title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Summer is characterized by brief intense showers and thunderstorms that form along the afternoon sea breeze from the Gulf of Mexico. The daily mean temperature in July, the hottest month, is . Conversely, the winter is markedly cooler, with a January daily average temperature of . There is an average of 27 nights with a minimum at or below freezing, and on average, the window for freezing temperatures is from November 22 thru March 16, allowing a growing season of 250 days. With the data from the 1991-2020 normals, Tallahassee is in USDA zone 9a by a small margin, the coldest temperature of the year usually being about . Temperature readings below are very rare, having last occurred on January 11, 2010.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: During the Great Blizzard of 1899 the city reached on February 13, which remains Florida's only recorded subzero reading. At the time, Tallahassee's record low was colder than the record low in Tromsø, Norway. The record cold daily maximum is , set on the same day as the all-time record low. More recently, a daily maximum was recorded in 1985. Conversely, the record warm daily minimum is on July 15, 1980.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: However, the city itself is considerably warmer than the airport where the National Weather Service records its data from, even though the National Weather Service does not record data from it. This is due to an urban heat island, which creates an average disparity of 5.8 °F (3.2 °C) and is especially pronounced during winter.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Snow and ice are rare in Tallahassee, not occurring during most winters. Historically, at least flurries are recorded every three to four years, but measurable snowfall of or more has only happened once in the 1991-2020 time period. The closest location that receives regular yearly snowfalls is Macon, Georgia, north of Tallahassee. Nonetheless, Tallahassee has recorded a few accumulating snowfalls over the last 100 years; the heaviest snowfall was on February 13, 1958. Tallahassee's other recorded measurable snowfalls were on February 12–13, 1899, and December 22–23, 1989; on March 28, 1955, and February 10, 1973; on February 2, 1951; and on January 3, 2018.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Although several hurricanes have brushed Tallahassee with their outer rain and wind bands, in recent years only Hurricane Kate, in 1985, and Hurricane Hermine, in 2016, have struck Tallahassee directly. Hurricane Michael passed 50 miles to the west after making landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida in October 2018 as a Category 5 storm, resulting in 95% of Leon County being without power.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The Big Bend area of North Florida sees several tornadoes each year during the season, but they are generally weak, cause little structural damage, and rarely hit the city. On April 19, 2015, a tornado touched down in Tallahassee. The tornado was rated EF1, and created a path as wide as for almost near Maclay Gardens. Damage included numerous downed tree limbs and a car crushed by a falling tree. During extremely heavy rains, some low-lying parts of Tallahassee may flood, notably the Franklin Boulevard area adjacent to the downtown and the Killearn Lakes subdivision, outside the Tallahassee city limits, on the north side.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The most recent tornado to hit Tallahassee occurred on January 27, 2021. It was rated as EF0 tornado. The tornado caused damage to the city and the Tallahassee International Airport.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: As of the 2010 census, the population of Tallahassee was 181,376. There were 75,949 households, 16.7% of which had children under 18 living in them. 27.7% were married couples living together(based on 2010 data), 14.4% had a female householder with no husband, and 53.7% were non-families. 34.1% of all households were made up of individuals living alone and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.33. Children under the age of 5 were 4.9% of the population, persons under 18 were 16.7% and persons 65 years or older were 10.3%. The median age was 26 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.7 males.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: 56.2% of the population was White, 35.0% Black, 4.6% Asian, 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 1.3% some other race, and 2.9% two or more races. 6.3% were Hispanic or Latino of any race, and 51.1% were non-Hispanic White. For 2009–2013, the estimated median household income was $39,524, and the per capita income was $23,778.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Educationally, the population of Leon County is the most highly educated population in Florida with 54.4% of the residents over the age of 25 with a Bachelor's, Master's, professional or doctorate degree. The Florida average is 37.4% and the national average is 33.4%.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: , 92.0% of residents spoke English as their first language, while 4.1% spoke Spanish, 0.6% spoke French, and 0.6% spoke German as their mother tongue. In total, 8.0% of the total population spoke languages other than English.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee has traditionally been a Democratic city, but the party has been supported by different ethnic groups over time, with a major shift in the late 20th century. Leon County has voted Democratic in 24 of the past 29 presidential elections since 1904. But until the late 1960s, most African Americans were disenfranchised from the political system, dating from a new constitution and other laws passed by Democrats in Florida (and in all other Southern states) at the turn of the century. At that time, most African Americans were affiliated with the Republican Party, and their disenfranchisement resulted in that party being non-competitive in the region for decades. Subsequently, these demographic groups traded party alignments.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Since passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and enforcement of constitutional rights for African Americans, voters in Tallahassee have elected black mayors and black state representatives. It has become a city in the Southern U.S. that is known for progressive activism. This is likely due to the large student population that attends Florida State University, Florida A&M University, and Tallahassee Community College. In addition, in the realignment of party politics since the late 20th century, most of the African-American population in the city now support Democratic Party candidates.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: As of December 2, 2018, there were 112,572 Democrats, 58,083 Republicans, and 44,007 voters who were independent or had other affiliations among the 214,662 voters in Leon County.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Leon County's voter turnout percentage has consistently ranked among the highest of Florida's 67 counties, with a record-setting 86% turnout in the November 2008 general election. The county voted for Barack Obama in the presidential election.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee has a form of government with an elected mayor of Tallahassee, elected commissioners, and an at-will employed city manager, city departments, and staff.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee is split between Florida's 2nd congressional district and Florida's 5th congressional district.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The United States Postal Service operates post offices in Tallahassee. The Tallahassee Main Post Office is at 2800 South Adams Street. Other post offices in the city limits include Centerville Station, Leon Station, Park Avenue Station, and Westside Station.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Their coverage-warning area includes the eastern Florida Panhandle and adjacent Gulf of Mexico waters, the north-central Florida peninsula, and parts of southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The United States Army Reserve 81st Regional Support Command (USAR) opened an Army Reserve Center at 4307 Jackson Bluff Road.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center (NMCRC) is at 2910 Roberts Avenue host the United States Navy Reserve Navy Operational Support Center Tallahassee (NOSC Tallahassee) and the United States Marine Corps Reserve 2nd Platoon, Company E, Anti-Terrorism Battalion and 3rd Platoon, Company E, Anti-Terrorism Battalion.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Voters of Leon County have gone to the polls four times to vote on consolidation of Tallahassee and Leon County governments into one jurisdiction combining police and other city services with already shared (consolidated) Tallahassee Fire Department and Leon County Emergency Medical Services. Tallahassee's city limits would increase from to . Roughly 36 percent of Leon County's 265,714 residents live outside the Tallahassee city limits.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The proponents of consolidation have stated the new jurisdiction would attract business by its size. Merging governments would cut government waste, duplication of services, etc. However, Professor Richard Feiock of the Department of Public Administration of Korea University and the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy of Florida State University states that no discernible relationship exists between consolidation and the local economy.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The former flag of Tallahassee was vaguely similar to the flag of Florida, a white saltire on a blue field, with the city's coat of arms, featuring the cupola of the old capitol building, at the center. The flag is an homage to the Scottish and Ulster-Scots Presbyterian heritage of the original founders of the city, most of whom were settlers from North Carolina whose ancestors had either come to America directly from Scotland, or were Presbyterians of Scottish descent from County Down and County Antrim in what has since become Northern Ireland. The current flag incorporates a stylized 5-point star and the city name on a white background.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee anchors the Leon County School District. As of the 2009 school year Leon County Schools had an estimated 32,796 students, 2209 teachers and 2100 administrative and support personnel. The superintendent of schools is Rocky Hanna. Leon County public school enrollment continues to grow steadily (up approximately 1% per year since the 1990–91 school year). The dropout rate for grades 9–12 improved to 2.2% in the 2007–2008 school year, the third time in the past four years the dropout rate has been below 3%.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: To gauge performance the State of Florida rates all public schools according to student achievement on the state-sponsored Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). Seventy-nine percent of Leon County Public Schools received an A or B grade in the 2008–2009 school year. The overall district grade assigned to the Leon County Schools is "A". Students in the Leon County School District continued to score favorably in comparison to Florida and national averages in the SAT and ACT student assessment tests. The Leon County School District has consistently scored at or above the average for districts statewide in total ACT and SAT mean composite scores.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Florida State University (commonly referred to as Florida State or FSU) is an American public space-grant and sea-grant research university. Florida State is on a 1,391.54-acre (5.631 km2) campus in the state capital of Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The university is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities, labs and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, including professional school programs. The university has an annual budget of over $1.7 billion. Florida State is home to Florida's only National Laboratory – the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and is the birthplace of the commercially viable anti-cancer drug Taxol. Florida State University also operates The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida and one of the nation's largest museum/university complexes.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Florida State University is home to nationally ranked programs in many academic areas, including law, business, engineering, medicine, social policy, film, music, theater, dance, visual art, political science, psychology, social work, and the sciences. Florida State University leads Florida in four of eight areas of external funding for the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: For 2022, "U.S. News & World Report" ranked Florida State as the 19th best public university in the United States and 55th among top national universities.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Florida Governor Rick Scott and the state legislature designated Florida State University as one of two "preeminent" state universities in the spring of 2013 among the twelve universities of the State University System of Florida.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: FSU's intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their Florida State Seminoles nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Florida State Seminoles athletics program are favorites of passionate students, fans and alumni across the United States, especially when led by the Marching Chiefs of the Florida State University College of Music. In their 113-year history, Florida State's varsity sports teams have won 20 national athletic championships and Seminole athletes have won 78 individual NCAA national championships.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Founded on October 3, 1887, Florida A&M University (commonly referred to as FAMU) is a public, historically black university and land-grant university that is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. FAMU's main campus comprises 156 buildings spread over on top of the highest geographic hill of Tallahassee. The university also has several satellite campuses, including a site in Orlando where its College of Law is located and sites in Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa for its pharmacy program. Florida A&M University offers 54 bachelor's degrees and 29 master's degrees. The university has 12 schools and colleges and one institute.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: FAMU has 11 doctoral programs which include 10 PhD programs: chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, biomedical engineering, physics, pharmaceutical sciences, educational leadership, and environmental sciences. Top undergraduate programs are architecture, journalism, computer information sciences, and psychology. FAMU's top graduate programs include pharmaceutical sciences along with public health, physical therapy, engineering, physics, master's of applied social sciences (especially history and public administration), business and sociology.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee Community College (TCC) is a member of the Florida College System. Tallahassee Community College is accredited by the Florida Department of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Its primary campus is on a 270-acre (1.092 km2) campus in Tallahassee. The institution was founded in 1966 by the Florida Legislature.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: TCC offers Bachelor's of Science, Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, and Associate of Applied Sciences degrees. In 2013, Tallahassee Community College was listed 1st in the nation in graduating students with A.A. degrees. TCC is also the No. 1 transfer school in the nation to Florida State University and Florida A&M University. As of Fall 2015, TCC reported 38,017 students.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: In partnership with Florida State University, and Florida A&M University Tallahassee Community College offers the "TCC2FSU", and "TCC2FAMU" program. This program provides guaranteed admission into Florida State University and Florida A&M University for TCC Associate in Arts degree graduates.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Companies based in Tallahassee include: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the Municipal Code Corporation, the State Board of Administration of Florida (SBA), the Mainline Information Systems, and United Solutions Company.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: According to Tallahassee's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee is home to many entertainment venues, theaters, museums, parks and performing arts centers.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: A major source of entertainment and art is the Railroad Square Art Park. The Railroad Square Art Park is an arts, culture and entertainment district of Tallahassee, Florida, off Railroad Avenue, filled with a variety of metal art sculptures and stores selling artwork and collectibles. Railroad Square is mainly known for its small locally owned shops and working artist studios, and its alternative art scene. On the first Friday of every month, Railroad Square is home to a free gallery hop known as First Friday from 6pm-9pm, where a diverse group of upwards of 5000-7000+ Tallahasseeans of all ages come to meet their friends and experience art.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee is known for its many museums. It is home to the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University, Tallahassee Museum, Goodward Museum & Gardens, Museum of Florida History, Mission San Luis de Apalachee, Tallahassee Automobile Museum, Old Capitol Museum, Knott House Museum, and The Grove.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee is home to one of the most competitive collegiate athletics programs in the nation, the Florida State Seminoles of Florida State University. The Seminoles compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The university funds 20 varsity teams, consisting of 9 male and 11 female. They have collectively won 19 team national championships, and over 100 team conference championships, as well as numerous individual national and conference titles. The program has placed in the top-10 final standings of the Director's Cup four times since 2008–2009, including No. 4 for the 2009–2010 season and No. 4 for the 2011–2012 season. In 2016–2017, the program generated the thirteenth-most revenue in collegiate athletics with $144,514,413 of total revenue.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: College football game weekends bring in a significant amount of tourism to Leon County. FSU home games had a total attendance of 575,478 people with an average of 82,211 attendees per game in 2014. During football season, out-of-town attendees brought $48.8 million in direct spending during the six home games. In 2016, Florida State football home games resulted in $95.5 million of economic impact on Leon County.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Tallahassee is home to Tallahassee SC, a soccer club that was founded in 2018 and plays in the National Premier Soccer League.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Some former sports clubs in Tallahassee include the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks, Tallahassee Scorpions, Tallahassee Thunder, Tallahassee Titans, and the Tallahassee Tigers.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Established in 1826, the Tallahassee Police Department once claimed to be the oldest police department in the Southern United States, and the second-oldest in the U.S., preceded only by the Philadelphia Police Department (established in 1758). The Boston Police Department was established in 1838 and larger East Coast cities followed with New York City and Baltimore in 1845. However, this is proven incorrect. Pensacola, Florida, for example, had a municipal police force as early as 1821.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: There are over 800 sworn law enforcement officers in Tallahassee. Law enforcement services are provided by the Tallahassee Police Department, the Leon County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Capitol Police, Florida State University Police Department, Florida A&M University Police Department, the Tallahassee Community College Police Department, the Florida Highway Patrol, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The Tallahassee Growth Management Building Inspection Division is responsible for issuing permits and performing inspections of public and private buildings in the city limits. These duties include the enforcement of the Florida Building Codes and the Florida Fire Protection Codes. These standards are present to protect life and property. The Tallahassee Building Department is one of 13 Accredited Building Departments in the United States.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: The Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Marshals Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Administration have offices in Tallahassee. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida is based in Tallahassee.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Fire and rescue services are provided by the Tallahassee Fire Department and Leon County Emergency Medical Services.


title: Tallahassee, Florida

text: Hospitals in the area include Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, Capital Regional Medical Center and HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Tallahassee.


title: John Carradine

text: John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theatre. In the later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies, but continued to also appear in higher-profile fare. In total, he holds 351 film and television credits, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking actors of all time.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine was married four times, had five children, and was the patriarch of the Carradine family, including four sons and four grandchildren who are or were also actors.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine was born in New York City, the son of William Reed Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press, and his wife, Genevieve Winnifred Richmond, a surgeon. William Carradine was the son of evangelical author Beverly Carradine. The family lived in Peekskill, New York and Kingston, New York. William Carradine died from tuberculosis when his son John was two years old. Carradine's mother then married "a Philadelphia paper manufacturer named Peck, who thought the way to bring up someone else's boy was to beat him every day just on general principle." Carradine attended the Christ Church School in Kingston and the Episcopal Academy in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, where he developed his diction and his memory skills from portions of the "Episcopal Book of Common Prayer" as a punishment.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine's son David claimed his father ran away when he was 14 years old. He later returned, as he studied sculpture at Philadelphia's Graphic Arts Institute. Carradine lived with his maternal uncle, Peter Richmond, in New York City for a while, working in the film archives of the public library. David said that while still a teenager, his father went to Richmond, Virginia, to serve as an apprentice to Daniel Chester French, the sculptor who created the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. He traveled for a time, supporting himself painting portraits. "If the sitter was satisfied, the price was $2.50," he once said. "It cost him nothing if he thought it was a turkey. I made as high as $10 to $15 a day." During this time, he was arrested for vagrancy. While in jail, Carradine was beaten, suffering a broken nose that did not set correctly. This contributed to "the look that would become world famous."


title: John Carradine

text: David Carradine said, "My dad told me that he saw a production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" when he was 11 years old and decided right then what he wanted to do with his life". He made his stage debut in 1925 in New Orleans in a production of "Camille" and worked for a time in a New Orleans Shakespeare company. Carradine joined a tent repertory theater under the management of R. D. MaClean, who became his mentor. In 1927, he took a job escorting a shipment of bananas from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles, where he eventually picked up some theater work under the name of Peter Richmond, in homage to his uncle. He became friends with John Barrymore, and began working for Cecil B. DeMille as a set designer. Carradine, however, did not have the job long. "DeMille noticed the lack of Roman columns in my sketches," Carradine said. "I lasted two weeks." Once DeMille heard his baritone voice, however, he hired him to do voice-overs. Carradine said, "the great Cecil B. DeMille saw an apparition – me – pass him by, reciting the gravedigger's lines from 'Hamlet', and he instructed me to report to him the following day." He became a member of DeMille's stock company and his voice was heard in several DeMille pictures, including "The Sign of the Cross".


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine's first film credit was "Tol'able David" (1930), but he claimed to have done 70 pictures before getting billing. Carradine claimed to have tested, as an unknown – along with well-known leading men Conrad Veidt, William Courtenay, Paul Muni, and Ian Keith – for the title role in "Dracula", but the historical record does not support the claim. The part eventually went to Bela Lugosi. Carradine later played the Count in the 1940s Universal Studios Dracula sequels "House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula". Carradine also claimed to have tested for the monster role in "Frankenstein" (1931), though again, no account exists other than his own that he actually did so. By 1933, he was being credited as John Peter Richmond, perhaps in honor of his friend, John Barrymore. He adopted the stage name "John Carradine" in 1935, and legally took the name as his own two years later. In 1935's "Bride of Frankenstein", Carradine had a brief uncredited walk on role as a hunter in the forest.


title: John Carradine

text: On April 11, 1934, Wilfred Talbot Smith and Regina Kahl of the O.T.O. Agape Lodge held a "Crowley Night on Winona Blvd". Martin Starr recounts that "It included a program of recitation of (Aleister) Crowley's poetry, rituals and sacred texts...One surprising name was among the participants: the stage and motion picture actor John Carradine...who read the Crowley poem, "O Madonna of the Golden Eyes."


title: John Carradine

text: By 1936, Carradine had become a member of John Ford's stock company and appeared in "The Prisoner of Shark Island". In total, he made 11 pictures with Ford, including his first important role, as Preacher Casy in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940). Other Ford films in which Carradine appeared include "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) and "Stagecoach" (1939).


title: John Carradine

text: He also portrayed the Biblical hero Aaron in DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1956), and he dominated "Hitler's Madman" (1943) as Reinhard Heydrich.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine did considerable stage work, much of which provided his only opportunity to work in a classic drama context. He toured with his own Shakespearean company in the 1940s, playing Hamlet and Macbeth. His Broadway roles included Ferdinand in a 1946 production of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi", the Ragpicker in a 13-month run of Jean Giraudoux's "The Madwoman of Chaillot", Lycus in a 15-month run of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", and DeLacey in the expensive one-night flop "Frankenstein" in 1981. He also toured in road companies of such shows as "Tobacco Road" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," in which he was properly emaciated as the cancer-ridden Big Daddy, a part, he said, which Tennessee Williams wrote for him.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine claimed to have appeared in more than 450 movies, but only 225 movies can be documented. His count is closer to fact if theatrical movies, made-for-TV movies, and television programs are included. He often played eccentric, insane, or diabolical characters, especially in the horror genre with which he had become identified as a "star" by the mid-1940s. He occasionally played a heroic role, as in "The Grapes of Wrath", in which he played Casy, the ill-fated "preacher", and he occasionally played a sympathetic role, as in "", in which he played Blake's shipmate, who escapes with him to a tropical island full of riches.


title: John Carradine

text: He appeared in dozens of low-budget horror films from the 1940s onwards, to finance a touring classical theatre company. He also played a small but important role in the very-high-budget comedy "The Court Jester", which was at the time of its release the most expensive comedy film ever made. He sang the theme song to one film in which he appeared briefly, "Red Zone Cuba". Carradine also made more than 100 acting appearances on television over a period of 39 years. His first performance on the "small screen" was on the DuMont Television Network in 1947, when he played Ebenezer Scrooge in a broadcast presentation of "A Christmas Carol." His final role on television was in 1986 as Professor Alex Stottel on a revival of the classic series "The Twilight Zone", in an episode segment titled "Still Life." Some examples of other television series on which he appeared include "My Friend Flicka", "Johnny Ringo" (as The Rain Man), and "Place the Face", NBC's "Cimarron City" as the foreboding Jared Tucker in the episode "Child of Fear" and on William Bendix's "Overland Trail" in the 1960 episode "The Reckoning," on "Harrigan and Son" starring Pat O'Brien in the episode "A Matter of Dignity," "Maverick" in "Red Dog" starring Roger Moore and Lee Van Cleef, "Sugarfoot", "The Rebel", and "The Legend of Jesse James", on the syndicated adventure series "Rescue 8" with actor Jim Davis and in two episodes of the western TV series "Bonanza" ("Springtime" and "Dead Wrong"). John Carradine also appeared in 1959 as the mind reader in "The Rifleman" episode of the same name.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine also made recurring appearances as the mortician Mr. Gateman on the television comedy series "The Munsters". He appeared as well in both of Irwin Allen's classic 1960s science-fiction television series "Lost in Space" and "Land of the Giants". In 1985, Carradine won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance as an eccentric man who lives by the railroad tracks in the Young People's Special "Umbrella Jack".


title: John Carradine

text: In 1982, he supplied the voice of the Great Owl in the animated feature "The Secret of NIMH". Also, he played the voice of the Wizard in the English-dubbed version of "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp". One of Carradine's later appearances was "Peggy Sue Got Married" in 1986. Carradine's last released film credit was "Jack-O", released years after his death.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine's deep, resonant voice earned him the nickname "The Voice". He was known as the "Bard of the Boulevard" due to his idiosyncratic habit of strolling Hollywood streets while reciting Shakespearean soliloquies, something he always denied.


title: John Carradine

text: Carradine was married four times. He married his first wife, Ardanelle Abigail McCool (January 25, 1911 – January 26, 1989), in 1935. She was the mother of Bruce and David. John adopted Bruce, Ardanelle's son from a previous marriage. John had planned a large family, but according to the autobiography of his son David, after Ardanelle had had a series of miscarriages, Carradine discovered that she had repeated "coat hanger" abortions, without his knowledge, which rendered her unable to carry a baby to full term. After only three years of marriage, Ardanelle Carradine filed for divorce, but the couple remained married for another five years.


title: John Carradine

text: They divorced in 1944 when David was seven years old. Carradine left California to avoid court action in the alimony settlement. After the couple engaged in a series of court battles involving child custody and alimony, which at one point landed Carradine in jail, David joined his father in New York City. By this time, his father had remarried. For the next few years, David was shuffled among boarding schools, foster homes, and reform school.


title: John Carradine

text: In 1945, immediately following his divorce from Ardanelle, Carradine married Sonia Sorel (May 18, 1921 – September 24, 2004), who had appeared with him in the 1944 film "Bluebeard". Sonia, who had adopted the stage name of Sorel, was the daughter of San Francisco brewer Henry Henius, granddaughter of biochemist Max Henius, and a great-niece of the historian Johan Ludvig Heiberg. Together, Carradine and Sonia had three sons, Christopher, Keith, and Robert. Their divorce in 1957 was followed by an acrimonious custody battle, which resulted in their sons being placed in a home for abused children as wards of the court. Keith Carradine said "It was like being in jail. There were bars on the windows, and we were only allowed to see our parents through glass doors. It was very sad. We would stand there on either side of the glass door crying".


title: John Carradine

text: Eventually, Carradine won custody of the children. For the next eight years, Sonia was not permitted to see the children. Robert Carradine said that he was raised primarily by his stepmother, his father's third wife, Doris (Rich) Grimshaw, and believed her to be his mother until he was introduced to Sonia Sorel at a Christmas party when he was 14 years old. He told a journalist "I said, 'How do you do?' Keith took me aside and said 'That's our real mother.' I didn't know what he was talking about. But he finally convinced me."


title: John Carradine

text: When John Carradine married Doris (Erving Rich) Grimshaw in 1957, she already had a son, Dale, from a previous marriage and a son, Michael, from a later relationship. Both Dale and Michael, along with Sonia Sorel's son, Michael Bowen, are sometimes counted among John Carradine's eight sons. She was a one-time studio typist who typed the script to "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and who played a few roles in film and television. Doris died in 1971 in a fire in her apartment in Oxnard, California. The fire was caused by a burning cigarette. She had been rescued from a similar fire two weeks earlier. At the time of her death, Carradine and she were separated. Carradine was married a fourth time, from 1975 to his 1988 death, to Emily Cisneros.


title: John Carradine

text: Semi-retired, Carradine suffered from painful and crippling rheumatoid arthritis before he died from heart and kidney failure at the in Milan, Italy on November 27, 1988. Hours before he was stricken, he had climbed the 328 steep steps of Milan's Gothic cathedral, the Duomo. According to David Carradine, his father had just finished a film ("Buried Alive") in South Africa and was about to begin a European tour. David was with him, reading Shakespeare to him, when he succumbed to his condition. By the time David and Keith Carradine had arrived at their father's bedside, he was unable to speak. "I was told that his last words were 'Milan: What a beautiful place to die.'" David recalled, "but he never spoke to me or opened his eyes. When he died, I was holding him in my arms. I reached out and closed his eyes. It's not as easy as it is in the movies." There was a mass for John Carradine at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Hollywood. An Irish wake followed, and his body was buried at sea between the California coast and Catalina Island.


title: John Carradine

text: For his contributions to the film industry, Carradine was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 with a motion pictures star located at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2003, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


title: John Carradine

text: Four of Carradine's five sons became actors: David, Robert, Keith, and Bruce. David had a prolific career, amassing 227 movie and television credits by the time of his death in 2009. He also had a brief Broadway career and produced and directed a number of independent projects. His success often led to work for other members of his family, including his father. The two appeared together in a few films, including "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys" (1969) and "Boxcar Bertha" (1972), produced by Roger Corman and directed by Martin Scorsese.


title: John Carradine

text: David's television series "Kung Fu" featured his father John and half-brother Robert in the episode "Dark Angel". John appeared as the same character, the Reverend Serenity Johnson, in two more episodes: "The Nature of Evil" and "Ambush". David's brothers Bruce and Keith appeared in the series, with Keith playing David's character as a teenager for a brief period. David, Keith, and Robert appeared together in a humorous cameo on "The Fall Guy", on an episode titled "October the 31st", in which their father co-starred.


title: John Carradine

text: Robert appeared with his father in an episode of the first "Twilight Zone" revival television series in 1986. The episode segment titled "Still Life" featured Robert as a photographer who discovers an unusual camera and his father as a college professor who helps him discover the camera's secret.


title: John Carradine

text: David's daughter Calista, Robert's daughter Ever, and Keith's son Cade and daughters Martha Plimpton and Sorel are all actors. David's daughter, Kansas, rides horses in rodeos.


title: John Carradine

text: The following are only a few examples of the many roles John Carradine performed on television between 1947 and 1986:


title: 2022 California gubernatorial election

text: The 2022 California gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of California, with the statewide top-two primary election taking place on June 7, 2022. Incumbent Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom ran and won re-election to a second term after surviving a recall election in 2021, during his first term.


title: 2022 California gubernatorial election

text: The elections featured universal mail-in ballots; in-person voting was also available. All statewide elected offices are currently held by Democrats. Newsom won 61.9% of the vote in both the 2018 gubernatorial election and the 2021 recall election. He received 55.9% of the top-two primary vote and faced Republican state senator Brian Dahle, who received 17.7% of the primary vote, in the general election. Despite Newsom easily winning reelection with 59.2% of the vote to Dahle's 40.8%, his margin of victory was smaller than in 2018, with Dahle losing by 18.4% compared to fellow Republican John Cox's 23.8% defeat. Additionally, Dahle flipped five counties that Newsom carried in 2018, namely Lake, Merced (although Merced voted to recall Newsom), Orange, San Bernardino, and San Joaquin. He also received 32% of the vote in Los Angeles County, a respectable performance for a Republican in the Democratic stronghold.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lombards in Italy from 774. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in an effort to transfer the Roman Empire from Byzantine Empire to Europe. The Carolingian Empire is considered the first phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: After a civil war (840–843) following the death of Emperor Louis the Pious, the empire was divided into autonomous kingdoms, with one king still recognised as emperor, but with little authority outside his own kingdom. The unity of the empire and the hereditary right of the Carolingians continued to be acknowledged. In 884, Charles the Fat reunited all the Carolingian kingdoms for the last time, but he died in 888 and the empire immediately split up. With the only remaining legitimate male of the dynasty a child, the nobility elected regional kings from outside the dynasty or, in the case of the eastern kingdom, an illegitimate Carolingian. The illegitimate line continued to rule in the east until 911, while in the western kingdom the legitimate Carolingian dynasty was restored in 898 and ruled until 987 with an interruption from 922 to 936.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The size of the empire at its inception was around , with a population of between 10 and 20 million people. Its heartland was Francia, the land between the Loire and the Rhine, where the realm's primary royal residence, Aachen, was located. In the south it crossed the Pyrenees and bordered the Emirate of Córdoba and, after 824, the Kingdom of Pamplona; to the north it bordered the kingdom of the Danes; to the west it had a short land border with Brittany, which was later reduced to a tributary; and to the east it had a long border with the Slavs and the Avars, who were eventually defeated and their land incorporated into the empire. In southern Italy, the Carolingians' claims to authority were disputed by the Byzantines (Greek) and the vestiges of the Lombard kingdom in the Principality of Benevento.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The term "Carolingian Empire" is a modern convention and was not used by its contemporaries. The language of official acts in the empire was Latin. The empire was referred to variously as "universum regnum" ("the whole kingdom", as opposed to the regional kingdoms), "Romanorum sive Francorum imperium" ("empire of the Romans and Franks"), "Romanum imperium" ("Roman empire"), or even "imperium christianum" ("Christian empire").


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Though Charles Martel chose not to take the title of king (as his son Pepin III would) or emperor (as his grandson Charlemagne), he was the absolute ruler of virtually all of today's continental Western Europe north of the Pyrenees. Only the remaining Saxon realms, which he partly conquered, Lombardy, and the Marca Hispanica south of the Pyrenees were significant additions to the Frankish realms after his death.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Martel cemented his place in history with his defense of Christian Europe against a Muslim army at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Iberian Saracens had incorporated Berber light horse cavalry with the heavy Arab cavalry to create a formidable army that had almost never been defeated. Christian European forces, meanwhile, lacked the powerful tool of the stirrup. In this victory, Charles earned the surname "Martel" ("the Hammer"). Edward Gibbon, the historian of Rome and its aftermath, called Charles Martel "the paramount prince of his age".


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Pepin III accepted the nomination as king by Pope Zachary in about 741. Charlemagne's rule began in 768 at Pepin's death. He proceeded to take control of the kingdom following his brother Carloman's death, as the two brothers co-inherited their father's kingdom. Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor in the year 800.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Carolingian Empire during the reign of Charlemagne covered most of Western Europe, as the Roman Empire once had. Unlike the Romans, whose imperial ventures between the Rhine and the Elbe lasted fewer than twenty years before being cut short by the disaster at Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), Charlemagne defeated the Germanic resistance and extended his realm to the Elbe more lastingly, influencing events almost to the Russian Steppes.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Charlemagne's reign was one of near-constant warfare, participating in annual campaigns, many led personally. He defeated the Lombard Kingdom in 774 and annexed it into his own domain by declaring himself 'King of the Lombards'. He later led a failed campaign into Spain in 778, ending with the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, which is considered Charlemagne's greatest defeat. He then extended his domain into Bavaria after forcing Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, to renounce any claim to his title in 794. His son, Pepin, was ordered to campaign against the Avars in 795 since Charlemagne was occupied with Saxon revolts. Eventually, the Avar confederation ended in 803 after Charlemagne sent a Bavarian army into Pannonia. He also conquered Saxon territories in wars and rebellions fought from 772 to 804, with such events as the Massacre of Verden in 782 and the codification of the Lex Saxonum in 802.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Prior to the death of Charlemagne, the Empire was divided among various members of the Carolingian dynasty. These included King Charles the Younger, son of Charlemagne, who received Neustria; King Louis the Pious, who received Aquitaine; and King Pepin, who received Italy. Pepin died with an illegitimate son, Bernard, in 810, and Charles died without heirs in 811. Although Bernard succeeded Pepin as king of Italy, Louis was made co-emperor in 813, and the entire Empire passed to him with Charlemagne's death in the winter of 814.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Louis the Pious’ reign as Emperor was unexpected; as the third son of Charlemagne, he was originally crowned King of Aquitaine at three years old. With the deaths of his older siblings, he went from ‘a boy who became a king to a man who would be emperor’. Although his reign was mostly overshadowed by the dynastic struggle and resultant civil war, as his epithet states, he was highly interested in matters of religion. One of the first things he did was ‘ruling the people by law and with the wealth of his piety’, namely by restoring churches. "The Astronomer" stated that, during his kingship of Aquitaine, he ‘built up the study of reading and singing, and also the understanding of divine and worldly letters, more quickly than one would believe.’ He also made significant effort to restore many monasteries that had disappeared prior to his reign, as well as sponsoring new ones.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Louis the Pious’ reign lacked security; he often had to struggle to maintain control of the Empire. As soon as he heard of the death of Charlemagne, he hurried to Aachen, where he exiled many of Charlemagne's trusted advisors, such as Wala. Wala and his siblings were children of the youngest son of Charles Martel, and so were a threat as a potential alternative ruling family. Monastic exile was a tactic Louis used heavily in his early reign to strengthen his position and remove potential rivals. In 817 his nephew, King Bernard of Italy, rebelled against him due to discontent with being the vassal of Lothar, Louis’ eldest son. The rebellion was quickly put down by Louis, and by 818 Bernard of Italy was captured and punished - the punishment of death was commuted to blinding. However, the trauma of the procedure ending up killing him two days later. Italy was brought back into Imperial control. In 822 Louis' show of penance for Bernard's death greatly reduced his prestige as Emperor to the nobility – some suggest it opened him up to ‘clerical domination’. Nonetheless, in 817 Louis had established three new Carolingian kingships for his sons from his first marriage: Lothar was made King of Italy and co-Emperor, Pepin was made King of Aquitaine, and Louis the German was made King of Bavaria. His attempts in 823 to bring his fourth son (from his second marriage), Charles the Bald into the will was marked by the resistance of his eldest sons. Whilst this was part of the reason for strife amongst Louis’ sons, some suggest that it was the appointment of Bernard of Septimania as chamberlain which caused discontent with Lothar, as he was stripped of his co-Emperorship in 829 and was banished to Italy (although it is not known why; The Astronomer simply states that Louis 'dismissed his son Lothar to go back to Italy') and Bernard assumed his place as second in command to the emperor. With Bernard's influence over not only the emperor, but the empress as well, further discord was sowed amongst prominent nobility. Pepin, Louis’ second son, too, was disgruntled; he had been implicated in a failed military campaign in 827, and he was tired of his father's overbearing involvement in the ruling of Aquitaine. As such, the angry nobility supported Pepin, civil war broke out during Lent in 830, and the last years of his reign were plagued by civil war.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Shortly after Easter, his sons attacked Louis' empire and dethroned him in favour of Lothar. The Astronomer stated Louis spent the summer in the custody of his son, ‘an emperor in name only’. The following year Louis attacked his sons' kingdoms by drafting new plans for succession. Louis gave Neustria to Pepin, stripped Lothar of his Imperial title and granted the Kingdom of Italy to Charles. Another partition in 832 completely excluded Pepin and Louis the German, making Lothar and Charles the sole benefactors of the kingdom, which precipitated Pepin and Louis the German revolting in the same year, followed by Lothar in 833, and together they imprisoned Louis the Pious and Charles. Lothar brought Pope Gregory IV from Rome under the guise of mediation, but his true role was to legitimise Lothar and his brothers’ rule by deposing and excommunicating Louis. By 835, peace was made within the family, and Louis was restored to the Imperial throne at the church of St. Stephen in Metz. When Pepin died in 838, Louis crowned Charles king of Aquitaine, whilst the nobility elected Pepin's son Pepin II, a conflict which was not resolved until 860 with Pepin's death. When Louis the Pious finally died in 840, Lothar claimed the entire empire irrespective of the partitions.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: As a result, Charles and Louis the German went to war against Lothar. After losing the Battle of Fontenay, Lothar fled to his capital at Aachen and raised a new army, which was inferior to that of the younger brothers. In the Oaths of Strasbourg, in 842, Charles and Louis agreed to declare Lothar unfit for the imperial throne. This marked the east–west division of the Empire between Louis and Charles until the Verdun Treaty. Considered a milestone in European history, the Oaths of Strasbourg symbolize the birth of both France and Germany. The partition of Carolingian Empire was finally settled in 843 by and between Louis the Pious' three sons in the Treaty of Verdun.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Lothar received the imperial title, the kingship of Italy, and the territory between the Rhine and Rhone Rivers, collectively called the Central Frankish Realm. Louis was guaranteed the kingship of all lands to the east of the Rhine and to the north and east of Italy, which was called the Eastern Frankish Realm which was the precursor to modern Germany. Charles received all lands west of the Rhone, which was called the Western Frankish Realm.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Lothar retired Italy to his eldest son Louis II in 844, making him co-emperor in 850. Lothar died in 855, dividing his kingdom into three parts: the territory already held by Louis remained his, the territory of the former Kingdom of Burgundy was granted to his third son Charles of Burgundy, and the remaining territory for which there was no traditional name was granted to his second son Lothar II, whose realm was named Lotharingia.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Louis II, dissatisfied with having received no additional territory upon his father's death, allied with his uncle Louis the German against his brother Lothar and his uncle Charles the Bald in 858. Lothar reconciled with his brother and uncle shortly after. Charles was so unpopular that he could not raise an army to fight the invasion and instead fled to Burgundy. He was only saved when the bishops refused to crown Louis the German king. In 860, Charles the Bald invaded Charles of Burgundy's kingdom but was repulsed. Lothar II ceded lands to Louis II in 862 for support of a divorce from his wife, which caused repeated conflicts with the pope and his uncles. Charles of Burgundy died in 863, and his kingdom was inherited by Louis II.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Lothar II died in 869 with no legitimate heirs, and his kingdom was divided between Charles the Bald and Louis the German in 870 by the Treaty of Meerssen. Meanwhile, Louis the German was involved in disputes with his three sons. Louis II died in 875, and named Carloman, the eldest son of Louis the German, his heir. Charles the Bald, supported by the pope, was crowned both king of Italy and emperor. The following year, Louis the German died. Charles tried to annex his realm too, but was defeated decisively at Andernach, and the Kingdom of the eastern Franks was divided between Louis the Younger, Carloman of Bavaria and Charles the Fat.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The empire, after the death of Charles the Bald, was under attack in the north and west by the Vikings and was facing internal struggles from Italy to the Baltic, from Hungary in the east to Aquitaine in the west. Charles the Bald died in 877 crossing the Pass of Mont Cenis, and was succeeded by his son, Louis the Stammerer as king of the Western Franks, but the title of emperor lapsed. Louis the Stammerer was physically weak and died two years later, his realm being divided between his eldest two sons: Louis III gaining Neustria and Francia, and Carloman gaining Aquitaine and Burgundy. The Kingdom of Italy was finally granted to King Carloman of Bavaria, but a stroke forced him to abdicate Italy to his brother Charles the Fat and Bavaria to Louis of Saxony. Also in 879, Boso of Vienne founded the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy in Provence.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: In 881, Charles the Fat was crowned emperor while Louis III of Saxony and Louis III of Francia died the following year. Saxony and Bavaria were united with Charles the Fat's Kingdom, and Francia and Neustria were granted to Carloman of Aquitaine who also conquered Lower Burgundy. Carloman died in a hunting accident in 884 after a tumultuous and ineffective reign, and his lands were inherited by Charles the Fat, effectively recreating the empire of Charlemagne.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Charles, suffering what is believed to be epilepsy, could not secure the kingdom against Viking raiders, and after buying their withdrawal from Paris in 886 was perceived by the court as being cowardly and incompetent. The following year his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia, the illegitimate son of King Carloman of Bavaria, raised the standard of rebellion. Instead of fighting the insurrection, Charles fled to Neidingen and died the following year in 888, leaving a divided entity and a succession mess.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Empire of the Carolingians was divided: Arnulf maintained Carinthia, Bavaria, Lorraine and modern Germany; Count Odo of Paris was elected King of Western Francia (France), Ranulf II became King of Aquitaine, Italy went to Count Berengar of Friuli, Upper Burgundy to Rudolph I, and Lower Burgundy to Louis the Blind, the son of Boso of Arles, King of Lower Burgundy and maternal grandson of Emperor Louis II. The other part of Lotharingia became the duchy of Burgundy.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The study of demographics in the early Middle Ages is a notably difficult task. In his comprehensive "Framing the Early Middle Ages," Chris Wickham suggests that there are currently no reliable calculations for the period regarding the populations of early medieval towns. What is likely, however, is that most cities of the empire did not exceed the 20–25,000 speculated for Rome during this period. On an empire-wide level, populations expanded steadily from 750 to 850 AD. Figures ranging from 10 to 20 million have been offered, with estimates being devised based on calculations of empire size and theoretical densities. Recently, however, Timothy Newfield challenges the idea of demographic expansion, criticising scholars for relying on the impact of recurring pandemics in the preceding period of 541-750 AD and ignoring the frequency of famines in Carolingian Europe.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: A study using climate proxies such as the Greenland Ice core sample 'GISP2' has indicated that there may have been relatively favourable conditions for the empire's early years, although several harsh winters appear afterwards. Whilst demographic implications are observable in contemporary sources, the extent of the impact these findings on the empire's populations is difficult to discern.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Studies of ethnicity in the Carolingian Empire have been largely limited. However, it is accepted that the empire was inhabited by major ethnic groups such as Franks, Alemanni, Bavarians, Thuringians, Frisians, Lombards, Goths, Romans, Celts, Basques and Slavs. Ethnicity was just one of many systems of identification in this period and was a way to show social status and political agency. Many regional and ethnic identities were maintained and would later become significant in a political role. Regarding laws, ethnic identity helped decide which codes applied to which populations, however these systems were not definitive representations of ethnicity as these systems were somewhat fluid.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Evidence from Carolingian estate surveys and polyptychs appears to suggest that female life expectancy was lower than that of men in this period, with analyses recording high ratios of males to females. However, it is possible this is due to a recording bias.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The government, administration, and organization of the Carolingian Empire were forged in the court of Charlemagne in the decades around the year 800. In this year, Charlemagne was crowned emperor and adapted his existing royal administration to live up to the expectations of his new title. The political reforms wrought in Aachen were to have an immense impact on the political definition of Western Europe for the rest of the Middle Ages. The Carolingian improvements on the old Merovingian mechanisms of governance have been lauded by historians for the increased central control, efficient bureaucracy, accountability, and cultural renaissance.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Carolingian Empire was the largest western territory since the fall of Rome, but historians have come to suspect the depth of the emperor's influence and control. Legally, the Carolingian emperor exercised the "bannum", the right to rule and command, over all of his territories. Also, he had supreme jurisdiction in judicial matters, made legislation, led the army, and protected both the Church and the poor. His administration was an attempt to organize the kingdom, church, and nobility around him, however, its efficacy was directly dependent upon the efficiency, loyalty and support of his subjects.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Almost every year between the accession of Charles Martel and the conclusion of the wars with the Saxons Frankish forces went on campaign or expedition, often into enemy territory. Charlemagne would, for many years, gather an assembly around Easter and launch a military effort that would typically take place through the summer as this would ensure there were enough supplies for the fighting force. Charlemagne passed regulations requiring all mustered fighting men to own and bring their own weapons; the wealthy cavalrymen had to bring their own armour, poor men had to bring spears and shields, and those driving the carts had to have bows and arrows in their possession. In regards to provisions, men were instructed not to eat food until a specific location was reached, and carts should carry three months worth of food and six months worth of weapons and clothing along with tools. Preference was shown towards mobility instead of defence-in-depth infrastructures; captured fortifications were often destroyed so they could not be used to resist Carolingian authority in the future. After 800 and during the reign of Louis the Pious, efforts of expansion dwindled. Tim Reuter has shown that many military efforts during Louis' reign were largely defensive and in response to external threats.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: It had long been held that Carolingian military success was based on the use of a cavalry force created by Charles Martel in the 730s. However, it is clear that no such "cavalry revolution" took place in the Carolingian period leading up to and during the reign of Charlemagne. This is because the stirrup was not known to the Franks until the late eighth century and soldiers on horseback would therefore have used swords and lances for striking and not charging. Carolingian military success rested primarily on siege technologies and excellent logistics. However, large numbers of horses were used by the Frankish military during the age of Charlemagne. This was because horses provided a quick, long-distance method of transporting troops, which was critical to building and maintaining such a large empire. The importance of horses to the Carolingian military is revealed through the Revised version of the Royal Frankish Annals. The annals mention that whilst Charlemagne was on campaign in 791 "there broke out such a pestilence among the horses [...] that barely a tenth out of so many thousands are said to have survived." Shortage of horses played a role in preventing Carolingian forces from continuing a campaign against the Avars in Pannonia.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: No permanent capital city existed in the empire, the itinerant court being a typical characteristic of all Western European kingdoms at this time. Some palaces can, however, be distinguished as locations of central administration. In the first year of his reign, Charlemagne went to Aachen (; ). He began to build a palace there in the 780s with original plans being thought up perhaps as soon as 768. The palace chapel, constructed in 796, later became Aachen Cathedral. During the 790s when construction picked up at Aachen Charlemagne's court became more centred compared with the 770s where court so often found itself located in tents during campaigning. Though Aachen was certainly not intended to be a sedentary capital it was built in the political heartland of Charlemagne's realm to act as a meeting place for aristocrats and churchmen so that patronage might be distributed, assemblies held, laws written, and even where scholarly churchmen gathered for the purposes of learning. Aachen was also a centre for information and gossip being pulled in from across the Empire by courtiers and churchmen alike. Of course, despite being the centre of Charlemagne's government, until his later years, his court moved often and made use of other palaces at Frankfurt, Ingelheim and Nijmegen. The use of such structures would signal the beginnings of the palace system of government used by the Carolingian court throughout reigns of many Carolingian rulers. Stuart Airlie has suggested that there were over 150 palaces throughout the Carolingian World which would provide the setting for court activity.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Palaces were not merely locations of administrative government but also stood as important symbols. Under Charlemagne their excellence was a translation of the treasure built up from conquest into a symbolic permanence as well as exclaiming royal authority. Einhard suggested the construction of so-called 'public buildings' was a testament to Charlemagne's greatness and likeness to the emperors of antiquity and this connection was certainly capitalised upon by the imagery of palace decorations. Ingelheim is a particular example of such symbolism and thus the importance of the palace system in more than mere governance. The palace chapel is written to have been 'lined with images from the Bible' and the hall of the palace 'decorated with a picture cycle celebrating the deeds of great kings' including rulers of antiquity as well as Carolingian rulers such as Charles Martel and Pippin III.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Louis the Pious used the palace system much to the same effect as Charlemagne during his reign as king of Aquitaine, rotating his court between four winter palaces throughout the region. During his reign as Emperor he used Aachen, Ingelheim, Frankfurt, and Mainz which were almost always the locations for general assemblies held 'two or three [times] a year in the period 896–28...' and while he was not an immobile ruler, his reign has certainly been described as more static. In this way the palace system can also been seen as a tool of continuity in governance. After the splintering of the Empire the palace system continued to be used by succeeding Carolingian rulers with Charles the Bald centring his power at Compiègne where the palace chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in 877, something remarked on as a sign of continuity with Aachen's Mother of God chapel. For Louis the German, Frankfurt has been deemed his own 'neo-Aachen' and Charles the Fat's palace at Sélestat in Alsace was designed specifically to imitate Aachen.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The palace system as an idea for Carolingian central administration and governance has been challenged by historian F. L. Ganshof, who argued that the palaces of the Carolingians "contained nothing resembling the specialised services and departments available at the same period to the Byzantine emperor or the caliph of Baghdad." However, further reading in the works of Carolingian historians such as Matthew Innes, Rosamond McKitterick, and Stuart Airlie suggest that the use of palaces were important in the evolution of Carolingian governance and Janet Nelson has argued that "palaces are places from which power emanates and is exercised..." and the importance of palaces to Carolingian administration, learning, and legitimacy has been widely argued.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The royal household was an itinerant body (until c. 802) which moved around the kingdom making sure good government was upheld in the localities. The most important positions were the chaplain (who was responsible for all ecclesiastical affairs in the kingdom), and the count of the palace (Count palatine) who had supreme control over the household. It also included more minor officials e.g. chamberlain, seneschal, and marshal. The household sometimes led the army (e.g. Seneschal Andorf against the Bretons in 786).


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Possibly associated with the chaplain and the royal chapel was the office of the chancellor, head of the chancery, a non-permanent writing office. The charters produced were rudimentary and mostly to do with land deeds. There are 262 surviving from Charles’ reign as opposed to 40 from Pepin’s and 350 from Louis the Pious.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Comes (). Appointed by Charles to administer a "county". The Carolingian Empire (except Bavaria) was divided up into between 110 and 600 counties, each divided into "centenae" which were under the control of a vicar. At first, they were royal agents sent out by Charles but after c. 802 they were important local magnates. They were responsible for justice, enforcing capitularies, levying soldiers, receiving tolls and dues and maintaining roads and bridges. They could technically be dismissed by the king but many offices became hereditary. They were also sometimes corrupt although many were exemplary e.g. Count Eric of Friuli. Provincial governors eventually evolved who supervised several counts.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Missi Dominici (). Originally appointed ad hoc, a reform in 802 led to the office of "missus dominicus" becoming a permanent one. The "Missi Dominici" were sent out in pairs. One was an ecclesiastic and one secular. Their status as high officials was thought to safeguard them from the temptation of taking bribes. They made four journeys a year in their local "missaticum," each lasting a month, and were responsible for making the royal will and capitularies known, judging cases and occasionally raising armies.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Vassi Dominici. These were the king’s vassals and were usually the sons of powerful men, holding ‘benefices’ and forming a contingent in the royal army. They also went on ad hoc missions.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Around 780 Charlemagne reformed the local system of administering justice and created the "scabini", professional experts on the law. Every count had the help of seven of these scabini, who were supposed to know every national law so that all men could be judged according to it.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Judges were also banned from taking bribes and were supposed to use sworn inquests to establish facts.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: In 802, all law was written down and amended (the Salic law was also amended in both 798 and 802, although even Einhard admits in section 29 that this was imperfect). Judges were supposed to have a copy of both the Salic law code and the Ripuarian law code.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Coinage had a strong association with the Roman Empire, and Charlemagne took up its regulation with his other imperial duties. The Carolingians exercised controls over the silver coinage of the realm, controlling its composition and value. The name of the emperor, not of the minter, appeared on the coins. Charlemagne worked to suppress mints in northern Germany on the Baltic sea.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The Frankish kingdom was subdivided by Charlemagne into three separate areas to make administration easier. These were the inner "core" of the kingdom (Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy) which were supervised directly by the missatica system and the itinerant household. Outside this was the "regna" where Frankish administration rested upon the counts, and outside this was the marcher areas where ruled powerful governors. These marcher lordships were present in Brittany, Spain, and Bavaria.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Charles also created two sub-kingdoms in Aquitaine and Italy, ruled by his sons Louis and Pepin respectively. Bavaria was also under the command of an autonomous governor, Gerold, until his death in 796. While Charles still had overall authority in these areas they were fairly autonomous with their own chancery and minting facilities.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The annual meeting, the Placitum Generalis or Marchfield, was held every year (between March and May) at a place appointed by the king. It was called for three reasons: to gather the Frankish host to go on a campaign, to discuss political and ecclesiastical matters affecting the kingdom and to legislate for them, and to make judgments. All important men had to go to the meeting and so it was an important way for Charles to make his will known. Originally the meeting worked effectively however later it merely became a forum for discussion and for nobles to express their dissatisfaction.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The oath of fidelity was a way for Charles to ensure loyalty from all his subjects. As early as 779 he banned sworn guilds between other men so that everyone took an oath of loyalty only to him. In 789 (in response to the 786 rebellion) he began legislating that everyone should swear fidelity to him as king, however in 802 he expanded the oath greatly and made it so that all men over age 12 swore it to him.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Capitularies were the written records of decisions made by the Carolingian kings in consultation with assemblies during the eighth and ninth century. The name comes from the Latin "'Capitula'" for "'Chapters"' and refers to the way these records were taken and written up, in a chapter by chapter style. They are regarded as being 'amongst the most important sources for the governance of the Frankish Empire in the eight and ninth century' by Sören Kaschke. The use of capitularies represent a change in the pattern of contact between the king and his provinces in the Carolingian period. The contents of capitularies could include a wide range of topics, including royal orders, instructions for specific officials, deliberations of assemblies on both secular and ecclesiastical affairs as well as additions and alterations to the law.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Primary evidence shows that capitularies were copied and disseminated all throughout Charlemagne's empire, however there is insufficient evidence to suggest the efficacy of the capitularies and whether they were actually put into practice throughout the realm. As Charlemagne became increasingly stationary, the amount of capitularies produced increased, this was particularly noticeable after the General Admonition of 789.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: There has been debates over the purpose of capitularies. Some historians argue that the capitularies were nothing more than a 'royal wish-list' while others argue for capitularies representing the basis of a centralised state. Capitularies were implemented through the use of the "'missi'," royal agents who would travel around the Carolingian kingdom, usually in pairs of a secular missi and ecclesiastical missi, reading out copied out versions of the latest capitularies to assemblies of people. The missi also had other roles such as handling complex local disputes and can be argued to have been crucial to the success of both capitularies and the expansion of Charlemagne's influence.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Charlemagne aimed to convert all those in the Frankish kingdom to Christianity and to expand both his empire and the reach of Christianity. The 789 "Admonitio Generalis" pronounced Charlemagne responsible for the salvation of his subjects and set out standards of education for the clergy, who previously had been mostly illiterate.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Intellectuals of the time began to be concerned with eschatology, believing 800 A.D. to be 6000 AM based on calculations from Eusebius and Jerome. Intellectuals such as Alcuin reckoned that the Charlemagne's coronation as emperor on Christmas Day 800 marked the beginning of the seventh and final age of the world. These concerns may explain why Charlemagne aimed to have everyone engage in acts of penance.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: For other Carolingian kings, see List of Frankish kings. For the later emperors, see Holy Roman Emperor.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: Despite the relatively short existence of the Carolingian Empire when compared to other European dynastic empires, its legacy far outlasts the state that had forged it. In historiographical terms, the Carolingian Empire is seen as the beginning of 'feudalism'; or rather, the notion of feudalism held in the modern era. Though most historians would be naturally hesitant to assign Charles Martel and his descendants as founders of feudalism, it is obvious that a Carolingian 'template' lends to the structure of central medieval political culture. Yet some argue against this assumption; Marc Bloch disdained this hunt for feudalism's birth as 'the idol of origins'. A concerted effort can be noted by Carolingian authors, such as Einhard, to establish a shift in continuity from the Merovingian to the Carolingian, likely where no such groundbreaking difference between the two ever existed.


title: Carolingian Empire

text: The unifying power of Charlemagne and his descendants have been wielded by a succession of European rulers to bolster their own regimes; much in the same vein as Charlemagne echoed elements of Augustus in his rising years. The Ottonian dynasty which succeeded the title of Holy Roman Emperor magnified distant ties to the Carolingians to legitimise their dynastic ambitions as 'successors'. Four of the five Ottonian emperors to rule also crowned themselves in Charlemagne's palace in Aachen, likely to establish a continuity between the Carolingians and themselves. Even with their dynasty originating from Charlemagne's arch-foe Saxony, Ottonians still linked their dynasty to the Carolingians, through direct and indirect means. Further iconography of Charlemagne himself was utilised in later medieval periods, where he is depicted as a model knight and paragon of chivalry.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest on record between the years of 1766–2000. This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in April in the Dutch East Indies (known today as Indonesia). This eruption was the largest in at least 1,300 years (after the hypothesized eruption causing the volcanic winter of 536), and was perhaps exacerbated by the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster. Historian John D. Post has called this "the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world". The climatic aberrations of 1816 had their greatest effect on most of New England, Atlantic Canada, and parts of western Europe.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In China, there was a massive famine. Floods destroyed many remaining crops. The monsoon season was disrupted, resulting in overwhelming floods in the Yangtze Valley. Fort Shuangcheng, now in Heilongjiang, reported fields disrupted by frost and conscripts deserting as a result. Summer snowfall or otherwise mixed precipitation was reported in various locations in Jiangxi and Anhui, located at around 30°N. In Taiwan, which has a tropical climate, snow was reported in Hsinchu and Miaoli, and frost was reported in Changhua.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In India, the delayed summer monsoon caused late torrential rains that aggravated the spread of cholera from a region near the Ganges in Bengal to as far as Moscow.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In Japan, which was still exercising caution after the cold-weather-related Tenmei famine of 1782–1788, the cold damaged crops, but no crop failures were reported, and there were no adverse effects on population.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The aberrations are now generally thought to have occurred because of the April 5–15, 1815, Mount Tambora volcanic eruption on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. The eruption had a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) ranking of 7, a colossal event that ejected at least of material. It was the world's largest volcanic eruption during historic times, comparable with the Minoan eruption in the 2nd millennium BC, the Hatepe eruption of Lake Taupō at around 180 AD, the eruption of Paektu Mountain in 946 AD, and the 1257 eruption of Mount Samalas.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: These eruptions had built up a substantial amount of atmospheric dust. As is common after a massive volcanic eruption, temperatures fell worldwide because less sunlight passed through the stratosphere.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: According to a 2012 analysis by Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature, the 1815 Tambora eruption caused a temporary drop in the Earth's average land temperature of about 1 °C. Smaller temperature drops were recorded from the 1812–1814 eruptions.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century. Known today as the Little Ice Age, it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe. The Little Ice Age's existing cooling was exacerbated by the eruption of Tambora, which occurred near the end of the Little Ice Age.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: This period also occurred during the Dalton Minimum (a period of relatively low solar activity), specifically Solar Cycle 6, which ran from December 1810 to May 1823. May 1816 in particular had the lowest sunspot number (0.1) to date since record keeping on solar activity began. The lack of solar irradiance during this period would have been exacerbated by atmospheric opacity from volcanic dust.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: As a result of the series of volcanic eruptions, crops had been poor for several years; the final blow came in 1815 with the eruption of Tambora. Europe, still recuperating from the Napoleonic Wars, suffered from food shortages. The impoverished especially suffered during this time. Low temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in Great Britain and Ireland. Families in Wales traveled long distances begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, oat, and potato harvests. In Germany, the crisis was severe. Food prices rose sharply throughout Europe. With the cause of the problems unknown, hungry people demonstrated in front of grain markets and bakeries. Later riots, arson, and looting took place in many European cities. On some occasions, rioters carried flags reading "Bread or Blood". Though riots were common during times of hunger, the food riots of 1816 and 1817 were the highest levels of violence since the French Revolution. It was the worst famine of 19th-century mainland Europe.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Between 1816 and 1819 major typhus epidemics occurred in parts of Europe, including Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and Scotland, precipitated by malnourishment and famine caused by the Year Without a Summer. More than 65,000 people died as the disease spread out of Ireland and onwards to Britain.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The long-running Central England temperature record reported the 11th coldest year on records since 1659, as well as the 3rd coldest summer and the coldest July on record. Huge storms and abnormal rainfall with flooding of Europe's major rivers (including the Rhine) are attributed to the event, as is the August frost. As a result of volcanic ash in the atmosphere, Hungary experienced brown snow. Italy's northern and north-central region experienced something similar, with red snow falling throughout the year.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The effects were widespread and lasted beyond the winter. In western Switzerland, the summers of 1816 and 1817 were so cold that an ice dam formed below a tongue of the Giétro Glacier high in the Val de Bagnes. Despite engineer Ignaz Venetz's efforts to drain the growing lake, the ice dam collapsed catastrophically in June 1818, killing 40 people.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in parts of the eastern United States. The fog reddened and dimmed the sunlight, such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog". It has been characterized as a "stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil".


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The weather was not in itself a hardship for those accustomed to long winters. Hardship came from the weather's effect on crops and thus on the supply of food and firewood. The consequences were felt most strongly at higher elevations, where farming was already difficult even in good years. In May 1816, frost killed off most crops in the higher elevations of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, as well as upstate New York. On June 6, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine. In Cape May, New Jersey, frost was reported five nights in a row in late June, causing extensive crop damage. New England also experienced major consequences from the eruption of Tambora. Though fruits and vegetable crops survived, corn was reported to have ripened so poorly that no more than a quarter of it was usable for food. The moldy and unripe harvest was not even fit for animal feed. The crop failures in New England, Canada, and parts of Europe also caused the price of many staples to rise sharply. In Canada, Quebec ran out of bread and milk and Nova Scotians found themselves boiling foraged herbs for sustenance.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Many commented on the phenomenon. Sarah Snell Bryant, of Cummington, Massachusetts, wrote in her diary, "Weather backward."


title: Year Without a Summer

text: At the Church Family of Shakers near New Lebanon, New York, Nicholas Bennet wrote in May 1816, "all was froze" and the hills were "barren like winter". Temperatures went below freezing almost every day in May. The ground froze on June 9. On June 12, the Shakers had to replant crops destroyed by the cold. On July 7, it was so cold that everything had stopped growing. The Berkshire Hills had frost again on August 23, as did much of the upper northeast.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Severe frosts occurred every month; June 7th and 8th snow fell, and it was so cold that crops were cut down, even freezing the roots ... In the early Autumn when corn was in the milk it was so thoroughly frozen that it never ripened and was scarcely worth harvesting. Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food. It must be remembered that the granaries of the great west had not then been opened to us by railroad communication, and people were obliged to rely upon their own resources or upon others in their immediate locality.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as northwestern Pennsylvania. Frost was reported as far south as Virginia on August 20 and 21. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) to near-freezing within hours. Thomas Jefferson, retired from the presidency and farming at Monticello, sustained crop failures that sent him further into debt. On September 13, a Virginia newspaper reported that corn crops would be one half to two-thirds short and lamented that "the cold as well as the drought has nipt the buds of hope". A Norfolk, Virginia newspaper reported:


title: Year Without a Summer

text: It is now the middle of July, and we have not yet had what could properly be called summer. Easterly winds have prevailed for nearly three months past ... the sun during that time has generally been obscured and the sky overcast with clouds; the air has been damp and uncomfortable, and frequently so chilling as to render the fireside a desirable retreat.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Regional farmers did succeed in bringing some crops to maturity, but corn and other grain prices rose dramatically. The price of oats, for example, rose from 12¢ per bushel ($12/3.523907017round10/m) in 1815 (equal to $ today) to 92¢ per bushel ($92/3.523907017round0/m) in 1816 ($ today). Crop failures were aggravated by an inadequate transportation network: with few roads or navigable inland waterways and no railroads, it was expensive to import food.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Similar to Hungary and Italy, Maryland experienced brown, bluish, and yellow snowfall during April and May due to volcanic ash in the atmosphere.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: High levels of tephra in the atmosphere caused a haze to hang over the sky for a few years after the eruption, as well as rich red hues in sunsets (common after volcanic eruptions). Paintings during the years before and after confirm that these striking reds were not present before Mt. Tambora's eruption. Similarly, these paintings depict moodier, darker scenes, even in the light of both the sun and the moon. Themes shifted away from hopeful and lighthearted afternoons, toward religion, industry, and a hint of despair. Many of the paintings during this time period were inspired by the Romantic style of painting and therefore were very realistic to the actual scenes that were being painted, effectively creating "snapshots" of the years prior to and after the eruption. Caspar David Friedrich's pieces "Landscape with Rainbow" (1810) and "Two Men by the Sea" (1817) are clear examples of this shift of mood.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: A 2007 study analyzing paintings created between the years 1500 and 1900 around the times of notable volcanic events found a correlation between the amount of red used in the painting and volcanic activity. High levels of tephra in the atmosphere led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, a feature celebrated in the paintings of J. M. W. Turner. This may have given rise to the yellow tinge predominant in his paintings such as "Chichester Canal", circa 1828. Similar phenomena were observed after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and on the West Coast of the United States following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The lack of oats to feed horses may have inspired the German inventor Karl Drais to research new ways of horseless transportation, which led to the invention of the draisine or velocipede. This was the ancestor of the modern bicycle and a step toward mechanized personal transport.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The crop failures of the "Year without a Summer" may have helped shape the settling of the "American Heartland", as many thousands of people (particularly farm families who were wiped out by the event) left New England for western New York and the Northwest Territory in search of a more hospitable climate, richer soil, and better growing conditions. Indiana became a state in December 1816 and Illinois two years later. British historian Lawrence Goldman has suggested that this migration into the Burned-over district of New York was responsible for the centering of the anti-slavery movement in that region.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: According to historian L. D. Stillwell, Vermont alone experienced a decrease in population of between 10,000 and 15,000, erasing seven previous years of population growth. Among those who left Vermont were the family of Joseph Smith, who moved from Norwich, Vermont (though he was born in Sharon, Vermont) to Palmyra, New York. This move precipitated the series of events that culminated in the publication of the "Book of Mormon" and the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In June 1816, "incessant rainfall" during that "wet, ungenial summer" forced Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and John William Polidori, and their friends to stay indoors at Villa Diodati overlooking Lake Geneva for much of their Swiss holiday. Inspired by a collection of German ghost stories they had read, Lord Byron proposed a contest to see who could write the scariest story, leading Shelley to write "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" and Lord Byron to write "A Fragment", which Polidori later used as inspiration for "The Vampyre" – a precursor to "Dracula". These days inside Villa Diodati, remembered by Mary Shelley as happier times, were filled with tension, opium, and intellectual conversations. After listening intently to one of these conversations she woke with the image of Frankenstein kneeling over his monstrous creation, and thus she had the beginnings of her now famous story. In addition, Lord Byron was inspired to write the poem "Darkness", by a single day when "the fowls all went to roost at noon and candles had to be lit as at midnight". The imagery in the poem is starkly similar to the conditions of the Year Without a Summer:


title: Year Without a Summer

text: Justus von Liebig, a chemist who had experienced the famine as a child in Darmstadt, later studied plant nutrition and introduced mineral fertilizers.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: American Murder Song, a musical project by Terrance Zdunich and Saar Hendelman, uses the "Year Without a Summer" as a backdrop for a collection of murder ballads.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In 1991 Pete Sutherland wrote a song about that terrible summer, titled "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death." He based his song on an old poem in a book about Vermont folklore. He recorded the song with Karen Sutherland; Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen recorded it as well.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: A song about the event entitled "1816, the Year Without a Summer" is the opening track on Rasputina's 2007 album "Oh Perilous World".


title: Year Without a Summer

text: In the 2011 Christmas movie "Arthur Christmas", the Christmas of 1816 features a Santa sighting after which he went into hiding, resulting in Christmas being cancelled for the next 6 years and the abandonment of the elves.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The 2013 novel "Without a Summer" by Mary Robinette Kowal is set during the volcanic winter event, though the eruption itself is mentioned only in passing.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: A 2020 episode of "Doctor Who" entitled "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" attributes the cause of the abnormal weather to interference by one of the Cybermen.


title: Year Without a Summer

text: The 2022 novel "Jane and the Year Without a Summer" by Stephanie Barron is set in Cheltenham, UK, in May 1816. The eruption itself is mentioned only as an editorial note to explain the inclement weather.


title: Elf (film)

text: Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum. It stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human raised by Santa's elves, who learns about his origins and heads to New York City to meet his biological father. James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Edward Asner, and Bob Newhart appear in supporting roles.


title: Elf (film)

text: "Elf" was released in the United States on November 7, 2003, and became a major critical and commercial success, grossing $220 million worldwide against a $33 million budget. Ferrell's performance as Buddy the Elf was praised by critics and audiences alike, with many calling it one of his best performances. The film inspired the 2010 Broadway musical "Elf: The Musical" and NBC's 2014 stop motion animated television special "". It has been hailed by many as a modern classic, and is often listed among the greatest Christmas films of all time.


title: Elf (film)

text: On Christmas Eve, an orphaned baby crawls into Santa Claus's sack at the sight of a teddy bear, and is unknowingly taken back to the North Pole from an orphanage. After the infant is discovered at the workshop, the elves name him Buddy after his diaper's brand label. Buddy is accepted by the elf community and grows up to adulthood thinking he is an elf, but soon overhears he is a human. Papa Elf explains to Buddy that he was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells. Susan put him up for adoption prior to her death. Walter now works as a children's book publisher at the Empire State Building in New York City and is unaware of Buddy's existence. Santa reveals that Walter is on the Naughty List due to his selfishness, but suggests Buddy could help redeem him with some Christmas spirit.


title: Elf (film)

text: Buddy travels to New York and finds Walter at work, but Walter mistakes him for a Christmas-gram messenger and has him ejected. Buddy heads to a local Gimbels department store that Walter’s security guards sarcastically tell him to go to, where he meets Jovie, an unenthusiastic employee, with whom he is instantly smitten. Hearing that Santa will be at the store the following day, Buddy redecorates the store overnight. However, upon realizing that the Gimbels Santa is not the genuine article, Buddy unmasks him and causes a brawl in the store that the manager breaks up.


title: Elf (film)

text: Walter reluctantly bails Buddy out of the police station and takes him for a DNA test, confirming that Buddy is his biological son. Dr. Leonardo convinces Walter to take Buddy home to meet his stepmother Emily and half-brother Michael. Walter and Michael are unnerved by Buddy's strange behavior, but Emily insists that they take care of him until he "recovers." Michael warms up to Buddy after they defeat a gang of bullies in a snowball fight and encourages Buddy to ask Jovie out on a date. During the date, the two fall in love.


title: Elf (film)

text: Meanwhile, Walter's publishing company is failing after their latest book flops. Walter's boss, Fulton Greenway, expects Walter to have a new book ready by Christmas Eve. Walter and his team secure a meeting with best-selling children's author Miles Finch, but Buddy interrupts the meeting and mistakes Finch, who has dwarfism, for an elf. Buddy unintentionally insults Finch before the latter attacks him and angrily leaves the meeting, upon which Walter loses his temper and harshly disowns Buddy. Heartbroken, Buddy writes an apology note on an Etch A Sketch and leaves Walter’s apartment.


title: Elf (film)

text: Upon finding Finch's notebook full of ideas, Walter and his team scramble to create a book to pitch. As Walter prepares to pitch the book to Greenway, Michael arrives and informs Walter of Buddy's departure. Realizing his mistake, Walter quits his job and walks out with Michael to find Buddy. Meanwhile, Buddy sees Santa's sleigh crash in Central Park, attracting a large crowd. Santa explains that the sleigh’s engine is lost and cannot fly without it due to a shortage of Christmas spirit.