title: Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)

text: Upon his release from prison on 31 May 1950, he settled in the small village of Epfach in southern Bavaria, where he died seven years later at the age of 72. His widow, Erna, continued to live there together with the former silent-movie star Wera Engels.


title: Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)

text: The central image archive of Heinrich Hoffmann's company was seized by the US-American military government after the end of the war during the Allied occupation of Germany as spoils of war. Important parts of the archive are today located in the US National Archives and Records Administration. They comprise an important source of images for scholars of Nazi Germany. These photographs are in the public domain in the US owing to their status as seized Nazi property, otherwise their copyrights would not yet have expired.


title: Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)

text: The part of the photo archive remaining in Europe is today located in the Bavarian State Library ("Bayerische Staatsbibliothek") in Munich, Germany.


title: Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)

text: Nine photographs taken by Hoffmann reveal how Adolf Hitler rehearsed poses and hand gestures for his public speeches. He asked Hoffmann to take these shots so he could see what he would look like to his audience, then used them to help shape his performances, which he was constantly refining. Hitler asked that the photographs be destroyed, a request which Hoffmann did not honor.


title: Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)

text: Many artworks looted from persecuted Jewish collectors passed through Hoffmann. Restitution claims were met with resistance. In 2020, following years of negotiations, Jan van der Heyden's painting "View of a Dutch Square" was restituted to the heirs of Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus, who fled Vienna in March 1938. Hoffmann had received it as a gift under the Nazis. After the war Bavaria made no attempt to return the work to the Kraus family, instead selling it for little money in 1962 to Hoffmann's daughter, Henriette Hoffmann-von Schirach.


title: Esperanza Baur

text: Esperanza Baur Díaz (born Esperanza Díaz Ceballos; July 17, 1920 – March 10, 1961) was a Mexican actress, and was the second wife of John Wayne.


title: Esperanza Baur

text: Born Esperanza Díaz Ceballos, nicknamed "Chata", she appeared in a small number of Spanish language films, both in leading and supporting roles.


title: Esperanza Baur

text: Esperanza met John Wayne in 1941 in Mexico City while he was vacationing there. At the time, he was still married to his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz, but that marriage ended December 25, 1945. Esperanza and John were married on January 17, 1946, in Long Beach, California.


title: Esperanza Baur

text: Their marriage was rocky and volatile from the start because she was reportedly jealous of his devotion to his work and to his four children; they had no children of their own. "Our marriage was like shaking two volatile chemicals in a jar", Wayne said. Esperanza accused Wayne of having an affair with Gail Russell, his leading lady in "Angel and the Badman", which he denied. There were charges and counter-charges of unfaithfulness, drunken violence, emotional cruelty, and "clobbering". Wayne described his wife as a "drunken partygoer who would fall down and then accuse him of pushing her." Esperanza was accused of having an affair with hotel heir Nicky Hilton during divorce proceedings. They separated in May 1952; in the end the marriage lasted eight years, coming to an end on November 1, 1954.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: For UEFA Euro 2016, the 24 participating national teams had to submit squads of 23 players – of which three had to be goalkeepers – by 31 May 2016, 10 days prior to the opening match of the tournament. In the event that a player on the submitted squad list suffered an injury or illness prior to his team's first match of the tournament, that player could be replaced, provided that the team doctor and a doctor from the UEFA Medical Committee both confirmed that the injury or illness is severe enough to prevent the player's participation in the tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: The age listed for each player is on 10 June 2016, the first day of the tournament. The number of caps listed for each player does not include any matches played after the start of UEFA Euro 2016. The club listed is the club for which the player last played a competitive match prior to the tournament. The nationality for each club reflects the national association (not the league) to which the club is affiliated.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: France announced their squad on 12 May. Raphaël Varane was initially in the squad but was replaced by Adil Rami after injury. On 28 May, Jérémy Mathieu was replaced by Samuel Umtiti due to an injury. On 31 May, Lassana Diarra was replaced by Morgan Schneiderlin because of an injury. The squad numbers were announced on 30 May.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: Russia announced their final squad on 21 May. Midfielder Alan Dzagoev was in the original squad but was dropped due to a broken metatarsal and was replaced by Dmitri Torbinski on 22 May. On 7 June, Igor Denisov was replaced by Artur Yusupov after suffering a hamstring injury.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: Germany announced their final squad on 31 May. On 7 June, Antonio Rüdiger suffered an injury and was replaced by Jonathan Tah one day later.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: Spain announced their final squad on 31 May. Héctor Bellerín replaced Dani Carvajal due to an injury suffered during the UEFA Champions League Final on 28 May.


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: The above table is the same when it comes to league representation, with only the following exceptions:


title: UEFA Euro 2016 squads

text: Only England had all its players from the nation's club teams. Iceland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland had none of their players from the respective nation's club teams.


title: All the Bright Places

text: All the Bright Places is a young adult fiction novel by Jennifer Niven which is based on the author's personal story. The novel was first published on January 6, 2015 through Knopf Publishing Group and is Niven's first young adult book. A film adaptation starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith was released on February 28, 2020 on Netflix.


title: All the Bright Places

text: Theodore Finch and Violet Markey are two teenagers who badly want to escape from their small Indiana town of Bartlett. Violet is a popular girl who is secretly dealing with survivor's remorse, and Finch is a boy obsessed with death, labeled a freak by his peers. Fate brings the two together when both climbed the bell tower at school at the same time, planning to jump off the ledge. Finch was surprised to see Violet up there because she is one of the most popular girls in the school. However, Violet has been dealing with the death of her sister, Eleanor, who died 9 months previously in a car accident after Violet suggested the route home. Violet feels responsible and has not been in a car since the accident. Violet quit the student council, then cheerleading, and struggles with survivor's remorse, and thinks she should have died instead of Eleanor. On the ledge, Finch talks Violet down, and Violet returns the favor, but everyone assumes it's Violet who saved Finch.


title: All the Bright Places

text: As for Finch, he suffers from depression and experiences near-constant thoughts of suicide during his so-called "Awake" periods. Finch's family does not understand his depression, making him feel isolated. Morbidly, he writes out fun facts about other people's suicides on his computer, as well as methods of suicide and the best way to die. Finch initiates a partnership between himself and Violet for a school project in which they will explore their home state of Indiana together. Later, at home, Finch thinks about Violet, looking her up on Facebook, reading about her sister's accident (which he had forgotten), and chatting online with her.


title: All the Bright Places

text: For their project, Finch and Violet travel around Indiana to see important or unusual sites. They see homemade roller coasters, the highest hill in Indiana (Hoosier Hill), and more. The important thing doesn't seem to be the sites themselves, but what the wandering begins to mean for both of them—especially Violet. The two begin a romantic relationship and fall in love. Eventually, Finch pushes Violet to get in the car and begin writing again, for the first time after her sister's accident nine months prior. He helps her begin to talk about her sister's death, which her parents have not managed to do. As a result, Violet begins to heal.


title: All the Bright Places

text: However, Finch's mental health begins to deteriorate. He suffers from an undiagnosed bipolar disorder and therefore, deals with very high highs and very low lows. His behavior demonstrates the characteristic manic periods of impulsive excitability as well as the lethargic, pointless mindset during the depressive periods. He is also physically abused by his father and bullied at school. Additionally, Finch refuses to be diagnosed because the labels make him feel trapped. The one shining spot in his life is his blossoming relationship with Violet.


title: All the Bright Places

text: The teenagers wander around Indiana together some more; however, on one occasion they accidentally stay out until the next morning, angering Violet's parents who forbid their daughter from seeing Finch again.


title: All the Bright Places

text: This begins a downward spiral for Finch, who ends up getting expelled from school after a fight with Violet's ex-boyfriend. Although he still sees Violet on occasion, Finch is easily able to hide his worsening depression from her. Violet doesn't realize the seriousness of the situation and wonders if Finch is losing interest in her.


title: All the Bright Places

text: One particularly bad night, Finch decides to end his life. He takes a handful of sleeping pills, but almost immediately regrets it. He goes to the emergency room and gets his stomach pumped. After that, he tries to get help through a suicide support group in a nearby town. There, he runs into Amanda, a popular student he knows from school. She is concerned about Finch's suicide attempt and tells Violet about it. Violet is obviously worried and tries to help though Finch explodes, angry at her concern, which leads to a big fight.


title: All the Bright Places

text: After their argument, Finch runs away from home, and Violet seems to be the only one looking for him. He sends her mysterious and cryptic texts while he visits the remaining locations for their unfinished school project, although Violet doesn't understand them until much later, thinking Finch was just being rudely cryptic.


title: All the Bright Places

text: A month after he has disappeared, Finch sends an email to every single person he knows, saying goodbye. Violet, in a panic, figures out that he has drowned himself at the Blue Hole, one of their wandering sites for the school project. She goes there and discovers she is right, and she becomes distraught. Later, she manages to decode the texts Finch had sent her, and at the last location they were supposed to visit together, Finch wrote a song for her. This helps the healing process and convinces Violet that Finch's death was not her fault. The book closes with Violet going swimming by herself in the Blue Hole, where she went swimming with Finch, bringing her a sense of peace.


title: All the Bright Places

text: "All the Bright Places" is written in a subjective style from the point of view of the two main characters, Finch and Violet. The novel is composed of short sections narrated by Finch and Violet, that generally alternate between the two characters. This writing style allows readers to understand the changes in Violet as she heals from her sister's death and Finch as he progressively becomes more mentally ill throughout the novel.


title: All the Bright Places

text: "The New York Times" favorably compared "All the Bright Places" to Rainbow Rowell's "Eleanor & Park" and John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" in that "Violet and Finch are the archetypal offering in contemporary young adult fiction: a pair of damaged, heart-tugging teenagers who are at once outcasts and isolated, trapped by the dissonant alchemy of their combined fates." The "New York Daily News" claims ""All the Bright Places" draws you in and makes you cry with the compelling story of two teens, Violet and Finch. The story of Violet and Finch's quest to find 'All the Bright Places' is one that anyone can relate to". "Entertainment Weekly" and "The Guardian" both gave ultimately favorable reviews for the work, with "The Guardian" writing "Niven’s first foray into Young Adult fiction lacks narrative tension but has plenty of emotional heft".


title: All the Bright Places

text: "All the Bright Places" won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Young Adult fiction and the #1 Kids' Indie Next Book for Winter '14-'15. The novel has also been awarded for Children's Choice Book Awards Teen Book of the Year and 2016 Mare di Libri Book Prize for Best YA Book. It has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal and longlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Book. It won the 2017 Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Brandon Kemar Browner (born August 2, 1984) is a former American football cornerback and convicted felon. In 2005, Browner signed with the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon State. Browner played four seasons with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL) where he was a three-time CFL All-Star and won a Grey Cup championship in 2008 before signing with the Seattle Seahawks before the 2011 season. After winning the Super Bowl with Seattle in 2013 and the New England Patriots in 2014, Browner became one of the few players to win two consecutive Super Bowls as a member of two teams. Browner is a convicted felon and is serving 8 years in prison for attempted murder.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner was a founding member of the Seahawks Legion of Boom defense. In 2011 he led the Seahawks with six interceptions and made the only Pro Bowl of his career.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner was a Prep Star West All-Region and All-Valley Mission League selection at Sylmar High School (northern area of Los Angeles) as a senior. He also earned Mission League MVP honors. As a junior, Browner played at James Monroe High School in North Hills, Los Angeles. During his prep career, he competed as a receiver where he accounted for 1,726 career yards and 24 touchdowns, and on defense as a cornerback where he recorded 16 career interceptions. As a senior, he also returned three punts for touchdowns. Browner also lettered in track and field at James Monroe, competing in the high jump, triple jump and 200 meters.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner played in college for Oregon State University. Browner redshirted in 2002 at Oregon State. He then went on to start in every game he played in for the Beavers. Browner was named to the Freshman All-America teams by the Football Writers Association and The Sporting News in 2003. He was chosen Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year and was a member of the All-Pac-10 second-team. He ranked ninth in the nation with six interceptions and recorded 43 tackles (37 solo) with six pass breakups, two forced fumbles and three stops for losses as a redshirt freshman. He helped the program weather the 2002 departures of Dennis Weathersby, Calvin Carlyle and Terrell Roberts.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner added All-America and All-Pac-10 Conference honors from The NFL Draft Report in 2004. Lining up at right cornerback, he regularly faced the opponent's top receiver. Browner recorded 44 tackles (37 solo) with a sack, nine pass deflections and a blocked kick in 2004. He finished his two-year collegiate career with 87 tackles (74 solo), a 2-yard sack, five stops for losses of 16 yards, two forced fumbles, 15 pass deflections, six interceptions for 74 yards in returns, and a touchdown.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Denver Broncos in 2005. However, Browner fractured his left forearm August 20 against San Francisco, was placed on injured reserve on August 25, 2005, and he missed the entire 2005 season before being waived on July 24, 2006.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner signed with the Calgary Stampeders in 2006. His speed and competitive effort made him a fan favorite in his time with the team. He won the 2008 Grey Cup with Calgary and was named a CFL All-Star for the season. Browner was also selected to the CFL All-Star team after the 2009 season.


title: Brandon Browner

text: Browner signed with the Seattle Seahawks and started every game of the 2011 season. Highlights of that season included a Seattle-record 94 yard interception return against the New York Giants in a Week 5 victory and two interceptions in a win against Vince Young and the Philadelphia Eagles on December 1, 2011. Browner was suspended for four games in 2012 for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing drug policy for using a prescription drug. Despite this setback, Browner was added to the 2012 Pro Bowl roster as a replacement for an injured Carlos Rogers.


title: Brandon Browner

text: On December 18, 2013, the NFL erroneously reported Browner was facing an indefinite suspension for again violating the NFL's performance-enhancing drug rules. The suspension kept him from playing in Super Bowl XLVIII against the Denver Broncos. Without Browner, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl 43-8 to give the franchise their first championship.


title: Brandon Browner

text: The suspension was later changed to reflect a substance abuse issue related to missing drug tests during the time Browner was unsigned by an NFL team and played football in the CFL, prior to the Seahawks contract. On March 4, 2014, he was officially reinstated by the NFL. His suspension was reduced to the first four games of the 2014 season.


title: Brandon Browner

text: On March 14, 2014, Browner signed with the New England Patriots on a three-year, $17 million contract. After serving his 4-game suspension, Browner was inactive for the next 2 games. He made his season debut in week 7 against the New York Jets, where Browner recorded a tackle. Browner finished the season with 25 tackles and an interception in 9 games. He helped the Patriots win Super Bowl XLIX over his former team, the Seattle Seahawks 28-24. In the Super Bowl, Browner recorded 3 tackles. With 26 seconds left, he blocked Jermaine Kearse on a pick play on second and goal from the one yard line, enabling Malcolm Butler to make the game-sealing interception.


title: Brandon Browner

text: At the start of free agency, the Patriots did not pick up a $2 million roster bonus due to him, making him a free agent eligible to sign with any team.


title: Brandon Browner

text: On March 12, 2015, Browner signed with the New Orleans Saints. In September, he was elected as one of the defensive team captains (along with Cameron Jordan). Browner finished with 76 tackles and 1 interception. Browner's year in New Orleans was not a successful one: he ended the season rated as one of the least effective cornerbacks in the league, and received more penalties for the season than any player in the league since this statistic began tracking in 1999. On February 2, 2016, Browner tweeted that the Saints were going to release him. On March 10, Browner was released. In late May 2016, Browner received attention when he responded to criticism from a Saints fan on Instagram about his performance and salary, stating that he "took that few millions (and) ran with it" when he left the Saints.


title: Brandon Browner

text: On April 17, 2016, Browner signed a one-year deal for the veteran minimum salary ($760,000) with his former team, the Seattle Seahawks, reforming the original Legion of Boom. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll stated Browner would play a different role than the previous stint with the Seahawks as a hybrid corner/safety/linebacker in the nickel package. However, the Seahawks released Browner on August 29, after the team's third preseason game.


title: Brandon Browner

text: In 2018, Browner was a member of the Roadrunners led by retired quarterback Michael Vick as part of the American Flag Football League.


title: Brandon Browner

text: In 2015 Browner led the NFL in penalties committed during the regular season, and was 2nd in 2011 and 2014.


title: Brandon Browner

text: In May 2017, Browner was arrested by Los Angeles police for possession of cocaine and being under the influence.


title: Brandon Browner

text: On July 8, 2018, Browner was arrested by La Verne police for breaking and entering into the residence of a woman with whom he once had a relationship, and fleeing the scene after stealing a Rolex within the home. Two days later, he was officially charged with attempted murder and three other felonies. On December 4, 2018, Browner was sentenced to 8 years in prison after pleading no contest to an attempted murder charge. Browner is now serving his sentence at San Quentin State Prison.


title: Bloodbath

text: Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air (in 2005) and Bloodstock Open Air (in 2010). The group consists of Martin Axenrot (ex-Opeth), Anders Nyström (Katatonia), Jonas Renkse (also Katatonia) and Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost).


title: Bloodbath

text: The band named themselves after the song "Blood Bath" from the album "To the Gory End" by Cancer. The initial lineup consisted of Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) on vocals, Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Nightingale) on drums, Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström (Katatonia, Diabolical Masquerade) on guitar, and Jonas Renkse (Katatonia, October Tide) on bass Bloodbath released the EP "Breeding Death" within a year of forming, followed two years later by their debut album "Resurrection Through Carnage".


title: Bloodbath

text: In 2004, Åkerfeldt left Bloodbath, wanting to free up more time for his primary band Opeth, with Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy) being brought in to replace him. The lineup changed further, with Swanö switching to guitar and Martin Axenrot (Witchery, Satanic Slaughter, Opeth) filling the position of drummer. With these changes the size and subsequent scope of the band increased, expanding beyond that of what was initially only a secondary side project. The band's second full release, "Nightmares Made Flesh", was released in Europe in September of 2004.


title: Bloodbath

text: In February of 2005, Tägtgren left the band citing "conflicting schedules". That same year, Åkerfeldt rejoined for a single live show at Germany's Wacken Open Air on August 5. Prior to the show the band was quoted saying that the upcoming show would be "Not only the first, but also the last gig for Bloodbath (with Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocals)";. It would later turn out to also be the last show with Swanö. In September 2005, Bloodbath began searching for a new lead singer.


title: Bloodbath

text: In August 2006, the band announced the departure of Swanö due to musical differences, as well as Swanö being busy with other projects. They simultaneously closed the vocal auditions, announcing that no suitable singer had been found.


title: Bloodbath

text: On the 27th of March 2007 the band announced that a new line-up would be unveiled, along with news that they were producing new material, to be released that summer. In August 2007, Renkse posted on the band's official forums, suggesting that work was in progress. On 30 January 2008 it was announced via the Bloodbath website that Åkerfeldt would be rejoining the line-up on vocals, along with new member Per Eriksson (ex-21 Lucifers, ex-Genocrush Ferox) on guitar. In March 2008, the EP "Unblessing the Purity" was released. Also released in 2008 was the Wacken live CD/DVD "The Wacken Carnage". Bloodbath released their third full-length album, "The Fathomless Mastery", in October 2008.


title: Bloodbath

text: On 25 April 2011 Bloodbath released their second DVD, "Bloodbath over Bloodstock", containing their performance at Bloodstock Festival 2010, as well as the 2008 performance at Party San. On 1 November 2011, during the final show of the American Opeth/Katatonia tour at Ram's Head Live in Baltimore, MD, Bloodbath performed a surprise encore after Opeth's set.


title: Bloodbath

text: On 14 April 2012 Blakkheim announced that Åkerfeldt had officially left the group. When asked whether the new vocalist was known or not, Blakkheim was quoted saying "Oh, he's a legend!". On 16 September 2014 the band announced the new vocalist as Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias DBE ("née" Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet (formerly the Sadler's Wells Theatre Company), eventually being appointed "prima ballerina assoluta" of the company by Queen Elizabeth II. Beginning ballet lessons at the age of four, she studied in England and China, where her father was transferred for his work. Her training in Shanghai was with Russian expatriate dancer Georgy Goncharov, contributing to her continuing interest in Russian ballet. Returning to London at the age of 14, she was invited to join the Vic-Wells Ballet School by Ninette de Valois. She succeeded Alicia Markova as prima ballerina of the company in 1935. The Vic-Wells choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, wrote numerous parts for Fonteyn and her partner, Robert Helpmann, with whom she danced from the 1930s to the 1940s.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1946, the company, now renamed the Sadler's Wells Ballet, moved into the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden where Fonteyn's most frequent partner throughout the next decade was Michael Somes. Her performance in Tchaikovsky’s "The Sleeping Beauty" became a distinguishing role for both Fonteyn and the company, but she was also well known for the ballets created by Ashton, including "Symphonic Variations", "Cinderella", "Daphnis and Chloe", "Ondine" and "Sylvia". In 1949, she led the company in a tour of the United States and became an international celebrity. Before and after the Second World War, Fonteyn performed in televised broadcasts of ballet performances in Britain and in the early 1950s appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show," consequently increasing the popularity of dance in the United States. In 1955, she married the Panamanian politician Roberto Arias and appeared in a live colour production of "The Sleeping Beauty" aired on NBC. Three years later, she and Somes danced for the BBC television adaptation of "The Nutcracker". Thanks to her international acclaim and many guest artist requests, the Royal Ballet allowed Fonteyn to become a freelance dancer in 1959.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1961, when Fonteyn was considering retirement, Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Kirov Ballet while dancing in Paris. Fonteyn, though reluctant to partner with him because of their 19-year age difference, danced with him in his début with the Royal Ballet in "Giselle" on 21 February 1962. The duo immediately became an international sensation, each dancer pushing the other to their best performances. They were most noted for their classical performances in works such as "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux", "Les Sylphides", "La Bayadère", "Swan Lake", and "Raymonda", in which Nureyev sometimes adapted choreographies specifically to showcase their talents. The pair premièred Ashton's "Marguerite and Armand", which had been choreographed specifically for them, and were noted for their performance in the title roles of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's "Romeo and Juliet". The following year, Fonteyn's husband was shot during an assassination attempt and became a quadriplegic, requiring constant care for the remainder of his life. In 1972, Fonteyn went into semi-retirement, although she continued to dance periodically until the end of the decade. In 1979, she was fêted by the Royal Ballet and officially pronounced the "prima ballerina assoluta" of the company. She retired to Panama, where she spent her time writing books, raising cattle, and caring for her husband. She died from ovarian cancer exactly 29 years after her premiere with Nureyev in "Giselle".


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Margaret Evelyn Hookham was born on 18 May 1919 in Reigate, Surrey, to Hilda ("née" Acheson Fontes) and Felix John Hookham. Her father was a British mechanical engineer, who worked for the British-American Tobacco Company. Her mother was the illegitimate daughter of an Irish woman, Evelyn Acheson, and the Brazilian industrialist Antonio Gonçalves Fontes. Hookham had one sibling, her older brother Felix. The family moved to Ealing, where her mother sent her four-year-old daughter with her brother to ballet classes with Grace Bosustow. Her mother accompanied Hookham to her earliest lessons, learning the basic positions alongside her daughter in order to improve her understanding of what a ballet student needed to develop. Over the years, Hilda provided constant support, guidance and critique to her daughter; she became a well-known backstage presence at Hookham's performances, earning the nickname "Black Queen" from Hookham's teachers and colleagues. While some children might have balked at such overbearing attention from a parent, Hookham accepted her mother's help with "affectionate and unembarrassed naturalness".


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In July 1924, at the age of five, Hookham danced in a charity concert and received her first newspaper review: the "Middlesex Country Times" noted that the young dancer had performed "a remarkably fine solo" which had been "vigorously encored" by the audience. Even during her early years, Hookham showed signs of the pressure she felt to succeed in her dancing, often pushing herself physically to avoid becoming a disappointment to others. Whenever a dance exam approached, she became ill with a high fever for several days, recovering just in time to take the test. Hookham's father began preparing to move his family abroad for work. It was decided, after consultation, that they would take their daughter with them but leave their son Felix at an English boarding school. For Hookham, this new separation from her sibling was a painful experience. Her father was transferred first to Louisville, Kentucky, where Hookham attended school but did not take ballet lessons, as her mother was skeptical about the quality of the local dance school. When Peggy – as she was called in her childhood – was nine, she and her parents moved to China.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: For about a year, the family lived in Tianjin. This was followed by a brief stint in Hong Kong before they moved to Shanghai in 1931, where Hookham studied ballet with the Russian émigré teacher Georgy Goncharov. Goncharov's partner Vera Volkova later became influential in Hookham's career and training. Hookham had no dreams of becoming a dancer and was a reluctant student, but she was competitive. Having June Brae in her classes pushed her to work harder. She did not like the Cecchetti drills, preferring the fluid expression of the Russian style. Her mother brought her back to London when she was 14, to pursue a ballet career. In 1934, Hookham's father wrote from Shanghai, explaining he had been having an affair. He asked his wife for a divorce so that he could marry his new girlfriend. Continuing to work in Shanghai, her father was interned during World War II from 1943 to 1945 by the invading Japanese. After the war, he returned to England with his second wife, Beatrice.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Hookham began her studies with Serafina Astafieva, but was spotted by Dame Ninette de Valois and invited to join the Vic-Wells Ballet School, which would later become the Royal Ballet. She trained under Olga Preobrajenska and Volkova. Her first solo performance occurred in 1933, as an actress rather than a dancer, using the interim name "Margot Fontes", as a child in the production of "The Haunted Ballroom" by de Valois. In 1934, she danced as a snowflake in "The Nutcracker", still using the name Fontes. Although Hookham's mother had written to her Fontes relatives, requesting their permission for her daughter to use the name for her stage career, the final response was no, possibly due to the family's wish to avoid an association with a theatrical performer. Hilda and her daughter subsequently looked up variations of Fontes in the telephone directory, choosing the more British-sounding Fontene and adding a twist to make it Fonteyn. The following year, she took the name by which she was known for the remainder of her professional life, "Margot Fonteyn", modifying her maternal grandfather's surname, "Fontes" — in Portuguese, "fonte" means "fountain". In Middle and modern English until the 16th century, it was spelled "fonteyn". Her brother, Felix, who became a specialist of dance photography, eventually adopted the same surname.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1935, Fonteyn had her solo debut, playing Young Tregennis in "The Haunted Ballroom." That same year, Sir Frederick Ashton created the role of the bride in his choreography of Stravinsky's "Le baiser de la fée" specifically for her. Though he appreciated her lyric qualities and found her elegant, Ashton said of her early years that Fonteyn had brittle stubbornness and lacked polish. In spite of her perceived shortcomings, he cast her as the lead, playing the Creole girl in his production, "Rio Grande". When Alicia Markova, the first "Prima Ballerina" of the company, left the Vic-Wells later in 1935, Fonteyn shared the lead with other members of the company, but quickly rose to the top of the field of dancers. That year, she spent her summer holidays in Paris, where she studied with the exiled Russian ballerinas Olga Preobrajenska, Mathilde Kschessinska, and Lubov Egorova. She returned for further studies with them the following summers.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Using Fonteyn's delicate and somewhat feline grace to advantage, "Sir Frederick often cast her as a frail or otherworldly being". In 1936, she was cast as the unattainable muse in his "Apparitions", a role which consolidated her partnership with Robert Helpmann, and the same year played a wistful, poverty-stricken flower seller in "Nocturne". Her success in "Nocturne" marked a turning point in Ashton's perception of Fonteyn and he recognized that she could become the heir to Markova as lead dancer for the company. Shortly afterwards, the company began experimenting with televised performances, accepting paid engagements to perform for the BBC at Broadcasting House and Alexandra Palace. Fonteyn danced her first televised solo in December 1936, performing the Polka from "Façade". Although the dancers enjoyed these engagements, the tiny television screens with their unsteady blue pictures meant that the medium was not yet sophisticated enough to become a lucrative avenue for the company.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: The following year, Fonteyn was given the comic role of Julia in "A Wedding Bouquet" and was cast with Robert Helpmann performing the "pas de deux", imitating Victorian ice skaters, in Ashton's "Les Patineurs". Helpmann was her most constant partner in the 1930s and 1940s, helping her develop her theatricality. Decades later Fonteyn would name Helpmann as her favourite partner across the span of her career. Constant Lambert, as the company music director, assisted with her musicality. Beginning in 1935, Fonteyn and Lambert developed a romantic relationship, which would continue on and off for the duration of his life. She had previously been involved with Donald Hodson, the Controller of the BBC Overseas Service. Lambert dedicated his score for the ballet "Horoscope" (1938) to Fonteyn.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: When the company visited the University of Cambridge for a brief professional engagement in 1937, Fonteyn first met Roberto "Tito" Arias, an 18-year-old law student from Panama who would later become her husband. Fonteyn became enamored with Arias after seeing him perform a rumba dance at a party. The pair enjoyed their time together for the next week, but Arias then returned to Panama for the summer holidays. His lack of subsequent communication left Fonteyn despondent.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: By 1939 Fonteyn had performed the principal roles in "Giselle", "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty" and was appointed as the Prima Ballerina of the Vic-Wells, soon to be renamed the Sadler's Wells Ballet. Her performance in "Swan Lake" had been a turning point in her career, convincing critics and audiences that a British ballerina could successfully dance the lead role in a full-length classical Russian ballet. The reviewer Arnold Haskell wrote that never before had Fonteyn's performance been "so regal in manner or half so brilliant", while the writer Tangye Lean commented that she "rose to it with a stability that one had not seen in her before".


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Throughout World War II, the company danced nightly, sometimes also performing matinées, to entertain troops. With such a heavy schedule, the dancers were frequently obliged to complete three to four times their usual weekly number of appearances. Fonteyn later recalled dancing so often that she sometimes "stood trembling in the wings, unable to remember if I had finished my solo before I left the stage". Wartime drafts meant that the company lost many of its male dancers to the armed forces. Shows had to be carefully chosen or edited to help ensure that an almost entirely female cast could perform all the roles. Fonteyn was often paired with young, inexperienced male dancers pulled straight from ballet schools. With short London seasons, they also travelled abroad and were in the Netherlands when it was invaded in May 1940, escaping back to England with nothing more than the costumes they were wearing. In September 1940, as the London Blitz began, the Sadler's Wells Theatre was turned into an air raid shelter. The company of dancers was temporarily displaced, touring professionally across England.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In August 1943, Fonteyn took an unexplained sick leave from the company for two months, missing their opening season performances. It was believed by many of her close friends – and her biographer, Meredith Daneman, that she underwent an abortion. Her relationship with Lambert had grown difficult, as he was drinking heavily and having affairs with other women. Concerned about her daughter's welfare, Fonteyn's mother took matters into her own hands, gently encouraging her daughter to move on from Lambert by setting her up with film director Charles Hasse. Fonteyn and Hasse became lovers, and their close relationship lasted for the next four years.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: During the war, Ashton created roles such as his bleak wartime piece "Dante Sonata" (1940) and the glittery "The Wanderer" (1941) for Fonteyn. She also performed notably in "Coppélia", imbuing the role with humour. The war years helped her develop stamina and improve her natural talent. In February 1944, she danced the role of the Young Girl in "Le Spectre de la Rose" and was coached by Russian prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1946, the company moved to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. One of Fonteyn's first roles was at a command performance of Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty" as Aurora with King George, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, both princesses – Elizabeth and Margaret – and Prime Minister Clement Attlee in attendance. Initially faced with a costume department severely impacted by post-war rationing, the company had put out a call for every available scrap of silk, velvet or brocade, cutting up and re-purposing old opera costumes, furs and even velvet curtains to create a lavish production. In contrast to most Russian dancers, who traditionally learned roles from previous generations of dancers, Fonteyn had no such living references readily available to teach her the role of Aurora and was obliged to create her own interpretation. The ballet became a signature production for the company and a distinguishing role for Fonteyn, marking her "arrival" as the "brightest crown" of the Sadler's Wells Company.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Ashton immediately created "Symphonic Variations" to capitalize on the success of the opening. Of the six dancers in the production, Fonteyn's performance was dubbed "brilliant" and Moira Shearer was singled out for her elegance. When the American Ballet Theatre visited the Royal Opera House in 1946, Fonteyn became a close friend of the New York dancer Nora Kaye. Fonteyn appeared on television in 1946, to mark the re-opening of Alexandra Palace after the War. Her television appearances were followed by a performance with the choreographer Léonide Massine as the miller's wife in his "The Three-Cornered Hat" and as the lead in the abstract debut of "Scènes de ballet" which Ashton wrote for her.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1948, Fonteyn went to Paris to perform as Agathe, a role created for her, in "Les Demoiselles de la nuit" by the choreographer Roland Petit. The admiration of Petit gave her new confidence and assurance, which showed in her performance in Ashton's "Don Juan", though she was injured on the first night, tearing a ligament in her ankle. She was unable to dance for several months, missing the premiere of Ashton's "Cinderella". She recovered sufficiently to dance with Michael Somes in the Christmas presentation of the ballet, and made her mark in the role of Cinderella by challenging the traditional costume for Act I, replacing the usual brown outfit with a stark black dress and a kerchief tied severely over her hair. Observers commented that Fonteyn inserted a new, stronger sense of pathos into the performance.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Reprising the role of Aurora in 1949 when the Royal Ballet toured the United States, Fonteyn instantly became a celebrity, gaining international recognition. In New York, the American showman Sol Hurok said that the Metropolitan Opera House premiere of Fonteyn's Aurora was the "most outstanding" performance he had ever facilitated, the curtain calls lasting half an hour. The "New York Herald Tribune" called Fonteyn "unmistakably such a star": "London has known this for some time, Europe has found it out and last night she definitely conquered another continent." Fonteyn was featured on the cover of "Time" and "Newsweek".


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Upon returning to England, Fonteyn danced in George Balanchine's "Ballet Imperial", before travelling to Italy with Helpmann and Pamela May as a guest star in "The Sleeping Beauty". In 1949, she profiled choreographies of Sir Frederick Ashton, which were no longer in the repertoire of the Sadler's Wells Company, dancing on television with Michael Somes and Harold Turner. Fonteyn appeared in America on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time in 1951, and would return several times. Her performances were credited with improving the popularity of dance with American audiences. These were followed by two of her most noted roles, as the lead in Ashton's "Daphnis and Chloe" (1951) and "Sylvia" (1952).


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Fonteyn was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1951 for her contributions to British ballet. Plagued by injury, she considered retiring, especially after her most frequent partner of the 1950s, Somes, began to take less challenging roles. On an American tour in 1953, Fonteyn found herself suddenly reacquainted with Roberto "Tito" Arias – whom she had spent time with at Cambridge University in 1937 – when he surprised her with a visit to her dressing room after a performance of "Sleeping Beauty". Arias was now a politician and Panamanian delegate to the United Nations. Although he already had a wife and children, Arias initiated a courtship with Fonteyn and began seeking a divorce with his wife. She returned from the American tour and in the 1954 season debuted in "Entrada de Madame Butterfly", later called "Entrée japonaise", in Granada, Spain, followed by her first performance in the title role of "The Firebird". She was taught the part by Tamara Karsavina, who had debuted the role in 1910. Fonteyn's "Firebird" was "among her greatest achievements" for her ability to use her jetés to simulate flight.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In Paris on 6 February 1955, Fonteyn married Arias, adopting the formal married name of "Margot Fonteyn de Arias", in the Spanish-language tradition. In 1955, she returned to the stage and found success in St. Petersburg, dancing the role of Medora in "Le Corsaire", opposite Rudolf Nureyev. On 12 December 1955, Fonteyn appeared with Michael Somes in a live U.S. television colour production of Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty", for the anthology series "Producers' Showcase", on NBC. The production was underwritten by the Ford Company and ran for an hour and a half, attracting around 30 million viewers. In 1956, she and Somes were guest artists featured in Act II of Swan Lake, at the wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The following year, the duo appeared in a "Producers' Showcase" production of "Cinderella". Fonteyn starred with Somes in a 1958 BBC Television adaptation of "The Nutcracker" which premiered on 21 December. She was successful in two other Ashton ballets, "La Péri" (1956) and "Ondine" (1958), before becoming a freelance dancer in 1959, allowing her to accept the many international engagements she was offered.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Shortly before her marriage Fonteyn had been selected to succeed Adeline Genée, as president of the Royal Academy of Dance and though she protested the appointment, the Academy overruled her decision. Adding planning meetings for a new dance syllabus and attending meetings of the Academy, she was honoured as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956. As her husband had been appointed an ambassador to the court of St James upon her marriage, Fonteyn also attended to the duties required of a diplomat's wife. She was nevertheless criticized for her obvious lack of interest in politics. In 1956, she gave four performances in Johannesburg, South Africa, at His Majesty's Theatre and another at Zoo Lake with Michael Somes. Though they received top reviews, she was criticized for performing, despite the dancers' union ban because of apartheid. She was also criticized for performing for Imelda Marcos and was once detained for attending a party at which drugs were used.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: She also danced in Chile during Military dictatorship and she became close and admired Hope Somoza, the wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In April 1959, Fonteyn was arrested, detained for 24 hours in a Panamanian jail, and then deported to New York City. Her husband had staged a coup d'état against President Ernesto de la Guardia, possibly with the support of Fidel Castro. According to Fonteyn, the plot was hatched when she and her husband were visiting Cuba in January 1959, with Castro promising to assist Arias with arms or men. The couple went fishing on their boat "The Nola" and during the voyage ordered fishermen to raise a buoy loaded with arms. The fishermen reported the couple, who hurriedly decided that Arias should try to escape detection. In the night Arias jumped ship, boarding the shrimp boat "Elaine", while Fonteyn used her own yacht as a decoy to divert the government forces. She returned to Panama City to turn herself in, hoping her surrender would help her husband.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Meeting at the prison with the British ambassador to Panama Sir Ian Henderson, Fonteyn confessed her involvement and the British Foreign Office granted that her statement was confidential. The British embassy arranged for her release, and flew her to New York City on 22 April, without disclosing to the United States government that Cuba had been involved in the plot. Arias took refuge in the Brazilian embassy of Panama and arrived safely in Lima, Peru, the same day Fonteyn arrived in New York. The couple were reunited in June in Rio de Janeiro and by November she had returned to the stage, dancing with Michael Somes in an Ashton "pas de deux" for a London benefit performance. Fonteyn danced in the BBC Eurovision production of "The Sleeping Beauty" in the title role with Jelko Yuresha on 20 December 1959.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Fonteyn began her greatest artistic partnership at a time when many people, including the head of the Royal Ballet, Ninette de Valois, thought she was about to retire. In 1961 Rudolf Nureyev, star of the Kirov Ballet, defected in Paris and was invited by de Valois to join the Royal Ballet. She offered Fonteyn the opportunity to dance with him in his debut, and though reluctant because of their 19-year age difference, Fonteyn agreed. On 21 February 1962, Nureyev and Fonteyn performed together in "Giselle" to an enthusiastic capacity crowd, for which they received 15 minutes of applause and 20 curtain calls. The performance was followed by a show-stopping performance of "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux" on 3 November. The press described their performance as "otherworldly"; "The Observer" called it a "knockout" and the pairing "history-making". A few days later, they performed "Les Sylphides" to rave reviews, which were carried in United States newspapers. Fonteyn was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Cambridge in 1962.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Sir Frederick Ashton choreographed "Marguerite and Armand" for them, which no other couple danced until the 21st century. The 1963 premiere was well publicised before its opening and teamed them with Michael Somes, who played the disapproving father. Composed as a series of "pas de deux", interrupted by only one solo, the ballet built intensity from the initial "coup de foudre" to the death scene. According to Somes, the pairing of Nureyev and Fonteyn was brilliant, as they were not partners but two stars of equal talent who pushed each other to their best performances. Attended by the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Princess Marina, the production was an immediate success. It became a signature work for the duo, sealing their partnership.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1964, Fonteyn and Nureyev toured from Sydney to Melbourne, performing in "Giselle" and "Swan Lake" with The Australian Ballet. After a brief break, they resumed their performances in Stuttgart. On 8 June that year, while the duo were performing in Bath, they were advised that a rival Panamanian politician had shot Fonteyn's husband Arias, but it was unclear if he was in imminent danger. Fonteyn, though shaken, danced in MacMillan's new "pas de deux", "Divertimento", on 9 June, before flying home to Panama. She found that Arias had been shot four times by Alfredo Jimenez, leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Thoughts of retirement receded, as she needed to continue working to pay Arias' medical bills. Though he was wheelchair-bound, Fonteyn, who was devoted to his well-being, took him with her on most of her travels. Within two weeks, she had returned to London, having arranged for Arias to be treated at the National Spinal Injuries Centre of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, and resumed dancing. Over the next ten days, Fonteyn danced in six performances of "La Bayadère", "Giselle", and "Marguerite and Armand" while rehearsing Nureyev's production of "Raymonda". A coma and relapse in Arias' condition forced her to miss all but the final performance of "Raymonda" in Spoleto.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Fonteyn and Nureyev were especially noted for their performance of classics, such as "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake", which Fonteyn stripped to the essence of the roles and constantly improved her performance. Nureyev insisted that Fonteyn partner with him in "La Bayadère" and "Raymonda", and wrote his own version of "Swan Lake" for them to perform with the Vienna State Opera Ballet in 1964. The performance was filmed and Lord Snowdon took pictures for the 27 November 1964 issue of "Life". On 20 January 1965, Fonteyn and Nureyev performed the "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux" at the inaugural ceremonies for President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D. C. Later that year, the couple debuted the title roles in "Romeo and Juliet" choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan. MacMillan had intended the roles to be performed by Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, but David Webster, the manager of the Royal Opera House, insisted on Fonteyn and Nureyev. A year after the debut, the production was still drawing queues for its nightly performances. The audiences littered the duo with flowers, demanding repeated curtain-calls. Fonteyn's depth as an actor made the performance unique, making Juliet one of her most acclaimed roles.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Despite differences in background and temperament – she was methodical while he was wildly exuberant – and a 19-year gap in their ages, Fonteyn and Nureyev became lifelong friends and were famously loyal to each other. Fonteyn would not approve an unflattering photograph of Nureyev, nor would she dance with other partners in ballets within his repertoire. The extent of their physical relationship remains unclear; Nureyev said that they had one, while Fonteyn denied it. Her biographer, Meredith Daneman, said that in spite of no real evidence, her opinion was that they did, yet Nureyev's biographer, Diane Solway concluded that they did not. Nureyev said about her:


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: "At the end of 'Lac des Cygnes', when she left the stage in her great white tutu I would have followed her to the end of the world."


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1965, Fonteyn and Nureyev appeared together in the recorded versions "Les Sylphides", and the "Le Corsaire Pas de Deux", as part of the documentary "An Evening with the Royal Ballet". The film grossed over US$1 million, creating a record for a dance film at the time, and was shown in over 50 theatres in New York and New Jersey alone over the week of 6 December 1965. Under the guidance of director Paul Czinner, who used a multi-camera technique to give the feel of a stage performance, they also filmed their famous version of "Romeo and Juliet" in 1966. That same year, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the Duke of Devonshire upon his installation as the Chancellor of the University of Manchester. In 1967 Roland Petit wrote a new ballet for the duo, "Paradise Lost". It was an abstract, modern production designed to emphasize Rudolf as a virile Adam and Fonteyn as a chic Eve. With pop art décor and flashing neon, the ballet titillated the fans, including Mick Jagger and his girlfriend, the singer Marianne Faithfull.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Fonteyn went into semi-retirement in 1972, relinquishing parts in full ballets and limiting herself to only a variety of one-act performances. In 1974, she was awarded the Royal Society of Arts' Benjamin Franklin Medal, in recognition of her having built bridges between Britain and the U.S. through her art. She ventured into modern dance, performing as "Desdemona" in José Limón' "The Moor's Pavane" June 1975 with the Chicago Ballet followed by a performance of the same dance with Nureyev at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in July. Between the two performances, Fonteyn was appearing with the Martha Graham Dance Company in Saratoga, New York City, Athens and London. After the performance at The Kennedy Center, her tour went on to Brazil. In November 1975, she and Nureyev appeared in "Fonteyn & Nureyev on Broadway" at the Uris Theatre. The appearance, though memorable, confirmed that Fonteyn was no longer able to execute more demanding roles. In 1976, she published her autobiography, though it was not a tell-all. Her husband was still living and Fonteyn was a very private person, as well as proper and fastidious. In 1977, she was awarded the Shakespeare Prize, in Hamburg by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S., as the first dancer ever honoured with the award.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Fonteyn retired in 1979 at the age of 60, 45 years after becoming the Royal Ballet's "prima ballerina". Fonteyn and Nureyev had created a partnership on and off stage that lasted until her retirement, after which they remained lifelong friends. For her 60th birthday, Fonteyn was feted by the Royal Ballet, dancing a duet with Ashton in his "Salut d'amour" and a tango from Ashton's "Façade" with her former partner Helpmann. At the end of the evening, she was officially pronounced "prima ballerina assoluta" of the Royal Ballet. She performed with Nureyev in his summer season, taking the part of lead nymph in "L'après-midi d'un faune" by Vaslav Nijinsky and as the girl in "Le Spectre de la rose". Fonteyn and Nureyev remained close even after she retired to a Panama cattle farm with her husband. The small farmhouse near El Higo, which did not have a telephone, was in a remote village, but she stayed in touch and the two occasionally performed together. Making telephone calls from a neighbour's hotel, Fonteyn spoke with Nureyev several times each week. She discovered that she had a real interest in raising cattle and developed a herd of four hundred head.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1979, Fonteyn wrote "The Magic of Dance" which was aired on the BBC as a television series in which she starred and was published in book form. The six-part BBC2 series, explored aspects in the development of dance from the 17th to the 20th century across the world, including scenes shot on location in Australia, China, France, Monte Carlo, Russia, and the United States. It included coverage of a wide range of dancers besides herself and Nureyev, including Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sammy Davis Jr., Isadora Duncan, Fanny Elssler, Kyra Nijinsky and Marie Taglioni. The series caused a stir because up to that time she had not been known for speaking on camera, and after rehearsing what she would say on each segment, she ad libbed the lines without cue cards. Though some critics failed to grasp that the production was neither a history of dance nor Fonteyn's biography, the series was "brilliantly successful" and Fonteyn received praise from American, Australian, and British critics.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: That same year, Fonteyn also published "A Dancer's World: An Introduction for Parents and Students". She danced the role of "Lady Capulet" in Nureyev's "Romeo and Juliet" with Rudolf and Carla Fracci performing the leading roles in 1981 at the Met in New York City. In 1982, she was made chancellor of Durham University, which she accepted as a great honour, considering her limited and frequently interrupted education. She travelled to Durham annually to attend the degree ceremony of the graduates and wholeheartedly participated in the duties required until her death. In 1983, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Santa Clara University, in the California city of the same name. Fonteyn also published "Pavlova: Portrait of a Dancer", in 1984, as a homage to Anna Pavlova, whom she admired. In February 1986 (aged 66) she appeared on stage in Miami, in a two-night engagement, as the Queen in "The Sleeping Beauty". Fonteyn's last performance with Nureyev occurred at the "Maratona-Festa a Corte", in Mantua, Italy, on 16 September 1988 in "Baroque Pas de Trois", along with ballerina Carla Fracci.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In 1989, shortly before the death of her husband, Fonteyn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Having used up all her savings to care for Arias in his long infirmity, and now retired without a pension, she dreaded the ordeal. Her step-daughter, Querube Arias, cared for her and accompanied her to Houston, Texas on her regular trips to M.D. Anderson Hospital. Nureyev was one of the few people she told of her problems and he arranged to visit her regularly in Houston, despite his busy schedule as a performer and choreographer. By 1990, she had undergone three operations and was bedridden. Out of money, Fonteyn began to sell her jewelry to pay for her care, and Nureyev anonymously helped to pay the bills. In February 1990 the Public Broadcasting Service aired "The Margot Fonteyn Story" as part of its series Great Performances. In the documentary, Nureyev said that they danced with "one body, one soul". Fonteyn's biographer, Daneman, said their uncanny bond of empathy went beyond the understanding most people have for each other: "Most people are on level A. They were on level Z". In May, a gala was held at Covent Gardens to raise money for her care. Placido Domingo volunteered to sing and both Somes and Nureyev danced. The event was attended by more than 2,000 guests, including Princess Margaret, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dame Ninette de Valois, raising £250,000 for a trust fund to provide for Fonteyn's support.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: Shortly before her death, Fonteyn converted to Roman Catholicism so that she could have her ashes buried in the same tomb as Arias. As her health worsened, she received a regular flood of messages and flowers from well-wishers, including Queen Elizabeth II and the President of Panama. Fonteyn died on 21 February 1991 in a hospital in Panama City, aged 71, on the 29th anniversary of her premiere with Nureyev in "Giselle". She was buried with Arias near their home in Panama and a memorial service was held in London on 2 July 1991 at Westminster Abbey. A grief-stricken Nureyev, who was dealing with his own health issues in the form of AIDS, was unable to attend either service.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In her hometown of Reigate, a statue created by British sculptor Nathan David in 1980, stands in tribute to Fonteyn. Depicting her in her favourite role of "Ondine", the statue was commissioned by fans worldwide. The main hall in Dunelm House, the Student Union building at the University of Durham, is named the "Fonteyn Ballroom" in her honour, as is the foyer to the Great Hall of University College, Durham, in Durham Castle. In 2005, "Margot's Closet", a dancing apparel and accessory shop, named in homage to Fonteyn, opened in Marietta, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb. The "Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet" established in Peekskill, New York in 2007 is named in her honour.


title: Margot Fonteyn

text: In the early 1990s, the fossil plant "Williamsonia margotiana" was named after Fonteyn. She was one of five "Women of Achievement" selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996. In the 1998 film "Hilary and Jackie" about British cellist Jacqueline du Pre, Fonteyn is portrayed in a cameo appearance by Nyree Dawn Porter. In 2005 Tony Palmer made a documentary for ITV about Fonteyn, titled simply "Margot". It includes interviews with several colleagues from the dance world, Nureyev's personal assistant, and Fonteyn's sister-in-law, Phoebe Fonteyn. The BBC made a film about Fonteyn, broadcast on 30 November 2009, based on Daneman's biography and starring Anne-Marie Duff as the ballerina. In 2016, the English Heritage Trust installed a blue plaque on the building where Fonteyn lived when she was performing with the Sadler's Wells Ballet. To mark the 100th anniversary of her birth, The Theatre and Film Guild installed a commemorative blue plaque to Fonteyn at her childhood home at 3 Elm Grove Road, Ealing.


title: 7500 (film)

text: 7500 is a 2019 action-thriller film written by Senad Halilbašić and Patrick Vollrath and directed by Patrick Vollrath in his directorial feature-length film debut. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias Ellis, a pilot whose plane is hijacked by terrorists. An international co-production between Austria, Germany, and the United States, filming took place in November 2017 in Cologne and Vienna. The title is in reference to Emergency Transponder Code for "unlawful interference".


title: 7500 (film)

text: The film's world premiere occurred at the Locarno Film Festival on 9 August 2019 and was digitally released in the United States on 18 June 2020, by Amazon Studios to mixed reviews from critics, with praise to Gordon-Levitt's performance.


title: 7500 (film)

text: European Airways pilots Captain Michael Lutzmann (Carlo Kitzlinger) and First Officer Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are preparing for a flight aboard an A319 from Berlin to Paris. Tobias talks to one of the flight attendants, who happens to be his girlfriend, Gökce (Aylin Tezel). Lutzmann re-enters the cockpit and they begin their pre-flight checks.


title: 7500 (film)

text: Once airborne, one of the flight attendants, Nathalia, begins bringing the pilots their in-flight meals, giving terrorists an opportunity to attempt a hijack by forcing their way into the cockpit. Killing Nathalia in the process, two terrorists, Kinan (Murathan Muslu) and Vedat (Omid Memar) successfully enter the cockpit and attack the pilots. Tobias fights Vedat off and manages to close the door, leaving Kinan in the cockpit. Lutzmann is stabbed and mortally wounded by Kinan as he broadcasts a mayday call. Tobias manages to subdue Kinan by slamming him in the head with a fire extinguisher, surviving the attack, but his left arm is badly wounded in the process. Tobias signals air traffic control using the radio transponder code 7500 (the emergency transponder squawk for a hijacking). The flight is diverted to Hannover, which is the closest place to land safely. Tobias restrains Kinan and straps him in the jump seat.


title: 7500 (film)

text: The remaining hijackers continuously attempt to break into the cockpit while Tobias alerts air traffic control of the events that have transpired. Tobias is reminded by control that he is not permitted to open the cockpit door despite threats by the hijackers to harm or even kill hostages. Lutzmann eventually succumbs to his wounds and Tobias unsuccessfully tries to revive him. Inside the cockpit, Tobias watches a camera feed monitor of the entrance to the cockpit, which reveals that a passenger has been taken hostage by Daniel, one of the hijackers. Daniel begins threatening to kill the hostage unless Tobias opens the door. Tobias pleads with Vedat on the interphone, telling him that the cockpit door cannot be opened, but Daniel executes the passenger anyway.


title: 7500 (film)

text: Daniel returns with another hostage; this time, it is Gökce. Tobias pleads with them to spare her life, and even attempts to summon the passengers to her rescue by informing them that the hijackers are poorly armed with only glass knives and no firearms. He pleads with Vedat to intervene but to no avail; Gökce is killed as he watches helplessly.


title: 7500 (film)

text: Tobias resumes piloting the plane. Unbeknownst to him, Kinan manages to escape from his restraints and knocks Tobias unconscious. He opens the door to allow Vedat inside the cockpit, who has escaped the passengers attacking the remaining hijackers in the cabin. Vedat manages to close the door and he ties up Tobias as Kinan takes control of the plane. It becomes clear that he intends to crash the plane, but Vedat suffers a crisis of conscience. Fearing death, he kills Kinan and frees Tobias, who retakes control of the plane.


title: 7500 (film)

text: Tobias continues preparations to land at Hannover, but Vedat demands they fly somewhere else. He eventually relents after Tobias explains the plane is low on fuel and has to land, and helps the injured Tobias land the plane in Hannover. After they land, the passengers and remaining crew evacuate while a police hostage negotiator begins communicating to the cockpit via radio. Vedat demands fuel during negotiations, becoming emotionally unstable as he is faced with the outcome of his actions. The hijacker is briefly calmed and distracted when his mother calls him on his cellphone, and he cries to her that he just wants to go home. After the call, he becomes aggravated, as Tobias pleads with the young man to surrender. Eventually, Vedat grows more aggressive and threatens to kill Tobias, but he is shot by a German police sniper and is incapacitated.


title: 7500 (film)

text: The police enter the cockpit as Tobias tries to save Vedat, and he pleads for the police to summon a doctor for Vedat. As Tobias and Vedat are escorted from the plane, Tobias’ gaze drifts to Gökce's body, still lying outside the cockpit. In the silence of the evacuated plane, the film ends as Vedat's cellphone begins ringing again in the now empty cockpit.


title: 7500 (film)

text: In January 2017, it was announced that Paul Dano would star in "7500", a film to be directed by Patrick Vollrath, marking his feature-length directorial debut. Filming was slated to commence in mid-2017 in Germany. However, when filming was delayed, Dano dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts, and was replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Principal production then commenced in November 2017, in Cologne and Vienna. Speaking of Gordon-Levitt's participation in the project, Vollrath said: "Joseph is one of the most exciting actors on the screen today, and we can't wait to work with him and see what magic he brings to this complex role".


title: 7500 (film)

text: In May 2019, Amazon Studios acquired distribution rights to the film, and distributed it under their Amazon Prime Video banner. It had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on 9 August 2019. It was digitally released in the United States on 18 June 2020.


title: 7500 (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: ""7500" never achieves maximum altitude as a skybound thriller, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt's solid central performance manages to hold it reasonably aloft." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: 7500 (film)

text: Giovanni Melogli of Cineuropa wrote: "The claustrophobic setting is an extremely effective element to achieve the goal set by the director: that is, to outline human behavior and reactions in extreme situations, where rationality and emotion mix and are fought with unpredictable results." Allan Hunter of Screen Daily described the film as striving for "authenticity" rather than "the heroics and histrionics of an American blockbuster" and likened the limited set to "the ingenuity of Hitchcock" for its ability to instill "a good deal of sweaty-palmed anxiety generated by the story, use of close-ups and the sense of confinement." Likewise, Guy Lodge of "Variety" called "7500"s opening as "briskly effective in a cold-sweat sort of way, carrying its audience from a smooth takeoff to the first signs of disturbance to swiftly cranked all-out terror with the kind of nervy efficiency you can admire without exactly taking pleasure in it."


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: The Chengdu GJ-1, also known as Wing Loong 1, is a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group in the People's Republic of China. Intended for use as a surveillance and aerial reconnaissance platform, the Pterodactyl I is capable of being fitted with air-to-surface weapons for use in an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) role.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: Designed and developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (CADI), a division of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the Pterodactyl I bears a distinct similarity in appearance to the Predator/Reaper family of drones developed by the United States. The drone is capable of being fitted with a variety of sensors, including a forward looking infrared turret and synthetic aperture radar. In addition, the aircraft is capable of carrying weapons. The Pterodactyl I's total payload capacity for sensors and weapons is .


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: According to CADI, the Pterodactyl I undergone flight testing and has proven successful, with the flight test program including weapons tests of both bombs and air-to-surface missiles.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: A model of the Pterodactyl I was displayed at the 2010 China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition at Zhuhai, the first public acknowledgment of the program; however, it was claimed by AVIC that the aircraft had been displayed at the 2008 airshow. The aircraft has been approved for export by Chinese authorities; the Pterodactyl I was evaluated by Pakistan, but was not selected for procurement.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: China National Aero Technology Import & Export Corp is managing exportation of Pterodactyl UAV and 100 exported as of late 2018. An unknown number of Pterodactyl UAVs were purchased by Saudi Arabia in May 2014.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: Since 2011, China has also sold the Wing Loong to several countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Nigeria, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, at an estimated $1 million per unit.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: In March 2017, the Egyptian Air Force launched a number of airstrikes in North Sinai's cities of El Arish, Rafah, and Sheikh Zuweid, as part of the operations conducted by the Egyptian Armed Forces against militants. Most of the strikes, which targeted stationing points and moving vehicles, were carried out by Wing Loong UCAVs leaving 18 militants killed.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: There is contradictory reporting whether Chinese-made Chengdu Pterodactyl I drones operated by United Arab Emirates have supported the advance of the Ethiopian army and its allies into Tigray.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: On August 3, 2019, Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) forces announced the shoot down of a drone belonging to rival Libyan National Army (LNA) forces. These forces loyal to general Khalifa Haftar were already known to extensively deploy Chinese-made Wing Loong drones supplied by the United Arab Emirates. in the Civil War conflict against the GNA, The GNA also deployed Turkish drones in its war after receiving 12 Bayraktar TB2s in two batches between May and July 2019, at least half of them have been destroyed during LNA airstrikes using Wing Loong IIs, the second batch delivered in July was to replace the losses of the first.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: On 26 December 2016 a Wing Loong UCAV operated by the United Arab Emirates was shot down by Houthi forces in Yemen.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: In April 2018 they were used in Yemen by the Saudi led Operation Decisive Storm in successfully killing Saleh Ali al-Sammad, a senior Houthi leader by Wing Loong UCAV.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: On 19 April 2019, Houthi rebels published a video of the downing and crash site of a United Arab Emirates CAIG Wing Loong acting for Saudi-led intervention over Saada district. It was probably shot down with a R-73 or R-27T missile.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: On 1 December 2019, Houthi forces reported shooting down a Saudi Arabian Wing Loong drone over Yemen, showing the wreckage of the drone later. Another Wing Loong was reported shot down ten days later. Houthi media published pictures of the drone wreckage.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: On 20 May 2021, Houthi fighters shot down another a Saudi Arabian Wing Loong I drone in Najran region. Displaying photos and a video of the crash site.


title: CAIG Wing Loong

text: On 13 September 2021, Houthi media announced the downing of a Saudi Coalition Wing Loong drone in Kataf area, Saada region, displaying footage of the shotdown.


title: Liberation of France

text: The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance.


title: Liberation of France

text: Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940. Their rapid advance through the undefended Ardennes caused a crisis in the French government; the French Third Republic dissolved itself in July, and handed over absolute power to Marshal Philippe Pétain, an elderly hero of World War I. Pétain signed an armistice with Germany with the north and west of France under German military occupation. Pétain, charged with calling a Constitutional Authority, instead established an authoritarian government in the spa town of Vichy, in the southern "zone libre" ("free zone"). Though nominally independent, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime and was little more than a Nazi client state that actively participated in Jewish deportations.


title: Liberation of France

text: Even before France surrendered on 22 June 1940, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London, from where he called on his fellow citizens to resist the Germans. The British recognized and funded Free French government in exile based in London. Efforts to liberate France began in the autumn of 1940 in France's colonial empire in Africa, still in the hands of the Vichy regime. General persuaded French Chad to support Free France, and by 1943 most other French colonies in Equatorial and North Africa had followed suit. announced formation of the Empire Defense Council in Brazzaville, which became the capital of Free France. In 1942 an Anglo-American invasion force landed in the French North African territories, completing Allied domination of the Mediterranean Sea, from which they invaded Italy. A French Expeditionary Corps of mostly colonial troops fought under the Allied command in Italy.


title: Liberation of France

text: Allied military efforts in north western Europe began in summer 1944 with two seaborne invasions of France. Operation Overlord in June 1944 landed two million men, including a French armoured division, through the beaches of Normandy, opening a Western front against Germany. Operation Dragoon in August launched a second offensive force, including French Army B, from the "département" of Algeria into southern France. City after city in France was liberated, and even Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944. As the liberation progressed, resistance groups were incorporated into the Allied strength. In September, under threat of the Allied advance Pétain and the remains of the Vichy regime fled into exile in Germany. The Allied armies continued to push the Germans back through eastern France and in February and March 1945, back across the Rhine into Germany. A few pockets of German resistance remained in control of the main Atlantic ports until the end of the war on 8 May 1945.


title: Liberation of France

text: Immediately after liberation, France was swept by a wave of executions, assaults, and degradation of suspected collaborators, including shaming of women suspected of relationships with Germans. Courts set up in June 1944 carried out an "épuration légale" (official purge) of officials tainted by association with Vichy or the military occupation. Some defendants received death sentences, and faced a firing squad. The first elections since 1940 were organized in May 1945 by the Provisional Government; these municipal elections were the first in which women could vote. In referendums in October 1946, the voters approved a new constitution and the Fourth Republic was born 27 October 1946.


title: Liberation of France

text: Nazi Germany invaded France and the Low Countries beginning on 10 May 1940. German forces split the French from their British allies by striking through the lightly defended Ardennes, whose topography French strategists had considered prohibitively difficult for tanks.


title: Liberation of France

text: The invaders forced the British Expeditionary Force to evacuate, and defeated several French divisions before they advanced to Paris, and down the strategic Atlantic coast. By June, the dire French military situation had French politics revolving around whether the Third Republic should negotiate an armistice, fight on from North Africa, or just surrender. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud wanted to keep fighting, but was outvoted and resigned. The government relocated several times ahead of advancing German troops, ending up in Bordeaux. President Albert Lebrun appointed 84-year-old war hero Philippe Pétain as his replacement on 16 June 1940.


title: Liberation of France

text: Within six weeks of the initial German assault, an overwhelmed French military faced imminent defeat. The cabinet agreed to seek peace terms and sent the Germans a delegation under General Charles Huntziger, with instructions to break off negotiations if the Germans demanded excessively harsh conditions such as the occupation of all of metropolitan France, the French fleet, or any of the French overseas territories. The Germans did not, however.


title: Liberation of France

text: Pierre Laval, a strong proponent of collaboration, arranged a meeting between Hitler and Pétain. It took place 24 October 1940 at Montoire on Hitler's private train. Pétain and Hitler shook hands and agreed to co-operate. The meeting was exploited in Nazi propaganda for the civilian population. On 30 October 1940, Pétain made a policy of French collaboration official, declaring in a radio statement: "I enter today on the path of collaboration."


title: Liberation of France

text: General , sentenced to death "in absentia" by the Vichy régime escaped and created a government in exile for Free France in London. Of the sentence, he said: "I consider the death sentence by the men of Vichy entirely void, I shall settle accounts with them after victory. The sentence is that of a court largely under the influence and possibly under the direct orders of an enemy who will one day be driven from the soil of France. Then I will submit myself willingly to the people's judgment."


title: Liberation of France

text: Pétain signed the Armistice of 22 June. Its terms left the French Army under Vichy France a rump Armistice Army. The naval fleet, although disabled, remained under Vichy control. In the colonial empire, the armistice terms permitted defensive use of the naval fleet. In metropolitan France, forces were severely reduced, armored vehicles and tanks prohibited, and motorized transport severely limited.


title: Liberation of France

text: In July, the National Assembly of the French Third Republic dissolved itself and gave absolute power to Pétain, who was to set up a constituent assembly and constitutional referendum. The "French State" created by this transfer of power was commonly known after the war as the "Vichy régime". Pétain did nothing about a constitution however, and established a totalitarian government at Vichy in the southern zone.


title: Liberation of France

text: The Vichy régime nominally governed all of France, but in practice the "zone occupée" was a Nazi dictatorship and the Vichy government's power was limited and uncertain even in the "zone libre". Vichy France became a collaborationist regime, little more than a Nazi client state.


title: Liberation of France

text: France was still nominally independent, with control of the French Navy, the French colonial empire, and the southern half of its metropolitan territory. France could tell itself that it still retained some shreds of dignity. Despite heavy pressure, Vichy never joined the Axis alliance and remained formally at war with Germany. The Allies took the position that France should refrain from actively helping the Germans, but distrusted its assurances. The British attacked the French Navy at anchor in Mers-el-Kébir, to keep it out of German hands.


title: Liberation of France

text: Charles had been since 5 June the Under-Secretary of State for National Defence and War and responsible for coordination with Britain. Refusing to accept his government's position on Germany, he escaped back to England on 17 June. In London he established a government in exile and in a series of radio appeals exhorted the French to fight back. Some historians have called the first, his appeal of 18 June on the BBC, the beginning of the French Resistance. In fact the audience for that appeal was quite small, but more and more listened as de Gaulle obtained Britain's recognition as the legitimate government of Free France and obtained their agreement to finance a military efforts against Nazi Germany.


title: Liberation of France

text: The armistice took effect starting at 00:35 on 25 June. On 26 June wrote to Churchill about recognition for his French Committee. The Foreign Office had reservations about de Gaulle as a leader, but Churchill's envoys had tried and failed to establish contact with French leaders in North Africa, so on 28 June, the British government recognized as the leader of the Free French, despite the FO's reservations.


title: Liberation of France

text: The French Resistance was a decentralized network of small cells of fighters with the tacit or overt support of many French civilians. The various resistance groups by 1944 had an estimated 100,000 members in France. Some were former Republican fighters from the Spanish Civil War; others were workers who went into hiding rather than report for the mandatory "Service du travail obligatoire" (STO) to work for German arms factories. In the south of France especially, Resistance fighters took to the mountainous brush () that gave them their name, and conducted guerilla warfare on the German occupation forces, cutting telephone lines and destroying bridges.


title: Liberation of France

text: The "Armée Secrète" was a French military organization active during World War II. The collective grouped the paramilitary formations of the three most important Gaullist resistance movements in the southern zone: Combat, Libération-sud and the Franc-Tireurs.


title: Liberation of France

text: Some organizations grew up around one of the many clandestine presses of the time, such as "Combat", founded by Albert Camus, to which Jean-Paul Sartre also contributed. Stalin supported the effort once the Nazis invaded Russia.


title: Liberation of France

text: French prisoners of war were held hostage against the French government meeting their quota of workers. When the mass impressment of able-bodied civilians began, French railway workers ("cheminots") went on strike rather than allow the Germans to use the trains to transport them. The "cheminots" eventually formed their own organization, "Résistance-Fer".


title: Liberation of France

text: The French Forces of the Interior (FFI), as came to call Resistance forces inside France, were an uneasy alliance of several "maquis" and other organizations, including the Communist-organized Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) and the Armée secrète in southern France. In addition, escape networks helped Allied airmen who had been shot down get to safety. The "Unione Corse" and the , the criminal underground of Marseilles, gleefully provided logistical escape assistance for a price, although some such as Paul Carbone instead worked with the Carlingue, French auxiliaries to the Gestapo SD and German military police.


title: Liberation of France

text: France's colonial empire at the start of World War II stretched from territories and possessions in Africa, the Middle East (Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon), to ports in India, Indochina, the Pacific islands, and territories in North and South America.


title: Liberation of France

text: France retained control of its colonial empire, and the terms of the armistice shifted the power balance post-armistice of France's reduced military resources away from France and towards the colonies, especially North Africa. By 1943, all French colonies, except for Japanese-controlled Indochina, had joined the Free French cause.


title: Liberation of France

text: Vichy French colonial forces were reduced under the terms of the armistice. Nevertheless, in the Mediterranean area alone, Vichy had nearly 150,000 men under arms. There were about 55,000 in French Morocco, 50,000 in Algeria, and almost 40,000 in the Army of the Levant.


title: Liberation of France

text: Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, Charles fled to England on 17 June and exhorted the French to resist occupation and to continue the fight.


title: Liberation of France

text: Reynaud resigned after his proposal for a Franco-British Union was rejected by his cabinet and De Gaulle facing imminent arrest, fled France on 17 June. Other leading politicians, including Georges Mandel, Léon Blum, Pierre Mendès France, Jean Zay and Édouard Daladier (and separately Reynaud), were arrested while travelling to continue the war from North Africa.


title: Liberation of France

text: De Gaulle obtained special permission from Winston Churchill to broadcast a speech on 18 June via "Radio Londres" (a French language radio station operated by the BBC) to France, despite the Cabinet's objections that such a broadcast could provoke the Pétain government into a closer allegiance with Germany. In his speech, de Gaulle reminded the French people that the British Empire and the United States of America would support them militarily and economically in an effort to retake France from the Germans.


title: Liberation of France

text: Few actually heard the speech but another speech, heard by more people, was given by de Gaulle four days later.


title: Liberation of France

text: After the war, de Gaulle's radio appeal was often identified as the beginning of the French Resistance, and the process of liberating France from the yoke of German occupation.


title: Liberation of France

text: De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in colonial Africa. In the summer of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime. Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October, where he announced the formation of an Empire Defense Council in his "Brazzaville Manifesto", and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and the Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943.


title: Liberation of France

text: On 26 August, the governor and military commanders in the colony of French Chad announced that they were rallying to De Gaulle's Free French Forces. A small group of Gaullists seized control of French Cameroon the following morning, and on 28 August a Free French official ousted the pro-Vichy governor of French Congo. The next day the governor of Ubangi-Shari declared that his territory would support De Gaulle. His declaration prompted a brief struggle for power with a pro-Vichy army officer, but by the end of the day all of the colonies that formed French Equatorial Africa had rallied to Free France, except for French Gabon.


title: Liberation of France

text: A series of organizing bodies was created during the war, to guide and coordinate the diplomatic and war effort of Free France, with General Charles playing a central role in the creation or operation of them all.


title: Liberation of France

text: On 26 June 1940, four days after the Pétain government requested the armistice, General submitted a memorandum to the British government notifying Churchill of his decision to set up a Council of Defense of the Empire and formalizing the agreement reached with Churchill on 28 June. The formal recognition of the Empire Defense Council as a government in exile by the United Kingdom took place on 6 January 1941; recognition by the Soviet Union was published in December 1941, by exchange of letters.


title: Liberation of France

text: Winston Churchill suggested that create a committee, to lend an appearance of a more constitutionally based and less dictatorial authority and on 24 September 1941 created by edict the French National Committee as the successor organization to the smaller Empire Defense Council. According to historian went on to accept his proposal, but took care to exclude all his adversaries within the Free France movement, such as Émile Muselier, André Labarthe and others, retaining only "yes men" in the group.


title: Liberation of France

text: The committee was the coordinating body which acted as the government-in-exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. On 3 June 1943 it merged with the French Civil and Military High Command headed by Henri Giraud, becoming the new "French Committee of National Liberation".


title: Liberation of France

text: De Gaulle, began seeking the formation of a committee to unify the resistance movements. On January 1, 1942, he delegated this task to Jean Moulin. Moulin achieved this on May 27, 1943, with the first meeting of the "Conseil National de la Résistance" in the 6th-arrondissement apartment of René Corbin on the second floor of 48, Rue du Four, in Paris.


title: Liberation of France

text: The French Civil and Military High Command was the governmental body in Algiers headed by Henri Giraud following the liberation of a portion of French North Africa following the Allied Operation Torch landings on 7 and 8 November 1942.


title: Liberation of France

text: François Darlan had been named by Pétain to oppose the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942. Following the landings, Darlan supported the Allies. On 13 November, Eisenhower recognized him and named Darlan "High Commissioner of France residing in North Africa". Henri Giraud, a French patriot loyal to Vichy but opposed to Germany and who had been the Allies choice, became commander of the military forces in North Africa. First called the "High Commission of France in Africa", the French authority was rocked when on 24 December 1942, Darlan was assassinated by a Monarchist. Giraud took over and the name "Civil and Military High Command" was adopted by 1943. Giraud exercised authority over French Algeria and the French Protectorate of Morocco, while the Tunisian campaign against the Germans and Italians continued in the French Protectorate of Tunisia. Darlan having previously won the support of French West Africa, the latter was also in Giraud's camp, while French Equatorial Africa was in de Gaulle's camp.


title: Liberation of France

text: By March 1943, North Africa began to distance itself from Vichy. On 14 March, Giraud delivered a speech that he later described as "the first democratic speech of [his] life", in which he broke with Vichy. Jean Monnet pushed Giraud to negotiate with de Gaulle, who arrived in Algiers on 30 May 1943. On 3 June, the Civil and Military High Command in Algiers merged with the French National Committee in London to form the French National Liberation Committee.


title: Liberation of France

text: The French Committee of National Liberation was a provisional government of Free France formed by generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, and organize and coordinate the campaign to liberate France. The committee was formed on 3 June 1943 and after a period of joint leadership came under the chairmanship of on 9 November. The committee directly challenged the legitimacy of the Vichy régime and unified the French forces that fought against the Nazis and their collaborators. The committee functioned as a provisional government for French Algeria (then a part of metropolitan France) and the liberated parts of the colonial empire.


title: Liberation of France

text: The committee was formed on 3 June 1943 in Algiers, the capital of French Algeria. Giraud and de Gaulle served jointly as co-presidents of the committee. The charter of the body affirmed its commitment to "re-establish all French liberties, the laws of the Republic and the Republican régime." The committee saw itself as a source of unity and representation for the French nation. The Vichy regime was decried as illegitimate over its collaboration with Nazi Germany. The committee received mixed responses from the Allies; the U.S. and Britain considered it a war-time body with restricted functions, different from a future government of liberated France. The Committee soon expanded its membership, developed a distinctive administrative body and incorporated as the Provisional Consultative Assembly, creating an organized, representative government within itself. With Allied recognition, the committee and its leaders Giraud and de Gaulle enjoyed considerable popular support within France and the French resistance, thus becoming the forerunners in the process to form a provisional government for France as liberation approached. However, Charles de Gaulle politically outmaneuvered Gen. Giraud, and asserted complete control and leadership over the committee.


title: Liberation of France

text: In September, Allied forces recognized the committee as the legitimate provisional government of France, whereupon the Committee reorganized itself as the Provisional Government of the French Republic under the presidency of Charles and began the process of writing a new Constitution which would become the basis of the French Fourth Republic.


title: Liberation of France

text: The Provisional Consultative Assembly was set up in September 1943 in Algiers to advise the committee and to help provide a legal basis to the institutions being set up to represent the French people, at a time when the country itself and its laws represented the enemy. After the liberation of Paris in August 1944, the Committee moved to Paris and was reorganized as the Provisional Government of the French Republic under the presidency of Charles . The Provisional Government guided the French war and diplomatic efforts through liberation and the end of the war, until a new Constitution was written and approved in a referendum, establishing of the Fourth Republic in October 1946.


title: Liberation of France

text: The Provisional Consultative Assembly was a governmental organ of Free France that was created by and operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN). It began in north Africa and held meetings in Algiers until it moved to Paris in July 1944. Led by Charles de Gaulle, it was an attempt to provide some sort of representative, democratic accountability to the institutions being set up to represent the French people, at a time when the country itself and its laws were dissolved and its territory occupied or coopted by a puppet state.


title: Liberation of France

text: The members of the Assembly represented the French resistance movements, political parties, and territories that were engaged against Germany in the Second World War alongside the Allies.