title: Voyager 2

text: "Voyager 2" is not headed toward any particular star, although in roughly 42,000 years, it will have a close approach with the star Ross 248 at a distance of a few light-years. If undisturbed for 296,000 years, "Voyager 2" should pass by the star Sirius at a distance of 4.3 light-years.


title: Voyager 2

text: Both Voyager space probes carry a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from the people (e.g. the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, and the children of the Planet Earth) and a medley, "Sounds of Earth", that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of music, including works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", Valya Balkanska and other Eastern and Western classics and ethnic performers. (see also Music in space)


title: Fences (film)

text: Fences is a 2016 American period drama film starring, produced and directed by Denzel Washington and written by August Wilson, based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 play of the same name. Wilson was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and originally wanted to pursue being a poet, but later found passion for being a playwright. In addition to Washington, the film also stars Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, and Saniyya Sidney.


title: Fences (film)

text: Principal photography took place from April 25 to June 14, 2016, in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


title: Fences (film)

text: "Fences" was released in North America on December 16, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. It received positive reviews and praise from critics towards Washington's performance and direction, Davis's performance, the screenplay, pacing, cinematography and emotional tone. Critics found the film "extremely powerful and effective." It was a commercial success, grossing $64 million against a $24 million production budget.


title: Fences (film)

text: The film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2016, and was nominated for numerous awards, including four Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Washington), Best Supporting Actress (Davis) and Best Adapted Screenplay, with Davis winning for her performance. It also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for Washington and a Best Supporting Actress win for Davis.


title: Fences (film)

text: The film takes place in 1950s Pittsburgh at Troy Maxson's house that he lives in with his wife Rose and their son Cory. Troy works as a garbage collector alongside his best friend, Jim Bono, that he has known for decades. Troy left home at 14 after beating up his abusive father, and became a robber to sustain himself. While serving time for killing a man during a robbery, he met Bono and showed himself to be a talented baseball player. He then played in the professional Negro leagues; but he never made it to Major League Baseball, which held a "color barrier" until 1947. Claiming to have survived near-fatal pneumonia in his youth by defeating Death in a wrestling match, upon which Death vowed to return for a rematch.


title: Fences (film)

text: Troy's younger brother, Gabriel, sustained a head injury in World War II that left him mentally impaired, for which he received a $3,000 government payout that Troy subsequently uses as a down payment on a home for his family. Gabriel has since moved out to live across the street at Miss Pearl's house, so Troy no longer gets rent money from Gabe. This places the family under financial strain. Gabe sometimes gets in trouble with the law for his erratic behavior, so Rose suggests to Troy that Gabe might be better off residing in a hospital.


title: Fences (film)

text: Lyons, Troy's oldest son from a previous relationship, visits him on payday to borrow money; this upsets him, as he believes a man has a responsibility to work hard to find his own way and provide for his family.


title: Fences (film)

text: Rose later tells Troy that Cory is being scouted by a college football team, but he is dismissive of Cory's chances of playing professional football and refuses to sign the permission slip, saying he does not want him to fail in athletics as he did. Rose asks Troy to build a fence around their house, and he asks Cory to help him on Saturdays. Discovering Cory is not working at his after-school job at the A&P as it interferes with football practice, Troy demands that he return to the job, despite Cory's attempts to convince him that he will work weekends instead of during the week. Troy later finds out that Cory did not return to his job, and so tells the coach that he is no longer allowed to play. Cory lashes out, throwing his helmet at Troy, who warns his son not to disrespect him again.


title: Fences (film)

text: After complaining about his company's racist employment practices, Troy is promoted to driving the garbage truck, becoming the first African-American to do so in Pittsburgh.


title: Fences (film)

text: Bono finds out that Troy is cheating on Rose with Alberta, a woman he sees at Taylor's (a bar) and encourages him to break it off. Troy decides not break it off, as he later reveals this affair to Rose because he gotten Alberta pregnant. This leads to an argument in which he aggressively grabs Rose's arm, where Cory intervenes and knocks Troy into the fence.


title: Fences (film)

text: Months later, the baby is born, but Alberta unfortunately dies during childbirth. Troy brings his baby daughter Raynell home, and Rose agrees to raise her as her own, but refuses to accept him back into her life.


title: Fences (film)

text: Cory is considering enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, having missed his opportunity to attend college with a football scholarship. One day, when Cory returns home, an intoxicated and bitter Troy blocks his path and instigates a fight in which he swings at Troy with a baseball bat. Grabbing the bat from Cory, he drives him out of the yard. Disoriented, Troy once again challenges Death to come for him. Troy wipes the remonstrances of Rose. Then, drunk, he has a severe fight in front of the house with Cory.


title: Fences (film)

text: Six years later, Troy and Alberta's daughter Raynell is playing in the garden. Troy has died of a heart attack, and Cory, now a USMC corporal, returns home, but informs Rose he will not attend the funeral. Rose admits to loving Troy despite his many flaws and pleads that Troy is still a part of him.


title: Fences (film)

text: Cory reconsiders after sharing memories of Troy with Raynell. Lyons is serving three years in prison for forgery, and gets a furlough to attend the funeral. Similarly, Gabriel is released from the hospital to attend and reunites with his family as they all bid farewell to Troy. Gabriel plays his trumpet and succeeds on the third try for St. Peter to open the gates of Heaven for Troy, and the sun glistens over them.


title: Fences (film)

text: The film was adapted from August Wilson's play "Fences". Production culminated in the 2016 release of the film, over a decade after Wilson's death.


title: Fences (film)

text: Previous attempts to adapt "Fences" for the screen had been fruitless, partly due to Wilson's insistence on an African-American director. In a 2013 interview with "Empire", Denzel Washington expressed his intention to star in and direct an adaptation of "Fences", reprising his role from the 2010 Broadway revival of the play, which like the film, was produced by Scott Rudin.


title: Fences (film)

text: On January 28, 2016, it was reported that Rudin, Washington and Todd Black would produce a film adaptation of the play, directed by Washington and starring Washington and Viola Davis, reprising their roles from the 2010 revival that earned both actors Tony Awards. Playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner came aboard to build on a draft written by Wilson before his death in 2005. However, Wilson is the only credited screenwriter for the film, while Kushner received a co-producer credit. Black explained that Washington insisted that they remain faithful to Wilson's work, saying, "The star of the movie is the screenplay and August Wilson's words. What Denzel said to me, to Scott, to all the actors, the cinematographer, and the production designer was, 'Don't make any decision without August Wilson's words leading you to make that decision.' Whatever you do, let the words inform your decision first. That's what we all had to abide by."


title: Fences (film)

text: On April 4, 2016, Mykelti Williamson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Saniyya Sidney joined the cast, with Williamson, Hornsby and Henderson also reprising their roles from the 2010 production.


title: Fences (film)

text: On April 25, 2016, it was reported that "Fences" had begun filming in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. On June 14, 2016, principal photography was completed. Post-production was completed in mid-November. Charlotte Bruus Christensen was the director of photography, David Gropman was the production designer, Sharen Davis was the costume designer, Hughes Winborne edited the film, Sean Devereaux was the visual effects supervisor, and Marcelo Zarvos composed the film's score.


title: Fences (film)

text: The film held its world premiere at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, California on December 15, 2016. It began a limited release on December 16, 2016, before opening wide in 2,223 theaters on December 25.


title: Fences (film)

text: "Fences" grossed $57.7 million in the United States and Canada and $6.7 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $64.4 million, against a production budget of $24 million.


title: Fences (film)

text: "Fences" opened in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles on December 16, and was expected to gross $50–75,000 per theater in its limited opening weekend. It ended up making a total of $128,000, good for a per-theater average of $32,000. The film went into wide release (2,223 theaters) on Christmas Day and grossed $6.7 million; over its first two days it made $11.5 million. In its first full weekend the following week, the film made $10 million, finishing 6th at the box office.


title: Fences (film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 269 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "From its reunited Broadway stars to its screenplay, the solidly crafted "Fences" finds its Pulitzer-winning source material fundamentally unchanged — and still just as powerful." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Fences (film)

text: Ty Burr of the "Boston Globe" wrote, "You don't get groundbreaking cinema from "Fences", but what you do get – two titanic performances and an immeasurable American drama – makes up for that." Catherine Shoard of "Guardian" gave 4 out of 5 stars and praised the performances of Washington and Davis saying " Denzel Washington and Viola Davis set to convert Tonys to Oscars." Terrl White of "Empire" gave a full 5 stars and calling the film "A simply extraordinary film without crashes, bangs and wallops but full of towering performances delivered with intelligence, power and heart"."" A.O. Scott of "New York Times" gave a positive review and highlighted the performances of Washington and Davis by saying " If the sound were to suddenly fail — or if the dialogue were dubbed into Martian — the impact of the performances would still be palpable." Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" also gave a positive review and praising the performances by saying "The acting is all superb."


title: Fences (film)

text: In a negative review, David Edelstein of "New York" wrote, "It's not cinematic enough to make you forget you're watching something conceived for another, more spatially constricted medium, but it's too cinematic to capture the intensity, the concentration, of a great theatrical event."


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy film directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos, who also stars in the film as Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos, a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Ian Miller. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and, at the 75th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: A sleeper hit, the film became the highest-grossing romantic comedy domestically of all time, and grossed $241.4 million in North America, despite never reaching number one at the box office during its release. It was the highest-grossing film with that distinction for 14 years until the animated film "Sing" grossed $268 million in 2016.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: The film spawned a franchise, which inspired the short-lived 2003 CBS TV series "My Big Fat Greek Life" and a film sequel titled "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2", which was released on March 25, 2016 by Universal Pictures. A third film, entitled "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3", is currently in production at Universal Pictures' division Focus Features.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Thirty-year-old Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos is a member of a large, loud, intrusive Greek family that only wants her to get married and have children. Frumpy and meek, she works in her family's Chicago restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's", but longs to do something more with her life. While working one day, she is immediately smitten with Ian Miller, a handsome school teacher. She amuses Ian when he catches her staring at him and jokingly calls herself his "own private Greek statue". That evening, Toula offers to go to college to learn about computers so she can improve the restaurant, but her father, Gus, becomes emotional, claiming Toula wants to leave him. Her mother, Maria, comforts Toula and convinces Gus to agree to Toula's idea.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: As the weeks pass, Toula gains more confidence and changes her image, switching her thick-framed glasses for contact lenses, styling her hair, and wearing makeup and brighter clothes that show off her figure. She sees a notice for a course on computers and tourism and tells her Aunt Voula, who owns a travel agency, that she could apply what she learns in the course to Voula's business. Voula agrees, and she and Maria slyly convince Gus to agree as well.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Toula's happiness working at the travel agency catches Ian's attention and he asks her to dinner. Knowing her family would not approve of her dating a non-Greek, Toula lies that she is taking a pottery class in order to see Ian. Ian eventually realizes Toula is the waitress from Dancing Zorba's; contrary to Toula's fear that he would lose interest in her, Ian reaffirms his fondness of her. They continue dating and fall in love.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Toula's lie is ultimately exposed. Gus is furious that Ian did not ask his permission to date Toula, despite the fact that they are grown adults. Gus refuses to let them continue seeing each other, but they ignore his decree, so Gus introduces Toula to single friends of his own, to no avail.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Ian proposes marriage and Toula accepts. Maria tells Gus that he must accept their marriage, but Gus remains upset because Ian is not a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. To get the family to accept him, Ian agrees to be baptized into the church. The Portokalos family does finally accept him, but constantly inserts themselves into the wedding planning, designing ugly bridesmaid's dresses and misspelling Ian's mother's name on their wedding invitations.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Ian's quiet, conservative parents meet the entire family during a loud and extravagant Greek family dinner and are overwhelmed by the experience, frustrating Gus. Toula worries about whether her father has really accepted Ian. Maria explains that, growing up, her family experienced many hardships, and that she and Gus simply want her to be happy. Toula's grandmother shows Toula photos of herself as a young woman and the crown she wore at her own wedding, which Toula puts on. When the three women all look at Toula in her bedroom mirror, the sight of three generations in the reflection makes Toula smile with pride. The wedding proceeds as planned.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: At the wedding reception, Gus gives a heartfelt speech focusing on how the differences in the newlyweds' backgrounds do not matter. He and Maria then surprise Toula and Ian with a house as a wedding gift; Toula is speechless at the gesture of love from her father. As the two families dance together, Toula narrates that while her family is indeed loud, odd, and somewhat dramatic, she knows they love her and will always be there for her.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Six years later, Toula and Ian leave their house—conveniently located right next door to Gus and Maria's—to walk their daughter to Greek school.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" started as a one-woman play written by and starring Vardalos, performed for six weeks at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles in the summer of 1997. Vardalos later jokingly stated that she only wrote the play "to get a better agent". The play was based on Vardalos's own family in Winnipeg in Canada and on her experience marrying a non-Greek man (actor Ian Gomez). The play was popular, and was sold out for much of its run, in part due to Vardalos's marketing it across Greek Orthodox churches in the area. A number of Hollywood executives and celebrities saw it, including actress Rita Wilson, who is herself of Greek origin; Wilson convinced her husband, actor Tom Hanks, to see it as well.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Vardalos began meeting various executives about making a film version of the play and began writing a screenplay as well. However, the meetings proved fruitless because the executives insisted on making changes that they felt would make the film more marketable, which Vardalos objected to: these included changing the plot, getting a known actress in the lead role (Marisa Tomei was one name mentioned), and changing the family's ethnicity to Hispanic. Two months after the play's initial run ended, Hanks's production company, Playtone, contacted Vardalos about producing a film based on her vision for it; they also agreed to remount the play in early 1998, this time at LA's Globe Theatre. Hanks later said that casting Vardalos in the lead role "brings a huge amount of integrity to the piece, because it's Nia's version of her own life and her own experience. I think that shows through on the screen and people recognize it."


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: In 2000, while in Toronto doing pre-production for the film, Vardalos and Playtone producer Gary Goetzman overheard actor John Corbett (who was in town shooting the film "Serendipity") at a bar, telling a friend of his about having read the script for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", and being upset that he couldn't make the auditions. Vardalos and Goetzman approached Corbett and offered him the part of Ian Miller on the spot, which he accepted.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: Despite being based on life in the Greek community of Winnipeg, the film was set in Chicago and shot in both Toronto and Chicago. Toronto Metropolitan University and Greektown neighborhood feature prominently in the film. The home used to depict Gus and Maria Portokalos's residence (as well as the home bought next door at the end of the film for Toula and Ian) is located on Glenwood Crescent just off O'Connor Drive in the Toronto suburb of East York. The real home representing the Portokalos' residence actually has most of the external ornamentation that was shown in the film. Also, some minor parts of the movie were shot at Jarvis Collegiate Institute in Toronto.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: After a February 2002 premiere, it was initially released in the United States via a limited release on April 19, 2002 before receiving a wider release worldwide over the summer, including a wide release in the United States on August 2.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" became a sleeper hit and grew steadily from its limited release. Despite never hitting the number one spot for a box office weekend and being an independent film with a $5 million budget, it ultimately grossed over $368.7 million worldwide, becoming one of the top romantic films of the 21st century. It was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2002 in the United States and Canada, with USD$241,438,208, and the highest-grossing romantic comedy domestically in history. Domestically, it also held the record for the highest-grossing film never having been number one on the weekly North American box office charts until the 2016 release of the animated film "Sing". However, adjusted for inflation, the gross of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was still higher, equivalent to $ million in 2016. The film is among the most profitable of all time, with a 6150% return on a (inflation adjusted) cost of $6 million to produce.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating pf 76% based on 129 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though it sometimes feels like a television sitcom, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is good-hearted, lovable, and delightfully eccentric, with a sharp script and lead performance from Nia Vardalos." On Metacritic, which assigns a rating based on reviews, the film has an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: In 2012, a 10th anniversary edition of the film was released via DVD and Blu-ray by HBO. The edition contains a digital copy of the film and features deleted scenes as well as a 30-minute retrospective with Vardalos and Corbett.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: The cast (with the exception of Vardalos, who had a separate deal), as well as Hanks' production company, Playtone, later sued the studio for their part of the profits, charging that Gold Circle Films was engaging in so-called "Hollywood accounting" practices.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: The film inspired the brief 2003 TV series "My Big Fat Greek Life", with most of the major characters played by the same actors, with the exception of Steven Eckholdt replacing Corbett as the husband. Corbett had already signed on to the TV series "Lucky". He was scheduled to appear as the best friend of his replacement's character, but the show was cancelled before he appeared. The show received poor reviews from critics noting the random character entrances and serious plot "adjustments" that did not match the film.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: The seven episodes from the series are available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, whose TV studio division produced the show.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: In a 2009 interview for her film "My Life in Ruins", asked about a possible sequel for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", Vardalos stated that she had an idea for a sequel and had started writing it, hinting that, like "Ruins", the film would be set in Greece.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: On May 27, 2014, various news and media outlets reported that a sequel was in the works. Nia Vardalos later confirmed this via Twitter, and she also has written a script for the film. The first trailer for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" was aired on NBC's "The Today Show" on November 11, 2015 and it was released on March 25, 2016, to negative critical reception and modest box office success.


title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

text: In late June 2016, Vardalos hinted at the possibility of a third film, saying that although no writing has been done, she does have an idea. On April 8, 2021, it was announced that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3" was in development, to be written by Vardalos as an independent film, who will reprise her role as co-star. The project was also revealed to have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which production will commence once the studios maintains insurance for its crew, with principal photography scheduled to take place in Greece. On October 1, 2021, Vardalos confirmed that the script for the third film had been completed and that would involve another Greek wedding. On May 15, 2022, it was announced that filming will take place throughout Greece in the summer of 2022, with large portions being shot on Corfu from July 5 to August 3, 2022. On June 22, 2022, it was announced that Vardalos will serve as director on the third film. Principal photography commenced on June 22, 2022 in Athens, Greece, and wrapped on August 10, 2022. The film will be dedicated to the memory of Michael Constantine, who died on August 31, 2021 at the age of 94.


title: English people

text: The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in Old English as the ('race or tribe of the Angles'). Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD.


title: English people

text: The English largely descend from two main historical population groups the West Germanic tribes (the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians) who settled in southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans, and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons already living there. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England by the early 10th century, in response to the invasion and extensive settlement of Danes that began in the late 9th century. This was followed by the Norman Conquest and limited settlement of Normans in England in the later 11th century. Some definitions of English people include, while others exclude, people descended from later migration into England.


title: English people

text: England is the largest and most populous country in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged to become the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become fairly closely aligned with British customs and identity in general. The majority of people living in England are British citizens.


title: English people

text: England itself has no devolved government. The 1990s witnessed a rise in English self-awareness. This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of the British Empire and the present.


title: English people

text: Many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word "English" to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as "English", non-white people were more likely to describe themselves as "British".


title: English people

text: It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. The words "English" and "British" are often incorrectly used interchangeably, especially outside the UK. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say "English, I mean British". He notes that this slip is normally made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: "Non-English members of the United Kingdom rarely say 'British' when they mean 'English'". Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England's dominant position with the UK, it is also "problematic for the English [...] when it comes to conceiving of their national identity. It tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles".


title: English people

text: When the "Oxford History of England" was launched a generation ago, "England" was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as "Prime Minister of England" [...] Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of "England" except for a geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch.


title: English people

text: However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book "" (1999), Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of "British" still being used to mean "English" and vice versa.


title: English people

text: In December 2010, Matthew Parris in "The Spectator", analysing the use of "English" over "British", argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has recently been unmasked from behind a veneer of Britishness.


title: English people

text: Recent genetic studies have suggested that Britain's Neolithic population was largely replaced by a population from North Continental Europe characterised by the Bell Beaker culture around 2400 BC, associated with the Yamnaya people from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. This population lacked genetic affinity to some other Bell Beaker populations, such as the Iberian Bell Beakers, but appeared to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware single grave people, as developed in Western Europe. It is currently unknown whether these Beaker peoples went on to develop Celtic languages in the British Isles, or whether later Celtic migrations introduced Celtic languages to Britain.


title: English people

text: The close genetic affinity of these Beaker people to Continental North Europeans means that British and Irish populations cluster genetically very closely with other Northwest European populations, regardless of how much Anglo-Saxon and Viking ancestry was introduced during the 1st millennium.


title: English people

text: The influence of later invasions and migrations on the English population has been debated, as studies that sampled only modern DNA have produced uncertain results and have thus been subject to a large variety of interpretations. More recently, however, ancient DNA has been used to provide a clearer picture of the genetic effects of these movements of people.


title: English people

text: One 2016 study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon era DNA found at grave sites in Cambridgeshire, calculated that ten modern day eastern English samples had 38% Anglo-Saxon ancestry on average, while ten Welsh and Scottish samples each had 30% Anglo-Saxon ancestry, with a large statistical spread in all cases. However, the authors noted that the similarity observed between the various sample groups was likely to be due to more recent internal migration.


title: English people

text: Another 2016 study conducted using evidence from burials found in northern England, found that a significant genetic difference was present in bodies from the Iron Age and the Roman period on the one hand, and the Anglo-Saxon period on the other. Samples from modern-day Wales were found to be similar to those from the Iron Age and Roman burials, while samples from much of modern England, East Anglia in particular, were closer to the Anglo-Saxon-era burial. This was found to demonstrate a "profound impact" from the Anglo-Saxon migrations on the modern English gene pool, though no specific percentages were given in the study.


title: English people

text: A third study combined the ancient data from both of the preceding studies and compared it to a large number of modern samples from across Britain and Ireland. This study found that modern southern, central and eastern English populations were of "a predominantly Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry" while those from northern and southwestern England had a greater degree of indigenous origin.


title: English people

text: A major 2020 study, which used DNA from Viking-era burials in various regions across Europe, found that modern English samples showed nearly equal contributions from a native British "North Atlantic" population and a Danish-like population. While much of the latter signature was attributed to the earlier settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, it was calculated that up to 6% of it could have come from Danish Vikings, with a further 4% contribution from a Norwegian-like source representing the Norwegian Vikings. The study also found an average 18% admixture from a source further south in Europe, which was interpreted as reflecting the legacy of French migration under the Normans.


title: English people

text: A landmark 2022 study titled "The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool", found the English to be of plurality Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry, with heavy native Celtic Briton, and newly confirmed medieval French admixture. Significant regional variation was also observed.


title: English people

text: The first people to be called "English" were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes that began migrating to eastern and southern Great Britain, from southern Denmark and northern Germany, in the 5th century AD, after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England ("Engla land", meaning "Land of the Angles") and to the English.


title: English people

text: The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the "Romano-British"—the descendants of the native Brittonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st–5th centuries AD. The multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. There is archaeological evidence, for example, of an early North African presence in a Roman garrison at Aballava, now Burgh-by-Sands, in Cumbria: a 4th-century inscription says that the Roman military unit "Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum" ("unit of Aurelian Moors") from Mauretania (Morocco) was stationed there. Although the Roman Empire incorporated peoples from far and wide, genetic studies suggest the Romans did not significantly mix into the British population.


title: English people

text: The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. The traditional view is that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Great Britain (modern-day England with the exception of Cornwall). This is supported by the writings of Gildas, who gives the only contemporary historical account of the period, and describes the slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes ("aduentus Saxonum"). Furthermore, the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brittonic sources.


title: English people

text: This view was later re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians, with a more small-scale migration being posited, possibly based around an elite of male warriors that took over the rule of the country and gradually acculturated the people living there. Within this theory, two processes leading to Anglo-Saxonisation have been proposed. One is similar to culture changes observed in Russia, North Africa and parts of the Islamic world, where a politically and socially powerful minority culture becomes, over a rather short period, adopted by a settled majority. This process is usually termed "elite dominance". The second process is explained through incentives, such as the Wergild outlined in the law code of Ine of Wessex which produced an incentive to become Anglo-Saxon or at least English speaking. Historian Malcolm Todd writes, "It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify the surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history."


title: English people

text: An emerging view is that the degree of population replacement by the Anglo-Saxons, and thus the degree of survival of the Romano-Britons, varied across England, and that as such the overall settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons cannot be described by any one process in particular. Large-scale migration and population shift seems to be most applicable in the cases of eastern regions such as East Anglia and Lincolnshire, while in parts of Northumbria, much of the native population likely remained in place as the incomers took over as elites. In a study of place names in northeastern England and southern Scotland, Bethany Fox found that the migrants settled in large numbers in river valleys, such as those of the Tyne and the Tweed, with the Britons moving to the less fertile hill country and becoming acculturated over a longer period. Fox describes the process by which English came to dominate this region as "a synthesis of mass-migration and elite-takeover models."


title: English people

text: From about 800 AD waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered a separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England.


title: English people

text: However, Alfred's successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into the 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (978–1013 and 1014–1016) was English but Cnut (1016–1035) was Danish).


title: English people

text: Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as 'English'. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as "anger", "ball", "egg", "got", "knife", "take", and "they", are of Old Norse origin, and place names that end in "-thwaite" and "-by" are Scandinavian in origin.


title: English people

text: The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, there were a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a heptarchy of seven states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 959.


title: English people

text: The nation of England was formed in 937 by Æthelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh, as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw.


title: English people

text: The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as the new French speaking Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, "English" normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as "Norman" even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest. The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until the death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II, House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until 1214.


title: English people

text: Various contemporary sources suggest that within 50 years of the invasion most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with Anglo-Norman remaining the prestige language of government and law largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he learned French only as a second language. Anglo-Norman continued to be used by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne. Over time the English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated, until, by the 14th century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language.


title: English people

text: Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between 'English' and 'French' survived in official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal phrase "Presentment of Englishry" (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340.


title: English people

text: Since the 18th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which today is called the United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state. A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain.


title: English people

text: In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified the Treaty of Union. The Parliament of Scotland had previously passed its own Act of Union, so the Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707. In 1801, another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, about two-thirds of the Irish population (those who lived in 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland), left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State. The remainder became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although this name was not introduced until 1927, after some years in which the term "United Kingdom" had been little used.


title: English people

text: Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in population and in political weight. As a consequence, notions of 'Englishness' and 'Britishness' are often very similar. At the same time, after the Union of 1707, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than to identify themselves with the constituent nations.


title: English people

text: England has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the 17th century onwards. While some members of these groups seek to practise a form of pluralism, attempting to maintain a separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell's resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the 19th century and from Germany in the 20th.


title: English people

text: After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 in the Edict of Fontainebleau, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England. Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration of the Irish, current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland.


title: English people

text: There has been a small black presence in England since the 16th century due to the slave trade, and a small Indian presence since at least the 17th century because of the East India Company and British Raj. Black and Asian populations have only grown throughout the UK generally, as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post World War II rebuilding.


title: English people

text: However, these groups are often still considered to be ethnic minorities and research has shown that black and Asian people in the UK are more likely to identify as British rather than with one of the state's four constituent nations, including England.


title: English people

text: A nationally representative survey published in June 2021 found that a majority of respondents thought that being English was not dependent on race. 77% of white respondents in England agreed that "Being English is open to people of different ethnic backgrounds who identify as English", whereas 14% were of the view that "Only people who are white count as truly English". Amongst ethnic minority respondents, the equivalent figures were 68% and 19%. Research has found that the proportion of people who consider being white to be a necessary component of Englishness has declined over time.


title: English people

text: The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity. Survey data shows a rise in the number of people in England describing their national identity as English and a fall in the number describing themselves as British. Today, black and minority ethnic people of England still generally identify as British rather than English to a greater extent than their white counterparts; however, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) suggest the emergence of a broader civic and multi-ethnic English nationhood. Scholars and journalists have noted a rise in English self-consciousness, with increased use of the English flag, particularly at football matches where the Union flag was previously more commonly flown by fans.


title: English people

text: This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to the devolution in the late 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales. In policy areas for which the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility, the UK Parliament votes on laws that consequently only apply to England. Because the Westminster Parliament is composed of MPs from throughout the United Kingdom, this has given rise to the "West Lothian question", a reference to the situation in which MPs representing constituencies outside England can vote on matters affecting only England, but MPs cannot vote on the same matters in relation to the other parts of the UK. Consequently, groups such as the CEP have called for the creation of a devolved English Parliament, claiming that there is now a discriminatory democratic deficit against the English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists. Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed.


title: English people

text: John Curtice argues that "In the early years of devolution...there was little sign" of an English backlash against devolution for Scotland and Wales, but that more recently survey data shows tentative signs of "a form of English nationalism...beginning to emerge among the general public". Michael Kenny, Richard English and Richard Hayton, meanwhile, argue that the resurgence in English nationalism predates devolution, being observable in the early 1990s, but that this resurgence does not necessarily have negative implications for the perception of the UK as a political union. Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray the complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English "and" British.


title: English people

text: Recent surveys of public opinion on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, support in England for the establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19%, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys. A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29% of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17% in 2007.


title: English people

text: One 2007 poll carried out for BBC "Newsnight", however, found that 61 per cent would support such a parliament being established. Krishan Kumar notes that support for measures to ensure that only English MPs can vote on legislation that applies only to England is generally higher than that for the establishment of an English parliament, although support for both varies depending on the timing of the opinion poll and the wording of the question. Electoral support for English nationalist parties is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse. The English Democrats gained just 64,826 votes in the 2010 UK general election, accounting for 0.3 per cent of all votes cast in England. Kumar argued in 2010 that "despite devolution and occasional bursts of English nationalism – more an expression of exasperation with the Scots or Northern Irish – the English remain on the whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements".


title: English people

text: From the earliest times English people have left England to settle in other parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it is not possible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English. However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.08% of Scotland's population, 3.66% of the population of Northern Ireland and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England. Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales.


title: English people

text: English ethnic descent and emigrant communities are found primarily in the Western World, and in some places, settled in significant numbers. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.


title: English people

text: In the 2016 American Community Survey, English Americans were 7.4% of the United States population, behind the German Americans (13.9%) and Irish Americans (10.0%). However, demographers regard this as a serious undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency (since the introduction of a new 'American' category in the 2000 census) to identify as simply Americans or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.


title: English people

text: Prior to this, in the 2000 census, 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, 1,035,133 recorded British ancestry. This was a numerical decrease from the census in 1990 where 32,651,788 people or 13.1% of the population self-identified with English ancestry.


title: English people

text: In 1980, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.34% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States. Scots-Irish Americans are descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically: County Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland) settlers who colonised Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.


title: English people

text: Americans of English heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply "American" due to the many historic cultural ties between England and the U.S. and their influence on the country's population. Relative to ethnic groups of other European origins, this may be due to the early establishment of English settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities.


title: English people

text: In the Canada 2016 Census, 'English' was the most common ethnic origin (ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent's ancestors belong) recorded by respondents; 6,320,085 people or 18.3% of the population self-identified themselves as wholly or partly English. On the other hand, people identifying as Canadian but not English may have previously identified as English before the option of identifying as Canadian was available.


title: English people

text: From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers to Australia were from the British Isles, with the English being the dominant group. Among the leading ancestries, increases in Australian, Irish and German ancestries and decreases in English, Scottish and Welsh ancestries appear to reflect such shifts in perception or reporting. These reporting shifts at least partly resulted from changes in the design of the census question, in particular the introduction of a tick box format in 2001. English Australians have more often come from the south than the north of England.


title: English people

text: Australians of English descent, are both the single largest ethnic group in Australia and the largest 'ancestry' identity in the Australian census. In the 2016 census, 7.8 million or 36.1% of the population identified as "English" or a combination including English, a numerical increase from 7.2 million over the 2011 census figure. The census also documented 907,572 residents or 3.9% of Australia as being born in England, and are the largest overseas-born population.


title: English people

text: English ancestry is the largest single ancestry New Zealanders share. Several million New Zealanders are estimated to have some English ancestry From 1840, the English comprised the largest single group among New Zealand's overseas-born, consistently being over 50 percent of the total population.


title: English people

text: Despite this, after the early 1850s, the English-born slowly fell from being a majority of the colonial population. In the 1851 census, 50.5% of the total population were born in England, this proportion fell to 36.5% (1861) and 24.3% by 1881.


title: English people

text: In the most recent Census in 2013, there were 215,589 English-born representing 21.5% of all overseas-born residents or 5 percent of the total population and is still the most-common birthplace outside New Zealand.


title: English people

text: English settlers arrived in Buenos Aires in 1806 (then a Spanish colony) in small numbers, mostly as businessmen, when Argentina was an emerging nation and the settlers were welcomed for the stability they brought to commercial life. As the 19th century progressed, more English families arrived, and many bought land to develop the potential of the Argentine pampas for the large-scale growing of crops. The English founded banks, developed the export trade in crops and animal products and imported the luxuries that the growing Argentine middle classes sought.


title: English people

text: As well as those who went to Argentina as industrialists and major landowners, others went as railway engineers, civil engineers and to work in banking and commerce. Others went to become whalers, missionaries and simply to seek out a future. English families sent second and younger sons, or what were described as the black sheep of the family, to Argentina to make their fortunes in cattle and wheat. English settlers introduced football to Argentina. Some English families owned sugar plantations.


title: English people

text: The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom, so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England.


title: English people

text: The established religion of the realm is the Church of England, whose titular head is Charles III although the worldwide Anglican Communion is overseen by the General Synod of its bishops under the authority of Parliament. 26 of the church's 42 bishops are Lords Spiritual, representing the church in the House of Lords. In 2010, the Church of England counted 25 million baptised members out of the 41 million Christians in Great Britain's population of about 60 million; around the same time, it also claimed to baptise one in eight newborn children. Generally, anyone in England may marry or be buried at their local parish church, whether or not they have been baptised in the church. Actual attendance has declined steadily since 1890, with around one million, or 10% of the baptised population attending Sunday services on a regular basis (defined as once a month or more) and three million -roughly 15%- joining Christmas Eve and Christmas services.


title: English people

text: Saint George is recognised as the patron saint of England, and the flag of England consists of his cross. Before Edward III, the patron saint was St Edmund; and St Alban is also honoured as England's first martyr.


title: English people

text: A survey carried out in the end of 2008 by Ipsos MORI on behalf of The Catholic Agency For Overseas Development found the population of England and Wales to be 47.0% affiliated with the Church of England, which is also the state church, 9.6% with the Roman Catholic Church and 8.7% were other Christians, mainly Free church Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians. 4.8% were Muslim, 3.4% were members of other religions, 5.3% were agnostics, 6.8% were atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or refused to answer to the question.


title: English people

text: Religious observance of St George's Day (23 April) changes when it is too close to Easter. According to the Church of England's calendar, when St George's Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is moved to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter.


title: English people

text: English people traditionally speak the English language, a member of the West Germanic language family. The modern English language evolved from Middle English (the form of language in use by the English people from the 12th to the 15th century); Middle English was influenced lexically by Norman-French, Old French and Latin. In the Middle English period Latin was the language of administration and the nobility spoke Norman French. Middle English was itself derived from the Old English of the Anglo-Saxon period; in the Northern and Eastern parts of England the language of Danish settlers had influenced the language, a fact still evident in Northern English dialects.


title: English people

text: There were once many different dialects of modern English in England, which were recorded in projects such as the "English Dialect Dictionary" (late 19th century) and the Survey of English Dialects (mid 20th century), but many of these have passed out of common usage as Standard English has become more widespread through education, the media and socio-economic pressures.


title: English people

text: Cornish, a Celtic language, is one of three existing Brittonic languages; its usage has been revived in Cornwall. Historically, another Brittonic Celtic language, Cumbric, was spoken in Cumbria in North West England, but it died out in the 11th century although traces of it can still be found in the Cumbrian dialect. Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through newspapers, books, the telegraph, the telephone, phonograph records, radio, satellite television, broadcasters (such as the BBC) and the Internet, as well as the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, Modern English has become the international language of business, science, communication, sports, aviation, and diplomacy.


title: English people

text: English literature begins with Anglo-Saxon literature, which was written in Old English and produced epic works such as Beowulf and the fragmentary The Battle of Maldon, The Seafarer and The Wanderer. For many years, Latin and French were the preferred literary languages of England, but in the medieval period there was a flourishing of literature in Middle English; Geoffrey Chaucer is the most famous writer of this period.


title: English people

text: The Elizabethan era is sometimes described as the golden age of English literature with writers such as William Shakespeare, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.


title: English people

text: Other famous English writers include Jane Austen, Arnold Bennett, Rupert Brooke, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, George Orwell and the Lake Poets.


title: English people

text: Due to the expansion of English into a world language during the British Empire, literature is now written in English across the world.


title: English people

text: In 2003 the BBC carried out a UK survey entitled "The Big Read" in order to find the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time, with works by English novelists J. R. R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Philip Pullman, Douglas Adams and J. K. Rowling making up the top five on the list.


title: Confidence trick

text: A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct [...] intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')".


title: Confidence trick

text: Synonyms include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam, and stratagem. The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con-artist, or a "grifter". The shell game dates back at least to Ancient Greece.


title: Confidence trick

text: Samuel Thompson (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidence in a more nuanced way. A few people trusted Thompson with their money and watches. Thompson was arrested in July 1849. Reporting about this arrest, James Houston, a reporter for the "New York Herald", publicized Thompson by naming him the "Confidence Man". Although Thompson was an unsuccessful scammer, he gained the reputation as a genius operator mostly because Houston's satirical tone was not understood as such. The "National Police Gazette" coined the term "confidence game" a few weeks after Houston first used the name "confidence man".


title: Confidence trick

text: A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a finesse, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko (or bunco), a swindle, a flimflam, a gaffle, or a bamboozle. The intended victims are known as marks, suckers, stooges, mugs, rubes, or gulls (from the word "gullible"). When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills.


title: Confidence trick

text: A short con or "small con" is a fast swindle which takes just minutes, possibly seconds. It typically aims to rob the victim of money or other valuables which they carry on their person or are guarding.


title: Confidence trick

text: A "long con" or "big con" (also, chiefly ) is a scam that unfolds over several days or weeks; it may involve a team of swindlers, and even props, sets, extras, costumes, and scripted lines. It aims to rob the victim of huge sums of money or valuables, often by getting them to empty out banking accounts and borrow from family members.


title: Confidence trick

text: In "Confessions of a Confidence Man", Edward H. Smith lists the "six definite steps or stages of growth" of a confidence game. He notes that some steps may be omitted. It is also possible some can be done in a different order than the one shown or carried out simultaneously.


title: Confidence trick

text: In addition, some games require a "corroboration" step, particularly those involving a fake, but purportedly "rare item" of "great value". This usually includes the use of an accomplice who plays the part of an uninvolved (initially skeptical) third party, who later confirms the claims made by the con man.


title: Confidence trick

text: Confidence tricks exploit characteristics such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, opportunism, lust, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, desperation, and naïvety. As such, there is no consistent profile of a confidence trick victim; the common factor is simply that the victim relies on the good faith of the con artist. Victims of investment scams tend to show an incautious level of greed and gullibility, and many con artists target the elderly and other people thought to be vulnerable, using various forms of confidence tricks. Researchers Huang and Orbach argue:


title: Confidence trick

text: Accomplices, also known as shills, help manipulate the mark into accepting the perpetrator's plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or receive some benefits by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be strangers who have benefited from performing similar tasks in the past.


title: Confidence trick

text: With the rise of the Internet, fraud has rapidly gone online. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) of the FBI received 847,376 reports in 2021 with a reported loss of money of $ 6.9 billion in the US alone. The Global Anti Scam Alliance annual Global State of Scam Report, stated that globally $ 47.8 billion was lost and the number of reported scams increased from 139 in 2019 to 266 million in 2020.


title: Confidence trick

text: Government organizations have set-up online fraud reporting websites to build awareness about online scams and help victims make reporting of online fraud easier. Examples are in the US (FBI IC3, Federal Trade Commission), Australia (ScamWatch ACCC), Singapore (ScamAlert), United Kingdom (ActionFraud), Netherlands (FraudeHelpdesk). In addition, several private, non-profit initiatives have been set-up to combat online fraud like AA419 (2004), APWG (2004) and ScamAdviser (2012).


title: Barry Corbin

text: Leonard Barrie Corbin (born October 16, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role as Maurice Minnifield on the television series "Northern Exposure" (1990–1995), which earned him two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations.


title: Barry Corbin

text: His other notable credits include the films "Urban Cowboy" (1980), "Stir Crazy" (1980), "WarGames" (1983), and "No Country for Old Men" (2007), as well as the television series "Dallas" (1979–1984), "Lonesome Dove" (1989), "One Tree Hill" (2003–2009), "The Closer" (2007–2012), "The Ranch" (2016–2020), and "Yellowstone" (2021).


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin was born in Lamesa, the seat of Dawson County, south of Lubbock in West Texas. He is the son of the former Alma LaMerle Scott (1918–1994), a teacher, and Kilmer Blaine Corbin, Sr. (1919–1993), a school principal, judge, and Democratic member of the Texas State Senate for two terms, from 1949 to 1957. Corbin was named for author J. M. Barrie by his mother. He played football briefly in eighth grade, but soon moved to the arts, including acting and ballet classes. He graduated from Monterey High School. Corbin studied theatre arts at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. At 21, he joined the United States Marine Corps, served two years, and then returned to Tech.


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin began his career in the 1960s as a Shakespearean actor, but today is more likely to be seen in the role of the local sheriff, military leader, or some other authority figure, though on occasion, he has portrayed murderous villains. To moviegoers, he is well remembered as General Beringer in "WarGames", John Travolta's uncle Bob Davis in "Urban Cowboy", co-starring with Clint Eastwood in "Any Which Way You Can", or Roscoe Brown, July Johnson's bumbling deputy in the acclaimed Western "Lonesome Dove".


title: Barry Corbin

text: From 1979 until 1984, he appeared in several episodes of "Dallas" as Sheriff Fenton Washburn. In 1983, Corbin co-starred in the television miniseries "The Thorn Birds". Corbin played Mary Carson's stockman Pete, who teaches the Clearys' sons how to shear sheep on their aunt's gigantic sheep station Drogheda, in Australia. In 1983, Corbin played Merit Sawyer in the NBC television series "Boone", cancelled after 10 episodes. Corbin's role was that of a stern father to the young actor Tom Byrd, who played Boone Sawyer, an aspiring singer.


title: Barry Corbin

text: From 1990 to 1995, Corbin portrayed former astronaut and local business leader Maurice Minnifield on CBS's "Northern Exposure", for which he received an Emmy Award nomination.


title: Barry Corbin

text: In 1994, Corbin narrated the acclaimed TBS documentary "MoonShot", telling the story of the 1960s space race from the first-person viewpoint of Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton. From 2007 to 2012, Corbin appeared in the recurring role of Clay Johnson, father of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on "The Closer".


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin played the role of General Carville in consecutive video games developed by Westwood Studios. In 1998, "". In 2000, " and the 2001 expansion, ".


title: Barry Corbin

text: In 2003, Corbin co-starred with "Northern Exposure" castmate John Cullum in "Blackwater Elegy", a short film written by Matthew Porter and co-directed by Porter and Joe O'Brien.


title: Barry Corbin

text: From 2003 to 2009, Corbin played Whitey Durham, the basketball coach for the Tree Hill Ravens on The WB/CW teenager drama series "One Tree Hill". He also had a role in 2007's Oscar-winning film "No Country for Old Men".


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin lost most of his hair in the 1990s due to alopecia areata. Since then, he has played various roles with a shaved head, wearing a cowboy hat, or occasionally wearing a full toupee.


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin is the signature voice of radio station KPLX in Fort Worth, Texas, and has also voiced trailers and promotions for CMT and various other country radio stations. In 2014, he became the spokesman for the Texas Veterans Land Board. He also played a role in the Netflix series The Ranch.


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin has won many cutting-horse competitions. Much of his spare time is spent riding horses and tending to cattle on his small ranch near Fort Worth. He has volunteered his time to charity for many years, including rodeos and being spokesman for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. In 2006, he participated in the Lubbock centennial.


title: Barry Corbin

text: Corbin lives on the ranch with his wife, Jo. Corbin's daughter Shannon had been adopted as an infant; her birth mother, who had a relationship with Corbin in college, gave up the child through the Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio, without having told Corbin of the pregnancy. Corbin found Shannon in June 1991, when she was 26. Corbin has three sons: Bernard Weiss, Jim Corbin, and Christopher Corbin.


title: Barry Corbin

text: In 2009, Corbin was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. A recent painting of Corbin has been placed at the museum exhibit. Corbin has appeared at gatherings of the American Cowboy Culture Association, which holds the annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration each September in Lubbock.


title: Barry Corbin

text: In September 2011, Corbin was given a lifetime achievement award by the Estes Park Film Festival in Estes Park, Colorado. The Texas Film Hall of Fame inducted Corbin into its membership on March 8, 2012.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Raphael (, "God has healed") is an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both estimated to date from between the 3rd and 2nd century BCE. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly visitors entertained by Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. He is not named in either the New Testament or the Quran, but later Christian tradition identified him with healing and as the angel who stirred waters in the Pool of Bethesda in John 5:2–4, and in Islam, where his name is Israfil, he is understood to be the unnamed angel of Quran 6:73, standing eternally with a trumpet to his lips, ready to announce the Day of Judgment. In Gnostic tradition, Raphael is represented on the Ophite Diagram.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In the Hebrew Bible, the word () literally means messenger; either human or supernatural in nature. When used in the latter sense it is translated as "angel". The original mal'akh lacked both individuality and hierarchy, but after the Babylonian exile they were graded into a Babylonian-style hierarchy and the word "archangelos", archangel, first appears in the Greek text of 1 Enoch. At the same time the angels and archangels began to be given names, as attested in the Talmudic statement that "the names of the angels were brought by the Jews from Babylonia", attributed to Shimon ben Lakish or Rabbi Hanina respectively.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Raphael first appears in two works of this period, 1 Enoch, a collection of originally independent texts from the 3rd century BCE, and the Book of Tobit, from the early 2nd century BCE. In the oldest stratum of 1 Enoch (1 Enoch 9:1) he is one of the four named archangels, and in Tobit 12:11–15 he is one of seven.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: His name derives from the Hebrew root רפא ("r-p-ʾ") meaning "to heal", and can be translated as "God has healed". In Tobit he goes by the name Azariah (Hebrew: עֲזַרְיָה/עֲזַרְיָהוּ "ʿĂzaryāh/ʿĂzaryāhū, ""Yah/Yahu has helped") while disguising himself as a human. In the text he acts as a physician and expels demons, using an extraordinary fish to bind the demon Asmodeus and to heal Tobit's eyes, while in 1 Enoch he is "set over all disease and every wound of the children of the people", and binds the armies of Azazel and throws them into the valley of fire.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: According to the Babylonian Talmud, Raphael ( "Rəfāʾēl", Tiberian: "Răp̄āʾēl") was one of the three angels who appeared to Abraham in the oak grove of Mamre in the region of Hebron (Genesis 18; Bava Metzia 86b); Michael, as the greatest, walked in the middle, with Gabriel to his right and Raphael to his left (Yoma 37a). Each was commanded to carry out a specific mission, Gabriel to destroy Sodom, Michael to inform Sarah that she would give birth to Isaac, Raphael to heal Abraham from his recent circumcision and save Lot. Rashi writes, "Although Raphael's mission included two tasks, they were considered a single mission since they were both acts that saved people." The "Life of Adam and Eve" lists him with the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Joel, and the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides included his name in his Jewish angelic hierarchy.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In Midrash Konen it is revealed that Raphael was originally once named Libbiel (Hebrew: לִבִּיאֵל "Lībbīʾēl;" Meaning: "God is my heart"). In the Midrash, God takes council with His Angels before he creates Adam the first Man. The Angels were not all of one opinion however, with differing views and reasons. The Angel of Love and Angel of Justice both favoured Man's creation as he would be affectionate and loving, alongside practicing Justice. The Angel of Truth and the Angel of Peace opposed his creation however, as he would be full of lies and be quarrelsome. To invalidate his protest, God cast the Angel of Truth down from Heaven to Earth, and when the others cried out against the treatment of their companion, He said, "Truth will spring back out of the earth." Before their objections, God had only told the Angels of the good there would be among Humans, but not of the evil too. Despite not knowing the whole truth, the Angels were nevertheless prompted to cry out: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" God replied: "The fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, what were they created for? Of what avail a larder full of appetizing dainties, and no guest to enjoy them?" And the Angels could not but exclaim: "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Do as is pleasing in Thy sight." For not a few of the Angels their opposition bore fatal consequences. When God summoned the band under the Archangel Michael, and asked their opinion on the creation of man, they answered scornfully: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" God thereupon stretched forth His little finger, and all were consumed by fire except their Chief Michael. And the same fate befell the band under the leadership of the Archangel Gabriel; he alone of all was saved from destruction. The third band consulted was commanded by the Archangel Libbiel. Taught by the horrible fate of his predecessors, he warned his troop: "You have seen what misfortune overtook the Angels who said 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?' Let us have a care not to do likewise, lest we suffer the same dire punishment. For God will not refrain from doing in the end what He has planned. Therefore it is advisable for us to yield to His wishes." Thus warned, the Angels spoke: "Lord of the world, it is well that Thou hast thought of creating man. Do Thou create him according to Thy will. And as for us, we will be his attendants and his ministers, and reveal unto him all our secrets." Thereupon God changed the Archangel Libbiel's name to Raphael, the Rescuer, because his Host of Angels had been rescued by his sage advice. He was appointed the Angelic Prince of Healing, who has in his safe-keeping all the celestial remedies, the types of the medical remedies used on Earth.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In the Midrash Tanhuma, Satan becomes envious of the righteous R. Matthew bar Heresh after seeing him sitting occupied in Torah study, without looking at anyone's wife or any other woman. Believing it to be impossible for a righteous man to exist in the world without sin, Satan asks God how He views Rabbi Matthew; He sees him as completely righteous. Satan then asks for permission to test R. Matthew, which is granted to him. Satan then takes the form of a beautiful woman upon finding the Rabbi studying Torah. After seeing that Satan would continue to try and tempt him from all sides; he used hot pins to blind himself lest his evil inclination prevail. Satan then trembled in dismay and reported back to God. Immediately upon hearing this, God called Raphael, Prince of the Healing Arts, commanding him to heal the eyes of R. Matthew bar Heresh. When Raphael goes to R. Matthew and reveals his identity and mission, the Rabbi states that he does not wish to be healed. Raphael then returns to God informing Him of this. Upon hearing this God commands Raphael to tell the Rabbi not to fear, for his evil inclination will not prevail. When he heard this from the mouth of the angel, he accepted his healing and was not afraid.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In Rabbeinu Bahya, a commentary on the Torah written by Rabbi Bahya ben Asher (1255–1340), the Camp of Ephraim, situated to the west of the Tabernacle (Numbers 2:18), corresponded to the celestial camp headed by the archangel Raphael supported by the angels Zavdiel and Achziel. It is also said that this was the camp that Moses alluded to when he prayed that Miriam be healed from her tzaraath by saying "please God heal her" (Numbers 12:13). He appealed to the attribute represented by Raphael.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: It is said in Kav HaYashar by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover (1648–1712), that when the angels appointed to bring infirmity and sickness upon people behold the angel Raphael, they take fright and flee. Then Raphael extends healing to the invalid.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In the Beginning of Wisdom, an introduction to kabbalistic thought composed by Rabbi Aharon Meir Altshuler (1835–1905) in Warsaw between 1887–1893; Raphael is said to correspond to the Sephirah of Tiphereth (Beauty). He is said to act as an intermediate conduct between Chesed (Kindness) corresponding to Michael, and Din (Judgement) corresponding to Gabriel. Uriel (alternatively named Nuriel) is also said to act as an intermediate conduct alongside Raphael. It is further explained that when he inclines toward Chesed he is called Uriel, but when he inclines toward Din he is called Nuriel. In the same context, the Sefer HaBahir calls Raphael the "Prince of Peace" (Hebrew: שַׂר־שָׁלוֹם "Śar Šālōm"). The text states that his reconciliation between Michael, the prince to God's right, and Gabriel, the prince to God's left is the meaning of the verse, "He imposes peace in His heights" (Job 25:2). With Raphael being the Archangel of Air that establishes peace between Fire and Water.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In kabbalistic astrology, Raphael is most commonly associated with the Sun (alongside Michael) and the planet Mercury. The Zohar also associates him with the image of man in the tetramorph of the four holy living creatures of the Prophet Ezekiel's vision, alongside the zodiac sign of Aquarius, and in relation to the image of man; the Sephirah of Malkhuth (Kingdom) and the Earth. As well as Tiphereth and Malkhuth, the Zohar also has Raphael corresponding to the Sephirah of Hod (Majesty), the Euphrates river (Hebrew: פְרָת "Pərāt", Tiberian: "Părāṯ;" the fourth river of Eden in Genesis) the left leg of the body, and the Israelite Tribe of Ephraim. The text states: "The fourth (river) is Hod (Majesty), the "left leg" (referred to in what was said of Jacob, that "he halted on his left thigh"), and from it shall drink the camp of Raphael, whose mission is to heal the ills of the captivity, and with it the tribe of Ephraim and his two accompanying tribes (Manasseh and Benjamin)."


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: It is also customary in Judaism to invoke Raphael as one of the Four Archangels after one recites the Shema before going to bed; with Michael by your right side, Gabriel by your left side, Uriel before you, and Raphael behind you. This practice is also referred to in Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's (1772–1810) Likutei Etzot. In this work, he refers to the invocation of the Four Archangels as “"binding the chariot"”.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: The New Testament names only two archangels or angels, Michael and Gabriel (Luke 1:9–26; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7), but Raphael, because of his association with healing, became identified with the unnamed angel of John 5:1–4 who periodically stirred the pool of Bethesda "[a]nd he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". The Catholic Church accordingly links Raphael with Michael and Gabriel as saints whose intercession can be sought through prayer.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Due to his actions in the Book of Tobit and the Gospel of John, Saint Raphael is considered patron of travelers, the blind, happy meetings, nurses, physicians, medical workers, matchmakers, Christian marriage, and Catholic studies. As a particular enemy of the devil, he was revered in Catholic Europe as a special protector of sailors: on a corner of the famous Doge's Palace in Venice is a relief depicting Raphael holding a scroll on which is written: ""Efficia fretum quietum"" (“Keep the Gulf quiet”). On July 8, 1497, when Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon with his four-ship fleet to India, the flagship was named "São Rafael" at the insistence of King Manuel I of Portugal. When the flotilla reached the Cape of Good Hope on October 22, the sailors debarked and erected a column in the archangel's honor. The little statue of Raphael that accompanied Da Gama on the voyage is now in the Naval Museum in Lisbon.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Raphael is said to guard pilgrims on their journeys, and is often depicted holding a staff. He is also often depicted holding or standing on a fish, which alludes to his healing of Tobit with the fish's gall. Early mosaics often show him and the other archangels in the clothing of a Byzantine courtier.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: The feast day of Raphael was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on October 24. With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast was transferred to September 29 for celebration together with archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel. Due to Pope Benedict XVI's "Summorum Pontificum", the Catholic Church permits, within certain limits for public use, the General Roman Calendar of 1960, which has October 24 as Raphael's feast day.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Archangel Raphael is commemorated by Eastern Orthodox Church on 8 November in the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In Diocese of Warszawa-Praga he is commemorated on 3 October (with Michael and Gabriel), the feast was transferred from September 29 (Dedication day of cathedral church)


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In Oriental Orthodox Church dedication of church of Saint Raphael on the back of a whale is commemorated on 26 August (3 Pagumen).


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: The Archangel Raphael is said to have appeared in Cordova, Spain, during the 16th century; in response to the city's appeal, Pope Innocent X allowed the local celebration of a feast in the Archangel's honor on May 7, the date of the principal apparition. Saint John of God, founder of the Hospital order that bears his name, is also said to have received visitations from Saint Raphael, who encouraged and instructed him. In tribute to this, many of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God's facilities are called “Raphael Centers” to this day. The 18th century Neapolitan nun, Saint Maria Francesca of the Five Wounds is also said to have seen apparitions of Raphael.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Raphael (, alternate spellings: "Israfel", "Esrafil") is a venerated archangel according to Islamic tradition. In Islamic eschatology, Israfil will blow the trumpet from a holy rock in Jerusalem to announce the Day of Judgment ("Yawm al-Qiyāmah"). The trumpet is constantly poised at his lips, ready to be blown when God so orders.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: The name "Israfil" (or "Israfel", "Esrafil") is not specifically written in the Quran, although there is mention of an unnamed trumpet-angel assumed to identify this figure:


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Certain Islamic sources indicate that, created at the beginning of time, Israfil possesses four wings, and is so tall as to be able to reach from the earth to the pillars of heaven. A beautiful angel who is a master of music, Israfil sings praises to God in a thousand different languages, the breath of which is used to inject life into hosts of angels who add to the songs themselves. Further he is probably the highest angel, since he also mediates between God and the other archangels, reading on the Preserved Tablet ("al-lawh al-mahfooz") to transmit the commands of God. Although disputed, some reports assert, he visited Muhammad prior to the archangel Gabriel.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: According to Sufi traditions reported by Imam Rafa'il, the Ghawth or Qutb ('perfect human being'), is someone who has a heart that resembles that of the archangel Israfil, signifying the loftiness of this angel. The next in rank are the saints who are known as the Umdah or Awtad, amongst whom the highest ones have their hearts resembling that of archangel Mikhail (archangel Michael), and the rest of the lower ranking saints having the heart of Jibrail (archangel Gabriel), and that of the previous prophets before the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The earth is believed to always have one of the Qutb.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In another account, Rāfāʾīl (Arabic: رافائيل) is mentioned by name in the Islamic tradition narrated by Ath-Tha'labi from Ali. He is said to have met Dhu al-Qarnayn who is mentioned in the last part of Surah 18 of the Quran, al-Kahf ("The Cave"). Dhu al-Qarnayn (The Two Horned One) is believed by some to be Alexander The Great.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: The angel told Dhu al-Qarnayn about the Water of Life (Ayn al-Hayat). Hearing that there was such a spring, Dhu al-Qarnayn wanted to drink the Water of Life, but the only one who had succeeded in drinking it was his cousin, Khidr. In Islamic tradition, Khidr is the mystical guide popularly quoted especially in Sufi traditions who has attained a long life and appears to selected Islamic saints throughout the times.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Saint Raphaël, France; Saint Raphaël, Quebec, Canada; and San Rafaels in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, and the Philippines; also San Rafael de El Moján and San Rafael de Orituco in Venezuela.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: The Arcangelo Raffaello youth confraternity functioned in Florence, Italy from its founding in 1411 to its suppression in 1785.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: St. John of God Catholic Church in Chicago, IL, was disassembled, moved and reassembled as St. Raphael the Archangel Church in Mill Creek, IL.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Raphael, along with many other prominent angels, appears in John Milton's "Paradise Lost", in which he is assigned by God to re-warn Adam concerning the sin of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He also expounds to Adam the War in Heaven in which Lucifer and the demons fell, and the creation of the Earth.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In Joseph Haydn's "Creation", Raphael (bass) is one of the three angelic narrators, along with Gabriel (soprano) and Uriel (tenor).


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: Characters associated with Angelic figures, at least by borrowing the names, also feature in the video game industry, as an example there is the title: "".


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In season 2 of the TV series "Criminal Minds" the archangel Raphael is brought up as being one of Tobias Hankel's personalities.


title: Raphael (archangel)

text: In the Yogscast YouTube series "Shadow of Israphel", the main antagonist and titular character derives his namesake from that of St. Raphael.


title: The Color Purple

text: The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name.


title: The Color Purple

text: The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2010 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels."


title: The Color Purple

text: Celie is a young poor, uneducated 14-year-old African-American teenager girl living in the Southern United States in the early 1900s. She writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, which resulted in the birth of a girl, Olivia, whom Alphonso abducted. Celie believes that Alphonso killed Olivia. Celie then has a second child, and Celie's ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed. The second child is a boy named Adam, whom Alphonso takes from Celie shortly after his birth.


title: The Color Purple

text: Celie and her younger sister, 12-year-old Nettie, learn that a man identified only as "Mister" wants to marry Nettie. Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry, instead arranging for Mister to marry Celie. Mister, a widower, needing someone to care for his own two children and keep his own house clean, eventually accepts the offer. Mister physically, sexually, and verbally abuses Celie, and his two children mistreat her as well.


title: The Color Purple

text: Shortly thereafter, Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at Celie's house, where Mister makes sexual advances toward her. Celie then advises Nettie to seek assistance from a well-dressed black woman whom she saw in the general store a while back; unbeknownst to Celie, the woman adopted Olivia, and she is the only black woman Celie has ever seen with money of her own. Nettie is forced to leave after promising to write. Celie, however, never receives any letters and concludes that her sister Nettie is dead.


title: The Color Purple

text: Time passes, and Harpo, Mister's son, falls in love with an assertive girl named Sofia, who becomes pregnant with Harpo's baby and, despite initial resistance from Mister, marries Harpo. Harpo and Sofia have five more children in short order. Celie is amazed by Sofia's defiant refusal to submit to Harpo's attempts to control her. As Harpo is kinder and gentler than his father, Celie advises him not to dominate Sofia. Harpo temporarily follows Celie's advice but falls back under Mister's sway. Celie, momentarily envious of Harpo's genuine love of Sofia, then advises Harpo to beat her. Sofia fights back, however, and confronts Celie. A guilty Celie apologizes and confides in Sofia about all the abuse she suffers at Mister's hands. She also begins to consider Sofia's advice about defending herself against further abuse from Mister.


title: The Color Purple

text: Shug Avery, a jazz and blues singer and Mister's long-time mistress, falls ill, and Mister takes her in. Celie, who has been fascinated by photos of Shug that she found in Mister's belongings, is thrilled to have her there. Mister's father expresses disapproval of the arrangement, reminding Mister that Shug has three out-of-wedlock children, though Mister implies to him that he is those children's father, upon which Mister's father leaves in disgust. While Shug is initially rude to Celie, who has taken charge of nursing her, the two become friends, and Celie soon finds herself infatuated with Shug.


title: The Color Purple

text: Frustrated by Harpo's domineering behavior, Sofia moves out, taking her children with her. Several months later, Harpo opens a juke joint where a fully recovered Shug performs nightly. Shug decides to stay when she learns that Mister beats Celie when she is away. Shug and Celie grow closer.


title: The Color Purple

text: Sofia returns for a visit and promptly gets into a fight with Harpo's new girlfriend, Squeak, knocking Squeak's teeth out. In town one day, while Sofia is enjoying a day out with her new boyfriend, a prizefighter, and their respective children, she gets into a physical altercation with the mayor after his wife, Miss Millie, insults Sofia and her children. The police arrive and brutally beat Sofia, leaving her with a cracked skull, broken ribs, her face rendered nearly unrecognizable, and blind in one eye. She is subsequently sentenced to 12 years in prison.


title: The Color Purple

text: Squeak, mixed-race and Sheriff Hodges' illegitimate niece, attempts to blackmail the sheriff into releasing Sofia, resulting in her being raped by her uncle. Squeak cares for Sofia's children while she is incarcerated, and the two women develop a friendship. Sofia is eventually released and begins working for Miss Millie, which she detests.


title: The Color Purple

text: Despite being newly married to a man called Grady, Shug instigates a sexual relationship with Celie on her next visit. One night Shug asks Celie about her sister, and Shug helps Celie recover letters from Nettie that Mister has been hiding from her for decades. The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, the well-dressed woman Celie saw in the store. Nettie eventually accompanied them to Africa to do missionary work, Samuel and Corrine having unwittingly adopted both Adam and Olivia. Corrine, noticing her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Samuel fathered the children with Nettie. Increasingly suspicious, Corrine tries to limit Nettie's role in her family.


title: The Color Purple

text: Through her letters, Nettie reveals she has become disillusioned with her missionary work. Corrine became ill with a fever, and Nettie asked Samuel to tell her how he adopted Olivia and Adam. Realizing Adam and Olivia are Celie's children, Nettie then learned Alphonso is actually her and Celie's stepfather. Their actual father was a store owner that white men lynched because they resented his success. She also learned their mother suffered a mental collapse after her husband's death and that Alphonso exploited the situation to control their mother's considerable wealth.