OH group on the ricinoleic acid along with a hydrogen from the next carbon atom are removed yielding a double bond which then has oxidative cross-linking properties yielding the drying oil.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil can react with other materials to produce other chemical compounds that have numerous applications. Transesterification followed by steam cracking gives undecylenic acid, a precursor to specialized polymer nylon 11, and heptanal, a component in fragrances. Breakdown of castor oil in strong base gives 2-octanol, both a fragrance component and a specialized solvent, and the dicarboxylic acid sebacic acid. Hydrogenation of castor oil saturates the alkenes, giving a waxy lubricant. Castor oil may be epoxidized by reacting the OH groups with epichlorohydrin to make the triglycidyl ether of castor oil which is useful in epoxy technology. This is available commercially as Heloxy 505.


title: Castor oil

text: The production of lithium grease consumes a significant amount of castor oil. Hydrogenation and saponification of castor oil yields 12-hydroxystearic acid, which is then reacted with lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate to give high-performance lubricant grease.


title: Castor oil

text: Since it has a relatively high dielectric constant (4.7), highly refined and dried castor oil is sometimes used as a dielectric fluid within high-performance, high-voltage capacitors.


title: Castor oil

text: Vegetable oils such as castor oil are typically unattractive alternatives to petroleum-derived lubricants because of their poor oxidative stability. Castor oil has better low-temperature viscosity properties and high-temperature lubrication than most vegetable oils, making it useful as a lubricant in jet, diesel, and racing engines. The viscosity of castor oil at 10 °C is 2,420 centipoise, but it tends to form gums in a short time, so its usefulness is limited to engines that are regularly rebuilt, such as racing engines. Lubricant company Castrol took its name from castor oil.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil has been suggested as a lubricant for bicycle pumps because it does not degrade natural rubber seals.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil was the preferred lubricant for rotary engines, such as the Gnome engine after that engine's widespread adoption for aviation in Europe in 1909. It was used almost universally in rotary-engined Allied aircraft in World War I. Germany had to make do with inferior ersatz oil for its rotary engines, which resulted in poor reliability.


title: Castor oil

text: The methanol-fueled, two-cycle, glow-plug engines used for aeromodelling, since their adoption by model airplane hobbyists in the 1940s, have used varying percentages of castor oil as lubricants. It is highly resistant to degradation when the engine has its fuel-air mixture leaned for maximum engine speed. Gummy residues can still be a problem for aeromodelling powerplants lubricated with castor oil, however, usually requiring eventual replacement of ball bearings when the residue accumulates within the engine's bearing races. One British manufacturer of sleeve-valved four-cycle model engines has stated the "varnish" created by using castor oil in small percentages can improve the pneumatic seal of the sleeve valve, improving such an engine's performance over time.


title: Castor oil

text: Turkey red oil, also called sulphonated (or sulfated) castor oil, is made by adding sulfuric acid to vegetable oils, most notably castor oil. It was the first synthetic detergent after ordinary soap. It is used in formulating lubricants, softeners, and dyeing assistants.


title: Castor oil

text: Castor oil, like currently less expensive vegetable oils, can be used as feedstock in the production of biodiesel. The resulting fuel is superior for cold winters, because of its exceptionally low cloud point and pour point.


title: Castor oil

text: Initiatives to grow more castor for energy production, in preference to other oil crops, are motivated by social considerations. Tropical subsistence farmers would gain a cash crop.


title: Castor oil

text: Some parents punished children with a dose of castor oil. Physicians recommended against the practice because they did not want medicines associated with punishment.


title: Castor oil

text: A heavy dose of castor oil could be used as a humiliating punishment for adults. Colonial officials used it in the British Raj (India) to deal with recalcitrant servants. Belgian military officials prescribed heavy doses of castor oil in Belgian Congo as a punishment for being too sick to work.


title: Castor oil

text: The most famous use as punishment came in Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini. It was a favorite tool used by the Blackshirts to intimidate and humiliate their opponents. Political dissidents were force-fed large quantities of castor oil by Fascist squads. This technique was said to have been originated by Gabriele D'Annunzio or Italo Balbo. Victims of this treatment did sometimes die, as the dehydrating effects of the oil-induced diarrhea often complicated their recovery from the nightstick beatings they also received along with the castor oil; however, even those victims who survived had to bear the humiliation of the laxative effects resulting from excessive consumption of the oil.


title: Castor oil

text: The castor seed contains ricin, a toxic lectin. Heating during the oil extraction process denatures and deactivates the lectin. Harvesting castor beans, though, may not be without risk. The International Castor Oil Association FAQ document states that castor beans contain an allergenic compound called CB1A. This chemical is described as being virtually nontoxic, but has the capacity to affect people with hypersensitivity. The allergen may be neutralized by treatment with a variety of alkaline agents. The allergen is not present in the castor oil itself.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Om Shanti Om (transl. Peace Be With You) is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic fantasy film written and directed by Farah Khan, co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh, and produced by Gauri Khan under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija, a poor junior film artist in 1977, who falls in love with a secretly-married film actress Shanti Kashyap, portrayed by debutante Deepika Padukone. Her husband and a film producer Mukesh Mehra, played by Arjun Rampal, betrays her and murders her in a fire. Om witnesses this and is severely injured while trying to rescue her, resulting in his death as well. Being reborn as rich superstar Om Kapoor in 2007, he sets out to seek revenge from Mukesh with the help of Shanti's doppelganger Sandy Bansal. Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher and Nitesh Pandey appear in the film as well and cameos from many Bollywood celebrities are seen in several sequences and songs.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" was produced on a budget of . Farah conceived the film while directing the musical "Bombay Dreams" (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film "Happy New Year", she was reminded of "Om Shanti Om"; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from Subhash Ghai's popular film "Karz" (1980) which starred Rishi Kapoor as the main protagonist. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album was a critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" released on 9 November 2007 on the occasion of the festival of Diwali, earning ₹149 crore worldwide, thus becoming the highest grossing Hindi film of 2007, in addition to becoming the highest-grossing Hindi film ever at the time of its release. It received positive reviews from critics upon release, with praise for its story, screenplay, soundtrack, production design, costumes and performances of the cast.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: At the 55th National Film Awards, "Om Shanti Om" won Best Production Design (Sabu Cyril). At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 13 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Farah), Best Actor (Shah Rukh), Best Actress (Padukone) and Best Supporting Actor (Talpade), and won 2 awards – Best Female Debut (Padukone) and Best Special Effects.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Om Prakash Makhija is a poor young boy who is a junior film artist in Bollywood and lives with his widowed mother Bela Makhija and close friend Pappu Master in a small chawl in Mumbai. He is in love with Shantipriya Kashyap, a beautiful young girl who is a popular film actress in Bollywood. Om often expresses his feelings before Shanti's film poster and desires to meet her.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: One night, he sneaks into the premiere of one of her films "Dreamy Girl" along with Pappu in disguise. Later that night, a drunk Om gives an emotional speech to Pappu as he dreams of becoming a great actor. Om and Pappu take small acting roles in films which are filmed at R.C. Studios, a major filming compound owned by Mukesh Mehra, a charming but egotistical person who is a popular film producer.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: While shooting one day, Shanti gets trapped in a fire that grows out of control during filming. Risking his life, Om jumps into the fire and rescues her. Shanti is grateful to him and the two become friends. Om lies to Shanti that he is a famous South-Indian actor to impress her. He even puts an act of the filming of his South-Indian film but ultimately tells Shanti the truth upon seeing her true love for him.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Shanti forgives Om and spends a night with him, gifting him a snow globe. However, things take a turn when Om accidentally ends up overhearing a heated conversation between Shanti and Mukesh. He is shocked to discover that they have been married for two years but have not revealed it in public as that will ruin both of their careers. Shanti reveals to Mukesh that she is also pregnant with his child, leaving Om heartbroken. He avoids Shanti entirely.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: The next night, Mukesh takes Shanti to the set of her upcoming film titled Om Shanti Om and tells her that they will cancel its production and have a grand marriage ceremony over there. Om reaches there to meet Shanti for the last time and return her snow globe but is dejected upon seeing her with Mukesh. He leaves from there and throws the snow globe away.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Meanwhile, Mukesh tells Shanti that his marriage with Shanti and the unborn child will destroy his successful career. In order to prevent that, he lights up the set with fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it, in order to kill her and the unborn child. As he exits the set, Om spots Shanti in the flames and attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. After they leave, he manages to enter the set but is thrown out of the building by a big explosion. Om staggers on the road as the set burns down with Shanti in it.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Om is left devastated upon witnessing this and suddenly gets hit by the car of renowned actor Rajesh Kapoor. He takes him to a hospital with his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor who is under labor. The serious injuries of Om result in his death while still reminiscing about Shanti. Rajesh's assistant Naseer asks his surgeon to keep this a secret from Bela and Pappu. Moments later, Rajesh and Lovely are blessed with a baby boy named Om Kapoor.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: 30 years later, Om Kapoor is shown as a rich young boy who is a superstar in Bollywood and is revealed to be the rebirth of Om Prakash Makhija. He experiences Pyrophobia and often comes across Bela who believes him to be her son and tries to take him to her house. An aged Pappu tries to make her understand that he is someone else but she pays no heed to him. Om also ignores her and leaves upon thinking that she has gone crazy.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: He and his assistant Anwar Sheikh subsequently drive to the abandoned R.C. Studios for the filming of one of Om's films. Om recognizes the place and experiences some flashbacks of his previous life. He even finds Shanti's broken snow globe and is confused. That night, Om remembers the emotional speech he had given to Pappu in a drunken state when he wins the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. As he gives the same speech to the audience, Pappu watches his award function on TV and realizes that his friend is reborn as Om Kapoor. Meanwhile, a grand party is thrown for Om's success. Om remembers his whole previous life upon being visited by Mukesh, who now works in Hollywood and wishes to make a film with him.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Later that night, he traces Bela and Pappu to the crawl and has an emotional reunion with them. The three plan to avenge Shanti's death by making Mukesh confess his crime.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: The next day, Om manages to convince Mukesh to resume the filming of "Om Shanti Om" at the same ruined R.C. Studios. He auditions several actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across Sandhya Bansal aka Sandy, a ditzy but kind-hearted girl who is an exact doppelganger of Shanti. He hires her without revealing his plan and ends up firing her as she is unable to act proudly. On Pappu's advice, Om reveals his plan to Sandy who promises him that she will help him according to his plan.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: At the inaugural ceremony of the "Om Shanti Om" set, Bela scares Mukesh in the disguise of a ghost, and Om and Pappu try to light Shanti's photograph on fire to remind him of his crime. Although the setup doesn't work, the photograph is supernaturally lit by fire which disturbs Mukesh and confuses Om and Pappu. Mukesh is more horrified when Sandy appears in front of him dressed as Shanti in a make-up room. Eventually, he decides to leave for America after seeing Shanti in the footage of "Om Shanti Om" but Om asks him to wait for some days. He eventually performs the story of Shanti's life through a song in front of Mukesh during the music launch of "Om Shanti Om". However, Mukesh discovers Sandy's real identity as her body bleeds due to an injury. Mukesh attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: After he regains consciousness, Om confronts him over his crime but Mukesh taunts him that he or his "duplicate Shanti" cannot convict him for the murder as there is no proof for it. Just then, Sandy reaches the scene. She reveals that after the fire in the set died down, Mukesh returned to the place. Shanti was still alive then, but he buried her alive under the chandelier. She concludes that Shanti's corpse will be found under the chandelier, which will be proof of her murder for the court. Mukesh denies her revelation and attempts to shoot her but Om attacks him and a fire breaks out on the set. He shoots him in his leg and is about to murder him but Sandy stops him, saying that Mukesh is destined to die but not in his hands. She looks at the chandelier which falls and strikes Mukesh dead.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: The next moment, Om is shocked when Pappu and Anwar reach the scene along with "Sandy". As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realizes that the one who had revealed the proof of Shanti's murder and killed Mukesh was the ghost of Shanti. She was responsible for lighting the photograph with fire and knocking Mukesh unconscious too, helping him in his plan. Om reunites with Sandy and waves at Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears, having finally attained peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the set of "Om Shanti Om" and the credits roll.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical "Bombay Dreams" in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled "Happy New Year". Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in "Happy New Year", the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. "Happy New Year", which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Farah completed writing the first script of "Om Shanti Om" within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchandani.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in "Om Shanti Om", which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed "Guru" (2007) at a time when "Om Shanti Om" was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film "Karz" (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; "Om Shanti Om" roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".


title: Om Shanti Om

text: The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of "Karz" that is "Om Shanti Om" featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as a junior film artist standing in the crowd.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt "Om Shanti Om" was a "happy film".


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."


title: Om Shanti Om

text: In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of "Iqbal" (2005) and completing the filming of "Dor", Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be "Om Shanti Om". He agreed to do the role.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested in Dubai over a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Madhuri Dixit refused due to the promotional activities of "Aaja Nachle" (2007). Ajay Devgn refused due to his friend Arjun Rampal playing the villainous role in the film. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his Abhishek Bachchan's wedding to Aishwarya Rai, while Aamir Khan refused due to "Taare Zameen Par" (2007) on his pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film "Tarzan 303". Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om rescues Shanti from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of "Mother India" (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from "Amrapali" (1966), Rajesh Khanna from "Sachaa Jhutha" (1970) and Jeetendra from "Jay Vejay" (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for "Kaun Banega Crorepati". In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with "Main Hoon Na" (2004).


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in "Om Shanti Om" were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of "Om Shanti Om" was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title "Dhoom Taana". He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of "Bollywood Hungama" gave it four stars out of five and opines, ""Om Shanti Om" is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of "Rediff.com" also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, ""Om Shanti Om" is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of "Planet Bollywood" gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they're called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for "AllMusic", Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. "Om Shanti Om" set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to "Dhoom Taana". It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. "Om Shanti Om" was remade into a Japanese musical titled "Oomu Shanti Oumu". A book, titled "The Making of Om Shanti Om" written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of "Om Shanti Om" for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in "Om Shanti Om" that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in "Om Shanti Om" and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed "Madhumati" (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of "Om Shanti Om", as she felt that the film's second half was similar to "Madhumati", also a rebirth saga.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of "Bollywood Hungama" gave it four stars out of five and writes, ""Om Shanti Om" is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of "Hindustan Times" gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to "Karz". Raja Sen of "Rediff.com" gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, ""Om Shanti Om" is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Rajeev Masand of "News18" gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, "Om Shanti Om" is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for "Indo-Asian News Service" felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like "Om Shanti Om"", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: Sudish Kamnath of "The Hindu" stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".


title: Om Shanti Om

text: On the review aggregator "Rotten Tomatoes", "Om Shanti Om" holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of "BBC" gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of "National Post" gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." "AOL" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."


title: Om Shanti Om

text: "Om Shanti Om" opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected $2.78 million in the United Kingdom, $3.6 million in North America, and $6,857,816 collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $13,077,815, the fourth largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.


title: Om Shanti Om

text: In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 750,000 viewers on Channel 4 in 2010. This made it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on UK television, above the Japanese anime film "Spirited Away" and German animated film "The Little Polar Bear".


title: Square root

text: In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose "square" (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or  ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because .


title: Square root

text: Every nonnegative real number has a unique nonnegative square root, called the "principal square root", which is denoted by formula_1 where the symbol formula_2 is called the "radical sign" or "radix". For example, to express the fact that the principal square root of 9 is 3, we write formula_3. The term (or number) whose square root is being considered is known as the "radicand". The radicand is the number or expression underneath the radical sign, in this case 9. For nonnegative , the principal square root can also be written in exponent notation, as .


title: Square root

text: Every positive number has two square roots: formula_1 which is positive, and formula_5 which is negative. The two roots can be written more concisely using the ± sign as formula_6. Although the principal square root of a positive number is only one of its two square roots, the designation ""the" square root" is often used to refer to the principal square root.


title: Square root

text: Square roots of negative numbers can be discussed within the framework of complex numbers. More generally, square roots can be considered in any context in which a notion of the "square" of a mathematical object is defined. These include function spaces and square matrices, among other mathematical structures.


title: Square root

text: The Yale Babylonian Collection YBC 7289 clay tablet was created between 1800 BC and 1600 BC, showing formula_7 and formula_8 respectively as 1;24,51,10 and 0;42,25,35 base 60 numbers on a square crossed by two diagonals. (1;24,51,10) base 60 corresponds to 1.41421296, which is a correct value to 5 decimal points (1.41421356...).


title: Square root

text: The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus is a copy from 1650 BC of an earlier Berlin Papyrus and other textspossibly the Kahun Papyrusthat shows how the Egyptians extracted square roots by an inverse proportion method.


title: Square root

text: In Ancient India, the knowledge of theoretical and applied aspects of square and square root was at least as old as the "Sulba Sutras", dated around 800–500 BC (possibly much earlier). A method for finding very good approximations to the square roots of 2 and 3 are given in the "Baudhayana Sulba Sutra". Aryabhata, in the "Aryabhatiya" (section 2.4), has given a method for finding the square root of numbers having many digits.


title: Square root

text: It was known to the ancient Greeks that square roots of positive integers that are not perfect squares are always irrational numbers: numbers not expressible as a ratio of two integers (that is, they cannot be written exactly as formula_9, where "m" and "n" are integers). This is the theorem "Euclid X, 9", almost certainly due to Theaetetus dating back to circa 380 BC.


title: Square root

text: The particular case of the square root of 2 is assumed to date back earlier to the Pythagoreans, and is traditionally attributed to Hippasus. It is exactly the length of the diagonal of a square with side length 1.


title: Square root

text: In the Chinese mathematical work "Writings on Reckoning", written between 202 BC and 186 BC during the early Han Dynasty, the square root is approximated by using an "excess and deficiency" method, which says to "...combine the excess and deficiency as the divisor; (taking) the deficiency numerator multiplied by the excess denominator and the excess numerator times the deficiency denominator, combine them as the dividend."


title: Square root

text: A symbol for square roots, written as an elaborate R, was invented by Regiomontanus (1436–1476). An R was also used for radix to indicate square roots in Gerolamo Cardano's "Ars Magna".


title: Square root

text: According to historian of mathematics D.E. Smith, Aryabhata's method for finding the square root was first introduced in Europe by Cataneo—in 1546.


title: Square root

text: According to Jeffrey A. Oaks, Arabs used the letter "jīm/ĝīm" (), the first letter of the word "" (variously transliterated as "jaḏr", "jiḏr", "ǧaḏr" or "ǧiḏr", "root"), placed in its initial form () over a number to indicate its square root. The letter "jīm" resembles the present square root shape. Its usage goes as far as the end of the twelfth century in the works of the Moroccan mathematician Ibn al-Yasamin.


title: Square root

text: The principal square root function formula_10 (usually just referred to as the "square root function") is a function that maps the set of nonnegative real numbers onto itself. In geometrical terms, the square root function maps the area of a square to its side length.


title: Square root

text: The square root of "x" is rational if and only if "x" is a rational number that can be represented as a ratio of two perfect squares. (See square root of 2 for proofs that this is an irrational number, and quadratic irrational for a proof for all non-square natural numbers.) The square root function maps rational numbers into algebraic numbers, the latter being a superset of the rational numbers).


title: Square root

text: The square root function is continuous for all nonnegative "x", and differentiable for all positive "x". If "f" denotes the square root function, whose derivative is given by:


title: Square root

text: The square root of a nonnegative number is used in the definition of Euclidean norm (and distance), as well as in generalizations such as Hilbert spaces. It defines an important concept of standard deviation used in probability theory and statistics. It has a major use in the formula for roots of a quadratic equation; quadratic fields and rings of quadratic integers, which are based on square roots, are important in algebra and have uses in geometry. Square roots frequently appear in mathematical formulas elsewhere, as well as in many physical laws.