title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases have weak interatomic force, and consequently have very low melting and boiling points. They are all monatomic gases under standard conditions, including the elements with larger atomic masses than many normally solid elements. Helium has several unique qualities when compared with other elements: its boiling point at 1 atm is lower than those of any other known substance; it is the only element known to exhibit superfluidity; and, it is the only element that cannot be solidified by cooling at atmospheric pressure (an effect explained by quantum mechanics as its zero point energy is too high to permit freezing) – a pressure of must be applied at a temperature of to convert it to a solid while a pressure of about 115 kbar is required at room temperature. The noble gases up to xenon have multiple stable isotopes. Radon has no stable isotopes; its longest-lived isotope, Rn, has a half-life of 3.8 days and decays to form helium and polonium, which ultimately decays to lead. Melting and boiling points increase going down the group.


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gas atoms, like atoms in most groups, increase steadily in atomic radius from one period to the next due to the increasing number of electrons. The size of the atom is related to several properties. For example, the ionization potential decreases with an increasing radius because the valence electrons in the larger noble gases are farther away from the nucleus and are therefore not held as tightly together by the atom. Noble gases have the largest ionization potential among the elements of each period, which reflects the stability of their electron configuration and is related to their relative lack of chemical reactivity. Some of the heavier noble gases, however, have ionization potentials small enough to be comparable to those of other elements and molecules. It was the insight that xenon has an ionization potential similar to that of the oxygen molecule that led Bartlett to attempt oxidizing xenon using platinum hexafluoride, an oxidizing agent known to be strong enough to react with oxygen. Noble gases cannot accept an electron to form stable anions; that is, they have a negative electron affinity.


title: Noble gas

text: The macroscopic physical properties of the noble gases are dominated by the weak van der Waals forces between the atoms. The attractive force increases with the size of the atom as a result of the increase in polarizability and the decrease in ionization potential. This results in systematic group trends: as one goes down group 18, the atomic radius, and with it the interatomic forces, increases, resulting in an increasing melting point, boiling point, enthalpy of vaporization, and solubility. The increase in density is due to the increase in atomic mass.


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases are nearly ideal gases under standard conditions, but their deviations from the ideal gas law provided important clues for the study of intermolecular interactions. The Lennard-Jones potential, often used to model intermolecular interactions, was deduced in 1924 by John Lennard-Jones from experimental data on argon before the development of quantum mechanics provided the tools for understanding intermolecular forces from first principles. The theoretical analysis of these interactions became tractable because the noble gases are monatomic and the atoms spherical, which means that the interaction between the atoms is independent of direction, or isotropic.


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases are colorless, odorless, tasteless, and nonflammable under standard conditions. They were once labeled "group 0" in the periodic table because it was believed they had a valence of zero, meaning their atoms cannot combine with those of other elements to form compounds. However, it was later discovered some do indeed form compounds, causing this label to fall into disuse.


title: Noble gas

text: Like other groups, the members of this family show patterns in its electron configuration, especially the outermost shells resulting in trends in chemical behavior:


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases have full valence electron shells. Valence electrons are the outermost electrons of an atom and are normally the only electrons that participate in chemical bonding. Atoms with full valence electron shells are extremely stable and therefore do not tend to form chemical bonds and have little tendency to gain or lose electrons. However, heavier noble gases such as radon are held less firmly together by electromagnetic force than lighter noble gases such as helium, making it easier to remove outer electrons from heavy noble gases.


title: Noble gas

text: As a result of a full shell, the noble gases can be used in conjunction with the electron configuration notation to form the "noble gas notation". To do this, the nearest noble gas that precedes the element in question is written first, and then the electron configuration is continued from that point forward. For example, the electron notation of


title: Noble gas

text: phosphorus is , while the noble gas notation is . This more compact notation makes it easier to identify elements, and is shorter than writing out the full notation of atomic orbitals.


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases cross the boundary between blocks—helium is an s-element whereas the rest of members are p-elements—which is unusual among the IUPAC groups. Most, if not all other IUPAC groups contain elements from "one" block each.


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases show extremely low chemical reactivity; consequently, only a few hundred noble gas compounds have been formed. Neutral compounds in which helium and neon are involved in chemical bonds have not been formed (although some helium-containing ions exist and there is some theoretical evidence for a few neutral helium-containing ones), while xenon, krypton, and argon have shown only minor reactivity. The reactivity follows the order Ne < He < Ar < Kr < Xe < Rn ≪ Og.


title: Noble gas

text: In 1933, Linus Pauling predicted that the heavier noble gases could form compounds with fluorine and oxygen. He predicted the existence of krypton hexafluoride () and xenon hexafluoride (), speculated that might exist as an unstable compound, and suggested that xenic acid could form perxenate salts. These predictions were shown to be generally accurate, except that is now thought to be both thermodynamically and kinetically unstable.


title: Noble gas

text: Xenon compounds are the most numerous of the noble gas compounds that have been formed. Most of them have the xenon atom in the oxidation state of +2, +4, +6, or +8 bonded to highly electronegative atoms such as fluorine or oxygen, as in xenon difluoride (), xenon tetrafluoride (), xenon hexafluoride (), xenon tetroxide (), and sodium perxenate (). Xenon reacts with fluorine to form numerous xenon fluorides according to the following equations:


title: Noble gas

text: Some of these compounds have found use in chemical synthesis as oxidizing agents; , in particular, is commercially available and can be used as a fluorinating agent. As of 2007, about five hundred compounds of xenon bonded to other elements have been identified, including organoxenon compounds (containing xenon bonded to carbon), and xenon bonded to nitrogen, chlorine, gold, mercury, and xenon itself. Compounds of xenon bound to boron, hydrogen, bromine, iodine, beryllium, sulphur, titanium, copper, and silver have also been observed but only at low temperatures in noble gas matrices, or in supersonic noble gas jets.


title: Noble gas

text: Radon is more reactive than xenon, and forms chemical bonds more easily than xenon does. However, due to the high radioactivity and short half-life of radon isotopes, only a few fluorides and oxides of radon have been formed in practice. Radon goes further towards metallic behavior than xenon; the difluoride RnF is highly ionic, and cationic Rn is formed in halogen fluoride solutions. For this reason, kinetic hindrance makes it difficult to oxidize radon beyond the +2 state. Only tracer experiments appear to have succeeded in doing so, probably forming RnF, RnF, and RnO.


title: Noble gas

text: Krypton is less reactive than xenon, but several compounds have been reported with krypton in the oxidation state of +2. Krypton difluoride is the most notable and easily characterized. Under extreme conditions, krypton reacts with fluorine to form KrF according to the following equation:


title: Noble gas

text: Compounds in which krypton forms a single bond to nitrogen and oxygen have also been characterized, but are only stable below and respectively.


title: Noble gas

text: Krypton atoms chemically bound to other nonmetals (hydrogen, chlorine, carbon) as well as some late transition metals (copper, silver, gold) have also been observed, but only either at low temperatures in noble gas matrices, or in supersonic noble gas jets. Similar conditions were used to obtain the first few compounds of argon in 2000, such as argon fluorohydride (HArF), and some bound to the late transition metals copper, silver, and gold. As of 2007, no stable neutral molecules involving covalently bound helium or neon are known.


title: Noble gas

text: Extrapolation from periodic trends predict that oganesson should be the most reactive of the noble gases; more sophisticated theoretical treatments indicate greater reactivity than such extrapolations suggest, to the point where the applicability of the descriptor "noble gas" has been questioned. Oganesson is expected to be rather like silicon or tin in group 14: a reactive element with a common +4 and a less common +2 state, which at room temperature and pressure is not a gas but rather a solid semiconductor. Empirical / experimental testing will be required to validate these predictions. (On the other hand, flerovium, despite being in group 14, is predicted to be unusually volatile, which suggests noble gas-like properties.)


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases—including helium—can form stable molecular ions in the gas phase. The simplest is the helium hydride molecular ion, HeH, discovered in 1925. Because it is composed of the two most abundant elements in the universe, hydrogen and helium, it is believed to occur naturally in the interstellar medium, although it has not been detected yet. In addition to these ions, there are many known neutral excimers of the noble gases. These are compounds such as ArF and KrF that are stable only when in an excited electronic state; some of them find application in excimer lasers.


title: Noble gas

text: In addition to the compounds where a noble gas atom is involved in a covalent bond, noble gases also form non-covalent compounds. The clathrates, first described in 1949, consist of a noble gas atom trapped within cavities of crystal lattices of certain organic and inorganic substances. The essential condition for their formation is that the guest (noble gas) atoms must be of appropriate size to fit in the cavities of the host crystal lattice. For instance, argon, krypton, and xenon form clathrates with hydroquinone, but helium and neon do not because they are too small or insufficiently polarizable to be retained. Neon, argon, krypton, and xenon also form clathrate hydrates, where the noble gas is trapped in ice.


title: Noble gas

text: Noble gases can form endohedral fullerene compounds, in which the noble gas atom is trapped inside a fullerene molecule. In 1993, it was discovered that when , a spherical molecule consisting of 60 carbon atoms, is exposed to noble gases at high pressure, complexes such as can be formed (the "@" notation indicates He is contained inside but not covalently bound to it). As of 2008, endohedral complexes with helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon have been created. These compounds have found use in the study of the structure and reactivity of fullerenes by means of the nuclear magnetic resonance of the noble gas atom.


title: Noble gas

text: Noble gas compounds such as xenon difluoride () are considered to be hypervalent because they violate the octet rule. Bonding in such compounds can be explained using a three-center four-electron bond model. This model, first proposed in 1951, considers bonding of three collinear atoms. For example, bonding in is described by a set of three molecular orbitals (MOs) derived from p-orbitals on each atom. Bonding results from the combination of a filled p-orbital from Xe with one half-filled p-orbital from each F atom, resulting in a filled bonding orbital, a filled non-bonding orbital, and an empty antibonding orbital. The highest occupied molecular orbital is localized on the two terminal atoms. This represents a localization of charge that is facilitated by the high electronegativity of fluorine.


title: Noble gas

text: The chemistry of the heavier noble gases, krypton and xenon, are well established. The chemistry of the lighter ones, argon and helium, is still at an early stage, while a neon compound is yet to be identified.


title: Noble gas

text: The abundances of the noble gases in the universe decrease as their atomic numbers increase. Helium is the most common element in the universe after hydrogen, with a mass fraction of about 24%. Most of the helium in the universe was formed during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but the amount of helium is steadily increasing due to the fusion of hydrogen in stellar nucleosynthesis (and, to a very slight degree, the alpha decay of heavy elements). Abundances on Earth follow different trends; for example, helium is only the third most abundant noble gas in the atmosphere. The reason is that there is no primordial helium in the atmosphere; due to the small mass of the atom, helium cannot be retained by the Earth's gravitational field. Helium on Earth comes from the alpha decay of heavy elements such as uranium and thorium found in the Earth's crust, and tends to accumulate in natural gas deposits. The abundance of argon, on the other hand, is increased as a result of the beta decay of potassium-40, also found in the Earth's crust, to form argon-40, which is the most abundant isotope of argon on Earth despite being relatively rare in the Solar System. This process is the basis for the potassium-argon dating method. Xenon has an unexpectedly low abundance in the atmosphere, in what has been called the "missing xenon problem"; one theory is that the missing xenon may be trapped in minerals inside the Earth's crust. After the discovery of xenon dioxide, research showed that Xe can substitute for Si in quartz. Radon is formed in the lithosphere by the alpha decay of radium. It can seep into buildings through cracks in their foundation and accumulate in areas that are not well ventilated. Due to its high radioactivity, radon presents a significant health hazard; it is implicated in an estimated 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year in the United States alone. Oganesson does not occur in nature and is instead created manually by scientists.


title: Noble gas

text: For large-scale use, helium is extracted by fractional distillation from natural gas, which can contain up to 7% helium.


title: Noble gas

text: Neon, argon, krypton, and xenon are obtained from air using the methods of liquefaction of gases, to convert elements to a liquid state, and fractional distillation, to separate mixtures into component parts. Helium is typically produced by separating it from natural gas, and radon is isolated from the radioactive decay of radium compounds. The prices of the noble gases are influenced by their natural abundance, with argon being the cheapest and xenon the most expensive. As an example, the adjacent table lists the 2004 prices in the United States for laboratory quantities of each gas.


title: Noble gas

text: Noble gases have very low boiling and melting points, which makes them useful as cryogenic refrigerants. In particular, liquid helium, which boils at , is used for superconducting magnets, such as those needed in nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance. Liquid neon, although it does not reach temperatures as low as liquid helium, also finds use in cryogenics because it has over 40 times more refrigerating capacity than liquid helium and over three times more than liquid hydrogen.


title: Noble gas

text: Helium is used as a component of breathing gases to replace nitrogen, due its low solubility in fluids, especially in lipids. Gases are absorbed by the blood and body tissues when under pressure like in scuba diving, which causes an anesthetic effect known as nitrogen narcosis. Due to its reduced solubility, little helium is taken into cell membranes, and when helium is used to replace part of the breathing mixtures, such as in trimix or heliox, a decrease in the narcotic effect of the gas at depth is obtained. Helium's reduced solubility offers further advantages for the condition known as decompression sickness, or "the bends". The reduced amount of dissolved gas in the body means that fewer gas bubbles form during the decrease in pressure of the ascent. Another noble gas, argon, is considered the best option for use as a drysuit inflation gas for scuba diving. Helium is also used as filling gas in nuclear fuel rods for nuclear reactors.


title: Noble gas

text: Since the "Hindenburg" disaster in 1937, helium has replaced hydrogen as a lifting gas in blimps and balloons due to its lightness and incombustibility, despite an 8.6% decrease in buoyancy.


title: Noble gas

text: In many applications, the noble gases are used to provide an inert atmosphere. Argon is used in the synthesis of air-sensitive compounds that are sensitive to nitrogen. Solid argon is also used for the study of very unstable compounds, such as reactive intermediates, by trapping them in an inert matrix at very low temperatures. Helium is used as the carrier medium in gas chromatography, as a filler gas for thermometers, and in devices for measuring radiation, such as the Geiger counter and the bubble chamber. Helium and argon are both commonly used to shield welding arcs and the surrounding base metal from the atmosphere during welding and cutting, as well as in other metallurgical processes and in the production of silicon for the semiconductor industry.


title: Noble gas

text: Noble gases are commonly used in lighting because of their lack of chemical reactivity. Argon, mixed with nitrogen, is used as a filler gas for incandescent light bulbs. Krypton is used in high-performance light bulbs, which have higher color temperatures and greater efficiency, because it reduces the rate of evaporation of the filament more than argon; halogen lamps, in particular, use krypton mixed with small amounts of compounds of iodine or bromine. The noble gases glow in distinctive colors when used inside gas-discharge lamps, such as "neon lights". These lights are called after neon but often contain other gases and phosphors, which add various hues to the orange-red color of neon. Xenon is commonly used in xenon arc lamps, which, due to their nearly continuous spectrum that resembles daylight, find application in film projectors and as automobile headlamps.


title: Noble gas

text: The noble gases are used in excimer lasers, which are based on short-lived electronically excited molecules known as excimers. The excimers used for lasers may be noble gas dimers such as Ar, Kr or Xe, or more commonly, the noble gas is combined with a halogen in excimers such as ArF, KrF, XeF, or XeCl. These lasers produce ultraviolet light, which, due to its short wavelength (193 nm for ArF and 248 nm for KrF), allows for high-precision imaging. Excimer lasers have many industrial, medical, and scientific applications. They are used for microlithography and microfabrication, which are essential for integrated circuit manufacture, and for laser surgery, including laser angioplasty and eye surgery.


title: Noble gas

text: Some noble gases have direct application in medicine. Helium is sometimes used to improve the ease of breathing of asthma sufferers. Xenon is used as an anesthetic because of its high solubility in lipids, which makes it more potent than the usual nitrous oxide, and because it is readily eliminated from the body, resulting in faster recovery. Xenon finds application in medical imaging of the lungs through hyperpolarized MRI. Radon, which is highly radioactive and is only available in minute amounts, is used in radiotherapy.


title: Noble gas

text: Noble gases, particularly xenon, are predominantly used in ion engines due to their inertness. Since ion engines are not driven by chemical reactions, chemically inert fuels are desired to prevent unwanted reaction between the fuel and anything else on the engine.


title: Prehistory

text: Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently.


title: Prehistory

text: In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records, with their neighbors following. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the following Iron Age. The three-age division of prehistory into Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age remains in use for much of Eurasia and North Africa, but is not generally used in those parts of the world where the working of hard metals arrived abruptly from contact with Eurasian cultures, such as Oceania, Australasia, much of Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of the Americas. With some exceptions in pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas, these areas did not develop complex writing systems before the arrival of Eurasians, so their prehistory reaches into relatively recent periods; for example, 1788 is usually taken as the end of the prehistory of Australia.


title: Prehistory

text: The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing system is often known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no written records from human prehistory, which we can only know from material archaeological and anthropological evidence: prehistoric materials and human remains. These were at first understood by the collection of folklore and by analogy with pre-literate societies observed in modern times. The key step to understanding prehistoric evidence is dating, and reliable dating techniques have developed steadily since the nineteenth century. Further evidence has come from the reconstruction of ancient spoken languages. More recent techniques include forensic chemical analysis to reveal the use and provenance of materials, and genetic analysis of bones to determine kinship and physical characteristics of prehistoric peoples.


title: Prehistory

text: The term "prehistory" can refer to the vast span of time since the beginning of the Universe or the Earth, but more often it refers to the period since life appeared on Earth, or even more specifically to the time since human-like beings appeared.


title: Prehistory

text: The date marking the end of prehistory is typically defined as the advent of the contemporary written historical record. The date consequently varies widely from region to region depending on the date when relevant records become a useful academic resource. For example, in Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3100 BCE, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, in the 1870s, when the Russian anthropologist Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai spent several years living among native peoples, and described their way of life in a comprehensive treatise. In Europe the relatively well-documented classical cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had neighbouring cultures, including the Celts and to a lesser extent the Etruscans, with little or no writing, and historians must decide how much weight to give to the often highly prejudiced accounts of these protohistoric cultures in Greek and Roman literature.


title: Prehistory

text: In dividing up human prehistory in Eurasia, historians typically use the three-age system, whereas scholars of pre-human time periods typically use the well-defined geologic record and its internationally defined stratum base within the geologic time scale. The three-age system is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their predominant tool-making technologies:


title: Prehistory

text: The notion of "prehistory" emerged during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word "primitive" to describe societies that existed before written records. The word "prehistory" first appeared in English in 1836 in the "Foreign Quarterly Review".


title: Prehistory

text: The geologic time scale for pre-human time periods, and the three-age system for human prehistory, were systematized during the late nineteenth century in the work of British, German, and Scandinavian anthropologists, archeologists, and antiquarians.


title: Prehistory

text: The main source of information for prehistory is archaeology (a branch of anthropology), but some scholars are beginning to make more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences.


title: Prehistory

text: The primary researchers into human prehistory are archaeologists and physical anthropologists who use excavation, geologic and geographic surveys, and other scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples. Human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight. Cultural anthropologists help provide context for societal interactions, by which objects of human origin pass among people, allowing an analysis of any article that arises in a human prehistoric context. Therefore, data about prehistory is provided by a wide variety of natural and social sciences, such as anthropology, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, comparative linguistics, biology, geology, molecular genetics, paleontology, palynology, physical anthropology, and many others.


title: Prehistory

text: Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology, but in the way it deals with the activities of archaeological cultures rather than named nations or individuals. Restricted to material processes, remains, and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that prehistorians use, such as "Neanderthal" or "Iron Age", are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate.


title: Prehistory

text: The concept of a "Stone Age" is found useful in the archaeology of most of the world, although in the archaeology of the Americas it is called by different names and begins with a Lithic stage, or sometimes Paleo-Indian. The sub-divisions described below are used for Eurasia, and not consistently across the whole area.


title: Prehistory

text: "Palaeolithic" means "Old Stone Age", and begins with the first use of stone tools. The Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins  3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene  11,650 BP (before the present period).


title: Prehistory

text: The early part of the Palaeolithic is called the Lower Palaeolithic, beginning with the earliest stone tools dated to around 3.3 million years ago at the Lomekwi site in Kenya. These tools predate the genus "Homo" and were probably used by "Kenyanthropus". Evidence of control of fire by early hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim is that "H. erectus" or "H. ergaster" made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Ya'akov Bridge, Israel. The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, and have a light source at night.


title: Prehistory

text: Early "Homo sapiens" originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic. Anatomic changes indicating modern language capacity also arise during the Middle Palaeolithic. During the Middle Palaeolithic Era, there is the first definitive evidence of human use of fire. Sites in Zambia have charred bone and wood that have been dated to 61,000 BP. The systematic burial of the dead, music, early art, and the use of increasingly sophisticated multi-part tools are highlights of the Middle Paleolithic.


title: Prehistory

text: Throughout the Palaeolithic, humans generally lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherer societies tended to be very small and egalitarian, although hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced food-storage techniques sometimes developed sedentary lifestyles with complex social structures such as chiefdoms, and social stratification. Long-distance contacts may have been established, as in the case of Indigenous Australian "highways" known as songlines.


title: Prehistory

text: The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age (from the Greek "mesos", 'middle', and "lithos", 'stone'), was a period in the development of human technology between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic.


title: Prehistory

text: The Mesolithic period began with the retreat of glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended with the introduction of agriculture, the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as the Near East, agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limited glacial impact, the term "Epipalaeolithic" is sometimes preferred.


title: Prehistory

text: Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE (6,000 BP) in northern Europe.


title: Prehistory

text: Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited to middens. In forested areas, the first signs of deforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the Neolithic, when more space was needed for agriculture.


title: Prehistory

text: The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite flint tools: microliths and microburins. Fishing tackle, stone adzes, and wooden objects such as canoes and bows have been found at some sites. These technologies first occur in Africa, associated with the Azilian cultures, before spreading to Europe through the Ibero-Maurusian culture of Northern Africa and the Kebaran culture of the Levant. However, independent discovery is not ruled out.


title: Prehistory

text: "Neolithic" means "New Stone Age", from about 10,200 BCE in some parts of the Middle East, but later in other parts of the world, and ended between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE. Although there were several species of humans during the Paleolithic, by the Neolithic only "Homo sapiens sapiens" remained. This was a period of technological and social developments which established most of the basic elements of historical cultures, such as the domestication of crops and animals, and the establishment of permanent settlements and early chiefdoms. The era commenced with the beginning of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in the Copper Age or Bronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age). The term "Neolithic" is commonly used in the Old World, as its application to cultures in the Americas and Oceania that did not fully develop metal-working technology raises problems.


title: Prehistory

text: Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep, and goats. By about 6,900–6,400 BCE, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery. The Neolithic period saw the development of early villages, agriculture, animal domestication, tools, and the onset of the earliest recorded incidents of warfare.


title: Prehistory

text: Settlements became more permanent, some with circular houses made of mudbrick with a single room. Settlements might have a surrounding stone wall to keep domesticated animals in and hostile tribes out. Later settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult with preserved skulls of the dead. The Vinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing. The megalithic temple complexes of Ġgantija are notable for their gigantic structures. Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or even states, states evolved in Eurasia only with the rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian. Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins which are ideal for fastening leather. Wool cloth and linen might have become available during the later Neolithic, as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may have served as spindle whorls or loom weights.


title: Prehistory

text: In Old World archaeology, the "Chalcolithic", "Eneolithic", or "Copper Age" refers to a transitional period where early copper metallurgy appeared alongside the widespread use of stone tools. During this period, some weapons and tools were made of copper. This period was still largely Neolithic in character. It is a phase of the Bronze Age before it was discovered that adding tin to copper formed the harder bronze. The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. However, because it is characterized by the use of metals, the Copper Age is considered a part of the Bronze Age rather than the Stone Age.


title: Prehistory

text: An archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of copper making at high temperature, from 7,500 years ago. The find in June 2010 extends the known record of copper smelting by about 800 years, and suggests that copper smelting may have been invented independently in separate parts of Asia and Europe at that time, rather than spreading from a single source. The emergence of metallurgy may have occurred first in the Fertile Crescent, where it gave rise to the Bronze Age in the 4th millennium BCE (the traditional view), although finds from the Vinča culture in Europe have now been securely dated to slightly earlier than those of the Fertile Crescent. Timna Valley contains evidence of copper mining 9,000 to 7,000 years ago. The process of transition from Neolithic to Chalcolithic in the Middle East is characterized in archaeological stone tool assemblages by a decline in high quality raw material procurement and use. North Africa and the Nile Valley imported its iron technology from the Near East and followed the Near Eastern course of Bronze Age and Iron Age development. However the Iron Age and Bronze Age occurred simultaneously in much of Africa.


title: Prehistory

text: The Bronze Age is the earliest period in which some civilizations have reached the end of prehistory, by introducing written records. The Bronze Age or parts thereof are thus considered to be part of prehistory only for the regions and civilizations who adopted or developed a system of keeping written records during later periods. The invention of writing coincides in some areas with the early beginnings of the Bronze Age. Soon after the appearance of writing, people started creating texts including written accounts of events and records of administrative matters.


title: Prehistory

text: The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ores, and then combining them to cast bronze. These naturally occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper and tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before 3000 BCE. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world.


title: Prehistory

text: While copper is a common ore, deposits of tin are rare in the Old World, and often had to be traded or carried considerable distances from the few mines, stimulating the creation of extensive trading routes. In many areas as far apart as China and England, the valuable new material was used for weapons but for a long time apparently not available for agricultural tools. Much of it seems to have been hoarded by social elites, and sometimes deposited in extravagant quantities, from Chinese ritual bronzes and Indian copper hoards to European hoards of unused axe-heads.


title: Prehistory

text: By the end of the Bronze Age large states, which are often called empires, had arisen in Egypt, China, Anatolia (the Hittites), and Mesopotamia, all of them literate.


title: Prehistory

text: The Iron Age is not part of prehistory for all civilizations who had introduced written records during the Bronze Age. Most remaining civilizations did so during the Iron Age, often through conquest by the empires, which continued to expand during this period. For example, in most of Europe conquest by the Roman Empire means that the term Iron Age is replaced by "Roman", "Gallo-Roman", and similar terms after the conquest.


title: Prehistory

text: In archaeology, the Iron Age refers to the advent of ferrous metallurgy. The adoption of iron coincided with other changes in some past cultures, often including more sophisticated agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, which makes the archaeological Iron Age coincide with the "Axial Age" in the history of philosophy. Although iron ore is common, the metalworking techniques necessary to use iron are very different from those needed for the metal used earlier, and iron was slow-spreading and for long mainly used for weapons, while bronze remained typical for tools, as well as art.


title: Prehistory

text: All dates are approximate and conjectural, obtained through research in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, genetics, geology, or linguistics. They are all subject to revision due to new discoveries or improved calculations. BP stands for "Before Present (1950)." BCE stands for "Before Common Era".


title: Don Felder

text: Donald William Felder (born September 21, 1947) is an American musician who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Eagles from 1974 until his termination from the band in 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with the Eagles. Felder was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016.


title: Don Felder

text: Don Felder was born in Gainesville, Florida, on September 21, 1947. He was raised in a Southern Baptist family.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder was first attracted to music after watching Elvis Presley live on "The Ed Sullivan Show". He acquired his first guitar when he was about ten years old, which he has stated he exchanged with a friend at the five-and-dime for a handful of cherry bombs. A self-taught musician, he was heavily influenced by rock and roll. At the age of 13 he started his first band, the Continentals which also included Stephen Stills and Isaac Guillory.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder's family could not afford music lessons, but he taught himself to play guitar by ear, by listening to tape recordings that he played back at half speed. He worked at a music school started by a Berklee graduate, who taught music theory and some notation to Felder during his employment there.


title: Don Felder

text: Around that time, he met Bernie Leadon who later became one of the founding members of the Eagles. Leadon replaced Stephen Stills in the Continentals, which eventually changed its name to the Maundy Quintet. Felder and Leadon both attended Gainesville High School. Felder gave guitar lessons at a local music shop for about 18 months, at which time Felder also learned how to play slide guitar from Duane Allman. Although Felder claimed that he taught a young Tom Petty how to play the guitar, Petty denied that he was ever taught the guitar by Felder, but did acknowledge that he learned the piano.


title: Don Felder

text: The Maundy Quintet recorded and released a 45 rpm single on the Tampa-based Paris Tower label in 1967, which received airplay in north-central Florida.


title: Don Felder

text: After the Maundy Quintet broke up, Felder went to Manhattan, New York City, with a band called Flow, which released a self-titled improvisational rock fusion album in 1970. The 1970 Flow album has the distinction of being among the first issued on the newly independent CTI Records label, founded by noted jazz producer Creed Taylor. While in New York, Felder improved his mastery of improvisation on the guitar and learned various styles. After Flow broke up, Felder moved to Boston where he got a job in a recording studio.


title: Don Felder

text: In 1973, Felder moved to Los Angeles where he was hired as guitar player for a tour by David Blue, replacing David Lindley who was touring with Crosby & Nash. He helped Blue put together a tour, during which they opened at a few Crosby and Nash shows in November 1973 and for Neil Young at the opening of the Roxy Theatre. Once again, Felder replaced Lindley, this time in Crosby & Nash's band when Lindley fell ill. He would also jam from time to time with the Eagles in their rehearsal space.


title: Don Felder

text: In early January 1974, Felder was called by the Eagles to add slide guitar to their song "Good Day in Hell" and some guitar solos to "Already Gone". Shortly afterwards, he was invited to join the band. Concurrently, the band began distancing themselves from their initial country rock style and moving more in the direction of full-fledged rock music. On the band's fourth album, "One of These Nights", Felder sang lead vocal on the song "Visions" (the only song to have him singing lead), which he co-wrote with Don Henley, and arranged the title track's distinctive guitar solo and bass line.


title: Don Felder

text: After founding member Bernie Leadon departed in 1975 following the tour to support the album, Joe Walsh joined the band. Felder had previously jammed with Walsh while Leadon was still a member of the Eagles, and together as dual guitar leads, they would eventually become one of rock music's most memorable onstage partnerships. Felder also doubled on banjo, mandolin and pedal steel guitar on future tours, all of which were previously handled by Leadon.


title: Don Felder

text: The first album that the Eagles released after the lineup change was "Hotel California", which became a major international bestseller. Felder submitted "16 or 17 tracks" that resulted in the songs "Victim of Love" and the album's title track, "Hotel California". After the release of "Hotel California" and the tour that followed, the Eagles found themselves under tremendous pressure to repeat this success and tensions were made worse by alcohol, cocaine and other drugs. Bassist Randy Meisner left the band after the tour due to exhaustion and he was replaced by former Poco bassist Timothy B. Schmit, who had also replaced him in that band. Nevertheless, the fighting did not end with the addition of the mild-mannered Schmit, but it rather intensified during the recording of "The Long Run", which took 18 months to complete, and Felder and Glenn Frey were especially hostile to one another, despite respecting each other's musical abilities.


title: Don Felder

text: According to Henley, Felder attempted to gain more control by co-opting Walsh so frequently that it was the pair up against himself and Frey when the band was dividing into factions and even Henley and Frey began to have their differences, thus causing the Eagles to disband.


title: Don Felder

text: At a concert in Long Beach, California, for Senator Alan Cranston on July 31, 1980, known as the "Long Night at Wrong Beach", things hit a breaking point in the band when the animosity between Felder and Frey boiled over before the show began after Felder said, "You're welcome – I guess" to Cranston and his wife, thus offending Frey. He angrily confronted Felder and the pair began to threaten beatings throughout the show. Felder recalls Frey telling him during "Best of My Love", "I'm gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage." After the concert, Felder smashed, according to Frey, Felder's "cheapest guitar". The Eagles disbanded shortly thereafter.


title: Don Felder

text: Following the 1980 disbandment of the Eagles, Felder focused more on his family, but also embarked on a solo career, concentrating on film composition and session work. He worked on the Bee Gees' 1981 album "Living Eyes" as a session guitarist. Through his association with Bee Gees' producer Albhy Galuten, Felder made session appearances on albums by artists as diverse as Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, and Andy Gibb. During this time, he also contributed guitar work to Stevie Nicks' first two solo albums, "Bella Donna" and "The Wild Heart".


title: Don Felder

text: In 1983, Felder released his first solo album entitled "Airborne". The album's single "Never Surrender", co-written with Kenny Loggins, was a minor hit, having also appeared on the soundtrack to the popular motion picture teen comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".


title: Don Felder

text: In 1985, Henley offered Felder $5,000 a week (US $ in dollars) to go on tour with him, but Felder turned it down, citing both dissatisfaction with the pay and a desire to not go on tour.


title: Don Felder

text: Among his musical film credits in the 1980s are two songs on the soundtrack to the 1981 animated cult film "Heavy Metal" entitled "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" (with former bandmates Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit contributing backing vocals) and "All of You" – with Jefferson Starship's Mickey Thomas as backing vocalist, as well as the title track "Wild Life" from the 1985 motion picture adaptation of Neil Simon's "The Slugger's Wife". He also penned the song "She's Got A Part of Me" from the soundtrack to the 1985 romantic comedy "Secret Admirer".


title: Don Felder

text: Felder's television credits include "FTV", a musical comedy show that parodied MTV and music videos which he hosted from 1985 to 1986, and "Galaxy High", the 1986 CBS cartoon series for which he scored and performed all of the music, including the series' catchy theme song.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder is known for his performances using Gibson Les Paul and Gibson EDS-1275 (double-neck 6 and 12 string) electric guitars. This prompted Gibson to name two re-issues after him in 2010, the "Don Felder Hotel California 1959 Les Paul" and the "Don Felder Hotel California EDS-1275". Felder himself is an avid guitar collector, having amassed close to 300 models since childhood.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder uses Fender Deluxe Reverb and Tweed Deluxe amplifiers modified by Dumble Amplifiers. When performing Hotel California, the 12-string side of the 1275 plays through a Leslie speaker.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder's pedalboard consists of a Voodoo "Pedal Power", a Fulltone "OCD" overdrive, two Boss "Digital Delay DD-3's" delays, a Boss "Chorus Ensemble" chorus, an MXR "Talk box", and a Peterson "Stomp Classic" tuner.


title: Don Felder

text: Sparked by the success of the tribute album "", the band (including Felder) regrouped 14 years later for a concert aired on MTV, which resulted in a new album "Hell Freezes Over" in 1994. For the live MTV performance, the band's signature song "Hotel California" was rearranged into an acoustic version and Felder kicked off the set by performing it with a new, flamenco-style intro.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder performed (with all current and former band members) the hits "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California" at the band's 1998 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Manhattan, New York City. He continued as a member of the Eagles until 2001.


title: Don Felder

text: On February 6, 2001, Felder was fired from the Eagles. He responded by filing two lawsuits alleging wrongful termination, breach of implied-in-fact contract, and breach of fiduciary duty, reportedly seeking $50 million in damages. Felder alleged that from the 1994 "Hell Freezes Over" tour onward, Henley and Frey had "insisted that they each receive a higher percentage of the band's profits", whereas the money had previously been split in five equal portions. Felder also accused them of coercing him into signing an agreement under which Henley and Frey would receive three times more of the "" proceeds than would Felder. This box set, released in November 2000, has sold approximately 267,000 copies and earned over $16 million. Henley and Frey then countersued Felder for breach of contract, alleging that Felder had written and attempted to sell the rights to a "tell-all" book.


title: Don Felder

text: On January 23, 2002, the Los Angeles County Court consolidated the two complaints and on May 8, 2007, the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Despite the settlement, Felder has since filed subsequent lawsuits against the Eagles.


title: Don Felder

text: "Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles (1974–2001)" was published in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2007. The American edition was published by John Wiley & Sons on April 28, 2008, with Felder embarking on a publicity campaign.


title: Don Felder

text: Felder's autobiography "" was published in early 2008. The book allowed Felder to tell his life story, describe his relationships with Glenn Frey and Don Henley, and to relate his own version of his termination from the band in 2001. In an interview done on April 27, 2008 with Jim Farber of the "New York Daily News", Felder is quoted as saying that he "wasn't out to hang people's heads for the whole community to see, that wasn't the point of the book. The point was to tell my story."


title: Don Felder

text: In a 2008 interview with Howard Stern, Felder affirmed that he remains friends with fellow former Eagles members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. When asked if he still had any contact with Frey or Henley, Felder stated that the only replies he gets are from their respective attorneys.


title: Don Felder

text: Nearly three decades after the release of "Airborne", his second solo album "Road to Forever" was released on October 9, 2012, with "Fall from the Grace of Love" as the lead single, a song that featured the harmony vocals of Crosby, Stills & Nash.


title: Don Felder

text: When the Eagles did their History of the Eagles Tour, 2013-2015, to coincide with their two-part documentary, it was criticized by Felder for being incomplete. He did not participate in the associated tour.


title: Don Felder

text: Since 2005, Felder has been touring with his own band, the Don Felder Band. In 2014, they toured with rock bands Styx and Foreigner. In 2017, Felder toured the US with Styx and REO Speedwagon.


title: Don Felder

text: In 2019, Felder announced that he would release his third studio album, "American Rock 'n' Roll", on April 5 on CD and vinyl. The album features musicians such as Sammy Hagar, Slash (who lives near Felder), Richie Sambora, Orianthi, Peter Frampton, Joe Satriani, Mick Fleetwood, Chad Smith, Bob Weir, David Paich, Steve Porcaro, Alex Lifeson and Jim Keltner, among others. Felder will go on a worldwide tour to promote the new album. The title track references artists from Jimi Hendrix and Santana to The Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses and more.


title: Don Felder

text: In 2016, the day after Frey's death, Felder told the Associated Press that he felt an "unbelievable sorrow" when he learned about Frey's death. "I had always hoped somewhere along the line, he and I would have dinner together, talking about old times and letting it go with a handshake and a hug."


title: The Big Bopper

text: Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), known as The Big Bopper, was an American singer, songwriter and disc jockey. His best-known compositions include "Chantilly Lace" and "White Lightning", the latter of which became George Jones' first number one hit in 1959. Richardson was killed in an airplane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa, in 1959, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, and the pilot, Roger Peterson.


title: The Big Bopper

text: J.P. Richardson was born in Sabine Pass, Texas, the oldest son of oil-field worker Jiles Perry Richardson (1905–1984) and his wife Elise (Stalsby) Richardson (1909–1983). They had two other sons, Cecil (1934–1989) and James (1932–2010). The family soon moved to Beaumont, Texas. Richardson graduated from Beaumont High School in 1947 and played on the "Royal Purple" American football team as a defensive lineman, wearing number 85. Richardson later was a radio disc jockey while at Lamar College, where he studied prelaw and was a member of the band and chorus.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Richardson worked part-time at Beaumont, Texas radio station KTRM (now KZZB). He was hired by the station full-time in 1949 and quit college. Richardson married Adrianne Joy Fryou on April 18, 1952, and their daughter Debra Joy was born in December 1953, soon after Richardson was promoted to supervisor of announcers at KTRM. In March 1955 he was drafted into the United States Army and did his basic training at Fort Ord, California. He spent the rest of his two-year service as a radar instructor at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Richardson returned to KTRM radio following his discharge as a corporal in March 1957, where he held down the "Dishwashers' Serenade" shift from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.


title: The Big Bopper

text: One of the station's sponsors wanted Richardson for a new time slot, and suggested an idea for a show. Richardson had seen college students doing a dance called The Bop, and he decided to call himself "The Big Bopper". His new radio show ran from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., and he soon became the station's program director. In May 1957 he broke the record for continuous on-air broadcasting by 8 minutes. He performed for a total of five days, two hours, and eight minutes from a remote setup in the lobby of the Jefferson Theatre in downtown Beaumont, playing 1,821 records and taking showers during 5-minute newscasts. Richardson is credited for creating the first music video in 1958, and recorded an early example himself.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Richardson, who played guitar, began his musical career as a songwriter. George Jones later recorded Richardson's "White Lightning", which became Jones's first No. 1 country hit in 1959 (#73 on the pop charts). Richardson also wrote "Running Bear" for Johnny Preston, his friend from Port Arthur, Texas. The inspiration for the song came from Richardson's childhood memory of the Sabine River, where he heard stories about Indian tribes. Preston's recording was not released until August 1959, six months after Richardson's death. The song became a No. 1 hit for three weeks in January 1960. The man who launched Richardson as a recording artist was Harold "Pappy" Daily from Houston. Daily was promotion director for Mercury and Starday Records and signed Richardson to Mercury. Richardson's first single, "Beggar to a King", had a country flavor, but failed to gain any chart action.


title: The Big Bopper

text: He soon cut "Chantilly Lace" as "The Big Bopper" for Pappy Daily's D label. Mercury bought the recording and released it at the end of June 1958. It slowly began picking up airplay through July and August, and reached No. 6 on the pop charts spending 22 weeks in the national Top 40. In "Chantilly Lace", Richardson pretends to have a flirting phone conversation with his girlfriend; the record was comical in nature, with The Big Bopper presenting an exaggerated, but good-natured caricature of a ladies' man. In November 1958 he scored a second hit, a raucous novelty tune entitled "The Big Bopper's Wedding", in which Richardson pretends to be getting cold feet at the altar. Both "Chantilly Lace" and "Big Bopper's Wedding" were receiving top 40 radio airplay through January 1959.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Richardson was married to Adrienne Joy "Teetsie" Wenner (1936–2004) and had a daughter, Debra (1953–2006). His son Jay Perry Richardson was born two months after his death, in April 1959. Richardson had been building a recording studio in his home in Beaumont, Texas, and was planning to invest in a radio station. He had written 20 new songs that he planned to record himself or with other artists. His son also followed a musical career and was known professionally as "The Big Bopper, Jr.", performing around the world. He toured on the "Winter Dance Party" tour with Buddy Holly impersonator John Mueller on some of the same stages where his father had performed.


title: The Big Bopper

text: In January 2007, Jay Richardson requested that his father's body be exhumed and an autopsy be performed in response to an internet rumor about guns being fired aboard the aircraft and Richardson initially surviving the crash. The autopsy was performed by William M. Bass, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Richardson was present throughout the autopsy and observed the casket as it was opened; both men were surprised that the remains were well enough preserved to be recognized as those of the late rock star. "Dad still amazes me 48 years after his death, that he was in remarkable shape," Richardson told the Associated Press. "I surprised myself. I handled it better than I thought I would". Bass's findings indicated no signs of foul play. "There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures…. [Richardson] died immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane."


title: The Big Bopper

text: Richardson's body was placed in a new casket made by the same company as the original and was reburied next to his wife in Beaumont's Forest Lawn Cemetery. Jay Richardson allowed the old casket to be displayed at the Texas Musicians Museum. In December 2008 he announced that he would be placing the old casket up for auction on eBay, donating a share of the proceeds to the Texas Musicians Museum, but he downplayed the suggestion in later interviews. He died of heart failure in 2013.


title: The Big Bopper

text: The family announced "It is with great sadness that we must tell you that Jay P Richardson has passed away. After a long hard fight, JP succumbed on the morning of August 21, at the age of 54".


title: The Big Bopper

text: C3 Entertainment handles the rights to the Richardson estate, through an agreement with Jay's widow Patty.


title: The Big Bopper

text: With the success of "Chantilly Lace", Richardson took time off from KTRM radio and joined Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Dion and the Belmonts for a "Winter Dance Party" tour starting on January 23, 1959. On the 11th night of the tour (February 2, 1959), they played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. That night, Holly chartered an airplane from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, intending to fly himself and his bandmates Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup to their next tour venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. The musicians had been traveling by bus for over a week, and it had already broken down twice. They were tired, they had not been paid yet, and all of their clothes were dirty. The chartered flight would allow them to avoid another arduous bus ride, arrive early before the Moorhead show, do their laundry, and get some rest. Local pilot Roger Peterson of Dwyer Flying Service (age 21) had agreed to take them. The weather forecast for the Clear Lake area was that night with moderate gusty winds and light scattered snow, and Peterson was fatigued from a 17-hour workday, but he agreed to fly the trip.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Frankie Sardo went to meet the crowd while Holly went into one of the dressing rooms at the Surf Ballroom where he notified Allsup and Jennings that he had chartered a plane to take them to Fargo, North Dakota (which is directly adjacent to Moorhead, Minnesota). On a friendly wager, Valens flipped a coin with Allsup for his seat on the plane—and won. Meanwhile, J.P. Richardson was suffering from the flu and was complaining that the bus was too cold and uncomfortable for him, so Jennings voluntarily surrendered his seat. Upon hearing that his bandmates had given away their plane seats, Holly joked, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up again." Jennings jokingly replied, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes".


title: The Big Bopper

text: The Clear Lake show ended at around midnight and Holly, Valens, and Richardson drove to the Mason City Airport, loaded their luggage and boarded the red and white single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza. Peterson received clearance from the control tower around 12:55 a.m. on February 3, 1959, and they took off—but the plane remained airborne for only a few minutes. It crashed at full throttle shortly after takeoff about 5 miles outside Mason City in the middle of farm country. The reason remains unknown but Peterson may have lost his visual reference and thought that he was ascending while he was actually descending. The right wingtip of the Bonanza hit the frozen ground and sent the aircraft cartwheeling across a cleared cornfield at approximately .


title: The Big Bopper

text: Holly, Valens and Richardson were thrown from the aeroplane on impact and likely tumbled along with the wreckage across the icy field before the wreckage of the aircraft came to rest against a barbed-wire fence, while Peterson's body remained entangled in the wreckage. The bodies of Holly and Valens came to rest several feet away from the wreckage on open ground; Richardson was thrown approximately beyond the wreckage across the fence line and into the next cornfield. All three died instantly of head and chest injuries. Richardson was 28 years old.


title: The Big Bopper

text: In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument at the crash site depicting a guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. It is located on private farmland, about one-quarter-mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, about eight miles north of Clear Lake. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.


title: The Big Bopper

text: J.P. Richardson's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. The Big Bopper is fondly remembered not only for his distinctive singing and songwriting, but also as a humorist who combined the best elements of country, R&B, and rock 'n' roll.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Richardson's name is mentioned as one of the upcoming musical acts in both the print and television versions of Stephen King's short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" about a town inhabited by late musical legends. Buddy Holly is subsequently featured in the story.


title: The Big Bopper

text: The Canadian television comedy show "SCTV" featured a character named "Sue Bopper-Simpson", a fictional daughter of the Big Bopper, played by Catherine O'Hara. The character was a part-time real estate agent who appeared in a musical titled "I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It on Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't".


title: The Big Bopper

text: Shortly after the fatal plane crash, Tommy Dee wrote and recorded a song titled "Three Stars" in tribute to Richardson, Holly, and Valens. It was later recorded by Eddie Cochran, a friend of the three musicians who himself would die prematurely a year later in an automobile crash.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Van Halen's song "Good Enough" from their 1986 album "5150" begins with singer Sammy Hagar calling out "Hello Baby!", imitating the Big Bopper's hook in "Chantilly Lace". Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns does the same in their song "17 Crash" from their 1989 album "Cocked & Loaded".


title: The Big Bopper

text: The "Simpsons" episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts" features a gravestone of The Big Bopper in Springfield that Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) used to help commit voter fraud and become elected for mayor. The gravestone is a bust of the Big Bopper holding a telephone receiver, with the epitaph reading "The Big Bopper", his birth and death years (1930–1959), then a parody on the memorable hook reading "Gooooodbye, baby". He also appeared as a vampire holding a telephone in an "Itchy and Scratchy" cartoon during the episode "C.E.D'oh".


title: The Big Bopper

text: An episode of "The X-Files" features the Big Bopper. The episode is called "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose".


title: The Big Bopper

text: The Big Bopper's estate is currently owned by his daughter-in-law, Patty Richardson, and managed by C3 Entertainment, a company that specializes in classic brands. C3 Entertainment currently manages an official tribute band featuring a Big Bopper impersonator, touring with the Winter Dance Party. In 2019, the Winter Dance Party debuted the film "Bopper and Me."


title: The Big Bopper

text: In "Not Fade Away", a turbulent road novel taking place at the end of the fifties, Jim Dodge narrates an eventful trip to the Big Bopper's grave.


title: The Big Bopper

text: Richardson was portrayed by Gailard Sartain in "The Buddy Holly Story", Stephen Lee in "La Bamba", and John Ennis in "".


title: The Big Bopper

text: "Chantilly Lace" is used in the movies "True Romance" and "American Graffiti" as well as "High Spirits" and "Cocktail".


title: The Big Bopper

text: In the animated series "The Venture Bros.", it is implied that the elderly villains Dragoon and Red Mantle are actually Richardson and Buddy Holly, who were recruited into the supervillain organization the Guild of Calamitous Intent on the night of their supposed deaths.


title: The Big Bopper

text: In 2016 the rock and roll legend was immortalized by software studio "Realtime Gaming" in a slot game named appropriately - The Big Bopper.


title: Profumo affair

text: The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler beginning in 1961. Profumo denied the affair in a statement to the House of Commons, but weeks later a police investigation exposed the truth, proving that Profumo had lied to the House of Commons. The scandal severely damaged the credibility of Macmillan's government, and Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister in October 1963, citing ill health. Ultimately, the fallout contributed to the Conservative government's defeat by the Labour Party in the 1964 general election.


title: Profumo affair

text: When the Profumo affair was first revealed, public interest was heightened by reports that Keeler may have been simultaneously involved with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché, thereby creating a possible national security risk. Keeler knew both Profumo and Ivanov through her friendship with Stephen Ward, an osteopath and socialite who had taken her under his wing. The exposure of the affair generated rumours of other sex scandals and drew official attention to the activities of Ward, who was charged with a series of immorality offences. Perceiving himself as a scapegoat for the misdeeds of others, Ward took a fatal overdose during the final stages of his trial, which found him guilty of living off the immoral earnings of Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice-Davies.


title: Profumo affair

text: An inquiry into the Profumo affair by a senior judge, Lord Denning, assisted by a senior civil servant, T. A. Critchley, concluded that there had been no breaches of security arising from the Ivanov connection, although Denning's report was later described as superficial and unsatisfactory. Profumo subsequently worked as a volunteer at Toynbee Hall, an East London charitable trust. By 1975 he had been officially rehabilitated, although he did not return to public life. He died, honoured and respected, in 2006. By contrast, Keeler found it difficult to escape the negative image attached to her by press, law, and parliament throughout the scandal. In various, sometimes contradictory, accounts, she challenged Denning's conclusions relating to security issues. Ward's conviction has been described by analysts as an act of establishment revenge, rather than serving justice. In the 2010s the Criminal Cases Review Commission reviewed his case, but ultimately decided against referring it to the Court of Appeal. Dramatizations of the Profumo affair have been shown on stage and screen.


title: Profumo affair

text: In the early 1960s, the British news media were dominated by several high-profile spying stories: the breaking of the Portland Spy Ring in 1961, the capture and sentencing of George Blake in the same year and, in 1962, the case of John Vassall, a homosexual Admiralty clerk who had been blackmailed into spying by the Soviets. Vassall was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison. After suggestions in the press that Vassall had been shielded by his political masters, the responsible minister, Thomas Galbraith, resigned from the government pending inquiries. Galbraith was later exonerated by the Vassall Tribunal, after which judge Lord Radcliffe sent two newspaper journalists to prison for refusing to reveal their sources for sensational and uncorroborated stories about Vassall's private life. The imprisonment severely damaged relations between the press and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan; columnist Paul Johnson of the "New Statesman" warned: "[A]ny Tory minister or MP ... who gets involved in a scandal during the next year or so must expect—I regret to say—the full treatment".


title: Profumo affair

text: John Profumo was born in 1915 and was of Italian descent. He first entered Parliament in 1940 as the Conservative member for Kettering while serving with the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, and combined his political and military duties through the Second World War. Profumo lost his seat in the 1945 general election, but was elected again in 1950 for Stratford-on-Avon. From 1951 he held junior ministerial office in successive Conservative administrations. In 1960, Macmillan promoted Profumo to Secretary of State for War, a senior post outside the Cabinet. After his marriage in 1954 to Valerie Hobson, one of Britain's leading film actresses, Profumo may have conducted casual affairs, using late-night parliamentary sittings as his cover. His tenure as war minister coincided with a period of transition in the armed forces, involving the end of conscription and the development of a wholly professional army. Profumo's performance was watched with a critical eye by his opposition counterpart George Wigg, a former regular soldier.


title: Profumo affair

text: Christine Keeler, born in 1942, left school at 15 with no qualifications and took a series of short-lived jobs in shops, offices and cafés. She aspired to be a model, and at 16 had a photograph published in "Tit-Bits" magazine. In August 1959, Keeler found work as a topless showgirl at Murray's Cabaret Club in Beak Street, Soho. This long-established club attracted a distinguished clientele who, Keeler wrote, "could look but could not touch". Shortly after starting at Murray's, Keeler was introduced to a client, the society osteopath Stephen Ward. Captivated by Ward's charm, she agreed to move into his flat, in a relationship she has described as "like brother and sister"—affectionate but not sexual. She left Ward after a few months to become the mistress of the property dealer Peter Rachman, and later shared lodgings with Mandy Rice-Davies, a fellow Murray's dancer two and a half years her junior. The two girls left Murray's and attempted without success to pursue careers as freelance models. Keeler also lived for short periods with various boyfriends, but regularly returned to Ward, who had acquired a house in Wimpole Mews, Marylebone. There she met many of Ward's friends, among them Lord Astor, a long-time patient who was also a political ally of Profumo. She often spent weekends at a riverside cottage that Ward rented on Astor's country estate, Cliveden, in Buckinghamshire.


title: Profumo affair

text: Stephen Ward, born in Hertfordshire in 1912, qualified as an osteopath in the United States. After the Second World War he began practising in Cavendish Square, London, where he rapidly established a good reputation and attracted many distinguished patients. These connections, together with his personal charm, brought him considerable social success. In his spare time Ward attended art classes at the Slade school, and developed a profitable sideline in portrait sketches. In 1960 he was commissioned by "The Illustrated London News" to provide a series of portraits of national and international figures. These included members of the Royal Family, among them Prince Philip and Princess Margaret.


title: Profumo affair

text: Ward hoped to visit the Soviet Union to draw portraits of Russian leaders. To help him, one of his patients, the "Daily Telegraph" editor Sir Colin Coote, arranged an introduction to Captain Yevgeny Ivanov (anglicised as "Eugene"), listed as a naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy. British Intelligence (MI5) knew from the double agent Oleg Penkovsky that Ivanov was an intelligence officer in the Soviet GRU. Ward and Ivanov became firm friends. Ivanov frequently visited Ward at Wimpole Mews, where he met Keeler and Rice-Davies, and sometimes joined Ward's weekend parties at Cliveden. MI5 considered Ivanov a potential defector, and sought Ward's help to this end, providing him with a case officer known as "Woods". Ward was later used by the Foreign Office as a backchannel, through Ivanov, to the Soviet Union, and was involved in unofficial diplomacy at the time of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. His closeness to Ivanov raised concerns about his loyalty; according to Lord Denning's September 1963 report, Ivanov often asked Ward questions about British foreign policy, and Ward did his best to provide answers.


title: Profumo affair

text: During the weekend of 8–9 July 1961, Keeler was among several guests of Ward at the Spring Cottage at Cliveden. That same weekend, at the main house, Profumo and his wife Valerie were among the large gathering from the worlds of politics and the arts which Astor was hosting in honour of Ayub Khan, the president of Pakistan. On the Saturday evening, Ward's and Astor's parties mingled at the Cliveden swimming pool, which Ward and his guests had permission to use. Keeler, who had been swimming naked, was introduced to Profumo while trying to cover herself with a skimpy towel. She was, Profumo informed his son many years later, "a very pretty girl and very sweet". Keeler did not initially know who Profumo was, but was impressed that he was the husband of a famous film star and was prepared to have "a bit of fun" with him.


title: Profumo affair

text: The next afternoon the two parties reconvened at the pool and were joined by Ivanov, who had arrived that morning. There followed what Lord Denning described as "a light-hearted and frolicsome bathing party, where everyone was in bathing costumes and nothing indecent took place at all". Profumo was greatly attracted to Keeler, and promised to be in touch with her. Ward asked Ivanov to accompany Keeler back to London where, according to Keeler, they had sex. Some commentators doubt this—Keeler was generally outspoken about her sexual relationships, yet said nothing openly about sex with Ivanov until she informed a newspaper eighteen months later.


title: Profumo affair

text: On 12 July 1961, Ward reported on the weekend's events to MI5. He told Woods that Ivanov and Profumo had met and that the latter had shown considerable interest in Keeler. Ward also stated that he had been asked by Ivanov for information about the future arming of West Germany with nuclear weapons. This request for military information did not greatly disturb MI5, who expected a GRU officer to ask such questions. Profumo's interest in Keeler was an unwelcome complication in MI5's plans to use her in a honey trap operation against Ivanov, to help secure his defection. Woods therefore referred the issue to MI5's director-general, Sir Roger Hollis.


title: Profumo affair

text: A few days after the Cliveden weekend, Profumo contacted Keeler. The affair that ensued was brief; some commentators have suggested that it ended after a few weeks, while others believe that it continued, with decreasing fervour, until December 1961. The relationship was characterised by Keeler as an unromantic relationship without expectations, a "screw of convenience", although she also states that Profumo hoped for a longer-term commitment and that he offered to set her up in a flat. More than twenty years later, Profumo described Keeler in conversation with his son as someone who "seem[ed] to like sexual intercourse", but who was "completely uneducated", with no conversation beyond make-up, hair and gramophone records.


title: Profumo affair

text: The couple usually met at Wimpole Mews, when Ward was absent, although once, when Hobson was away, Profumo took Keeler to his home at Chester Terrace in Regent's Park. On one occasion he borrowed a Bentley from his ministerial colleague John Hare and took Keeler for a drive around London, and another time the couple had a drink with Viscount Ward, the former Secretary of State for Air. During their time together, Profumo gave Keeler a few small presents, and once, a sum of £20 as a gift for her mother. Keeler maintains that although Stephen Ward asked her to obtain information from Profumo about the deployment of nuclear weapons, she did not do so. Profumo was equally adamant that no such discussions took place.


title: Profumo affair

text: On 9 August, Profumo was interviewed informally by Sir Norman Brook, the Cabinet Secretary, who had been advised by Hollis of Profumo's involvement with the Stephen Ward circle. Brook warned the minister of the dangers of mixing with Ward's group, since MI5 were at this stage unsure of Ward's dependability. It is possible that Brook asked Profumo to help MI5 in its efforts to secure Ivanov's defection—a request which Profumo declined. Although Brook did not indicate knowledge of Profumo's relationship with Keeler, Profumo may have suspected that he knew. That same day, Profumo wrote Keeler a letter, beginning "Darling ...", cancelling an assignation they had made for the following day. Some commentators have assumed that this letter ended the association; Keeler insisted that the affair ended later, after her persistent refusals to stop living with Ward.


title: Profumo affair

text: In October 1961 Keeler accompanied Ward to Notting Hill, then a run-down district of London replete with West Indian music clubs and cannabis dealers. At the Rio Café they encountered Aloysius "Lucky" Gordon, a Jamaican jazz singer with a history of violence and petty crime. He and Keeler embarked on an affair which, in her own accounts, was marked by equal measures of violence and tenderness on his part. Gordon became very possessive towards Keeler, jealous of her other social contacts. He began confronting her friends, and often telephoned her at unsocial hours. In November Keeler left Wimpole Mews and moved to a flat in Dolphin Square, overlooking the Thames at Pimlico, where she entertained friends. When Gordon continued to harass Keeler he was arrested by the police and charged with assault. Keeler later agreed to drop the charge.


title: Profumo affair

text: In July 1962 the first inklings of a possible Profumo-Keeler-Ivanov triangle had been hinted, in coded terms, in the gossip column of the society magazine "Queen". Under the heading, "Sentences I'd like to hear the end of" appeared the wording: "... called in MI5 because every time the chauffeur-driven Zils drew up at her "front" door, out of her "back" door into a chauffeur-driven Humber slipped..." Keeler was then in New York City with Rice-Davies, in an abortive attempt to launch their modelling careers there. On her return, to counter Gordon's threats, Keeler formed a relationship with Johnny Edgecombe, an ex-merchant seaman from Antigua, with whom she lived for a while in Brentford, just west of London. Edgecombe became similarly possessive himself after he and Gordon clashed violently on 27 October 1962, when Edgecombe slashed his rival with a knife. Keeler broke up with Edgecombe shortly afterwards because of his domineering behaviour.


title: Profumo affair

text: On 14 December 1962 Keeler and Rice-Davies were together at 17 Wimpole Mews when Edgecombe arrived, demanding to see Keeler. When he was not allowed in, he fired several shots at the front door. Shortly afterwards, Edgecombe was arrested and charged with attempted murder and other offences. In brief press accounts, Keeler was described as "a free-lance model" and "Miss Marilyn Davies" as "an actress". In the wake of the incident, Keeler began to talk indiscreetly about Ward, Profumo, Ivanov and the Edgecombe shooting. Among those to whom she told her story was John Lewis, a former Labour MP whom she had met by chance in a night club. Lewis, a long-standing enemy of Ward, passed the information to Wigg, his one-time parliamentary colleague, who began his own investigation.


title: Profumo affair

text: On 22 January 1963 the Soviet government, sensing a possible scandal, recalled Ivanov. Aware of increasing public interest, Keeler attempted to sell her story to the national newspapers. The Radcliffe tribunal's ongoing inquiry into press behaviour during the Vassall case was making newspapers nervous, and only two showed interest in Keeler's story: the "Sunday Pictorial" and the "News of the World". As the latter would not join an auction, Keeler accepted the "Pictorial"s offer of a £200 down payment and a further £800 when the story was published. The "Pictorial" retained a copy of the "Darling" letter. Meanwhile, the "News of the World" alerted Ward and Astor—whose names had been mentioned by Keeler—and they in turn informed Profumo. When Profumo's lawyers tried to persuade Keeler not to publish, the compensation she demanded was so large that they considered charges of extortion. Ward informed the "Pictorial" that Keeler's story was largely false, and that he and others would sue if it was printed, whereupon the paper withdrew its offer, although Keeler kept the £200.


title: Profumo affair

text: Keeler then gave details of her affair with Profumo to a police officer, who did not pass on this information to MI5 or the legal authorities. By this time, many of Profumo's political colleagues had heard rumours of his entanglement, and of the existence of a potentially incriminating letter. Nevertheless, his denials were accepted by the government's principal law officers and the Conservative Chief Whip, although with some private scepticism. Macmillan, mindful of the injustice done to Galbraith on the basis of rumours, was determined to support his minister and took no action.


title: Profumo affair

text: Edgecombe's trial began on 14 March but Keeler, one of the Crown's key witnesses, was missing. She had, without informing the court, gone to Spain, although at this stage her whereabouts were unknown. Keeler's unexplained absence caused a press sensation. Every newspaper knew the rumours linking Keeler with Profumo, but refrained from reporting any direct connection; in the wake of the Radcliffe inquiry they were, in Wigg's later words, "willing to wound but afraid to strike". They could only hint, by front-page juxtapositions of stories and photographs, that Profumo might be connected to Keeler's disappearance. Despite Keeler's absence the judge proceeded with the case; Edgecombe was found guilty on a lesser charge of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. A few days after the trial, on 21 March, the satirical magazine "Private Eye" printed the most detailed summary so far of the rumours, with the main characters lightly disguised: "Mr James Montesi", "Miss Gaye Funloving", "Dr Spook" and "Vladimir Bolokhov".


title: Profumo affair

text: The newly elected leader of the opposition Labour Party, Harold Wilson, was initially advised by his colleagues to have nothing to do with Wigg's private dossier on the Profumo rumours. On 21 March, with the press furore over the "missing witness" at its height, the party changed its stance. During a House of Commons debate, Wigg used parliamentary privilege to ask the Home Secretary to categorically deny the truth of rumours connecting "a minister" to Keeler, Rice-Davies and the Edgecombe shooting. He did not name Profumo, who was not in the House. Later in the debate Barbara Castle, the Labour MP for Blackburn, referred to the "missing witness" and hinted at a possible perversion of justice. The Home Secretary, Henry Brooke, refused to comment, adding that Wigg and Castle should "seek other means of making these insinuations if they are prepared to substantiate them".


title: Profumo affair

text: At the conclusion of the debate the government's law officers and Chief Whip met, and decided that Profumo should assert his innocence in a personal statement to the House. Such statements are, by long-standing tradition, made on the particular honour of the member and are accepted by the House without question. In the early hours of 22 March Profumo and his lawyers met with ministers and together agreed an appropriate wording. Later that morning Profumo made his statement to a crowded House. He acknowledged friendships with Keeler and Ward, the former of whom, he said, he had last seen in December 1961. He had met "a Mr Ivanov" twice, also in 1961. He stated: "There was no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler", and added: "I shall not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous allegations are made or repeated outside the House." That afternoon, Profumo was photographed at Sandown Park Racecourse in the company of the Queen Mother.


title: Profumo affair

text: While officially the matter was considered closed, many individual MPs had doubts, although none openly expressed disbelief at this stage. Wigg later said that he left the House that morning "with black rage in my heart because I knew what the facts were. I knew the truth." Most newspapers were editorially non-committal; only "The Guardian", under the headline "Mr Profumo clears the air", stated openly that the statement should be taken at its face value. Within a few days press attention was distracted by the re-emergence of Keeler in Madrid. She expressed astonishment at the fuss her absence had caused, adding that her friendship with Profumo and his wife was entirely innocent and that she had many friends in important positions. Keeler claimed that she had not deliberately missed the Edgecombe trial but had been confused about the date. She was required to forfeit her recognizance of £40, but no other action was taken against her.


title: Profumo affair

text: Shortly after Profumo's Commons statement, Ward appeared on Independent Television News, where he endorsed Profumo's version and dismissed all rumours and insinuations as "baseless". Ward's own activities had become a matter of official concern, and on 1 April 1963 the Metropolitan Police began to investigate his affairs. They interviewed 140 of Ward's friends, associates and patients, maintained a 24-hour watch on his home, and tapped his telephone—this last action requiring direct authorisation from Brooke. Among those who gave statements was Keeler, who contradicted her earlier assurances and confirmed her sexual relationship with Profumo, providing corroborative details of the interior of the Chester Terrace house. The police put pressure on reluctant witnesses; Rice-Davies was remanded to HM Prison Holloway for a driving licence offence and held there for eight days until she agreed to testify against Ward. Meanwhile, Profumo was awarded costs and £50 damages against the British distributors of an Italian magazine that had printed a story hinting at his guilt. He donated the proceeds to an army charity.


title: Profumo affair

text: This did not deter "Private Eye" from including "Sextus Profano" in their parody of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".


title: Profumo affair

text: On 18 April 1963 Keeler was attacked at the home of a friend. She accused Gordon, who was arrested and held. According to Knightley and Kennedy's account, the police offered to drop the charges if Gordon would testify against Ward, but he refused. The effects of the police inquiry were proving ruinous to Ward, whose practice was collapsing rapidly. On 7 May he met Macmillan's private secretary, Timothy Bligh, to ask that the police inquiry into his affairs be halted. He added that he had been covering for Profumo, whose Commons statement was substantially false. Bligh took notes but failed to take action. On 19 May Ward wrote to Brooke, with essentially the same request as that to Bligh, to be told that the Home Secretary had no power to interfere with the police inquiry. Ward then gave details to the press, but no paper would print the story. He also wrote to Wilson, who showed the letter to Macmillan. Although privately disdainful of Wilson's motives, after discussions with Hollis the prime minister was sufficiently concerned about Ward's general activities to ask the Lord Chancellor, Lord Dilhorne, to inquire into possible security breaches.


title: Profumo affair

text: On 31 May 1963 at the start of the parliamentary Whitsun recess, Profumo and his wife flew to Venice for a short holiday. At their hotel they received a message asking Profumo to return as soon as possible. Believing that his bluff had been called, Profumo then told his wife the truth, and they decided to return immediately. They found that Macmillan was on holiday in Scotland. On Tuesday 4 June, Profumo confessed the truth to Bligh, confirming that he had lied, resigned from the government, and applied for the office of steward of the Chiltern Hundreds in order to give up his House of Commons seat. Bligh informed Macmillan of these events by telephone. The resignation was announced on 5 June, when the formal exchange of letters between Profumo and Macmillan was published. "The Times" called Profumo's lies "a great tragedy for the probity of public life in Britain"; and the "Daily Mirror" hinted that not all the truth had been told, and referred to "skeletons in many cupboards".


title: Profumo affair

text: Gordon's trial for the attack on Keeler began on the day Profumo's resignation was made public. He maintained that his innocence would be established by two witnesses who, the police told the court, could not be found. On 7 June, principally on the evidence of Keeler, Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The following day, Ward was arrested and charged with immorality offences. On 9 June, freed from Profumo's libel threats, the "News of the World" published "The Confessions of Christine", an account which helped to fashion the public image of Ward as a sexual predator and probable tool of the Soviets. The "Sunday Mirror" (formerly the "Sunday Pictorial") printed Profumo's "Darling" letter.


title: Profumo affair

text: In advance of the House of Commons debate on Profumo's resignation, due 17 June, David Watt in "The Spectator" defined Macmillan's position as "an intolerable dilemma from which he can only escape by being proved either ludicrously naïve or incompetent or deceitful—or all three". Meanwhile, the press speculated about possible Cabinet resignations, and several ministers felt it necessary to demonstrate their loyalty to the prime minister. In a BBC interview on 13 June Lord Hailsham, holder of several ministerial offices, denounced Profumo in a manner which, according to "The Observer", "had to be seen to be believed". Hailsham said that "a great party is not to be brought down because of a squalid affair between a woman of easy virtue and a proven liar".


title: Profumo affair

text: In the debate, Wilson concentrated almost exclusively on the extent to which Macmillan and his colleagues had been dilatory in not identifying a clear security risk arising from Profumo's association with Ward and his circle. Macmillan responded that he should not be held culpable for believing a colleague who had repeatedly asserted his innocence. He mentioned the false allegations against Galbraith, and the failure of the security services to share their detailed information with him. In the general debate the sexual aspects of the scandal were fully discussed; Nigel Birch, the Conservative MP for West Flintshire, referred to Keeler as a "professional prostitute" and asked rhetorically: "What are whores about?" Keeler was otherwise branded a "tart" and a "poor little slut". Ward was vilified throughout as a likely Soviet agent; one Conservative referred to "the treason of Dr Ward". Most Conservatives, whatever their reservations, were supportive of Macmillan, with only Birch suggesting that he should consider retirement. In the subsequent vote on the government's handling of the affair, 27 Conservatives abstained, reducing the government's majority to 69. Most newspapers considered the extent of the defection significant, and several forecast that Macmillan would soon resign.


title: Profumo affair

text: After the parliamentary debate, newspapers published further sensational stories, hinting at widespread immorality within Britain's governing class. A story emanating from Rice-Davies concerned a naked masked man, who acted as a waiter at sex parties; rumours suggested that he was a cabinet minister, or possibly a member of the Royal Family. Malcolm Muggeridge in the "Sunday Mirror" wrote of "The Slow, Sure Death of the Upper Classes". On 21 June Macmillan instructed Lord Denning, the Master of the Rolls, to investigate and report on the growing range of rumours. Ward's committal proceedings began a week later, at Marylebone magistrates' court, where the Crown's evidence was fully reported in the press. Ward was committed for trial on charges of "living off the earnings of prostitution" and "procuration of girl under twenty-one", and released on bail.


title: Profumo affair

text: With the Ward case now "sub judice", the press pursued related stories. "The People" reported that Scotland Yard had begun an inquiry, in parallel with Denning's, into "homosexual practices as well as sexual laxity" among civil servants, military officers and MPs. On 24 June the "Daily Mirror", under a banner heading "Prince Philip and the Profumo Scandal", dismissed what it termed the "foul rumour" that the prince had been involved in the affair, without disclosing the nature of the rumour.


title: Profumo affair

text: Ward's trial began at the Old Bailey on 28 July. He was charged with living off the earnings of Keeler, Rice-Davies and two other prostitutes, and with procuring women under 21 to have sex with other persons. The thrust of the prosecution's case related to Keeler and Rice-Davies, and turned on whether the small contributions to household expenses or loan repayments they had given to Ward while living with him amounted to his living off their prostitution. Ward's approximate income at the time, from his practice and from his portraiture, had been around £5,500 a year, a substantial sum at that time. In his speeches and examination of witnesses, the prosecuting counsel Mervyn Griffith-Jones portrayed Ward as representing "the very depths of lechery and depravity". The judge, Sir Archie Marshall, was equally hostile, drawing particular attention to the fact that none of Ward's supposed society friends had been prepared to speak up for him. Towards the end of the trial, news came that Gordon's conviction for assault had been overturned; Marshall did not disclose to the jury that Gordon's witnesses had turned up and testified that Keeler, a key prosecution witness against Ward, had given false evidence at Gordon's trial.


title: Profumo affair

text: After listening to Marshall's damning summing-up, on the evening of 30 July Ward took an overdose of sleeping tablets and was taken to hospital. On the next day, he was found guilty "in absentia" on the charges relating to Keeler and Rice-Davies, and acquitted on the other counts. Sentence was postponed until Ward was fit to appear, but on 3 August he died without regaining consciousness. On 9 August, a coroner's jury ruled Ward's death as suicide by barbiturate poisoning, though some biographers consider the possibility that he was murdered.


title: Profumo affair

text: Lord Denning's report was awaited with great anticipation by the public. Published on 26 September 1963, it concluded that there had been no security leaks in the Profumo affair and that the security services and government ministers had acted appropriately. Profumo had been guilty of an "indiscretion", but no one could doubt his loyalty. Denning also found no evidence to link members of the government with associated scandals such as the "man in the mask". He laid most of the blame for the affair on Ward, an "utterly immoral" man whose diplomatic activities were "misconceived and misdirected". Although "The Spectator" considered that the report marked the end of the affair, many commentators were disappointed with its content. Young found many questions unanswered and some of the reasoning defective, while Davenport-Hines, writing long after the event, condemns the report as disgraceful, slipshod and prurient.