title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: The song was number 245 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Pitchfork Media named it the forty-second best song of the 1960s. The song is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" and "Time" magazine's All-Time 100.


title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: Critic Ralph J. Gleason (in the review in "Rolling Stone" (U.S. edition only) of October 1969) explains why this song has such an impact on listeners:Nothing I have read … has brought home the overwhelming human sense of history that this song does. The only thing I can relate it to at all is "The Red Badge of Courage". It's a remarkable song, the rhythmic structure, the voice of Levon and the bass line with the drum accents and then the heavy close harmony of Levon, Richard and Rick in the theme, make it seem impossible that this isn't some traditional material handed down from father to son straight from that winter of 1865 to today. It has that ring of truth and the whole aura of authenticity.


title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: Some commentators in the 21st century have questioned whether the song's original lyrics made it an endorsement of slavery and the ideology of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. In 2009, writing in "The Atlantic", Ta-Nehisi Coates characterized the song as "another story about the blues of Pharaoh." In an August 2020 interview in "Rolling Stone", contemporary singer-songwriter Early James described how he had started changing the lyrics of the song, while covering it, to oppose the Confederate cause — for example, in the first verse, "where Helm sang that the fall of the Confederacy was 'a time I remember oh so well,' James declared it 'a time to bid farewell," and he reworked the final verse to state "Unlike my father before me, who I will never understand... I think it's time we laid hate in its grave." An editorial in "The Roanoke Times" in 2020 argued that these views are based on a misunderstanding of the song, which does not glorify slavery, the Confederacy, or Robert E. Lee, but, rather, tells the story of a poor, non-slave-holding Southerner who tries to make sense of the loss of his brother and his livelihood. It notes that it was written, not by a Southerner, but by a Canadian, and contained factual errors. Jack Hamilton, of the University of Virginia, writing in "Slate", said that it is "an anti-war song first and foremost", pointing to the references to "bells ringing" and "people singing" in the chorus.


title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: The most successful version of the song was the one by Joan Baez, which became a RIAA-certified Gold record on 22 October 1971. In addition to chart action on the Hot 100, the record spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart. "Billboard" ranked it as the No. 20 song for 1971. The version reached number six in the pop charts in the UK in October 1971.


title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: The Baez recording had some changes in the lyrics. Baez later told "Rolling Stone"s Kurt Loder that she initially learned the song by listening to the recording on the Band's album, and had never seen the printed lyrics at the time she recorded it, and thus sang the lyrics as she had (mis)heard them. In more recent years in her concerts, Baez has performed the song as originally written by Robertson.


title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: Johnny Cash recorded the song on his 1975 album "John R. Cash". Old-time musician Jimmy Arnold recorded the song on his album "Southern Soul", which was composed of songs associated with the Southern side of the Civil War. A fairly large-scale orchestrated version of the song appears on the 1971 concept album "California '99" by Jimmie Haskell, with lead vocal by Jimmy Witherspoon. Others to record versions include Don Rich, Steve Young, John Denver, the Allman Brothers Band, Derek Warfield. the Charlie Daniels Band, Big Country, the Dave Brockie Experience, Vikki Carr, Richie Havens, the Black Crowes, Solomon Burke, Earl Thomas Conley, the Jerry Garcia Band, Sophie B. Hawkins, Legion of Mary, and the Zac Brown Band have included it on live albums. In 2008, Johnny Logan covered the song on his album, "Irishman in America". Glen Hansard (of the Frames and the Swell Season), accompanied by Lisa Hannigan and John Smith, performed the song in July 2012 for "The A.V. Club" A.V. Undercover: Summer Break series.


title: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

text: The 1972 song "Am Tag als Conny Kramer starb" ("On the Day That Conny Kramer Died"), which uses the tune of the song, was a number-one hit in West Germany for singer Juliane Werding. The lyrics are about a young man dying because of his drug addiction. In 1986, the German band Die Goldenen Zitronen made a parody version of this song with the title "Am Tag als Thomas Anders starb" ("On the Day That Thomas Anders Died").


title: Zach Aguilar

text: Zachary Aguilar (born February 21, 1998) is an American voice actor who has appeared in various English dubbed versions of Japanese anime and video games, working for Bang! Zoom Entertainment, Viz Media and Funimation. Aguilar's first major role was Genos in "One Punch Man", and has since appeared as Tanjiro Kamado in "", Koichi Hirose in "," Arthur Pendragon in "The Seven Deadly Sins" and David Martinez in "".


title: Zach Aguilar

text: He is also known for his roles in video games, such as Byleth Eisner in "", Aether in "Genshin Impact", Espresso Cookie in , and Calem in "Pokémon Masters".


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The Philippine Republic (), now officially known as the First Philippine Republic, also referred to by historians as the Malolos Republic, was established in Malolos, Bulacan during the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire (1896–1897) and the Spanish–American War between Spain and the United States (1898) through the promulgation of the Malolos Constitution on January 22, 1899, succeeding the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines. It was formally established with Emilio Aguinaldo as president. It maintained governance until April 1, 1901.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Following the American victory at the Mock Battle of Manila, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898, and established successive revolutionary Philippine governments on June 18 and 23 of that year.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: In December 1898, Spain and the United States signed the 1898 Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish–American war. As part of the treaty, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. However, mutual ratification of this treaty would not be exchanged and proclaimed until April 11, 1899, in Washington, D.C., United States. The Malolos Constitution establishing the First Philippine Republic was proclaimed on January 23, 1899. The Philippine–American War began with the first shots being fired by American soldiers on February 4, 1899, which was before the Treaty of Paris was officially effective. The Philippine–American War resulted in American victory, with the US government declaring its end on July 2, 1902.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The First Philippine Republic is sometimes characterized as the first proper constitutional republic in Asia, although there were several Asian republics predating it – for example, the Mahajanapadas of ancient India, the Lanfang Republic, the Republic of Formosa or the Republic of Ezo, and Aguinaldo himself had led a number of governments prior to Malolos, like those established at Tejeros and Biak-na-Bato which both styled themselves "República de Filipinas" ("Republic of the Philippines"). Unlike the founding documents of those governments, however, the Malolos Constitution was duly approved by a partially elected congress and called for a true representative democracy.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began against Spanish colonial rule. In 1897, Philippine forces led by Aguinaldo signed a ceasefire with the Spanish authorities and Aguinaldo and other leaders went into exile in Hong Kong. In April 1898, the Spanish–American War broke out. The U.S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron, then in Hong Kong, sailed to the Philippines to engage the Spanish naval forces. On May 1, 1898, the U.S. Navy decisively defeated the Spanish Navy in the Battle of Manila Bay. Later in May, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, established a dictatorial government on May 24, 1898 (formally established by decree on June 18), and on June 12, 1898, at Aguinaldo's ancestral home in Cavite, issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain. Following the proclamation of independence, Aguinaldo established a revolutionary government on June 23, 1898, under which the partly-elected and partly-appointed Malolos Congress convened on September 15 to write a constitution.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: On December 10, 1898, the 1898 Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish–American War and transferring the Philippines from Spain to the United States.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The Malolos Constitution written by the congress was proclaimed on January 22, 1899, creating what is known today as the First Philippine Republic, with Aguinaldo as its president. The constitution was approved by delegates to the Malolos Congress on January 20, 1899, and sanctioned by Aguinaldo the next day. The convention had earlier elected Aguinaldo president on January 1, 1899, leading to his inauguration on January 23. Parts of the constitution gave Aguinaldo the power to rule by decree. The constitution was titled "Constitución política", and was written in Spanish.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: When the First Philippine Republic was constituted on January 22, 1899, in Malolos, that municipality became the seat of government of the Philippine Republic, and was serving as such when hostilities erupted between U.S. and Filipino forces in the Second Battle of Manila on February 4. On February 4, 1899, armed conflict erupted in Manila between Philippine Republic forces and American forces occupying the city subsequent to the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. That day President Aguinaldo issued a proclamation ordering and commanding that "peace and friendly relations with the Americans be broken and that the latter be treated as enemies, within the limits prescribed by the laws of war". The fighting quickly escalated into the Second Battle of Manila, with Philippine Republic forces being driven out of the city.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: American forces pushing north from Manila after the outbreak of fighting captured Caloocan on February 10. On March 29, as American forces threatened Malolos, the seat of government moved to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. On March 31, American forces captured Malolos, the initial seat of the Philippine Republic government, which had been gutted by fires set by withdrawing Philippine Republic forces. Emilio Aguinaldo and the core of the revolutionary government had by then moved to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. Peace negotiations with the American Schurman Commission during a brief ceasefire in April–May 1899 failed, and San Isidro fell to American forces on May 16. The Philippine Republic core government had moved by then to Bamban, Tarlac, and subsequently moved to Tarlac town. Aguinaldo's party had already left Tarlac, the last capital of the Philippine Republic, by the time American troops occupied it on November13.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: American forces captured Calumpit, Bulacan on April 27 and, moving north, captured Apalit, Pampanga with little opposition on May 4 and San Fernando, Pampanga on May 5. This forced the seat of government to be shifted according to the demands of the military situation.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: In October 1899 American forces were in San Fernando, Pampanga and the Philippine Republic was headquartered not far north of there, in Angeles City. On October 12, an American offensive to the north forced the Philippine Republic to relocate its headquarters in November to Tarlac, and then to Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. On November 13, under pressure by American forces, Aguinaldo and a party departed Bayombong by rail for Calasiao, Pangasinan, from where they immediately proceeded eastwards to Sta. Barbara in order to evade pursuing American forces. In Santa Barbara, they joined a force of some 1200 armed men led by General Gregorio del Pilar.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: On November 13, in a conference in Bayambang, Pangasinan, Aguinaldo decided to disperse his army and begin guerrilla war. From that point on, distance and the localistic nature of the fighting prevented him from exercising a strong influence on revolutionary or military operations. Recognizing that American troops blocked his escape east, he turned north and west on November 15, crossing the mountains into La Union province. Aguinaldo's party eluded pursuing American forces, passing through Tirad Pass near Sagada, Mountain Province where the Battle of Tirad Pass was fought on December 2 as a rear guard action to delay the American advance and ensure his escape. At the time of the battle, Aguinaldo and his party were encamped in Cervantes, about 10 km south of the pass. After being notified by a rider of the outcome of the battle and the death of del Pilar, Aguinaldo ordered that camp be broken, and departed with his party for Cayan settlement.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Aguinaldo's party, traveling with del Pilar's force, reached Manaoag, Pangasinan on November 15. There, the force was split into vanguard and rear guard elements, with Aguinaldo and del Pilar in the vanguard. The vanguard force overnighted in Tubao, La Union, departed there on November 16, and was in Naguilian, La Union by November 19, where word was received that American forces had taken Santo Tomas and had proceeded to Aringay. Aguinaldo's force arrived in Balaoan, La Union on November 19, pushed on the next day, and arrived at the Tirad Pass, a natural choke point, on November 23. General del Pilar decided to place a blocking force in Tirad Pass to delay pursuing American forces while Aguinaldo's party moved on.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The Battle of Tirad Pass took place on December 2, 1899. 52 men of del Pilar's 60-man force were killed, including del Pilar himself. However, the Filipinos under del Pilar held off the Americans long enough for Aguinaldo's party to escape. Aguinaldo, encamped with his party about 10 km south of the pass in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, was apprised of the result of the battle by a rider, and moved on. The party reached Banane settlement on December 7, where Aguinaldo paused to consider plans for the future. On December 16, the party departed for Abra to join forces with General Manuel Tinio. The party traveled on foot through a pass at the summit of Mount Polis, and arrived at Ambayuan the next morning. The party pushed on to Banane, pursued closely by American forces. At this point, Aguinaldo's party consisted of one field officer, 11 line officers, and 107 men. The remainder of December 1899 was spent in continuous trek.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The party was at the border of Abra and Cagayan provinces on Aguinaldo's 31st birthday on March 23, 1900. The trek from place to place continued until about May 22, 1900, when Aguinaldo established a new headquarters in Tierra Virgen. On August 27, 1900, after American forces landed at Aparri, Cagayan, Aguinaldo concluded that Tierra Virgan had become untenable as a headquarters and decided to march to Palanan, Isabela. On December 6, 1900, the party reached Dumasari, and arrived in Palanan the following morning.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Aguinaldo remained in Palanan until his capture there by American forces with the aid of the native scouts on March 23, 1901. Following his capture, Aguinaldo announced allegiance to the United States on April 1, 1901, formally ending the First Republic and recognizing the sovereignty of the United States over the Philippines.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Fighting between the Americans and the renmants of the Filipino revolutionary army continued until the surrender of Miguel Malvar on April 16, 1902.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Executive power was exercised by the President, through his cabinet secretaries. The incumbent president of the Revolutionary Republic initially assumed the presidency. Presidents were to be elected by the legislature to terms of four years and to be eligible for reelection.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: In addition to his basic powers, the 1899 Constitution assigned the following duties to the presidency:


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The constitution established a Council of Government (Cabinet), composed of a President and seven Secretaries. The following individuals were appointed to Cabinet positions:


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Legislative power was exercised by an Assembly of Representatives initially composed by members of the Revolutionary Government and subsequently elected to four year terms and organized in the form and manner determined by law and referred to at various points in the constitution as the "National Assembly". It specified that assembly members would be chosen by election, but left the manner of the election to be later specified by law. The assembly was initially composed of the former members of the Malolos Congress and had powers and responsibilities detailed in Title IV of the constitution.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Municipal and provincial governments under the Republic had quickly reorganized upon Aguinaldo's decrees of June 18 and 20, 1898. Article 82 of the Malolos Constitution covered the organization and attributes of provincial and popular assemblies, and specified the principles governing local laws.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The government claimed jurisdiction over the overseas territory of Palaos (Modern day Palau) and the Sulu archipelago. Both areas are represented in the Congress by representatives appointed by President Emilio Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo sent a letter to the Sultan of Sulu requesting that the islands be part of the First Philippine Republic, but the letter was ignored.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: Provisional Law on the Judiciary was issued on March 7, 1899, in accordance to the provisions of the 1899 Malolos Constitution providing that the Chief Justice shall be chosen by the National Assembly with the concurrence of the president and secretaries of the government. Aguinaldo appointed Apolinario Mabini to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on August 23, 1899; however, the appointment did not materialize because of the Philippine–American War.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: The Supreme Court included Gracio Gonzaga serving as president; Juan Arceo and Felix Ferrer as Chamber Presidents; and Deogracias Reyes, Juan Tongco, Pablo Tecson and Ygnacio Villamor serving as Associate Justices


title: First Philippine Republic

text: One of the important laws passed by the Malolos Congress was the law providing for a national loan to buoy up the national budget in which the Republic was trying to balance. The loan, worth 20 million pesos, was to be paid in 40 years with an annual interest of six percent. The law was decreed by Aguinaldo on November 30, 1898.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: When Philippine independence was declared on June 12, 1898, the Philippine Revolutionary Army was renamed the Philippine Republican Army. Aguinaldo then appointed Antonio Luna as Director or Assistant Secretary of War by September 28, 1898, and the Philippines first military school, the Academia Militar was established in Malolos.


title: First Philippine Republic

text: When the Republic was inaugurated on January 23, Luna had succeeded Artemio Ricarte as the Commanding General of the Republican Army. With such powers at hand, Luna attempted to transform the weak, undisciplined revolutionary army into a disciplined regular army for the service of the Republic.


title: Queen Sugar

text: Queen Sugar is an American drama television series created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, with Oprah Winfrey serving as an executive producer. DuVernay also directed the first two episodes. The series is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by American writer Natalie Baszile. "Queen Sugar" centers on the lives of three siblings in rural Louisiana (Rutina Wesley, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, and Kofi Siriboe) who must deal with the aftermath of their father's sudden death and decide the fate of his 800-acre sugarcane farm. The mainstream themes in the series often accompany episodes centered on racial profiling, the long reach of chattel slavery in American history and the inequities in the criminal justice system, and other issues related to African Americans.


title: Queen Sugar

text: The show holds a 93% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and has won two NAACP Image Awards and 12 total nominations. Critics have praised the racially progressive show for storylines that tackle universal issues such as culture, class, and gender, while highlighting elements that address specific concerns of African-American society as expressed by the show's predominantly black cast.


title: Queen Sugar

text: "Queen Sugar" airs on Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and premiered on September 6, 2016. In January 2021, ahead of the fifth season premiere, the series was renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on September 7, 2021. Ahead of the sixth season finale, it was announced that the series was renewed for a 13-episode seventh and final season, which premiered on September 6, 2022.


title: Queen Sugar

text: The series follows the lives of three siblings in rural Louisiana: Nova Bordelon (played by Rutina Wesley), a formidable journalist and activist from New Orleans; Charley Bordelon (Dawn-Lyen Gardner), a working wife and mother in Los Angeles; and their brother, Ralph Angel Bordelon (Kofi Siriboe), a single parent struggling with unemployment and raising his son alone. Their father has recently died and unexpectedly bequeathed an 800-acre sugarcane farm in equal proportion to each of his three children in Louisiana. Recently divorced, Charley, whose husband is caught up in a scandalous affair, takes her teenage son Micah and moves to the heart of rural Louisiana to operate the farm.


title: Queen Sugar

text: On February 2, 2015, it was announced that Oprah Winfrey Network had ordered a straight-to-series TV drama based on "Queen Sugar", the 2014 novel by Natalie Baszile. Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, who worked on the 2014 film "Selma", co-created the series, with DuVernay was set to write and direct the initial episodes.


title: Queen Sugar

text: The first season began filming in February 2016 and contained 13 episodes. DuVernay announced on January 27, 2016, that the series would feature an all-women directorial team. On February 15, 2016, Melissa Carter served as showrunner alongside Ava DuVernay. Neema Barnette joined the series as director and producer. Award-winning director Tina Mabry is a producer and will also direct two episodes, and Anthony Sparks, an award-winning TV writer and professor, began as a co-executive producer for the series in its first season and is the show’s longtime head writer, Executive Producer, and Showrunner. It was later announced that singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello would provide the score for the series. "Queen Sugar" is said to be the first television series in which female directors direct every episode of the series.


title: Queen Sugar

text: On January 13, 2016, Rutina Wesley was announced to play the role of Nova Bordelon. Further casting was announced January 27, 2016. Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Kofi Siriboe, and Omar Dorsey, who co-starred in "Selma", were all announced in leading roles. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that Emmy Award-winner Glynn Turman will guest-star as Ernest Bordelon, the patriarch of the family who dies in the first episode. On February 16, 2016, it was announced that Tina Lifford, Dondre Whitfield, Timon Kyle Durrett and Nicholas L. Ashe were cast as series regulars. On February 23, 2016, Bianca Lawson and Greg Vaughan joined the cast as regulars, while Henry G. Sanders joined in a recurring role. Oprah Winfrey Network said that Winfrey, who earlier was announced as a recurring character, would not have an onscreen role. On March 11, 2016, it was announced that Marycarmen Lopez also was cast as regular. On April 6, 2021, Tammy Townsend joined the cast as a new series regular while Paula Jai Parker, Marquis Rodriguez, and McKinley Freeman joined cast in recurring roles for the sixth season.


title: Queen Sugar

text: On August 1, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season ahead of the series' television premiere, which aired in a two-night premiere on June 20 and 21, 2017. The second season premiered on OWN in a two episode special on June 20 and 21, 2017.


title: Queen Sugar

text: The show was renewed for a third season on July 26, 2017. The third season premiered in a two-night special on May 29 and 30, 2018.


title: Queen Sugar

text: On August 8, 2018, the series was renewed for a fourth season. Following the renewal, co-executive producer Anthony Sparks was revealed to be the new showrunner, replacing Kat Candler. The fourth season premiered on June 12, 2019.


title: Queen Sugar

text: On September 12, 2019, OWN renewed the series for a fifth season which premiered on February 16, 2021. On January 14, 2021, ahead of the fifth season premiere, OWN renewed the series for a sixth season, which premiered on September 7, 2021. In November 2021, shortly before the sixth season finale, the series was renewed for a seventh and final season. The seventh season premiered on September 6, 2022.


title: Queen Sugar

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating for the first season, with an average rating of 7.4/10 based on 41 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "With an authenticity of culture and place and strong performances throughout, Queen Sugar rises above melodrama in this alluring, unhurried and powerful portrait of a fractious black American family." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 75 out of 100 based on 25 critics for the season, indicating what the website considers to be "generally favorable reviews". A 100% approval rating for the second season was reported by Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.03/10 based on 7 reviews.


title: Queen Sugar

text: UCLA graduate Natalie Baszile started writing "Queen Sugar", the novel, in the early 1990s, but the text was only completed ten years later. She first presented the manuscript to publishers in 2009 but without any success. After revising the book for another two years, she resubmitted the text, with one agent agreeing to represent her.


title: Queen Sugar

text: Baszile took part in a women writer's retreat in Hedgebrook. A friend of hers who was also at the retreat, the novelist Sarah Manyika, suggested that she read part of "Queen Sugar" to fellow residents. Leigh Haber, "O, The Oprah Magazine"'s book editor was attending and loved the novel and passed it to people at Oprah's Harpo Productions. A few months after that, Harpo called to say they wanted to option the book for a project.


title: Queen Sugar

text: The book was published by Penguin in 2014 as Baszile's debut novel and, a few months later, OWN negotiated the deal to turn the book into a television series.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. This occurred nine months before the more widely known incident in which Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped spark the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin was one of five plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, as "Browder v. Gayle", to challenge bus segregation in the city. In a United States district court, she testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. The case went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal by the state, and it upheld the district court's ruling on November 13, 1956. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. The Montgomery bus boycott was then called off after a few months.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: For many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort. Colvin has said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all." Colvin's case was dropped by civil rights campaigners because Colvin was unmarried and pregnant during the proceedings. It is now widely accepted that Colvin was not accredited by civil rights campaigners at the time due to her circumstances. Rosa Parks stated: "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day. They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: The record of her arrest and adjudication of delinquency was expunged by the district court in 2021, with the support of the district attorney for the county in which the charges were brought more than 66 years before.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Claudette Colvin was born Claudette Austin in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 5, 1939, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin. When Austin abandoned the family, Gadson was unable to financially support her children. So, Colvin and her younger sister, Delphine, were taken in by their great aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin whose daughter, Velma Colvin, had already moved out. Colvin and her sister referred to the Colvins as their parents and took their last name. When they took Claudette in, the Colvins lived in Pine Level, a small country town in Montgomery County, the same town where Rosa Parks grew up. When Colvin was eight years old, the Colvins moved to King Hill, a poor black neighborhood in Montgomery where she spent the rest of her childhood.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Two days before Colvin's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio. Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. She was also a member of the NAACP Youth Council, where she formed a close relationship with her mentor, Rosa Parks.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. She relied on the city's buses to get to and from school because her family did not own a car. The majority of customers on the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council and had been learning about the civil rights movement in school. On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school. She sat in the colored section about two seats away from an emergency exit, in a Capitol Heights bus.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: If the bus became so crowded that all the "white seats" in the front of the bus were filled until white people were standing, any African Americans were supposed to get up from nearby seats to make room for whites, move further to the back, and stand in the aisle if there were no free seats in that section. When a white woman who got on the bus was left standing in the front, the bus driver, Robert W. Cleere, commanded Colvin and three other black women in her row to move to the back. The other three moved, but another black woman, Ruth Hamilton, who was pregnant, got on and sat next to Colvin.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: The driver looked at the women in his mirror. "He asked us both to get up. [Mrs. Hamilton] said she was not going to get up and that she had paid her fare and that she didn't feel like standing," recalls Colvin. "So I told him I was not going to get up either. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" The police arrived and convinced a black man sitting behind the two women to move so that Mrs. Hamilton could move back, but Colvin still refused to move. She was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested by the two policemen, Thomas J. Ward and Paul Headley. This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". Colvin did not receive the same attention as Parks for a number of reasons: she did not have "good hair", she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager, she was pregnant. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: When Colvin refused to get up, she was thinking about a school paper she had written that day about the local customs that prohibited blacks from using the dressing rooms in order to try on clothes in department stores. In a later interview, she said: "We couldn't try on clothes. You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot ... and take it to the store". Referring to the segregation on the bus and the white woman: "She couldn't sit in the same row as us because that would mean we were as good as her".


title: Claudette Colvin

text: "The bus was getting crowded, and I remember the bus driver looking through the rearview mirror asking her [Colvin] to get up for the white woman, which she didn't," said Annie Larkins Price, a classmate of Colvin. "She had been yelling, 'It's my constitutional right!'. She decided on that day that she wasn't going to move." Colvin recalled, "History kept me stuck to my seat. I felt the hand of Harriet Tubman pushing down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth pushing down on the other." Colvin was handcuffed, arrested, and forcibly removed from the bus. She shouted that her constitutional rights were being violated. Colvin said, "But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn't make and probably couldn't have made. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: The police officers who took her to the station made sexual comments about her body and took turns guessing her bra size throughout the ride. Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. "There was no assault", Price said.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: She also said in the 2009 book "", by Phillip Hoose, that one of the police officers sat in the back seat with her. This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner. She was bailed out by her minister, who told her that she had brought the revolution to Montgomery.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Through the trial Colvin was represented by Fred Gray, a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions. She was convicted on all three charges in juvenile court. When Colvin's case was appealed to the Montgomery Circuit Court on May 6, 1955, the charges of disturbing the peace and violating the segregation laws were dropped, although her conviction for assaulting a police officer was upheld.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin's moment of activism was not solitary or random. In high school, she had high ambitions of political activity. She dreamed of becoming the President of the United States. Her political inclination was fueled in part by an incident with her schoolmate, Jeremiah Reeves; his case was the first time that she had witnessed the work of the NAACP. Reeves was found having sex with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. He was executed for his alleged crimes.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Together with Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanetta Reese, Colvin was one of the five plaintiffs in the court case of "Browder v. Gayle". Jeanetta Reese later resigned from the case. The case, organized and filed in federal court by civil rights attorney Fred Gray, challenged city bus segregation in Montgomery as unconstitutional. During the court case, Colvin described her arrest: "I kept saying, 'He has no civil right... this is my constitutional right... you have no right to do this.' And I just kept blabbing things out, and I never stopped. That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: "Browder v. Gayle" made its way through the courts. On June 5, 1956, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama issued a ruling declaring the state of Alabama and Montgomery's laws mandating public bus segregation as unconstitutional. State and local officials appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court summarily affirmed the District Court decision on November 13, 1956. One month later, the Supreme Court declined to reconsider, and on December 20, 1956, the court ordered Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation permanently.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: The Montgomery bus boycott was able to unify the people of Montgomery, regardless of educational background or class.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond, in March 1956. Colvin left Montgomery for New York City in 1958, because she had difficulty finding and keeping work following her participation in the federal court case that overturned bus segregation. Similarly, Rosa Parks left Montgomery for Detroit in 1957. Colvin stated she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. She withdrew from college, and struggled in the local environment.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In New York, Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy. Claudette began a job in 1969 as a nurse's aide in a nursing home in Manhattan. She worked there for 35 years, retiring in 2004. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack at age 37. Her son, Randy, is an accountant in Atlanta and father of Colvin's four grandchildren.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin was a predecessor to the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955, which gained national attention. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. The discussions in the black community began to focus on black enterprise rather than integration, although national civil rights legislation did not pass until 1964 and 1965. NPR's Margot Adler has said that black organizations believed that Rosa Parks would be a better figure for a test case for integration because she was an adult, had a job, and had a middle-class appearance. They felt she had the maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin was not the only woman of the Civil Rights Movement who was left out of the history books. In the south, male ministers made up the overwhelming majority of leaders. This was partially a product of the outward face the NAACP was trying to broadcast and partially a product of the women fearing losing their jobs, which were often in the public school system.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In 2005, Colvin told the "Montgomery Advertiser" that she would not have changed her decision to remain seated on the bus: "I feel very, very proud of what I did," she said. "I do feel like what I did was a spark and it caught on." "I'm not disappointed. Let the people know Rosa Parks was the right person for the boycott. But also let them know that the attorneys took four other women to the Supreme Court to challenge the law that led to the end of segregation."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: On May 20, 2018, Congressman Joe Crowley honored Colvin for her lifetime commitment to public service with a Congressional Certificate and an American flag.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin has often said she is not angry that she did not get more recognition; rather, she is disappointed. She said she felt as if she was "getting [her] Christmas in January rather than the 25th."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin and her family have been fighting for recognition for her action. In 2016, the Smithsonian Institution and its National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) were challenged by Colvin and her family, who asked that Colvin be given a more prominent mention in the history of the civil rights movement. The NMAAHC has a section dedicated to Rosa Parks, which Colvin does not want taken away, but her family's goal is to get the historical record right, and for officials to include Colvin's part of history. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: "All we want is the truth, why does history fail to get it right?" Colvin's sister, Gloria Laster, said. "Had it not been for Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith, there may not have been a Thurgood Marshall, a Martin Luther King or a Rosa Parks."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In 2000, Troy State University opened a Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery to honor the town's place in civil rights history. Roy White, who was in charge of most of the project, asked Colvin if she would like to appear in a video to tell her story, but Colvin refused. She said, "They've already called it the Rosa Parks museum, so they've already made up their minds what the story is."


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Colvin's role has not gone completely unrecognized. Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. In the 2010s, Larkin arranged for a street to be named after Colvin. Later, Rev. Joseph Rembert said, "If nobody did anything for Claudette Colvin in the past why don't we do something for her right now?" He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin, and in 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. March 2 was named Claudette Colvin Day in Montgomery. Mayor Todd Strange presented the proclamation and, when speaking of Colvin, said, "She was an early foot soldier in our civil rights, and we did not want this opportunity to go by without declaring March 2 as Claudette Colvin Day to thank her for her leadership in the modern day civil rights movement." Rembert said, "I know people have heard her name before, but I just thought we should have a day to celebrate her." Colvin could not attend the proclamation due to health concerns.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In 2019, a statue of Rosa Parks was unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, and four granite markers were also unveiled near the statue on the same day to honor four plaintiffs in "Browder v. Gayle", including Colvin


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In 2021 Colvin applied to the family court in Montgomery County, Alabama to have her juvenile record expunged. Daryl Bailey, the District Attorney for the county, supported her motion, stating: "Her actions back in March of 1955 were conscientious, not criminal; inspired, not illegal; they should have led to praise and not prosecution". The judge ordered that the juvenile record be expunged and destroyed in December 2021, stating that Colvin's refusal had "been recognized as a courageous act on her behalf and on behalf of a community of affected people".


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove memorialized Colvin in her poem "Claudette Colvin Goes To Work", published in her 1999 book "On the Bus with Rosa Parks"; folk singer John McCutcheon turned this poem into a song, which was first publicly performed in Charlottesville, Virginia's Paramount Theater in 2006.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: Young adult book "", by Phillip Hoose, was published in 2009 and won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: A re-enactment of Colvin's resistance is portrayed in a 2014 episode of the comedy TV series "Drunk History" about Montgomery, Alabama. She was played by Mariah Iman Wilson.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In the second season (2013) of the HBO drama series "The Newsroom", the lead character, Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels), uses Colvin's refusal to comply with segregation as an example of how "one thing" can change everything. He remarks that if the ACLU had used her act of civil disobedience, rather than that of Rosa Parks' eight months later, to highlight the injustice of segregation, a young preacher named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may never have attracted national attention, and America probably would not have had his voice for the Civil Rights Movement.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: "The Little-Known Heroes: Claudette Colvin", a children's picture book by Kaushay and Spencer Ford, was published in 2021.


title: Claudette Colvin

text: In 2022, a biopic of Colvin titled "Spark" written by Niceole R. Levy and directed by Anthony Mackie was announced.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The Ed Sullivan Show is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the "CBS Sunday Night Movie".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In 2002, "The Ed Sullivan Show" was ranked No. 15 on "TV Guide"s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the series finished No. 31 in "TV Guide" Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. Eastern Time, and it is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades (during its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. ET). Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; classical musicians, opera singers, popular recording artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologues from plays, and circus acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as vaudeville and, although vaudeville had undergone a slow demise for a generation, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Originally co-created and produced by Marlo Lewis, the show was first titled Toast of the Town, but was widely referred to as "The Ed Sullivan Show" for years before September 25, 1955, when that became its official name. In the show's June 20, 1948 debut, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed along with singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their then-new show "South Pacific", which opened on Broadway in 1949.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: From 1948 through 1962, the program's primary sponsor was the Lincoln-Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company; Sullivan read many commercials for Mercury vehicles live on the air during this period.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: "The Ed Sullivan Show" was originally broadcast via live television from CBS-TV Studio 51, the Maxine Elliott Theatre, at Broadway and 39th Street, before moving to its permanent home at CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York City (1697 Broadway, at 53rd Street), which was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater on the occasion of the program's 20th anniversary in June 1968. The last original Sullivan show telecast (#1068) was on March 28, 1971, with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass and Sandler and Young. It was one of many older shows with followings in undesirable key demographics that were purged from the network lineups that summer leading into the Prime Time Access Rule taking effect that fall. Repeats were scheduled through June 6, 1971.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Along with the new talent Sullivan booked each week, he also had recurring characters appear many times a season, such as his "Little Italian Mouse" puppet sidekick Topo Gigio, who debuted December 9, 1962, and ventriloquist Señor Wences debuted December 31, 1950. While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show also aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. For many years, "Ed Sullivan" was a national event each Sunday evening and was the first exposure for foreign performers to the American public.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: On the occasion of the show's tenth anniversary telecast, Sullivan commented on how the show had changed during a June 1958 interview syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA):


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. As had occurred with the annual telecasts of "The Wizard of Oz" in the 1960s and '70s, the family ritual of gathering around the television set to watch Ed Sullivan became almost a U.S. cultural universal. He was regarded as a kingmaker, and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom, although this sometimes did not turn out to be the case. The show's status is illustrated by the song "Hymn for a Sunday Evening" from the 1960 musical "Bye Bye Birdie". In the song, a family of viewers expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In September 1965, CBS started televising the program in compatible color, as all three major networks began to switch to 100 percent color prime time schedules. CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by Peter Goldmark, and resisted using RCA's compatible process until 1954. At that time, it built its first New York City color TV studio, Studio 72, in a former RKO movie theater at 2248 Broadway (81st Street). One "Ed Sullivan Show" was broadcast on August 22, 1954, from the new studio, but it was mostly used for one-time-only specials such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's March 31, 1957 "Cinderella". (The facility was later acquired by TeleTape Productions and became the first studio where the PBS children's program "Sesame Street" was produced.) CBS Studio 72 was demolished in 1986 and replaced by an apartment house. CBS Studio 50 was finally modernized for color broadcasts in 1965. The 1965–66 season premiere starred the Beatles in an episode airing on September 12, which was the last episode to air in black and white. This occurred because the episode was taped at the Beatles' convenience on August 14, the eve of their Shea Stadium performance and a two-week tour of North America, slightly before the program was ready for color transmission.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on. He realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, "Ed Sullivan" attracted a higher median age for the average viewer (which most sponsors found undesirable) as the seasons went on. These two factors were the reason the show was cancelled by CBS on March 16, 1971, as part of a mass cancellation of advertiser-averse programming. While Sullivan's landmark program ended without a proper finale, Sullivan produced one-off specials for CBS until his death in 1974, including an "Ed Sullivan Show" 25th anniversary special in 1973.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In 1990, television documentary producer Andrew Solt formed SOFA Entertainment, Inc. and purchased the exclusive rights to the complete library of "The Ed Sullivan Show" from Ed Sullivan's daughter Elizabeth and her husband Bob Precht. The collection consists of 1,087 hours of kinescopes and videotapes broadcast by CBS on Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Since acquiring the rights to "The Ed Sullivan Show" library, SOFA Entertainment has catalogued, organized and cleared performance rights for the original shows. Starting in 1991, SOFA Entertainment has re-introduced "The Ed Sullivan Show" to the American public by producing numerous network specials, syndicating a half-hour series (that also aired on TV Land, PBS, VH1 and Decades) and home video compilations. Some of these compilations include "The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles", "All 6 Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Rolling Stones", "Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Shows", "Motown Gold from the Ed Sullivan Show", "Ed Sullivan's Rock 'n Roll Classics", and 115 half-hour "The Best of The Ed Sullivan Show" specials, among others. Performances of this show are also available as video and audio downloads and as an app on iTunes." In 2021, MeTV began airing on Sunday nights half hour packages of performances from the show.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In the early years of television, both CBS and NBC networks had their own symphony orchestras. NBC's was conducted by Arturo Toscanini and CBS's by Alfredo Antonini. "The Ed Sullivan Show" (originally presented as: "The Toast Of The Town") was basically a musical variety show, and thus members of the CBS orchestra were folded into the Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra, conducted by Ray Bloch. During the early days of television, the demands on studio musicians were many-tiered. They needed to be proficient in all genres of music, from classical, to jazz and to rock and roll. "The Ed Sullivan Show" would regularly feature singers from the Metropolitan Opera and the staff orchestra would accompany divas such as Eileen Farrell, Maria Callas or Joan Sutherland. The musicians needed to be prepared to switch gears for Ella Fitzgerald, Diahann Carroll or Sammy Davis, Jr. and then onto The Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder or Tom Jones or Itzhak Perlman. They also needed to perform with some of the greatest dancers and ballerinas of the time, from Gregory Hines, Juliet Prowse, Maria Tallchief or Margo Fonteyn to the Peter Gennaro dancers.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In the process, the musicians collaborated with several internationally recognized ballet troupes including: Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris and Russia's Igor Moiseyev Ballet. Few musicians are capable of crossing over from one genre to another. However, each member of the Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra was a specialist and more than capable of covering the complete spectrum of music.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The lead trumpet player is the "concert master" of a studio orchestra. Chris Griffin (formerly with the trumpet section of Harry James, Ziggy Elman and the Benny Goodman Band) was Ray Bloch's lead trumpet player for the many radio and television shows that he conducted, including the "Ed Sullivan Show". Chris remained the lead trumpet player with "The Ed Sullivan show" from the first show in 1948 to the last show in 1971. The Trumpet Section was composed of: Chris Griffin; Bernie Privin; Jimmy Nottingham and Thad Jones. Chris' son Paul Griffin was a regular substitute trumpeter. Trombones: Roland Dupont; Morton Bullman; Frank Rehak and Cliff Heather. Saxes: Toots Mondello; Hymie Schertzer; Ed Zuhlke; etc. Piano: Hank Jones. Drums: Specs Powell/Howard Smith. Percussion: Milton Schlesinger who similarly played from the first to last show. John Serry Sr. often augmented the orchestra as the lead accordionist during the 1950s. Unlike NBC's "The Tonight Show", which celebrated the notoriety of their musicians in Skitch Henderson's or Doc Severinsen's "Tonight Show Band", the CBS producers of "The Ed Sullivan Show" decided to hide their famed musicians behind a curtain. Occasionally, CBS would broadcast specials and call upon the orchestra to perform. When Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, music was hastily composed for the orchestra in a special tribute that also featured jazz pianist Bill Evans, who had recently composed an Elegy To His Father.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: "The Ed Sullivan Show" is especially known to the World War II and baby boomer generations for introducing acts and airing breakthrough performances by popular 1950s and 1960s musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Supremes, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dusty Springfield, The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Mamas and the Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, Herman's Hermits, The Doors, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, and The Band.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster appeared on the program 67 times, a record for any performer. Bill Haley & His Comets performed their hit "Rock Around the Clock" in early August 1955, later recognized as the first rock and roll song broadcast on a national television program.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The American public's first exposure to Itzhak Perlman was on the show in 1958, when he was 13. This performance was a breakthrough not only for classical music, but also for Perlman, who rode the waves of admiration to new heights of fame lasting a generation.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: On September 9, 1956, Presley made his first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (after earlier appearances on shows hosted by the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle, and Steve Allen), even though Sullivan had vowed never to allow Presley on the show. According to Sullivan biographer Michael David Harris, "Sullivan signed Presley when the host was having an intense Sunday-night rivalry with Steve Allen. Allen had the singer on July 1 and trounced Sullivan in the ratings. When asked to comment, [Sullivan] said that he wouldn't consider presenting Presley before a family audience. Less than two weeks later he changed his mind and signed a contract."


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: At the time, Presley was filming "Love Me Tender", so Sullivan's producer, Marlo Lewis, flew to Los Angeles to supervise the two segments telecast that night from CBS Television City in Hollywood. Sullivan, however, was not able to host his show in New York City because he was recovering from a near fatal automobile accident. Charles Laughton guest-hosted in Sullivan's place, and opened the show. Music journalist Greil Marcus wrote that Sullivan's choice to have Elvis appear after Laughton's introduction was an attempt to make Elvis less prominent in the show.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: For his first set, Elvis played "Don't Be Cruel" and "Love Me Tender". According to writer Elaine Dundy, Presley sang "Love Me Tender" "straight, subdued and tender ... —a very different Elvis from the one on "The Steve Allen Show" three months before". Elvis's second set consisted of "Ready Teddy" and a shortened version of "Hound Dog". Popular mythology states that Sullivan censored Presley by shooting him only from the waist up, but in fact, Presley's whole body was shown in the first and second shows.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Although Laughton was the main star and there were seven other acts on the show, Elvis was on camera for more than a quarter of the time allotted to all acts. The show had a 43.7 rating, and was viewed by a record 60,710,000 people which at the time represented an 82.6% share of the television audience, and the largest single audience in television history. The latter percentage share, remains, to this date, the largest in the history of US television.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Sullivan hosted a second appearance by Presley on October 28, 1956. For his first segment, Elvis performed "Don't Be Cruel", then "Love Me Tender". For the second segment, Elvis sang "Love Me", and for his third, he sang a nearly four-minute-long version of "Hound Dog".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: For the third and final appearance on January 6, 1957, Presley performed a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", and "Heartbreak Hotel", followed by a full version of "Don't Be Cruel". For a second set later in the show he sang "Too Much" and "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again". For his last set he sang "Peace in the Valley". For this third appearance, it was decided to shoot the singer only from the waist while he performed. Although much has been made of the fact that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, except for the short section of "Hound Dog", all of the songs on this show were ballads.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Although Sullivan praised Elvis at the end of the show, Elvis claimed in a 1969 interview that Sullivan had expressed a very different opinion backstage: "Sullivan's standing over there saying, 'Sumbitch. The second and third appearances drew 57 and 54.6 million viewers, respectively. Years later, Sullivan tried to book Presley again, but declined after Presley's representatives presented a demanding rider.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In late 1963, Sullivan and his entourage happened also to be passing through Heathrow and witnessed how the Beatles' fans greeted the group on their return from Stockholm, where they had performed a television show as warmup band to local stars and Lill Babs. Sullivan was intrigued, telling his entourage it was the same thing as Elvis all over again. He initially offered Beatles manager Brian Epstein top dollar for a single show but the Beatles manager had a better idea—he wanted exposure for his clients: the Beatles would instead appear three times on the show, for only a minimal fee, but receive top billing and two spots (opening and closing) on each show.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The Beatles appeared on three consecutive Sundays in February 1964 to great anticipation and fanfare as "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had swiftly risen to No. 1 in the charts. Their first appearance on February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop culture, and furthermore the beginning of the British Invasion in music. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, a record for US television at the time (broken three years later by the series finale of "The Fugitive"). The Beatles followed Ed's show opening intro, performing "All My Loving"; "Till There Was You", which featured the names of the group members superimposed on closeup shots, including the famous ""SORRY GIRLS, HE'S MARRIED"" caption on John Lennon; and "She Loves You". The act that followed the Beatles in the broadcast, magician Fred Kaps, was pre-recorded in order to allow time for an elaborate set change. The group returned later in the program to perform "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The following week's show was broadcast from Miami Beach where Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) was in training for his first title bout with Sonny Liston. The occasion was used by both camps for publicity. On the evening of the television show (February 16) a crush of people nearly prevented the band from making it onstage. A wedge of policemen were needed and the band began playing "She Loves You" only seconds after reaching their instruments. They continued with "This Boy" and "All My Loving", then returned later to close the show with "I Saw Her Standing There", "From Me to You", and "I Want to Hold Your Hand".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: They were shown on tape February 23 (this appearance had been taped earlier in the day on February 9 before their first live appearance). They followed Ed's intro with "Twist and Shout" and "Please Please Me" and closed the show once again with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The Beatles appeared live for the final time on August 14, 1965. The show was broadcast September 12, 1965, and earned Sullivan a 60-percent share of the nighttime audience for one of the appearances. This time they followed three acts before coming out to perform "I Feel Fine", "I'm Down", and "Act Naturally" and then closed the show with "Ticket to Ride", "Yesterday", and "Help!" Although this was their final live appearance on the show, the group provided filmed promotional clips of songs to air exclusively on Sullivan's program over the next few years, including videos of both "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" from 1966 and three clips from 1967, including "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "Hello, Goodbye." In late 1967, the group also sent a telegram to Sullivan in addition to their promotional clips, a note which the host read live on air. The group's last appearance on Sullivan's program was via prerecorded promotional clips of their songs "Two of Us" and "Let It Be", broadcast on the show on the first day of March in 1970. Although both videos were recorded in late January 1969, the delay was due to the band's dissatisfaction with the tedious "Let It Be" album sessions and the group's impending break-up. In all probability, the scheduling of the March 1970 broadcast was to promote the release of the band's upcoming film "Let It Be" in May of that year.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The Supremes were a special act for "The Ed Sullivan Show". In addition to 14 appearances, they were a personal favorite of Sullivan, whom he affectionately called "The Girls". Over the five years they performed on the program, the Supremes performed 15 of their hit singles, and numerous Broadway showtunes and other non-Motown songs. The group featuring the most popular lineup of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard appeared 7 times from December 1964 through May 1967.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The group reappeared on the series in October 1967 as the newly rebilled "Diana Ross & the Supremes", with Ballard replacement Cindy Birdsong and Ross more prominently featured. The Supremes' final appearance on the show, shortly before it ended, served as the platform to introduce America to Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell, in March 1970.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In an era when few opportunities existed for black performers on national television, Sullivan was a champion of black talent. He launched the careers of many performers by presenting them to a nationwide TV audience and ignored the criticism. In an NEA interview, Sullivan commented:


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The show included entertainers such as Frankie Lymon, The Supremes, Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, LaVern Baker, Harry Belafonte, Brook Benton, James Brown (and The Famous Flames), Cab Calloway, Godfrey Cambridge, Diahann Carroll, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Count Basie, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bo Diddley, Duke Ellington, Lola Falana, The 5th Dimension, Ella Fitzgerald, The Four Tops, Dick Gregory, W. C. Handy, Lena Horne, The Jackson 5, Mahalia Jackson, Louis Jordan, Bill Kenny, B. B. King, George Kirby, Eartha Kitt, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Moms Mabley, Johnny Mathis, The Miracles, Melba Moore, The Platters, Leontyne Price, Richard Pryor, Lou Rawls, Della Reese, Nipsey Russell, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Ike & Tina Turner, Leslie Uggams, Sarah Vaughan, William Warfield, Dionne Warwick, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Flip Wilson, Jackie Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Stevie Wonder.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Before his death in a plane crash in December 1967, soul singer Otis Redding had been booked to appear on the show the following year. One telecast included African-American bass-baritone Andrew Frierson singing "Ol' Man River" from Kern and Hammerstein's "Show Boat", a song that, at that time, was usually sung on television by white singers, although it was written for a black character in the musical.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: However, Sullivan featured "rockers", and gave prominence to black musicians "not without censorship". For instance, he scheduled Fats Domino "at the show's end in case he had to cancel a guest". He presented Domino alone at his piano singing as if he were a young Nat 'King' Cole or Fats Waller, as he performed "Blueberry Hill". On March 4, 1962, Sullivan presented Domino and his band, who did "Jambalaya", Hank Williams' "You Win Again", and "Let the Four Winds Blow". All seven of Domino's band members were visible to millions of viewers. On December 1, 1957, Sam Cooke performed a complete version of "For Sentimental Reasons". Cooke had been cut off four weeks earlier during a live performance of "You Send Me" as the show's allotted time expired, causing an outrage among television audiences. Sullivan rebooked Cooke for the December 1 show to overwhelming success.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Between 1966 and 1971, Jim Henson performed some of his Muppet characters on the show. The characters made a total of 25 appearances.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Henson's Muppets were introduced on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on September 18, 1966. Sullivan introduced the characters as "Jim, uh ... Newsom's puppets." The act featured a small ball of fur growing into the Rock and Roll Monster (performed by Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, and Frank Oz) with three heads and six arms lip-syncing to the unreleased song "Rock It to Me" by The Bruthers. After the act was done, the Rock and Roll Monster shrunk back into the ball of fur which is then eaten by Sour Bird (who was previously used in a commercial for Royal Crown Cola).


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The show is also noteworthy for showcasing performances from numerous classic Broadway musicals of the era, often featuring members of the original Broadway casts. These include:


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Most of these artists performed in the same makeup and costumes that they wore in the shows, often providing the only visual recordings of these performances by the original cast members, since there were no network telecasts of the Tony Awards until 1967. Many performances have been compiled and released on DVD as "The Best of Broadway Musicals—Original Cast Performances from The Ed Sullivan Show".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In a 1958 NEA interview, Sullivan noted his pride about the show's role in improving the public's understanding of mental illness. Sullivan considered his May 17, 1953, telecast to be the single most important episode in the show's first decade. During that show, a salute to Broadway director Joshua Logan, the two men were watching in the wings, and Sullivan asked Logan how he thought the show was doing. According to Sullivan, Logan told him that the show was becoming "another one of those and-then-I-wrote shows"; Sullivan asked him what he should do about it, and Logan volunteered to talk about his experiences in a mental institution.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Sullivan took him up on the offer, and in retrospect believed that several advances in the treatment of mental illness could be attributed to the resulting publicity, including the repeal of a Pennsylvania law about the treatment of the mentally ill and the granting of funds for the construction of new psychiatric hospitals.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Occasionally Sullivan would feature a Hollywood actor introducing a clip from a film in which he or she currently starred. Burt Lancaster made an appearance in 1962, speaking about Robert Stroud, the character he portrayed in "Birdman of Alcatraz", and introducing a clip from the film. And although Sir Laurence Olivier personally did not appear on the show, in 1966 Sullivan showed a clip from the Olivier "Othello", the film version of which was then currently showing in New York City.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: On November 20, 1955, African American rock 'n' roll singer and guitarist Bo Diddley appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show", only to infuriate Sullivan ("I did two songs and he got mad"). Diddley had been asked to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons," which he agreed. But while the show was on air, he changed his mind and sang "Diddley Daddy".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In his biography, "Living Legend", Diddley recalled, "Ed Sullivan says to me in plain words: 'You are the first black boy—quote—that ever double crossed me!' I was ready to "fight", because I was a little young dude off the streets of Chicago, an' him callin' me 'black' in them days was as bad as sayin' 'nigger'. My manager says to me 'That's Mr. Sullivan!' I said: 'I don't give a shit about Mr. Sullivan, [h]e don't talk to me like that!' An' so he told me, he says, 'I'll see that you never work no more in show business. You'll never get another TV show in your life!'" Diddley’s perennial revisions make it difficult to determine exactly what happened but the guitarist never did appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show" again. As for Sullivan's racist comment, it is hard to know what he actually said. However, he always seemed supportive of blacks, not only as entertainers he produced a black vaudeville show early in his career, but also for their church-bred conservative beliefs that conformed to the values he wanted the show to reflect. In "Living Legend," Diddley boasts of being the first black person to be on "The Ed Sullivan Show", but Sullivan had in fact had black guests as early as 1948. Black celebrities who appeared prior to Diddley include Fletcher Henderson, Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, the Ink Spots, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Robinson, Lena Horne, Joe Louis, Eartha Kitt, Sugar Ray Robinson, and the Harlem Globetrotters. Nat King Cole was a frequent guest who had appeared a few weeks prior to Diddley.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: On May 27, 1956, "The Ed Sullivan Show" presented an animated short film entitled "A Short Vision". The short subject showcased an unidentified object that is referred to as "it" by the narrator. The object flies over Earth. When it passes, the people are asleep except the leaders and the wise men who look up at the object. As the leaders and wise men look up and predators and prey hide in fear, it produces a mushroom cloud in the sky, killing everyone and everything, vaporizing the people, the animals and Earth. After this happens, there remains only a moth and a flame. The moth flies to the flame, gets vaporized and the flame dies. Thus, marking the end of humanity.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The short film is narrated in the style of the Bible. The animation is derived from mostly still images that produce a terrifying and horrifying moving image of the end of humanity. Just before CBS showed the film, Sullivan assured children that what they would see was an animated fantasy. He told the audience that "It is grim, but I think we can all stand it to realize that in war there is no winner". The film gained notoriety from the show; but it also gained controversy because of it, due to the graphic way it depicted the horrors of a nuclear confrontation. Its graphic images also caused controversy. One of the visuals in the film depicted an animated character's eyes imploding and the remains running down its cheeks and then it gets destroyed by the object.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: According to some sources, including contemporary newspaper reports, Ed Sullivan's telecast of "A Short Vision" caused a reaction as significant as Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast 20 years prior. Because of the popularity of the short film, "The Ed Sullivan Show" broadcast it again on June 10 of the same year. Sullivan—who in an interview after the first showing erroneously claimed that he had warned children to not watch it—asked adults to remove children from the room before watching the second, heavily publicized showing.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: On January 26, 1958, for their second appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", Buddy Holly and The Crickets were scheduled to perform two songs. Sullivan wanted the band to substitute a different song for their record hit "Oh, Boy!", which he felt was too raucous. Holly had already told his hometown friends in Texas that he would be singing "Oh, Boy!" for them, and told Sullivan as much. During the afternoon the Crickets were summoned to rehearsal at short notice, but only Holly was in their dressing room. When asked where the others were, Holly replied, "I don't know. No telling." Sullivan then turned to Holly and said "I guess The Crickets are not too excited to be on "The Ed Sullivan Show"", to which Holly caustically replied, "I hope they're damn more excited than I am."


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Sullivan, already bothered by the choice of songs, was now even angrier. He cut the Crickets' act from two songs to one, and when introducing them mispronounced Holly's name, so it came out vaguely as "Hollered" or "Holland". In addition, Sullivan saw to it that the microphone for Holly's electric guitar was turned off. Holly tried to compensate by singing as loudly as he could, and repeatedly trying to turn up the volume on his guitar. For the instrumental break he cut loose with a dramatic solo, making clear to the audience that the technical fault was not his. The band was received so well that Sullivan was forced to invite them back for a third appearance. Holly's response was that Sullivan did not have enough money. Film of the performance survives; photographs taken that day show Sullivan looking angry and Holly smirking and perhaps ignoring Sullivan.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: On October 18, 1964, Jackie Mason allegedly gave Sullivan the finger on air. A tape of the incident shows Mason doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him. Sullivan was reportedly letting Mason know (by pointing two fingers) that he had only two minutes left, as CBS was about to cut away to show a speech by President Lyndon Johnson. Mason began working his own fingers into his act and pointed toward Sullivan with his middle finger slightly separated. After Mason left the stage, the camera then cut to a visibly angry Sullivan.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Sullivan argued with Mason backstage, then terminated his contract. Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the middle finger, and Mason later claimed that he had never even heard of the gesture at that time. In retaliation, to protect the perceived threat to his career, Mason filed a libel suit at the New York Supreme Court, which he won.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Sullivan publicly apologized to Mason when he appeared on the show two years later, in 1966. At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying, "It's a great thrill and a fantastic opportunity to see me in person again," and impersonated Sullivan during his act. Mason later appeared on the show five times: April 23, 1967; Feb. 25, 1968; Nov. 24, 1968; Jul. 22, 1969; and Aug. 31, 1969.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Bob Dylan was slated to make his first nationwide television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on May 12, 1963, and intended to perform "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", a song he wrote lampooning the John Birch Society and the red-hunting paranoia associated with it. Although Sullivan reportedly liked the song, during the afternoon rehearsal that day CBS officials told Dylan they had deemed the song unacceptable for broadcast and wanted him to substitute another. "No; this is what I want to do," Dylan responded. "If I can't play my song, I'd rather not appear on the show." He then left the studio rather than altering the act, with Sullivan respecting his decision.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: The Doors were notorious for their appearance on the show. CBS network censors demanded that before the band performed the song on-camera on September 17, 1967 (Since the beginning of the fall 1966 television season, the show had been recorded on color videotape a few hours before its 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time time slot. Performers and their managers were told that the show must proceed as if it were being done live, and videotape editing on short notice was impossible), lead singer Jim Morrison change the lyrics to their hit single "Light My Fire" by altering the line, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher", as they were uncomfortable with the possible reference to drugs.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: During the rehearsal, Morrison sang the alternate line (which was either "Girl, we couldn't get much better" or "Girl, there's nothing I require", depending on the source). However, he reverted to the original line during the show, and CBS executives were powerless to change it because the nature of videotape editing in 1967 required many hours of labor. The Doors were never invited back to the show. According to Ray Manzarek, the band was told, "Mr. Sullivan liked you boys. He wanted you on six more times. ... You'll never do the Sullivan show again." Morrison replied with glee, "Hey man, we just "did" the Sullivan show."—at the time, an appearance was a hallmark of success.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Manzarek has given differing accounts of what happened. He has said that the band only pretended to agree to change the line but also that Morrison was nervous and simply forgot to change the line. The performance and incident were reenacted in Oliver Stone's 1991 biographical film, "The Doors", albeit in a more dramatic fashion, with Morrison portrayed as emphasizing the word "higher".


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: Sullivan apparently felt the damage had been done and relented on bands using the word "higher". Sly & the Family Stone later appeared on the show and performed their 1969 hit "I Want to Take You Higher."


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: In contrast, the Rolling Stones were instructed to change the title of their "Let's Spend the Night Together" single for the band's January 15, 1967, appearance. The band complied, with Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman ostentatiously rolling their eyes heavenward whenever they reached the song's one-night-only, clean refrain, "Let's spend 'some time' together". Mick Jagger did not wear a jacket on their first appearance on the show (October 25, 1964) and this annoyed Sullivan. They were asked to appear again, but they were asked to wear jackets for their 1965 appearance. The Stones ultimately played on the "Ed Sullivan Show" six times.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: 9/09/1956: Elvis Presley's first appearance yielding an 82.6 percentage share, the highest in television history for any program up to the present. Viewers: 60.710,000 Source: Broadcasting and Telecasting, October 1956 as per ARB the precursor of Nielsen.


title: The Ed Sullivan Show

text: 2/09/1964: The Beatles's first appearance yielding a 45.3 rating. Viewers: 73.7 million Source: Nielsen.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: The siege of Paris of 845 was the culmination of a Viking invasion of West Francia. The Viking forces were led by a Norse chieftain named "Reginherus", or Ragnar, who tentatively has been identified with the legendary saga character Ragnar Lodbrok. Reginherus's fleet of 120 Viking ships, carrying thousands of men and women, entered the Seine in March and sailed up the river.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: The Frankish king Charles the Bald assembled a smaller army in response but after the Vikings defeated one division, comprising half of the army, the remaining forces retreated. The Vikings reached Paris at the end of the month, during Easter. They plundered and occupied the city, withdrawing after Charles the Bald paid a ransom of 7,000 French livres [] in gold and silver.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: The Frankish Empire was first attacked by Viking raiders in 799 (ten years after the earliest-known Viking attack at Portland, Dorset, in England), which led Charlemagne to create a defence system along the northern coast in 810. The defence system repulsed a Viking attack at the mouth of the Seine in 820 (after Charlemagne's death) but failed to hold against renewed attacks of Danish Vikings in Frisia and Dorestad in 834. The attacks in 820 and 834 were unrelated and relatively minor; systematic raiding did not begin until the mid-830s, with the activity alternating between the two sides of the English Channel. Viking raids were often part of struggles among Scandinavian nobility for power and status. Like other nations adjacent to the Franks, the Danes were well informed about the political situation in France; in the 830s and early 840s they took advantage of the Frankish civil wars. Large raids took place in Antwerp and Noirmoutier in 836, in Rouen (on the Seine) in 841 and in Quentovic and Nantes in 842.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: In March 845, a fleet of 120 Viking ships containing more than 5,000 men entered the Seine under the command of a chieftain named "Reginherus", or Ragnar. This Ragnar has been identified with the legendary saga figure Ragnar Lodbrok, but the accuracy of this is disputed. Around 841, Reginherus was awarded land in Turholt, Flanders, by Charles the Bald, but he eventually lost the land as well as the favour of the King. Reginherus's Vikings raided Rouen on their way up the Seine in 845, and in response to the invasion, Charles—who was determined not to let the royal Abbey of Saint-Denis (near Paris) be destroyed—assembled an army which he divided into two parts, one for each side of the river. The Vikings attacked and defeated one of the divisions of the smaller Frankish army, took 111 of their men as prisoners and hanged them on an island on the Seine. This was done to honour the Norse god Odin, as well as to incite terror in the remaining Frankish forces.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: The Vikings arrived in Paris on Easter Sunday, 29 March, entered the city and plundered it. During the siege, a plague broke out in their camp. The Norse had been exposed to the Christian religion, and after first praying to the Norse gods, they undertook a fast, acting on the advice of one of their Christian prisoners, and the plague subsided. The Franks could not assemble an effective defence, and the Vikings withdrew only after being paid a ransom of 7,000 "livres" (French pounds) of silver and gold by Charles the Bald, amounting to approximately .


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: Considering the Vikings' earlier loss of land to Charles, the substantial payment may also have been regarded as some form of compensation to the Viking leader and the invasion itself as an act of revenge. This was the first of a total of thirteen payments of so-called "danegeld" to Viking raiders by the Franks (the term is not expressly known to have been used at this point). While agreeing to withdraw from Paris, the Viking army pillaged several sites along the coast on the return voyage, including the Abbey of Saint Bertin.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: Although Charles had been criticised severely for granting the large ransom payment to the Vikings, he had other more critical issues to deal with at the same time, including disputes with his brothers, regional revolts and disgruntled nobles, as well as pressure from abroad. Since he would have trouble trusting his own counts to assemble and lead troops to defeat the large Viking force militarily, paying them off instead would buy Charles time, and possibly peace from further Viking raids—at least in the near future.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: The same year, a Viking fleet sacked Hamburg, which had been elevated to an archbishopric by Pope Gregory IV in 831 on the initiative of Louis the Pious to oversee the Saxon territory and to support the introduction of Christianity to Scandinavia. In response, the Frankish king Louis the German sent a diplomatic mission, headed by Count Cobbo (one of two court counts), to the court of Horik, demanding that the Danish king submit to Frankish overlordship and pay reparations for the invasion. Horik eventually agreed to the terms and requested a peace treaty with Louis, while also promising to return the treasure and captives from the raid. Horik most likely wanted to secure the border with Saxony as he faced a conflict with King Olof of Sweden and domestic struggles. By the treaty, Louis demanded Horik's obedience, which was further secured by Horik regularly sending embassies and gifts to Louis and his suspension of support to Viking raiders.


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: Although many Vikings had died in the plague during the siege of Paris, Ragnar lived to return home to King Horik. According to a story originating from a member of Cobbo's embassy, Ragnar, having attacked the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, then in the outskirts of medieval Paris and which Cobbo later visited, attributed the plague to the power of Saint Germain of Paris. While Ragnar showed the gold and silver he had acquired to Horik and boasted about how easy he thought the conquest of Paris had been, he reportedly collapsed crying while relating that the only resistance he had met was from the long deceased saint. As several of Ragnar's men died not long after, the king was so frightened that he ordered the execution of the survivors and the release of his Christian captives. This event, in part, led Horik to receive Archbishop Ansgar, "Apostle of the North", on friendly terms in his own kingdom. Vikings returned again and again in the 860s and secured loot or ransom but, in a turning point for the history of France, the city's walls held against the Vikings' greatest attacking force in the siege of Paris (885–86).


title: Siege of Paris (845)

text: The synod of Paris was forced to convene at Meaux because of the siege, but it relocated to Paris after the siege was lifted.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The Elephanta Caves are a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. They are on Elephanta Island, or "Gharapuri" (literally "the city of caves"), in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Mahārāshtra. The island, about west of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, consists of five Hindu caves, a few Buddhist stupa mounds that date back to the 2nd century BCE, and two Buddhist caves with water tanks.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The Elephanta Caves contain rock cut stone sculptures, mostly in high relief, that show syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist ideas and iconography. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Except for a few exceptions, much of the artwork is defaced and damaged. The main temple's orientation as well as the relative location of other temples are placed in a mandala pattern. The carvings narrate Hindu mythologies, with the large monolithic Trimurti Sadashiva (three-faced Shiva), Nataraja (Lord of dance) and Yogishvara (Lord of Yoga) being the most celebrated.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: These date to between the 5th and 9th centuries, and scholars attribute them to various Hindu dynasties. They are most commonly placed between the 5th and 7th centuries. Many scholars consider them to have been completed by about 550 CE.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: They were named "Elefante" – which morphed to Elephanta – by the colonial Portuguese who found elephant statues on the caves. They established a base on the island. The main cave (Cave 1, or the Great Cave) was a Hindu place of worship until the Portuguese arrived, whereupon the island ceased to be an active place of worship. The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The monuments were restored in the 1970s. In 1987, the restored Elephanta Caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).


title: Elephanta Caves

text: Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, is about east of the Gateway of India in the Mumbai Harbour and less than west of Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The island covers about at high tide and about at low tide. Gharapuri is a small village on the south side of the island. The Elephanta Caves is connected by ferry services from the Gateway of India, Mumbai between 9AM and 2PM daily, except Monday when the Caves are closed. Mumbai has a major domestic and international airport, as well as is connected to the Indian Railways.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The island is in length with two hills that rise to a height of about . A narrow, deep ravine separates the two hills and runs from north to south. On the west, the hill rises gently from the sea and stretches east across the ravine and rises gradually to the extreme east to a height of . Forest growth with clusters of mango, tamarind, and karanj trees cover the hills with scattered palm trees. The foreshore is made up of sand and mud with mangrove bushes on the fringe. Landing quays sit near three small hamlets known as Set Bunder in the north-west, Mora Bunder in the northeast, and Gharapuri or Raj Bunder in the south.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: There are five rock-cut caves in the western hill and a brick stupa on the eastern hill. The eastern hill has two Buddhist mounds and is called the Stupa hill. Close to the five western hill caves, are Cave 6 and 7 on the eastern hill. The most visited and significant cave is on the western hill and is called Cave 1 or the Great Cave, located about a kilometer walk up a steep graded uphill. The Elephanta island is a protected monument area as per the requirements of UNESCO. A notification was issued by the Government of India in 1985 declaring a buffer zone that outlines "a prohibited area" that stretches from the shoreline.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The island has two groups of rock-cut caves, hewn from solid basalt rock. The larger group of caves, which consists of five caves on the western hill of the island, is well known for its Hindu sculptures. The primary cave, numbered as Cave 1, is about up a hillside, facing the Mumbai harbour. Caves 2 through 5 are next to Cave 1 further southeast, arranged in a row. Cave 6 and 7 are about northeast of Cave 1 and 2, but geologically on the edge of the eastern hill.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The two hills are connected by a walkway. The eastern hill is also called the Stupa hill, while the western hill is called the Canon hill, reflecting their historic colonial-era names, the ancient Stupa and the Portuguese era firing Canons they host respectively.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: All the caves are rock-cut temples that together have an area of . At their most elaborate, they have a main chamber, two lateral chambers, courtyards, and subsidiary shrines, but not all are so fully developed. Cave 1 is the largest and is deep from the front entrance to the back. The temple complex is primarily the abode of Shiva, depicted in widely celebrated carvings which narrate legends and theologies of Shaivism. However, the artwork reverentially displays themes from Shaktism and Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism as well.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The main cave, also called Cave 1, Grand Cave or the Great Cave, is square in plan with a hall (mandapa). The basic plan of the cave can be traced back to the plan of the ancient Buddhist viharas, consisting of a square court surrounded by cells, built from about 500 to 600 years before in India. The Cave has several entrances, the main entrance is unassumingly small and hides the grand hall inside. The main entrance faces north, while two side entrances face east and west. The cave's main entrance is aligned with the north–south axis, unusual for a Shiva shrine (normally east–west). However, inside is an integrated square plan Linga shrine ("garbha-griya") that is aligned east–west, opening to the sunrise.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: To reach the main cave, a visitor or pilgrim has to walk up 120 steep steps from the beach or take the tourist toy train. At the main entrance are four pillars, with three open porticoes and an aisle at the back. Pillars, six in each row, divide the hall into a series of smaller chambers. The roof of the hall has concealed beams supported by stone columns joined together by capitals.


title: Elephanta Caves

text: The temple is enclosed in the cave, it has interior walls but no exterior wall. The pillars create space and symmetric rhythm as they support the weight of the hill above. The main mandapa recesses into a pillared vestibule ("ardha-mandapa") on the south side, while a pillared portico ("mukha-mandapa") connects it to the main entrance. Embedded within the Great Cave are dedicated shrines, the largest of which is the square plan Linga shrine (see 16 in plan). It is a square "garbha-griya" (womb house) with four entrances, located in the right section of the main hall. Steps lead from the four doorways into the sanctum, which has a linga in the "mulavigraha" style. Each doorway is guarded by a "dvarapala" on each side, for a total of eight dvarapalas, their heights spanning floor to the ceiling. These were badly damaged when the Portuguese ceded control of this region to the British. The linga shrine is surrounded by a mandapa and circumambulation path ("pradakshina-patha") as in other Hindu temples. The pillars are similarly aligned east–west to this shrine and have an east entrance. Overlaid, as if fused, on the architecture of this temple is another open temple aligned to the north–south direction with three faced Sadashiva as its focal centre. One features the abstract, unmanifest, aniconic symbol of Shiva, the other anthropomorphic, manifest, iconic symbol of Shiva. The mandapa pillars of the two align up.