title: Raqqa

text: Raqqa was conquered by the Hamdanids in 942. As a result, it lost its status as an Abbasid garrison city. This had a severe economic impact on Raqqa and the surrounding region: without the soldiers and their disposable income, the demand for food and goods decreased, and local artisans were deprived of potential customers. In the second half of the 10th century, Raqqa appears to have been eclipsed by Harran as the main city in the region based on mint activity and literary references.


title: Raqqa

text: With one notable exception, the Numayrid rulers were essentially Bedouin nomads by lifestyle. They had no interest in cities except as sources of income to be exploited. They resided at nomadic camps (called a "ḥillah", like the city in Iraq) in the pasture outside the cities and delegated administration of the cities to "ghulam" (military slave) governors. During this period of Bedouin rule, the area of settled agriculture shrank while the area allocated to Bedouin pastures grew, and trade routes linking various cities, towns, and villages were threatened by Bedouin raids.


title: Raqqa

text: After the death of the Numayrid amir Shabib ibn Waththab in 1039-40, Raqqa and its surrounding fertile pastures became the center of a conflict between the Numayrids and the Mirdasids of Aleppo. Shabib's sister as-Sayyidah al-'Alawiyyah was given Raqqa as an inheritance; through her marriage to the Mirdasid amir Thimal ibn Salih, the city and its territory came under Mirdasid control She ousted the "ghulam" governor of Raqqa appointed by her brothers al-Muta'in and al-Qawam, who now shared power as Numayrid amirs. However, Shabib's young son Mani' viewed himself as the legitimate heir to his father's lands, including Raqqa. By 1056, he had become an adult and gained power as sole Numayrid amir. He sent a demand to Thimal requesting that Raqqa be handed over to him; Thimal refused, and in April 1056 war broke out between the two sides.


title: Raqqa

text: Ultimately, though, it was diplomacy that ended up bringing Raqqa back under Mani's control. While this was all happening, conflict was brewing between the Fatimid Caliphate (which Thimal was aligned with) and the Seljuk Empire (which Mani' was aligned with). The Turkic general Arslan al-Basasiri, who supported the Fatimids, had been driven out of Baghdad in December 1055 by the Seljuks and was now continuing anti-Seljuk operations from his new base at al-Rahba nearby. In October 1057, al-Basasiri went north up the Euphrates towards Balis and on the way captured Raqqa from Thimal's forces. At the same time, the Fatimid envoy al-Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi met with Mani' to secure his support for the Fatimids. In return, al-Basasiri handed over control of Raqqa to Mani'.


title: Raqqa

text: Now under Fatimid protection, the Numayrids reached the height of their power. Substantial amounts of Fatimid money were probably transferred into Mani's coffers at this point, which allowed him to undertake major construction projects in his cities and thus present himself as the only urban ruler from the Numayrid dynasty (although the Numayrids in general remained nomadic pastoralists). The biggest projects were in his capital of Harran, but he probably also started some in Raqqa as well. He certainly had a mint active in Raqqa at this point — archaeologists found coins struck in his name in Raqqa, dated to 1058, buried under a collapsed wall in the city's congregational mosque. Remains of a workshop under the same wall may also indicate that restoration work was started on the mosque around the same time. However, it appears that this work was stopped soon after it started. A possible reason is Mani's sudden death in 1062, which left the Numayrids without an effective ruler and dealt a huge blow to their overall political power.


title: Raqqa

text: Raqqa experienced a second blossoming, based on agriculture and industrial production, during the Zangid and Ayyubid dynasties during the 12th and the first half of the 13th century. The blue-glazed Raqqa ware dates from this time. The still-visible "Bāb Baghdād" (Baghdad Gate) and the Qasr al-Banāt (Castle of the Ladies) are notable buildings of the period. The famous ruler 'Imād ad-Dīn Zangī, who was killed in 1146, was initially buried in Raqqa, which was destroyed during the 1260s Mongol invasions of the Levant. There is a report on the killing of the last inhabitants of the ruins of the city in 1288.


title: Raqqa

text: In the 16th century, Raqqa again entered the historical record as an Ottoman customs post on the Euphrates. The eyalet (province) of Raqqa was created in 1586. However, the capital of the "eyalet" and seat of the Wāli was not Raqqa but Al-Ruha', which is about north of Raqqa. In the 17th century the famous Ottoman traveler and author Evliya Çelebi only noticed Arab and Turkoman nomad tents in the vicinity of the ruins. The citadel was partially restored in 1683 and again housed a Janissary detachment; over the next decades the province of al-Raqqah became the centre of the Ottoman Empire's tribal settlement ("iskân") policy. Between 1800 and 1803, the province was governed by the famous Milli Timur Paşa of the Kurdish Milli tribe.


title: Raqqa

text: From the 1820s, Raqqa was a place of wintering for the semi-nomadic Arab 'Afadla tribal confederation and was little more than its extensive archeological remains. It was the establishment in 1864 by the Ottomans of the Karakul Janissary garrison, in the south-east corner of the Abbasid enclosure, that led to the revival of the modern city of Raqqa.


title: Raqqa

text: The first families that settled in Raqqa were nicknamed <nowiki>"The Ghul"</nowiki> by the surrounding Arab semi-nomadic tribes from whom they bought the right to settle within the Abbasid enclosure, near the Janissary garrison. They used the ancient bricks of the enclosure to build the first buildings of modern Raqqa. They came under the protection of the surrounding Arab semi-nomadic tribes because they feared attacks from other neighboring tribes on their herds. As a result, these families formed two alliances. One joined Kurds of the Mîlan tribe, Arabs of the Dulaim tribe, and possibly Turks as well. Most of the Kurdish families came from an area called <nowiki>"</nowiki>Nahid Al-Jilab<nowiki>"</nowiki>, which is northeast of Şanliurfa. Prior to the Syrian Civil War, there were many families in Raqqa that still belonged to the Mîlan tribe such as Khalaf Al-Qasim, Al-Jado, Al-Hani and Al-Shawakh. They claimed the area west of the Ottoman garrison.


title: Raqqa

text: The Mîlan tribe had been in Raqqa since 1711. The Ottomans issued an order to deport them from the Nahid Al-Jilab region to the Raqqa area. However most of the tribe was returned to their original home as a result of diseases among their cattle and frequent deaths due to the Raqqa climate. In the mid-18th century, the Ottomans recognised the Kurdish tribal chiefs and appointed Mahmud Kalash Abdi as head of the iskân policy in the region. The tribal chiefs had the power to impose taxes and control over other tribes in the region.


title: Raqqa

text: Some of the Kurdish families were displaced to the northern countryside of Raqqa by the Arab 'Annazah tribe, after they began working with the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.


title: Raqqa

text: The other alliance, Asharin, came from the town of Al-Asharah downstream. It included several Arab tribes of the Al-Bu Badran and Mawali tribes. They claimed the area east of the Ottoman garrison.


title: Raqqa

text: The Raqqa Museum is housed in a building that was built in 1861 and served as an Ottoman governmental building.


title: Raqqa

text: In the early 20th century, two waves of Cherkess refugees from the Caucasian War were granted lands west of the Abbasid enclosure by the Ottomans.


title: Raqqa

text: In 1915, Armenians fleeing the Armenian genocide were given safe haven in Raqqa by the Arab Ujayli family. Many moved to Aleppo in the 1920s. Armenians have since then formed the majority of Raqqa's Christian community.


title: Raqqa

text: In the 1950s, the worldwide cotton boom stimulated unprecedented growth in the city and the recultivation of this part of the middle Euphrates area. Cotton is still the main agricultural product of the region.


title: Raqqa

text: The growth of the city led to the destruction or removal of much of the archaeological remains of the city's past. The palace area is now almost covered with settlements, as is the former area of the ancient al-Raqqa (today Mishlab) and the former Abbasid industrial district (today al-Mukhtalţa). Only parts were archaeologically explored. The 12th-century citadel was removed in the 1950s (today Dawwār as-Sā'a, the clock-tower circle). In the 1980s, rescue excavations in the palace area began, as well as the conservation of the Abbasid city walls with the Bāb Baghdād and the two main monuments intra muros, the Abbasid mosque and the Qasr al-Banāt.


title: Raqqa

text: In March 2013, during the Syrian Civil War, Islamist jihadist militants from Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, the Free Syrian Army, and other groups overran the government loyalists in the city during the Battle of Raqqa (2013) and declared it under their control, after they had taken the central square and pulled down the statue of the former president of Syria, Hafez al-Assad. Raqqa was the first provincial capital to fall to the Syrian rebels.


title: Raqqa

text: The Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front set up a sharia court at the sports centre and in early June 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said that it was open to receive complaints at its Raqqa headquarters.


title: Raqqa

text: Migration from Aleppo, Homs, Idlib and other inhabited places to the city occurred as a result of the ongoing civil war in the country, and Raqqa was known as the "hotel of the revolution" by some because of the number of people who moved there.


title: Raqqa

text: ISIL took complete control of Raqqa by 13 January 2014. ISIL proceeded to execute Alawites and suspected supporters of Bashar al-Assad in the city and destroyed the city's Shia mosques and Christian churches such as the Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs, which was then converted into an ISIL police headquarters and an Islamic centre, tasked to recruit new fighters. The Christian population of Raqqa, which had been estimated to be as much as 10% of the total population before the civil war began, largely fled the city.


title: Raqqa

text: On 15 November 2015, France, in response to attacks in Paris two days earlier, dropped about 20 bombs on multiple ISIL targets in Raqqa.


title: Raqqa

text: On 26 October 2016, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that an offensive to take Raqqa from IS would begin within weeks.


title: Raqqa

text: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the US, launched the Second Battle of Raqqa on 6 June 2017 and declared victory in the city on 17 October 2017. Bombardment by the US-led coalition led to the destruction of most of the city, including civilian infrastructure. Some 270,000 people were said to have fled Raqqa.


title: Raqqa

text: At the end of October 2017, the government of Syria issued a statement that said: "Syria considers the claims of the United States and its so-called alliance about the liberation of Raqqa city from ISIS to be lies aiming to divert international public opinion from the crimes committed by this alliance in Raqqa province... more than 90% of Raqqa city has been leveled due to the deliberate and barbaric bombardment of the city and the towns near it by the alliance, which also destroyed all services and infrastructures and forced tens of thousands of locals to leave the city and become refugees. Syria still considers Raqqa to be an occupied city, and it can only be considered liberated when the Syrian Arab Army enters it".


title: Raqqa

text: By June 2019, 300,000 residents had returned to the city, including 90,000 IDPs, and many shops in the city had reopened. Through the efforts of the Global Coalition and the Raqqa Civil Council, several public hospitals and schools have been reopened, public buildings like the stadium, the Raqqa Museum, mosques and parks have been restored, anti-extremism educational centers for youth have been established and the rebuilding and restoration of roads, roundabouts and bridges, installation of solar-powered street lighting, water restoration, demining, re-institution of public transportation and rubble removal has taken place.


title: Raqqa

text: However, the Global Coalition's funding of the stabilization of the region has been limited, and the Coalition has stated that any large scale aid will be halted until a peace agreement for the future of Syria through the Geneva process has been reached. Rebuilding of residential houses and commercial buildings has been placed solely in the hands of civilians, there is a continued presence of rubble, unreliable electricity and water access in some areas, schools still lacking basic services and the presence of ISIL sleeper cells and IEDs. Some sporadic protests against the SDF have taken place in the city in the summer of 2018.


title: Raqqa

text: On 7 February 2019, the SDF media center announced the capture of 63 ISIL operatives in the city. According to the SDF, the operatives were a part of a sleeper cell and were all arrested within a 24-hour time span, ending the day-long curfew that was imposed on the city the day before.


title: Raqqa

text: In mid-February 2019, a mass grave holding an estimated 3,500 bodies was discovered below a plot of farmland in the Al-Fukheikha agricultural suburb. It was the largest mass grave discovered post-ISIL rule thus far. The bodies were reported to be the victims of executions when ISIL ruled the city.


title: Raqqa

text: In 2019 a project called the "Shelter Project" was launched by international organisations in coordination with the Raqqa Civil Council, providing funding to residents of partially destroyed buildings in order to aid with their reconstruction. In April 2019 the rehabilitation of the Old Raqqa Bridge over the Euphrates was finished. The bridge was originally built by British forces during World War II in 1942. The National Hospital in Raqqa was reopened after rehabilitation work in May 2019.


title: Raqqa

text: As a consequence of the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, the SDF called on the Syrian Arab Army to enter the areas under its rule, including in the area of Raqqa as part of a deal to prevent Turkish troops from capturing any more territory in northern Syria.


title: Raqqa

text: The Raqqa Museum had numerous clay tablets with cuneiform writing and many other objects vanishing in the fog of war. A particular set of those tablets were excavated by archaeologists from Leiden at the Tell Sabi Abyad. The excavation team cast silicone rubber moulds of the tablets before the war to create cast copies for subsequent studies in the Netherlands. As the original tablets were looted, those moulds became the only evidence of parts of the 12th century BC in Northern Syria. Having a lifespan of roughly thirty years, the moulds proved not be a durable solution, hence the need for digitization to counter the loss of the originals. Therefore the "Scanning for Syria" (SfS) project was initiated by the Leiden University and Delft University of Technology under the auspices of the "Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Global Heritage and Development". The project received a NWO–KIEM Creatieve Industrie grant to use of 3D acquisition and 3D printing technology to make high quality reproductions of the clay tablets. In collaboration with the Catholic University of Louvain and the Heidelberg University several imaging technologies were explored to find the best solution to capture the precious texts hidden within the concavities of the moulds. In the end, the X-ray micro-CT scanner housed at the TU Delft laboratory of "Geoscience and Engineering" turned out to be a good compromise between time-efficiency, accuracy and text recovery. Accurate digital 3D reconstructions of the original clay tablets were created using the CT data of the silicon moulds. Furthermore, the "Forensic Computational Geometry Laboratory" in Heidelberg dramatically decreased the time for decipherment of a tablet by automatically computing high quality images using the GigaMesh Software Framework. These images clearly show the cuneiform characters in publication quality, which otherwise would have taken many hours to manually craft a matching drawing. The 3D-models and high-quality images have become accessible to both scholar and non-scholar communities worldwide. Physical replicas were produced using 3D-printing. The 3D-prints serve as teaching material in Assyriology classes as well as for visitors of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden to experience the ingenuity of Assyrian cuneiform writing. In 2020, the SfS received the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage of the Europa Nostra in the category research.


title: Raqqa

text: In the 6th century, Kallinikos became a center of Assyrian monasticism. "Dayra d'Mār Zakkā", or the Saint Zacchaeus monastery, situated on Tall al-Bi'a, became renowned. A mosaic inscription there is dated to the year 509, presumably from the period of the foundation of the monastery. Daira d'Mār Zakkā is mentioned by various sources up to the 10th century. The second important monastery in the area was the Bīzūnā monastery or "Dairā d-Esţunā", the 'monastery of the column'. The city became one of the main cities of the historical Diyār Muḍar, the western part of the Jazīra.


title: Raqqa

text: Michael the Syrian records twenty Syriac Orthodox (Jacobite) bishops from the 8th to the 12th centuries—and had at least four monasteries, of which the Saint Zaccheus Monastery remained the most prominent.


title: Raqqa

text: In the 9th century, when Raqqa served as capital of the western half of the Abbasid Caliphate, Dayra d'Mār Zakkā, or the Saint Zacchaeus Monastery, became the seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, one of several rivals for the apostolic succession of the Ancient patriarchal see, which has several more rivals of Catholic and Orthodox churches.


title: Raqqa

text: Callinicum early became the seat of a Christian diocese. In 388, Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Great was informed that a crowd of Christians, led by their bishop, had destroyed the synagogue. He ordered the synagogue rebuilt at the expense of the bishop. Ambrose wrote to Theodosius, pointing out he was thereby "exposing the bishop to the danger of either acting against the truth or of death", and Theodosius rescinded his decree.


title: Raqqa

text: Bishop Damianus of Callinicum took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and in 458 was a signatory of the letter that the bishops of the province wrote to Emperor Leo I the Thracian after the death of Proterius of Alexandria. In 518 Paulus was deposed for having joined the anti-Chalcedonian Severus of Antioch. Callinicum had a Bishop Ioannes in the mid-6th century. In the same century, a "Notitia Episcopatuum" lists the diocese as a suffragan of Edessa, the capital and metropolitan see of Osrhoene.


title: Raqqa

text: No longer a residential bishopric, Callinicum has been listed by the Catholic Church twice as a titular see, as suffragan of the Metropolitan of the Late Roman province of Osroene : first as Latin - (meanwhile suppressed) and currently as Maronite titular bishopric.


title: Raqqa

text: No later than the 18th century, the diocese was nominally restored as Latin Titular bishopric of Callinicum (Latin), adjective "Callinicen(sis)" (Latin) / Callinico (Curiate Italian).


title: Raqqa

text: In 1962 it was suppressed, to establish immediately the Episcopal Titular bishopric of Callinicum of the Maronites ("see below")


title: Raqqa

text: In 1962 the simultaneously suppressed Latin Titular see of Callinicum ("see above") was in turn restored, now for the Maronite Church (Eastern Catholic, Antiochian Rite) as Titular bishopric of Callinicum (Latin), "Callinicen(sis) Maronitarum" (Latin adjective) / Callinico (Curiate Italian).


title: Raqqa

text: Raqqa has never been home to a sizeable Shi'i community. However, since the Iran–Iraq War made the important Shi'i holy cities of Najaf and Karbala inaccessible to Iranian visitors, Raqqa has gained importance as a Shi'i pilgrimage destination (accessible via Turkey). The main attractions are the tombs of Ammar ibn Yasir and Uways al-Qarani, two companions of Muhammad who died during the Battle of Siffin. Beginning in 1988 and completed in 2005, an Iranian project oversaw the construction of two new mosques to replace the tombs, making them the largest Shi'i mausoleums in Syria. The Uways mosque was blown up by the Islamic State in May 2014 for being what they called a "pagan Iranian shrine".


title: Raqqa

text: Uways al-Qarani is an important religious figure in Raqqa, and could be called the city's "patron saint". East of the main city, between the Bab Baghdad and the Siffin cemetery, a large mulberry tree has been dedicated to him for a long time. It is considered a holy site placed under Uways's protection. At least until the 1940s, semi-nomadic families would leave their personal belongings at the foot of the tree before beginning their annual summer migration to keep livestock in the Balikh valley. They would return four months later to recollect them. According to elderly Raqqawis, nobody dared take other people's belongings lest they anger the saint.


title: Raqqa

text: Uways has also been considered a mediator for Raqqawis, especially during unsolved cases of theft or valuable objects disappearing. In such cases, there would be ritual procession involving a large copper cup, called the "Uways Cup", covered by a green sheet and carried by a public crier (or "dallal") chosen by the wronged family. The procession would then go through all the streets of Raqqa, with the "dallal" calling out for anyone who knew anything about the theft or missing object was "called upon, by the Uways Cup, to inform me of it or to return it". During these processions, the entire city would be regarded as a sacred space.


title: Raqqa

text: The Islamic State banned all media reporting outside its own efforts, kidnapping and killing journalists. However, a group calling itself Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently operated within the city and elsewhere during this period. In response, ISIL has killed members of the group. A film about the city made by RBSS was released internationally in 2017, premiering and winning an award at that year's Sundance Film Festival.


title: Raqqa

text: In January 2016, a pseudonymous French author named Sophie Kasiki published a book about her move from Paris to the besieged city in 2015, where she was lured to perform hospital work, and her subsequent escape from ISIL.


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, which had been published in twelve monthly issues of "The Strand Magazine" from July 1891 to June 1892. The stories are collected in the same sequence, which is not supported by any fictional chronology. The only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson and all are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view.


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: In general the stories in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" identify, and try to correct, social injustices. Holmes is portrayed as offering a new, fairer sense of justice. The stories were well received, and boosted the subscriptions figures of "The Strand Magazine", prompting Doyle to be able to demand more money for his next set of stories. The first story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", includes the character of Irene Adler, who, despite being featured only within this one story by Doyle, is a prominent character in modern Sherlock Holmes adaptations, generally as a love interest for Holmes. Doyle included four of the twelve stories from this collection in his twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, picking "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" as his overall favourite.


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: Arthur Conan Doyle began writing while studying medicine at university in the late 1870s, and had his first short story, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", published in September 1879. Eight years later his first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel "A Study in Scarlet", was published by Ward Lock & Co. It was well received, but Doyle was paid little for it; after a sequel novel, "The Sign of the Four", was published in "Lippincott's Monthly Magazine", he shifted his focus to short stories. Soon after "The Strand Magazine" was inaugurated in January 1891, its editor Herbert Greenhough Smith received two submissions to the new monthly from Doyle. Later he described his reaction: "I at once realised that here was the greatest short story writer since Edgar Allan Poe." The first of them, "A Scandal in Bohemia", was published near the back of the July issue with ten illustrations by Sidney Paget. The stories proved popular, helping to boost the circulation of the magazine, and Doyle was paid 30 guineas each for the initial run of twelve. These first twelve stories were published monthly from July 1891 until June 1892, and then were collected together and published as a book, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on 14 October 1892 by George Newnes, the publisher of "The Strand Magazine". The initial print run of the book was for 10,000 copies in the United Kingdom, and a further 4,500 copies in the United States, which were published by Harper Brothers the following day.


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: Sidney Paget illustrated all twelve stories in "The Strand" and in the collection. The preceding Holmes novels had been illustrated by other artists.


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: All of the stories within "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" are told in a first-person narrative from the point of view of Dr. Watson, as is the case for all but four of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" entry for Doyle suggests that the short stories contained in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" tend to point out social injustices, such as "a king's betrayal of an opera singer, a stepfather's deception of his ward as a fictitious lover, an aristocratic crook's exploitation of a failing pawnbroker, a beggar's extensive estate in Kent." It suggests that, in contrast, Holmes is portrayed as offering a fresh and fair approach in an unjust world of "official incompetence and aristocratic privilege". "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" contains many of Doyle's favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. In 1927, he submitted a list of what he believed were his twelve best Sherlock Holmes stories to "The Strand Magazine". Among those he listed were "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" (as his favourite), "The Red-Headed League" (second), "A Scandal in Bohemia" (fifth) and "The Five Orange Pips" (seventh). The book was banned in the Soviet Union in 1929 because of its alleged "occultism", but the book gained popularity in a black market of similarly banned books, and the restriction was lifted in 1940.


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" were well received upon their serialisation in "The Strand Magazine".


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: Following the publication of "A Scandal in Bohemia" in July 1891, the "Hull Daily Mail" described the story as being "worthy of the inventive genius" of Doyle. Just over a year later, when Doyle took a break from publishing the short stories upon the completion of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", a piece in the "Belfast News Letter" reviewed a story by another author in "The Strand Magazine" saying that it "might have been read with a moderate amount of interest a year ago", but that "the unique power" of Doyle's writing was evident in the gulf in quality between the stories. The "Leeds Mercury" particularly praised the characterisation of Holmes, "with all his little foibles", while in contrast the "Cheltenham Looker-On" described Holmes as "rather a bore sometimes", noting that descriptions of his foibles "grows wearisome". The correspondent for "Hampshire Telegraph" lamented the fact that Doyle's more thoughtful writing, such as "Micah Clarke", was not so popular as the Holmes stories, concluding that an author "who wishes to make literature pay must write what his readers want".


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: Sherlock Holmes has been adapted numerous times for both films and plays, and the character has been played by over 70 different actors in more than 200 films. A number of film and television series have borne the title "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", but some of these are either original stories, combinations of a number of Doyle's stories, or in one case, an adaptation of "The Sign of the Four".


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: Irene Adler, who is in the first short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", is prominent in many modern adaptations, despite only appearing in one story. Often in modern adaptations, she is portrayed as a love interest for Holmes, as in Robert Doherty's "Elementary" and the BBC's "Sherlock", even though in the story itself, the narration claims: "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler." In his "Sherlock Holmes Handbook", Christopher Redmond notes "the Canon provides little basis for either sentimental or prurient speculation about a Holmes-Adler connection."


title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

text: Multiple series have featured adaptations of all or nearly all of the stories in this collection, including the 1921–1923 Stoll film series (all except "The Five Orange Pips"), the radio series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1930–1936), the 1939–1950 radio series "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (all except "The Beryl Coronet"), and the BBC Sherlock Holmes 1952–1969 radio series. Many of the stories from the collection were included as episodes in the Granada Television series "Sherlock Holmes" which ran from 1984 until 1994. The stories in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" were dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 1990–1991 as part of the BBC Sherlock Holmes 1989–1998 radio series, and were adapted as episodes of the radio series "The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (2005–2016). The stories within the collection have also been adapted for many other productions.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The 1st Marine Division (1st MARDIV) is a Marine division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF).


title: 1st Marine Division

text: It is the oldest and largest active duty division in the United States Marine Corps, representing a combat-ready force of more than 19,000 personnel. It is one of three active duty divisions in the Marine Corps today and is a multi-role, expeditionary ground combat force. It is nicknamed "The Old Breed".


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The division is employed as the ground combat element (GCE) of the I Marine Expeditionary Force or may provide task-organized forces for assault operations and such operations as may be directed. The 1st Marine Division must be able to provide the ground amphibious forcible entry capability to the naval expeditionary force (NEF) and to conduct subsequent land operations in any operational environment.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The 1st Marine Division currently comprises a headquarters battalion, four regiments and five separate battalions as follows:


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The lineal forebear of the 1st Marine Division is the 1st Advance Base Brigade, which was activated on 23 December 1913 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Subsequently, the brigade was redesignated on 1 April 1914, as the 1st Brigade, and on 16 September 1935, as the 1st Marine Brigade). The brigade consisted of the Fixed Defense Regiment and the Mobile Defense Regiment, later designated as the 1st and 2nd Regiments, 1st Brigade, respectively. In 1916, while deployed in Haiti, the two regiments were again redesignated, exchanging numerals, to then become the 2nd and 1st Regiments, 1st Brigade. Between April 1914 and August 1934, elements of the 1st Brigade participated in operations in Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, receiving campaign credit for service in each nation. While the 1st Brigade did not serve ashore in the European theater during the First World War, the brigade was awarded the World War I Victory Medal Streamer, with one bronze star, in recognition of the brigade's service during that conflict. On 16 September 1935, the brigade was redesignated as the 1st Marine Brigade and deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in October 1940.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The 1st Marine Division was activated aboard the on 1 February 1941. In May 1941, the 1st MARDIV relocated to Quantico, Virginia and Parris Island, South Carolina and in April 1942, the division began deploying to Samoa and Wellington, New Zealand. The division's units were scattered over the Pacific with the support elements and the 1st Marine Regiment transported en route to New Zealand on three ships, the USATs "Ericsson", "Barnett" and "Elliott" from Naval Reserve Air Base Oakland to New Zealand, and later were landed on the island of Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands, on 7 August 1942.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Initially, only the 7th Marine Regiment was in garrison on British Samoa, with the 5th Marine Regiment having just encamped at Wellington, New Zealand after disembarking from USAT "Wakefield", and the 1st Marine Regiment not scheduled to arrive in New Zealand until 11 July. The 1st Raider Battalion was on New Caledonia, and the 3rd Defense Battalion was in Pearl Harbor. All of the division's units, with the 11th Marines (artillery) and 75mm howitzer armed 10th Marines battalion would rendezvous at Fiji.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Due to the change in orders and shortage of attack and combat cargo vessels, all of the division's 2.5-ton trucks, M1918 155-mm howitzers and the sound and flash-ranging equipment needed for counter-battery fire had to be left in Wellington. Also, because the Wellington dock workers were on strike at the time, the Marines had to do all the load reconfiguration from administrative to combat configuration.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: After 11 days of logistical challenges, the division, with 16,000 Marines, departed Wellington in eighty-nine ships embarked for the Solomon Islands with a 60-day combat load which did not include tents, spare clothing or bedrolls, office equipment, unit muster rolls, or pay clerks. Other things not yet available to this first wave of Marine deployments were insect repellent and mosquito netting. Attached to the division was the 1st Parachute Battalion, which along with the rest of the division, conducted landing rehearsals from 28 to 30 July on Koro Island, which Major General Alexander Vandegrift described as a "disaster".


title: 1st Marine Division

text: On 31 July the entire Marine task force was placed under the command of Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher's Task Force 61. The division as a whole would fight in the Guadalcanal Campaign until relieved at 1400 on 9 December 1942 by Alexander Patch's Americal Division. This operation won the division its first of three World War II Presidential Unit Citations (PUC). The battle would cost the division 650 killed in action, 1,278 wounded in action with a further 8,580 contracting malaria and 31 missing in action. Others were awarded for the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the division's Marines were sent to Melbourne, Australia for rest and refit. It was during this time that the division took the traditional Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda" as its battle hymn. To this day, 1st Division Marines still ship out to this song being played.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The division would next see action during Operation Cartwheel which was the codename for the campaigns in Eastern New Guinea and New Britain. They came ashore at the Battle of Cape Gloucester on 26 December 1943 and fought on New Britain until March 1944 at such places as "Suicide Creek" and "Ajar Ridge". During the course of the battle the division had 310 killed and 1,083 wounded. Following the battle they were sent to Pavuvu in the Russell Islands for rest and refitting.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The next battle for the 1st Marine Division would be the bloodiest yet at the Battle of Peleliu. They landed on 15 September 1944 as part of the III Amphibious Corps assault on the island. The division's commanding general, Major General William H. Rupertus had predicted the fighting would be, "...tough but short. It'll be over in three or four days – a fight like Tarawa. Rough but fast. Then we can go back to the rest area." Making a mockery of the prediction, the first week of the battle alone cost the division 3,946 casualties, during which time they secured the key airfield sites. The division fought on Peleliu for one month before being relieved. Some of the heaviest fighting of the entire war took place in places such as "Bloody Nose Ridge" and the central ridges of the island that made up the "Umurbrogol Pocket". The month of fighting against the 14th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) on Peleliu cost the 1st Marine Division 1,252 dead and 5,274 wounded.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The final campaign the division would take part in during World War II would be the Battle of Okinawa. The strategic importance of Okinawa was that it provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in close proximity to Japan. The division landed on 1 April 1945 as part of the III Amphibious Corps. Its initial mission was, fighting alongside the 6th Marine Division, to clear the northern half of the island – that they were able to do expeditiously. The Army's XXIV Corps met much stiffer resistance in the south, and on 1 May 1945 the Marine division was moved south where it relieved the Army's 27th Infantry Division. The division was in heavy fighting on Okinawa until 22 June 1945, when the island was declared secure. The 1st Marine Division slugged it out with the Japanese 32nd Army at such places as Dakeshi Ridge, Wana Ridge, "Sugarloaf Hill" and Shuri Castle. Fighting on Okinawa cost the division 1,655 killed in action.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: During the war, the division had five Seabee Battalions posted to it. The 6th NCB was attached to the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal. They were followed by the 19th Naval Construction Battalion (NCB) which was assigned to the 17th Marines as the third battalion of the regiment. They landed at Cape Gloucester with the division. The 17th Marines were inactivated with the 19th NCB being reassigned. After that, the 33rd NCB was posted to the 1st for the assault on Peleliu and they were replaced by the 145th NCB for the invasion of Okinawa. (see:Seabees) On Peleliu, the 17th Special NCB(segregated) was assigned to the 1st Pioneers as shore party. Together with the 16th Marines Field Depot(segregated) they helped evacuate wounded and bury the dead for the 7th Marines. On the first night of the assault, nearly all of the 17th Seabees volunteered to hump ammo to the frontlines. They also reinforced the Marines in sections where directed, were used to crew a 37mm, and were utilized for several days. For their efforts, they received an official "well done".


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Following the surrender of Japan, the division was sent to Northern China as the lead combat element of the III Amphibious Corps with the primary mission of repatriating more than 650,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians still resident in that part of China. They landed at Taku on 30 September 1945 and would be based in Hopeh Province in the cities of Tientsin and Peiping, and also on the Shandong Peninsula, with the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party raging around them. Most Marines in the division would be charged with guarding supply trains, bridges, and depots to keep food and coal moving into the cities. During this time they increasingly fought skirmishes with soldiers from the People's Liberation Army who saw the railways and other infrastructure as attractive targets to ambush, raid, and harass.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: By the summer of 1946 the division was suffering the effects of demobilization and its combat efficiency had dropped below wartime standards; however, its commitments in China remained. As it became increasingly apparent that a complete collapse of truce negotiations among the Chinese factions was apparent, plans were laid for the withdrawal of all Marine units from Hopeh. The last elements of the division finally left China on 1 September 1947.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Following the end of World War II and the postwar drawdown of forces, by 1950 the division only possessed the strength of a reinforced regimental combat team. The division would be assembled on the battle field and would participate in the amphibious assault at Inchon under the orders of United Nations Command (UN) commander General MacArthur. The division was the unit chosen to lead the Inchon landing on 15 September 1950. At Inchon, the division faced one of its most daunting challenges, deploying so hurriedly it still lacked its third infantry regiment and ordered to execute an amphibious assault under the worst tidal conditions they had ever faced. After the landing they moved north and after heavy fighting in Seoul they liberated the city.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: After the liberation of Seoul, the division was put back on ships and taken to the eastern side of the Korean peninsula and landed at Wonsan on 26 October. As part of X Corps commanded by Army Major General Edward Almond the division was ordered to push north towards the Yalu River as fast as possible. The then commanding officer of the division, Major General O.P. Smith, did not agree with his superiors and had become convinced that they were stretched thin and that the Chinese Forces had entered the war. He purposely slowed his advance and consolidated along the way at every opportunity. The 1st Marine Division was attacked by ten Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) infantry divisions on 27 November 1950. They fought their way out of the Chosin Reservoir against seven PVA divisions suffering over 900 killed and missing, over 3,500 wounded and more than 6,500 non-battle casualties mostly from frostbite during the battle. The greater part of the PVA 9th Army was rendered ineffective as they suffered an estimated 37,500 casualties trying to stop the Marines' march out of the "Frozen Chosin". The division was evacuated from Hungnam in mid-December and then landed in Pusan.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Beginning in early 1951 the division participated in several UN offensives in east-central Korea. This was followed by defending against the Chinese Spring Offensive. By June 1951 the 1st Marine Division had pushed northward and secured the Punchbowl and then settled into a defensive line long.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: In mid-March 1952 the 8th Army, to whom the Marines were attached, instituted "Operation Bootdrop". The operation was a massive redeployment of UN forces designed to put more Republic of Korea Army units on the Jamestown Line, the UN's Main line of resistance (MLR). The 1st Marine Division was reassigned to the far western end of the MLR defending a line that encompassed the Pyongyang to Seoul corridor. For much of the next year, in what would be termed the ""Outpost War"", action along this line consisted of small, localized actions because much of the fighting revolved around the holding and retaking of various combat outposts along the MLR, including the Battles of Bunker Hill, First Hook and Outpost Vegas. Fighting continued until the took effect on 27 July 1953. During the Korean War the division suffered combat casualties of 4,004 dead and 25,864 wounded.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: In 1953 the division command post was established at Tonggu. The site was later named Camp Howze by the US Army. A memorial to—US and ROK—Marine participation in the war is located at the adjoining district of Bongilcheon-ri (봉일천리) ().


title: 1st Marine Division

text: In August 1965, the division's 7th Marine Regiment participated in Operation Starlite, the first major engagement against the Vietcong (VC) for American ground troops in South Vietnam. This was followed in September by Operation Piranha. In December Division elements conducted Operation Harvest Moon.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: In March 1966 division elements conducted Operations Utah, Oregon and Texas. March also saw the 1st Marine Division Headquarters established at Chu Lai. By June, the entire division was in South Vietnam, its Tactical Area of Responsibility (TAOR) was the southern two provinces of I Corps — Quang Tin and Quang Ngai. In August the division conducted Operation Colorado. Between March and October 1966 to May 1967, the division conducted 44 named operations. The division received its 7th Presidential Unit Citation for service from 29 March 1966 to 15 September 1967.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: From January to April 1967 the 7th Marines conducted Operation Desoto. In early April 1967 under Operation Oregon the division moved north to Da Nang to support the 3rd Marine Division and Task Force Oregon took over the division's former TAOR. From April to May Division units conducted Operations Union and Beaver Cage. From May to June the 5th Marine Regiment conducted Operation Union II with Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces. In September Division units and ARVN forces conducted Operation Swift. In November the 5th Marines conducted Operation Essex. On 4 December 1967 Task Force X-Ray was activated to implement Operation Checkers, the movement of the 1st Marine Division from Thừa Thiên Province north to Quảng Trị Province to support the 3rd Marine Division which was engaged in heavy combat along the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. From 28 December 1967 to 3 January 1968 Division units conducted Operation Auburn on Go Noi Island south of Da Nang.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: On 11 January 1968 Task Force X-Ray headquarters was established at Phu Bai Combat Base and assumed operational control of the 5th Marine Regiment which moved north from Da Nang and the 1st Marine Regiment already based at Phu Bai. When the 1968 Tet Offensive began at the end of January, the division was involved in fierce fighting with PAVN/VC throughout its TAOR and together with ARVN units would defend Da Nang and fight the Battle of Huế. The 1st Marines would receive a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at Huế. From May to August Division units conducted Operation Allen Brook on Go Noi Island. From May to October Division units conducted Operation Mameluke Thrust in Happy Valley southwest of Da Nang. From 1 to 19 October Division units conducted Operation Maui Peak to relieve Thường Ðức Camp. From late October to early December the 5th Marines conducted Operation Henderson Hill in Happy Valley. From 20 November to 9 December Division units conducted Operation Meade River south of Da Nang. From 6 December to 8 March 1969 Division units conducted Operation Taylor Common in the An Hoa Basin west of Hội An.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: From 31 March to 29 May 1969 Division and ARVN units conducted Operation Oklahoma Hills southwest of Da Nang. From 26 May to 7 November Division, ARVN and Republic of Korea Marine Corps (ROKMC) units conducted Operation Pipestone Canyon on Go Noi Island. On 7 June PFC Dan Bullock of 2/5 Marines was killed in a PAVN sapper attack on An Hoa Combat Base, having lied about his age to enlist, he was, at 15 years old, the youngest American killed in the war.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: From July to August 1970 Division units conducted Operation Pickens Forest southwest of An Hoa Combat Base. From 1 September to 7 May 1971 Division and ROKMC units conducted Operation Imperial Lake in the Quế Sơn District south of Da Nang.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: On 13 January 1971 Operation Keystone Robin Charlie began with the standing down of the initial units supporting the division. The redeployment accelerated in mid-February but then slowed when HMH-463, HML-167, HMM-263 and MASS-3 were retained to support Operation Lam Son 719. Throughout April the remaining Division units transferred bases and tactical areas of responsibility to the Americal Division. On 14 April 1971 the 3rd Marine Amphibious Brigade was activated at Camp Jay K. Brooks and III Marine Amphibious Force transferred all remaining Marine forces to it. On 30 April President Richard Nixon welcomed the division back to Camp Pendleton and awarded it a second Presidential Unit Citation for its service in South Vietnam.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: In 1975, the division supported the resettlement of South Vietnamese refugees by providing food and temporary shelter at Camp Pendleton for Vietnamese refugees as they arrived in the United States.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: In 1990, the 1st Marine Division formed the nucleus of the massive force sent to the Middle East in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. During Operation Desert Shield, the division supported I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) in the defense of Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi threat. In 1991, the division went on the offensive as part of U.S. Marine Forces Central Command (MARCENT) with the rest of Coalition Forces in Operation Desert Storm. The 1st Marine Division destroyed around 60 Iraqi tanks near the Burgan oil field without suffering any losses. 1st Marine Division Task Force Ripper (RCT-7) M60A1 RISE Passive Patton tanks destroyed about 100 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers, including about 50 top-of-the-line Soviet T-72 tanks. These efforts were instrumental in the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi forces.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: On 2 May 1992, the 1st Marine Division took part of Operation Garden Plot to help local and state law enforcement as well as the California Army National Guard in quelling the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles County, California. It was part of the 3,500 federal military force sent to Los Angeles. The Marine Corps contingent included the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, commanded by Marine Corps General John F. Kelly. As part of the Joint Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Los Angeles, Marines took up positions in Compton and Long Beach to prevent further rioting and disorder. No rioters or civilians were killed or injured by the Marines, nor did the Marines themselves suffer any casualties. On 10 May, six days after the riots ended, Marines formally withdrew from the city and returned to Camp Pendleton.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Immediately following the Persian Gulf War, the division sent units to assist in relief efforts following a typhoon in Bangladesh (Operation Sea Angel) and the eruption of volcano Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (Operation Fiery Vigil). In December 1992, Operation Restore Hope, bringing relief to famine-stricken Somalia, kicked off with the early morning amphibious landing of Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was supported by 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines. More than 15,000 metric tons of food was successfully distributed from 398 different food sites in the city during the operation. The final phase of the operation involved the transition from a U.S. peacemaking force to a United Nations peacekeeping force. U.S. Marine involvement in Operation Restore Hope officially ended on 27 April 1993, when the humanitarian relief sector of Mogadishu was handed over to Pakistani Armed Forces.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The 1st Marine Division, then under the command of Major General James Mattis, was one of the two major U.S. land forces that participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq as the land component of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. In December 2002, Mattis was quoted as saying, "The President, the National Command Authority and the American people need speed. The sooner we get it over with the better. Our overriding principle will be speed, speed, speed." Initially, the division fought through the Rumaila oil fields, feinted an attack towards Basrah then moved north on Iraq Highway 1 to An Nasariyah – a moderate-sized, Shi'ite dominated city with important strategic significance as a major road junction and proximity to nearby Talil Airfield. The division then fought its way to Baghdad and pushed further to secure Tikrit by forming Task Force Tripoli after the fall of Baghdad. The division covered 808 kilometers in 17 days of sustained combat, the deepest penetrating ground operation in Marine Corps history. After the invasion the division settled in to conduct security and stabilization operations in Baghdad, Tikrit, and then in south-central Iraq from May to October 2003. For actions during the war as part of I MEF the division was awarded its 9th Presidential Unit Citation.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The division returned to Iraq in February 2004 and took control of the Al Anbar province in western Iraq; it was the lead unit in Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury in 2004. During February and March 2005, the division was relieved by the 2nd Marine Division concluding the largest relief in place in the history of the Marine Corps. In 2006, the division again deployed to Iraq as the ground combat element for I MEF in the Al Anbar province. It returned to MCB Camp Pendleton in early 2007.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Battalions from the 1st Marine Division have been regularly deployed to Afghanistan since 2008. In 2010, 1st Marine Division (Forward) deployed to Helmand province, Afghanistan, as part of the more than 30,000 troops into the country. While in Afghanistan, the Division served as the ground combat element for Task Force Leatherneck, leading a multinational coalition and working alongside Afghan National Security Forces.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Originally termed a battle blaze, the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 1st Marine Division was designed by Lt. Col Merrill Twining, Division D-3 in February 1943 while the division was stationed in Victoria, Australia. The blue diamond with the Southern Cross is similar to the Flag of Victoria. The red numeral one in the middle denotes the division's first action on Guadalcanal. A commercial firm in Melbourne first produced the shoulder patch with every Marine issued two of them that was sewn on his battle jacket.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: The 2nd Marine Division originally had a similar battle blaze of the same design with a red snake in the shape of a "2" also reading GUADALCANAL.


title: 1st Marine Division

text: Marine Corps shoulder sleeve insignia were officially authorized on 15 March 1943. Some in the division who served on Guadalcanal wore their "battle blaze" on the right shoulder to distinguish themselves from replacements who had not been on "The Canal".


title: 1st Marine Division

text: A unit citation or commendation is an award bestowed upon an organization for the action cited. Members of the unit who participated in said actions are allowed to wear on their uniforms the awarded unit citation. The 1st Marine Division has been presented with the following awards:


title: Mawsynram

text: Mawsynram () is a town in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya state in Northeastern India, 69 kilometres from Shillong, the state capital. Mawsynram receives the highest rainfall in India. It is reportedly the wettest place on Earth, with an average annual rainfall of , According to the "Guinness Book of World Records", Mawsynram received of rainfall in 1985.


title: Mawsynram

text: Mawsynram received 745.2 mm of rainfall on 19 August 2015, probably the highest rainfall received by the town in recent times. On June 17th 2022, Mawsynram set a new record by receiving 1003.6 mm in a span of 24 hours which has now become its highest single day record for the month of June and for its all time single day record beating its former record of 944.7 mm on June 7th 1966.


title: Mawsynram

text: Mawsynram is located at 25° 18′ N, 91° 35′ E, at an altitude of about 1,400 meters (4,600 ft), 15 km west of Cherrapunji, in the Khasi Hills in the state of Meghalaya (India).


title: Mawsynram

text: Under the Köppen climate classification, Mawsynram features a subtropical highland climate (Cwb) with an extraordinarily showery, rainy and long monsoonal season and a short dry season. Based on the data of a recent few decades, it appears to be the wettest place in the world, or the place with the highest average annual rainfall. Mawsynram receives over 10,000 millimeters of rain in an average year, and the vast majority of the rain it gets falls during the monsoon months. A comparison of rainfalls for Cherrapunji and Mawsynram for some years is given in Table 1.


title: Mawsynram

text: Mawsynram receives the highest rainfall in India. Although it is reportedly the wettest place on Earth, with an average annual rainfall of 11,872 millimetres (467.4 in), this claim is disputed by Lloró, Colombia, which reported an average yearly rainfall of 12,717 millimetres (500.7 in) between 1952 and 1989 and López de Micay, also in Colombia, which reported 12,892 mm (507.6 in) per year between 1960 and 2012. According to the records observed by the Indian Meterological Department, it was seen that while its neighbour, Cherrapunji is having a significant decreasing trend in rainfall, Mawsynram on the other hand is experiencing a slight increase in its rainfall pattern which put its average annual rainfall from 1950 to 2000 at 12393 mm and from 2000 to 2020 at 12120 mm. The precipitation table below shows the average monthly record from 1950-2000.


title: Mawsynram

text: Primarily due to the high altitude, it seldom gets truly hot in Mawsynram. Average monthly temperatures range from around 11 °C in January to just above 20 °C in August. The village also experiences a brief but noticeably drier season from December until February, when monthly precipitation on average does not exceed . The little precipitation during the village's "low sun" season is something that is shared by many areas with this type of climate.


title: Mawsynram

text: The following table is a comparison of rainfalls for Cherrapunji and Mawsynram between 1970 and 2010.


title: Mawsynram

text: Located in Mawsynram, is a cave named Mawjymbuin, known for its stalagmites. Inside this cave is a pair of notable speleothems - stalactites shaped like a cow's udder over a large stalagmite. The area is known for its many caves, both commercialized and non-commercialized.


title: Hikvision

text: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., often shortened to Hikvision, is a Chinese state-owned manufacturer and supplier of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Due to its involvement in mass surveillance of Uyghurs, the Xinjiang internment camps, and national security concerns, the company has been placed under sanctions from the U.S. and European governments.


title: Hikvision

text: Hikvision was founded in 2001 by Zhejiang HIK Information Technology Co., Ltd. () with the company having a 51% stake and Gong Hongjia () a 49% stake at that time.


title: Hikvision

text: In May 2017, Hikvision established Hikstorage, a subsidiary focused on the production of storage devices.


title: Hikvision

text: In January 2021, the company won a US$33 million, 1,900-camera smart city project in Shanghe County, Shandong that includes cameras with facial recognition and license plate recognition technologies.


title: Hikvision

text: In 2021, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe's stopped selling cameras from Hikvision brand Ezviz due to concerns about Hikvision's complicity in surveillance and human rights violations in Xinjiang.


title: Hikvision

text: In 2022, Hikvision was awarded a Chinese government contract to develop software to track "key people" in order to prevent them from entering Beijing. The same year, IPVM reported that Amazon Web Services provides cloud services to Hikvision.


title: Hikvision

text: In January 2019, the U.S. government began considering whether it should sanction Hikvision, which American government officials described as having "provided thousands of cameras that monitor mosques, schools, and concentration camps in Xinjiang."


title: Hikvision

text: The U.S. government banned Hikvision from receiving federal government contracts in August 2019 due to security concerns. In October 2019, Hikvision was formally placed on the Entity List by the U.S. government, which stated that it was involved in surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China. Hikvision expressed its opposition to the U.S. decision and stated that they believe the decision had no factual basis. They urged the U.S. government to re-examine its decision.


title: Hikvision

text: In response to the bans and sanctions, Hikvision has hired former U.S. ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper "to advise the company regarding human rights compliance" as well as numerous lobbyists, including former U.S. senators David Vitter and Barbara Boxer, former U.S. congressman Toby Moffett, and a former senior OFAC official.


title: Hikvision

text: In August 2020, the Indian government banned Hikvision from bidding in government tenders and also required removal of Hikvison cameras from military and high-security areas.


title: Hikvision

text: In April 2021, the European Parliament confirmed that it had removed Hikvision thermal cameras from its premises following the approval of an amendment sponsored by Dutch MEP Lara Wolters calling for the removal of "all of Hikvision’s thermal cameras from Parliament’s premises" due to "an unacceptable risk that Hikvision, through its operations in Xinjiang, is contributing to serious human rights abuses."


title: Hikvision

text: In July 2021, the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee published a report stating that Hikvision cameras "have been deployed throughout Xinjiang, and provide the primary camera technology used in the internment camps".


title: Hikvision

text: In June 2022, documents from the Xinjiang Police Files showed how Hikvision technology is used by Xinjiang police to surveil all Xinjiang residents.


title: Hikvision

text: In June 2021, 224 Hikvision products were banned for one year by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT over forged test reports.


title: Hikvision

text: In September 2021, the Indian Navy's headquarters "asked its all formations to 'discontinue' procurement of CCTV cameras and surveillance systems from Hikvision," according to "The Week". "The Week" also reported that the Indian Navy had ordered the replacement and destruction of its existing Hikvision cameras.


title: Hikvision

text: In April 2022, the UK Department of Health and Social Care banned the purchase of Hikvision cameras. In November 2022, the UK prohibited the use of Hikvision equipment in government buildings.


title: Hikvision

text: In November 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included Hikvision. In December 2020, Hikvision was removed from FTSE Russell.


title: Hikvision

text: On 12 January 2021, the Joe Biden inaugural committee returned a $500 donation to former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) after she registered as a foreign agent for Hikvision.


title: Hikvision

text: In March 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that Hikvision services and equipment "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security." In November 2022, the FCC banned sales or import of equipment made by Hikvision for national security reasons.


title: Hikvision

text: Hikvision was owned by China Electronics Technology HIK Group Co., Ltd. (HIK Group, ), a wholly owned subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, which has a 39.59% stake. China Electronics Technology Group is a state-run enterprise that is owned and supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. China Electronics Technology Group holds an additional 1.96% stake of Hikvision via its 52nd research institute (). The Chairman of Hikvision, Chen Zongnian (), is also the chairman and the Party Committee Secretary of HIK Group, and Head of the aforementioned research institute.


title: Hikvision

text: In 2017, the third largest shareholder was a private equity fund () which had a 7% stake, which is associated with then Hikvision general manager Hu Yangzhong. According to previous filing, "Xinjian Weixun" was also associated with Liu Xiang (), former director (from 2015 to March 2018) and former deputy general manager of Hikvision, then deputy general manager of HIK Group, chairman of sister listed company Phenix Optical.


title: Hikvision

text: In 2017, the fourth largest shareholder was another private equity fund () which had a 2% stake. The fund was partly owned by Gong's wife Chen Chunmei () and aforementioned Hu Yangzhong. Hu Yangzhong also owned an additional 1.33% stake personally. To sum up, those shareholders owned a combined 65.71% stake. Lastly, Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company owned 9.77%, which was the nominees of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect.


title: Hikvision

text: In 2015, IPVM criticized Hikvision for allegedly obscuring its Chinese government ownership. Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision North America, had criticized the online blogger site for allegedly seeking financial gain.


title: Hikvision

text: Alan West, in a 2016 interview published by "The Times" (and re-published by "The Australian"), suggested that Hikvision's ownership raised ethical and security concerns when it came to the usage of Hikvision's products by the British government.


title: Hikvision

text: In May 2017, seven series of Hikvision cameras were affected by an improper authentication vulnerability which, if exploited, could allow "a malicious attacker [to] escalat[e] his or her privileges or assum[e] the identity of an authenticated user and [obtain] sensitive data," according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.


title: Hikvision

text: In May 2021, Italian public broadcaster RAI reported that Hikvision cameras automatically "opened communication channels with addresses registered in China" once connected to the internet. Hikvision declined to comment on the RAI investigation.


title: Hikvision

text: In September 2021, Hikvision announced a command injection vulnerability with the CVE-ID CVE-2021-36260. "Forbes" reported that the vulnerability, which has a CVSS base score of 9.8 out of 10, left dozens of Hikvision camera models "susceptible to remote hijacking" without requiring a username or password.


title: Hikvision

text: In 2022, "Axios" reported that Hikvision had hired FTI Consulting to conduct cybersecurity audits of its products.


title: Esra Bilgiç

text: Esra Bilgiç (; born 14 October 1992) is a Turkish actress. She is best known for portraying the role of Halime Hatun in the Turkish historical adventure television series "" from 2014 to 2018. Among other roles, she starred in the 2020-21 crime drama "Ramo".


title: Esra Bilgiç

text: Bilgiç was born on 14 October 1992 in Ankara, Turkey. In 2014, she made her television debut in the Turkish historical adventure series "" on TRT 1, alongside co-actors Engin Düzyatan and Hülya Darcan. The story of the series is centred around the life of Ertuğrul Bey, the father of Ottoman dynasty founder Osman Bey. Bilgiç played the role of Halime Hatun, mother of Osman, but left in 2018 due to changes in the new season.


title: Esra Bilgiç

text: She also appeared in "" alongside Tolgahan Sayışman and Hazal Subaşı. In 2020, Bilgiç appeared in a leading role in the Turkish film "Adanış Kutsal Kavga" with co-star İsmail Filiz. She is the female lead in the Turkish crime-drama television series "Ramo" with co-star Murat Yıldırım. Outside of Turkey, Bilgiç has seen wide popularity in Pakistan, leading her to become the brand ambassador of the Pakistani cricket team Peshawar Zalmi, consumer electronics company QMobile and mobile network provider Jazz in 2020.


title: Esra Bilgiç

text: From September 2021 until February 2022, she shared the lead role in the period drama "" with actor Uğur Güneş. The series was canceled after 16 episodes due to poor ratings.


title: Esra Bilgiç

text: In 2014, Bilgiç began dating a professional Turkish footballer, Gökhan Töre. The couple got married on 21 October 2017, and divorced on 17 June 2019. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan were present at Bilgiç's wedding.


title: Esra Bilgiç

text: In August 2021, after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Bilgiç posted retweets with hashtags including "I don’t want refugees in my country" and "I don’t want Afghans here." She later removed the retweets. "Dawn" described the original tweets as "hateful".


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: Jeon Do-yeon (; born February 11, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She won Best Actress at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, making her the second Korean actress to win an acting award at a prestigious film festival, and Best Performance by an Actress at the 1st Asia Pacific Screen Awards for her performance in Lee Chang-dong's 2007 film "Secret Sunshine". Although she is not as broadly popular with the audiences as some other stars in South Korea due to her film choices, Jeon is widely respected and celebrated for her acting abilities, and many young actresses have cited her as a role model.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: Jeon Do-yeon was born on February 11, 1973. She has two older brothers and is the youngest in her family. Born and raised in Seoul, she graduated from Bukgajwa Elementary School, Yeonhee Girls Middle School, Changduk Girls High School and Department of Broadcasting at Seoul Institute of the Arts.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 1990, Jeon made her debut in the entertainment industry as an advertisement model for Johnson & Johnson. She made her acting debut in television series "Our Heaven" in 1992. She then continued to play supporting roles in "Scent of Love" (1994) and "General Hospital" (1994) and "Love is Blue" (1995), but struggled to receive any significant attention. In 1995, she gained some recognition after playing the heroine's younger sister in KBS2's hit drama "Our Sunny Days of Youth", which recorded its highest viewership rating of 62.7 percent. The drama's director, Jeon San PD, made a remark stating that Jeon Do-yeon is a "tough and ambitious newcomer". The following years, she played major roles in multiple dramas such as "Project", "Way Station" and "Until We Can Love" in 1996, and "Star in My Heart" in 1997. Jeon spent five years starring in television dramas before achieving instant star status with her feature film debut acting alongside Han Suk-kyu in 1997 film "The Contact", which became the second-highest grossing Korean film of that year. She won numerous awards through the work, including Best New Actress at the 35th Grand Bell Awards and 18th Blue Dragon Film Awards.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: From 1997 after the success of "The Contact", Jeon emerged as a prominent actress in the Korean film industry and went on to establish a reputation as a "chameleon" who can take on a wide variety of roles, from her performance as a doctor in the hit melodrama "A Promise", which won her Best Actress at the 35th Baeksang Arts Awards, to that of a schoolgirl in the 1999 film "The Harmonium in My Memory", then a wife having an adulterous affair in the 1999 film "Happy End". In 1999 and 2000, she received Best Actress awards at numerous award ceremonies such as the 20th Blue Dragon Film Awards and the 37th Grand Bell Awards for her performance in "The Harmonium in My Memory". She also won Best Actress at the 35th Baeksang Arts Awards for her role in "A Promise" and several other local film awards for her role in "Happy End".


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 2001, she played a bank teller in Park Heung-sik's directorial debut "I Wish I Had a Wife". After starring as the tough-talking Soo-jin in Ryoo Seung-wan's "No Blood No Tears" in 2002, Jeon spent time acting in the television series "Shoot for the Stars". In 2003, she found box-office success in E J-yong's "Untold Scandal", an adaptation of the famous French novel "Dangerous Liaisons" set in Joseon. The following year, she reunited with director Park Heung-sik in a dual role for the time-bending melodrama film "My Mother, the Mermaid".


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 2005, Jeon played a prostitute who contracts AIDS in Park Jin-pyo's hard-hitting melodrama "You Are My Sunshine". The film was a box-office hit, and her performance received critical acclaim and won her numerous acting awards. She then returned to the small screen with "Lovers in Prague", a drama that tells the love story between the president's daughter and an ordinary detective. The drama was a huge success, with average viewership ratings of over 27 percent. For the work, Jeon won the Grand Prize (Daesang) at 2005 SBS Drama Awards. Commenting on her successful year, The Korea Herald noted, "It is rare for a movie and a drama with the same leading actor or actress to become major hits at the same time. And often, actors and actresses avoid such cases, due to the risk of confusing audiences, but Jeon managed to pull both roles off perfectly without causing any confusion in the audience."


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 2007, Jeon starred in Lee Chang-dong's melodrama "Secret Sunshine", which propelled her to international recognition. Her fierce and fearless portrayal of a widowed mother who struggles to rearrange her life after the tragic deaths of her husband and son received universal critical acclaim. Although the film itself, which debuted at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, evoked widely differing assessments from international critics, Jeon's performance was universally praised, and she was chosen as the Best Actress by the Cannes jury, making her the first Korean ever to receive an acting award at Cannes. She also won Best Performance by an Actress at the 1st Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Following the heel of the Cannes' win, Jeon went on to sweep domestic awards, winning Best Actress at multiple film award ceremonies such as the 28th Blue Dragon Film Awards. In recognition of her contribution to the development of the Korean film industry, she was honored with the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Special Achievement Award at the 44th Grand Bell Awards.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: Post-Cannes, she starred in 2008 film "My Dear Enemy", playing an unemployed single woman who reacquaints herself with her ex-boyfriend. After starring in "My Dear Enemy", Jeon gave birth to a daughter and rested for a while. In October 2009, she was honored by the French government with the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres medal for her contribution to the arts. The following year, she returned to star in Im Sang-soo's 2010 controversial remake "The Housemaid". Jeon came back to Cannes once again as the film was chosen to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 2011, Jeon played a female con artist who risks her life for ten days for a final deal with a cold-hearted debt collector in "Countdown". "Countdown" premiered at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 2013, after a two-year break, Jeon returned with Bang Eun-jin's "Way Back Home", a film based on the true story of a housewife who was imprisoned for two years on the island of Martinique after being wrongly arrested for drug smuggling at Paris's Orly Airport in 2004. In 2014, she was announced as one of the nine panel members of the main competition jury at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, making her the first Korean actor or actress to receive the honor and the second Korean after director Lee Chang-dong in 2009.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In 2015, Jeon starred in "The Shameless", a thriller that explores the unexpected and carnal attraction that develops between a detective and the girlfriend of the murderer that he investigates. The film was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the 68th Cannes Film Festival and Jeon returned to Cannes for the fourth time in her career. For her performance in the film, Jeon won Best Actress at the 24th Buil Film Awards, the 15th Director's Cut Awards, and the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards respectively. The same year, she played a blind swordswoman in the Goryeo-set revenge period drama "Memories of the Sword", her third collaboration with Park Heung-sik and her second with Lee Byung-hun.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: This was followed by Jeon's second film with director Lee Yoon-ki, "A Man and a Woman", a 2016 film about a forbidden romance that takes place in the snow-swept landscape of Finland. Jeon then made a return to the small screen after twelve years in the 2016 Korean remake of the American legal drama "The Good Wife". She was praised for displaying a wide range of emotions and agony of a housewife who is forced to become a lawyer again after her husband is mired in a scandal and put behind bars.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: After a three-year break, Jeon reunited with Sol Kyung-gu in drama film "Birthday", marking her second collaboration with Sol eighteen years after "I Wish I Had a Wife". The film, inspired by the Sewol ferry disaster, deals with the struggles faced by a couple who lost their son in a tragic accident. The film had its international premiere at the 2019 Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. At the festival, Jeon was honored with Golden Mulberry Lifetime Achievement Award. She once again won Best Actress at the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards, the 6th Korean Film Producers Association Awards and 28th Buil Film Awards for her performance in the film.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: In early 2020, Jeon starred in "Beasts Clawing at Straws", a mystery thriller based on Keisuke Sone's novel, alongside Jung Woo-sung. The film was screened at the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam and won the Special Jury Award in the Tiger Competition. The film failed to turn a profit as local box office sales plummeted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: She is set to reunite with Song Kang-ho and Lee Byung-hun in Han Jae-rim's disaster action film "Emergency Declaration". She is also set to make her small-screen comeback in Hur Jin-ho's first television series project "Lost".


title: Jeon Do-yeon

text: Jeon married businessman and professional car racer Kang Shi-kyu, who is nine years her senior, in a private wedding ceremony at Shilla Hotel on March 11, 2007. She gave birth to a daughter on January 22, 2009.


title: Greig Fraser

text: Greig Fraser, , , (born 3 October 1975) is an Australian cinematographer who studied at the RMIT University. His most well-known work includes the films "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), "Lion" (2016), "Rogue One" (2016), "Vice" (2018), "Dune" (2021), and "The Batman" (2022).


title: Greig Fraser

text: For his work on "Dune" he won his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2022. Fraser said a feature of his work in that film was intentionally using simple compositions, "We tried to simplify the frames as much as we could. By doing that, we've been able to give the viewers that absorption of story and experience" and colour palette: "We tried quite hard to make sure that it all sat within a certain tone."


title: Greig Fraser

text: In 2020, Fraser won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour) for his work on the television series "The Mandalorian".


title: Greig Fraser

text: For his work on "Lion", he won the American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases and AACTA Award for Best Cinematography and received Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations.


title: Greig Fraser

text: Fraser met costume designer Jodie Fried in Sydney in 2004, while they were working on a short film. After moving to the United States in 2008, they were married in a helicopter above Las Vegas. They live in Los Angeles with their three children.


title: Greig Fraser

text: Film critic Glenn Kenny has praised Fraser's work in "The Batman" and "Dune", saying they were a "sort of stunning magic trick": "There's both a gauziness and a heft to his imagery. His use of shadow and silhouette is masterful, and does so much to convey a sense of foreboding and tension."


title: Franchot Tone

text: Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known for his gentlemanly sophisticate roles, with supporting roles by the 1950s. His acting crossed many genres including pre-Code romantic leads to "noir" layered roles and many World War I films. He appeared as a guest star in episodes of several golden age television series, including "The Twilight Zone" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" while continuing to act and produce in the theater and movies throughout the 1960s.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Midshipman Roger Byam in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935), along with his co-stars Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, making it the only film to have three simultaneous Best Actor nominations, and leading to the creation of the Best Supporting Actor category.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the wealthy president of the Carborundum Company, and his socially prominent wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot. Tone was also a distant relative of Wolfe Tone (the "father of Irish Republicanism"). Tone was of French Canadian, Irish, and English ancestry. Through his ancestor, the nobleman Gilbert L'Homme de Basque, translated to Basque Homme and finally Bascom, he was of French Basque descent.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone was educated at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, from which he was dismissed "for being a subtle influence for disorder throughout the fall term". He then entered Cornell University, where he was president of the drama club, acting in productions of Shakespeare. He was also elected to the Sphinx Head Society and joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. After graduating in 1927, he gave up the family business to pursue an acting career in the theater and he moved to Greenwich Village, New York.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone was in "The Belt" (1927), "Centuries" (1927–28), "The International" (1928), and a popular adaptation of "The Age of Innocence" (1928–29) with Katherine Cornell. He followed it with appearances in "Uncle Vanya" (1929), "Cross Roads" (1929), "Red Rust" (1929–30), "Hotel Universe" (1930), and "Pagan Lady" (1930–31).


title: Franchot Tone

text: He joined the Theatre Guild and played Curly in their production of "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1931)"," where Tone sang, which later became the basis for the musical "Oklahoma!" Robert Benchley of "The New Yorker" said that "Tone made lyrical love to [co-star] Walker" between the Sammy Lee chorus routines of the play. The Lynn Riggs play received mixed reviews, mostly favorable, and was a popular success lasting 64 performances on Broadway in addition to its road tour.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone was also a founding member of the Group Theatre, when the Theater Guild disbanded, along with other former guild members Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Clifford Odets. Clifford Odets recalled of Tone's acting, "The two most talented young actors I have known in the American theater in my time have been Franchot Tone and Marlon Brando, and I think Franchot was the more talented." Strasberg, who was a director in the Group during 1931–1941 and then teacher of "The Method" in the 1950s, had been a castmate of Tone's in "Green Grow the Lilacs".


title: Franchot Tone

text: These were intense and productive years for him; among the productions of the Group he acted in were "1931" (1931) lasting 12 performances, Maxwell Anderson's "Night Over Taos" (1932) a play in verse that lasted 10, "The House of Connelly" (1931) lasting 91 performances and John Howard Lawson's "Success Story" (1932) directed by Lee Strasberg. Outside of Group productions, he was in "A Thousand Summers" (1932).


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone made his film debut with "The Wiser Sex" (1932) starring Claudette Colbert, filmed by Paramount at their Astoria Studios.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone was the first of the Group to go to Hollywood when MGM offered him a film contract. In his memoir on the Group Theater, "The Fervent Years", Harold Clurman recalls Tone being the most confrontational and egocentric of the group in the beginning. Burgess Meredith credits Tone with informing him of the existence of "the Method" and what was soon to be the Actors' Studio under Strasberg's teachings. Tone himself considered cinema far more invasive to private life and paced differently than theater productions. He recalled his stage years with fondness, financially supporting the Group Theater in its declining years.


title: Franchot Tone

text: MGM immediately gave Tone a series of impressive roles, casting him in six pre-Code film standards. Starting in 1933 with a support role in the romantic WWI drama "Today We Live", written by William Faulkner in collaboration with director Howard Hawks. The script was first conceived as a WWI buddy film, but the studio executives wanted a vehicle for their popular leading lady Joan Crawford, forcing Faulkner and Hawks to work in the romance between co-stars Gary Cooper and Crawford. Tone was then the romantic male lead in "Gabriel Over the White House" starring Walter Huston, followed by a lead role with Loretta Young in "Midnight Mary".


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone romanced Miriam Hopkins in King Vidor's "The Stranger's Return" and was the male lead in "Stage Mother". He also had an role in "Bombshell", with Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy. The last of the sequence of films was "Dancing Lady", with an on-screen love triangle with his future wife Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, which was a "lavishly staged spectacle" with a solid performance by Tone.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Twentieth Century Pictures borrowed Tone to romance Constance Bennett in "Moulin Rouge" (1934) as she played dual roles in which "she shines as a comedienne" and his performance was called "equally clever in a role that calls for a serious mein" by "The New York Times". Back at MGM, he was again co-starring with Crawford in "Sadie McKee" (1934), then was borrowed by Fox to co-star "commendably" with Madeleine Carroll in John Ford's French Foreign Legion picture, "The World Moves On" (1934).


title: Franchot Tone

text: After "The Girl from Missouri" (1934) with Harlow, MGM finally gave Tone top billing in "Straight Is the Way" (1934), although it was considered a "B" film, one which didn't have a high publicity or production cost. Warner Bros. then borrowed him for "Gentlemen Are Born" (1934).


title: Franchot Tone

text: At Paramount, Tone co-starred in the Academy Award nominated hit movie, "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" (1935) with Gary Cooper. He was top billed in "One New York Night" (1935) but billed underneath Harlow and William Powell in "Reckless" (1935). He supported Crawford and Robert Montgomery in "No More Ladies" (1935) and had another box-office success with "Mutiny on the Bounty", for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, along with co-stars Clark Gable and Charles Laughton.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Warner Bros. borrowed him again, this time to play Bette Davis' leading man in "Dangerous" (1935). Davis has stated this is the picture where she fell in love with Tone, although unreturned, which began difficulties between her and Crawford. After a lead role in "Exclusive Story" (1935), he was again paired with friend Loretta Young in "The Unguarded Hour" (1936), and also starred with Grace Moore in Columbia's "The King Steps Out" (1936), notable for the debut of an eleven-year-old Gwen Verdon.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone and Harlow co-starred again in "Suzy" (1936) with then up and comer Cary Grant, who was billed third. The film was popular with audiences, but reviews were less than kind with "The New York Times" negatively comparing it to other recent WWI movies calling it "balderdash", but thanked "Mr. Tone for the few honest moments of drama that the film possesses. His young Irishman is about the only convincing and natural character in the piece." He then filmed "The Gorgeous Hussy" (1936) with Crawford, Robert Taylor and Lionel Barrymore with co-star Beulah Bondi earning an Academy award nomination for the Andrew Jackson period piece. A Crawford and Gable film capitalizing on "It Happened One Night" by casting the pair in roles as fast talking journalists in "Love on the Run" (1936), found Tone in a supporting role.


title: Franchot Tone

text: RKO borrowed him to appear opposite Katharine Hepburn in "Quality Street" (1937), a costume drama that lost $248,000 at the box office. Back at MGM he supported Spencer Tracy and Gladys George in "They Gave Him a Gun" (1937).


title: Franchot Tone

text: He had the lead in "Between Two Women" (1937) and co-starred for the final time with Crawford in "The Bride Wore Red" (1937), then joined Myrna Loy in "Man-Proof" (1938) and Gladys George in "Love Is a Headache" (1938).


title: Franchot Tone

text: In "Three Comrades" (1938) Tone was teamed with Robert Taylor and Margaret Sullavan in a film about disillusioned soldiers returning to Germany after World War I. He made "Three Loves Has Nancy" (1938) with Janet Gaynor and Robert Montgomery and co-starred with Franciska Gaal in "The Girl Downstairs" (1938), a Cinderella type story. He then starred in a "B" picture with Ann Sothern in "Fast and Furious" (1939) as married crime sleuths, the third movie in a series with different sets of actors in each, that were marketed towards the "Thin Man" films audiences.


title: Franchot Tone

text: After his contract ended, Tone left MGM in 1939 to act on Broadway in a return to his stage roots, often working with "the Group's" members of its formative years, and playwrights such as Eugene O'Neill. He returned to Broadway for Irwin Shaw's "The Gentle People" (1939) and an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Fifth Column" (1940), which only had a short run.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone signed a contract with Universal, starring in his first Western there, "Trail of the Vigilantes" (1940), where he more than earns his spurs alongside the likes of Broderick Crawford and Andy Devine. He was soon back supporting female stars though, making "Nice Girl?" (1941) with Deanna Durbin.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone also signed a multi-picture deal with Columbia, where he made two films with Joan Bennett, "She Knew All the Answers" (1941) and "The Wife Takes a Flyer" (1942).


title: Franchot Tone

text: Back at Universal he was top billed in "This Woman Is Mine" (1941). Tone went to Paramount to star in "Five Graves to Cairo" (1942), a World War II espionage story directed by Billy Wilder.


title: Franchot Tone

text: He also returned to MGM to star in "Pilot No. 5" (1943) then it was back to Universal for "His Butler's Sister" (1943) with Durbin.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone made two more films at Paramount, "True to Life" (1943) with Mary Martin and "The Hour Before the Dawn" (1944) with Veronica Lake. He had one of his best roles in Universal's "Phantom Lady" (1944) directed by Robert Siodmak, an early film noir picture and a villainous part for Tone. Also impressive was his performance in "Dark Waters" (1944) with Merle Oberon for Benedict Bogeaus.


title: Franchot Tone

text: He continued his stage career by performing on Broadway in "Hope for the Best" (1945) with Jane Wyatt; the production ran for a little more than three months.


title: Franchot Tone

text: At Universal Tone did "That Night with You" (1945) with Susanna Foster and "Because of Him" (1946) with Durbin.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone made "Lost Honeymoon" (1947) at Eagle-Lion Studios and "Honeymoon" (1947) with Shirley Temple. While at Columbia he had roles in "Her Husband's Affairs" (1947) with Lucille Ball, and "I Love Trouble" (1947), then "Every Girl Should Be Married" (1948) reteamed with Grant at RKO. He had the lead as an assistant D.A. looking for the murderer of a journalist while being distracted by a beauty played by then wife Jean Wallace in the film noir thriller, "Jigsaw" (1949). He then had a supporting part as a murder victim in "Without Honor" (1949), a noir film co-starring Laraine Day.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone produced and starred in "The Man on the Eiffel Tower" (1949), a troubled production suffering from filming delays on location, creative wrangling and the pictures hard to transfer single-strip technicolor film stock. It has benefited from restorations in the 2000s that have coincided with theatrical showings and vastly improved DVD releases. Tone's tour de force role as a manic depressive sociopath included performing many of his own stunts on the Paris landmark.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Burgess Meredith and Charles Laughton star with Tone. Meredith is credited as director, although Tone took over duties when Meredeth was in front of the camera with Laughton sometimes directing himself. The film has some of the best cinematic pictures of the Eiffel Tower according to French director Jean Renior.


title: Franchot Tone

text: Tone relocated to New York and began appearing in New York City-based live theater television, including "The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse", "Lux Video Theatre", "Danger", "Suspense" and "Starlight Theatre". He returned to Hollywood to appear in "Here Comes the Groom" (1951).


title: Franchot Tone

text: Back on the small screen, Tone was in "Lights Out", "Tales of Tomorrow", "Hollywood Opening Night", "The Revlon Mirror Theater," and "The Philip Morris Playhouse". But he soon returned to Broadway, appearing in a big hit with "Oh, Men! Oh, Women!" (1953–54), which ran for 400 performances, a revival of "The Time of Your Life" (1955) and Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" with Wendy Hiller and Cyril Cusack in 1957.


title: Franchot Tone

text: During this time he continued to appear on TV adaptations of Broadway plays, in such original productions as "Twelve Angry Men", as well as "The Elgin Hour", "The Ford Television Theatre", and in "The Best of Broadway" series in a production of "The Guardsman" with Claudette Colbert. Tone then continued in "Four Star Theatre", "Robert Montgomery Presents", a "Playwrights '56" production of "The Sound and the Fury", "Omnibus", "General Electric Theater", "The United States Steel Hour", "The Kaiser Aluminum Hour", "The Alcoa Hour", "Climax!", "Armchair Theatre", "Pursuit", "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Goodyear Theatre", "Playhouse 90", and "The DuPont Show of the Month".


title: Franchot Tone

text: He did a TV adaptation of "The Little Foxes" (1956) with Greer Garson and played Frank James in "Bitter Heritage" (1958). In 1957 Tone co-produced, co-directed, and starred in an adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", which was filmed concurrently with an off-Broadway revival. His performance as the Russian country doctor with "ennui" was praised and the preserving of the stage production to film only varied by the addition of then wife Dolores Dorn.


title: Franchot Tone

text: In the early 1960s Tone was in episodes of "Bonanza" and "The Twilight Zone" ("The Silence") and appeared on Broadway in an adaptation of "Mandingo" (1961). He then played the spent, dying president in the screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Advise & Consent" (1962), an Otto Preminger film that the director had unsuccessfully lobbied Martin Luther King to portray a senator in, while two U.S. senators played extras on Capitol Hill locations previously used for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."""


title: Franchot Tone

text: On stage in 1963 he acted in a revival of O'Neill's "Strange Interlude", with Ben Gazzarra and Jane Fonda, and "Bicycle Ride to Nevada". The next year he appeared in Lewis John Carlino's "Double Talk".


title: Franchot Tone

text: He was cast in TV shows such as "The Eleventh Hour", "Dupont Show of the Week", "The Reporter", "Festival", "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", and "The Virginian". He appeared in what is possibly the first TV movie, "See How They Run" (1964).


title: Franchot Tone

text: In Europe, Tone made "La bonne soupe" (1965). He co-starred in the "Ben Casey" medical series from 1965 to 1966 as Casey's supervisor, Dr. Daniel Niles Freeland.


title: Franchot Tone

text: He had roles in Otto Preminger's film "In Harm's Way" (1965) in which he portrayed Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Arthur Penn's "Mickey One "(1965), and an episode of "Run for Your Life". He appeared off-Broadway in "Beyond Desire" (1967) and his last roles were in "Shadow Over Elveron" (1968) and "Nobody Runs Forever" (1968), a British film originally titled "The High Commissioner".


title: Franchot Tone

text: In 1935 Tone married actress Joan Crawford; the couple were divorced in 1939. They made seven films together – "Today We Live" (1933), "Dancing Lady" (1933), "Sadie McKee" (1934), "No More Ladies" (1935), "The Gorgeous Hussy" (1936), "Love on the Run" (1936), and "The Bride Wore Red" (1937). Their union produced no children; despite considerable effort, Crawford's pregnancies all ended in miscarriage.