title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded on 17 October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the United Kingdom, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release (29 November 1963) had it not been blocked by the group's first million-seller "She Loves You", their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" stayed at number one for five weeks and remained in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks in total.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: It was also the group's first American number-one hit, entering the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 and starting the British Invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February it topped the Hot 100, and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You". It remained on the "Billboard" chart for 15 weeks. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies. In 2018, "Billboard" magazine named it the 48th biggest hit of all time on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In the UK, it was the second highest selling single of the 1960s, behind "She Loves You".


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: Capitol Records' rejection of the group's recordings in the US was now Brian Epstein's main concern, and he encouraged Lennon and McCartney to write a song to appeal specifically to the American market. George Martin, however, had no such explicit recollections, believing that Capitol were left with no alternative but to release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" due to increasing demand for the group's product.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: McCartney had recently moved into 57 Wimpole Street, London, where he was lodging as a guest of Dr Richard and Margaret Asher, and whose daughter, actress Jane Asher, had become McCartney's girlfriend earlier in the year. This location briefly became Lennon and McCartney's new writing base, taking over from McCartney's Forthlin Road home in Liverpool. Margaret Asher taught the oboe in the "small, rather stuffy music room" in the basement where Lennon and McCartney sat at the piano and composed "I Want to Hold Your Hand". In September 1980, Lennon told "Playboy" magazine:


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: In 1994, McCartney agreed with Lennon's description of the circumstances surrounding the composition of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", saying: "'Eyeball to eyeball' is a very good description of it. That's exactly how it was. 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' was very co-written." According to Ian MacDonald, in keeping with how Lennon and McCartney collaborated at that time, lyrically bland, random phrases were most likely called out by the pair; if the phrases fitted the overall sound, they would stay. The song's title was probably a variation of "I Wanna Be Your Man", which the Beatles had recently recorded at EMI Studios.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: Reminiscent of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building techniques and an example of modified 32-bar form, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is written on a two-bridge model, with only an intervening verse to connect them. The song has no real "lead" singer, as Lennon and McCartney sing alternately in unison and in harmony with each other.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The song is in the key of G major and lyrically opens two beats early with ""Oh yeah", I'll tell you something" with a D-B, B-D melody note drop and rise over an I (G) chord. Controversy exists over the landmark chord that Lennon stated McCartney hit on the piano while they were composing the song. Wolf Marshall considers it is the minor vi (Em) chord (the third chord in the I–V7–vi (G–D7–Em) progression). Walter Everett is of the same opinion. Dominic Pedler claims, however, that more surprising is the melody note drop from B to F against a III7 (B7) chord on "understand".


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The Beatles recorded "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at EMI Studios in Studio 2 on 17 October 1963. This song, along with the single's B-side, "This Boy", was the first Beatles song to be recorded with four-track technology. The two songs were recorded on the same day, and each needed seventeen takes to complete. Mono and stereo mixing was done by George Martin on 21 October 1963; further stereo mixes were done on 8 June 1965, for compilations released by EMI affiliates in Australia and the Netherlands, and on 7 November 1966.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was one of two Beatles songs (along with "She Loves You" as "Sie liebt dich") to be later recorded in German, entitled "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" (literally "Come, give me your hand"). Both songs were translated by Luxembourger musician Camillo Felgen, under the pseudonym of "Jean Nicolas".


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: Odeon, the German arm of EMI (the parent company of the Beatles' record label, Parlophone) was convinced that the Beatles' records would not sell in Germany unless they were sung in German. The Beatles detested the idea, and when they were due to record the German version on 27 January 1964 at EMI's Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris (where the Beatles were performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre) they chose to boycott the session. Their record producer, George Martin, having waited some hours for them to show up, was outraged and insisted that they give it a try. Two days later, the Beatles recorded "Komm, gib mir deine Hand", one of the few times in their career that they recorded outside London. However, Martin later conceded: "They were right, actually, it wasn’t necessary for them to record in German, but they weren’t graceless, they did a good job".


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" was released as a German single in March 1964. In July, the song appeared in full stereo in the United States on the Beatles' Capitol LP "Something New". (That album was released in CD form for the first time in 2004, on "The Capitol Albums, Volume 1", and then rereleased in 2014, individually and in the boxed set "The US Albums".) "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" also appeared on the compilations "Past Masters" and "Mono Masters".


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: In the United Kingdom, "She Loves You" (released in August) had shot back to the number-one position in November following blanket media coverage of the Beatles (described as Beatlemania). Mark Lewisohn later wrote: "'She Loves You' had already sold an industry-boggling three quarters of a million before these fresh converts were pushing it into seven figures. And at this very moment, just four weeks before Christmas, with everyone connected to the music and relevant retail industries already lying prone in paroxysms of unimaginable delight, EMI pulled the trigger and released 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. And then it was bloody pandemonium."


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: On 29 November 1963, Parlophone Records released "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the UK, with "This Boy" as the single's B-side. Demand had been building for quite a while, as evidenced by the one million advance orders for the single. When it was finally released, the response was phenomenal. A week after it entered the British charts, on 14 December 1963, it knocked "She Loves You" off the top spot, the first instance of an act taking over from itself at number one in British history, and it clung to the top spot for five weeks. It stayed in the charts for another 15 weeks and made a one-week return to the charts on 16 May 1964. Beatlemania was peaking at that time; during the same period, the Beatles set a record by occupying the top two positions on both the album and single charts in the UK.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: EMI and Brian Epstein finally convinced American label Capitol Records, a subsidiary of EMI, that the Beatles could make an impact in the US, leading to the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with "I Saw Her Standing There" on the B-side as a single on 26 December 1963. Capitol had previously resisted issuing Beatle recordings in the US. This resulted in the relatively modest Vee-Jay and Swan labels releasing the group's earlier Parlophone counterparts in the US. Seizing the opportunity, Epstein demanded US$40,000 from Capitol to promote the single (the most the Beatles had ever previously spent on an advertising campaign was US$5,000). The single had actually been intended for release in mid-January 1964, coinciding with the planned appearance of the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show". However, a fourteen-year-old fan of the Beatles, Marsha Albert, wanted to hear the Beatles on the radio earlier. Later she said:


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: James was the DJ for WWDC, a radio station in Washington, DC. Eventually he decided to pursue Albert's suggestion to him and asked the station's promotion director to get British Overseas Airways Corporation to ship in a copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from Britain. Albert related what happened next: "Carroll James called me up the day he got the record and said 'If you can get down here by 5 o'clock, we'll let you introduce it.'" Albert managed to get to the station in time, and introduced the record with: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time on the air in the United States, here are the Beatles singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'."


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The song proved to be a huge hit, a surprise for the station since they catered mainly to a more staid audience, which would normally be expecting songs from singers such as Andy Williams or Bobby Vinton instead of rock and roll. James took to playing the song repeatedly on the station, often turning down the song in the middle to make the declaration, "This is a Carroll James exclusive", to avoid theft of the song by other stations.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: Capitol threatened to seek a court order banning airplay of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which was already being spread by James to a couple of DJs in Chicago and St. Louis. James and WWDC ignored the threat, and Capitol came to the conclusion that they could well take advantage of the publicity, releasing the single two weeks ahead of schedule on 26 December.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The demand was insatiable; in the first three days alone, a quarter of a million copies had already been sold (10,000 copies In New York City every hour). Capitol was so overloaded by the demand, it contracted part of the job of pressing copies off to Columbia Records and RCA. By 18 January, the song had started its 15-week chart run, and on 1 February, the Beatles finally achieved their first number one in "Billboard", emulating the success of another British group, the Tornados with "Telstar", which topped the "Billboard" chart for three weeks in December 1962. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" finally relinquished the number-one spot after seven weeks, succeeded by the song they had knocked off the top in Britain: "She Loves You". "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold around five million copies in the US alone. The replacement of themselves at the top of the US charts was the first time since Elvis Presley in 1956, with "Love Me Tender" beating out "Don't Be Cruel", that an act had dropped off the top of the American charts only to be replaced by another of their releases. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" also finished as the number one song for 1964, according to "Billboard". In 2013, "Billboard" listed it as the 44th most successful song of all-time on the Hot 100.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: With that, the "British Invasion" of America had been launched. Throughout 1964, British pop and rock artists enjoyed unprecedented success on the American charts.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The American single's front and back sleeves featured a photograph of the Beatles with Paul McCartney holding a cigarette. In 1984, Capitol Records airbrushed out the cigarette for the re-release of the single.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was also released in America on the album "Meet the Beatles!", which altered the American charts by actually outselling the single. Beforehand, the American markets were more in favour of hit singles instead of whole albums; however, two months after the album's release, it had shipped 3,650,000 copies, over 200,000 ahead of the "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single at 3,400,000.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The song was included on the 1964 Canadian release "The Beatles' Long Tall Sally". The November 1966 stereo remix appeared on 1966's "A Collection of Beatles Oldies", and on several later Beatles compilation albums, including 1973's "1962–1966", 1982's "20 Greatest Hits", and 2000's "1". The 2009 CD rerelease of the Beatles' catalog included the 1966 stereo remix on "Past Masters" and the original mono mix on "Mono Masters".


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: The song was greeted by raving fans on both sides of the Atlantic but was dismissed by some critics as nothing more than another fad song that would not hold up to the test of time. Cynthia Lowery of the Associated Press expressed her exasperation with Beatlemania by saying of the Beatles: "Heaven knows we've heard them enough. It has been impossible to get a radio weather bulletin or time signal without running into 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'." "Esquire"s music critic David Newman wrote, "Terrible awful. ...It's the bunk. The Beatles are indistinguishable from a hundred other similar loud and twanging rock-and-roll groups. They aren't talented singers (as Elvis was), they aren't fun (as Elvis was), they aren't anything." In its contemporary review of the US single, "Cash Box" described it as "an infectious twist -like thumper that could spread like wildfire here."


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: In his book "Revolution in the Head", Ian MacDonald wrote that the song "electrified American pop", adding: "every American artist, black or white, asked about 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' has said much the same: it altered everything, ushering in a new era and changing their lives." Bob Dylan said: "They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid." For a time Dylan thought the Beatles were singing "I get high" instead of "I can't hide". He was surprised when he met them and found out that none of them had actually smoked marijuana. The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson recalled his initial reaction to the song: "I flipped. It was like a shock went through my system... I immediately knew that everything had changed"; he said that he and Mike Love had a meeting to discuss the challenge presented by the Beatles, as "For a while there, we felt really threatened." In another interview, Wilson said the song "wasn't even that great a record, but they [female Beatles fans] just screamed at it... It got us off our asses in the studio... we said 'look, don't worry about the Beatles, we'll cut our own stuff.'"


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: Discussing the Beatles' musical legacy in the 2004 edition of "The Rolling Stone Album Guide", Rob Sheffield states:


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: At the annual Ivor Novello Awards, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" finished second in the category "The 'A' Side of the Record Issued in 1963 Which Achieved the Highest Certified British Sales", behind "She Loves You". The song was nominated for the 1964 Grammy Award for Record of the Year, but the award went to Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz for "The Girl from Ipanema". However, in 1998, the song won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. It has also made the list in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In addition, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Endowment for the Arts and Scholastic Press have named "I Want to Hold Your Hand" as one of the Songs of the Century. In 2010, "Rolling Stone" placed the song at number 2 on its list of the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs, after "A Day in the Life". It was ranked number 2 in "Mojo"s list on the "100 Records That Changed the World", after Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti". The song was ranked number 39 on "Billboard"s All Time Top 100. In 2011, "Time" included the song on its list of the All-TIME 100 Songs. , "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the 18th best-selling single of all time in the UK.


title: I Want to Hold Your Hand

text: Starting at the song's final week at the top of the American charts, the Beatles have the all-time record of seven number-one songs in a one-year period. In order, these were "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Love Me Do", "A Hard Day's Night", "I Feel Fine" and "Eight Days a Week". It was also the first of seven songs written by Lennon–McCartney to top the US charts in 1964—an all-time record for writing the most songs to hit number one on the US charts in the same calendar year.


title: Udmurtia

text: Udmurtia (; , "Udmurtija"), or the Udmurt Republic (, , "Udmurt Respublika", "Udmurt Eľkun"), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic) in Eastern Europe, within the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Izhevsk.


title: Udmurtia

text: The name "Udmurt" comes from ('meadow people'), where the first part represents the Permic root or ('meadow, glade, turf, greenery'). This is supported by a document dated 1557, in which the Udmurts are referred to as ('meadow people'), alongside the traditional Russian name .


title: Udmurtia

text: The second part means 'person' (cf. Komi , Mari ). It is probably an early borrowing from a Scythian language: or ('person, man'; cf. Urdu ), which is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term ('man, mortal, one who is bound to die'. cf. Old Indic ('young warrior') and ('chariot warrior'), both connected specifically with horses and chariots. The Indo-Europeanists T. Gamkrelidze and V. Ivanov associate this word with horse-riding Altaic tribes in the Bronze Age.


title: Udmurtia

text: On the other hand, in the Russian tradition, the name 'meadow people' refers to the inhabitants of the left bank of river in general. Recently, the most relevant is the version of V. V. Napolskikh and S. K. Belykh. They suppose that ethnonym was borrowed either from Indo-Iranian 'outside, close, last, edge, limit, boundary' or Turkic-Altaic / 'oath (in fidelity), comrade, friend'.


title: Udmurtia

text: On November 4, 1920, the Votyak Autonomous Oblast was formed. On January 1, 1932, it was renamed Udmurt Autonomous Oblast, which was then reorganized into the Udmurt ASSR on December 28, 1934. During World War II, many industrial factories were evacuated from the Ukrainian SSR and western borderlands to Udmurtia.


title: Udmurtia

text: The republic is located to the west of the Ural Mountains and borders Kirov, Perm, Bashkortostan, and Tatarstan.


title: Udmurtia

text: Udmurtia is a republic in the Russian Federation, located in Central Russia between the branches of two of the largest and oldest rivers in Europe: the Kama and its right tributary the Vyatka.


title: Udmurtia

text: The city of Izhevsk is the administrative, industrial and cultural center of Udmurtia. Geographically, it is located not far from Moscow, the capital and largest city of the Russian Federation. The city has a well-developed transport system (including air, land, and water).


title: Udmurtia

text: Udmurtia borders Kirov Oblast to the west and north, Perm Oblast to the east, and the Bashkortostan and Tatarstan Republics to the south.


title: Udmurtia

text: The republic has a moderate continental climate, with warm summers and cold, snowy winters. Annual precipitation averages 400–600 mm.


title: Udmurtia

text: Although as of 2007 the population was declining, the decline was stabilizing and was more pronounced in urban areas. Out of the 19,667 births reported in 2007, 12,631 were in urban areas (11.86 per 1,000) and 7,036 were in rural areas (14.88 per 1,000). Birth rates for rural areas are 25% higher than that of urban areas. Of the total of 21,727 deaths, 14,366 were reported in urban areas (13.49 per 1,000) and 7,361 were in rural areas (15.56 per 1,000). Natural decline of the population was measured at −0.16% for urban areas and an insignificant −0.07% for rural areas (the average for Russia was −0.33% in 2007).


title: Udmurtia

text: According to the 2010 Census, Russians make up 62.2% of the republic's population, while the ethnic Udmurts make up only 28%. Other groups include Tatars (6.7%), Ukrainians (0.6%), Mari (0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the republic's total population.


title: Udmurtia

text: According to a 2012 survey, 33.1% of the population of Udmurtia adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 5% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 2% are Eastern Orthodox Christian believers without belonging to any church or members of other Eastern Orthodox churches, 4% are Muslims, 2% of the population adheres to the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery) or to Udmurt Vos (Udmurt native faith), 1% adheres to forms of Protestantism, and 1% of the population are Old Believers. In addition, 29% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious," 19% is atheist, and 3.9% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.


title: Udmurtia

text: The local Russian Orthodox Church is the Metropolitanate of Udmurtia, comprising the Eparchy of Izhevsk (founded 1927) under Bishop and Metropolitan Viktorin (Kostenkov) (2015), the Eparchy of Glazov (founded 1889) under Bishop Viktor (Sergeyev) and the Eparchy of Sarapul (founded 1868) under Bishop Anthony (Prostikhin) (2015).


title: Udmurtia

text: Udmurt Jews are a special territorial group of the Ashkenazi Jews, which started to be formed in the residential areas of mixed Turkic-speaking (Tatars, Kryashens, Bashkirs, Chuvash people), Finno-Ugric-speaking (Udmurts, Mari people) and Slavic-speaking (Russians) population. The Ashkenazi Jews on the territory of the Udmurt Republic first appeared in the 1830s. The Udmurt Jewry had formed the local variety on the base of the Yiddish of Udmurtia till the 1930s and features of Yiddish of migrants "joined" into it (in the 1930s and 1940s); as a result up to the 1970s and 1980s the Udmurt variety of Yiddish ("Udmurtish") was divided into two linguistic subgroups: the central subgroup (with centers Izhevsk, Sarapul, and Votkinsk) and the southern subgroup (with centers Kambarka, Alnashi, Agryz and Naberezhnye Chelny). One of the characteristic features of the Udmurtish is a noticeable number of Udmurt and Tatar loan words.


title: Udmurtia

text: Udmurt folklore is understood both in a broad sense (, , - folk knowledge, folk wisdom), and in a narrower one (, - folk poetry, oral poetry). In everyday life, folklore is not divided into genres, it is perceived in unity with material culture, with religious, legal and ethical aspects. Popular terms-definitions have incorporated the ritual action (, , , , , , ), symbolically figurative and magically forming words (, , , ), musical and choreographic behavior (, , , , )


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The single-bullet theory, often derided and discredited by referring to it as the magic-bullet theory, was introduced by the Warren Commission in its investigation of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to explain what happened to the bullet that struck Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat. Given the lack of damage to the presidential limousine consistent with it having been struck by a high-velocity bullet, and the fact that Texas Governor John Connally was wounded and was seated on a jumper seat in front of and slightly to the left of the president, the Commission concluded they were likely struck by the same bullet.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Generally credited to Warren Commission staffer Arlen Specter (later a United States Senator from Pennsylvania), this theory posits that a single bullet, known as "Warren Commission Exhibit 399" or "CE 399", caused all the wounds to the governor and the non-fatal wounds to the president, which totals up to seven entry/exit wounds in both men.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The theory says that a three-centimeter-long (1.2") copper-jacketed lead-core bullet from a 6.5×52mm Mannlicher–Carcano rifle fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository passed through President Kennedy's neck into Governor Connally's chest, went through his right wrist, and embedded itself in Connally's left thigh. If so, this bullet traversed a back brace, 15 layers of clothing, seven layers of skin, and approximately of muscle tissue, and pulverized of Connally's rib, and shattered his radius bone. The bullet was found on a gurney in the corridor at Parkland Memorial Hospital after the assassination. The Warren Commission found that this gurney was the one that had carried Governor Connally.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In its final conclusion, the Warren Commission reportedly found "persuasive evidence from the experts" that a single bullet caused President Kennedy's neck wound, and all of the wounds found in Governor Connally. It acknowledged that there was a "difference of opinion" among members of the Commission "as to this probability", but stated that the theory was not essential to its conclusions and that all members had no doubt that all shots were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Depository building.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Most pro- and anti-conspiracy theorists believe that the single-bullet theory is essential to the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The reason for this is timing: if, as the Warren Commission found, President Kennedy was wounded some time between frames 210 and 225 of the Zapruder film, and Governor Connally was wounded in the back/chest no later than frame 240, there would not have been enough time between the wounding of the two men for Oswald to have fired two shots from his bolt-action rifle. FBI marksmen, who test-fired the rifle for the Warren Commission, concluded that the "minimum time for getting off two successive well-aimed shots on the rifle is approximately 2 and a quarter seconds", or 41 to 42 Zapruder frames.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations published their report in 1979 stating that their "forensic pathology panel's conclusions were consistent with the so-called single bullet theory advanced by the Warren Commission".


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The first preliminary report on the assassination, issued by the FBI on December 9, 1963, said: "Three shots rang out. Two bullets struck President Kennedy, and one wounded Governor Connally." After the report was written, the FBI received the official autopsy report which indicated that the bullet that struck the president in the back had exited through his throat. The FBI had written their report partly based on an initial autopsy report written by their agents which reflected the early presumption that that bullet had only penetrated several inches into the president's back and had likely fallen out. The FBI concluded, therefore, that the governor had been struck by a separate bullet.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The Warren Commission commenced study of the Zapruder film, the only known film to capture the entire assassination sequence, on January 27, 1964. By then, the FBI had determined that the running speed of Abraham Zapruder's camera was 18.3 frames per second, and that the Mannlicher–Carcano rifle found at the Texas School Book Depository, the presumed murder weapon, could not be fired twice in less than 2.3 seconds, or 42 frames of the Zapruder film.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: When the Commission requested and received after February 25 higher-resolution images of the Zapruder film from "Life" magazine (who had purchased the film from Zapruder), it was immediately apparent that there was a timing problem with the FBI's conclusion that three bullets had found their mark. Kennedy was observed by the Commission to be waving to the crowd at frame 205 of the Zapruder film as he disappears behind the Stemmons Freeway sign, and seems to be reacting to a shot as he emerges from behind the sign a little more than a second later at frames 225 and 226. In their initial viewing of the film, Connally seemed to be reacting to being struck between frames 235 and 240.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Given the earliest possible frame at which Kennedy could have been struck (frame 205), and the minimum 42 frames (2.3 seconds) required between shots, there seemed to be insufficient time for separate bullets to be fired from the rifle. Several assistant counsels, upon viewing the film for the first time, concluded there had to be two assassins.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: On April 14 and 21, two conferences were held at the Commission to determine when, exactly, the president and governor were struck. Assistant counsel Melvin Eisenberg wrote in a memorandum dated April 22 on the first conference that the consensus of those attending was, among other issues, that Kennedy was struck by frames 225–6 and that "the velocity of the first bullet [which struck Kennedy] would have been little diminished by its passage through the President. Therefore, if Governor Connally was in the path of the bullet it would have struck him and caused the wounds he sustained in his chest cavity... Strong indications that this occurred are provided by the facts that... if the first bullet did not strike Governor Connally, it should have ripped up the car but it apparently did not." However, the memorandum stated, given the relatively undamaged condition of the bullet presumed to have done this, CE 399, the consensus was a separate bullet probably struck his wrist and thigh. While not specifying a precise frame for when it was thought Connally was struck by the same bullet which struck Kennedy, the consensus was "by Z235" as afterwards his body position would not have allowed his back to be struck the way it was.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: By the end of April 1964, the Commission had its working theory, the single-bullet theory, to account for the apparent timing discrepancies found in the Zapruder film and the lack of any damage to the limousine from a high-velocity bullet exiting the president's throat. (Impact damage was observed in the limousine, but was indicative of lower-velocity bullets or bullet fragments. For example, a nick on the limousine's chrome was not from a high-velocity bullet as such a bullet would have pierced the chrome, not merely dented it.)


title: Single-bullet theory

text: On May 24, the FBI and Secret Service reenacted the shooting in Dallas and the Commission tested its theory. Agents acting as the president and the governor sat in a car of approximately the same dimensions of the presidential limousine, which was unavailable for the re-creation. Adjustments to measurements were made to account for the differences in the vehicles. Positions were recreated by matching them to particular frames of the Zapruder film, calibrated with other films and photographs taken that day. With the agents in position, photographs were taken from the sniper's nest of the Texas School Book Depository. It was from this re-creation, and the testimony of the agent in the sniper's nest, that the Commission verified the theory to its satisfaction, as the governor was in a direct line to be struck by any bullet fired between frames 207 and 235 to 240 which exited the president's throat, though the agent in fact testified that from frame 226 onward the governor was "too much towards the front" and his wounds were therefore misaligned from that point. An oak tree partially obscured the line of sight until frame 210, so the Commission concluded that "the President was not hit until at least frame 210 and that he was probably hit by frame 225."


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Further evidence gathered suggested to the Commission that the initial April consensus that a separate bullet caused the governor's wrist and thigh injuries was incorrect, as the Army Wound Ballistics experts concluded that those wounds were "not caused by a pristine bullet," and therefore bullet CE 399 "could have caused all his wounds." Other evidence, such as the nature of Connally's back wound (see below) was also cited by the Commission as corroborating the theory.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The Commission, however, did not conclude the single-bullet theory had been proven, as three members of the body, Representative Hale Boggs, Senators Richard Russell and John Cooper thought the theory improbable. Russell requested that his opposition to the theory be stated in a footnote in the report. In the end, the Commission changed the word "compelling" to "persuasive" and stated: "Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President's throat also caused Governor Connally's wounds."


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Nevertheless, all seven members of the Commission signed off on the statement: "There was no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President's and Governor Connally's wounds were fired from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository."


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Within minutes after the shots rang out in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, sources began reporting that three shots had been fired at the President's motorcade. At 12:34 p.m., approximately four minutes after the shots were fired, the first wire story flashed around the world:


title: Single-bullet theory

text: This report had been transmitted by United Press International (UPI) reporter Merriman Smith from a radio telephone located in the front seat of the press car in the Presidential motorcade, six cars behind the President's limousine. Smith's communication with the Dallas UPI office was made less than a minute after the shots were heard, as his car entered the Stemmons freeway en route to Dallas' Parkland Hospital.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Merriman Smith's dispatch was the first of many reports. There were dozens of journalists riding in the motorcade in three open press cars and a press bus, of whom all reported hearing a number of shots other than three. Photographers Robert Jackson and Tom Dillard riding in a car in the motorcade heard three shots. "The Dallas Morning News" reporter Mary Woodward described hearing three shots as she stood in front of the Texas School Book Depository.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: There has been some controversy regarding the number of shots fired during the assassination. The Warren Commission concluded that three shots were fired. The vast majority of witnesses claim to have heard three, but there are some witnesses who could recall only one or two shots. A few witnesses thought there were four or more shots. Of 178 witnesses whose evidence was compiled by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), 132 reported hearing exactly three shots, 17 recalled hearing two, 7 said they heard two or three shots (total: 88%). A total of 6 people said they thought they heard four shots, and 9 said they were not sure how many shots they heard. Another 7 people said they thought they heard 1, 5, 6, or 8 shots.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Governor Connally, riding in the middle jump seat of the President's limousine in front of the President, recalled hearing the first shot which he immediately recognized as a rifle shot. He said he immediately feared an assassination attempt and turned to his right to look back to see the President. He looked over his right shoulder but did not catch the President out of the corner of his eye so he said he began to turn back to look to his left when he felt a forceful impact to his back. He stated to the Warren Commission: "I immediately, when I was hit, I said, "Oh, no, no, no." And then I said, "My God, they are going to kill us all." He looked down and saw that his chest was covered with blood and thought he had been fatally shot. Then he heard the third and final shot, which sprayed blood and brain tissue over them.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Nellie Connally said she heard the first shot and saw President Kennedy with his hands at his neck reacting to what she later realized was his neck wound. After the first shot, she heard her husband yell, "Oh, no, no, no" and turn to his right (away from her). Then she heard a second shot, which hit her husband. She saw him recoil away from her and saw that he was hit. She immediately reached over and pulled him toward her into her arms and lay backward. Then she heard the third and final shot. Mrs. Connally said she never looked into the back seat of the car after her husband was shot.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: According to the single-bullet theory, one shot passed through President Kennedy's neck and caused all of Governor Connally's wounds (he was wounded in the chest, right wrist, and left thigh), and one of the shots must have missed the limousine entirely. The Connallys never accepted the theory. While they agreed with the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone, they insisted that all three shots struck occupants of the limousine.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: President Kennedy's death certificate places the bullet wound to Kennedy's back at about the third thoracic vertebra. The death certificate was signed by Dr. George Burkley, the President's personal physician. As interpreted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations Forensic Pathology Panel, the autopsy photos and autopsy X-rays show a bullet hole at the first thoracic vertebra. The bullet hole in the shirt worn by Kennedy and the bullet hole in the suit jacket worn by Kennedy both show bullet holes between below the top of Kennedy's collar. These do not necessarily correspond with bullet wounds, since Kennedy was struck with his arm raised in the air, and multiple photos taken of the President during the motorcade show that his jacket was bunched in the rear below his collar. In addition, on February 19, 2007, the film shot by George Jefferies was released. This 8 mm film, which was taken approximately 90 seconds before the shooting, also clearly shows that President Kennedy's suit coat was bunched up around the neckline around the time of the assassination.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The theory of a "single bullet" places a bullet wound as shown in the autopsy photos and X-rays, at the first thoracic vertebra of the vertebral column. The official autopsy report on the President, Warren Exhibit CE 386, described the back wound as being oval-shaped, 6 x 4 mm, and located "above the upper border of the scapula" [shoulder blade] at a location from the tip of the right acromion process, and below the right mastoid process (the boney prominence behind the ear). The report also reported contusion (bruise) of the apex (top tip) of the right lung in the region where it rises above the clavicle, and noted that although the apex of the right lung and the parietal pleural membrane over it had been bruised, they were not penetrated. The report also noted that the thoracic cavity was not penetrated.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The concluding page of the Bethesda autopsy report states: "The other missile [referring to the body-penetrating bullet] entered the right superior posterior thorax above the scapula, and traversed the soft tissues of the supra-scapular and the supra-clavicular portions of the base of the right side of the neck. This missile produced contusions of the right apical parietal pleura and of the apical portion of the right upper lobe of the lung. The missile contused the strap muscles of the right side of the neck, damaged the trachea, and made its exit through the anterior surface of the neck."


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The conclusion of bullet entry specifically at the first thoracic vertebra was made in a 1979 report on the Kennedy assassination by the HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel, which created Figure [24] for their report to demonstrate this entrance location. This position is consistent with the back wound location in Figure 4 of their report, a drawing made from one of the still-unreleased autopsy photos. It is also consistent with the unofficial versions of this photo available on the internet. The HSCA examined these photographs and X-rays before rendering its opinions as to bullet entry and exit locations, and obtained testimony from autopsy physicians that these were the correct photographs and X-rays taken during the autopsy.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The importance of how low or high the bullet struck the President in the back is a matter of possible geometry. The Sibert/O'Neill FBI autopsy report original made by two FBI agents (Special Agents James W. Sibert and Francis X. O'Neill) present at the autopsy preserves genuine confusion among the medical doctors present during the autopsy, caused by apparent lack of an exit wound, which was cleared up later in the official report after new and more complete information became available (the exit had been hidden by a tracheotomy incision). This report does note that the doctor (Commander Humes) at the time said that he was unable to locate an "outlet" for the wound in Kennedy's "shoulder" (not his back).


title: Single-bullet theory

text: At the time of the autopsy, toward the end of the procedure, initial probing of the shoulder wound suggested the bullet entered the base of Kennedy's neck at a 45 to 60 degree angle. At least two shell casings were found near the window at the southeast corner side of the TSBD on the sixth floor, and with the fact that movement was seen in the same corner window from bystanders below, just previous to when the cars arrived, and also because of the proximity of the initial investigations'shell casing evidence collected, to that, of the nearest window. A window that was said by some to have been partly opened at the moment of the shots, all leading the Warren Commission to focus solely on this location in their investigation as the source of gunfire and so decided to have a team of surveyors measure the angles from that said window to the locations of the street, which, would roughly correspond to the location of Kennedy seated in his limousine, when seen in the Zapruder Film, riding along Elm Street at frames 210, and 225.} During so, it was found that the downward angle from the horizontal, was 21.57 degrees at frame 210, and 20.18 degrees at frame 225. The street sloped at 3.15 degrees (3° 9') away from the depository building. This would have made the angle through the president between 17 and 18.5 degrees, assuming that Kennedy was sitting upright, in his seat. The Commission concluded that this angle was consistent with the bullet making the observed paths through the President's upper body and striking Governor Connally in the right armpit.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The weight of bullet CE399 was reported in the Warren Commission Report as 158.6 grains (10.28 grams). It was found that the weight of a single, unfired bullet ranged from 159.8 to 161.5 grains with an average weight of 160.844 grains. The lead fragments retrieved from Connally's wounds in the wrist (there were no fragments in the chest) weighed about 2 grains (130 milligrams).


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Dr. Robert Shaw described the wound on Connally's back as "a small wound of entrance, roughly elliptical in shape, and approximately a cm. and a half in its longest diameter, in the right posterior shoulder, which is medial to the fold of the axilla".


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The bullet entered just at the edge of the scapula and followed the fifth rib, shattering the last 10 cm of the rib before exiting on the right side of his chest just below the right nipple. According to the theory, the bullet then went through the Governor's jacket cuff about 0.5 cm from the end, the shirt's French cuff about 1.5 cm from the end, struck and shattered his radius leaving many dark fibers and small fragments of metal in the wound, and exited on the palm side of his wrist above the cuff. There was a hole about 0.5 cm from the end of the jacket sleeve and a hole through the back of the doubled French cuff but no exit hole on the palm side.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: According to the theory, the bullet emerged from the palm side of the wrist and entered the left thigh. This bullet is thought to be CE 399 which was later recovered from Parkland Hospital after it was heard falling onto a hallway floor as a hospital employee adjusted one of two patient stretchers, partially obstructing his maneuvers as he performed his routine. Using ballistics CE 399 was matched to the rifle found in the Texas School Book Depository, to the exclusion of all other rifles.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The following description assumes that bullet CE 399 hit high, at the sixth cervical vertebra rather than the third thoracic vertebra: The 6.5 millimeter, 161 grain, round nose military style full metal jacket bullet, which was manufactured by the Western Cartridge Company and later stored nearly whole in the U.S. National Archives, was first theorized by the Warren Commission to have:


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Regarding the bullet that he remembered impacting his back, Connally stated, "...the most curious discovery of all took place when they rolled me off the stretcher and onto the examining table. A metal object fell to the floor, with a click no louder than a wedding band. The nurse picked it up and slipped it into her pocket. It was the bullet from my body, the one that passed through my back, chest, and wrist, and worked itself loose from my thigh." Connally does not say how he determined this object to have been a bullet, rather than his missing gold cufflink.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: This "single bullet," which was full metal jacketed and specifically designed to pass through the human body, was deformed and not in a pristine state as some detractors claim. Though a side view seems to show no visible damage, a view from the end of the bullet shows a significant flattening which occurred when, according to the theory, the bullet struck Connally's wrist, butt end first. The metallurgical composition of the bullet fragments in the wrist was compared to the composition of the samples taken from the base of CE 399.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Several of the same type 6.5 millimeter test bullets were test-fired by the Warren Commission investigators. The test bullet that most matched the slight side flattening and nearly pristine, still rounded impact tip of CE 399 was a bullet that had only been fired into a long tube containing a thick layer of cotton. Later tests show that such bullets survive intact when fired into solid wood and multiple layers of skin and ballistic gel, as well.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: CE 399 is stored out of the public's view in the National Archives and Records Administration, though numerous pictures of the bullet are available on the NARA website.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Ballistics experts have performed test shots through animal flesh and bones with cloth covering. Under the assumption of an adjusted relative position of President Kennedy and Governor Connally within the car, some, but not all, of the Warren Commission ballistics experts considered it possible that the same bullet that passed through the President's neck may have caused all of the governor's wounds.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In 2004, the Discovery Channel aired an episode of "Unsolved History" titled "JFK — Beyond the Magic Bullet". Their re-enactment of the assassination using current forensics and materials found that a single bullet almost exactly duplicated the path of travel specified in the single bullet theory.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In 1993 computer animator Dale Myers embarked on a 10-year project to completely render the events of November 22 in 3D computer animation. His results were shown as part of ABC's documentary "The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy" in 2003, and won an Emmy award.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: To render his animation, Myers took photographs, home footage, blueprints and plans, and attempted to use them to create an accurate computer reenactment of the assassination. His work was assessed by Z-Axis who have been involved in producing computer generated animations of events, processes and concepts for major litigations in the United States and Europe.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Their assessment concluded that Myers' animation allowed the assassination sequence to be viewed "from any point of view with absolute geometric integrity" and that they "believe that the thoroughness and detail incorporated into his work is well beyond that required to present a fair and accurate depiction."


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Myers' animation found that the bullet wounds were consistent with JFK's and Governor Connally's positions at the time of shooting, and that by following the bullet's trajectory backwards it could be found to have originated from a narrow cone including only a few windows of the sixth floor of the School Book Depository, one of which was the sniper's nest of boxes from which the rifle barrel had been seen protruding by witnesses.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In the same ABC documentary, Myers uses a close-up examination of the Zapruder film to justify the single-bullet theory and calls attention to frames 224 and 225 on the Zapruder film where the right side lapel of Governor Connally's jacket appears to "pop out," as if being pushed from within by an unseen force. Myers theorizes that this is the moment of impact, when both Kennedy and Connally were struck by the same bullet from Oswald's rifle. Myers also argues that in frames 225-230 both Kennedy and Connally are simultaneously reacting to the impact of the bullet. There is no other point on the film which shows either Kennedy or Connally reacting because they have been shot, they both react at the same time, frame 225, because that is when the single bullet hits both of them.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: If the bullet exited Connally's chest below the nipple the lapel would be too high to have popped out due to direct contact with the bullet but surgeon John Lattimer has argued that jacket bulged out because of the "hail of rib fragments and soft tissue" as the bullet tumbled in Connally's body.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Warren Commission documents released after the publication of its report revealed that the FBI had arranged for bullet CE 399 and the various fragments found in the car and in Governor Connally's wounds to be examined using neutron activation analysis (NAA). NAA is a precise, non-destructive method of determining the relative concentrations of trace elements in a sample of matter. The data from the tests performed for the FBI were inconclusive as to the origins of the fragments.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In 1978 the HSCA asked physicist Vincent P. Guinn to review the NAA data and conduct new tests. Guinn did so and presented his results and analysis to the Committee. Guinn stated that initially he agreed with the earlier conclusion. However, after examining the old and new NAA data further, he concluded that all the fragments probably came from two bullets, one of which was the whole bullet, CE 399.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Guinn compared antimony concentrations of Exhibits CE 840, 843 and 567 with that of Exhibits CE 399 and 842 and concluded that the data supported the single-bullet theory in that all the bullet lead in the car and wounds originated from no more than two bullets.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Whether the NAA data can be used to actually exclude the possibility that there were fragments from more than two bullets in the wounds and the car has been the subject of controversy.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Ken Rahn of the University of Rhode Island, a chemist and meteorologist who has a long-standing interest in the Kennedy Assassination, maintains that the NAA data excludes a "three bullet hit" and proves the SBT actually occurred. His analysis was published in 2004 co-authored with Larry Sturdivan, a Warren Commission and HSCA ballistics expert.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Rahn/Sturdivan say that the possibility that the wrist fragment CE 842 (with an antimony concentration of 797 ± 7 ppm) did not come from the base of the whole bullet CE 399 (the sample from which had an antimony concentration of 833 ± 9 ppm) is so statistically improbable as to be excluded as a reasonable possibility.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: However, in an article published in July 2006 in the "Journal of Forensic Sciences" by Erik Randich and Patrick M Grant, the authors took a much different view of the NAA data and the metallurgical profile of the Mannlicher–Carcano ammunition. The authors found errors in the analysis by Guinn:


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Thus, elevated concentrations of antimony and copper at crystallographic grain boundaries, the widely varying sizes of grains in MC bullet lead, and the 5–60 mg bullet samples analyzed for assassination intelligence effectively resulted in operational sampling error for the analyses. This deficiency was not considered in the original data interpretation and resulted in an invalid conclusion in favor of the single-bullet theory of the assassination.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The end-result of these metallurgical considerations is that, from the antimony concentrations measured by VPG [Vincent P. Guinn] in the specimens from the JFK assassination, there is no justification for concluding that two, and "only" two, bullets were represented by the evidence.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The conclusion of Randich and Grant had been advanced earlier by Arthur Snyder of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory in a paper written in 2001.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In August 2006 Ken Rahn wrote a response critical of the Randich/Grant paper on his website claiming that Randich and Grant did not analyse the data correctly:


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Both sections of the article failed to make their case. The metallurgical section contained a huge gap in its logic (proposing an explanation but failing to support it quantitatively), and predicted at least two features of the elemental data that were the opposite of that actually observed. The statistical section started well, but stumbled when it confused heterogeneity with analytical uncertainty and when it used confidence intervals instead of difference in means to assess the separation of the two groups of crime-scene fragments. Fixing these two errors gave the opposite result, i.e., confirmed that the groups were distinct.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Patrick Grant defended his and Erik Randich's paper against Rahn's critique in an article entitled "Commentary on Dr. Ken Rahn's Work on the JFK Assassination Investigation" and posted it on the MaryFerrell.org website.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The technique used by Guinn to analyse the bullet lead from the JFK assassination was a form of what has become known as Compositional Bullet Lead Analysis (CBLA). Until 2004 the FBI used this technique to determine whether a crime scene bullet lead sample came from a particular box of ammunition or a particular batch of bullets. Guinn claimed that with the JFK bullet fragments, the technique could be used to identify the exact bullet the fragments came from.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: However, the validity of CBLA was discredited in a 2002 paper ("A Metallurgical Review of the Interpretation of Compositional Bullet Lead Analysis", (2002) 127 Forensic Science International, 174-191) co-authored by Randich and by former FBI Chief Metallurgist, William Tobin.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The 2002 Tobin/Randich paper prompted the National Academy of Sciences (Board on Chemical Science and Technology) to review the science of bullet lead analysis. In a report in 2004 the NAS found the scientific basis for matching bullet sources from the analysis of bullet lead composition as practiced by the FBI was flawed. As a result of that report, the courts appear to have stopped accepting this evidence and the FBI has stopped using bullet lead analysis for forensic purposes.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The NAS report on CBLA, and its relevance to the Guinn's analysis of bullet lead in the JFK assassination, is the subject of comment by Randich and Grant in their 2006 paper at page 719.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Critics of the single-bullet theory state that it is not possible that a single bullet could cause the number of wounds it did and still remain nearly intact. Some critics state that discrediting the theory would suggest the involvement of two shooters.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Critics of the single-bullet thesis question not only the bullet's trajectory and relative lack of damage, but also the question of timing of hits to both the president and Connally. A single bullet would have passed through both men in less than 1/100th of a second, which means that a strike of both men by a single bullet would have happened too quickly to be caught on more than a single Zapruder frame (these were exposed at 1/18th second intervals). From the Zapruder film one can see Kennedy with his hands in front of his chest near his throat as he emerges from behind the sign at Zapruder frame 225.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: According to one popular version of the single-bullet theory (promoted by Gerald Posner in his book, "Case Closed"), the interval between frame 223 and 224 is the time the same projectile passes through both JFK and Connally's body. It is not obvious at this point (frame 224) whether Connally has, or has not, been hit; however, Connally, but not other limousine occupants, is newly blurred in frame 224 but not in frame 223. Connally himself, in analyzing the frame-by-frame Zapruder film, identified his own hit later, at about Zapruder frame 230, whereas JFK is certainly hit about Zapruder frame 224, a third of a second earlier. Beginning immediately after frame 224, Connally rapidly raises and then lowers both arms, then turns to his right toward the Zapruder camera, but it is not clear that he is turning to see what has happened to Kennedy.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: He must have been hit before this point, if hit by the same bullet, since the President is already reacting. Connally's cheeks then puff out, and his mouth opens. Many suggest that he is beginning to show the shock of the bullet. Others suggest that Connally is doing exactly what he said he did in reaction to hearing the first bullet: he said he realized an assassination was unfolding so he turned to see the President. It is at "this" point that some critics of the single-bullet theory believe Connally is actually hit by a second and separate bullet, and this is also what Connally himself believed, but only on the supposition that the first shot he heard was one that struck the president. (If the first shot missed the president, then Connally's memory of being hit later corresponds with the single-bullet theory). Proponents of the single-bullet thesis argue that Connally is simply exhibiting a delayed pain reaction to having been hit by the same bullet that hit Kennedy, a third of a second earlier.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Some critics believe the puffing out of Connally's cheeks is simply physics at work, as the bullet collapses one of his lungs, forcing air into his mouth. Other critics believe that the puffing of Connally's cheeks result from him shouting, "Oh, no, no, no", which his wife, Nellie, said he shouted after the first shot but before the second shot. The premise that a collapsed lung would cause Connally's cheeks to puff out is dismissed by Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the HSCA. "When the lung is punctured, as Connally's was, the air in the lung goes out into the chest cavity, not out of the mouth, so Connally's cheeks puffing out would have not been caused by air trying to escape."


title: Single-bullet theory

text: When an enhanced copy of the Zapruder film was released in 1998, many felt the delayed reaction theory was debunked. Others, particularly Posner, noted that Connally's right lapel flips up at frame 224 (it hides the right part of his white collar in frame 224, which is far more clearly seen in both frames 223 and 225). In this same frame, as noted above, Connally suddenly becomes blurred with regard to the rest of the automobile (Connally is clear in frame 223). Frame 224 is precisely the best-posited frame of the impact of the bullet to Kennedy, who is still behind the sign at this point. Zapruder himself does not appear to jump until frame 227, blurring all contents of the automobile.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Connally's immediate reaction after frame 224, including a flinch in which he flexes both elbows and brings his hat up, is seen by some as an unconscious reaction to the strike (single frames of this reaction appear to show Connally unharmed, with hat held up in front of his chest, while Kennedy behind him has already clearly been hit). Others see this as the Governor's reaction to the sound of the first shot. Immediately after the arm spasm, Connally begins a motion which drops his right shoulder and holds his right arm pinned to his right side, including a slow rolling motion toward this side. He also is seen to look over his right shoulder at Kennedy and shows an expression of pain only after turning his head back toward Zapruder's position around frame 275.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: In the Oliver Stone movie "JFK", Stone goes to great lengths to debunk the single-bullet theory, although some discrepancies exist between the narrative and the historical record. One example is when he shows Connally seated directly in front of Kennedy at the same height. In fact, Connally was seated in a jump seat the edge of which was inboard and possibly lower than Kennedy.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The House Select Committee concluded that the Governor could have been as much as to the left of the President. Moreover, Stone has Connally looking straight ahead. However, when Connally emerges from behind the freeway sign at Zapruder frames 222-223, he is clearly rotated significantly to his right. These points are of critical importance in assessing whether the bullet that passed through Kennedy could have caused Connally's injuries. Computer recreations showing accurate body positioning of the two men show that their injuries, if caused at Zapruder frame 224, fall on a line which emanates from a circle enclosing several windows on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository, and includes the window of the sniper's nest.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Connally continued to hold his hat after the single bullet struck and broke his right wrist. Critics contend this is not physically possible. However, in the Zapruder film Connally continues to clutch the hat even after Kennedy's head wound, this being a point after which everyone (including critics) agree Connally must have already been hit. In fact, Connally's wife, Nellie Connally, stated that he held on to his hat until he was put on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital. Thus, it is reasonably clear that Connally continued to hold the hat after being hit. Wrist fracture would not preclude ability to hold a light object such as a hat, and Connally's nerve damage was limited to a superficial branch of the radial nerve which served a sensory function only, and would not have interfered with his grip strength (nor was Connally's hand function in any way permanently harmed).


title: Single-bullet theory

text: A further criticism of the single-bullet theory has to do with the apparent trajectory of the "single bullet". Perhaps the most outspoken critic of the single-bullet theory has been pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht who, as a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, wrote a dissenting opinion in which he explained why, in his view, the left to right trajectory from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository through the President's neck could not possibly intersect with Governor Connally's right armpit. Wecht notes that in the photographs it appears that Governor Connally is seated in the middle of the jump seat and the President is to the right side of his seat with his right arm resting on the top of the limousine side.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: According to the analysis done by the HSCA, the horizontal angle from the 6th floor window of the Texas School Book Depository to the limousine at frame 190 or so was about 13 degrees, right to left. The vertical angle was about 21 degrees downward from the horizontal plane and 18 degrees relative the car which was going down at 3 degree slope.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: If Governor Connally was seated in the middle of his seat, the bullet should have struck the Governor to the left of his spine. The HSCA concluded that the thigh wound was made by a bullet travelling at a much slower speed than one would expect the bullet to have after exiting the President's neck (though the single-bullet theory holds that the bullet which struck Connally's thigh had also passed through his wrist, slowing it down in the process). Governor Connally said that he never felt this thigh wound at any time until the next day. On the other hand, Dr. Shires, who operated on Governor Connally's thigh wound, thought that the wound to the thigh (which he said extended to the region of the femur) could have been made by a bullet travelling at high speed striking the thigh on an angle.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: The HSCA concluded, however, that Governor Connally was not seated in the middle of his seat but was about to the left of that position. NASA Engineer Thomas Canning provided an analysis of the photograph taken by Hugh Betzner from the rear of the limousine a moment prior to the first shot (according to Betzner, he took the picture and began winding his camera to take another when the first shot sounded). It has been determined that Betzner's photograph was simultaneous with Zapruder frame 186. Mr. Canning could not see the Governor's shoulder in Betzner's photograph and concluded that this meant that the shoulder was obscured by the person standing in front of Betzner. This, he said, put the shoulder well to the left of the president's midline putting his right armpit in line with a right-to-left path through the President's neck. The analysis and conclusion of Canning depends on the correctness of the assumption that Governor Connally's shoulder would have been visible if the man in front of Betzner was not there. The photo taken by James Altgens taken from a similar angle earlier on Houston Street would seem to indicate that Governor Connally's shoulder was "below" the line of sight.


title: Single-bullet theory

text: Some critics have questioned the circumstances surrounding the bullet's discovery at Parkland Hospital. In a 1966 interview with author Josiah Thompson, one of the men who found the bullet, Parkland personnel director O.P. Wright, cast doubt on whether the bullet subsequently entered into evidence as CE 399 was the same bullet he held in his hand that day. Wright told Thompson that the bullet they found was point nosed, whereas CE 399 is round nosed. However, in 1964, both Wright and Darrel Tomlinson, a maintenance employee at Parkland who passed the bullet along to Wright, were shown the bullet and said the bullet in evidence appeared to be the same one as the bullet found on the stretcher, though neither could positively identify the bullet as the same one.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), of serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire of 1916 to 1918.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: The title comes from the Book of Proverbs; "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars" () (King James Version). Before the First World War, Lawrence had begun work on a scholarly book about seven great cities of the Middle East, to be called "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". It was incomplete when war broke out and Lawrence stated that he destroyed the manuscript. He used his original title for the later work.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: The book had to be rewritten three times, once following the loss of the manuscript on a train at Reading railway station. From "Seven Pillars", "... and then lost all but the Introduction and drafts of Books 9 and 10 at Reading Station, while changing trains. This was about Christmas, 1919." (p. 21)


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is an autobiographical account of his experiences during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918, when Lawrence was based in Wadi Rum in Jordan as a member of the British Forces. With the support of Emir Faisal and his tribesmen, he helped organise and carry out attacks on the Ottoman forces from Aqaba in the south to Damascus in the north. Many sites inside the Wadi Rum area have been named after Lawrence to attract tourists, although there is little or no evidence connecting him to any of these places, including the rock formations near the entrance now known as "The Seven Pillars".


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: Speculation surrounds the book's dedication, a poem written by Lawrence and edited by Robert Graves, concerning whether it is to an individual or to the whole Arab race. It begins, "To S.A.", possibly meaning Selim Ahmed, a young Arab boy from Syria of whom Lawrence was very fond. Ahmed died, probably from typhus, aged 19, a few weeks before the offensive to liberate Damascus. Lawrence received the news of his death some days before he entered Damascus.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: A variant last line of that first stanza—reading, "When we came"—appears in some editions; however, the 1922 Oxford text (considered the definitive version; see below) has "When I came". The poem originated as prose, submitted by letter to Graves, who edited the work heavily into its current form, rewriting an entire stanza and adjusting the others.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: Lawrence kept extensive notes throughout the course of his involvement in the Revolt. He began work on a clean narrative in the first half of 1919 while in Paris for the Peace Conference and, later that summer, while back in Egypt. By December 1919, he had a fair draft of most of the ten books that make up the "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" but lost it (except for the introduction and final two books) when he misplaced his briefcase while changing trains at Reading railway station.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: National newspapers alerted the public to the loss of the "hero's manuscript", but the draft was not recovered. Lawrence refers to this version as "Text I" and says that had it been published, it would have been some 250,000 words in length.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: In early 1920, Lawrence set about the daunting task of rewriting as much as he could remember of the first version. Working from memory alone (he had destroyed many of his wartime notes upon completion of the corresponding parts of Text I), he was able to complete this "Text II", 400,000 words long, in three months. Lawrence described this version as "hopelessly bad" in literary terms, but historically it was "substantially complete and accurate". This manuscript, titled by Lawrence "The Arab Revolt", is held by the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas with a letter from Lawrence's brother authenticating it as the earliest surviving manuscript of what would become "Seven Pillars of Wisdom".


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: With Text II in front of him, Lawrence began working on a polished version ("Text III") in London, Jeddah, and Amman during 1921. Lawrence completed this text comprising 335,000 words in February 1922.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: To eliminate any risk of losing the manuscript again, and to have copies that he could show privately to critics, he considered having the book typed out. However, he discovered that it would be cheaper to get the text typeset and printed on a proofing press at the "Oxford Times" printing works. Just eight copies were produced, of which six survive. In bibliographical terms the result was the first "edition" of "Seven Pillars" (because the text was reproduced on a printing press). In legal terms, however, these substitutes for a typescript were not "published". Lawrence retained ownership of all the copies and chose who was allowed to read them. The proof-printing became known as the "Oxford Text" of "Seven Pillars". As a text it is unsatisfactory because Lawrence could not afford to have the proof corrected. It therefore contains innumerable transcription errors, and in places lines and even whole paragraphs are missing. He made corrections by hand in five of the copies and had them bound. (In 2001, the last time one of these rough printings came on to the market, it fetched almost US$1 million at auction.) Instead of burning the manuscript, Lawrence presented it to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: By mid-1922, Lawrence was in a state of severe mental turmoil: the psychological after-effects of war were taking their toll, as were his exhaustion from the literary endeavours of the past three years, his disillusionment with the settlement given to his Arab comrades-in-arms, and the burdens of being in the public eye as a perceived "national hero". It was at this time that he re-enlisted in the armed forces under an assumed name, for the most part in the Royal Air Force, as described in his book "The Mint" with the byline "by 352087 A/c Ross", with a period in the Royal Tank Corps as "Private Shaw". Concerned over his mental state and eager for his story to be read by a wider public, his friends persuaded him to produce an abridged version of "Seven Pillars", to serve as both intellectual stimulation and a source of much-needed income. In his off-duty evenings, he set to trimming the 1922 text down to 250,000 words for a subscribers' edition.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: In 2022, almost a hundred years after the publication of the book, the missing part of the first book emerged, in which Lawrence expresses in a heartfelt tone his feeling of shame at how the revolt was betrayed by the colonial powers (France and United Kingdom) with the secret Sykes-Picot agreement for the partition of the Middle East. An extremely rare copy of the original manuscript, which includes the missing chapter, was auctioned in England at the starting price of £ 65,000 for the first time. With Lawrence's words: "[That was] an Arab war waged and led by Arabs for an Arab aim in Arabia … a new nation, to restore a lost influence [and build] an inspired dream palace of their national thoughts".


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: The Subscribers' Edition—in a limited print run of about 200 copies, each with a unique, sumptuous, hand-crafted binding—was published in late 1926, with the subtitle "A Triumph". It was printed in London by Roy Manning Pike and Herbert John Hodgson, with illustrations by Eric Kennington, Augustus John, Paul Nash, Blair Hughes-Stanton and his wife Gertrude Hermes. Copies occasionally become available in the antiquarian trade and can easily command prices of up to US$100,000. Unfortunately, each copy cost Lawrence three times the thirty guineas the subscribers had paid.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: The Subscribers' Edition was 25% shorter than the Oxford Text, but Lawrence did not abridge uniformly. The deletions from the early books are much less drastic than those of the later ones: for example, Book I lost 17% of its words and Book IV lost 21%, compared to 50% and 32% for Books VIII and IX. Critics differed in their opinions of the two editions: Robert Graves, E. M. Forster, and George Bernard Shaw preferred the 1922 text, although, from a legal standpoint, they appreciated the removal of certain passages that could have been considered libellous (or at least indiscreet), while Edward Garnett preferred the 1926 version.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: Literary merits aside, however, producing the Subscribers' Edition had left Lawrence facing bankruptcy. He was forced to undertake an even more stringent pruning to produce a version for sale to the general public: this was the 1927 "Revolt in the Desert," a work of some 130,000 words: "An abridgement of an abridgement", remarked Shaw, not without disdain. Nevertheless, it received wide acclaim by the public and critics alike, the vast majority of whom had never seen or read the less-abridged Subscribers' Edition.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: After the 1926 release of the Subscribers' Edition, Lawrence stated that no further issue of "Seven Pillars" would be made during his lifetime. Lawrence was killed in a motorcycle accident in May 1935, at age 46; within weeks of his death, the 1926 abridgement, as well as the first unabridged US edition by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., were released to the general public. The Doubleday edition was first released in a limited run of 750 copies, with a standard run released afterward. An unabridged edition would not be published again until 1997, when the unabridged Oxford Text of 1922 appeared as a "best text" edited by Jeremy Wilson from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library, alongside Lawrence's amended copy of the 1922 proof printing. Wilson made some further minor amendments in a new edition published in 2003.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: Charles Hill has called "Seven Pillars" "a novel traveling under the cover of autobiography", capturing Lawrence's highly personal version of the historical events described in the book.


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: An advertisement for the 1935 edition quotes Churchill as saying "It ranks with the greatest books ever written in the English language. As a narrative of war and adventure it is unsurpassable."


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is a song by heavy metal group Sabaton about Lawrence, released in July 2019 on the album "The Great War".


title: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

text: In Tony Parsons’ novel, "The Murder Bag" (2014), the "Seven Pillars" is referenced as part of the curriculum at Potters Field school and has a formative influence on a group of former pupils.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe from the United Kingdom, during World War II. The manning and operation of the Atlantic Wall was administratively overseen by the German Army, with some support from "Luftwaffe" ground forces. The "Kriegsmarine" (German Navy) maintained a separate coastal defence network, organised into a number of sea defence zones.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Hitler ordered the construction of the fortifications in 1942 through his Führer Directive No. 40. More than half a million French workers were drafted to build it. The wall was frequently mentioned in Nazi propaganda, where its size and strength were usually exaggerated. The fortifications included colossal coastal guns, batteries, mortars, and artillery, and thousands of German troops were stationed in its defences. Today, ruins of the wall exist in all of the nations where it was built, although many structures have fallen into the ocean or have been demolished over the years.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: World War II in Europe began on 1 September 1939, with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Two days later, the UK and France declared war on Germany. Poland's geographical location, however, prevented the Allies from intervening directly. Four weeks into the attack, the Germans had successfully occupied Poland.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Less than a month after this victory, Adolf Hitler issued a directive stating that Germany must be ready for an offensive through France and the Low Countries. However, the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" (German high command; OKW) was convinced that preparations would take at least until the following year. After furious arguments, Hitler reluctantly agreed to wait. In May 1940, three massive German army groups overran France and the Low Countries in little more than six weeks.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Prior to the Atlantic Wall decision, following a number of commando raids, on 2 June 1941 Adolf Hitler asked for maps of the Channel Islands. These were provided the next day and by 13 June 1941 Hitler had made a decision. Ordering additional men to the Islands and having decided the defences were inadequate, lacking tanks and coastal artillery, the Organisation Todt (OT) was instructed to undertake the building of 200–250 strong points in each of the larger islands. The plan was finalised by the OT and submitted to Hitler. The original defence order was reinforced with a second dated 20 October 1941, following a Fuhrer conference on 18 October to discuss the engineers' assessment of requirements. The permanent fortification of the Channel Islands was to make them into an impregnable fortress to be completed within 14 months. "Festungspionierkommandeur XIV" was created to command the project of fortifying the Channel Islands.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: It was six months later on 23 March 1942 that Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 40, which called for the creation of an "Atlantic Wall". He ordered naval and submarine bases to be heavily defended. Fortifications remained concentrated around ports until late in 1943, when defences were increased in other areas. This decision required the army engineers and the OT to organise quickly. Massive supplies of cement, steel reinforcing and armour plate would be required and everything would need to be transported.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The "Regelbau" (standard build) system used books of plans for each of over 600 approved types of bunker and casemate, each having a specific purpose, having been updated as enemy constructions were overrun and examined, even testing some to destruction for effectiveness. They incorporated standard features, such as an entrance door at right angles, armoured air intake, steel doors, ventilation and telephones, internal walls lined with wood, and an emergency exit system. There were over 200 standardised armour parts.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The standardisation greatly simplified the manufacture of equipment, the supply of materials and the budgetary and financial control of the construction as well as the speed of planning for construction projects.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: To offset shortages, captured equipment from the French and other occupied countries armies were incorporated in the defences, casemates designed for non-German artillery, anti tank and machine guns and the use of turrets from obsolete tanks in "tobrukstand" pill boxes (tobruk pits).


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Organisation Todt (OT), formed in 1933, had designed the Siegfried Line during the prewar years along the Franco-German border. OT was the chief engineering group responsible for the design and construction of the wall's major gun emplacements and fortifications.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The OT supplied supervisors and labour as well as organising supplies, machinery and transport to supplement the staff and equipment of construction companies. Many of them were German, however construction companies in occupied counties bid for contracts. Companies could apply for OT work or could be conscripted. Companies failing to complete their work on time, which was always possible as the OT controlled the material and manpower of each firm, could find themselves closed down, or more likely fined, or taken over or merged with another firm to make a more efficient larger unit, successful firms however could make attractive profits.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The OT obtained quotes for necessary works and signed contracts with each construction company setting out the price and terms of the contract, such as bonus payments for efficiency, including the wage rates and bonus payments for OT workers (which depended on their nationality and skill). There could be several construction companies working on each site.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Labour comprised skilled volunteers, engineers, designers and supervisors, who were paid and treated well. Second came volunteer workers, often skilled technicians, such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and metal workers. Again, these workers were paid, took holidays and were well treated. Next came unskilled forced labour, paid very little and treated quite harshly. Lastly came effective slave labour, paid little, badly fed and treated very harshly. The OT ran training courses to improve labour skills.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Massive numbers of workers were needed. The Vichy regime imposed a compulsory labour system, drafting some 600,000 French workers to construct these permanent fortifications along the Dutch, Belgian, and French coasts facing the English Channel. Efficiency of the OT decreased in late 1943 and 1944 as a result of manpower pressures, fuel shortages and the bombing of worksites, such as V-weapons sites, where some volunteer workers refused to work in such dangerous areas.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: OT Cherbourg in January 1944 dealt with 34 companies with 15,000 workers and 79 sub contractors. Daily, weekly and monthly reports showing progress, work variations, material used, stocks of material, labour hours used per skill type, the weather, equipment inventory and quality, level of supervision, employee absences, staffing levels, deaths and problems experienced all had to be filed with the OT.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Throughout most of 1942–43, the Atlantic Wall remained a relaxed front for the Axis troops manning it, with only two large-scale British attacks. Operation Chariot, launched near St Nazaire in March 1942, successfully destroyed German pumping machinery for, and severely damaged, the Normandy dry dock and installations. The second attack was the Dieppe Raid, launched near the French port of Dieppe in August 1942 to test the German defences and provide combat experience for Canadian troops. The Germans were defeated at St. Nazaire, but had little difficulty in repulsing the attack at Dieppe, where they inflicted heavy casualties. Although the Dieppe raid was a disaster for the Allies, it alarmed Hitler, who was sure an Allied invasion in the West would shortly follow. Following Dieppe, Hitler gave Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the overall German Commander-in-Chief in the West, 15 further divisions to shore up the German positions.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Early in 1944, with an Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe becoming ever more likely, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was assigned to improve the wall's defences. Believing the existing coastal fortifications to be entirely inadequate, he immediately began strengthening them. Rommel's main concern was Allied air power. He had seen it first-hand when fighting the British and Americans in North Africa, and it had left a profound impression on him. He feared that any German counterattack would be broken up by Allied aircraft long before it could make a difference. Under his direction, hundreds of reinforced concrete pillboxes were built on the beaches, or sometimes slightly inland, to house machine guns, antitank guns, and light and heavy artillery. Land mines and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches, and underwater obstacles and naval mines were placed in waters just offshore. Little known was that touch sensitive mines were placed atop the beach obstacles. The intent was to destroy the Allied landing craft before they could unload on the beaches.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: By the time of the Allied invasion, the Germans had laid almost six million mines in Northern France. More gun emplacements and minefields extended inland along roads leading away from the beaches. In likely landing spots for gliders and parachutists, the Germans emplanted slanted poles with sharpened tops, which the troops called "Rommelspargel" ("Rommel's Asparagus"). Low-lying river and estuarine areas were intentionally flooded. Rommel believed that Germany would inevitably be defeated unless the invasion could be stopped on the beach, declaring, "It is absolutely necessary that we push the British and Americans back from the beaches. Afterwards it will be too late; the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive."


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The Channel Islands were heavily fortified, particularly the island of Alderney, which is closest to Britain. Hitler had decreed that one-twelfth of the steel and concrete used in the Atlantic Wall should go to the Channel Islands, because of the propaganda value of controlling British territory. The islands were some of the most densely fortified areas in Europe, with a host of Hohlgangsanlage tunnels, casemates, and coastal artillery positions.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: However, as the Channel Islands lacked strategic significance, the Allies bypassed them when they invaded Normandy. As a result, the German garrisons stationed on the islands did not surrender until 9 May 1945—one day after Victory in Europe Day. The garrison on Alderney did not surrender until 16 May. Because most of the German garrisons surrendered peacefully, the Channel Islands are host to some of the best-preserved Atlantic Wall sites.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: The commander in Guernsey produced books giving detailed pictures, plans and descriptions of the fortifications in the island, "Festung Guernsey".


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Many major ports and positions were incorporated into the Atlantic Wall, receiving heavy fortifications. Hitler ordered all positions to fight to the end, and some of them remained in German hands until Germany's unconditional surrender. Several of the port fortresses were resupplied by submarines after being surrounded by Allied Forces. The defenders of these positions included foreign volunteers and Waffen-SS troops.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Many French construction companies benefited financially from helping construct the Atlantic Wall; these companies were not penalised during the post war period.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Immediately after the war, there was little interest in preserving the wall due to the negative memories associated with the Nazi occupation. Some of the beach fortifications have toppled or are underwater, while those further inland still exist mainly due to their location.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: One of the best preserved parts is the Todt Battery. In 2011, renewed efforts to preserve the wall were spearheaded by organisations in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The question has been raised over whether France should declare the wall a National Monument to ensure it is preserved; however no government so far has envisaged this.


title: Atlantic Wall

text: Although the defensive wall was never fully completed, many bunkers still exist near Ostend, Channel Islands, Scheveningen, The Hague, Katwijk, Noordwijk, and in Scandinavia (Denmark and Norway specifically).


title: Popcornflix

text: Popcornflix LLC is a website and over-the-top (OTT) service offering free ad-supported streaming video of feature-length movies and webisodes. It is owned by Screen Media Ventures, Popcornflix and its parent company were acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment in 2017.


title: Popcornflix

text: Popcornflix was conceived in July 2010, and went into live beta in March 2011. The site primarily streams independent feature films, many of which come from Screen Media's library.


title: Popcornflix

text: In addition to full-length independent movies, Popcornflix features original content including web series and film school originals.


title: A Thousand Suns

text: A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on September 13, 2010, by Warner Bros. Records. The album was written by the band and was produced by Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who worked together to produce the band's previous studio album "Minutes to Midnight" (2007). Recording sessions for "A Thousand Suns" took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California from 2008 until early 2010.


title: A Thousand Suns

text: "A Thousand Suns" is a concept album dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare. The band has said the album is a drastic departure from their previous work; they experimented on different and new sounds. Shinoda told MTV the album references numerous social issues and blends human ideas with technology. The title is a reference to the "Bhagavad Gita", a line in which was first popularized in 1945 by J. Robert Oppenheimer, who described the atomic bomb as being "as bright as a thousand suns". It also appears in a line from the first single of the album, "The Catalyst". "A Thousand Suns" is Linkin Park's longest studio album to date, clocking in at 47 minutes.


title: A Thousand Suns

text: "The Catalyst" was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2, 2010. "The Catalyst" peaked at #40 on the "Billboard" Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts. Three more singles were released to promote the album: "Waiting for the End", "Burning in the Skies" and "Iridescent". "The Catalyst" and "Waiting for the End" were certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Linkin Park promoted the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour from October 2010 to September 2011.


title: A Thousand Suns

text: Although it received a polarizing response from audiences, the album received a positive response from critics, some of whom found it to be a natural evolution for the band. The record debuted at number one on over ten charts, and was certified platinum by the RIAA in August 2017.


title: A Thousand Suns

text: Recording for the album began in 2008, less than a year after the release of "Minutes to Midnight" (2007). As with "Minutes to Midnight", Shinoda and Rick Rubin produced the album. Primary recording sessions for "A Thousand Suns" took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. In November 2008, lead singer Chester Bennington said the new record was a concept album; he said it "sound[ed] a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to."


title: A Thousand Suns

text: In May 2009, Mike Shinoda revealed info on the album in a "Billboard" magazine story, saying: "I feel like we've been writing a lot. I'd say we've got about half the music done, though I shouldn't say halfway because who knows how long the next batch of songs will take. But all the material's just kind of coming together, and every week we meet up and assess the situation and for the rest of the week we just go and work on whatever we find exciting." He also explained the experimentation that the band would be working with, saying, "It's not going to be "Hybrid Theory." It's not going to be "Minutes to Midnight." And if we do it right, it'll have a cutting edge sound that defines itself as an individual record separate from anything else that's out there."


title: A Thousand Suns

text: Bennington continued composing for the album while touring with Dead by Sunrise in support of their 2009 studio album "Out of Ashes". He said Linkin Park was still making a concept record, stating in another interview with MTV, "we might need to just make a record and still try to do a concept but figure out a way to do it without actually waiting another five or six years to put out a record, to try to pull off all the grandiose insanity we were thinking of doing. And we're doing that." Bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell predicted the band's fans would be divided about "A Thousand Suns", saying, "We've known [the album is] going to be different, and if fans were expecting "Hybrid Theory" or "Meteora", they're going to be surprised. It's going to take people some time to figure it out and know what to do with it."


title: A Thousand Suns

text: When asked about the new project, drummer Rob Bourdon said, "We tend to be perfectionists and it's sort of how we work. We like being in the studio and when we get in there we write a ton of material." Bourdon said the album was a challenge to complete; he said, "We've been making music for a long time so one of the challenges was to evolve and make something to keep us interested and also have a lot of fun in the process. We've been used to making a certain type of music and using sounds to accomplish that. So to break out of that and push ourselves to grow is definitely challenging." Shinoda later said the album was not a concept record, saying, "People asked us if it's a concept record, and in the middle of the process, we were contemplating whether or not that was what we wanted to do," although he said that eventually, "A Thousand Suns" at its completion has no narrative and is "more abstract" than many concept albums.