prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who is one of the members of the music group that performed "Good Little Girls"?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Secrets of a Windmill Girl
Secrets of a Windmill Girl is a 1966 British exploitation film directed by Arnold L  Miller  It recounts the road to ruin of a young woman (Pauline Collins) who becomes involved with the striptease scene after becoming a dancer at the Windmill Theatre in London  The film features fan dances by former Windmill Theatre Company performers  It was originally released in Britain as part of a double bill with Naked as Nature Intended 

Cast
Pauline Collins as Pat Lord
April Wilding as Linda Grey
Renée Houston as Molly - Dresser
Derek Bond as Inspector Thomas
Harry Fowler as Harry
Howard Marion-Crawford as	Richard - Producer
Peter Gordeno as Peter
Peter Swanwick as Len Mason
Martin Jarvis as Mike, Windmill Stage Manager
Leon Cortez as 'Uncle Marty'

Critical reception
A reviewer in TV Guide wrote that "the premise of this film is compelling, but the treatment is empty-headed"; and The Spinning Image asked, "and those hoping for titillation? As with so much of the sexually-themed cinema of this (British) nation, they were offered it with a moralistic angle, as if telling the audience off for their prurience "
Passage 2:
Mama's Little Girl
"Mama's Little Girl" is a song by Paul McCartney & Wings that was taped in March 1972 during the Red Rose Speedway recording sessions 

Recording and performance
The final mix was made in 1987 at Air Studios in London by McCartney, co-producer Chris Thomas and engineer Bill Price 
McCartney performed "Mama's Little Girl" as part of a medley during the 1973 James Paul McCartney television special, though it was not broadcast 

Personnel
Paul McCartney - vocals, acoustic guitar, drums, electric guitar, tambourine
Linda McCartney - tambourine, backing vocals
Denny Laine - backing vocals, bass
Henry McCullough - electric guitar
Denny Seiwell - African percussion
Heather McCartney - backing vocals

Release
"Mama's Little Girl" was intended to be included on Cold Cuts, an album of outtakes which was never released 
"Mama's Little Girl" was officially issued: 

In 1990 as the B-side of the "Put It There" single & on the 2 CD Japanese version of the Flowers in the Dirt album 
In 1993 as a bonus track on the 1993 remastered CD edition of Wings' 1971 Wild Life album 
In 2018 as part of the Red Rose Speedway Archive Collection 

Track listings
This song was released as a 7" single, a 12" maxi-single, and a CD single 

7" single"Put It There"
"Mama's Little Girl"12" single"Put It There"
"Mama's Little Girl"
"Same Time Next Year"CD single"Put It There"
"Mama's Little Girl"
"Same Time Next Year"
Passage 3:
Mia Aegerter
Mia Aegerter is a Swiss musician, model, and stage and film actress 

Childhood and early career
Mia Aegerter was born on October 9, 1976 into an artist family in Fribourg, Switzerland  Her parents were members of a band, which drew Aegerter to the stage at an early age  She started working as a model and took part in many talent competitions  At a young age, she won the "Little-Prix Walo," an important talent competition for young artists in Switzerland  She also succeeded in the famous "Bravo Girl - Model Contest,“ in Germany 
At fifteen, she began to write her own songs  After a yearlong stay in America, she graduated from high-school and moved to Munich to study music, dance, and acting  After a short time, Aegerter was discovered by a talent scout and moved to Berlin, Germany 

Musical and film career
From 2000 to 2003, she became famous for starring as "Xenia di Montalban" in eight episodes of Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten, the most successful daily soap opera in Germany at the time 
At the beginning of 2003, Aegerter had a breakthrough in the national music scene  Her single, "U don't know how to love me," achieved high radio-ratings and got into the Top 20 of the Swiss single charts and the Top 40 of the German single charts  Shortly after, Aegerter played the role of “Laura Moretti” in the film Achtung, fertig, Charlie, which came in second on the list of the most successful Swiss movies ever made (with over 560'000 entries at the box office as of 2011; behind Rolf Lyssy's classic "Schweizermacher" of 1978 with over 940'000 tickets sold)  The film was also released in France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the USA, where it was renamed, Ready, Steady, Charlie!  Aegerter also composed and sang the film's title song, "Hie u Jetzt," which became a hit in Switzerland, reaching the Top 5 of the Swiss single charts  She received prizes and honors for her work, including the PRIX WALO in 2003, the VIVA COMET in the category of "Best of all CH Act," and the famous SWISS AWARD 
With her debut album, So wie I bi / The way I am, released in 2004, Aegerter proved that she is not only an excellent dialect singer, but very expressive with English lyrics  With the song, "Alive," she took part in the German selection to the "Grand Prix d'Eurovision"  "Alive" was her fourth single release and got into the Swiss and German charts 
In January 2005, the Album So wie I bi / The way I am went gold in Switzerland 
In the same year, Aegerter played the female lead in the Swiss film, Leben auf Kredit, which also played in France and Italy  She also hosted the weekly youth magazine, Bravo TV, for one year  Bravo TV was also broadcast in Germany, Switzerland and Austria 
After many unplugged gigs in 2004-2005, she and her rock band, were a supporting-act of Ronan Keating's German Tour, which allowed them to perform on the biggest stages in the country  Aegerter also had her own Club Tour in Switzerland and played in various open-air festivals 

Other skills
Besides acting in various plays and movies in Switzerland and Germany, Aegerter's main passion remains the music and the songwriting  Her lyrics have a healthy portion of provocative irony  She takes the listeners on a journey through her thoughts and beliefs 
She extended her writing, by working for three years, as a columnist for the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, a renowned daily Swiss newspaper 

Albums
Singles
External links
Myriam Aegerter at IMDb
(in German) Official website
Passage 4:
4 Little Girls
4 Little Girls is a 1997 American historical documentary film about the murder of four African-American girls (Addie May Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Rosamond Robertson) in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963  The film was directed by Spike Lee and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary The events inspired the 1964 song "Birmingham Sunday" by Richard and Mimi Fariña, which was used in the opening sequence of the film, as sung by Joan Baez, Mimi's sister  They also inspired the 1963 tune "Alabama" by John Coltrane, which is also included in the soundtrack 
4 Little Girls premiered on June 25, 1997, at the Guild 50th Street Theatre in New York City  It was produced by Lee's production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, and Home Box Office (HBO) In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" 

Synopsis
A local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan placed bombs at the 16th Street Baptist Church and set them off as Sunday services prepared to commence on the morning of September 15, 1963  Four young girls, ranging in age from 11 to 14, were killed in the explosion, which also caused anywhere between 14 and 22 additional injuries  The deaths provoked national outrage, and, the following summer, the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed by President Lyndon B  Johnson  The bombing is marked in history as a critical and pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement 
The film covered the events in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 related to civil rights demonstrations and the movement to end racial discrimination in local stores and facilities  In 1963, Rev  Dr  Martin Luther King Jr  arrived in the town to help with their strategy and to speak at the funeral of the four young girls  People of the community met at the 16th Street Baptist Church while organizing their events  The demonstrations were covered by national media, and the use by police of police dogs and pressured water from hoses on young people shocked the nation  The large number of demonstrators who were arrested resulted in local jails filling to capacity 
The film ends with the trial and conviction in 1977 of Robert Edward Chambliss, also known as Dynamite Bob, as the main person responsible for the bombing, though he is said to have been only one of four Klan members involved  The film also references black churches being set on fire in Birmingham in 1993, giving the impression that, while progress has been made, there are some things that still have not changed 
Lee uses interviews with family and friends of the girls, government officials, and civil rights activists, as well as home movies and archival footage, to not only tell the story of the four girls' lives, but also to provide a greater historical and political context of the times 

Production
Lee first became interested in making a film about the Birmingham bombing in 1983, when he was a student at New York University  After reading a New York Times Magazine article about the incident, he was moved to write to Chris McNair, the father of Denise, one of the victims, to ask for permission to tell her story on film  McNair turned down the young, aspiring filmmaker  "I was entering my first semester at N Y U  So my skills as a filmmaker were nonexistent, and at that time, Chris McNair was still hesitant to talk about it," Lee said in a 1997 interview with Industry Central's The Director's Chair   "I believe timing is everything  So it took ten years of Chris thinking about this and ten years of myself making movies for this to come together "According to McNair, he changed his mind about supporting Lee's film idea due to learning about the depth and precision of Lee's research  McNair said, "[I]t's very important that this be done accurately and correctly  In all his research, he [Lee] showed that he was objective and seeking a broad section of opinion  I'm a stickler for the facts "At first, Lee had intended to create a dramatic reproduction of the incident, but eventually, he decided that would not be the best approach, and the project became a documentary  Once he secured funding, he went to Birmingham with a small skeleton film crew, as he wanted the families be as comfortable as possible during the interviews  Sam Pollard served as a producer and the editor and Ellen Kuras was the director of photography of the film 
Lee had developed a relationship with Kuras while working on an HBO project called Subway Stories, which was an anthology of short films compiled by Jonathan Demme (though Lee's film did not make the final cut due, in part, to conflict between him and Demme)  Kuras said of her desire to shoot 4 Little Girls, "I was really interested because my background is in political documentaries     I always felt that one of the reasons that I had got into filmmaking was that I wanted to use my craft to be able to say something about the human condition, however I could, in my own humble way  For me this was an opportunity to make a small contribution "
Lee's partnership with Sam Pollard had begun on Mo' Better Blues when Pollard was recommended to replace Barry Alexander Brown, who was unavailable because he was directing his own film, as editor  Pollard originally refused the overture because he was busy working on his segments of Eyes on the Prize, but ultimately, he accepted, and he has since become one of Lee's most frequent collaborators  Their first few films together were fiction, but Pollard's background was in documentary, and he was key to guiding the structure of 4 Little Girls  He said about his role: Basically it was to help with the conception of the structure, to edit it     We spent a lot of time screening dailies together   We could come to 40 Acres at 7a m , and we would spend three hours a day screening dailies for two weeks straight     We talked, selected all the material that we liked, and I started working on the structure in the editing room   Spike was asking if he needed narration and what the structure should be  I basically said the structure should be that there are parallels—the family, the history of the community—and then they come together on the explosion 

Reception
Critics and public
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature  On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 100% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 8 42/10  The website's critical consensus reads: "4 Little Girls finds Spike Lee moving into documentary filmmaking with his signature style intact -- and all the palpable fury the subject requires "

Box office
It was initially planned for the film to first be seen by the public when it was aired on HBO, but, after seeing the final product, the production team decided it was important to release the film in theaters before running it on television  Accordingly, 4 Little Girls opened in American theaters on July 9, 1997, and closed on October 2, 1997  It grossed $130,146 from a total of four theaters  In its opening weekend, it earned $13,528 from a single theater, which was 10 4% of its total gross  It cost approximately $1 million to make, funded by HBO 

See also
Civil rights movement in popular culture
1956 Sugar Bowl
civil rights movement
Timeline of the civil rights movement
Passage 5:
Good Little Girls (song)
"Good Little Girls" is the debut song recorded by American country music duo Blue County   It was released in September 2003 as the first single from their debut album Blue County   The song was written by Troy Seals and Brett Jones 

Chart performance
"Good Little Girls" debuted at number 51 on the U S  Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of October 18, 2003 

Year-end charts
Passage 6:
The King of Rock and Roll
The King of Rock and Roll is an album by Little Richard, released in 1971  It was his second album for Reprise Records  It was rereleased as part of the King of Rock and Roll: The Complete Reprise Recordings set 

Production
The King of Rock and Roll was produced and arranged by H  B  Barnum  It contains one original Little Richard song, the gospel rock "In the Name", and a new song co-written by Barnum, "Green Power", the album's single  The rest of the tracks are covers  The title track is a mock braggadocio that references Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Ike & Tina Turner, Sly and the Family Stone and Aretha Franklin, among others  The album title and cover art were inspired by Little Richard's image in the early 1970s, when he would often appear in public wearing robes, jewelry, and a crown 

Critical reception
The album received a largely negative review in Rolling Stone, where Vince Aletti stated: "Much of the album seems designed around the Talk Show Personality rather than the Singer, giving it the sticky veneer of a jive extravaganza " Reviewing the album as part of the Reprise collection, The Austin Chronicle deemed it a "pandering covers concept "

Track listing
"King of Rock 'n' Roll" (Bradford Craig, H B  Barnum) - 3:11
"Joy to the World" (Hoyt Axton) – 6:49
"Brown Sugar" (Keith Richards, Mick Jagger) – 3:23
"In the Name" (Richard Penniman) – 3:10
"Dancing in the Street" (Marvin Gaye, William "Mickey" Stevenson) – 5:31
"Midnight Special" (Traditional; arranged by Richard Penniman) – 4:02
"The Way You Do the Things You Do" (Robert Rogers, William Robinson) – 3:29
"Green Power" (H B  Barnum, John "Skip" Anderson) – 3:59
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (Hank Williams) – 2:40
"Settin' the Woods on Fire" (Ed G  Nelson, Fred Rose) – 2:22
"Born on the Bayou" (John C  Fogerty) – 4:27

Personnel
Little Richard – vocals, electric pianoRest of personnel unknown, records not kept by Reprise 

Charts
Passage 7:
A Little Girl in Old Pittsburg
A Little Girl in Old Pittsburg is a novel for children set in late 18th century Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania written by the American writer Amanda Minnie Douglas (1831–1916) 
It opens in 1781 with the news of Lord Cornwallis’ surrender to George Washington as it reaches the Carrick, Bradin, and Duvernay families, pioneers who live near Fort Pitt  The protagonist, Daffodil, is the "little girl" of the title, and the plot primarily is used to illustrate the domestic life of early Pittsburghers  It ends with Daffodil’s marriage and her taking leave of the city   The novel is part of a series (e g , A Little Girl in Old Boston, A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia) that was among the first fiction series for American girls 

See also
List of fiction set in Pittsburgh
Passage 8:
The Little Match Girl (1928 film)
The Little Match Girl (French: La petite marchande d'allumettes) is a 1928 French drama featurette film directed by Jean Renoir and starring Catherine Hessling 

Plot
The story of a frozen girl who tries to sell matches during Christmas and dreams about a toy store  The film is based on the 1845 short story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen 

Cast
Catherine Hessling as Karen
Amy Wells as Pop
Jean Storm as Lieutenant Axel Ott
Manuel Raaby as Politieagent

See also
List of Christmas films
Passage 9:
Ugod
Ugod is a small village in the North-Western part of Hungary, in Veszprém county, near Mount Bakony and close to Lake Balaton, at the juncture of Bakony and Little Alföld  The town is a great starting point for hikers, hunters and the lovers of countryside 
Distances: Budapest (150 km), Győr (60 km), Lake Balaton (80 km), Veszprém (60 km), Pápa (15 km) 

History
First written mention of the village from 1289  King László IV dated a charter during a campaign in this year  It  is supposed that the Fortress of Ugod still existed at that time but it is doubtful  Because that charter dated  "in Ugod" instead of "in Ugod fortress" or "under Ugod fortress" as usual at that time 
During Árpád Dynasty Ugod was the part of Bakony Erdőispánság  Ispán is the ruler of the territory  King Stephen V signed Csák Lukács's son Demeter and his posteriors to be forever ispán of that territory and allowed him to build fortress 
Csák family was relative to the dynasty  Their origin is from the Honfoglalás (settlement of the Magyars)  Due  to Anonymus and Képes Krónika Csák was the son of Chief Előd's great-grandchild Szabolcs  From that Csák is the  family originated  That family was streamed to 12 arm  One of them called ugodi  That arm's earliest known member  was Csák Lukács  In this family the name Ugrin (means Hungarian man) was very popular  One form of that name with  diminutive -d is Ugod 
That was the name of Demeter's son or grandson, who after the village is nominated 
Jews lived in the village in the 19th and 20th centuries, dozens of whom were murdered in the Holocaust 

Sights
Roman Catholic church (former fortress)
Parish
Pieta in front of parish
Chalk-smelters around the village
Ugod Lake
Stephen I's statue
Hubertlak in the surrounding forest
Passage 10:
This Little Girl of Mine
"This Little Girl of Mine" is a rhythm and blues single written and released as a single by Ray Charles in 1955 on the Atlantic label 
"This Little Girl of Mine" played off "This Little Light of Mine", much like the previous "I Got a Woman" and the later "Hallelujah I Love Her So" played off other classic gospel hymns  Much like those songs, it replaced sacred lyrics with secular blues lyrics, featuring doo-wop call and response harmonies 
The song was the B-side to Charles' number-one R&B single, "A Fool for You", and was a charted hit on its own, peaking at number nine on the chart 
The tune was re-made to top 40 pop status in 1958 by The Everly Brothers  It should not be confused with the 1981 Gary U S  Bonds hit "This Little Girl "
Passage 11:
Reform School Girl
Reform School Girl is a 1957 film starring Gloria Castillo as a teenage girl who is sent to a reformatory  The film was directed by Edward Bernds and was produced by Samuel Z  Arkoff   Reform School Girl was one of many sexploitation films released by American International Pictures (AIP) during the 1950s and 1960s   AIP's films during this period were largely focused on juvenile delinquency   As part of the AIP formula, young girls were typically depicted as "good" or "bad", the latter of which were petty criminals, gang members, or the girlfriends of gang members   Other AIP films in the same genre included Drag Strip Girl, Hot Rod Girl, and High School Hellcats  Reform School Girl is available for on-line viewing at AMCtv com  The film was released by American International Pictures as a double feature with Shake, Rattle and Rock 
The film marked the acting debut of Sally Kellerman   While filming the movie, she met Vickers and Byrnes and the three of them became lifelong friends 

Plot
Donna Price (Gloria Castillo) is picked up on a double date by Vince (Edward Byrnes)  During the course of the evening she discovers that the car they are riding in is stolen  As the night unfolds, an argument ensues in the car and Vince tells the others to get out, leaving Donna as his only passenger  When she asks him if he is worried about the other couple notifying the police, Vince tells her that he would murder anybody who ever turned on him  Subsequently, the police attempt to pull Vince over for speeding  During the high speed chase, Vince strikes a pedestrian and kills him  He flees the scene leaving Donna alone in the car  Fearing for her life, she refuses to identify Vince as the car's driver  Considered a juvenile delinquent, Donna is sent to a state school for girls 

At the school, Donna attends a history class that is taught by David Lindsay (Ross Ford) who is also the school's psychologist   Although Donna does not reveal her secret to David, he believes that she is a good person who may have been caught up in a series of bad events and that she can straighten out her life with his help 
While Donna is in the school, the police continue the accident investigation   Vince is troubled by the event and is worried that Donna will eventually tell authorities what happened   He develops a ruse where his girlfriend places a phone call to the police and identifies herself as Donna   She tells the police that one of the girls in the reform school is a thief   Eventually the other girls come to believe that Donna is a police informer  She is attacked by Roxy (Yvette Vickers) and while defending herself, Donna cuts Roxy with a pair of scissors   Despite David's plea to conduct an investigation, the school superintendent determines that Donna is a high risk student and that she should be transferred to the state prison   School authorities also question David's judgment, his relationship with Donna, and his ability to help students   Vince, who is still convinced that Donna will turn him into the police, attempts to break into the school and kill her   He fails and is apprehended   The police and school authorities investigate the incident and as a result of the investigation David is vindicated, and Donna is exonerated and released 

Reviews
The Rotten Tomatoes provides the following narrative:

 "The inherent trashiness of Reform School Girl is redeemed by the sincere performance of Gloria Castillo and the matter-of-fact direction of Edward Bernds  Castillo plays mixed-up teenager Donna Price, who is shipped off to a girl's reformatory when she is involved in a fatal car crash  Actually, Donna is innocent, but she refuses to reveal who was driving  Only when the culprit (a pre-77 Sunset Strip Edward Byrnes) reveals himself to be a total piece of excrement is Donna able to extricate herself from her dilemma "
Movie critic Leonard Maltin has characterized the movie as a "bomb "

"Hokey time capsule about a pretty teen from the "other side of the tracks" (Castillo)  After a fatal car mishap she ends up in reform school   Will she or won't she squeal on the party responsible for her dilemma?"
Since the film's release in 1957, the theatrical movie poster, featuring blond haired Vickers fighting dark haired Castillo, has become a collector's item  "    the two girls wrestling for a pair of scissors promise anything that a teenage male, from any decade, could want " The poster has also become popular on the internet since it was used as part of an advertisement for a 2006 Scrabble tournament held in France   The poster's slogan says, "In Scrabble anything is possible  Grand National Tournament September 23, 2006 "

In popular culture
An April 21, 1977 episode of SCTV (Season 1, Episode 11) contains a satirical skit called "Broads Behind Bars" which has half of the story of the movie, but mostly contains a subplot about the smoking of marijuana making one do criminal things  The skit is featured on the DVD SCTV: Best of the Early Years 

See also
List of American films of 1957
Passage 12:
Blue County (music group)
Blue County was an American country music duo composed of actor-singers Aaron Benward and Scott Reeves  They released their self-titled debut album in 2004 on Curb Records  This album produced four singles on the Billboard country singles charts, including the No  11 "Good Little Girls"  Two more singles — "Firecrackers and Ferris Wheels" and "I Get To" — were released in 2006, although neither was included on an album 

History
Blue County was founded in 2003 by Aaron Benward (formerly of Aaron Jeoffrey) and actor-singer Scott Reeves, who had been friends for several years before the duo's foundation  Signed to Curb Records that year, the duo released their debut single "Good Little Girls"  This single peaked at No  11 on the Billboard country charts in early 2004, and was the first of four singles from their self-titled debut album, which Dann Huff produced  Also in 2004, the duo performed at the Country Music Association Music Festival Following "Good Little Girls" was the single "That's Cool", which peaked at No  24 on the country charts  "Nothing but Cowboy Boots" and "That Summer Song" followed in 2005, peaking at No  38 and No  53 respectively  The duo released their fifth single, "Firecrackers and Ferris Wheels", in 2006, although it did not chart  Their final release for Curb was the No  51-peaking "I Get To", which like "Firecrackers and Ferris Wheels" was never included on an album  After recording two songs for the Evan Almighty soundtrack, Blue County exited the Curb label in 2007 

Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Music videos
Passage 13:
Lara Cardella
Lara Cardella (born 13 November 1969 in Licata, Italy) is an Italian writer  She is best known for her best selling novel Good girls don't wear trousers 

Career
Cardella's first book Good Girls Don't Wear Trousers (in Italian: Volevo i pantaloni), written when she was nineteen, caused a scandal in the small Sicilian community where she lived because it fiercely criticized what she perceived as the backwardness and chauvinism of contemporary Sicilian society  One commentator laeleed her Italy's Salman Rushdie  The controversy surrounding the book, as well as the young age of its author, contributed to make it a huge bestseller in Italy and the novel was translated in many languages and published across the rest of Europe, in Brazil and Korea 
A film based on the novel, titled Volevo i pantaloni, came out in 1990 
In 1991 she wrote Intorno a Laura, a novel based on an original structure which combines the traditional novel structure and that of theatrical drama, showing she was able to experiment new solutions and themes 
Fedra se ne va and Una ragazza normale followed, in 1992 and 1994 respectively, but none of them matched the enormous success of her first book 
In 1995, perhaps in the effort of renewing her success as a writer, she wrote the sequel to her first novel: Volevo i pantaloni 2 She then changed publisher, leaving Mondadori for Rizzoli  With this publisher she released Detesto il soft (1997), a dreamy novel centred on morbid sexuality, and Finestre accese (2000), her last novel so far, where the lives of the two main female characters are followed down the years through the entries in their personal journals and where Cardella addresses for the first time the theme of mafia 

Themes
Through the years Cardella has experimented various styles and narrative solutions, from the traditional novel (Volevo i pantaloni, Una ragazza normale) to the contamination between novel and drama (Intorno a Laura), from the dreamlike atmospheres of Detesto il soft to the journal (Finestre accese) 
There are however some basic themes recurring in much of her work, as the main focus of the plot or lying under the surface, such as chauvinism, rape, the backward and negative aspects of Sicilian traditional society  In Una ragazza normale and Detesto il soft the subjects of sexuality and death are addressed in a fascinating morbid way  A general sense of pessimism and fatalism permeates much of her writings 

Selected works
In English
Good girls don't wear trousers, London, H Hamilton, 1993

In Italian
Finestre accese, Milano, Rizzoli, 2000
Detesto il soft, Milano, Rizzoli, 1997
Volevo i pantaloni 2, Milano, Mondadori, 1995
Una ragazza normale, Milano, Mondadori, 1994
Fedra se ne va, Milano, Mondadori, 1992
Intorno a Laura, Milano, Mondadori, 1991
Volevo i pantaloni, Milano, Mondadori, 1989
Passage 14:
Bobby's Girl (song)
"Bobby's Girl" is a song and single written by Gary Klein and Henry Hoffman   The original was performed by American teenage singer Marcie Blane, and became a #3 hit on the US charts   A near-simultaneous cover by British singer Susan Maughan was the hit in the UK, coincidentally also reaching #3 on the UK charts   Both Blane and Maughan are one-hit wonders; for both these artists, "Bobby's Girl" marked their only appearance on a national top 40 chart 

Marcie Blane version
Blane's version of the song was released in the United States in August, 1962  It has a spoken introduction and a backing refrain of "You're not a kid anymore" and was popular with the American teenage audience  It entered the charts in October and made the Top 10 within a month reaching 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 by December, where it stayed for four weeks  It reached 2 on the Cash Box chart staying on the charts for nineteen weeks and made Blane (very briefly) the top selling female singer in the US 

Chart history
Susan Maughan version
Susan Maughan's cover version was released in the UK, also in 1962  It featured Wally Stott and his orchestra and chorus  Substantially re-arranged from Blane's original, Maughan's version dropped the spoken word intro, and had a more sophisticated, less 'teen-age' sound   It spent nineteen weeks on the UK's Record Retailer chart, peaking at No  3 

Chart history
Other versions
In 1963 Swedish artist Lil Malmkvist made a version in German (Ariola AT 10 106) 

Tracey Ullman version
In 1983 Tracey Ullman released a version of "Bobby's Girl" on the album You Broke My Heart in 17 Places and as a single  Ullman's version reached No  45 in West Germany 

Foreign-language versions
1963 : French singer Arielle performed the French-language version Je n'aime que Bobby (I only love Bobby) 
1972 : Canadian singer Mimi Hétu performed the French-language version Pardonne-moi (Forgive me) 
1984 : French singer Douchka performed the French-language version Mon p'tit cœur (My little heart) 
Passage 15:
Little Green (song)
"Little Green" is a song composed and performed by Joni Mitchell  It is the third track on her 1971 album Blue 

Background
Mitchell wrote "Little Green" in 1966, shortly after she had signed the papers to place her daughter for adoption the previous year, while she was a poor folk singer in Toronto The existence of her daughter, originally called Kelly Dale, was not publicly known until 1993, when a roommate from Mitchell's art school days in the 1960s sold the story of the adoption to a tabloid magazine  However, in at least one early live performance, she mentioned her daughter’s given first name  At the Café Au Go Go in New York in 1967, there was (a reviewer later stated) "a raw, husky catch to her tender wishes for 'Kelly Green'" during the song Mitchell commented on the situation in an interview quoted in a 1998 article: "I was dirt poor  An unhappy mother does not raise a happy child  It was difficult parting with the child, but I had to let her go " Mitchell was reunited with her daughter, Kilauren Gibb, in 1997 The guitar tuning Mitchell uses on the song is Open G (low-to-high: D G D G B D) 

Critical reaction
Writing for Rolling Stone in 1971, Timothy Crouse, said:

Several of the lesser cuts on Blue give every indication of having sat in Joni's trunk for some time  The folkie melody of "Little Green" recalls "I Don't Know Where I Stand" from her second album  The pretty, "poetic" lyric is dressed up in such cryptic references that it passeth all understanding 
Reflecting on the song for The Atlantic in 2013, Jack Hamilton noted that "Little Green", arguably the most personal song on Blue, was not written about a lover but rather about Mitchell's daughter, concluding that "Blue was Mitchell's way into music that transcended her life to become about yours and everyone else's "Bob Dylan played the song on the "Colors" episode of Season 1 of his Theme Time Radio Hour show in 2007 
Passage 16:
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth  It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson and Sally Field  The film follows several decades in the life of a slow-witted and kindhearted Alabama man named Forrest Gump (Hanks) and his experiences in the 20th-century United States  The film differs substantially from the novel 
Principal photography took place between August and December 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina  Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate Hanks into archived footage and to develop other scenes  The soundtrack features songs reflecting the different periods seen in the film 
Forrest Gump was released in the United States on July 6, 1994, and received mostly positive reviews, with critical acclaim for Zemeckis's direction, performances (particularly those of Hanks and Sinise), visual effects, music, and screenplay  The film was an enormous success at the box office; it became the top-grossing film in America released that year and earned over US$678 2 million worldwide during its theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1994, behind The Lion King  The soundtrack sold over 12 million copies  Forrest Gump won six Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing  It received many award nominations, including Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards 
Various interpretations have been made of the protagonist and the film's political symbolism  In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" 

Plot
In 1981, a man named Forrest Gump recounts his life story to strangers who happen to sit next to him at a bus stop  
As a boy in 1956, Forrest has an IQ of 75 and is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine  He lives in Greenbow, Alabama, with his mother, who runs a boarding house and encourages him to live beyond his disabilities  Among their temporary tenants is a young Elvis Presley, who plays the guitar for Forrest and incorporates the boy's jerky dance movements into his performances  On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends  Jenny is a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her widowed, alcoholic father, but she is later removed from his custody 
Bullied because of his leg braces and dimwittedness, Forrest flees from a group of children, but when his braces break off, he is revealed to be a fast runner  With this talent, he receives a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1962, where he is coached by Bear Bryant, becomes a top kick returner, is named to the All-American team, and meets president John F  Kennedy at the White House  In his first year at college, he witnesses Governor George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones, one of the students admitted over state resistance  He visits Jenny at her college, where the two have an awkward sexual encounter 
After graduating from college in 1966, Forrest enlists in the U S  Army  During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed "Bubba"), who becomes a close friend and convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service  While on leave, Forrest goes to Memphis, Tennessee, to see Jenny, who was expelled from college for posing in Playboy in her college sweater, and now works as a singer in a strip club  However, he embarrasses her by attacking some patrons who were harassing her, causing the two to part ways  Soon afterwards, Forrest and Bubba are sent to fight in Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region under Lieutenant Dan Taylor  After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and several members of the platoon are killed in action, including Bubba  Forrest saves several others, including Lieutenant Dan, who loses both of his lower legs, while Forrest is shot "in the buttocks " While recovering from his wound, Forrest develops a talent for ping pong  Taylor is embittered from having his life saved as he had hoped to die in combat like his ancestors, and detests being handicapped  Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B  Johnson  
At an anti-war March on the Pentagon rally, Forrest meets Abbie Hoffman, encounters a Black Panther group, and reunites with Jenny, who has become a drug-addicted hippie and anti-war activist, but the two are soon parted again when she leaves for San Francisco with her abusive boyfriend, the president of SDS at Berkeley  Forrest plays ping-pong in the special services, competing against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, becoming a celebrity, and earns himself an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show, appearing to influence Lennon's song "Imagine"  Forrest spends 1972 New Year's Eve in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become an alcoholic, still bitter about his disability and the government's apathy towards Vietnam War veterans  Forrest does not enjoy the company of Lt  Dan's prostitutes because of his devotion to Jenny, and rejects their advances, leading Lt  Dan to angrily throw them out for insulting Forrest  Forrest's ping-pong success eventually leads to a meeting with President Richard Nixon  He is given a room in the Watergate complex, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal 
In 1974, Forrest is honorably discharged from the Army, and returns to Greenbow, where he endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles  He uses the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba  Lieutenant Dan joins Forrest as his first mate, and they initially have very little success  However, after their boat becomes the only one to survive Hurricane Carmen, they pull in vast amounts of shrimp and create the profitable Bubba Gump Shrimp Company  Lieutenant Dan acknowledges that Forrest saved him, however does not actually thank him for saving his life  Dan invests his money in early tech companies on the stock market, which Forrest mistakes for "some kind of fruit company", and the two become millionaires  Forrest gives half of his earnings to Bubba's family for having inspired the shrimping venture  Forrest returns home to his mother and cares for her during her terminal illness from cancer  After she dies, Forrest spends most of his time volunteering as a gardener at the University of Alabama 
In 1976, Jenny – recovering from years of drugs and abuse – returns to Forrest  One day, the two are walking, and come across the now-abandoned house of Jenny's father, where Jenny, in a rage, throws all the rocks she can find at it, until she collapses in anguish  After some time, Forrest proposes to her, but she turns him down, much to Forrest's dismay  That night, she confesses to Forrest that she does indeed love him  They make love, but Jenny leaves the next morning  Heartbroken, Forrest, "for no particular reason", starts running and embarks on a cross-country marathon, becoming famous for another feat  Forrest starts to garner many followers, some of whom are struggling businessmen, whom he unwittingly gives inspiration  After a total of about three years and two-and-a half months running, Forrest decides to end the run, and returns to Greenbow, much to the surprise of his followers 
In 1981, Forrest gets a letter from Jenny, asking him to visit her, and it turns out that's why he's been waiting at the bus stop  An old lady informs him that the address is only five/six blocks away, and he rushes off  Forrest again reunites with Jenny, who has quit abusing drugs, and has turned her life around  Jenny then introduces him to her young son, Forrest Gump Jr , revealing that Forrest is his father  Initially shocked at the revelation, Forrest starts to bond with his son  Jenny later tells Forrest she is sick with "some kind of virus" and the doctors can't do anything for her  The three move back to Greenbow and Jenny and Forrest finally marry  Among their wedding guests is Lt  Dan, now walking on titanium alloy prosthetics, with his fiancé, a Vietnamese woman named Susan  Jenny succumbs to her illness a year later  Forrest is deeply saddened by her death but becomes a loving, devoted father to Forrest Jr  as the two engage in activities like ping pong and fishing  Forrest also buys the land that belonged to Jenny's father and has the house demolished  Lastly, Forrest sees his son off on his first day of school 

Cast
Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump: At an early age, Forrest is deemed to have a below-average IQ of 75  He has an endearing character and shows devotion to his loved ones and duties, character traits that bring him into many life-changing situations  Along the way, he encounters many historical figures and events throughout his life 
Michael Conner Humphreys as young Forrest Gump: Hanks revealed in interviews that instead of having Michael copy his accent, he copied Michael's unique accented drawl into the older character's accent 
Robin Wright as Jenny Curran: Forrest's childhood friend with whom he immediately falls in love, and never stops loving throughout his life  A victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of her bitterly widowed father, Jenny embarks on a different path from Forrest, leading a self-destructive life and becoming part of the hippie movement in California in the 1960s and the following Me Decade's sex and drug culture of the 1970s  She re-enters Forrest's life at various times in adulthood  Jenny eventually becomes a waitress in Savannah, Georgia, where she lives in an apartment with her (and Forrest's) son, Forrest Jr  They eventually get married, but soon afterward she dies from complications due to an unnamed disease  This unknown disease was intended by Winston Groom, the author of the original novel, to be Hepatitis C, itself an "unknown virus" until defined in April 1989, although some of the makers of the film have said that they intended for the unknown disease to have been HIV/AIDS Hanna R  Hall as young Jenny Curran
Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan Taylor: Forrest and Bubba Blue's platoon leader during the Vietnam War, whose ancestors have died in every U S  war and who regards it as his destiny to do the same  After losing his legs in an ambush and being rescued against his will by Forrest, he is initially bitter and antagonistic toward Forrest for leaving him a "cripple" and denying him his family's destiny, falling into a deep depression  He later serves as Forrest's first mate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, gives most of the orders, becomes wealthy with Forrest, and regains his will to live  He ultimately forgives and thanks Forrest for saving his life  By the end of the film, he is engaged to be married to his fiancée Susan and is sporting "magic legs" – titanium alloy prosthetics that allow him to walk again 
Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue: Bubba was originally supposed to be the senior partner in the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, but due to his death in Vietnam, their platoon leader, Dan Taylor, took his place  The company posthumously carried his name  Forrest later gave Bubba's mother Bubba's share of the business  Throughout filming, Williamson wore a lip attachment to create Bubba's protruding lip 
Sally Field as Mrs  Gump: Forrest's mother  Field reflected on the character, "She's a woman who loves her son unconditionally      A lot of her dialogue sounds like slogans, and that's just what she intends "
Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump Jr : Osment was cast in the film after the casting director noticed him in a Pizza Hut commercial  It was his debut feature film role 
Peter Dobson as Elvis Presley: Although Kurt Russell was uncredited, he provided the voice for Elvis in the scene 
Dick Cavett as himself: Cavett played a de-aged version of himself in the 1970s, with makeup applied to make him appear younger  Consequently, Cavett is the only well-known figure in the film to play a cameo role rather than be represented through the use of archival footage like John Lennon or President John F  Kennedy 
Sam Anderson as Principal Hancock: Forrest's elementary school principal 
Geoffrey Blake as Wesley: A member of the SDS group and Jenny's abusive boyfriend
Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Dorothy Harris: The school bus driver who drives Forrest, and later his son, to school
Sonny Shroyer as Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
Grand L  Bush, Michael Jace, Conor Kennelly, and Teddy Lane Jr  as the Black Panthers
Richard D'Alessandro as Abbie Hoffman
Tiffany Salerno and Marla Sucharetza as "Cunning" Carla and "Long-Limbs" Lenore: a couple of prostitutes that Forrest and Dan spend a New Year's evening with and later turn away

Production
Pre-production and script
The film is based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom  Both center on the character of Forrest Gump  However, the film primarily focuses on the first eleven chapters of the novel before skipping ahead to the end of the novel, with the founding of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co  and the meeting with Forrest Jr  In addition to skipping some parts of the novel, the film adds several aspects to Gump's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the United States Gump's core character and personality are also changed from the novel; among other things, his film character is less of a savant—in the novel, while playing football at the university, he fails craft and gym but receives a perfect score in an advanced physics class he is enrolled in by his coach to satisfy his college requirements  The novel also features Gump as an astronaut, a professional wrestler, and a chess player The book had a bidding war regarding an adaptation even before publication, with Wendy Finerman and Steve Tisch acquiring them by joining forces with Warner Bros , where Finerman's husband Mark Canton was president of production  Groom was paid $500,000 and also wrote the first three first drafts of the screenplay, which leaned closer to the events of the novel  After Rain Man told the story of a savant, Warner lost interest in the picture, and by 1990 the project was in turnaround  Finerman contacted Columbia Pictures, who went on reject it, while hiring Eric Roth to rewrite the script  Roth and Finerman kept in contact with Groom to ensure the script was historically accurate  Roth delivered a screenplay in 1992, which Paramount Pictures chairwoman Sherry Lansing liked enough to bring the project to her studio, who acquired the rights from Warner in exchange for the script for Executive Decision Ivan Reitman, Penny Marshall and Terry Gilliam passed on the project before Robert Zemeckis was hired  Barry Sonnenfeld was attached to the film, but left to direct Addams Family Values 

Casting
John Travolta was the original choice to play the title role and says passing on the role was a mistake  Bill Murray and Chevy Chase were also considered for the role  Sean Penn stated in an interview having been second choice for the role  Hanks revealed that he signed on to the film after an hour and a half of reading the script  He initially wanted to ease Forrest's pronounced Southern accent but was eventually persuaded by director Robert Zemeckis to portray the heavy accent stressed in the novel  Hanks also said it took him three days to learn how to play the role, and footage from that time could not be included  Winston Groom, who wrote the original novel, describes the film as having taken the "rough edges" off the character whom he had envisioned being played by John Goodman  Additionally, Tom's younger brother Jim Hanks is his acting double in the movie for the scenes when Forrest runs across the U S  Tom's daughter Elizabeth Hanks appears in the movie as the girl on the school bus who refuses to let young Forrest (Michael Conner Humphreys) sit next to her  Joe Pesci was considered for the role of Lieutenant Dan Taylor, which was eventually given to Gary Sinise  David Alan Grier, Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle were offered the role of Benjamin Buford Blue, but all three turned it down  Chappelle, who said he believed the film would be unsuccessful, has been reported as saying that he regrets not taking the role  Hanks was aware of Chappelle's disappointment in missing out on the part and agreed to work with him in a future movie, which ended up being You've Got Mail  Rapper Tupac Shakur also auditioned 

Filming
Filming began in August 1993 and ended in December of that year  Although most of the film is set in Alabama, filming took place mainly in and around Beaufort, South Carolina, as well as parts of coastal Virginia and North Carolina, including a running shot on the Blue Ridge Parkway  Downtown portions of the fictional town of Greenbow were filmed in Varnville, South Carolina  The scene of Forrest running through Vietnam while under fire was filmed on Hunting Island State Park  and Fripp Island, South Carolina  Additional filming took place on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, North Carolina  The most notable place was Grandfather Mountain where a part of the road subsequently became known as "Forrest Gump Curve" 

The Gump family home set was built along the Combahee River near Yemassee, South Carolina, and the nearby land was used to film Curran's home as well as some of the Vietnam scenes  Over 20 palmetto trees were planted to improve the Vietnam scenes  Forrest Gump narrated his life's story at the northern edge of Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia as he sat at a bus stop bench  There were other scenes filmed in and around the Savannah area as well, including a running shot on the Richard V  Woods Memorial Bridge in Beaufort while he was being interviewed by the press, and on West Bay Street in Savannah  Most of the college campus scenes were filmed in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California  The lighthouse that Forrest runs across to reach the Atlantic Ocean the first time is the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde, Maine  Additional scenes were filmed in Arizona, Utah's Monument Valley, and Montana's Glacier National Park 

Visual effects
Ken Ralston and his team at Industrial Light & Magic were responsible for the film's visual effects  Using CGI techniques, it was possible to depict Gump meeting deceased personages and shaking their hands  Hanks was first shot against a blue screen along with reference markers so that he could line up with the archive footage  To record the voices of the historical figures, voice actors were filmed and special effects were used to alter lip-syncing for the new dialogue  Archival footage was used and with the help of such techniques as chroma key, image warping, morphing, and rotoscoping, Hanks was integrated into it 
In one Vietnam War scene, Gump carries Bubba away from an incoming napalm attack  To create the effect, stunt actors were initially used for compositing purposes  Then, Hanks and Williamson were filmed, with Williamson supported by a cable wire as Hanks ran with him  The explosion was then filmed, and the actors were digitally added to appear just in front of the explosions  The jet fighters and napalm canisters were also added by CGI The CGI removal of actor Gary Sinise's legs, after his character had them amputated, was achieved by wrapping his legs with a blue fabric, which later facilitated the work of the "roto-paint" team to paint out his legs from every single frame  At one point, while hoisting himself into his wheelchair, his legs are used for support The scene where Forrest spots Jenny at a peace rally at the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Washington, D C , required visual effects to create the large crowd of people  Over two days of filming, approximately 1,500 extras were used  At each successive take, the extras were rearranged and moved into a different quadrant away from the camera  With the help of computers, the extras were multiplied to create a crowd of several hundred thousand people 

Reception
Box office
Produced on a budget of $55 million, Forrest Gump opened in 1,595 theaters in the United States and Canada grossing $24,450,602 in its opening weekend  Motion picture business consultant and screenwriter Jeffrey Hilton suggested to producer Wendy Finerman to double the P&A (film marketing budget) based on his viewing of an early print of the film  The budget was immediately increased, in line with his advice  In its opening weekend, the film placed first at the US box office, narrowly beating The Lion King, which was in its fourth week of release  For the first twelve weeks of release, the film was in the top 3 at the US box office, topping the list 5 times, including in its tenth week of release  Paramount removed the film from release in the United States when its gross hit $300 million in January 1995, and it was the second-highest-grossing film of the year, behind The Lion King with $305 million  The film was reissued on February 17, 1995, after the Academy Awards nominations were announced  After the reissue in 1,100 theaters, the film grossed an additional $29 million in the United States and Canada, bringing its total to $329 7 million, making it the third-highest-grossing film at that time behind only E T  the Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park, and was Paramount's biggest, surpassing Raiders of the Lost Ark  Forrest Gump held the record for being the highest-grossing Paramount film until it was taken by Titanic three years later in 1997  For 12 years, it remained as the highest-grossing film starring Tom Hanks until 2006 when it was surpassed by The Da Vinci Code  Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 78 5 million tickets in the US and Canada in its initial theatrical run The film took 66 days to surpass $250 million and was the fastest grossing Paramount film to pass $100 million, $200 million, and $300 million in box office receipts (at the time of its release)  After reissues, the film has gross receipts of $330,252,182 in the U S  and Canada and $347,693,217 in international markets for a total of $677,945,399 worldwide  Even with such revenue, the film was known as a "successful failure"—due to distributors' and exhibitors' high fees, Paramount's "losses" clocked in at $62 million, leaving executives realizing the necessity of better deals  This has also been associated with Hollywood accounting, where expenses are inflated in order to minimize profit sharing  It is Robert Zemeckis' highest-grossing film to date 

Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 106 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7 5/10  The website's consensus reads: "Forrest Gump may be an overly sentimental film with a somewhat problematic message, but its sweetness and charm are usually enough to approximate true depth and grace " At the website Metacritic, the film earned a rating of 82 out of 100 based on 20 reviews by mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim"  Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade The story was commended by several critics  Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like 'Forrest Gump ' Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try  It's a comedy, I guess  Or maybe a drama  Or a dream  The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction   The performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths   What a magical movie " Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that the film "has been very well worked out on all levels, and manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop " In contrast, Anthony Lane of The New Yorker called the film "Warm, wise, and wearisome as hell " Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said that the film was "glib, shallow, and monotonous" and "reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of Disney's America "Gump garnered comparisons to fictional character Huckleberry Finn, as well as U S  politicians Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan and Bill Clinton  Peter Chomo writes that Gump acts as a "social mediator and as an agent of redemption in divided times"  Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Gump "everything we admire in the American character – honest, brave, and loyal with a heart of gold " The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin called Gump a "hollow man" who is "self-congratulatory in his blissful ignorance, warmly embraced as the embodiment of absolutely nothing " Marc Vincenti of Palo Alto Weekly called the character "a pitiful stooge taking the pie of life in the face, thoughtfully licking his fingers " Bruce Kawin and Gerald Mast's textbook on film history notes that Forrest Gump's dimness was a metaphor for glamorized nostalgia in that he represented a blank slate onto which the Baby Boomer generation projected their memories of those events 

Re-evaluation
In the 21st century, the film became negatively re-evaluated  Writing in 2004, Entertainment Weekly said, "Nearly a decade after it earned gazillions and swept the Oscars, Robert Zemeckis's ode to 20th-century America still represents one of cinema's most clearly drawn lines in the sand  One half of folks see it as an artificial piece of pop melodrama, while everyone else raves that it's sweet as a box of chocolates " On the other hand though "Despite many, often special-effects-generated laughs, and several genuinely touching moments, one wishes that Forrest Gump were a sarcastic cautionary tale about the dangers of a simple-minded, apolitical America and not the anti-intellectual, mostly conservative fantasy it is,"" in other words, the film has been criticized for its perceived conservative politics  Writing for Indiewire in 2019, Eric Kohn said: "This no-nothing white man becomes a war hero and a wealthy man simply by chugging along, participating in a country that dictates his every move  He never comprehends racism or the complexities of Vietnam; the movie portrays political activism and hippy culture as a giant cartoon beyond Forrest’s understanding, while presenting his apolitical stance as the height of all virtue " Furthermore, in a 2014 article for CNN discussing the film's reassessment, Brandon Griggs wrote of possible readings against the film "Forrest, as played by Tom Hanks, is the epitome of wholesome decency: a God-fearing, All-American football player and war hero who has no use for the counterculture movements of the late '60s  Despite an IQ of 75, he achieves fame and financial success  He's even from red-state Alabama!"In a 2014 retrospective for the film's 20th anniversary re-release, Amy Nicholson criticized the film for being apolitical, writing "Forrest doesn't kill anyone  He doesn't get PTSD  He doesn't even have a clue why he's in Vietnam  The film is so afraid to dredge up debate that when Abbie Hoffman hands Forrest the microphone at an antiwar rally, someone unplugs the speakers so we can't hear him — fitting for a movie with nothing to say " LGBTQ+ critics have criticized the "shallow" portrayal of the AIDS epidemic, one that "sidesteps the significance of the disease by erasing its mere mention"  In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of academy members, asking them to re-vote on past controversial decisions  Academy members said that, given a second chance, they would award the 1994 Oscar for Best Picture to The Shawshank Redemption instead 

Author payment controversy
Winston Groom was paid $350,000 for the screenplay rights to his novel Forrest Gump and was contracted for a 3 percent share of the film's net profits  However, Paramount and the film's producers did not pay him the percentage, using Hollywood accounting to posit that the blockbuster film lost money  Tom Hanks, by contrast, contracted for a percent share of the film's gross receipts instead of a salary, and he and director Zemeckis each received $40 million  In addition, Groom was not mentioned once in any of the film's six Oscar-winner speeches Groom's dispute with Paramount was later effectively resolved after Groom declared he was satisfied with Paramount's explanation of their accounting, this coinciding with Groom receiving a seven-figure contract with Paramount for film rights to another of his books, Gump & Co  This film was never made, remaining in development hell for at least a dozen years 

Home video
Forrest Gump was first released on VHS on April 27, 1995, and on Laserdisc the following day  The laserdisc was THX certified and released without chapters, requiring the film be watched start to finish  Film magazines of the period stated this was at the request of Zemeckis who wanted viewers to enjoy the film in its entirety  It became the best-selling adult sell-through video with sales of over 12 million  
A widescreen VHS release debuted a year later on September 10, 1996  It was released in a two-disc DVD set on August 28, 2001  Special features included director and producer commentaries, production featurettes, and screen tests  The film was released on Blu-ray in November 2009  Paramount released the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray in June 2018  On May 7, 2019, Paramount Pictures released a newly remastered two-disc Blu-ray that contains bonus content 

Accolades
Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hanks had won the previous year for Philadelphia), Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing at the 67th Academy Awards  The film was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, winning three of them: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Best Director – Motion Picture, and Best Motion Picture – Drama  The film was also nominated for six Saturn Awards and won two for Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actor (Film) 
In addition to the film's multiple awards and nominations, it has also been recognized by the American Film Institute on several of its lists  The film ranks 37th on 100 Years   100 Cheers, 71st on 100 Years   100 Movies, and 76th on 100 Years   100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)  In addition, the quote "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates  You never know what you're gonna get," was ranked 40th on 100 Years   100 Movie Quotes  The film also ranked at number 61 on Empire's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time In December 2011, Forrest Gump was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry  The Registry said that the film was "honored for its technological innovations (the digital insertion of Gump seamlessly into vintage archival footage), its resonance within the culture that has elevated Gump (and what he represents in terms of American innocence) to the status of folk hero, and its attempt to engage both playfully and seriously with contentious aspects of the era's traumatic history "American Film Institute lists

AFI's 100 Years   100 Movies – #71
AFI's 100 Years   100 Laughs – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years   100 Passions – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years   100 Heroes and Villains:
Forrest Gump – Nominated Hero
AFI's 100 Years   100 Movie Quotes:
"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates  You never know what you're gonna get " – #40
"Mama says, 'Stupid is as stupid does '" – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years   100 Cheers – #37
AFI's 100 Years   100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #76
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Epic Film

Symbolism
Feather
Various interpretations have been suggested for the feather present at the opening and conclusion of the film  Sarah Lyall of The New York Times noted several suggestions made about the feather: "Does the white feather symbolize The Unbearable Lightness of Being? Forrest Gump's impaired intellect? The randomness of experience?" Hanks interpreted the feather as: "Our destiny is only defined by how we deal with the chance elements to our life and that's kind of the embodiment of the feather as it comes in  Here is this thing that can land anywhere and that it lands at your feet  It has theological implications that are really huge " Sally Field compared the feather to fate, saying: "It blows in the wind and just touches down here or there  Was it planned or was it just perchance?" Visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston compared the feather to an abstract painting: "It can mean so many things to so many different people "

Political interpretations
Hanks states that "the film is non-political and thus non-judgmental"  Nevertheless, CNN's Crossfire debated in 1994 whether the film promoted conservative values or was an indictment of the counterculture movement of the 1960s  Thomas Byers called it "an aggressively conservative film" in a Modern Fiction Studies article 

It has been noted that while Gump follows a very conservative lifestyle, Jenny's life is full of countercultural embrace, complete with drug use, promiscuity, and antiwar rallies, and that their eventual marriage might be a kind of reconciliation  Jennifer Hyland Wang argues in a Cinema Journal article that Jenny's death to an unnamed virus "symbolizes the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defined a decade" in the 1960s  She also notes that the film's screenwriter, Eric Roth, developed the screenplay from the novel and transferred to Jenny "all of Gump's flaws and most of the excesses committed by Americans in the 1960s and 1970s" Other commentators believe the film forecast the 1994 Republican Revolution and used the image of Forrest Gump to promote movement leader Newt Gingrich's traditional, conservative values  Jennifer Hyland Wang observes that the film idealizes the 1950s, as made evident by the lack of "Whites Only"-signs in Gump's Southern childhood, and envisions the 1960s as a period of social conflict and confusion  She argues that this sharp contrast between the decades criticizes the counterculture values and reaffirms conservatism  Wang argues that the film was used by Republican politicians to illustrate a "traditional version of recent history" to gear voters toward their ideology for the congressional elections  Presidential candidate Bob Dole stated that the film's message was "no matter how great the adversity, the American Dream is within everybody's reach" In 1995, National Review included Forrest Gump in its list of the "Best 100 Conservative Movies" of all time, and ranked it number four on its "25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years" list  National Review's John Miller wrote that "Tom Hanks plays the title-character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s  The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results "Professor James Burton at Salisbury University argues that conservatives claimed Forrest Gump as their own due less to the content of the film and more to the historical and cultural context of 1994  Burton claims that the film's content and advertising campaign were affected by the cultural climate of the 1990s, which emphasized family-values and American values, epitomized in the book Hollywood vs  America  He claims that this climate influenced the apolitical nature of the film, which allowed many different political interpretations Some commentators see the conservative readings of Forrest Gump as indicating the death of irony in American culture  Vivian Sobchack notes that the film's humor and irony rely on the assumption of the audience's historical knowledge 

Soundtrack
The 32-song soundtrack from the film was released on July 6, 1994  With the exception of a lengthy suite from Alan Silvestri's score, all the songs are previously released; the soundtrack includes songs from Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aretha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Three Dog Night, the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Doors, the Mamas & the Papas, the Doobie Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Seger, and Buffalo Springfield among others  Music producer Joel Sill reflected on compiling the soundtrack: "We wanted to have very recognizable material that would pinpoint time periods, yet we didn't want to interfere with what was happening cinematically " The two-disc album has a variety of music from the 1950s–1980s performed by American artists  According to Sill, this was due to Zemeckis' request, "All the material in there is American  Bob (Zemeckis) felt strongly about it  He felt that Forrest wouldn't buy anything but American "The soundtrack reached a peak of number 2 on the Billboard album chart  The soundtrack went on to sell twelve million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the US  The Oscar-nominated score for the film was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri and released on August 2, 1994 

Adaptations
Novel-sequel
The screenplay for the sequel was written by Eric Roth in 2001  It is based on the original novel's sequel, Gump and Co , written by Winston Groom in 1995  Roth's script begins with Forrest sitting on a bench waiting for his son to return from school  After the September 11 attacks, Roth, Zemeckis, and Hanks decided the story was no longer "relevant " In March 2007, however, it was reported Paramount producers took another look at the screenplay On the first page of the sequel novel, Forrest Gump tells readers "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story," and "Whether they get it right or wrong, it doesn't matter " The first chapter of the book suggests the real-life events surrounding the film have been incorporated into Forrest's storyline, and that Forrest got a lot of media attention as a result of the film  During the course of the sequel novel, Gump runs into Tom Hanks and at the end of the novel in the film's release, includes Gump going on The David Letterman Show and attending the Academy Awards 

Remake
The Indian film Laal Singh Chaddha, released in August 2022 and starring Aamir Khan in the title role, is an official remake of Forrest Gump, set in India between the late 1970s and the 2010s  The film was directed by Advait Chandan and produced by Aamir Khan Productions, Viacom18 Studios and Paramount Pictures 

See also
List of American football films
List of films about the sport of athletics
Context 2: Passage 1:
Arenal Volcano Emergency Forest Reserve
Arenal Volcano Emergency Forest Reserve is a Forest Reserve, part of the Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area, in the northern part of Costa Rica in the emergency zone of the Arenal Volcano  It was created in 1972 covering an area of forest, and there are no public facilities at the reserve 
Passage 2:
Occupation of Gori
The Occupation of Gori was the military occupation of Gori and its surrounding areas by Russian military forces, which started on 13 August 2008 as part of the Russo-Georgian War; it ended with the withdrawal of Russian units from the city on 22 August 2008 

Background and initial airstrikes
Gori is a strategic city in central Georgia, about 25 km (16 mi) from Tskhinvali  Gori is a major military installation and transportation hub in Georgia  75 tanks and armored personnel carriers (a third of the Georgian military's arsenal) were assembled near Gori on 7 August Around 6:27 AM on 9 August 2008, Reuters reported that two Russian fighters had bombed a Georgian artillery position about 10 km north of Gori  On 9 August, a Russian air attack targeted military barracks in Gori  In the resulting explosion, besides the base, several apartment buildings and a school were also damaged  The Georgian government reported that 60 civilians were killed when bombs hit the apartment buildings  According to the Russian media, Russian aircraft dropped three bombs on an armament depot, and the façade of one of the adjacent 5-story apartment buildings suffered damage as a result of exploding ammunition from the depot  Russian aircraft had bombed at least five Georgian cities by 9 August 

Georgian abandonment
Following its defeat in Tskhinvali, the Georgian Army regrouped at Gori  Georgian military entered the city on 10 August  On 10 August, BBC reported that people were leaving Gori because they feared of Russian advance towards the city  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and World Food Programme determined that about 80 percent of residents had left Gori as of 10 August  Russians began advancing towards Gori On 11 August 2008, the Georgian forces retreated from Gori  A senior Georgian security official, Kakha Lomaia, said that the troops were ordered to defend Tbilisi  Police sealed off the highway from Tbilisi, and did not allow any cars into the city  The Russian attacks were met with Georgian artillery firing towards South Ossetia, and at least six Georgian helicopters were reported to have also attacked targets in South Ossetia  A Times reporter described the Georgian withdrawal as "sudden and dramatic", saying that the "residents watched in horror" as their army abandoned their positions  Georgian tanks and armored personnel carries fled to Tbilisi  A tank exploded on the mountain road due to unspecified reasons, and an armored car pushing it out of the way also caught fire  Georgian infantry fled the city by any means available  Five soldiers escaped the city on one Quad bike  By late 11 August, Gori was deserted after most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers had fled   Initial Georgian reports that Russian troops were in Gori, were later discounted by Georgia Georgian armed forces concentrated on holding Mtskheta, 15 miles (24 km) from the capital Tbilisi  Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said that the defense line was being moved to Mtskheta 

The final air attacks
On 12 August 2008, a Dutch television journalist Stan Storimans was killed and another journalist injured when Russian warplanes bombed the city  As a result of the explosion 7 people were killed, over 30 were injured  Georgian officials said Russian forces had been targeting the city's administrative buildings; the university of Gori and its post office were on fire after the bombings  Russia's deputy head of the General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, denied that Russian forces had attacked the town  That day, a missile struck the Gori Military Hospital Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international rights group, accused Russia of deploying indiscriminately deadly cluster bombs in civilian areas Russian military official denied using cluster munitions  Numerous unexploded submunitions were subsequently found by local population in the Gori district and the HRW documented them 

Russian occupation
Several hours after the ceasefire agreement was reached, a Russian tank battalion occupied parts of Gori  Rumors of a possible attack on Tbilisi circulated  Russian troops took control of Gori on 13 August 2008  Russian troops said they were removing military hardware and ammunition from an arms depot outside Gori  A Russian armored column left Gori, traveling along the main road to Tbilisi  Russian forces then halted their advance and camped out in a field about an hour's drive from Tbilisi In the morning of 14 August,vehicles from the Georgian police and military prepared to re-enter Gori  Russian major general Vyacheslav Borisov told Aleksandre Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, that the residents of Gori were not disturbed by the Russians' presence  Later, Russian forces allowed Georgian police to return  Vyacheslav Borisov claimed that the city of Gori was controlled jointly by Georgian Police and Russian troops  He further said that Russian troops would start leaving Gori in two days  But joint patrols soon broke down because of apparent discord among personnel and the city returned to full Russian control  More than 30 police officers returned to a Georgian post outside the city Russian forces pushed to about 25 miles (40 km) from Tbilisi, the closest during the war; they stopped in Igoeti 41°59′22″N 44°25′04″E  The parts of Georgia’s army, which had manned a narrow front in the immediate vicinity down the road, maintained their positions  The Russian move coincided with the U S  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s meeting with Georgian president Saakashvili on 15 August "Now Ossetians are running around and killing poor Georgians in their enclaves," said Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov on 14 August  A Russian lieutenant said: "We have to be honest  The Ossetians are marauding " Answering a journalist's question, a Russian lieutenant colonel said: "We're not a police force, we're a military force  [   ] It's not our job to do police work " The New York Times noted, that "the Russian military might be making efforts in some places to stop the rampaging"  On 17 August, BBC reported that humanitarian aid was being delivered to the city  The Russian commander in Gori said his troops were staying to prevent looting and would leave when Georgian police was ready to take over According to the Hague Convention, an occupying power has to insure public order and safety in the occupied areas  The Russian human rights group Memorial called the attacks by South Ossetian militia "pogroms" 

Russian pullout of Gori
The last Russian military formations left the city late on 22 August 2008, and Georgian law enforcement units moved into Gori shortly thereafter 
Passage 3:
Davidson, New South Wales
Davidson is a suburb on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia  Davidson is located 20 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council  Davidson is part of the Forest District 

Location
Davidson is adjacent to Belrose and Frenchs Forest and is located on the eastern edge of the Garigal National Park  Davidson is located approximately 15 kilometres (9 3 mi) from the Sydney CBD 
Davidson comprises part of the "Forest" area, which also encompasses the suburbs of Belrose, Frenchs Forest, Forestville, Killarney Heights, Terrey Hills and Duffys Forest  The Forest forms part of the Northern Beaches Council jurisdiction, which encompasses a large part of the Northern Beaches area of Sydney 

History
Davidson was named for Sir Walter Davidson, Governor of New South Wales from 18 February 1918 to 4 September 1923  A park was dedicated in his honour in this area in 1923 and the developing suburb later took this name  Davidson began life as a mining quarry, with residential developments not beginning until the late 1970s  
The area faced a significant threat in January 1994 when bushfires in the Garigal National Park came dangerously close to the suburb   These fires were suppressed by the brigades of the Warringah/Pittwater Rural Fire Service from entering the Davidson Valley System 

Geography
Davidson features uneven topography, in large part due to the area’s origins as a mining quarry, as well as its proximity to Garigal National Park  Steep descents are evident in Stone Parade, Borgnis Street and Maitland Street, whereas more undulatory landscapes can be seen along parts of Prahran Avenue and Kambora Avenue 
The Eucalyptus trees and Liquid Ambers that line the streets of Davidson provide a pleasant backdrop for those living in the suburb  They also provide a haven for large numbers of native birds such as Kookaburras, Galahs and Rainbow Lorikeets 

Parks
Davidson has many parks  The suburb adjoins Garigal and Kur-ing-gai Chase National Parks and in addition, has numerous other reserves suitable for picnics, ambling and quiet moments of reflection  These include McFarlane Reserve, Maitland Street Reserve, Aranda Place Reserve and Richard Healy Oval, to name but a few 

Education
Davidson is home to two primary schools:

Kambora Public School
St Martin De Porres Catholic Primary SchoolDavidson High School is named for the suburb, but is located in neighbouring suburb Frenchs Forest 

Commercial and Fire Brigade
A shopping complex on the corner of Yindela Street and Pound Avenue contains a small number of commercial premises, including a popular café, a hairdressers salon and a sports injury clinic  The complex also contains the only apartment accommodation in the suburb 
Davidson is also home to the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade since the station relocated from Cannons Parade Forestville in 1976  The Station has approximately 110 members, including former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and is one of 13 Brigades in the Warringah/Pittwater District of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) 
On 2 October 2013 a small bush fire swept through the national park in the area behind Maitland Street and Cambage Court, Frenchs Forest  No homes were directly threatened due to the fast action of the RFS  Ultimately, the fire was contained without any loss of property 

Population
At the 2016 census, there were 2,849 residents in Davidson  The most common ancestries in Davidson were English 32 1%, Australian 24 1%, Irish 9 1%, Scottish 7 6% and Chinese 2 8%   68 3% of people were born in Australia  The next most common countries of birth was England at 10 3%  84 8% of people only spoke English at home  The most common responses for religion were No Religion 32 7%, Catholic 23 8% and Anglican 22 3% 
The median weekly household income in Davidson was $2,630, higher than the national median of $1,438  In Davidson, the majority of the dwellings are separate houses (97 7%), with a total of just 20 properties that were semi-detached or units 

Notable residents
Michael Hutchence – Former frontman of the Australian band INXS
Matt Shirvington – Olympic athlete, sprinter and television news presenter
Peter Hardcastle – Olympic level athlete, rowing, three time Olympian 2000, 2004 & 2008
Robert Lee – Mythbusters narrator

Culture
Davidson garners attention each December for its residents' enthusiastic display of Christmas lights  The "Davidson Lights" draw families from all over Sydney  Borgnis Street provides the centre of the nightly celebrations in the lead-up to Christmas, however the festive spirit is spread widely throughout the suburb with residents of Stone Parade and its various cul-de-sacs also actively participating 

Transport
Davidson's mode of public transport is solely operated by bus services operated by CDC NSW  The bus routes go throughout the suburb regularly with routes straight to the City and Chatswood, while residents who want to go Manly can do so by catching any bus that would take them to Forestway, where they can get a transfer 
Passage 4:
Mizugaki
Mizugaki is a climbing area in Japan, located in the northern part of the Yamanashi Prefecture  The forest of Mizugaki is owned by the Emperor of Japan It is known for highball bouldering and long trad lines 
The rock consists of granite with many natural pockets  
Because of the higher altitude it is also possible to climb in Mizugaki during the summer Jason Kehl can be seen climbing in Mizugaki in the movie Big in Japan  He praises Mizugaki for its beautiful forest setting 
Passage 5:
Erich Zakowski
Erich Zakowski (born 25 November 1934 in East Prussia) is a German master mechanic, and the founder and longtime head of the Zakspeed racing team 
After the Second World War, Zakowski fled from Prussia with his mother and four siblings initially to Dortmund then Hamburg and finally the family settled in Niederzissen  Zakowski graduated in Andernach as an apprentice auto mechanic, and passed his master exam  He founded his own garage in Niederzissen, which was the location of the Zakspeed racing operation, starting in 1968  In 1968, under the name "Zakowski Niederzissen tuning", he started using a Ford Escort for the Eifel race on the Nürburgring 
In the 1970s and 1980s, under the direction of Erich Zakowski, Zakspeed established itself in various racing series, (especially in sports car racing)  Zakspeed entered the Formula 1 series in 1985  In 1990, after five years of racing, Zakowski retired active leadership of the team and handed it to his son Peter 
Passage 6:
East Prussia
East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945  Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad)  East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast The bulk of the ancestral lands of the Baltic Old Prussians were enclosed within East Prussia  During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights  After the conquest the indigenous Balts were gradually converted to Christianity  Because of Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Masurians and Lithuanians formed minorities  From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights  After the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 it became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland  In 1525, with the Prussian Homage, the province became the Duchy of Prussia  The Old Prussian language had become extinct by the 17th or early 18th century Because the duchy was outside of the core Holy Roman Empire, the prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves King beginning in 1701  After the annexation of most of western Royal Prussia in the First Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, eastern (ducal) Prussia was connected by land with the rest of the Prussian state and was reorganized as a province the following year (1773)  Between 1829 and 1878, the Province of East Prussia was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia 
The Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871  However, the Treaty of Versailles following World War I granted West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany (the new Polish Corridor separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany), while the Memel Territory was detached and annexed by Lithuania in 1923  Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalin's insistence between the Soviet Union (the Kaliningrad Oblast became part of the Russian SFSR, and the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region in the Lithuanian SSR) and the People's Republic of Poland (the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship)  The capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946  The German population of the province was largely evacuated during the war or expelled shortly afterwards in the expulsion of Germans after World War II  An estimated 300,000 died either in wartime bombing raids, in the battles to defend the province, or through mistreatment by the Red Army or  from hunger, cold and disease 

Background
At the instigation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century and created a monastic state to administer the conquered Old Prussians  Local Old-Prussian (north) and Polish (south) toponyms were gradually Germanised  The Knights' expansionist policies, including occupation of Polish Pomerania with Gdańsk/Danzig and western Lithuania, brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, whereby the united armies of Poland and Lithuania, defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410  Its defeat was formalised in the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years' War, and leaving the former Polish region Pomerania/Pomerelia under Polish control  Together with Warmia it formed the province of Royal Prussia  Eastern Prussia remained under the Knights but as a fief of Poland  1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights, were not verified 
The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism and secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525  Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage  Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory  In 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Albert's son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick 
The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, son of emperor Maximilian II died in 1618  When Maximilian died, Albert's line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia  Taking advantage of the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1655, and instead of fulfilling his vassal's duties towards the Polish Kingdom, by joining forces with the Swedes and subsequent treaties of Wehlau, Labiau, and Oliva, Elector and Duke Frederick William succeeded in revoking the king of Poland's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1660  The absolutist elector also subdued the noble estates of Prussia 

History as a province
Kingdom of Prussia
Although Brandenburg was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Prussian lands were not within the Holy Roman Empire and were with the administration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters under jurisdiction of the Emperor  In return for supporting Emperor Leopold I in the War of the Spanish Succession, Elector Frederick III was allowed to crown himself "King in Prussia" in 1701  The new kingdom ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty became known as the Kingdom of Prussia  The designation "Kingdom of Prussia" was gradually applied to the various lands of Brandenburg-Prussia  To differentiate it from the larger entity, the former Duchy of Prussia became known as Altpreußen ("Old Prussia"), the province of Prussia, or "East Prussia" 
Approximately one-third of East Prussia's population died in the Great Northern War plague outbreak and famine of 1709–1711, including the last speakers of Old Prussian  The plague, probably brought by foreign troops during the Great Northern War, killed 250,000 East Prussians, especially in the province's eastern regions  Crown Prince Frederick William I led the rebuilding of East Prussia, founding numerous towns  Thousands of Protestants expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg were allowed to settle in depleted East Prussia  The province was overrun by Imperial Russian troops during the Seven Years' War 

In the 1772 First Partition of Poland, the Prussian king Frederick the Great annexed neighboring Royal Prussia, i e , the Polish voivodeships of Pomerania (Gdańsk Pomerania or Pomerelia), Malbork, Chełmno and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, thereby connecting his Prussian and Farther Pomeranian lands and cutting the rest of Poland from the Baltic coast  The territory of Warmia was incorporated into the lands of former Ducal Prussia, which, by administrative deed of 31 January 1772 were named East Prussia  The former Polish Pomerelian lands beyond the Vistula River together with Malbork and Chełmno Land formed the Province of West Prussia with its capital at Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) in 1773  The Polish Partition Sejm ratified the cession on 30 September 1772, whereafter Frederick officially went on to call himself a King "of" Prussia 
The former Ducal Prussian districts of Eylau (Iława), Marienwerder, Riesenburg (Prabuty) and Schönberg (Szymbark) passed to West Prussia  Until the Prussian reforms of 1808, the administration in East Prussia was transferred to the General War and Finance Directorate in Berlin, represented by two local chamber departments:

German chamber department at Königsberg with the districts of:
Brandenburg
Neidenburg
Rastenburg
Samland
Tapiau
Braunsberg (Ermland)
Heilsberg (Ermland)
Mohrungen (Ermland)
Lithuanian chamber department at Gumbinnen (Gusev) with the districts of:
Gumbinnen
Insterburg
Memel
Olecko
Ragnit
Seehesten (Sensburg)
TilsitOn 31 January 1773, King Frederick II announced that the newly annexed lands were to be known as the Province of West Prussia, while the former Duchy of Prussia and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia became the Province of East Prussia 

Napoleonic Wars
After the disastrous defeat of the Royal Prussian Army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, Napoleon occupied Berlin and had the officials of the Prussian General Directorate swear an oath of allegiance to him, while King Frederick William III and his consort Louise fled via Königsberg and the Curonian Spit to Memel  The French Grande Armée troops immediately took up pursuit but were delayed in the Battle of Eylau on 9 February 1807 by an East Prussian contingent under General Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq  Napoleon had to stay at the Finckenstein Palace, but in May, after a siege of 75 days, his troops led by Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre were able to capture the city of Danzig, which had been tenaciously defended by General Count Friedrich Adolf von Kalkreuth  On 14 June, Napoleon ended the War of the Fourth Coalition with his victory at the Battle of Friedland  Frederick William and Queen Louise met with Napoleon for peace negotiations, and on 9 July the Prussian king signed the Treaty of Tilsit 
The succeeding Prussian reforms instigated by Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg included the implementation of an Oberlandesgericht appellation court at Königsberg, a municipal corporation, economic freedom as well as emancipation of the serfs and Jews  In the course of the Prussian restoration by the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the East Prussian territories were re-arranged in the Regierungsbezirke of Gumbinnen and Königsberg  From 1905, the southern districts of East Prussia formed the separate Regierungsbezirk of Allenstein  East and West Prussia were first united in personal union in 1824 and then merged in a real union in 1829 to form the Province of Prussia  The united province was again split into separate East and West Prussian provinces in 1878 

German Empire
From 1824 to 1878, East Prussia was combined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, after which they were reestablished as separate provinces  Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia became part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany in 1871 

From 1885 to 1890 Berlin's population grew by 20%, Brandenburg and the Rhineland gained 8 5%, Westphalia 10%, while East Prussia lost 0 07% and West Prussia 0 86%  This stagnancy in population despite a high birth surplus in eastern Germany was because many people from the East Prussian countryside moved westward to seek work in the expanding industrial centres of the Ruhr Area and Berlin (see Ostflucht) 
The population of the province in 1900 was 1,996,626 people, with a religious makeup of 1,698,465 Protestants, 269,196 Roman Catholics, and 13,877 Jews  The Low Prussian dialect predominated in East Prussia, although High Prussian was spoken in Warmia  The numbers of Masurians, Kursenieki and Prussian Lithuanians decreased over time due to the process of Germanization  The Polish-speaking population concentrated in the south of the province (Masuria and Warmia) and all German geographic atlases at the start of 20th century showed the southern part of East Prussia as Polish with the number of Polish-speakers estimated at the time to be 300,000  Kursenieki inhabited the areas around the Curonian lagoon, while Lithuanian-speaking Prussians concentrated in the northeast in (Lithuania Minor)  The Old Prussian ethnic group became completely Germanized over time and the Old Prussian language died out in the 18th century 

World War I
At the German entry into World War I, East Prussia became a theatre of war when the Russian Empire invaded the country  The Imperial Russian Army encountered at first little resistance because the bulk of the Imperial German Army had been directed towards the Western Front according to the Schlieffen Plan  Despite early success and the capture of the towns of Rastenburg and Gumbinnen, in the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in 1915, the Russians were decisively defeated and forced to retreat  The Russians were followed by the German Army advancing into Russian territory 
After the Russian army's first invasion the majority of the civilian population fled westwards, while several thousand remaining civilians were deported to Russia  Treatment of civilians by both armies was mostly disciplined, although 74 civilians were killed by Russian troops in the Abschwangen massacre  The region had to be rebuilt because of damage caused by the war 

Division after 1918
Weimar Republic
With the forced abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, Germany became a republic  Most of the former Prussian provinces of West Prussia and Posen, territories annexed by Prussia in the 18th century Partitions of Poland, were ceded to the Second Polish Republic according to the Treaty of Versailles  East Prussia became an exclave, being separated from mainland Germany  The Memelland was also separated from the province  Because most of West Prussia became part of the Second Polish Republic as the Polish Corridor, the formerly West Prussian Marienwerder region became part of East Prussia as the administrative district (Regierungsbezirk) of West Prussia  Also, the Soldau district in the Allenstein region became part of the Second Polish Republic  The Seedienst Ostpreußen (Sea Service East Prussia) was established to provide an independent transport service to East Prussia 
On 11 July 1920, amidst the backdrop of the Polish-Soviet War in which the Second Polish Republic appeared to be on the brink of defeat, the East Prussian plebiscite in eastern West Prussia and southern East Prussia was held under Allied supervision to determine if the areas should join Poland or remain in the Weimar Germany Province of East Prussia  96 7% of the people voted to remain within Germany (97 89% in the East Prussian plebiscite district) 
The Klaipėda Territory (Memelland), a League of Nations mandate since 1920, was occupied by the Lithuanian Armed Forces in 1923 and annexed without giving the inhabitants a choice by ballot 

Nazi Germany
After Adolf Hitler's rise to power, opposition politicians were persecuted and newspapers banned  Erich Koch, who headed the East Prussian Nazi party from 1928, led the district from 1932  The Otto-Braun-House was requisitioned to become the headquarters of the SA, which used the house to imprison and torture its opponents  Walter Schütz, a communist member of the Reichstag, was murdered here  This period was characterized by efforts to collectivize the local agriculture and ruthlessness in dealing with his [whose? Koch's?] critics inside and outside the Nazi Party  He also had long-term plans for mass-scale industrialization of the largely agricultural province  These actions made him unpopular among the local peasants  In 1932 the local paramilitary SA had already started to terrorise their political opponents  On the night of 31 July 1932 there was a bomb attack on the headquarters of the Social Democrats in Königsberg, the Otto-Braun-House  The Communist politician Gustav Sauf was killed; the executive editor of the Social Democratic newspaper "Königsberger Volkszeitung", Otto Wyrgatsch; and the German People's Party politician Max von Bahrfeldt were all severely injured  Members of the Reichsbanner were assaulted while the local Reichsbanner Chairman of Lötzen, Kurt Kotzan, was murdered on 6 August 1932 In the March 1933 German federal election, the last pre-war German elections, the local population of East Prussia voted overwhelmingly for the Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party 
Through publicly funded emergency relief programs concentrating on agricultural land-improvement projects and road construction, the "Erich Koch Plan" for East Prussia allegedly made the province free of unemployment: on 16 August 1933 Koch reported to Hitler that unemployment had been banished entirely from the province, a feat that gained admiration throughout the Reich  In actuality, the Erich Koch Plan had been a staged propaganda event organized by Walther Funk and the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to promote the Nazi Party's work creation policies, with East Prussia chosen because it already had relatively low unemployment due to its agrarian economy  Koch's industrialization plans provoked conflict with Richard Walther Darré, who held the office of the Reich Peasant Leader (Reichsbauernführer) and Minister of Agriculture  Darré, a neopaganist rural romantic, wanted to enforce his vision of an agricultural East Prussia   When his "Land" representatives challenged Koch's plans, Koch arrested them In 1938 the Nazis changed about one-third of the toponyms of the area, eliminating, Germanizing, or simplifying a number of Old Prussian, as well as those Polish or Lithuanian names originating from colonists and refugees to Prussia during and after the Protestant Reformation  More than 1,500 places were ordered to be renamed by 16 July 1938 following a decree issued by Gauleiter and Oberpräsident Erich Koch and initiated by Adolf Hitler  Many who would not cooperate with the rulers of Nazi Germany were sent to concentration camps and held prisoner there until their death or liberation 
After the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, the Klaipėda region was integrated again into East Prussia 

World War II
After the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany opening World War II, the borders of East Prussia were revised  Regierungsbezirk Westpreußen became part of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, while Regierungsbezirk Zichenau was added to East Prussia  Originally part of the Zichenau region, the Sudauen district in Sudovia was later transferred to the Gumbinnen region 
In 1939 East Prussia had 2 49 million inhabitants, 85% of them ethnic Germans, the others Poles in the south who, according to Polish estimates numbered in the interwar period around 300,000-350,000, the Latvian speaking Kursenieki, and Lietuvininkai who spoke Lithuanian in the northeast  Most German East Prussians, Masurians, Kursieniki, and Lietuvininkai were Lutheran, while the population of Ermland was mainly Roman Catholic due to the history of its bishopric  The East Prussian Jewish Congregation declined from about 9,000 in 1933 to 3,000 in 1939, as most fled from Nazi rule 
During World War II, the Polish ethnic minorities of Catholic Warmians and Lutheran Masurians were persecuted by the Nazi German government, which wanted to erase all aspects of Polish culture and Polish language in Warmia and Masuria The Jews who remained in East Prussia in 1942 were shipped to concentration camps, including Theresienstadt in occupied Czechoslovakia, Kaiserwald in occupied Latvia, and camps in Minsk in occupied Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic  Those who remained were later deported and killed in the Holocaust 
In 1939 the Regierungsbezirk Zichenau was annexed by Germany and incorporated into East Prussia  Parts of it were transferred to other regions, e g  Suwałki Region to Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen and Soldau to Regierungsbezirk Allenstein  Despite Nazi propaganda presenting all of the regions annexed as possessing significant German populations that wanted reunification with Germany, the Reich's statistics of late 1939 show that only 31,000 out of 994,092 people in this territory were ethnic Germans Hitler's top-secret Eastern front headquarters during the war, the Wolf's Lair, was located in East Prussia, near the town of Rasternburg 
East Prussia was only slightly affected by the war until January 1945, when it was devastated during the East Prussian Offensive  Most of its inhabitants became refugees in bitterly cold weather during the Evacuation of East Prussia 

Evacuation of East Prussia
In 1944 the medieval city of Königsberg, which had never been severely damaged by warfare in its 700 years of existence, was almost completely destroyed by two RAF Bomber Command raids – the first on the night of 26/27 August 1944, with the second one three nights later, overnight on 29/30 August 1944  Winston Churchill (The Second World War, Book XII) had erroneously believed it to be "a modernized heavily defended fortress" and ordered its destruction
Context 3: Passage 1:
A Beautiful Mind (soundtrack)
A Beautiful Mind is the original soundtrack album, on the Decca Records label, of the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly (who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as "Alicia Nash"), Christopher Plummer and Paul Bettany  The original score and songs were composed and conducted by James Horner 
The album garnered nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score  Music critics felt that the musical score fit the film well, but believed it to be similar to several of Horner's previous films 

Development
Composer James Horner was a frequent collaborator with Ron Howard, the director of A Beautiful Mind  Horner desired to feature vocals reminiscent of being midway between a girl and woman, and wrote the score specifically for 15-year-old Welsh singer Charlotte Church  To convey "the beauty of mathematics", Horner decided to use the idea of a kaleidoscope, as its "patterns are always changing, and things move very quickly, but in moving so quickly, they create other patterns that move very slowly underneath"  He added that these changing patterns were conveyed with the piano and Church's voice 

Release and reception
Writing for Empire magazine, Danny Graydon gave the soundtrack four out of five stars  He thought the score contained elements of Horner's previous films Sneakers (1992) and Bicentennial Man (1999), but said "if you can forgive that, this is a clever, masterful and romantic score that captures a brilliant mind in conflict"  In the tracks "Creating Government Dynamics" and "Cracking The Russian Codes", Graydon opined that Church's "poignant vocals mix well with the frenetic piano and strings to represent Nash’s brilliance" and wished that her voice had been used more in the film Dan Goldwasser of Soundtrack net also found similarities to the score in Bicentennial Man, but thought Horner's work fit the film regardless, explaining "it effectively underscores the drama and romance, and even provides a few bits of tension for the action scene"  Goldwasser concluded that "while it all works well in the film, there is enough about this score that just seemed to  [sic] 'familiar' to make it stand out"  Contributing to National Public Radio, Andy Trudeau believed Church's particular voice adds a "human element  It's the sound that, I think, gives a sense of--the center of this character, if you will  I think it's the soul  And it's trying to be normal in a way, and underneath it it's trying to be crazy" Horner's score garnered nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score  It lost the Golden Globe to the film Moulin Rouge! and the Oscar to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 

Track listing
Adapted from:
Passage 2:
Christel Khalil
Christel Adnana Mina Khalil (born November 30, 1987) is an American actress 

Background
Khalil was born in Los Angeles, California, to a mother of Native American, African American, and European descent and a Pakistani father  Khalil has stated she identifies as mixed race  She has three older brothers and a younger paternal half-sister  In January 2017, in the wake of President Donald Trump's signing of Executive Order 13769, Khalil revealed that her father is an immigrant from his native country of Pakistan 

Career
Khalil is best known for her portrayal as Lily Winters on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless  At the 39th Daytime Emmy Awards on June 23, 2012, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series after four nominations in the category  In August 2018, she announced her decision to downgrade from being on contract with the show and instead continue on a recurring basis  Khalil explained the decision was driven by her desire to have more freedom in both her professional and personal life  She continued to make sporadic appearances on the show until being approached by current head writer and co-executive producer Josh Griffith in January 2020, to return to filming on a regular basis Khalil has had small roles in movies such as Dragon Fury, Matilda, Interview With the Assassin and White Like the Moon  She voiced Cornelia Hale in W I T C H , and also appeared on That's So Raven and Malcolm in the Middle, among other shows  Khalil also performed in Los Angeles theater productions before landing her role on The Young and the Restless  In 2012, she was featured in musician Johnny Britt's music video  for his single Beautiful Queen  In  spring 2018, Khalil co-starred in the independent thriller, Good Deed, which premiered on the Lifetime network in November 2018 under the title Sorority Stalker  In spring 2019, she was cast in the independent comedy We Need To Talk by writer and director Todd Wolfe 

Personal life
In September 2008, she married musician Stephen Hensley  The Young and the Restless co-star Elizabeth Hendrickson served as a bridesmaid while Bryton James was a groomsman  Khalil gave birth to their son on April 17, 2010, during an at home water birth  Bryton James is his godfather and actress Fadhia Marcelin is his godmother  She and Hensley split in early 2011 and divorced later that year  In 2015, Khalil stated she had been in a relationship with bar runner Ray Wicks for 4 years  Khalil ended the relationship in August 2015   In the summer of 2018, Khalil stated that she in a relationship with Canadian businessman Sam Restagno, who works in private equity  The two met in 2016, during that years Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California  In 2019, Khalil and her son relocated to Toronto, Ontario to be with Restagno, who was born and based there  In July 2020, Khalil moved back to Los Angeles  In June 2023, she announced she was expecting her second child, her first with Restagno She is best friends with Bryton James, who portrays her character's brother, Devon Hamilton on The Young and the Restless  She is also friends with several former and current The Young and the Restless co-stars, including Mishael Morgan and Nadine Heimann  In October 2015, she modeled for Heimann's non-profit, True Connection In June 2015, after the United States Supreme Court's decision on Obergefell v  Hodges, she voiced her support for same-sex marriage  Khalil has said one of her favorite hobbies is traveling because she loves experiencing different cultures and travel makes her feel connected to who she is as a person 

Filmography
Awards and nominations
Passage 3:
Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)
Black Widow (Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanova; Russian: Наталья Альяновна "Наташа" Романова) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics  Created by editor and plotter Stan Lee, scripter Don Rico, and artist Don Heck, the character debuted in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964)  The character was introduced as a Russian spy, an antagonist of the superhero Iron Man  She later defected to the United States, becoming an agent of the fictional spy agency S H I E L D  and a member of the superhero team the Avengers 
The character has appeared in numerous forms of media, such as animated television series, video games, and films 
Scarlett Johansson portrayed Natasha Romanoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Widow (2021), with Lake Bell voicing the character in the animated series What If   ? (2021) 

Publication history
The Black Widow's first appearances were as a recurring, non-costumed, Russian-spy antagonist in the feature "Iron Man", beginning in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964)  Five issues later, she recruits the besotted costumed archer and later superhero Hawkeye to her cause  Her government later supplies her with her first Black Widow costume and high-tech weaponry, but she eventually defects to the United States after appearing, temporarily brainwashed against the U S , in the superhero-team series The Avengers #29 (July 1966)  The Widow later becomes a recurring ally of the team before officially becoming its 16th member many years later 
The Black Widow was visually updated in 1970: The Amazing Spider-Man #86 (July 1970) reintroduced her with shoulder-length red hair (instead of her former short black hair), a skintight black costume, and wristbands which fired spider threads John Romita, the artist responsible for the redesign elaborated on how the character was updated  "I did the costume on the Black Widow  One of my favorite strips from when I was a kid was Miss Fury  They had done a Miss Fury book at Marvel, and when I found out they had the rights to her, I said I'd love to do a Miss Fury book sometime  I had done an updated drawing of Miss Fury, and Stan said, "Why don't we redesign the Black Widow costume based on Miss Fury?" So I took the mask off her face, and made the Black Widow, the one in the patent leather jumpsuit "In short order, The Black Widow starred in her own series in Amazing Adventures #1–8 (Aug  1970–Sept  1971), sharing that split book with the feature Inhumans  The Black Widow feature was dropped after only eight issues (the Inhumans feature followed soon, ending with issue #10) Immediately after her initial solo feature ended, the Black Widow co-starred in Daredevil  #81–124 (Nov  1971–Aug  1975), of which #92-107 were cover titled Daredevil and the Black Widow  Daredevil writer Gerry Conway recounted, "It was my idea to team up Daredevil and the Black Widow, mainly because I was a fan of Natasha, and thought she and Daredevil would have interesting chemistry " Succeeding writers, however, felt that Daredevil worked better as a solo hero, and gradually wrote the Black Widow out of the series  She was immediately recast into the super-team series The Champions as the leader of the titular superhero group, which ran for 17 issues (Oct  1975–Jan  1978) Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Black Widow appeared frequently as both an Avengers member and a freelance agent of S H I E L D  She starred in a serialized feature within the omnibus comic-book series Marvel Fanfare #10–13 (Aug  1983–March 1984), written by George Pérez and Ralph Macchio, with art by penciller Perez  These stories were later collected in the oversized one-shot Black Widow: Web of Intrigue #1 (June 1999) 
The Widow guest-starred in issues of Solo Avengers, Force Works, Iron Man, Marvel Team-Up, and other comics  She had made frequent guest appearances in Daredevil since the late 1970s 
She starred in a three-issue arc, "The Fire Next Time", by writer Scott Lobdell and penciller Randy Green, in Journey into Mystery #517–519 (Feb –April 1998) 
A new ongoing Black Widow comic title debuted in April 2010  The first story arc was written by Marjorie Liu with art by Daniel Acuña  Beginning with issue #6 (Sept  2010), the title was written by Duane Swierczynski, with artwork by Manuel Garcia and Lorenzo Ruggiero 
Black Widow appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010–2013 Secret Avengers series, from issue #1 (July 2010) through its final issue #37 (March 2013) 
Black Widow appears in the 2013 Secret Avengers series by Nick Spencer and Luke Ross Black Widow appears in a relaunched ongoing series by writer Nathan Edmondson and artist Phil Noto  The first issue debuted in Jan  2014 In October 2015, it was announced that Mark Waid and Chris Samnee would be launching a new Black Widow series for 2016 as part of Marvel's post-Secret Wars relaunch  The first issue was released in March 2016 

Limited series and specials
Aside from the arcs in Marvel Fanfare and Journey into Mystery, the Black Widow has starred in four limited series and four graphic novels 
The three-issue Black Widow (June-Aug  1999), under the Marvel Knights imprint, starred Romanova and fully introduced her appointed successor, Captain Yelena Belova, who had briefly appeared in an issue of the 1999 series Inhumans  The writer for the story arc, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" was Devin K  Grayson while J  G  Jones was the artist  The next three-issue, Marvel Knights mini-series, also titled Black Widow (Jan –March 2001) featured both Black Widows in the story arc "Breakdown", by writers Devin Grayson and Greg Rucka with painted art by Scott Hampton Romanova next starred in another solo miniseries titled Black Widow: Homecoming (Nov  2004–April 2005), also under the Marvel Knights imprint and written by science fiction novelist Richard K  Morgan, with art initially by Bill Sienkiewicz and later by Sienkiewicz over Goran Parlov layouts  A six-issue sequel, Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (Nov  2005–April 2006; officially Black Widow 2: The Things They Say About Her in the series' postal indicia), by writer Morgan, penciller Sean Phillips, and inker Sienkiewicz, picks up immediately where the previous miniseries left off, continuing the story using many of the same characters She starred in the solo graphic novel Black Widow: The Coldest War (April 1990), and co-starred in three more: Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday's Web (Dec  1992); Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir (July 1993); and Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty (June 1995), also co-starring Marvel UK's Night Raven Black Widow is also featured in the short story Love Is Blindness in I Heart Marvel: Marvel Ai (2006) #1 (April 2006), where she instigates a humorous fight with Elektra over Daredevil's affections  The comic is stylized to look like Japanese animation and uses images, not words, inside the speech and thought bubbles to convey what the characters are saying/thinking In 2010, the year in which the character, called only Natasha Romanoff, made her film debut in Iron Man 2, the Black Widow received two separate miniseries  Black Widow and the Marvel Girls was an all-ages, four-issue series that chronicled her adventures with various women of the Marvel Universe, including Storm, She-Hulk, the Enchantress, and Spider-Woman  It was written by Paul Tobin, with art by Salvador Espin, Veronica Gandini and Takeshi Miyazawa  The second four-issue miniseries, Black Widow: Deadly Origin, was written by Paul Cornell, and featured art by Tom Raney and John Paul Leon 

Fictional character biography
Early life
Natasha was born in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russian SFSR, USSR  The first and best-known Black Widow is a Russian agent trained as a spy, martial artist, and sniper, and outfitted with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry, including a pair of wrist-mounted energy weapons dubbed her "Widow's Bite"  She wears no costume during her first few appearances but simply evening wear and a veil  Romanova eventually defects to the U S  for reasons that include her love for the reluctant-criminal turned superhero archer, Hawkeye 
The first hints to Natasha Romanova's childhood come from Ivan Petrovich, who is introduced as her middle-aged chauffeur and confidant in the Black Widow's 1970s Amazing Adventures  Petrovich tells Matt Murdock that he had been given custody of little Natasha by a woman who died immediately afterwards, during the Battle of Stalingrad in autumn 1942  He consequently felt committed to raise the orphan as a surrogate father and she eventually trained as a Soviet spy, being eager to help her homeland  In another flashback, set in the fictional island of Madripoor in 1941, Petrovich helps Captain America and the mutant Logan, who would later become the Canadian super-agent and costumed hero Wolverine, to rescue Natasha from Nazis A revised, retconned origin establishes her as being raised from very early childhood by the U S S R 's "Black Widow Ops" program, rather than solely by Ivan Petrovitch  Petrovitch had taken her to Department X with other young female orphans, where she was brainwashed and trained in combat and espionage at the covert "Red Room" facility  There, she is biotechnologically and psycho-technologically enhanced—which provides a rationale for her unusually long and youthful lifespan  During that time she had some training under the Winter Soldier, and the pair even had a short romance  Each Black Widow is deployed with false memories to help ensure her loyalty  Romanova eventually discovers this, including the fact that she had never, as she had believed, been a ballerina  She further discovers that the Red Room is still active as "2R" 
The KGB arranged a marriage between Natasha and the renowned Soviet test pilot Alexei Shostakov  However, when the Soviet government decided to make Shostakov into their new operative, the Red Guardian, he is told that he can have no further contact with his wife  Natasha is told that he died and is trained as a secret agent separately 

The Avengers
Romanova grew up to serve as a femme fatale  She was assigned to assist Boris Turgenov in the assassination of Professor Anton Vanko for defecting from the Soviet Union, which served as her first mission in the United States  Natasha and Turgenov infiltrated Stark Industries as part of the plan  She attempted to manipulate information from American defense contractor Tony Stark, and inevitably confronted his superhero alter ego, Iron Man  The pair then battled Iron Man, and Turgenov stole and wore the Crimson Dynamo suit  Vanko sacrificed himself to save Iron Man, killing Turgenov in the process, using an unstable experimental laser light pistol  Romanova later meets the criminal archer Hawkeye and sets him against Iron Man, and later helped Hawkeye battle Iron Man Later, Natasha again attempted to get Hawkeye to help her destroy Iron Man  The pair almost succeeded, but when Black Widow was injured, Hawkeye retreated to get her to safety  During this period, Romanova was attempting to defect from the Soviet Union and began falling in love with Hawkeye, weakening her loyalty to her country  When her employers learned the truth, the KGB had her gunned down, sending her to a hospital, convincing Hawkeye to go straight and seek membership in the Avengers The Red Room kidnapped and brainwashed her again, and with the Swordsman and the first Power Man, she battled the Avengers  She eventually broke free from her psychological conditioning (with the help of Hawkeye), and successfully defected, having further adventures with Spider-Man, with Hawkeye, and with Daredevil  She ultimately joins the Avengers as a costumed hero herself 

S H I E L D  and Daredevil
Upon Nick Fury's request, she begins freelancing as an agent of the international espionage group S H I E L D  She is sent on a secret S H I E L D  mission to China by Nick Fury  There, with the Avengers, she battles Col  Ling, Gen  Brushov, and her ex-husband the Red Guardian  For a time, as writer Les Daniels noted in a contemporaneous study in 1971,

    her left-wing upbringing was put to better use, and she has lately taken to fighting realistic oppressor-of-the-people types  She helps young Puerto Ricans clean up police corruption and saves young hippies from organized crime       [The splash page of Amazing Adventures #3 (Nov  1970)] reflects the recent trend toward involving fantastic characters in contemporary social problems, a move which has gained widespread publicity for Marvel and its competitor, DC 
She investigates a plot by Egghead, the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker to blackmail the US government using a laser-firing satellite During her romantic involvement with Matt Murdock in San Francisco, she operates as an independent superhero alongside Murdock's alter ego, Daredevil  There she tries unsuccessfully to find a new career for herself as a fashion designer  Eventually, her relationship with Murdock stagnates, and after briefly working with Avengers finally breaks up with Murdock, fearing that playing "sidekick" is sublimating her identity  During a HYDRA attempt to take over S H I E L D , she is tortured to such an extent that she regresses back to an old cover identity of schoolteacher Nancy Rushman, but she is recovered by Spider-Man in time to help Nick Fury and Shang-Chi work out what had happened and restore her memory, with "Nancy" developing an attraction to Spider-Man before her memory is restored during the final fight against Madam Viper, Boomerang, and the Silver Samurai  She later returns to Matt Murdock's life to find he is romantically involved with another woman, Heather Glenn, prompting her to leave New York  Natasha ultimately realizes that Matt still only thinks of her in platonic terms, and elects to restrain herself from any advances 

The Champions
After their breakup, the Widow moves to Los Angeles and becomes leader of the newly created and short-lived super team known as The Champions, consisting of her, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Hercules (with whom she has a brief romance), and former X-Men Angel and Iceman Her friends usually call her "Natasha", the informal version of "Natalia"  She has sometimes chosen the last-name alias "Romanoff"  She has hinted to be a descendant of the deposed House of Romanov and a relation to Nicholas II of Russia 

21st century
Natasha crosses Daredevil's (Matt Murdock) path again when he attempts to slay an infant he believes to be the Anti-Christ while under the influence of mind-altering drugs  After Daredevil's one-time love, Karen Page, dies protecting the child, Natasha reconciles with Murdock, revealing she still loves him, but noting that he is too full of anger to commit to a relationship with her Natasha is challenged by Yelena Belova, a graduate from the training program through which Natasha herself was taught the espionage trade, who is the first to ever surpass Natasha's marks and considers herself the rightful successor to the "Black Widow" mantle  Natasha refers to her as "little one" and "rooskaya (meaning "Russian"), and encourages her to discover her individuality rather than live in blind service, asking her "why be Black Widow, when you can be Yelena Belova?" After several confrontations, Natasha subjects Yelena to intense psychological manipulation and suffering in order to teach her the reality of the espionage business, and an angry but disillusioned Yelena eventually returns home and temporarily quits being a spy  Although Matt Murdock is appalled by the cruelty of Natasha's treatment of Yelena, Nick Fury describes the action as Natasha's attempt at saving Yelena's life  After bringing the Avengers and the Thunderbolts together to overcome Count Nefaria, Natasha supported Daredevil's short-lived efforts to form a new super-team to capture the Punisher, originally believed to be Nick Fury's murderer  Despite recruitment endeavors, however, this vigilante group folded shortly after she and her teammate Dagger fought an army of renegade S H I E L D  androids; ironically, she soon afterward worked with both Daredevil and Punisher against the European crime syndicate managed by the Brothers Grace  Months later, her pursuit of war criminal Anatoly Krylenko led to a clash with Hawkeye, whose pessimism regarding heroic activities now rivaled her own Shortly after the Scarlet Witch's insanity seemingly killed Hawkeye and again disbanded the Avengers, Natasha, weary of espionage and adventure, travelled to Arizona but was targeted  Andrea discovers that other women had been trained in the Black Widow Program, and all are now being hunted down and killed by the North Institute on behalf of the corporation Gynacon  Natasha's investigations led her back to Russia, where she was appalled to learn the previously unimagined extent of her past manipulation, and she discovered the Widows were being hunted because Gynacon, having purchased Russian biotechnology from Red Room's successor agency 2R, wanted all prior users of the technology dead  Natasha finds and kills the mastermind of the Black Widow murders: Ian McMasters, Gynacon's aging CEO, who intended to use part of their genetic structure to create a new chemical weapon  After killing McMasters, she clashed with operatives of multiple governments to help Sally Anne Carter, a girl Natasha had befriended in her investigations, whom she rescued with help from Daredevil and Yelena Belova  She soon returned the favor for Daredevil by reluctantly working with Elektra Natchios to protect his new wife, Milla Donovan, from the FBI and others, although Yelena proved beyond help when she agreed to be transformed into the new Super-Adaptoid by A I M  and HYDRA 

Civil War / Initiative
During the Superhero Civil War, Natasha becomes a supporter of the Superhuman Registration Act and a member of the taskforce led by Iron Man  Afterward, the registered Natasha joins the reconstituted Avengers  S H I E L D  director Nick Fury is presumed killed, and deputy director Maria Hill incapacitated, so Natasha assumes temporary command of S H I E L D  as the highest-ranking agent present Later, Tony Stark assigns Natasha to convey the late Captain America's shield to a secure location, but is intercepted by her former lover, Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, who steals the shield  Natasha and the Falcon then rescue Barnes from the Red Skull's minions and bring him to the S H I E L D  Helicarrier, where Stark convinces Bucky to become the new Captain America  Afterward, Natasha accompanies Bucky as his partner for a brief time until she is called back by S H I E L D  She later rejoins him and Falcon for the final confrontation with the Red Skull, helping to rescue Sharon Carter  She and Bucky have restarted their relationship  She later plays an important role in the capture of Hercules  However, due to her respect of the Greek god, she let him go  Soon Natasha, along with the rest of the Avengers, gets involved in the current Skrull invasion  Afterwards, she stayed as Bucky's partner  She also assists former director Maria Hill in delivering a special form of data to Bucky 

Thunderbolts
Norman Osborn discovered Yelena Belova breaking into an abandoned S H I E L D  facility, and offered her the position of field leader of the new Thunderbolts  On her first mission, she and Ant-Man take control of Air Force One with the Goblin, Doc Samson, and the new President aboard  It was suggested she faked her apparent death (as the Adaptoid) but it is never explained how 
A conversation with the Ghost implies that Yelena is working as a mole for someone else and that she may even be someone else disguised as Yelena  She is later seen talking privately through a comm-link to Nick Fury Osborn orders Yelena to lead the current Thunderbolts to kill former Thunderbolt, Songbird  Fury orders "Yelena" to rescue and retrieve Songbird for the information she might possess about Osborn and his operations  Yelena finds Songbird and reveals to her that she was really Natasha Romanova in disguise  She tries delivering Songbird to Fury but the Thunderbolts have also followed them  The trio are captured as Osborn reveals he had been impersonating Fury in messages all along to set Natasha up in order to strengthen the Thunderbolts and lead him to Fury  She and Songbird are brought to be executed but manage to escape when Ant-Man, Headsmen, and Paladin turn on the rest of the Thunderbolts and let them go 

Heroic Age
At the start of the "Heroic Age," Natasha is recruited by Steve Rogers into a new black-ops wing of the Avengers dubbed the Secret Avengers  She travels to Dubai with her new teammate, Valkyrie, where they steal a dangerous artifact which the Beast then studies, noting that it seems like a distant cousin of the Serpent Crown  In the story "Coppelia", she encounters a teenage clone of herself, code named "Tiny Dancer", whom she rescues from an arms dealer 

Fear Itself
During the "Fear Itself" storyline, Black Widow and Peregrine are sent on a mission to free hostages being held in a Marseille cathedral by Rapido  He and a group of mercenaries are trying to exploit the panic over the events in Paris to steal France's nuclear arsenal 

Ends of the Earth
During the "Ends of the Earth" storyline involving one of Doctor Octopus' schemes, Natasha is one of only three heroes left standing after the defeat of the Avengers by the Sinister Six, joining Silver Sable and Spider-Man to track the Six (albeit because she was closest to Sable's cloaked ship after the Avengers were defeated rather than for her prowess)  She is later contacted by the Titanium Man to warn her and her allies about Doctor Octopus' attempt to rally other villains against Spider-Man  She is knocked out along with Hawkeye by Iron Man during a battle against the Avengers when they were temporarily under Octavius' remote control 

Secret Wars
During the incursion event between Earth-616 and Earth-1610, Natasha is involved in the final battle between the Marvel Universe's superheroes and the Ultimate Universe's Children of Tomorrow  She pilots a ship holding a handpicked few to restart humanity after the universe ends, copiloted by Jessica Drew  Her ship is shot down during the battle though, and she is killed in the ensuing explosion As the evacuation of Earth-616 begins in light of the fact that Earth-1610 is about to come crashing down as part of the "Last Days" storyline, Black Widow is seen standing atop a building with Captain America who gives her a list of people to save and bring aboard the lifeboat  As she tells Sam she cannot save them all, Sam explains it's Natasha's job to assist in the effort to save as many people as possible before Earth as they know it is destroyed  As she leaves, her mind transitions to Cold War Russia, where a young Natasha (here called Natalia) speaks with two Russian functionaries in the infamous "Red Room"  She is given her first mission: travel to Cuba and locate a family called the Comienzas, who are at risk from Raúl Castro's regime and who may have information of vital importance to Russia  She is told to rendezvous with another agent, her classmate Marina, and befriend the family under the guise of a Russian businesswoman  Natasha assures them of her competency and leaves  When one of the officers questions her youth, the other assures him, "she's a killer  She will not disappoint " Natasha meets Marina in Cuba and the two friends catch up before meeting with the Comienzas that night at a local bar  Using her talent for deception, she casually and politely convinces the husband and wife that she's seeking inside information to help her import various goods into the country  The Comienzas explain they cannot reveal said information, prompting Natasha to later explain to Marina that the family might need "a little push"  Not too soon she effectively began terrorizing the family into desperation  First, she plants an American flag on their doorstep to mimic someone accusing them of defecting to the United States  Later after meeting with one of the Russian officers from the Red Room to report her progress, she detonated a car bomb outside their home when the first attempt did not make them "nearly desperate enough"  Following the car bomb explosion, Natasha declares the family is indeed desperate enough to reproach for information  Before letting Natasha go, the officer announces she has one additional task before her mission is over: Marina has become too much enamored with her civilian guise, and is now a security risk  Natasha will have to eliminate her  Flipping to the present, Black Widow is saving as many people as she can, but she quickly flashbacks to Havana  Natasha and her then Red Room partner Marina are trying to help a family defect  Natasha's orders are simple: Kill the parents and make it public  When Natasha asks if she should kill the child too, her boss looks horrified that she would be so OK with that and tells her no  Having no problem following orders she sets up a meet and using a sniper rifle she takes out the pair without blinking  Next she shoots Marina's boyfriend then Marina herself  Next she shoots Marina's cat  Flipping back to the present, Black Widow is back saving people from the incursion as the reason that triggered Natasha's flashback is revealed     a man she saved is holding his cat  This dark, heartless side of the Black Widow shows why she is trying so hard to do good today 

Secret Empire
During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Black Widow appears as a member of the underground resistance at the time when most of the United States has been taken over by Hydra and Captain America who was brainwashed by Red Skull's clone using the powers of the sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik into believing that he was a Hydra sleeper agent  While Hawkeye assembles a strike force of Hercules and Quicksilver to find the Cosmic Cube fragments, Black Widow sets off to kill Rogers herself reasoning that even if Rick's theory is true, the man Rogers was would prefer to die than be used in this manner  She finds herself followed by the Champions as she establishes her version of the Red Room  While preparing to shoot Captain America with a sniper rifle, she rushes to prevent Miles Morales from killing him as predicted by Ulysses, and is struck by his shield, breaking her neck and killing her  Despite the return of the real Steve Rogers and the downfall of Hydra, Natasha's death, along with other casualties, remains 

Clone of Natalia Romanova
However, while observing a dictator who recently rose to power due to his support of Hydra, Bucky witnesses the man being assassinated in such a manner that he believes only Natasha could have pulled off the kill and believes he sees the Black Widow (actually Yelena Belova) depart from her chosen vantage point It was later discovered that a series of clones of the original Black Widow had been produced by the Black Widow Ops Program following her death  Its member Ursa Major bribed Epsilon Red to let him add the current memories of the deceased Natalia Romanova to one such clone while secretly disposing of the bad programming  The Black Widow Ops Program tasked the clone into taking out the remnants of Hydra and S H I E L D  She revealed herself to Winter Soldier and Hawkeye while also killing Orphan Maker  To keep them from interfering, the Black Widow clone locked Winter Soldier and Hawkeye in a safe room within the Red Room  The Black Widow clone rose to the ranks of the Red Room while secretly persuading the recruits to turn against their masters  When Winter Soldier and Hawkeye arrived at the Red Room, the Black Widow clone dropped her cover where she began to kill her superiors, liberate the recruits and destroy all the clones and Epsilon Red  When the authorities arrived, The Black Widow clone, adopting the name Natasha Romanoff, left the Red Room, where she left a note for Hawkeye to stop following her and for Winter Soldier to join her in ending the Red Room During the "Infinity Countdown" storyline, the Black Widow clone traced a dead drop signal left by a revived Wolverine in Madripoor  She discovered that Wolverine had left the Space Infinity Gem in her care  The Black Widow clone meets up with Doctor Strange who wants to dispose of the Space Stone  Doctor Strange did not want to take it as he knows what would happen if they are in the same proximity  She is among the Infinity Gem holders who are contacted by Doctor Strange stating that they need to reform the Infinity Watch in order to safeguard the Infinity Gems from such calamities like Thanos Captain America had Black Widow's clone infiltrate Roxxon as an ex-S H I E L D  operative-turned-contractor named Angel to spy on Roxxon and keep an eye on Weapon H  As Angel, she accompanied Weapon H and his assigned team to Weirdworld up to the point where Morgan le Fay of Earth-15238 exposed her identity to Weapon H  After getting out of the wreckage of the Roxxon Research Outpost, Black Widow reveals to Blake that she was sent to get the Roxxon group out of Weirdworld  Dr  Carrie Espinoza and the Roxxon soldiers with her salvage a Weirdworld Adamantine Crystal filled with Morgan le Fay's mystic energies which Dr  Esponoza states to Black Widow and Blake that it can power all of New York for 10 years  As the group arrives near the Inaku village, they witness Weapon H fighting Korg as Black Widow is contacted by Sonia Sung from Roxxon's headquarters  Black Widow tries to help Sonia get through to Weapon H until Dario Agger arrives  Black Widow is among those that are evacuated through the portal 

Powers and abilities
Black Widow has been enhanced by biotechnology that makes her body resistant to aging and disease and she heals faster than the average human  The white blood cells in her body are also enhanced by these implants, making them efficient enough to fight off most microbes, foreign bodies and other threats to her body, keeping her healthy and immune to most, if not all, infections, diseases and physical disorders Romanova has a gifted intellect  She displays an uncanny affinity for psychological manipulation and can mask her real emotions perfectly  Like Steve Rogers, she possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (such as threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations, as well as having extensive espionage training Black Widow is a world-class athlete, gymnast, acrobat, and aerialist, capable of numerous complex maneuvers and feats  She can coordinate her body with balance, flexibility, and dexterity easily, and is an accomplished ballerina  She has mastered several martial arts such as jiu jitsu, aikido, boxing, judo, karate, savate, ninjutsu, various styles of kung fu and kenpo, as well as the Russian martial art sambo  She also underwent training on how to masterfully use sidearms, marksman rifles and melee weapons such as batons and combat knives 
She is also a skilled hypnotist  She uses a combination of techniques such as direct eye contact, hypnotic speech patterns and a soothing voice to influence a subjects' mind, planting thoughts, ideas or post-hypnotic commands, or even affecting memories and personality traits 

Equipment
Black Widow uses a variety of equipment invented by Soviet scientists and technicians, with later improvements by S H I E L D  scientists and technicians  She usually wears distinctively shaped bracelets which fire the Widow's Bite electro-static energy blasts that can deliver charges up to 30,000 volts, as well as "Widow's Line" grappling hooks, tear gas pellets, and a new element introduced during her ongoing series during the "Kiss or Kill" arc called the "Widow's Kiss"—an aerosol instant knock-out gas she has modified  She wears a belt of metallic discs; some are disc-charges containing plastic explosives, while others have been shown to be compartments for housing other equipment  Her costume consists of synthetic stretch fabric equipped with micro-suction cups on fingers and feet, enabling her to adhere to walls and ceilings  In the 2006 "Homecoming" mini-series, she was seen using knives, unarmed combat, and various firearms, but she has since begun using her bracelets again  While in disguise as Yelena Belova, when infiltrating the then Osborn-sanctioned Thunderbolts during "Dark Reign", she used a specialized multi-lens goggle/head-carapace that demonstrated various technical abilities, such as enhancing vision and communication  Later, she has used a modified gun based on her Widow's Bite wrist cartridge during her adventures alongside the new Captain America 

Supporting characters
Reception
Critical response
Laura Bradley of Vanity Fair included Black Widow in their "Stan Lee’s Most Iconic Characters" list  Jesse Schedeen of IGN included Black Widow in their "Marvel's Femme Fatales" list, writing, "Whatever happens, at least it can be said that Natasha's life still hasn't become boring after all these years," and ranked her 42nd in their "Top 50 Avengers" list, and 74th in their "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" list  Deirdre Kaye of Scary Mommy ranked Black Widow 1st in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list  Matthew Perpetua and Daniel Kibblesmith of BuzzFeed ranked Black Widow 3rd in their "84 Avengers Members Ranked From Worst To Best" list  Madeline Catalano of MovieWeb ranked Black Widow 4th in their "Toughest Female Superheroes" list  Gavia Baker-Whitelaw of The Daily Dot ranked Black Widow 9th in their "Top 33 female Superheroes Of All Time" list  The A V  Club ranked Black Widow 10th in their "100 Best Marvel Characters" list Jo-Anne Rowney of Daily Mirror ranked Black Widow 11th in their "Best female superheroes of all time" list  Rob Bricken of Gizmodo ranked Black Widow 13th in their "Every Member Of The Avengers" list, saying, "She's been one of the most venerable Avengers " Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly ranked Black Widow 14th in their "Let's Rank Every Avenger Ever" list  Sarah Prado of Game Rant ranked Black Widow 14th in their "Marvel: 14 Best Villains Turned Heroes" list  Comics Buyer's Guide ranked Black Widow 31st in their "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list  Lance Cartelli of Comicbook com ranked Black Widow 41st in their "50 Most Important Superheroes Ever" list  Lance Cartelli of GameSpot ranked Black Widow 46th in their "50 Most Important Superheroes" list  Wizard Magazine ranked Black Widow 176th in their "Top 200 Comic Book Characters" list Screen Rant included Black Widow in their "10 Best Villains Who Became Heroes In Marvel Comics" list, and in their "10 Most Powerful Members Of The Lady Liberators" list  CBR com ranked Black Widow 6th in their "Avengers' Greatest Leaders" list, 6th in their "10 Most Powerful Russians In Comics" list, and 32nd in their "35 Strongest Avengers" list 

Other versions
1602
In Marvel 1602, a world where superheroes have started to appear several hundred years early, Natasha is a freelance spy and "the most dangerous woman in Europe " Initially allied with Matthew Murdoch (Daredevil's 1602 counterpart), she later betrays him to Count Otto Von Doom, whom she shares a romantic relationship with  It is Natasha who later comes to Doom's rescue when he is horribly burned by Thor's lightning & the accompanying discharge of Blake's golden sphere Natasha is still working with Count von Doom during Marvel 1602: Fantastick Four where she is the captain of his flying ship  However, when she questions his plan to take the ship to the edge of the world, he pushes her over the side and appoints the Wizard captain 

1872
The Secret Wars War Zone of 1872 reimagines Natasha in the Wild West in the town of Timely  Natasha Barnes is a widow who was married to Deputy Bucky Barnes, who was killed by Mayor Fisk's men when he tried to stop a lynching  Fisk had her believe the Native Americans were responsible for his death until Sheriff Rogers told her the truth  After Sheriff Rogers was killed by Fisk and his men, Natasha teams up with Red Wolf and Doctor Bruce Banner to take Fisk down and destroy the dam separating the Cheyenne from their water 

Age of Ultron
In the Age of Ultron story, Black Widow is shown after Ultron's attack with disfiguring scars on the right side of her face from an unknown source, disarming a desperate and panicked man who attempts to threaten her for resources before meeting up with Moon Knight in one of Nick Fury's old bases 

The Avengers: United They Stand
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow appeared in the comic-book series based on the animated television series The Avengers: United They Stand 

Earth X
Natasha Romanova appeared in the Earth X miniseries much the same as her 616 counterpart  After Absorbing Man was broken to pieces by The Vision after killing The Avengers (Giant Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye), part of his body was given to her to guard in order to prevent anyone from putting Absorbing man back together   She was killed sometime before the start of Earth X  Later in the series, she is revealed in the Realm of the Dead and is recruited by Mar-Vell into his legion of the undead 

House of M
Natasha is seen as a member of the Soviet Super Soldiers  Natasha later appears a member of Shang-Chi's Red Dragons, and is mentioned as a member of S H I E L D 

Marvel Mangaverse
She appears in the New Dawn arc where The Executioner and she are hired by Mordo to kidnap Bruce Banner  They manage to succeed in doing so, with her escaping with Bruce while Tigra is dealing with The Executioner intent on keeping the reward for the job herself  However, during her escape, Bruce turns into The Hulk and destroys the submarine they were in, presumably killing her 

Marvel Zombies
Black Widow is among the Avengers who are infected by the Sentry in Marvel Zombies vs  the Army of Darkness  She is seen consuming a Yorkshire Terrier puppy  Later, in the original Marvel Zombies series, she is among the zombies who attack the Silver Surfer 

Ultimate Marvel
Under the Ultimate Marvel imprint Natasha Romanova is a member of the Ultimates, this universe's analogue of the Avengers  She debuted in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #14 (June 2002) in a story written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Terry Moore, before becoming one of the major characters in writer Mark Millar and penciller Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates, debuting there in #7 (Sept  2002) Romanova is a former KGB spy and assassin, code-named the Black Widow, known for killing her ex-husbands, notably Alexi Shostakov  She was originally part of the Ultimates' covert operations ("black ops") team, but with the emergence of the Chitauri threat was subsequently moved to public status after a publicly acceptable background was written for her  She has genetic or cybernetic enhancements making her far better in combat than the average human  After accepting a marriage proposal from Tony Stark, she receives a black suit of Iron Man armor as an engagement present, along with a set of nanites to control the armor Romanova is later revealed as a traitor—claiming that she betrayed the Ultimates because she feels that America has turned her country into a collection of drug-runners and prostitutes—responsible for killing Hawkeye's wife and children, revealing Bruce Banner's connection to the Hulk to the public, helping to frame Captain America as a traitor, and collaborating with the Liberators in their invasion of the United States  After she murders Edwin Jarvis and holds Stark hostage in an attempt to extort his fortune, Stark activates the nanites in her bloodstream, freezing her body in place, before knocking her unconscious with a wine bottle  She appears later in an emergency clinic, having cut open her wrists to bleed out the disabling nanites  Hawkeye kills her in revenge for her part in the murder of his family By The Ultimates 3 #1 a sex tape between Natasha and Stark has been leaked to the public  According to Janet Pym, the tape is of unknown origin and seems to have been professionally done with "close ups"  Stark is shown to be in a state of depression over Natasha's betrayal and subsequent death  It is later revealed that one of the Ultrons calling himself Yellowjacket had leaked the tape  During the Brotherhood's attack on the Stark Mansion, Mystique shapeshifts into Natasha to get close to Tony in an attempt to kill him but is knocked unconscious by Wasp 

What If?
In What If? Age of Ultron #3, where Thor was killed, Natasha becomes the new wielder of Mjolnir to hold off an assault by the World-Serpent in Thor's absence 

In other media
Television
Black Widow was to appear in a proposed live-action 1975 series, portrayed by series creator Angie Bowie  However, the series was not picked up by a studio 
Black Widow appears in the "Iron Man" segment of The Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Margaret Griffin 
Black Widow appears in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Deadly is the Black Widow's Bite!," voiced by Lena Headey 
Black Widow appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Vanessa Marshall  This version is an agent of S H I E L D  and member of Nick Fury's Secret Warriors 
A young Black Widow appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, voiced by Ashleigh Ball  This version is initially a freelancer before eventually joining S H I E L D 
Black Widow appears in Avengers Assemble, voiced by Laura Bailey  This version is a member of the Avengers 
Black Widow appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload, voiced by again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced again by Laura Bailey  This version is a member of the Avengers 
Black Widow appears in Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers 
Black Widow appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears in the Spider-Man episode "Spider-Island" Part 2, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes - Black Panther: Trouble in Wakanda, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears in Marvel Future Avengers, voiced by Mayumi Asano in Japanese and Laura Bailey in English 

Film
In 2004, Lionsgate Entertainment announced that a Black Widow motion picture by screenwriter-director David Hayter and starring Natasha Romanoff was in the script stage  Lionsgate subsequently dropped the project 
The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Black Widow appears in Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2, voiced by Olivia d'Abo 
Black Widow makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, in which she joined the Avengers in stopping Ultron  Though she was killed in battle, she is survived by her and Captain America's son James Rogers 
Black Widow appears in Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, voiced by Clare Grant 
Black Widow appears in Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, voiced by Jennifer Carpenter 

Marvel Cinematic Universe
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow appears in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), portrayed by Scarlett Johansson  This version is a former assassin for the Red Room before joining S H I E L D  and becoming an Avenger  She first appears in the live-action film Iron Man 2 before making subsequent appearances in the live-action films The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and a self-titled film (2021)  Additionally, alternate timeline versions of Romanoff appear in the Disney+ animated series What If   ?, voiced by Lake Bell 

Video games
Black Widow appears in The Punisher, voiced by Saffron Henderson 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in PlayStation Portable (PSP) and the PC versions of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, voiced by Nika Futterman 
Black Widow appears in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, voiced by Salli Saffioti 
Black Widow appears as a boss in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, voiced again by Nika Futterman 
Black Widow, based on the MCU incarnation, appears in the Iron Man 2 tie-in game, voiced by Catherine Campion 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet, voiced by Grey DeLisle 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, voiced by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Strike Force 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance 
Black Widow appears as a card in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3's Heroes vs Heralds mode
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth 
Black Widow appears in LittleBigPlanet via the "Marvel Costume Kit 5" DLC 
Black Widow appears in Zen Pinball 2 via the "Women of Power" DLC pack's A-Force table 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Julianne Buescher 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Avengers Alliance Tactics 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Disney Infinity 2 0, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Disney Infinity 3 0, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Five variants of Black Widow appear in Marvel Puzzle Quest 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel: Future Fight 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced by Scarlett Johansson 
A teenage version of Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Avengers Academy, voiced by Alison Brie 
Black Widow appears as a downloadable playable character in Marvel vs  Capcom: Infinite, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, voiced by Maria Teresa Creasey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Powers United VR, voiced again  by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel's Avengers, voiced again by Laura Bailey 
Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel Future Revolution, voiced again by Laura Bailey  Additionally, several alternate universe incarnations of Black Widow appear as NPCs, such as one who went undercover in the Hydra Empire and one who joined a secret rebellion against the Maestro on Sakaar 
Black Widow's mainstream and MCU incarnations, with the latter based on her appearances in Avengers: Endgame and her self-titled film, appear as unlockable outfits in Fortnite Battle Royale 
Black Widow appears in Marvel Snap 

Novels
Black Widow appears in the novels Black Widow: Forever Red (2015) and Black Widow: Red Vengeance (2016), by Margaret Stohl 
Black Widow appears in the prose novel adaptation of The Death of Captain America 
Black Widow appears in the prose novel adaptation of Civil War 
The MCU incarnation of Black Widow appears in Avengers: Everybody Wants To Rule The World 

Miscellaneous
Black Widow appears in the Spider-Woman motion comic, voiced by JoEllen Anklam 
Black Widow appears in Marvel Universe: LIVE!, portrayed by Louise Forsley  This version is a member of the Avengers 
Black Widow appears in the Black Widow: Bad Blood audio novel 

Collected editions
See also
List of Russian superheroes
List of Marvel Comics superhero debuts
Passage 4:
Jeremy Staat
Jeremy Ray Staat (born October 10, 1976) is a former American football defensive lineman and offensive lineman who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1998 through 2000 and the St  Louis Rams for two games in 2003  He also played for the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League (AFL)  After his football career, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq  On September 17, 2019, Staat, a registered Republican, announced his candidacy for Congress in California's 8th District 

Football career
Staat was a two-sport star in Bakersfield High School in Bakersfield, California, where he was All-Area selection  He then attended Bakersfield College, a junior college, where he played offensive and defensive line for two years while also excelling in track and field  After initially expressing interest in transferring to the University of Nebraska as a walk on, he was offered a full ride scholarship to Arizona State University as a defensive lineman At ASU, Staat became friends with free safety Pat Tillman, and was a roommate with Tillman's brother for a semester  While playing for the Sun Devils, he won the Morris Trophy as the best defensive lineman in the Pac-10 Conference in 1997 and was named a FWAA First-team All-American [1]In the 1998 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Staat with the 41st overall pick  The Steelers had debated about whether to take Staat or Alan Faneca with their first round pick but ultimately was able to take both  He played three seasons in Pittsburgh, starting in eleven games in the 1999 season  He would sign with the Seattle Seahawks in 2001 but would be cut from the team following the preseason  Cut by a football team for the first time in his life, Staat began seriously considering joining the military following the September 11, 2001 attacks  However, Tillman, who had quit a lucrative career with the Arizona Cardinals to become a U S  Army Ranger after the attacks, talked Staat into staying in the league for at least three more games to earn his NFL retirement benefits [2]In 2002, he signed with the Oakland Raiders and was moved to offensive guard by Bill Callahan  He would be cut during the preseason, however, after Jon Gruden was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers  Despite speculation that he would reunite with Jake Plummer on the Arizona Cardinals, following an injury to defensive lineman Tom Burke, he would ultimately remain unsigned  Staat eventually earned his pension during a stint with the St  Louis Rams during the 2003 season after transitioning back to the defensive line  The following season, he joined the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League  During the season, he learned Tillman had been killed in action in Afghanistan, in what was later revealed to be a "friendly fire" incident  The loss of his friend further reduced his interest in football  He would throw his helmet during the middle of practice and storm off the field, leaving the Avengers and professional football forever 

Post-football career
Immediately after football, one of Staat's friends got him a job working at a Walgreens drug store  Staat, like Tillman's family, was dismayed by the United States Army's handling of the story surrounding Tillman's death; himself noting that "The fog around his death was thickened by lies " However, after spending time deciding on his own future, he opted to follow his deceased friend and teammate's example and join the military; but instead of the Army, he joined the United States Marine Corps [3]Staat joined the Marine Corps in 2006 [4] In March 2007, Lance Corporal Staat deployed with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines for a seven-month mission in Iraq [5] He was an infantry machine gunner and drove around in seven-ton armored trucks used to transport soldiers Staat's Iraq tour was fairly quiet, his unit suffered two injuries and no one was killed in action  His opinions changed: "It wasn't a blood fest, like some people make it out to be  It was pretty controlled  We had a pretty good sense of security  My eyes were opened up  They [the Iraqis] were just people  I expected to see guys running around with AK-47s, shouting about Allah and shooting into the sky " After returning from his tour, he started to have back, hip and heart problems  He was put on light duty and began the process of seeking a medical discharge Following his military career, Staat opted to return and finish his degree  He graduated from Arizona State University in 2009 with a master's degree, and returned to his hometown of Bakersfield, where he teaches welding at Bakersfield College In 2019, Staat announced that he would be running for Congress in the 2020 Election on the Republican Party ticket for California's 8th congressional district  He lost in the March primary to Jay Obernolte 
Passage 5:
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is a British actor  He is best known for his roles as J A R V I S  and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and for starring in the Disney+ miniseries WandaVision (2021), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie 
Bettany first gained popularity for appearing in the films Gangster No  1 (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001) and A Beautiful Mind (2001)  He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing Stephen Maturin in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)  Other films in which Bettany has appeared include Dogville (2003), Wimbledon (2004), The Da Vinci Code (2006), The Tourist (2010), Margin Call (2011), Legend (2015) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)  He made his directorial debut with the film Shelter (2014), which he also wrote and co-produced 
In television and theatre, Bettany has portrayed Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll in the series A Very British Scandal and Andy Warhol in the play The Collaboration in the West End, which is set to transfer to Broadway 

Early life
Bettany was born on 27 May 1971 in London, to Anne (née Kettle), a stage singer, theatre teacher, and stage manager, and Thane Bettany, a dancer, actor, drama teacher and godfather to Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh  Bettany was raised Roman Catholic, although his church attendance drifted after his confirmation  Bettany then experimented with other Christian denominations among which were Methodist and Church of England congregations with his father  Bettany is now an atheist  While his father taught at the all-girls boarding school Queenswood School, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, the family lived on the school grounds When Bettany was 16, his brother Matthew died at age 8 after falling onto concrete from a tennis pavilion roof at Queenswood  Soon after, Bettany dropped out of school, left home, and became a street performer in London  He lived in a small flat and earned money by playing his guitar in the streets as a busker  His parents later divorced  After two years, he found a new job in a home for the elderly  After working there for a year, Bettany enrolled at the Drama Centre London  He had dyslexia prior to it being recognised as a learning difficulty 

Career
In 1990, at the age of 19, Bettany began a three-year course at the Drama Centre London in Chalk Farm  He made his stage debut in Stephen Daldry's acclaimed West End revival of An Inspector Calls at the Aldwych Theatre, playing the part of Eric Birling  He also appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar (for which he received a Charleson Award nomination)  When Bettany was 21, he appeared in a BBC production of Oliver Twist, playing Bill Sikes 
After appearing in the finale of Sean Bean's series Sharpe as William II of the Netherlands at the Battle of Waterloo, he made his film debut with a small part in Bent, a Holocaust drama which also featured Clive Owen, Jude Law, and Ian McKellen  He continued doing work in stage and television: these included Joe Penhall's Love and Understanding, which played at London's Bush Theatre and then ran in Connecticut  He had roles in the television productions Killer Net and Coming Home, during which he met and dated Emily Mortimer  His last stage work was in One More Wasted Year and Stranger's House at the Royal Court Theatre  He filmed several more movies, including his first leading role in Gangster No  1  The British Independent Film Awards nominated him for Best Actor, and the London Film Critics' Circle nominated him for British Newcomer of the Year Back in Hollywood, writer/director Brian Helgeland (L A  Confidential) was planning a new film called The Sin Eater (also known as The Order)  He was impressed by Bettany's audition tape, though Helgeland eventually decided to film A Knight's Tale instead  The studio executives were not impressed, but Helgeland was determined to cast him, even writing the part of Chaucer for him  A Knight's Tale would be Bettany's first big Hollywood production  He received critical acclaim for A Knight's Tale, including winning the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best British Supporting Actor  After the movie wrapped, Helgeland, determined that Hollywood should recognize Bettany's talent, showed the audition tape to many of his peers, including Ron Howard, who promptly cast Bettany in A Beautiful Mind alongside Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly  After A Beautiful Mind, Bettany was offered the role of serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon, opposite Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins  He turned down the role due to his commitment to a role in Lars von Trier's Dogville Bettany's next major project saw him starring again alongside A Beautiful Mind costar Russell Crowe in Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World  His portrayal of surgeon and naturalist Stephen Maturin brought him a BAFTA nomination, and he was named British Actor of the Year (London Film Critics' Circle), and Best Actor (Evening Standard) 
On 28 June 2004, Bettany and 13 other actors were included in the 2004 invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  Dogville and The Reckoning were released in limited cinemas in 2004  In September of that year, Bettany made his leading-man debut in Wimbledon, a romantic comedy with Kirsten Dunst  The film's cast would also introduce him to Jon Favreau, playing his manager, a relationship that would return when Favreau cast him as the voice of J A R V I S  in Iron Man  In mid-2005, Bettany filmed Firewall in Vancouver, Canada, a thriller also starring Harrison Ford and Virginia Madsen, which reunited him with Wimbledon director Richard Loncraine  He spent the autumn of 2005 filming The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel and starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Ian McKellen  In the film, he played an Opus Dei monk named Silas 
In 2007, Bettany went to London to star in There For Me, written by his friends Dan Fredenburgh and Doraly Rosen  In 2008, he appeared in the New Line Cinema family fantasy Inkheart, playing the part of a fire-eater named Dustfinger  In 2009, he appeared as Charles Darwin in Creation, starring opposite his own wife Jennifer Connelly  In 2010, Bettany appeared alongside Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist and portrayed the archangel Michael in Legion, a film depicting divine vengeance upon humanity  He starred in the films Priest and Margin Call, both released in 2011 
Bettany reprised his voice role as J A R V I S  in 2010's Iron Man 2, 2012's The Avengers, 2013's Iron Man 3, and Disneyland's Innoventions attraction  In 2014, Bettany starred alongside Johnny Depp and fellow British actor Rebecca Hall in the feature film Transcendence  He was once again paired with Depp in Mortdecai, a 2015 motion picture also starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ewan McGregor  After voicing J A R V I S  for five years, Bettany made his first onscreen appearance in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron, playing Vision  He reprised the role in the sequels Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Bettany portrayed Ted Kaczynski in the Discovery Channel television show, Manhunt: Unabomber  Bettany replaced Michael K  Williams in Solo: A Star Wars Story, after Williams was removed from the final film, as he was unable to return to set during the film's reshoots  Bettany was cast in his place, with the character being reworked from a motion-capture alien to a human  On 20 January 2018, it was reported that Bettany was nearing a deal to play Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on the Netflix series The Crown, succeeding Matt Smith  Days later, on 25 January, it was reported by TVLine that Bettany was ultimately unable to sign on due to scheduling conflicts Bettany starred alongside Elizabeth Olsen in the Marvel television miniseries WandaVision, portraying a new version of his Marvel Cinematic Universe character, Vision, with Olsen portraying the titular Wanda  It premiered on Disney+ in January 2021, garnering praise from critics  Reviewing the series, Matt Purslow of IGN wrote Bettany "effortlessly takes to the comedic skits" and that he and Olsen "provide a fantastic amount of life, wit, and emotion"  For his performance, Bettany received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Bettany starred in the 2021 miniseries A Very British Scandal  He played artist Andy Warhol in a production of the play The Collaboration by Anthony McCarten at the Young Vic in London from February to April 2022  He is slated to reprise the role in a film adaptation of the play  Bettany is attached to portray businessman Alexander Nix in a film about the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal as well as co-write and star in the dramedy film Harvest Moon Bettany will reprise his role as Vision in the television series Vision Quest 

Personal life
On 1 January 2003, Bettany married American actress Jennifer Connelly in Scotland; they met when they starred together in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind  They did not become a couple until some time after filming, as both were in other relationships at the time  As a teenager, he had developed a crush on her after seeing her in the 1986 film Labyrinth  The September 11 attacks motivated him to act on his feelings for her, and after two days of attempting to contact her, he proposed, despite the fact that they were not yet in a relationship  Soon after their marriage, they moved to Brooklyn Heights after living in Tribeca  The couple have two children together  Bettany is stepfather to Connelly's son from a previous relationship Bettany is close friends with actor Johnny Depp  Text messages between Bettany and Depp from 2013 were used as evidence in 2020 during Depp's defamation trial against The Sun and in 2022 as part of Depp's defamation trial against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard 

Acting credits
Film
Television
Theatre
Awards and nominations
Notes
Passage 6:
The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers
The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (Russian: Новые приключения Неуловимых, translit  Novye prikluchenya Neulovimykh) is a 1968 Soviet action film, a sequel of The Elusive Avengers, directed by Edmond Keosayan and made on Mosfilm  The film was followed by The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers released in 1971 

Plot
The film continues the story of the Elusive Avengers, a posse of young Red Partisans, including Valerka, a former schoolboy, Yashka, a devil-may-care gypsy, and two orphan siblings, Danka and his sister Ksanka  They join the Red Army and fight Baron Wrangel's White Guards  They intercept an airplane that was carrying a letter to the Baron  The letter reveals that the map of fortifications in Crimea is in possession of the White counter-intelligence officer, Colonel Kudasov  This map is vital for the Red Army assault, and the Avengers are sent on a secret mission to steal the map 
They enter Sevastopol on a fishing boat and disguise themselves  Danka assumes the guise of a shoe cleaner, and Valerka fashions himself as a young monarchist nobleman  Meanwhile, the Red agent they were sent to is arrested by Kudasov and killed when he tries to escape, leaving the Avengers on their own 
Ksanka meets Bubba Castorsky, a popular singer and dancer who helped the Avengers in the first film, and Bubba tells them about a White officer who probably knows the combination for Kudasov's safe  Valerka visits the cabaret often visited by this officer, captain Ovechkin, and befriends him  But Danka is arrested, because Ataman Burnash comes to the city and recognizes him  Yashka meets the local Gypsies and persuades them to help freeing Danka 
Then Captain Ovechkin recognizes Valerka for what he is, gloats at him and tells him the combination, intending to arrest him immediately, but Valerka detonates a pool ball filled with explosives and escapes  He dashes to the Counterintelligence Service headquarters, infiltrates it and steals the map  The headquarters is surrounded by soldiers, but Danka, Yashka and Ksanka distract the soldiers and let him escape with the map  The Avengers, along with Bubba, flee the city, but a White officer shoots Bubba when they are already escaping on a boat 

Cast
Mikhail Metyolkin – Valerka Meshcheryakov
Vasily Vasilyev – Yashka the Gypsy
Viktor Kosykh – Danka Shchus
Valentina Kurdyukova – Ksanka Shchus
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan – captain Pyotr Sergeyevich Ovechkin
Boris Sichkin – Buba Kastorsky, actor and singer
Arkady Tolbuzin – colonel Leopold Sergeyevich Kudasov
Vladimir Ivashov – lieutenant Perov, Kudasov's adjutant
Yefim Kopelyan – chieftain Ignat Burnash
Konstantin Sorokin – Mefody Kuzmich, carousel owner
Ivan Pereverzev – Smirnov, chief of staff of Red Cavalry Army
Nikolay Fedortsov – Andrei, underground fighter
Yevgeny Vesnik – drunk colonel
Sergey Filippov – Koshkin, apothecary, expert on explosions
Savely Kramarov – Ilyukha Verekhov, cross-eyed convoy, former bandit
Eduard Abalov – episode
Yan Frenkel – violinist (uncredited)

External links
The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers at IMDb



ground_truth: Aaron Benward

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What else happened in the northern part of Erich Zakowski's birthplace in the now Russian area?

The following are given passages.
Context 2: 
Gauleiter Erich Koch delayed the evacuation of the German civilian population until the Eastern Front approached the East Prussian border in 1944  The population had been systematically misinformed by Endsieg Nazi propaganda about the real state of military affairs  As a result, many civilians fleeing westward were overtaken by retreating Wehrmacht units and the rapidly advancing Red Army 
Reports of Soviet atrocities in the Nemmersdorf massacre of October 1944 and organized rape spread fear and desperation among the civilians  Thousands lost their lives during the sinkings (by Soviet submarine) of the evacuation ships Wilhelm Gustloff, the Goya, and the General von Steuben  Königsberg surrendered on 9 April 1945, following the desperate four-day Battle of Königsberg  An estimated 300,000 died either in wartime bombing raids, in the battles to defend the province, or through mistreatment by the Red Army or from hunger, cold and disease However, most of the German inhabitants, which then consisted primarily of women, children and old men, did manage to escape the Red Army as part of the largest exodus of people in human history: "A population which had stood at 2 2 million in 1940 was reduced to 193,000 at the end of May 1945 "

History after partition and annexation
Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, East Prussia was partitioned between Poland and the Soviet Union according to the Potsdam Conference, pending a final peace conference with Germany  Since a peace conference never took place, the region was effectively ceded by Germany  Southern East Prussia was placed under Polish administration, while northern East Prussia was divided between the Soviet republics of Russia (the Kaliningrad Oblast) and Lithuania (the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region)  The city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946  Most of the German population of the province had left during the evacuation at the end of the war, but several hundreds of thousands died during the years 1944–46 and the remainder were subsequently expelled 

Expulsion of Germans from East Prussia after World War II
Shortly after the end of the war in May 1945, Germans who had fled in early 1945 tried to return to their homes in East Prussia  An estimated number of 800,000 Germans were living in East Prussia during the summer of 1945  Many more were prevented from returning, and the German population of East Prussia was almost completely expelled by the communist regimes  During the war and for some time thereafter 45 camps were established for about 200,000-250,000 forced labourers, the vast majority of whom were deported to the Soviet Union, including the Gulag camp system  The largest camp with about 48,000 inmates was established at Deutsch Eylau (Iława)  Orphaned children who were left behind in the zone occupied by the Soviet Union were referred to as Wolf children 

Southern East Prussia to Poland
Representatives of the Polish government officially took over the civilian administration of the southern part of East Prussia on 23 May 1945  Subsequently, Polish expatriates from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union as well as Ukrainians and Lemkos from southern Poland, expelled in Operation Vistula, were settled in the area, initially organised as the Masurian District, later replaced by the Olsztyn Voivodeship in 1947, with a few counties incorporated into Białystok Voivodeship and to Gdańsk Voivodeship  The latter counted in 1950 689,000 inhabitants, 22 6% of them coming from areas annexed by the Soviet Union, 10% Ukrainians, and 18 5% of them pre-war inhabitants  It was dissolved in 1975 to form three smaller units: a much smaller homonymous Olsztyn Voivodeship, the bulk of Elbląg Voivodeship and a significant part of the Suwałki Voivodeship 
The remaining pre-war population was treated as Germanized Poles and a policy of re-Polonization was pursued throughout the country Most of these "Autochthons" chose to emigrate to West Germany from the 1950s through 1980s (between 1970 and 1988 55,227 persons from Warmia and Masuria moved to Western Germany)  Local toponyms were Polonised by the Polish Commission for the Determination of Place Names 

Origin of the post-war population
During the Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected  In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their origin was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers  Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population  The same area corresponding to pre-war southern parts of East Prussia (which became Polish in 1945) was inhabited in December 1950 by:

Over 80% of the 1950 inhabitants were new in the region, less than 20% had resided in the province already back in 1939 (so called autochthons, who had German citizenship before World War II and were granted Polish citizenship after 1945)  Over 20% of all inhabitants were Poles expelled from areas of Eastern Poland annexed by the USSR  The rest were mostly people from neighbouring areas located right next to East Prussia (almost 44% came from Masovia, Sudovia, Podlachia and pre-war Polish Pomerania) and southern Poland (≈16%) 

Northern part to the Soviet Union
In April 1946, northern East Prussia became an official province of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic as the "Kyonigsbergskaya Oblast", with the Memel Territory becoming part of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic  In June 1946 114,070 German and 41,029 Soviet citizens were registered in the Oblast, with an unknown number of disregarded unregistered persons  In July of that year, the historic city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad to honour Mikhail Kalinin and the area named the Kaliningrad Oblast  Between 24 August and 26 October 1948 21 transports with in total 42,094 Germans left the Oblast to the Soviet Occupation Zone (which became East Germany)  The last remaining Germans left in November 1949 (1,401 persons) and January 1950 (7 persons) The Prussian Lithuanians also experienced the same fate 
A similar fate befell the Curonians who lived in the area around the Curonian Lagoon  While many fled from the Red Army during the evacuation of East Prussia, Curonians that remained behind were subsequently expelled by the Soviet Union  Only 219 lived along the Curonian Spit in 1955  Many had German names such as Fritz or Hans, a cause for anti-German discrimination  The Soviet authorities considered the Curonians fascists  Because of this discrimination, many immigrated to West Germany in 1958, where the majority of Curonians now live 
After the expulsion of the German population ethnic Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians were settled in the northern part  In the Soviet part of the region, a policy of eliminating all remnants of German history was pursued  All German place names were replaced by new Russian names  The exclave was a military zone, which was closed to foreigners; Soviet citizens could only enter with special permission  In 1967 the remnants of Königsberg Castle were demolished on the orders of Leonid Brezhnev to make way for a new "House of the Soviets" 

Modern status
Although the 1945–1949 expulsion of Germans from the northern part of former East Prussia was often conducted in a violent and aggressive way by Soviet officials, the present Russian inhabitants of the Kaliningrad Oblast have much less animosity towards Germans  German names have been revived in commercial Russian trade and there is sometimes talk of reverting Kaliningrad's name to its historical name of Königsberg  The city centre of Kaliningrad was completely rebuilt, as Royal Air Force bombs in 1944 and the Soviet siege in 1945 had left it in ruins 
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some German groups have tried to help settle the Volga Germans from eastern parts of European Russia in the Kaliningrad Oblast  This effort was only a minor success, however, as most impoverished Volga Germans preferred to emigrate to the richer Federal Republic of Germany, where they could become German citizens through the right of return 
The Polish part of the region, divided in 1975 to form three units: the Olsztyn Voivodeship, the Elbląg Voivodeship, and the Suwałki Voivodeship, has been reestablished as a single entity in 1999 under the name of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, whose borders correspond closely to those of southern East Prussia  Since 2004, Poland and Lithuania have become European Union member states, and both the Polish part of the region as well as the Lithuanian Klaipėda Region, has thereafter become freely accessible by Germans, in line with the free movement of people policy 

Demographics
Historical ethnic and religious structure
In year 1824, shortly before its merger with West Prussia, the population of East Prussia was 1,080,000 people  Of that number, according to Karl Andree, ethnic Germans were slightly more than half, while 280,000 (≈26%) were ethnically Polish and 200,000 (≈19%) were ethnically Lithuanian  As of year 1819, there were also 20,000 strong ethnic Curonian and Latvian minorities as well as 2,400 Jews, according to Georg Hassel  Similar numbers are given by August von Haxthausen in his 1839 book, with a breakdown by county  However, the majority of East Prussian Polish and Lithuanian inhabitants were Lutherans, not Roman Catholics like their ethnic kinsmen across the border in the Russian Empire  Only in Southern Warmia (German: Ermland) Catholic Poles - so called Warmiaks (not to be confused with predominantly Protestant Masurians) - comprised the majority of population, numbering 26,067 people (≈81%) in county Allenstein (Polish: Olsztyn) in 1837  Another minority in 19th century East Prussia, were ethnically Russian Old Believers, also known as Philipponnen - their main town was Eckersdorf (Wojnowo) In year 1817, East Prussia had 796,204 Evangelical Christians, 120,123 Roman Catholics, 864 Mennonites and 2,389 Jews 

Ethnolinguistic composition by district
As of 1905, the province of East Prussia was divided into three government regions, known as Regierungsbezirke  These were the regions of Königsberg, Gumbinnen and Allenstein 

Administration
The Prussian central government appointed for every province an Oberpräsident ("Upper President") carrying out central prerogatives on the provincial level and supervising the implementation of central policy on the lower levels of administration 
Since 1875, with the strengthening of self-rule, the urban and rural districts (Kreise) within each province (sometimes within each governorate) formed a corporation with common tasks and assets (schools, traffic installations, hospitals, cultural institutions, jails etc ) called the Provinzialverband (provincial association)  Initially the assemblies of the urban and rural districts elected representatives for the provincial diets (Provinziallandtage), which were thus indirectly elected  As of 1919 the provincial diets (or as to governorate diets, the so-called Kommunallandtage) were directly elected by the citizens of the provinces (or governorates, respectively)  These parliaments legislated within the competences transferred to the provincial associations  The provincial diet of East Prussia elected a provincial executive body (government), the provincial committee (Provinzialausschuss), and a head of province, the Landeshauptmann ("Land Captain"; till the 1880s titled Landdirektor, land director) 

Upper Presidents of East Prussia and Prussia
1765–1791: Johann Friedrich von Domhardt, president of the Gumbinnen and Königsberg War and Demesnes Chambers
1791–1808: Friedrich Leopold von Schrötter, president of the Gumbinnen and Königsberg War and Demesnes Chambers, as of 1795 Minister for East and New East Prussia
1808–1814: vacancy?
1814–1824: Hans Jakob von Auerswald, upper president of East Prussia
1824–1842: Heinrich Theodor von Schön, upper president of Prussia, merged from East and West Prussia, since 1816 already upper president of West Prussia
1842–1848: Carl Wilhelm von Bötticher, upper president of Prussia
1848–1849: Rudolf von Auerswald, upper president of Prussia
1849–1850: Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell (1786–1865), upper president of Prussia
1850–1868: Franz August Eichmann, upper president of Prussia
1868–1869: vacancy
1869–1882: Carl Wilhelm Heinrich Georg von Horn, upper president of Prussia, after 1878 of East Prussia
1882–1891: Albrecht Heinrich von Schlieckmann, upper president of East Prussia
1891–1895: Count Udo zu Stolberg-Wernigerode, upper president of East Prussia
1895–1901: Count Wilhelm von Bismarck-Schönhausen, upper president of East Prussia
1901–1903: Hugo Samuel von Richthofen, upper president of East Prussia
1903–1907: Count Friedrich von Moltke, upper president of East Prussia
1907–1914: Ludwig von Windheim, upper president of East Prussia
1914–1916: Adolf Tortilowicz von Batocki-Friebe, upper president of East Prussia
1916–1918: Friedrich von Berg, upper president of East Prussia
1918–1919: Adolf Tortilowicz von Batocki-Friebe, upper president of East Prussia
1919–1920: August Winnig (SPD), upper president of East Prussia
1920–1932: Ernst Siehr (DDP), upper president of East Prussia
1932–1933: Wilhelm Kutscher (DNVP), upper president of East Prussia
1933–1945: Erich Koch (NSDAP), upper president of East Prussia

Elections to the provincial diets
Land Directors and Land Captains of East Prussia
1876–1878: Heinrich Edwin Rickert (NLP, later DFP), titled land director
1878–1884: Kurt von Saucken-Tarputschen (Fortschritt, later DFP), titled land director
1884–1888: Alfred von Gramatzki (DKP), titled land director
1888–1896: Klemens von Stockhausen, titled land director
1896–1909: Rudolf von Brandt, titled land captain
1909–1916: Friedrich von Berg, titled land captain
1916–1928: Manfred Graf von Brünneck-Bellschwitz, titled land captain
1928–1936: Paul Blunk, titled land captain
1936–1941: Helmuth von Wedelstädt (NSDAP), titled land captain
1941–1945: vacancy
1941–1945: Reinhard Bezzenberger, first land councillor, per pro

Cities and towns
See also
Drang nach Osten
Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen
East Prussian Regional Museum
Ostsiedlung

Explanatory notes
Citations
General bibliography
Publications in EnglishBaedeker, Karl, Northern Germany, 14th revised edition, London, 1904 
Beevor, Antony (2002)  "chapters 1-8"  Berlin: The Downfall 1945  Penguin Books  ISBN 0-670-88695-5  Archived from the original on 5 February 2006  Retrieved 6 May 2006  (on the years 1944/45)
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, " Nemesis at Potsdam"  London, 1977  ISBN 0-8032-4910-1 
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944-1950, 1994, ISBN 0-312-12159-8
Carsten, F  L  "East Prussia"  History 33#119 (1948), pp  241–246  JSTOR 24402359  Historiography of medieval and early modern period 
Dickie, Reverend J F , with E Compton, Germany, A & C Black, London, 1912 
Douglas, R M : Orderly and Humane  The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War  Yale University Press, 2012  ISBN 978-0300166606 
von Treitschke, Heinrich, History of Germany - vol 1: The Wars of Emancipation, (translated by E & C Paul), Allen & Unwin, London, 1915 
Powell, E  Alexander, Embattled Borders, London, 1928 
Prausser, Steffen and Rees, Arfon: The Expulsion of the "German" Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War  Florence, Italy, European University Institute, 2004 
Naimark, Norman: Fires of Hatred  Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe  Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2001 
Steed, Henry Wickham, Vital Peace - A Study of Risks, Constable & Co , London, 1936 
Newman, Bernard, Danger Spots of Europe, London, 1938 
Wieck, Michael: A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew", University of Wisconsin Press, 2003, ISBN 0-299-18544-3 
Woodward, E L , Butler, Rohan; Medlicott, W N , Dakin, Douglas, & Lambert, M E , et al  (editors), Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939, Three Series, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), London, numerous volumes published over 25 years  Cover the Versailles Treaty including all secret meetings; plebiscites and all other problems in Europe; includes all diplomatic correspondence from all states 
Previté-Orton, C W , Professor, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, Cambridge University Press, 1952 (2 volumes) 
Balfour, Michael, and John Mair, Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-1946, Oxford University Press, 1956 
Kopelev, Lev, To Be Preserved Forever, ("Хранить вечно"), 1976 
Koch, H W , Professor, A History of Prussia, Longman, London, 1978/1984, (P/B), ISBN 0-582-48190-2
Koch, H W , Professor, A Constitutional History of Germany in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Longman, London, 1984, (P/B), ISBN 0-582-49182-7
MacDonogh, Giles, Prussia, Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1994, ISBN 1-85619-267-9
Nitsch, Gunter, Weeds Like Us, AuthorHouse, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4259-6755-0
Denny, Isabel (2007)  The fall of Hitler's fortress city : the battle of Konigsberg, 1945  Havertown, Penn : Casemate  ISBN 978-1-61200-058-9  OCLC 783289112 
Tooze, Adam (2006)  The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy  New York: Viking  ISBN 978-0-670-03826-8 Publications in GermanB  Schumacher: Geschichte Ost- und Westpreussens, Würzburg 1959
Boockmann, Hartmut: Ostpreußen und Westpreußen (= Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas)  Siedler, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-88680-212-4
Buxa, Werner and Hans-Ulrich Stamm: Bilder aus Ostpreußen
Dönhoff, Marion Gräfin v  :Namen die keiner mehr nennt - Ostpreußen, Menschen und Geschichte
Dönhoff, Marion Gräfin v : Kindheit in Ostpreussen
Falk, Lucy:  Ich Blieb in Königsberg  Tagebuchblätter aus dunklen Nachkriegsjahren
Kibelka, Ruth:  Ostpreußens Schicksaljahre, 1945-1948
Bernd, Martin (1998)  Masuren, Mythos und Geschichte  Karlsruhe: Evangelische Akademie Baden  ISBN 83-85135-93-6 
Nitsch, Gunter: "Eine lange Flucht aus Ostpreußen", Ellert & Richter Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8319-0438-9
Wieck, Michael: Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs: Ein "Geltungsjude" berichtet, Heidelberger Verlaganstalt, 1990, 1993, ISBN 3-89426-059-9 Publications in FrenchPierre Benoît, Axelle
Georges Blond, L'Agonie de l'Allemagne
Michel Tournier, Le Roi des aulnesPublications in PolishK  Piwarski (1946)  Dzieje Prus Wschodnich w czasach nowożytnych  Gdańsk 
Gerard Labuda, ed  (1969–2003)  "Historia Pomorza", vol  I–IV  Poznań 
collective work (1958–61)  "Szkice z dziejów Pomorza", vol  1–3  Warszawa 
Andreas Kossert (2009)  PRUSY WSCHODNIE, Historia i mit  Warszawa  ISBN 978-83-7383-354-8 

External links
Pictures of East Prussia Large archive
Brandenburg Prince-Electors co-inheritors 1568, co-regent 1577
East Prussia FAQ
Extensive East & West Prussian Historical Materials Archived 14 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine (in English and German)
East and West Prussia Gazetteer
Provinz Ostpreußen (in German)
Ostpreußen net (in German)
Ostpreußen Info – East Prussia Information (in German)
East- and West Prussia in Photos
Spuren der Vergangenheit / Следы Пρошлого (Traces of the past) This site by W A  Milowskij, a Kaliningrad resident, contains hundreds of interesting photos, often with text explanations, of architectural and infrastructural artifacts of the territory's long German past (in German and Russian)
German Empire: Province of East Prussia (in German)
"East Prussia"   Encyclopædia Britannica  Vol  8 (11th ed )  1911 
Britannica 2007 article
Growing up in East Prussia An oral history project, documenting the German history of East Prussia with memories and reports by contemporary witnesses (in German and Polish)
East & West Prussia Map Collection
Historical borders of East Prussia (in German)
Passage 7:
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (Russian: Дальний Восток России) is a region in Northeast Asia  It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District, which is located between Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean  The area's largest city is Khabarovsk, followed by Vladivostok  The region shares land borders with the countries of Mongolia, China, and North Korea to its south, as well as maritime boundaries with Japan to its southeast, and with the United States along the Bering Strait to its northeast  
Although the Russian Far East is often considered as a part of Siberia abroad, it has been historically categorized separately from Siberia in Russian regional schemes (and previously during the Soviet era when it was called the Soviet Far East) 

Terminology
In Russia, the region is usually referred to as just "Far East" (Дальний Восток - Dal'niy Vostok)  What is known in English as the Far East is usually referred to as "the Asia-Pacific Region" (Азиатско-тихоокеанский регион - Aziatsko-tikhookeanskiy region, abbreviated to АТР - ATR), or "East Asia" (Восточная Азия - Vostochnaya Aziya), depending on the context 

Geographical features
Beyenchime-Salaatin crater
Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano
Kuril–Kamchatka Trench
Lake Baikal

Fauna
Order Galliformes
Family Tetraonidae
Hazel grouse
Siberian grouse
Black grouse
Black-billed capercaillie
Willow ptarmigan
Rock ptarmigan

Family Phasianidae
Daurian partridge
Japanese quail
Ring-necked pheasant

Order Artiodactyla
Sika deer
Snow sheep
Caribou
Elk
Wild boar
Siberian roe deer
Manchurian wapiti
Siberian musk deer

Order Carnivora
Family Canidae
Eurasian wolf
Tundra wolf
Arctic fox
Red fox

Family Felidae
Amur leopard
Siberian tiger

Family Ursidae
Ussuri black bear
Eurasian brown bear
East Siberian brown bear
Kamchatka brown bear
Ussuri brown bear
Polar bear

Flora
Picea obovata
Pinus pumila
Alnus japonica

History
Russian expansion
Russians reached the Pacific coast in 1647 with the establishment of Okhotsk, and the Russian Empire consolidated its control over the Russian Far East in the 19th century, after the annexation of part of Chinese Manchuria (1858-1860)  Primorskaya Oblast was established as a separate administrative division of the Russian Empire in 1856, with its administrative center at Khabarovsk 

Administrative history
Several entities with the name "Far East" existed in the first half of the 20th century, all with rather different boundaries:

1920–1922: the Far Eastern Republic, which included Transbaikal, Amur, Primorskaya, and Kamchatka Oblasts and northern Sakhalin;
1922–1926: Far-Eastern Oblast, which included Amur, Transbaikal and Kamchatka Guberniyas and others;
1926–1938: Far-Eastern Krai, which included the present-day Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais Until 2000 the Russian Far East lacked officially-defined boundaries   A single term "Siberia and the Far East" (Сибирь и Дальний Восток) often referred to Russia's regions east of the Urals without drawing a clear distinction between "Siberia" and "the Far East" 
In 2000 Russia's federal subjects were grouped into larger federal districts, one of which, the Far Eastern Federal District, comprised Amur Oblast, the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kamchatka Oblast with the Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, Primorsky Krai, the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, and Sakhalin Oblast  In November 2018 Zabaykalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia were added they had previously formed part of the Siberian Federal District  Since 2000, Russians have increasingly used the term "Far East" to refer to the federal district, though the term is often also used more loosely 
Defined by the boundaries of the federal district, the Far East has an area of 6 2 million square kilometres (2,400,000 sq mi)—over one-third of Russia's total area 

Russo-Japanese War
Russia in the early 1900s persistently sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for the Imperial Russian Navy as well as to facilitate maritime trade  The recently-established Pacific seaport of Vladivostok (founded in 1860) was operational only during the summer season, but Port Arthur (leased by Russia from China from 1896 onwards) in Manchuria could operate all year  After the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the failure of the 1903 negotiations between Japan and the Tsar Nicholas II's government, Japan chose war to protect its domination of Korea and adjacent territories  Russia, meanwhile, saw war as a means of distracting its populace from government repression and of rallying patriotism in the aftermath of several general strikes  Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904  However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian 1st Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur  Eight days later Russia declared war on Japan 
The war ended in September 1905 with a Japanese victory following the fall of Port Arthur and the failed Russian invasion of Japan through the Korean Peninsula and Northeast China; also, Japan had threatened to invade Primorsky Krai via Korea  The warring parties signed the Treaty of Portsmouth on 5 September 1905, and both Japan and Russia agreed to evacuate Manchuria and to return its sovereignty to China, but Japan was allowed to lease the Liaodong Peninsula (containing Port Arthur and Talien, aka Kwantung Leased Territory), and the Russian rail system in southern Manchuria with its access to strategic resources  Japan also received the southern half of the island of Sakhalin from Russia  In 1907 Japan forced Russia to confiscate land from Korean settlers (who formed the majority of Primorsky Krai's population) due to a fear of an invasion of Korea and of the ousting of Japanese troops by Korean guerrillas 

Soviet era
Between 1937 and 1939, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin deported over 200,000 Koreans to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, fearing that the Koreans might act as spies for Japan  Many Koreans died on the way in cattle trains due to starvation, illness, or freezing conditions  Soviet authorities purged and executed many community leaders; Koryo-saram were not allowed to travel outside of Central Asia for the next 15 years  Koreans were also not allowed to use the Korean language and its use began to become lost with the involvement of the Koryo-mar dialect and the use of Russian 
Development of numerous remote locations in the Soviet Far East relied on Gulag labour camps during Stalin's rule, especially in the region's northern half  After the death of Stalin in 1953 the large-scale use of forced labour waned and was superseded by volunteer employees attracted by relatively high wages 

Soviet–Japanese conflicts
During the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Soviets occupied Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, Yinlong Island, and several adjacent islets to separate the city of Khabarovsk from the territory controlled by a possibly hostile power Indeed, Japan turned its military attention to Soviet territories  Conflicts between the Japanese and the Soviets frequently happened on the border of Manchuria between 1938 and 1945  The first confrontation occurred in Primorsky Krai, the Battle of Lake Khasan (July–August 1938) involved an attempted military incursion of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo into territory claimed by the Soviet Union  This incursion was founded in the beliefs of the Japanese side that the Soviet Union had misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the 1860 Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia and Manchu China  Primorsky Krai was always threatened by a Japanese invasion despite the fact that most of the remaining clashes occurred in Manchukuo 
The clashes ended shortly before and after the conclusion of World War II (see Soviet–Japanese War) when a war-weakened Japan found its territories of Manchukuo, Mengjiang, Korea, and South Sakhalin invaded by Soviet and Mongolian troops (August 1945) 

World War II
Both the Soviet Union and Japan regarded the Primorsky Krai as a strategic location in World War II, and clashes over the territory were common  The Soviets and the other Allies considered it a key location for the planned invasion of Japan through Korea; Japan viewed it as a key location to begin a mass invasion of Eastern Russia  The Primorsky Krai served as the Soviet Union's Pacific headquarters in the war to plan an invasion for allied troops of Korea in order to reach Japan 
After the Soviet invasion, the USSR returned Manchukuo and Mengjiang to China; Korea became liberated  The Soviet Union also occupied and annexed Japan's Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin  The planned Soviet invasion of Japan proper never happened 

Cold War
During the Korean War, Primorsky Krai became the site of extreme security concern for the Soviet Union 
Vladivostok became the site of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in 1974  At the time, the Soviet Union and the United States decided quantitative limits on various nuclear weapons systems and banned the construction of new land-based ICBM launchers  Vladivostok and other cities in Primorsky Krai soon became closed cities because of the bases of the Soviet Pacific Fleet 
Incursions of American reconnaissance aircraft from Alaska sometimes happened  Concerns of the Soviet military caused the infamous Korean Air Lines Flight 007 incident in 1983 

Russian Federation
Russian Homestead Act
In 2016, President Vladimir Putin proposed the Russian Homestead Act to populate the Russian Far East 

Demographics
Population
According to the 2010 Census, Far Eastern Federal District had a population of 6,293,129 
Most of it is concentrated in the southern parts   Given the vast territory of the Russian Far East, 6 3 million people translates to slightly less than one person per square kilometer, making the Russian Far East one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world   The population of the Russian Far East has been rapidly declining since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (even more so than for Russia in general), dropping by 14% in the last fifteen years   The Russian government had been discussing a range of re-population programs to avoid the forecast drop to 4 5 million people by 2015, hoping to attract in particular the remaining Russian population of the near abroad but eventually agreeing on a program to resettle Ukrainian Illegal immigrants 
Ethnic Russians and Ukrainians make up the majority of the population 

Cities
75% of the population is urban   The largest cities are:

Vladivostok
Khabarovsk
Ulan-Ude
Chita
Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Blagoveshchensk
Yakutsk
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Nakhodka
Ussuriysk

Traditional ethnic groups
The original population groups of the Russian Far East include (grouped by language group):

Mongolic: Buryats
Turkic: Sakha
Eskimo–Aleut: Aleuts, Siberian Yupiks (Yuits)
Chukotko-Kamchatkan: Chukchi, Koryaks, Alutors, Kereks, Itelmens
Tungusic: Evenks, Evens, Nanais, Orochs, Ul'ch, Udegey, Orok, Manchus
Isolate: Yukaghirs, Nivkhs, Ainus

Transportation
The region was not connected with the rest of Russia via domestic highways until the M58 highway was completed in 2010 
Uniquely for Russia, most cars have right-hand drive (73% of all cars in the region), though traffic still flows on the right-hand side of the road 
Railways are better developed  The Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal–Amur Mainline (since 1984) provide a connection with Siberia (and the rest of the country)  The Amur–Yakutsk Mainline is aimed to link the city of Yakutsk to the Russian railway network  Passenger trains connect to Nizhny Bestyakh as of 2013 
Like in nearby Siberia, for many remote localities, aviation is the main mode of transportation to/from civilisation, but the infrastructure is often poor 
Maritime transport is also important for delivering supplies to localities at (or near) the Pacific and Arctic coasts, and for shipping exports, especially oil, gas and ores 

See also
Bering Strait
Far North (Russia)
Kolyma
List of Russian explorers
Russian Manchuria

Footnotes
Bibliography
Beer, Daniel  The house of the dead: Siberian exile under the tsars (Vintage, 2017) 
Bobrick, Benson/ East of the Sun: the Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia, (NY: Poseidon Press, 1992)
Forsyth, James  History of the Peoples of Siberia, (Cambridge: University Press 1992)
Glebov, Sergei  "Center, Periphery, and Diversity in the Late Imperial Far East: New Historiography of a Russian Region " Ab Imperio 2019 3 (2019): 265–278 
Hartley, Janet M  Siberia, A History of the People, (New Haven: Yale University Press 2014)
Haywood, A J  Siberia: A Cultural History, (Oxford UP, 2010)
Monahan, Erika  The merchants of Siberia: Trade in early modern Eurasia (Cornell UP, 2016) 
Naumov, Igor  History of Siberia, (London: Routledge, 2006)
Reid, Anna  The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia, (NY: Walker & Comp , 2002)
Stolberg  Eva-Maria  (ed ), Siberian Saga: a History of Russia's Wild East, (2005)
Vajda (ed ),  Edward J Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia, (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2004)
Wood, Alan  The History of Siberia, (London: Rutledge, 1991)
Wood, Alan    Russian Far East 1581 -1991, (London:  Bloomsbury Academic, 2011)

External links

Meeting of Frontiers: Siberia, Alaska, and the American West (includes materials on Russian Far East)
Дальневосточный федеральный округ at WGEO



ground_truth: names were replaced by new Russian names

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who is the spouse of the actor that plays vision in avengers age of ultron?

The following are given passages.
Context 4:   Current president is Rosamunde Carey   She was elected on 28 November 2015 for the period 2015-2018  She becomes the first woman elected to the position

History
Prior to 1952, there was already a Bahamas Athletic Association   BAAA was founded on 6 May 1952 as Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association and was affiliated to the IAAF the same year   First president was Alfred Frances Adderley   Early in the new millennium the federation’s name was changed to The Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations   A detailed report on the history of BAAA was given on Facebook 

Affiliations
BAAA is the national member federation for the Bahamas in the following international organisations:

World Athletics
North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC)
Association of Panamerican Athletics (APA)
Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation (CACAC)Moreover, it is part of the following national organisations:

Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC)

National records
BAAA maintains the Bahamian records in athletics 
Passage 5:
Dead Horse Bay
Dead Horse Bay is a small body of water off Barren Island, between the Gerritsen Inlet and Rockaway Inlet in the New York City borough of Brooklyn 

History
From the nineteenth century to the twentieth century, the area has been used in a variety of ways, including manufacturing fertilizer from the remains of dead animals, producing fish oil from the menhaden caught in the bay, and more recently a landfill for the disposal of New York City’s garbage  Periodic clogging by carcasses from the adjacent glue factory with 200 foot chimney gave the bay its name  A millstone used to grind horse bones can still be found along the Millstone trail In 1926, much of the salt marsh surrounding Dead Horse Bay and the rest of Barren Island were pumped with sand from Jamaica Bay  This raised the land to 16 feet above the high tide mark and connected the islands to each other, and the mainland of Brooklyn, in order to create Floyd Bennett Field as New York City's first municipal airport  The entire area, including the historic airfield, is now managed by the National Park Service as part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area 

In the 1950s, urban planner Robert Moses attempted to expand the now-peninsula to the west using garbage covered by topsoil, but the layer of soil eroded, and garbage can be seen on the coast during low tide  This coast contains many exposed broken glass bottles and other non-biodegradable material In August 2020, the National Park Service announced that Dead Horse Bay would be closed indefinitely because of the presence of radiological contamination  The NPS said at the time that the cleanup could last several years  The contamination was identified as having come from two deck markers, a type of Radium-226 or Strontium-90 based radioluminescent device used by the US military, though the risk of radiological exposure was considered low 

Current use
School groups are taken to Dead Horse Bay on a regular basis to walk the Millstone trail, seine for a variety of fishes, and learn about the natural and cultural history of the area  Its shores are also a popular sport fishing spot, and home to a marina operating in Deep Creek as a National Park Service concession  Today one can find a large array of glass bottles and pieces of broken glass on the beach, along with old shoes and construction materials, many from the landfill which is now leaking  It is a popular place for artists and crafters to collect strange decorative materials 
Passage 6:
Silver Lake (Madison, New Hampshire)
Silver Lake is a 969-acre (3 92 km2) water body located in Carroll County in eastern New Hampshire, United States, in the town of Madison  The village of Silver Lake within Madison lies at the north end of the lake  Water from Silver Lake flows via the West Branch, through the Ossipee Pine Barrens to Ossipee Lake and ultimately to the Saco River in Maine 
Much of the lake's perimeter is forested, but there are numerous swimming spots  Popular beaches include "the foot" of the lake, "Nichols Beach", and "the head of the lake " It was the summer home of E  E  Cummings whose father had built two houses on the lake's eastern shore and later purchased the nearby Joy Farm where Cummings' spent most of his summers as well as his final days 
The lake is classified as a cold- and warmwater fishery, with observed species including rainbow trout, lake trout, lake whitefish, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, and horned pout 

See also
List of lakes in New Hampshire
Passage 7:
Contoocook Lake
Contoocook Lake ( (listen)) is a 344-acre (1 4 km2) water body located in Cheshire County in southwestern New Hampshire, United States, in the towns of Jaffrey and Rindge  The lake, along with Pool Pond, forms the headwaters of the Contoocook River, which flows north to the Merrimack River in Penacook, New Hampshire 
The lake is classified as a warmwater fishery, with observed species including largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white perch, yellow perch, black crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, chain pickerel, and brown bullhead 

See also
List of lakes in New Hampshire
Passage 8:
Secchi disk
The Secchi disk (or Secchi disc), as created in 1865 by Angelo Secchi, is a plain white, circular disk 30 cm (12 in) in diameter used to measure water transparency or turbidity in bodies of water  The disc is mounted on a pole or line and lowered slowly down in the water  The depth at which the disk is no longer visible is taken as a measure of the transparency of the water  This measure is known as the Secchi depth and is related to water turbidity  Since its invention, the disk has also been used in a modified, smaller 20 cm (8 in) diameter, black-and-white design to measure freshwater transparency 
Similar disks, with a black-and-yellow pattern, are used as fiducial markers on vehicles in crash tests, crash-test dummies, and other kinetic experiments 

History
The original Secchi disk was a plain white disk and was used in the Mediterranean Sea  Today, a plain white, 30 cm (12 in) diameter Secchi disk remains the standard design used in marine studies  In 1899 George C  Whipple modified the original all-white Secchi disk to "   a disc about 8 inches in diameter, divided into quadrants painted alternately black and white like the target of a level-rod   "  This modified black-and-white Secchi disk is the standard disk now used in limnology (freshwater) investigations 

Secchi depth
The Secchi depth is reached when the reflectance equals the intensity of light backscattered from the water  1 7 divided into this depth in metres yields an  attenuation coefficient (also called an extinction coefficient), for the available light averaged over the Secchi disk depth  While used as a variable, the extinction coefficient is also used as a variable for turbidity  The light attenuation coefficient, k, can then be used in a form of the Beer–Lambert law,

  
    
      
        
          
            
              I
              
                z
              
            
            
              I
              
                0
              
            
          
        
        =
        
          e
          
            −
            k
            z
          
        
      
    
    {\displaystyle {I_{z} \over I_{0}}=e^{-kz}}
  to estimate Iz, the intensity of light at depth z from I0, the intensity of light at the ocean surface The Secchi disk readings do not provide an exact measure of transparency, as there can be errors because of the sun's glare on the water, or one person may see the disk at one depth, but another person with better eyesight may see it at a greater depth  However, it is an inexpensive and straightforward method of measuring water clarity  Because of the potential for variation between users, methods should be standardized as much as possible 
A Secchi disk measurement should always be taken off the shady side of a boat or dock between 9:00 and 15:00  The period for best results is between 10:00 and 14:00  The same observer should take Secchi depth measurements, in the same manner, every time  One can approach the measurement by lowering the disk beyond a point of disappearance, then raising it and lowering it slightly to set the Secchi depth  Another method is to record the depth at which the disk disappears, lower it another few feet, then record the depth at which the disk reappears as it is slowly brought up  The Secchi depth is taken as the average of the two values Secchi disk measurements do not indicate how attenuation changes with depth or particular wavelengths of light  Submarine photometers can operate at depths of 150 m (492 ft) and can record visible, ultraviolet, and infrared parts of the spectrum  Turbidimeters and Transmissometers have their own light sources and can measure transparency with scientific accuracy 

Applications
Secchi disk measurements have been an integral component of Minnesota's and Wisconsin's lake water quality assessment programs for some time; lake residents make periodic measurements and submit their readings to state and local agencies  The aggregated longitudinal data are used to reveal general trends in water quality  Similarly, the Indiana Clean Lakes Program trains and relies on volunteers to monitor turbidity in over 80 Indiana lakes using Secchi disks, and uses data submitted by volunteers to monitor lake quality in the state In 2013, a team of marine scientists established the global citizen science Secchi Disk program for seafarers to study marine phytoplankton  This ongoing citizen science Secchi Disk study combines the traditional plain white, 30  cm diameter marine Secchi Disk with mobile technology to upload Secchi depth data collected from the sea to a central database  The study's first scientific results were published in 2017  The Secchi Disk study was begun in response to a controversial scientific report that suggested the phytoplankton that influences water transparency had declined by 40% in the oceans between the years 1950 and 2008 

See also
Forel-Ule scale
Siemens star
Trophic state index
Water quality
Passage 9:
Powwow Pond
Powwow Pond is a 348-acre (1 41 km2) water body in Rockingham County in southeastern New Hampshire, United States  It is classified as an artificial impoundment  The outlet of the pond is located in the town of East Kingston, but most of the lake lies in the town of Kingston  The Powwow River, the outlet of the pond, flows to the Merrimack River in Amesbury, Massachusetts  
The lake is classified as a warmwater fishery, with observed species including smallmouth and largemouth bass, chain pickerel, horned pout, and black crappie 

See also
List of lakes in New Hampshire
Passage 10:
Sea of Sardinia
The Sea of Sardinia is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea between the Spanish archipelago of Balearic Islands and the Italian island of Sardinia 
The deepest point is at some 3,000 m, some 150 km north-west to the island of Menorca 

Recognition
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the area as generic Mediterranean Sea, in the Western Basin  It does not recognize the label Sea of Sardinia 

See also
Balearic Sea


== Notes ==
Passage 11:
Deptford
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham  It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne  From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Dockyards  This was a major shipbuilding dock and attracted Peter the Great to come and study shipbuilding  Deptford and the docks are associated with the knighting of Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind, the legend of Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cape for Elizabeth, Captain James Cook's third voyage aboard HMS Resolution, and the mysterious apparent murder of Christopher Marlowe in a house along Deptford Strand Though Deptford began as two small communities, one at the ford, and the other a fishing village on the Thames, Deptford's history and population has been mainly associated with the docks established by Henry VIII  The two communities grew together and flourished during the period when the docks were the main administrative centre of the Royal Navy, and some grand houses like Sayes Court, home to diarist John Evelyn, and Stone House on Lewisham Way, were erected  The area declined as first the Royal Navy moved out, and then the commercial docks themselves declined until the last dock, Convoys Wharf, closed in 2000 
A Metropolitan Borough of Deptford existed from 1900 until 1965, when the area became part of the newly created London Borough of Lewisham 

History
Deptford took its name from a ford across the Ravensbourne (near what is now Deptford Bridge DLR station) along the route of the Celtic trackway which was later paved by the Romans and developed into the medieval Watling Street  The modern name is a corruption of "deep ford" Deptford was part of the pilgrimage route from London to Canterbury used by the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and is mentioned in the prologue to "The Reeve's Tale"  The ford developed into first a wooden then a stone bridge, and in 1497 saw the Battle of Deptford Bridge, in which rebels from Cornwall, led by Michael An Gof, marched on London protesting against punitive taxes, but were soundly beaten by the King's forces 

A second settlement, Deptford Strand, developed as a modest fishing village on the Thames until Henry VIII used that site for a royal dock repairing, building and supplying ships, after which it grew in size and importance, shipbuilding remaining in operation until March 1869 

Trinity House, the organisation concerned with the safety of navigation around the British Isles, was formed in Deptford in 1514, with its first Master being Thomas Spert, captain of the Mary Rose  It moved to Stepney in 1618  The name "Trinity House" derives from the church of Holy Trinity and St Clement, which adjoined the dockyard Originally separated by market gardens and fields, the two areas merged over the years, with the docks becoming an important part of the Elizabethan exploration  Queen Elizabeth I visited the royal dockyard on 4 April 1581 to knight the adventurer Francis Drake  As well as for exploration, Deptford was important for trade – the Honourable East India Company had a yard in Deptford from 1607 until late in the 17th century, later (1825) taken over by the General Steam Navigation Company  It was also connected with the slave trade, John Hawkins using it as a base for his operations, and Olaudah Equiano, the slave who became an important part of the abolition of the slave trade, was sold from one ship's captain to another in Deptford around 1760 Diarist John Evelyn lived in Deptford at Sayes Court, the manor house of Deptford, from 1652 after he had married the daughter of the owner of the house, Sir Richard Browne  After the Restoration, Evelyn obtained a 99-year lease of the house and grounds, and laid out meticulously planned gardens in the French style, of hedges and parterres  In its grounds was a cottage at one time rented by master woodcarver Grinling Gibbons  After Evelyn had moved to Surrey in 1694, Peter the Great, the Russian tsar, studied shipbuilding for three months in 1698 while staying at Sayes Court  Evelyn was angered at the antics of the tsar, who got drunk with his friends who, using a wheelbarrow with Peter in it, rammed their way through a "fine holly hedge"  Sayes Court was demolished in 1728-9 and a workhouse built on its site  Part of the estates around Sayes Court were purchased in 1742 for the building of the Navy Victualling Yard, which was renamed the Royal Victoria Victualling Yard in 1858 after a visit by Queen Victoria  This massive facility included warehouses, a bakery, a cattleyard/abattoir and sugar stores, and closed in 1961  All that remains is the name of Sayes Court Park, accessed from Sayes Court Street off Evelyn Street, not far from Deptford High Street  The Pepys Estate, opened on 13 July 1966, is on the former grounds of the Victualling Yard 

The Docks had been gradually declining from the 18th century; the larger ships being built found the Thames difficult to navigate, and Deptford was under competition from the new docks at Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham  When the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 the need for a Docks to build and repair warships declined; the Docks shifted from shipbuilding to concentrate on victualling at the Royal Victoria Victualling Yard, and the Royal Dock closed in 1869  From 1871 until 1913 the shipyard site was the City of London Corporation's Foreign Cattle Market, to which live animals were brought by cattle boat from four continents and from whence came about half of London's meat supply 

The yard was taken over by the War Office in 1914, and was an Army Supply Reserve Depot in the First and Second World Wars  The site lay unused until being purchased by Convoys (newsprint importers) in 1984, and eventually came into the ownership of News International  In the mid-1990s, although significant investment was made on the site, it became uneconomic to continue using it as a freight wharf  In 2008 Hutchison Whampoa bought the 16ha site from News International with plans for a £700m 3,500-home development scheme  The Grade II listed Olympia Warehouse will be refurbished as part of the redevelopment of the site Deptford experienced economic decline in the 20th century with the closing of the docks, and the damage caused by the bombing during the Blitz in the Second World War – a V-2 rocket destroyed a Woolworths store in New Cross Gate, killing 160 people  High unemployment caused some of the population to move away as the riverside industries closed down in the late 1960s and early 1970s  The local council have developed plans with private companies to regenerate the riverside area, and the town centre 

Governance
The Manor of Deptford or West Greenwich was bestowed by William the Conqueror upon Gilbert de Magminot or Maminot, bishop of Lisieux, one of the eight barons associated with John de Fiennes for the defence of Dover Castle  Maminot held the head of his barony at Deptford and according to John Lyon writing in 1814, he built himself a castle, or castellated mansion at Deptford  The location of the building is not known, but ancient foundations found on the brow of Broomfield,  near the Mast Dock and adjacent to Sayes Court may be the remains of the building 

Deptford was mostly located in the Blackheath Hundred of the county of Kent, with the Hatcham part in the Brixton Hundred of Surrey In 1730 was divided into the two parishes of St Nicholas and St Paul  It was also referred to as West Greenwich, with the modern town of Greenwich being referred to as East Greenwich until this use declined in the 19th century  The whole of Deptford came within the Metropolitan Police District in 1830 and was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 
It was transferred to the County of London in 1889  Originally under the governance of the ancient parishes of St Paul and St Nicholas, in 1900, a Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was formed out of the southern parish of St Paul, with St Nicholas and the area around the Royal Dockyard coming under the governance of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Under the London Government Act 1963, the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was absorbed in 1965 into the newly created London Borough of Lewisham, with the Deptford St Nicholas area becoming part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, with both these new boroughs now forming part of the new Greater London body  In 1994 the bulk of the northern part, including the former Royal Dockyard area, was transferred to Lewisham, an adjustment of about 40 hectares (99 acres), leaving only the north eastern area, around St Nicholas's church, in Greenwich 
Deptford is split between two electoral wards - Evelyn in the north and part of New Cross to the south  Following public consultation, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England recommended in June 2020 that the Deptford wards (Evelyn and New Cross) should be unified and renamed Deptford 

Geography
Deptford borders the areas of Brockley and Lewisham to the south, New Cross to the west and Rotherhithe to the north west; the Ravensbourne river divides it from Greenwich to the east, and the Thames separates the area from the Isle of Dogs to the north east; it is contained within the London SE8 post code area  The area referred to as North Deptford is the only part of the London Borough of Lewisham to front the Thames and is sandwiched between Rotherhithe and Greenwich  Much of this riverside estate is populated by the former Naval Dockyards, now known as Convoys Wharf, the Pepys Estate and some southern fringes of the old Surrey Commercial Docks 
The name Deptford – anciently written Depeford meaning "deep ford" — is derived from the place where the road from London to Dover, the ancient Watling Street (now the A2), crosses the River Ravensbourne at the site of what became Deptford Bridge at Deptford Broadway  The Ravensbourne crosses under the A2 at roughly the same spot as the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) crosses over; and at the point where it becomes tidal, just after Lewisham College, it is known as Deptford Creek, and flows into the River Thames at Greenwich Reach 

Demography
Deptford's population has been mainly associated with the docks since the establishment of the Royal Docks by Henry VIII, though there has also been some market gardening and potteries  When the docks were thriving as the main administrative centre of the British Navy, so the area prospered, and fine houses were built for the administrative staff and the skilled shipbuilders, and a few grand houses like Sayes Court and Stone House on Lewisham Way were erected There was a start of a demographic shift downwards when the Royal Navy pulled out of Deptford, and the docks moved into storage and freight  The downward shift continued into the 20th century as the local population's dependency on the docks continued: as the docks themselves declined, so did the economic fortune of the inhabitants until the last dock, Convoys Wharf, closed in 2000 In common with neighbouring areas of South East London, immigrants from the Caribbean settled in Deptford in the 1950s and 1960s Deptford's northern section nearest the old docks contains areas of council housing, with some concentrations of people experiencing the forms of deprivation typically associated with the poverty of Inner London  Northern Deptford near the Thames, along with neighbouring New Cross, has been touted as "the new Shoreditch" by some journalists and estate agents paying attention to a trendy arts and music scene that is popular with students and artists  To the south where Deptford rolls into the suburban spread of Brockley, the previously multi-occupancy Victorian houses are being gentrified by young city workers and urban professionals  Deptford has a growing Vietnamese community reflected in the number of restaurants in the area 
Deptford contains a number of student populations, including those of Goldsmiths College, the University of Greenwich, Bellerbys College and Laban Dance Centre  Goldsmiths College's hall of residence, Rachel McMillan, in Creek Road was sold in 2001 for £79 million, and was subsequently demolished and replaced with the McMillan Student Village which opened in 2003 and provides accommodation for approximately 970 students of the University of Greenwich, Trinity Laban and Bellerbys colleges 

Economy
Deptford's economic history has been strongly connected to the Dockyard - when the Dockyard was thriving, so Deptford thrived; with the docks now all closed, Deptford has declined economically  However, areas of Deptford are being gradually re-developed and gentrified - and the local council has plans to regenerate the riverside and the town centre  A large former industrial site by the Thames called Convoys Wharf is scheduled for redeveloping into mixed use buildings  This will involve the construction of around 3,500 new homes and an extension of the town centre northwards towards the river The site of a former foundry (established in 1881 by J  Stone & Co in Arklow Road) which closed in 1969 is being redeveloped for commercial and residential use Much of the area along Creek Road, close to Greenwich, has also been redeveloped, with the demolition of the old Deptford Power Station and Rose Bruford College buildings  Aragon Tower on the Pepys Estate was sold by Lewisham Borough to fund regeneration plans for the estate; the award-winning refurbishment into privately owned accommodation was featured in the BBC One documentary, "The Tower" Deptford Market, a street market in Deptford High Street sells a range of goods, and is considered one of London's liveliest street markets  In February 2005, the High Street was described as "the capital's most diverse and vibrant high street" by Yellow Pages business directory, using a unique mathematical formula 

Culture
The Albany Theatre, a community arts centre with a tradition of "radical community arts and music" including holding 15 "Rock Against Racism" concerts, has its roots in a charity established in 1894 to improve the social life of Deptford's deprived community  The original building, the Albany Institute, was opened in 1899 on Creek Road, changing its name in the 1960s to the Albany Empire  It was burnt down in 1978, but rebuilt on Douglas Way, with Prince Charles laying the foundation stone, and Diana, Princess of Wales opening it in 1982 Deptford Cinema is a volunteer run, not-for-profit, community cinema, art gallery, and occasional music venue, open since late 2014 and located at 39 Deptford Broadway  At the time of opening it was the borough of Lewisham's only functioning cinema Creekside, a regeneration area beside Deptford Creek, is used for educational and artistic purposes, such as the Laban Dance Centre, which was designed by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, and opened in February 2003; and the Art in Perpetuity Trust (APT) gallery and studio space  A record label, Deptford Fun City Records was set up by Miles Copeland III, brother of Stewart Copeland, in the late 1970s as an outlet for Deptford bands such as Alternative TV and Squeeze The area has several pubs, including the Dog & Bell which has a reputation for serving a range of cask ales; and The Bird's Nest which has live music, film and art performances from local bands and artists  The town hall of the former Metropolitan Borough of Deptford, built in 1905 with decorative sculpture by Henry Poole, lies just outside Deptford, on the New Cross Road in New Cross  It was purchased by Goldsmiths College in 2000 There are several green spaces in the area, the largest being Brookmill Park, Deptford Park, Ferranti Park, Pepys Park and Sayes Court Park  In 1884 William John Evelyn, a descendant of John Evelyn, sold ground then being used as market gardens in Deptford, to the London County Council for less than its market value, as well as paying toward the cost of its purchase  It was officially opened to the public as Deptford Park on 7 June 1897  In 1886, he dedicated an acre and a half of the Sayes Court recreation ground in perpetuity to the public and a permanent provision was made for the Evelyn estate to cover the expense of maintenance and caretaking, this was opened on 20 July 1886 

Transport
Deptford is served by National Rail and Docklands Light Railway services  The National Rail service is operated by Southeastern and Thameslink on the suburban Greenwich Line at Deptford railway station, the oldest passenger only railway station in London  Deptford station was redeveloped during 2011 and 2012  The works included the demolition of the original 1836 station building and its replacement by a new station to the west in the former station yard  Deptford's DLR station is at Deptford Bridge on the DLR's Lewisham branch There are two main road routes through Deptford: the A200 which runs along Evelyn Street and Creek Road, and the A2 which runs along New Cross Road, and is the modern version of the Celtic trackway which was later paved by the Romans and developed into the medieval Watling Street  The A20 marks the southern boundary of the area, along Lewisham Way and Loampit Vale Since June 2016, Deptford has been on the cycling route of the London Quietway route Q1 that starts in Greenwich and ends near Waterloo Bridge in central London  A second Quietway route, Q14, between Waterloo and Thamesmead, passes through Deptford's riverfront 

Education
There are five primary schools in the area  There are no local secondary schools directly in Deptford, however there are two secondary schools near the border between New Cross and Deptford: Deptford Green, regarded by Ofsted as "needing improvement", and Addey and Stanhope, regarded by Ofsted as "good"  A branch of the further education college, Lewisham College incorporating Southwark College (known as LeSoCo), is located on Deptford Church Street; the college was regarded as "inadequate" in the 2014 Ofsted inspection 

Landmarks
Deptford railway station is one of the oldest suburban stations in the world, being built (c 1836-38) as part of the first suburban service (the London and Greenwich Railway), between London Bridge and Greenwich  Close to Deptford Creek is a Deptford pumping station, a Victorian pumping station built in 1864, part of the massive London sewerage system designed by civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette The former Deptford Power Station, in use from 1891 to 1983, originated as a pioneering plant designed by Sebastian de Ferranti, which when built was the largest station in the world In 2008, Lewisham Council granted permission for the last remnants of the Deptford Ragged School known as The Princess Louise Institute to be demolished and replaced by flats Albury Street (previously Union Street) contains a fine row of early urban houses largely dating from 1705 to 1717 which were once popular with naval captains and shipwrights Tanners Hill in the St John's or New Deptford area to the south of New Cross Road, is part of an Area of Archaeological Priority due to the longevity of settlement and early industry, and contains a set of commercial buildings from numbers 21 to 31 which are survivors from a row of 31 which were built in the 1750s on the site of cottages dating from the 17th century These timber-frame buildings have a Grade II listing from English Heritage and are home to established businesses such as bicycle maker Witcomb Cycles  Of Deptford's two important houses, Sayes Court no longer exists, but the Stone House in St Johns, built around 1772 by the architect George Gibson the Younger, and described by Pevsner as "the one individual house of interest in this area", still stands by Lewisham Way Deptford's Albany Theatre has a history stretching back over 100 years and is a prominent feature of the South-East London arts scene 

Churches
St Nicholas' Church, the original parish church, dates back to the 14th century but the current building is 17th century  The entrance to the churchyard features a set of skull-and-bones on top of the posts  A plaque on the north wall commemorates playwright Christopher Marlowe, who was stabbed to death by Ingram Frizer in a nearby house, and buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard on 1 June 1593  Frizer was pardoned for the killing on the grounds that he acted in self-defence There is also St  Luke's, another historic circular church, dating from 1870  It is the daughter church of the parish of St Nicholas' 
In the 18th century St  Paul's, Deptford (1712–1730) was built, acclaimed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England as one of the finest Baroque churches in the country  John Betjeman is attributed as referring to the church as "a pearl at the heart of Deptford"  It was designed by the architect Thomas Archer, who was a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, as part of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches with the intention of instilling pride in Britain, and encouraging people to stay in London rather than emigrate to the New World Adjacent to the church yard is Albury Street, which contains some fine 18th-century houses which were popular with sea captains and shipbuilders 

Deptford Dockyard
Deptford Dockyard was established in 1513 by Henry VIII as the first Royal Dockyard, building vessels for the Royal Navy, and was at one time known as the King's Yard  It was shut down from 1830 to 1844 before being closed as a dockyard in 1869, and is currently known as Convoys Wharf  From 1871 until the First World War it was the City of London Corporation's Foreign Cattle Market  In 1912, The Times reported that over 4 million head of live cattle, and sheep, had been landed From 1932 until 2008 the site was owned by News International, which used it to import newsprint and other paper products from Finland until early 2000  It is now owned by Hutchison Whampoa Limited and is subject to a planning application to convert it into residential units, though it has safeguarded wharf status Other notable shipyards in Deptford were, Charles Lungley's Dockyard and the General Steam Navigation Company's yards at Deptford Green and Dudman's Dock, also sometimes referred to as Deadmans Dock at Deptford Wharf 

Murder of Christopher Marlowe
The Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe was killed during an alleged drunken brawl in Eleanor Bull's house in Deptford Strand in May 1593  Various versions of Marlowe's death were current at the time  Francis Meres says Marlowe was "stabbed to death by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love" as punishment for his "epicurism and atheism"  In 1917, in the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Sidney Lee wrote that Marlowe was killed in a drunken fight  Some modern theories posit that he was assassinated  It is commonly assumed that the fight took place in a Deptford tavern The scholar Leslie Hotson discovered in 1925 the coroner's report on Marlowe's death in the Public Record Office which gave fuller details  Marlowe had spent all day in a house owned by the widow Eleanor Bull, along with three men, Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley  Witnesses testified that Frizer and Marlowe had earlier argued over the bill, exchanging "divers malicious words " Later, while Frizer was sitting at a table between the other two and Marlowe was lying behind him on a couch, Marlowe snatched Frizer's dagger and began attacking him  In the ensuing struggle, according to the coroner's report, Marlowe was accidentally stabbed above the right eye, killing him instantly  The jury concluded that Frizer acted in self-defence, and within a month he was pardoned  Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Deptford, on 1 June 1593 

Notable people
Among people associated with Deptford are Christopher Marlowe, who was killed at Deptford Strand; diarist John Evelyn (1620–1706), who lived at Sayes Court, and had Peter the Great (1672–1725) as a guest for about three months in 1698; Sir Francis Drake, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind in Deptford Docks; and Emperor Norton (Joshua Abraham Norton), the San Francisco eccentric and self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States", who was born in Deptford in 1818 Other people who have lived in Deptford range from the first governor of the East India Company and ambassador to the court of Russia, Thomas Smythe, whose magnificent house was destroyed by fire in 1618; to early members of the Chartist movement, John Gast and George Julian Harney; and the Cleveleys, John Cleveley the Elder and his sons John and Robert, a family of marine artists who also worked as tradesmen in the Dockyard  Another artist born in Deptford is Henry Courtney Selous, who is known for The Opening of The Great Exhibition, painted in 1851 Members of rock groups Squeeze and Dire Straits lived on the Crossfield Estate in Deptford in the late 1970s, along with Mark Perry, founder of the punk fanzine Sniffin Glue and punk rock band Alternative TV  The DJ and music journalist Danny Baker lived near the Crossfield Estate, where he was born and brought up Children's author Robin Jarvis wrote two trilogies of books: The Deptford Mice (and a couple of spin off books called The Deptford Mouselets series) and The Deptford Histories, set in and around Deptford and featuring many of its landmarks 
Passage 12:
Wapizagonke Lake
The Wapizagonke Lake is one of the bodies of water located the sector "Lac-Wapizagonke", in the city of Shawinigan, in the La Mauricie National Park, in the region of Mauricie, in Quebec, in Canada 

Geography
With a length of 9 2 kilometers, the Wapizagonke lake is located near the west boundary of La Mauricie National Park in northern Shawinigan  Surrounded by mountains, this lake is a narrow shape and length is in the north-south axis  It drains through its southern end into the Shawinigan River, which flows eastward and then south to empty into the Saint-Maurice River 
Major lakes feeding the Wapizagonke Lake watershed are: Reid, Houle, Jodon, Anticagamac and Avalon 

Toponymy
The lake appears on the cards in 1852 under the name "Lake Pisagunk"  Forestry workers identified him rather as the "lake Mistagance"  Wapizagonke appear on the map in 1925 and is a variation of Ouapitagone in Montagnais, which meant according to Father Joseph-Étienne Guinard (1864-1965): "kind of very rare duck species"  In Abenaki, the lake is named Wawibizagak and means "surrounded by the bush"  Certain visitors named the lake under two names: "Island Lake" and "Lake Croche" 

See also
Shawinigan River
Shawinigan
Passage 13:
Walker Pond
Walker Pond is a body of water in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, situated off Route 49 on the way to Wells State Park 

History
The pond took its name from settler Rachael "Walker" Smith, a local resident who raised twelve Italian children there   (The house, since demolished, was called the Perez Walker House in memory of Nathaniel Walker's grandson, a prominent townsman ) In 1894, the town of Sturbridge voted to rename the pond Tantousque Lake, from an Indian word meaning "located between two breast-shaped hills "  The traditional Indian name did not, however, stick 

Fishing
According to a 1980 survey, the pond contains largemouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, white perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed, brown bullhead, white suckers, and golden and bridled shiners  It is a popular place for ice fishing 
Passage 14:
John Meyers (swimmer)
John Meyers (June 28, 1880 – February 1975) was an American freestyle swimmer and water polo player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St  Louis, Missouri   In the 1904 Olympics he won a bronze medal as a member of the Missouri Athletic Club water polo team  He also competed in one-mile freestyle, but did not finish the competition 



ground_truth: Jennifer Connelly