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Fred F. French Building

Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

The Fred F. French Building is a skyscraper at 551 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner with 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Designed by H. Douglas Ives along with John Sloan and T. Markoe Robertson of the firm Sloan & Robertson, it was erected in 1927. The building is named for Fred F. French, owner of the Fred F. French Companies, for whom the structure was commissioned. The 38-story building is designed in the Art Deco style, with Middle Eastern influences, and contains numerous setbacks as mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution. The facade is mostly designed with brick walls and limestone trim. The base of the facade is ornamented with two bronze entrances and multiple mythological figures, while the top contains a "tower" with Mesopotamian style bas-reliefs and faience tiles. Other multicolored details such as ornamental friezes ornament the facade. The Middle Eastern design motifs are also used in the lobby, which contains a polychrome vaulted ceiling. The Fred F. French Building has approximately 430,000 square feet (40,000 m²) for rent and is owned by The Feil Organization. It was the tallest building on Fifth Avenue as well as one of the most desired addresses on the avenue upon its completion. By the 1990s, it underwent a complete restoration, subsequently earning the Building Owners and Managers Association 1994/1995 Historic Building of the Year Award. The Fred F. French Building and its interior became New York City designated landmarks in 1986, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. ## Site The Fred F. French Building is at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its plot is largely rectangular but has a small cutout on the northwestern portion. The building adjoins a 20-story building at 553 Fifth Avenue, which is "L"-shaped and occupies the cutout, as well as a nine-story building at 9 East 45th Street. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10176; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019. ## Architecture The Fred F. French Building was designed by H. Douglas Ives with Sloan & Robertson in the Art Deco style and completed in 1927. The building is named for Fred F. French, the head of the French Companies, whose other projects in the city included Tudor City and Knickerbocker Village. The Fred F. French Building rises 38 stories, rising 426 feet (130 m) tall, and contains several setbacks on all sides as mandated under the 1916 Zoning Resolution. It was one of the first few skyscrapers to be built with a mostly rectangular plan; previous buildings had been erected with largely square plans. The Fred F. French Building was described by architectural writer Carol Herselle Krinsky as the "only Mesopotamian skyscraper" in New York City. Ives wrote that the building's colorful design took after Middle Eastern architectural features such as ziggurats. The colors used in the Fred F. French Building's facade were intended to evoke that of the Tower of Babel. At the time of the building's development, there was large interest in Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East, and other contemporary structures such as the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, and 2 Park Avenue incorporated elements of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern architecture. Furthermore, modern building codes prevented the inclusion of cornices and other decorative elements that projected more than 18 inches (460 mm) from the facade, as had been standard in older buildings. Because of the different influences, Ives said he felt "somewhat at a loss" when asked to describe the building's design. ### Form and facade Even though the Fred F. French Building's official address is 551 Fifth Avenue, its main entrance is on 45th Street. The building was designed with profit as the main consideration, so the shorter side along Fifth Avenue was intended for highly valuable retail space. The building consists of a base spanning the 1st to 3rd stories; a midsection from the 4th to the 19th floors, with multiple setbacks; and a rectangular "tower" that is capped by a three-story penthouse above the 35th floor. Each of the four primary elevations of the facade has a different massing. The northern and eastern elevations face other buildings, but the southern and western elevations face 45th Street and Fifth Avenue respectively. The Fred F. French Building's Middle Eastern decoration was intended to be colorful and noticeable from afar, rather than historically accurate. The facade is accented with terracotta bands of various colors including hues of red and black. #### Base On Fifth Avenue and on 45th Street, the first story is topped by a bronze frieze that contains depictions of winged beasts and stylized glyphs. The second story contains steel-framed tripartite windows above the friezes. The entrances are set within bronze arches, which contain coffered piers; symbols of architecture and industry in their spandrels; and bronze letters reading the french building above each arch. Above the second story, on both Fifth Avenue and 45th Street, are limestone friezes reading the fred f. french building. Flagpoles project from the second story in the second and fifth bays from the north on Fifth Avenue. The third story, on both Fifth Avenue and 45th Street, contains two slightly recessed one-over-one sash windows in each bay. A cornice runs above the third floor. The base of the facade on Fifth Avenue is divided into five bays by double-story limestone piers. The entrance on Fifth Avenue, in the second bay from north, contains an outer vestibule under the arch, outside the entrance doors. The vestibule's ceiling consists of a depressed barrel vault with a bronze and crystal chandelier, as well as painted stepped corners and bas-relief polychrome beasts. The vestibule has an Italian travertine floor with beige stone lozenges, black and white marble triangles, and brass strips. The sides of the vestibule have bronze display windows, and the vestibule has two bronze revolving doors, topped by inscribed panels with the building's name and address. Historically, the northernmost bay had a glass storefront and granite water table at ground level, which was later replaced. The other three bays on Fifth Avenue also have replacement glass storefronts and water tables. The base of the facade on 45th Street is divided into twelve bays by double-story limestone piers. The main entrance is in the eighth bay from the west and contains an arched vestibule. The vestibule is enclosed behind double glass doors and a bronze-and-glass transom. Its design is the same as that of the outer vestibule of the Fifth Avenue entrance. The decorations include bearded genies and 25 panels depicting Mesopotamian women. The other eleven bays on 45th Street contain glass storefronts and water tables in various conditions. #### Upper stories The 4th through 19th stories comprise the midsection of the building and are clad with russet colored brick. The 4th through 11th floors rise directly from the lot lines before setting back at various depths. The setbacks are decorated with limestone-trimmed friezes containing black ornament. Limestone windowsills were used on the facades facing the street, and precast concrete was used above setbacks at places where these windows could not be seen from street level. The windows on these stories are all sash windows, two per bay on each floor. The capitals of the piers are clad in light green faience with small rosettes. The 20th through 38th stories comprise the "tower" of the building. The setbacks atop the tower are more gradual from the northern and southern elevations, while the eastern and western elevations set back more abruptly to the penthouse. The tower section measures only two bays wide on its western and eastern elevations. An orange-and-green belt course of faience tiles runs above the 31st floor. Near the top of the building, there are faience panels with sunburst designs on the north and south elevations, with red, orange, gold, and green tiles. The sunburst designs were used to symbolize progress, while winged griffons depicting integrity and watchfulness flank each sunburst. Two beehives, each surrounded by five bees, separate the sunbursts and griffins. The narrower west and east elevations contain mosaic depictions of Mercury, the Roman god of trade. Faience spandrels and an orange-and-green frieze depicting serpents are placed above the 38th floor. The windows of the penthouse are arranged in several configurations. A metal fire escape runs along the eastern elevation. Atop the penthouse is a flat roof with a water tower. The use of a flat roof deviated from previous Art Deco designs, which typically had stepped pinnacles. The rooftop water tower contains bas reliefs on green background surrounded by a frame of red faience. At night, the building's pinnacle was illuminated. ### Features The Fred F. French Building contained the most up-to-date designs and machinery when it was completed. Its innovations included an electric plumbing system, automatic elevators, and lighting and ventilation systems that could be "conveniently controlled", as described in the French Companies' magazine The Voice. The building also contains bronze ornamental work created by Russian-American artist Vincent Glinsky. The building has eleven elevators. Ten of these run from the lobby and are separated into two banks of five units each. One bank serves all stories from the 1st to 16th floors, while the other runs nonstop from the lobby to the 17th floor, serving all floors through the 35th. From the 35th floor, a single elevator rises to the 38th story. Additionally, two stairways connect each of the floors. From the building's completion, the elevators were semi-automatically operated Otis cabs, one of the first such installations in the city. Elevator operators were retained only to push buttons for certain floors upon passengers' request and to bypass floors when the cabs were full. #### Lobby The first-floor lobby is L-shaped and consists of a longer wing extending west from the elevator lobby to Fifth Avenue, as well as a shorter corridor to the 45th Street entrance vestibule. The lobby walls are clad with marble. The lobby contains decorative details such as chevrons, palmettes, volutes, merlons, and lotus flowers as well as representations of animals such as lions and winged bulls. The passageway from 45th Street is wider because the main entrance is on that side. The passageway from Fifth Avenue is narrower and is divided by pilasters into several bays, each of which contains a multicolored vault with beasts and pattern. A gilded plaster frieze runs near the top of the wall. The revolving doors from Fifth Avenue are flanked by capitals with double bulls' heads, inspired by those that were originally in the Palace of Darius in Susa. The design of the Fifth Avenue corridor was intended to draw visitors from the entrance to the elevator hall, and it also concealed the slight downward slope that existed between the Fifth Avenue and 45th Street entrances. The elevator lobby contains several decorative bronze elements. The walls have three tenant-directory boards with ornamental bronze frames. The gilt-bronze double-leaf elevator doors in the lobby each have eight panels (four on each leaf) depicting sectors in which Fred French had businesses, including industry, commerce, finance, and building. Eight bronze chandeliers are present in the lobby, which contain inscriptions indicating the floors served by the adjacent elevators. Also in the lobby are five gilt-bronze doors leading to offices, with similar designs to the elevator doors, as well as three gilt-bronze doors of simpler design. An Assyrian Revival mailbox is mounted on the wall between the two elevator banks; the mailbox contains a depiction of a bald eagle, the symbol of the United States Post Office, as well as two winged griffins. #### Upper stories The building has approximately 430,000 square feet (40,000 m²) for rent. The upper stories have different floor areas and shapes, and the higher floors had smaller areas because of the setbacks on the exterior. The 2nd through 11th stories had 16,000 square feet (1,500 m²) per floor; the 29th through 35th stories in the tower have 4,000 square feet (370 m²) per floor; and the penthouse has 2,400 square feet (220 m²) per floor. The stories of the base have a floor plan that is clustered around a largely "L"-shaped passageway. The upper floors have passageways in various layouts to reflect the different shapes and sizes of each story. Usually, on stories where a tenant rented an entire floor, the layout of that floor contained an open plan. Unlike the lobby, the office stories were not decorated in the Mesopotamian style and were instead designed to tenants' specifications. Some floors still contain their original furnishings, including mail chutes made of glass and bronze, as well as room-number signs and elevator floor indicators made of bronze. The interiors were originally finished with a marble molding at the baseboard, as well as wooden doorways and doors. Tenants modified the interiors on some floors with a myriad of designs, although some modern finishes were placed on top of the original furnishings. The remodeled floors contain finishes made of carpet, stone tiles, plastic tiles, or wood floors. The remodeled walls are made of sheetrock or paper, and they have baseboards made of plastic, stone, or wood. Dropped ceilings are used in almost all locations where the interiors were remodeled. On the 12th and 13th floors were the French Companies' offices, designed in the Tudor style, an allusion to the design of Tudor City. The 12th floor remains largely intact but some of these finishes were changed after the Fred F. French Company moved out during the 1980s. The 12th-floor elevator lobby contains green carpets, stone walls, a decorative plaster coffered ceiling, and marble baseboards and door surrounds. A circular stair west of the elevators leads to the 13th floor and contains green marble risers, black stone steps, and a handrail and balustrade made of bronze. From the elevator lobby, a doorway leads to a rectangular reception hall with predominantly green and white designs; the walls and ceiling are similar to the elevator lobby, but the tile floors and baseboards are made of black marble. An "I"-shaped reception area for the Fred F. French Company is to the east of the reception hall and contains wooden decorative elements and black marble floors. A conference room with wood decorations is south of the reception hall. A corridor with wood decorations and dropped ceiling leads east of the reception hall and south of the French Company reception area. At the eastern end of the French Company reception area is the rectangular executive secretary's office, with cast ornamental details on the ceiling. Fred French's office was "reputed" to be in the L-shaped room north of the executive secretary's office and had similar decoration. ## History Fifth Avenue was being developed with office and commercial buildings at the beginning of the 20th century. The completion of the underground Grand Central Terminal in 1913 resulted in the rapid development of Terminal City, the area around Grand Central, as well as a corresponding increase in real-estate prices. By the 1920s, Fifth Avenue was the most active area for development in Midtown, and developers were starting to build north of 45th Street, which had previously been considered the boundary for profitable developments. The most active year for construction in that decade was 1926, when thirty office buildings were constructed on Fifth Avenue. The two-block-wide area between Fifth and Park Avenues represented eight percent of Manhattan's land area, but it constituted twenty-five percent of developments that commenced in the borough between 1924 and 1926. The French Companies was founded in 1910, and it built a 16-story headquarters at Madison Avenue and 41st Street in 1920. By the mid-1920s, the company was one of New York City's largest development firms, and it was looking for a new site for its headquarters. Among the French Companies' largest projects was the Tudor City apartment complex on the east side of Manhattan. ### Construction Fred French bought 19,000 square feet (1,800 m²) at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 45th Street in March 1925, with frontage of 200 feet (61 m) on 45th Street and 78.5 feet (23.9 m) on Fifth Avenue. He planned to build a 31-story office building for the French Companies' headquarters, with a banking hall on the lower stories. At the time, the site contained the Church of the Heavenly Rest, as well as four residential buildings and one office building. The land had cost an average of \$285 per square foot (\$3,070/m²) significantly higher than their mid-19th century cost of \$2.85/sq ft (\$30.7/m²), but lower than the average cost of \$300 per square foot (\$3,200/m²) for similar plots. The building at the corner, measuring 25 by 110 feet (7.6 by 33.5 m), alone had cost \$300,000. The French Companies obtained title to the site in May 1925. Sloan & Robertson filed preliminary plans for the Fred F. French Building that August. At the time, the building was expected to be completed in early 1927 at a cost of \$10 million. The building would have risen 31 stories and 385 feet (117 m). A subsequent two-story addition was rejected because it did not fit zoning codes, which Sloan & Robertson appealed. Ultimately, the architects were granted a variance to construct a 38-story, 416.58-foot (127 m) building, the second tallest in the surrounding area, behind only H. Craig Severance's 432-foot (132 m) Harriman Building at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue. Final plans for the Fred F. French Building were filed in March 1926. Construction on the Fred F. French Building commenced on May 22, 1926, and the steel frame was topped out within four months. In October 1926, a \$4.5 million mortgage was placed on the building. For unknown reasons, the project was delayed by seven months, and it opened on October 24, 1927. Had the Fred F. French Building opened on time, it would have claimed the title of tallest building along Fifth Avenue, but ultimately it was the second-tallest behind the Harriman Building. The Fred F. French Building was the French Companies' first commercial building to be completed under the "French Plan", a company philosophy that prioritized small returns on large ventures, rather than large returns on small ventures. Furthermore, the Fred F. French Building was one of the first retail skyscrapers to be built on this section of Fifth Avenue. ### Mid-20th century The French Companies heavily marketed its new building in its magazine The Voice, and the building was quickly occupied. Among the earliest large tenants in the building were clothier Browning, King & Co.; real estate auctioneers William Kennelly Inc; luggage manufacturer Crouch & Fitzgerald; pulp and paper firm Perkins-Goodwin Company; a ticket office for the St. Paul Railroad; and the American Broadcasting Company. The ground-level space at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 45th Street used as a restaurant operated by Acker, Merral & Condit. Three years after the building's completion, H. Douglas Ives filed plans to turn the 36th and 37th floors of the penthouse into offices. The Fred F. French Building also saw several deaths in its early years, including the suicides of workers in the building, as well as the accidental crushing of an elevator repairman. By 1934, the ground-floor corner space in the Fred F. French Building had become a French restaurant. During the mid-20th century, the Fred F. French Building gained other tenants such as diamond dealer Louis Roselaar, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Brazilian government's trade bureau, as well as several advertising firms and three insurance companies. The ground-floor corner space became home to The Cattleman restaurant by 1967. ### Late 20th and early 21st centuries The building was purchased by financial services company MetLife in 1985, and the French Companies subsequently moved out. During the 1990s, the Fred F. French Building underwent a complete restoration. Although the faience panels were largely undamaged, the terracotta was replaced because of rust. The lobby was re-gilt and the ceiling was repainted; in addition, the elevators from the lobby were totally replaced. The renovation earned the Building Owners and Managers Association 1994/1995 Historic Building of the Year Award. Pace University rented some space in the building for use as classrooms in 1997. A group of investors led by The Feil Organization bought the Fred F. French Building for \$128 million as part of a move by MetLife to sell off its real estate portfolio. The partnership included Lloyd Goldman and his family, as well as Stanley Chera. At the time, Morton's The Steakhouse was among the tenants in the Fred F. French Building, as was the British Tourist Authority. In 2012, retailer Tommy Bahama opened a three-story flagship store and restaurant in the Fred F. French Building. By the middle of that decade, the building had tenants such as Denihan Hospitality Group, ABM Industries, and law firm Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen. ## Reception and landmark designations There was mixed commentary on the Fred F. French Building's design. George S. Chappell lamented the "rows of dreary factory windows" in The New Yorker, rhetorically commenting: "Can't the Fifth Avenue Association do something about this?" The WPA Guide to New York City described the faience panels as being "of questionable taste." Other criticism of the building was more positive. Paul Goldberger of The New York Times called the building one of the "best slab-shaped buildings of the 1920's". Upon its opening, the building was characterized as being "one of the most popular business palaces in the entire midtown section" because of its technologically advanced systems, central location, and elaborate decoration. The writer Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis said in 2021 that the Fred F. French Building "embodies the eclectic nature of many Neo-Antique buildings". The building's shape was also praised. According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the Fred F. French Building so exactly conformed to the 1916 Zoning Resolution that it was illustrated in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language to accompany the definition of the word "setback". The AIA Guide to New York City characterized the building as being "from the days when even the greediest developer owed serious and intricate architectural detail and materials to the tenant and public". Robert A. M. Stern said that the Fred F. French Building "demonstrated that a slab could retain the iconic clarity of the skyscraper type and provide more rentable space per square foot of ground area". The Fred F. French Building's name also received notice; as the British broadcaster Alistair Cooke said, "It was marvelous that here a man should not only get his name on a building, but get his name with his middle initial on a building." In the 1980s, a group of preservationists began surveying the city's buildings for possible sites that could be designated as interior landmarks by the LPC, with the Fred F. French Building's lobby being considered as one such landmark. The LPC designated the building and its lobby as city landmarks on March 18, 1986. In its report about the building's interior, the LPC described the building as having a "proto-Art Deco" design. The building was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 2004. ## See also - Architecture of New York City - Art Deco architecture of New York City - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets - National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets

1991 Sierra Madre earthquake

None

The 1991 Sierra Madre earthquake occurred on June 28 at with a moment magnitude of 5.6 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). The thrust earthquake resulted in two deaths, around 100 injuries, and damage estimated at \$33.5–40 million. The event occurred beneath the San Gabriel Mountains on the Clamshell–Sawpit Fault, which is a part of the Sierra Madre–Cucamonga Fault System. Instruments captured the event at a number of strong motion stations in Southern California. ## Preface Due to its history of generating great earthquakes (1857, 1906) the focal point of earthquake hazard assessment in California has been the strike-slip San Andreas System of faults. However, a system of faults, including the Sierra Madre–Cucamonga Fault System that runs along the border of the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, has also caused a series of moderate to large events in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The westernmost portion of this fault system ruptured in 1971 and has been identified as one of six major fault systems that pose a threat to the highly populated region. Geodetic research has shown that crustal shortening is occurring in the region of the Transverse Ranges at a rate of 0.33 inches (8.5 mm) per year. Although a number of earthquakes have occurred in the Los Angeles area since 1971, the rate of moderate events since then may not be typical, and few large events have occurred since records have been kept. The rate of contraction and too few moderate events that have occurred indicated to researchers that a deficit of seismic energy release exists, and that larger, but less frequent events may also contribute to the release of strain accumulation. ## Tectonic setting To the west of the San Andreas Fault, the southern edge of the Transverse Ranges has been in a state of contraction during the Quaternary Period, with active reverse faulting that has uplifted San Gabriel Mountains. The west-striking (and range-bounding) Sierra Madre–Cucamonga Faults, as well as the San Cayetano Fault and Santa Susana Faults all exhibit a component of left-lateral strike-slip motion and share a similar trend. The Malibu Coast–Santa Monica Fault lies at the southern flank of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Raymond Fault runs to the south of the Verdugo Mountains and meets the San Gabriel Mountains at Monrovia. The Clamshell–Sawpit Fault lies beneath the San Gabriel Mountains inline with the Raymond Fault. The characteristics of the various faults are difficult to interpret, but they all dip steeply to the north with several thousand feet of displacement. ## Earthquake The shock occurred on June 28, 1991, at 07:43:55 local time, and was the result of thrust faulting on the Clamshell–Sawpit Fault at the southern boundary of the San Gabriel Mountains. At less than 0.39 in (1 cm), the total amount of uplift was very minimal, considering the 6 ft 7 in (2 m) of vertical displacement that was observed during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. The uplift initiated about two million years ago, and is a result of the convergence of the Pacific and North American Plates near the restraining bend of the San Andreas Fault. ### Damage The earthquake was felt from Santa Barbara in the west, to Palm Springs in the east, and south to the Mexico–United States border. It was centered about 7.5 miles (12.1 km) northeast of Sierra Madre. Hundreds of homes were damaged and at least three roads leading up to Mount Wilson were blocked by landslides. A woman was killed when a steel beam fell at the Santa Anita Park raceway in Arcadia and another woman died as a result of a heart attack in Glendale. Also in Arcadia, a Motel 6 was badly damaged. Other structural damage resulted from the shock. For example, both Monrovia and Pasadena each had more than a dozen buildings that were uninhabitable, but for the most part damage was limited to cracked plaster and broken windows. The Pasadena City Hall had moderate damage consisting of a cracked wall, dislodged marble barriers in the restrooms, and an offset dome. In Sierra Madre, four apartment buildings and nine homes were also tagged as uninhabitable. Of the more than 100 injuries that were reported in Arcadia, Pasadena, Glendale, and Sierra Madre, most were cuts, bruises, and sprains, but some serious injuries also occurred. ### Intensity With an area of perceptibility of around 58,500 km², the shock was felt from Santa Barbara and Bakersfield to San Diego, Palm Springs, and Las Vegas. This is about half the felt area that was seen during the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, which was felt over an area of 110,000 km². The maximum intensity observed in the urban areas that were affected was VII (Very strong), but the intensity in the epicentral area is unknown because of its remote location in the mountainous Angeles National Forest, though rock slides and landslides occurred there as a result of strong shaking. Intensity VI (Strong) effects were observed over 1,100 km², from Altadena and La Verne along the base of the mountains, to East Los Angeles. ### Strong motion The California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP) obtained 120 records from 48 ground response stations, 38 buildings, six dams, an airport control tower, and a power station. The individual stations that reported were as close as 2.5 miles (4 km) (Cogswell Dam) to as far as 50 miles (80 km) (Neenach), but most were within 40 km (25 mi). In downtown Pasadena, accelerations of 0.20 g were measured at the bottom floor of three buildings, but the duration of strong motion was only about two seconds. At the Altadena station (8.1 mi (13 km) from the epicenter) 0.46 g was recorded. The Cogswell Dam station recorded a peak horizontal acceleration of 0.58 g, but no major damage occurred. ## Recurrence interval Although the long term slip rate of the constituent faults that make up the Sierra Madre Fault Zone are not precisely known, several studies have put forth scenarios for possible future activity. Two independent reports suggested that if the complete (62 mi (100 km)) fault system were to rupture, it could result in a 7.7 shock similar to the 1952 Kern County earthquake. One researcher stated that the recurrence interval for such an event would be greater than 5,000 years. Another proposal was for one of the seven individual segments to rupture in a M6.4–6.6 event, comparable with the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. The recurrence interval for this type of event was placed at 200 years. ## See also - List of earthquakes in 1991 - List of earthquakes in the United States - List of earthquakes in California

San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

San Marino debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, held in Belgrade, Serbia. The Sammarinese national broadcaster Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV) officially confirmed San Marino's participation in the contest in November 2007 after deliberation amongst the broadcaster's shareholders. The pop-rock band Miodio with their Italian language song "Complice" (; ) was selected internally by SMRTV to represent the nation. Promotion of the entry relied heavily on the internet, with a music video being created and interviews from the band to the press being published in the lead up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. San Marino performed fifth in the first semi-final, held on 20 May 2008, and placed last, receiving just five points. ## Background Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV) announced in mid November 2007 that they were considering entering the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2008, pending approval from the shareholders of SMRTV. At the time, half of the stock of SMRTV belonged to Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), the broadcaster of Italy, which had last participated in 1997. Despite this, SMRTV received approval to take part and officially announced its participation in late November 2007. SMRTV Head of Delegation Alessandro Capicchioni stated that San Marino's motivation for entering the contest was to promote tourism and to bring attention to the nation, as "a lot of the world knows neither where San Marino is or if it even exists". For its first Eurovision appearance, SMRTV sought to host an internal selection process. ## Before Eurovision ### Internal selection SMRTV opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 until 25 February. 50 songs were submitted and an expert panel consisting of Little Tony, Vince Tempera, Pasquale Panella, Michele Mangiafico, Michele Bovi, Giuseppe Cesetti, Alessandro and Marco Capicchioni and Roberto Moretti reviewed the submissions and selected San Marino's entry. Alessandro Capicchioni stated they chose an entry that would "bring Italian and Sanmarinese culture to Europe - a melodic song from our tradition". On 11 March 2008, SMRTV announced Miodio as the first Sammarinese entrant with the song "Complice", sung in Italian. Miodio consists of Nicola Della Valle (vocals), Paolo Macina (guitar), Andrea Marco 'Polly' Pollice (bass), Francesco Sancisi (keyboard) and Alessandro Gobbi (drums). The song was written by band members Sancisi and Della Valle. Upon the announcement of their participation, the band stated that they embody "a new way of thinking, born by anger and the will to react [to what] each individual carries in their ego". Among the submissions received by SMRTV included Italian duo Jalisse (who represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997), Valentina Monetta, Massimo Bertacci, Michele Imberti, as well as those from different Eurovision national selections in other countries, including "If You Never Back" by Elnur Hüseynov and "We Are One" by Alexa from the Azerbaijani and Moldovan national finals, respectively. ### Promotion To promote the entry, a music video was filmed and released as part of the song's presentation on 15 March 2008. In an interview in March 2008 with ESCToday's Yiorgos Kasapoglou, Miodio stated that they were relying on the internet to get their song and name out. By May, they had performed the song live on television through Radio Television of Serbia and granted interviews to the press in the lead up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. ## At Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 took place at the Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia. It consisted of two semi-finals held on 20 and 22 May, respectively, and the final on 24 May 2008. According to the Eurovision rules at the time, all participating countries, except the host nation and the "Big Four", consisting of , , and the , were required to qualify from one of the two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from the respective semi-finals would proceed to the final. On 28 January 2008, an allocation draw was held that placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, with San Marino being placed into the first semi-final. The 2008 contest was the first to feature two semi-finals, a change intended to reduce the problems of neighbourly and diaspora voting that occurred in years past. Countries that normally would vote for each other were placed into separate semi-finals. Once all of the competing songs for the Eurovision Song Contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the delegation heads of the 43 participating countries of the contest rather than through another draw; the nation was assigned position five, following and preceding . Though only participating in the first semi-final, SMRTV aired both semi-finals and the final, which in turn allowed parts of Italy within its broadcasting area to watch the contest, despite the country itself not participating. Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo served as commentators for the television broadcasts, which were also streamed online, while Emilia Romagna provided commentary for Radio San Marino. Miodio performed in the first semi-final on 20 May 2008, appearing fifth out of the 19 countries. The performance featured the band wearing black suits, but with each member wearing it in a different style. Aniko Pusztai, set designer and dancer at La Scala in Milan, joined the group on stage. SMRTV stated that they believed that choreography was as important as the song itself, deciding to use what they referred to as emotional impact for the performance. The broadcaster said that Pusztai would move on the words of the text, merging the music with dance, a sort of angel, a white that will contrast with the dark soul of Miodio. The background on the large television screens on stage was a wavy light blue colour. ### Voting Below is a breakdown of points awarded to San Marino in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, as well as by the country in the semi-final and final. Miodio's performance did not manage to inspire the crowd and San Marino only managed to receive five points with its debut entry: two points from Andorra and three points from Greece, placing the nation last of the 19 entries and not qualifying for the final. Moretti was the Sammarinese spokesperson announcing the country's voting results. #### Points awarded to San Marino #### Points awarded by San Marino

Balans (song)

"Balans" is a song recorded by Romanian recording artist Alexandra Stan for her third studio album, Alesta (2016). Released on 2 March 2016 through Global Records, the track features the vocal collaboration of Swedish-Congolese singer-songwriter Mohombi. "Balans" was produced by Play & Win members Sebastian Barac and Marcel Botezan, while the writing process was handled by the latter two in collaboration with Mohombi and Breyan Isaac. A dance-pop song incorporating tropical music and Latin music influences into its sound, the recording was compared by critics to the works of fellow Romanian female singer Inna. An official music video for "Balans" was shot by Anton San and was uploaded on 9 March 2016 onto YouTube to accompany the single's release. It portrays both Stan and Mohombi being present at a party held in a hall filled halfway by water. Following its release, the song received a mixed review by RnB Junk; they commended the collaboration, but criticized its lack of innovation and formulaic production. Commercially, the song peaked in Japan, Portugal and Russia. ## Background and reception "Balans", the third single released from Stan's third record, Alesta (2016), was written by Play & Win members Sebastian Barac and Marcel Botezan, Mohombi and Breyan Isaac, while production was handled by both Barac and Botezan. The artwork used to commercialize the track in Japan was a photograph picked up from the photo shooting for her album, while the international cover sees Stan and Mohombi sporting the outfits from the official music video. The track is an up-tempo dance-pop song, which includes musical elements of tropical music and latin music. Upon its release, the recording received a mixed review from Italian publication Rnb Junk writer Umberto Olivio, who commended that the song resembles the works of fellow Romanian female singer Inna. He went on into praising Stan's collaboration with Mohombi, but also saying that the "formula" for the recording was "nothing innovative", with him describing the track as "quite obvious". Olivio as well named "the level of palatability" of the tune "a lot weaker than the other songs from Alesta", and denied the possible success of the track in mainstream clubs. ## Promotion and music video Stan included "Balans" on the setlist for her Japanese one-week concert tours that promoted the release of her studio album, Alesta, in that territory. Stan performed an acoustic version of the song on Romanian radio station Pro FM. After this, she had also performed a live acoustic version of "Be the One" by English recording artist Dua Lipa. An accompanying music video for "Balans" was directed by Anton San and released onto Stan's YouTube channel on 2 March 2016; by May 2016, the clip amassed over one million views. The clip was filmed in an abandoned warehouse or a polygon where the inside temperature was of 6 °C. About the video, Stan particularly confessed that "[it] is very dinamic and colored, the way that the life of a pop artist looks like." The clip commences with Stan standing on a pickup, with fellow background dancers being present inside the car. Following their leaving, she looks from above at a partying crowd in a hall, which appears to be halfway filled with water, while sporting pink and red clothing. Subsequently, Stan is displayed dressing a pink fur coat and pants, while walking in the surroundings and finally discovering Mohombi. Following this, he provides his singing part when flirting with Stan, with her dancing around him. Following this, the crowd is once again shown dancing together to the song, and the clip closes with Stan being left alone in the room. Scenes interspersed through the main video show her posing in front of a blue wall or her lying atop the pickup car, with her head being placed on a golden purse. Italian publication RnB Junk writer, Umberto Olivio, criticized the clip for not having a plot and for being "unrealistic". ## Track listing ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of Alesta. Vocal credits - Alexandra Stan – lead vocals - Mohombi – featured artist Technical and songwriting credits - Sebastian Barac – songwriter, producer - Marcel Botezan – songwriter, producer - Mohombi Nzasi Moupondo – songwriter - Breyan Isaac – songwriter Visual credits - Anton San – director, director of photography - Bogdan Filip – director of photography - Claudiu Sarghe – hair styling - Razvan Firea – styling - Marius Ferascu – styling ## Charts ## Certifications ## Release history

Beulé Gate

Fortified gateway on the Acropolis of Athens

The Beulé Gate is a fortified gate, constructed in the Roman period, leading to the Propylaia of the Acropolis of Athens. It was constructed almost entirely from repurposed materials (spolia) taken from the Choragic Monument of Nikias, a monument built in the fourth century BCE and demolished between the second and fourth centuries CE. The dedicatory inscription from Nikias's monument is still visible in the entablature of the Beulé Gate. The gate was integrated into the Post-Herulian Wall, a late Roman fortification which reinforced the Acropolis as a military stronghold in the years following the city's sack by the Germanic Heruli people in 267 CE. Its construction marked the beginning of a new phase in the Acropolis's use, in which it came to be seen more as a potential defensive position than in the religious terms that had marked its use in the Classical period. During the medieval period, the gate was further fortified and closed off, before being built over with a bastion in Ottoman times. The monument was discovered by the French archaeologist Charles Ernest Beulé in 1852, and excavated between 1852 and 1853. Its discovery was greeted enthusiastically in France among the scholarly community and the press, though archaeologists and Greek commentators criticised the aggressive means – particularly the use of dynamite – by which Beulé had carried out the excavation. In modern times, the gate has served primarily as an exit for tourists from the Acropolis. ## Description The Beulé Gate is situated at the bottom of the monumental staircase which, by the Roman period (that is, from c. 167 BCE), led to the Proplyaia approximately 37 m (121 ft) to the east. It consists of two pylon-like towers, which project around 5 m (16 ft) from the structure. These towers are in turn joined by walls to the terraces above, including that of the Temple of Athena Nike. The gateway itself is set into a marble wall and aligned with the main route through the Propylaia. The gate is almost 23 m (75 ft) in width, with a central part around 7 m (23 ft) in both height and width. The gateway itself is 3.87 m (12.7 ft) high and 1.89 m (6.2 ft) in width at its base. The area above the central doorway is decorated in the Doric order, and consists of an architrave in Pentelic marble, topped with metopes made from tufa and marble triglyphs. Above the metopes and triglyphs is a cornice with mutules, itself topped with an attic. ### Entablature inscription The inscription visible on the entablature was originally the dedicatory inscription of the Choragic Monument of Nikias, a structure built shortly after 320 BCE to commemorate the Athenian choregos Nikias and his victory in the choragic competitions of that year. It reads as follows: > Nikias, son of Nicomedes, of the deme of Xypete, set this up having won as choregos in the boys' chorus for Kekropis. Pantaleon of Sicyon played the aulos. The song performed was the Elpenor of Timotheos. Neaechmos was archon. Nikias's monument was built in the form of a Greek temple in the Doric order, consisting of a square naos with a prostyle hexastyle pronaos (that is, a front porch with six columns). The inscription would originally have been placed across the architrave of Nikias's monument, and represents one of the latest such inscriptions from Hellenistic Athens. Under Demetrios of Phaleron, who governed Athens between 317 and 307 BCE, sumptuary laws to control aristocrats' ostentatious spending meant that no further choragic monuments were constructed. ## Date The gate's discoverer, Charles Ernest Beulé, erroneously believed the gate to have been the original entrance to the Acropolis. Later research, beginning with that of the Belgian archaeologist Paul Graindor [Wikidata] in 1914, established it as belonging to the late Roman period (c. 284 – c. 476 CE), but scholarly opinion remains divided as to the precise date of its construction. The Beulé Gate is constructed, almost in its entirety, from marble spolia originating in the Choragic Monument of Nikias. Nikias's monument was demolished at an uncertain date: the German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld suggested 161 CE, on the grounds of his belief that a foundation found underneath the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, constructed in that year, had originally belonged to the monument. The American architectural historian William Bell Dinsmoor alternatively suggested that the demolition may have dated to the late 3rd or early 4th centuries CE. An inscription found on a stone later reused in the Ottoman fortifications of the Acropolis preserves an inscription commemorating Flavius Septimius Marcellinus for having constructed "the gateway to the Acropolis from his own resources". The inscription gives Marcellinus's rank as lamprotatos (Ancient Greek: λαμπρότατος), a title equivalent to the Latin clarissimus and customarily used, after the early second century CE, to refer to men of senatorial rank. It also identifies him as a former agonothetes (ἀγωνοθέτης), an official who had presided over one of the Panhellenic games (the sacred athletic contests open to all Greeks) or over the Athenian religious and dramatic festival called the Great Dionysia. The inscription has been dated to the mid-4th century CE, after 325; it is generally, though not universally, assumed to be associated with the construction of the Beulé Gate. Other proposed dates for the gate include the reign of the Roman emperor Valerian (r. 253–260 CE) and the period around the sacking of Athens by the Heruli in 267 or 268 CE – either slightly before the sack or around ten years afterwards. The Beulé Gate shows architectural similarities, such as the use of alternating courses of differently coloured marble, with the Post-Herulian Wall, built around the Acropolis around two decades after the sack of 267 or 268. The archaeologist Sarah Rous has therefore suggested that the demolition of the Choragic Monument of Nikias, the construction of the Post-Herulian Wall and the building of the Beulé Gate were approximately contemporary. The archaeologist Judith Binder has suggested that the gate may have been constructed by Dexippus, the Athenian general who successfully defended the Acropolis against the Heruli during their invasion. ## Construction The American archaeologist and philologist Walter Miller suggested in 1893 that the gate may have been built to replace an older, now-lost gateway, which he hypothesised would have been less strongly fortified. According to the Greek archaeologist Tasos Tanoulas, part of the strategic rationale behind the gate's construction was to safeguard the approach leading to the klepsydra, a spring on the Acropolis which provided it with a safe supply of water in case of siege.During the demolition of the Choragic Monument of Nikias, the structure's geisa were numbered while still in situ, allowing them to be correctly reassembled within the gate. The Doric frieze of the Choragic Monument, built from limestone and marble, was reconstructed along the top of the Beulé Gate, though the architrave of the Choragic Monument, which originally formed a single horizontal beam, was divided into two parts, one above and one below the gate's frieze. The American archaeologist Jeffrey M. Hurwit has described the re-use of the Choragic Monument as a "twice-told Classicism", since the original monument was itself modelled on the Propylaia, and so its re-use created architectural harmony between the Beulé Gate and the Proplyaia to which it led. Hurwit has called the construction of the gate a "turning point" in the Acropolis's history, suggesting that it represented a renewed emphasis on the Acropolis's role as a strategic fortification rather than as a religious sanctuary — making the site now "a fortress with temples". Later in the Roman period, an arch was constructed out from the eastern tower of the gate. In 1204, after the Fourth Crusade, the Byzantine Empire was partitioned between Venice and the leaders of the crusade. Athens became the centre of the Duchy of Athens, a lordship initially held by the Burgundian aristocrat Othon de la Roche. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the city's Frankish rulers gradually refortified the Acropolis, closing off both the Beulé Gate and the Propylaia, which was further reinforced with the Frankish Tower at an uncertain date. The gates' previous role as an entrance to the Acropolis was taken over by the gate situated beneath the Temple of Athena Nike. At some point in the Ottoman period (1458–1827), a bastion was constructed on top of the Beulé Gate. By the 19th century, knowledge of the gate's existence was lost. ## Excavation The gate is named for Charles Ernest Beulé, a French archaeologist and member of the French School at Athens. The first of Athens's foreign schools of archaeology, the French School had been founded in 1846 with the aim of carrying out excavations and classical scholarship, as well as of enhancing French prestige, particularly vis-à-vis British archaeology. Beulé had joined the French School in 1849, and discovered the gate while excavating the approach to the Proplyaia in 1852, under the direction of Kyriakos Pittakis, the Greek Ephor General of Antiquities. The excavation has been called "the first of the great archaeological transformations" carried out on the Acropolis. The existence of a lower route to the Propylaia had become evident during the operations to clear and repair the monuments of the Acropolis following the end of the Greek War of Independence in 1829. In 1846, the French architect and archaeologist Auguste Titeux [fr] began to reveal the staircase leading up to the Propylaia, but archaeologists did not generally consider that there had been a second gateway below it. Titeux died in 1846 with his work on the staircase unfinished: in 1850, Pittakis completed the work of clearing it and partially reconstructing the steps. Pittakis enlisted Beulé to assist with the removal of medieval and modern structures from the remaining parts of the Propylaea in 1852. Beulé, against the prevailing scholarly opinion of his time, believed that Mnesikles, the architect of the Propylaia, had originally constructed a second gateway, and secured Pittakis's blessing as well as support from Alexandre de Forth-Rouen, the French ambassador to Greece, to investigate his hypothesis. On 4 May, the excavators discovered additional steps leading towards the gate, and by 17 May it had become clear that they had found the edge of a fortified wall around the Acropolis, and within it a gateway. The site was visited by King Otto and Queen Amalia of Greece, and the discovery made Beulé's scholarly reputation. Beulé left Athens for France at the beginning of June, returning in December to direct renewed excavations, now focused on the gate. On 24 December, work was temporarily halted when the Greek Minister for War ordered the excavators to leave, concerned that the excavation would destroy the Acropolis's defensive value in case of a future invasion; Beulé, with the support of the French embassy, was able to persuade the Greek authorities that the Acropolis had little military value anyway, and "would not hold out for twenty-four hours against an assault". When work was able to resume in 1853, the excavators encountered a particularly stubborn block of mortar through which their tools could not penetrate. Beulé secured a batch of explosives from sailors of the Station du Levant, a fleet of the French Navy tasked with patrolling the Aegean Sea, and used them to blast through the block. Contemporary archaeologists criticised his actions, as did the Greek newspapers, one of which had previously accused Beulé of wanting to blow up everything on the Acropolis. Pittakis, who had been watching the operation, was almost struck by a fragment of the debris which pierced his hat: reports circulated in the aftermath that he had been killed. By 31 March, the two towers had been fully revealed, followed by the gateway itself on 1 April. Beulé fixed a commemorative stone to the gate, inscribed in Ancient Greek and reading: > Η ΓΑΛΛΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΥΛΗN ΤΗΣ ΑΚΡΟΠΟΛΕΩΣ, ΤΑ ΤΕΙΧΗ ΤΟΥ ΠΥΡΓΟΥ, ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΑΝΑΒΑΣΙΝ ΕΧΩΣΜΕΝΑ ΕΞΕΚΑΛΥΨΕΝ > > France unearthed the hitherto-buried gate of the Acropolis, the walls of the tower, and the ascending road. The discovery of the gate prompted scholarly celebration in France, and was reported with enthusiasm in the French press. The French writer and philhellene Jean Baelan has written that his work turned Beulé into "the standard-bearer for national honour in the field of archaeology". In recognition of Beulé's discovery, the Académie Française made the Acropolis of Athens the topic for its Grand Prize for Poetry (French: grand prix de poésie) in 1853, which was won by Louise Colet. After its excavation, the Beulé Gate resumed its original function as a monumental gateway for the Acropolis. In the 1960s, the main entrance was moved to the south-east side, leaving the Beulé Gate as primarily an exit. ## Gallery

Day of the Tentacle

1993 adventure game

Day of the Tentacle, also known as Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle, is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game Maniac Mansion. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli and his friends Hoagie and Laverne as they attempt to stop the evil Purple Tentacle - a sentient, disembodied tentacle - from taking over the world. The player takes control of the trio and solves puzzles while using time travel to explore different periods of history. Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer co-led the game's development, their first time in such a role. The pair carried over a limited number of elements from Maniac Mansion and forwent the character selection aspect to simplify development. Inspirations included Chuck Jones cartoons and the history of the United States. Day of the Tentacle was the eighth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. The game was released simultaneously on floppy disk and CD-ROM to critical acclaim and commercial success. Critics focused on its cartoon-style visuals and comedic elements. Day of the Tentacle has featured regularly in lists of "top" games published more than two decades after its release, and has been referenced in popular culture. A remastered version of Day of the Tentacle was developed by Schafer's current studio, Double Fine Productions, and released in March 2016, for Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita with an Xbox One release in October 2020. ## Gameplay Day of the Tentacle follows the point-and-click two-dimensional adventure game formula, first established by the original Maniac Mansion. Players direct the controllable characters around the game world by clicking with the computer mouse. To interact with the game world, players choose from a set of nine commands arrayed on the screen (such as "pick up", "use", or "talk to") and then on an object in the world. This was the last SCUMM game to use the original interface of having the bottom of the screen being taken up by a verb selection and inventory; starting with the next game to use the SCUMM engine, Sam & Max Hit the Road, the engine was modified to scroll through a more concise list of verbs with the right mouse button and having the inventory on a separate screen. Day of the Tentacle uses time travel extensively; early in the game, the three main protagonists are separated across time by the effects of a faulty time machine. The player, after completing certain puzzles, can then freely switch between these characters, interacting with the game's world in separate time periods. Certain small inventory items can be shared by placing the item into the "Chron-o-Johns", modified portable toilets that instantly transport objects to one of the other time periods, while other items are shared by simply leaving the item in a past time period to be picked up by a character in a future period. Changes made to a past time period will affect a future one, and many of the game's puzzles are based on the effect of time travel, the aging of certain items, and alterations of the time stream. For example, one puzzle requires the player, while in the future era where Purple Tentacle has succeeded, to send a medical chart of a Tentacle back to the past, having it used as the design of the American flag, then collecting one such flag in the future to be used as a Tentacle disguise to allow that character to roam freely. The whole original Maniac Mansion game can be played on a computer resembling a Commodore 64 inside the Day of the Tentacle game; this practice has since been repeated by other game developers, but at the time of Day of the Tentacle's release, it was unprecedented. ## Plot Five years after the events of Maniac Mansion, Purple Tentacle—a mutant monster and lab assistant created by mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison—drinks toxic sludge from a river behind Dr. Fred's laboratory. The sludge causes him to grow a pair of flipper-like arms, develop vastly increased intelligence, and have a thirst for global domination. Dr. Fred plans to resolve the issue by killing Purple Tentacle and his harmless, friendly brother Green Tentacle, but Green Tentacle sends a plea of help to his old friend, the nerd Bernard Bernoulli. Bernard travels to the Edison family motel with his two housemates, deranged medical student Laverne and roadie Hoagie, and frees the tentacles. Purple Tentacle escapes to resume his quest to take over the world. Since Purple Tentacle's plans are flawless and unstoppable, Dr. Fred decides to use his Chron-o-John time machines to send Bernard, Laverne, and Hoagie to the day before to turn off his Sludge-o-Matic machine, thereby preventing Purple Tentacle's exposure to the sludge. However, because Dr. Fred used an imitation diamond rather than a real diamond as a power source for the time machine, the Chron-o-Johns break down in operation. Laverne is sent 200 years in the future, where humanity has been enslaved and Purple Tentacle rules the world from the Edison mansion, while Hoagie is dropped 200 years in the past, where the motel is being used by the Founding Fathers as a retreat to write the United States Constitution. Bernard is returned to the present. To salvage Dr. Fred's plan, Bernard must acquire a replacement diamond for the time machine, while both Hoagie and Laverne must restore power to their respective Chron-o-John pods by plugging them in. To overcome the lack of electricity in the past, Hoagie recruits the help of Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Fred's ancestor, Red Edison, to build a superbattery to power his pod, while Laverne evades capture by the tentacles long enough to run an extension cord to her unit. The three send small objects back and forth in time through the Chron-o-Johns and make changes to history to help the others complete their tasks. Eventually, Bernard uses Dr. Fred's family fortune of royalties from the Maniac Mansion TV series to purchase a real diamond, while his friends manage to power their Chron-o-Johns. Soon, the three are reunited in the present. Purple Tentacle arrives, hijacks a Chron-o-John, and takes it to the previous day to prevent them from turning off the sludge machine; he is pursued by Green Tentacle in another pod. With only one Chron-o-John pod left, Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne use it to pursue the tentacles to the previous day, while Dr. Fred uselessly tries to warn them of using the pod together, referencing the film The Fly. Upon arriving, the trio exit the pod only to discover that they have been turned into a three-headed monster, their bodies merging into one during the transfer. Meanwhile, Purple Tentacle has used the time machine to bring countless versions of himself from different moments in time to the same day to prevent the Sludge-o-Matic from being deactivated. Bernard and his friends defeat the Purple Tentacles guarding the Sludge-o-Matic, turn off the machine, and prevent the whole series of events from ever happening. Returning to the present, Dr. Fred discovers that the three have not been turned into a monster at all but have just gotten stuck in the same set of clothes; they are then ordered by Dr. Fred to get out of his house. The game ends with the credits rolling over a tentacle-shaped American flag, one of the more significant results of their tampering in history. ## Development Following a string of successful adventure games, LucasArts assigned Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer to lead development of a new game. The two had previously assisted Ron Gilbert with the creation of The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and the studio felt that Grossman and Schafer were ready to manage a project. The company believed that the pair's humor matched well with that of Maniac Mansion and suggested working on a sequel. The two developers agreed and commenced production. Gilbert and Gary Winnick, the creators of Maniac Mansion, collaborated with Grossman and Schafer on the initial planning and writing. The total budget for the game was about \$600,000, according to Schafer. ### Creative design In planning the plot, the four designers considered a number of concepts, eventually choosing an idea of Gilbert's about time travel that they believed was the most interesting. The four discussed what time periods to focus on, settling on the Revolutionary War and the future. The Revolutionary War offered opportunities to craft many puzzles around that period, such as changing the Constitution to affect the future. Grossman noted the appeal of the need to make wide-sweeping changes such as the Constitution just to achieve a small personal goal, believing this captured the essence of adventure games. The future period allowed them to explore the nature of cause and effect without any historical bounds. Grossman and Schafer decided to carry over previous characters that they felt were the most entertaining. The two considered the Edison family "essential" and chose Bernard because of his "unqualified nerdiness". Bernard was considered "everyone's favorite character" from Maniac Mansion, and was the clear first choice for the protagonists. The game's other protagonists, Laverne and Hoagie, were based on a Mexican ex-girlfriend of Grossman's and a Megadeth roadie named Tony that Schafer had met, respectively. Schafer and Grossman planned to use a character selection system similar to the first game but felt that it would have complicated the design process and increased production costs. Believing that it added little to the gameplay, they removed it early in the process and reduced the number of player characters from six to three. The dropped characters included Razor, a female musician from the previous game; Moonglow, a short character in baggy clothes; and Chester, a black beat poet. Ideas for Chester, however, morphed into new twin characters in the Edison family. The smaller number of characters reduced the strain on the game's engine in terms of scripting and animation. The staff collaboratively designed the characters. They first discussed the character personalities, which Larry Ahern used to create concept art. Ahern wanted to make sure that the art style was consistent and the character designs were established early, in contrast to what had happened with Monkey Island 2, in which various artists came in later to help fill in necessary art assets as necessary, creating a disjointed style. Looney Tunes animation shorts, particularly the Chuck Jones-directed Rabbit of Seville, What's Opera, Doc? and Duck Dodgers in the 241⁄2th Century inspired the artistic design. The cartoonish style also lent itself to providing larger visible faces to enable more expressive characters. Peter Chan designed backgrounds, spending around two days to progress from concept sketch to final art for each background. Chan too used Looney Tunes as influence for the backgrounds, trying to emulate the style of Jones and Maurice Noble. Ahern and Chan went back and forth with character and background art to make sure both styles worked together without too much distraction. They further had Jones visit their studio during development to provide input into their developing art. The choice of art style inspired further ideas from the designers. Grossman cited cartoons featuring Pepé Le Pew, and commented that the gag involving a painted white stripe on Penelope Pussycat inspired a puzzle in the game. The artists spent a year creating the in-game animations. The script was written in the evening when fewer people were in the office. Grossman considered it the easiest aspect of production, but encountered difficulties when writing with others around. Grossman and Schafer brainstormed regularly to devise the time travel puzzles and collaborated with members of the development team as well as other LucasArts employees. They would identify puzzle problems and work towards a solution similar to how the game plays. Most issues were addressed prior to programming, but some details were left unfinished to work on later. The staff conceived puzzles involving the U.S.'s early history based on their memory of their compulsory education, and using the more legendary aspects of history, such as George Washington cutting down a cherry tree to appeal to international audiences. To complete the elements, Grossman researched the period to maintain historical accuracy, visiting libraries and contacting reference librarians. The studio, however, took creative license towards facts to fit them into the game's design. Day of the Tentacle features a four-minute-long animated opening credit sequence, the first LucasArts game to have such. Ahern noted that their previous games would run the credits over primarily still shots which would only last for a few minutes, but with Tentacle, the team had grown so large that they worried this approach would be boring to players. They assigned Kyle Balda, an intern at CalArts, to create the animated sequence, with Chan helping to create minimalist backgrounds to aid in the animation. Originally this sequence was around seven minutes long, and included the three characters arriving at the mansion and releasing Purple Tentacle. Another LucasArts designer, Hal Barwood, suggested they cut it in half, leading to the shortened version as in the released game, and having the player take over when they arrive at the mansion. ### Technology and audio Day of the Tentacle uses the SCUMM engine developed for Maniac Mansion. LucasArts had gradually modified the engine since its creation. For example, the number of input verbs was reduced and items in the character's inventory are represented by icons rather than text. While implementing an animation, the designers encountered a problem later discovered to be a limitation of the engine. Upon learning of the limitation, Gilbert reminisced about the file size of the first game. The staff then resolved to include it in the sequel. Day of the Tentacle was the first LucasArts adventure game to feature voice work on release. The game was not originally planned to include voice work, as at the time, the install base for CD-ROM was too low. As they neared the end of 1992, CD-ROM sales grew significantly. The general manager of LucasArts, Kelly Flock, recognizing that the game would not be done in time by the end of the year to make the holiday release, suggested that the team include voice work for the game, giving them more time. Voice director Tamlynn Barra managed that aspect of the game. Schafer and Grossman described how they imagined the characters' voices and Barra sought audition tapes of voice actors to meet the criteria. She presented the best auditions to the pair. Schafer's sister Ginny was among the auditions, and she was chosen for Nurse Edna. Schafer opted out of the decision for her selection to avoid nepotism. Grossman and Schafer encountered difficulty selecting a voice for Bernard. To aid the process, Grossman commented that the character should sound like Les Nessman from the television show WKRP in Cincinnati. Barra responded that she knew the agent of the character's actor, Richard Sanders, and brought Sanders on the project. Denny Delk and Nick Jameson were among those hired, and provided voice work for around five characters each. Recording for the 4,500 lines of dialog occurred at Studio 222 in Hollywood. Barra directed the voice actors separately from a sound production booth. She provided context for each line and described aspects of the game to aid the actors. The voice work in Day of the Tentacle was widely praised for its quality and professionalism in comparison to Sierra's talkie games of the period which suffered from poor audio quality and limited voice acting (some of which consisted of Sierra employees rather than professional talent). The game's music was composed by Peter McConnell, Michael Land and Clint Bajakian. The three had worked together to share the duties equally of composing the music for Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis, and continued this approach for Day of the Tentacle. According to McConnell, he had composed most of the music taking place in the game's present, Land for the future, and Bajakian for the past, outside of Dr. Fred's theme for the past which McConnell had done. The music was composed around the cartoonish nature of the gameplay, further drawing on Looney Tunes' use of parodying classical works of music, and playing on set themes for all of the major characters in the game. Many of these themes had to be composed to take into account different processing speeds of computers at the time, managed by the iMUSE music interface; such themes would include shorter repeating patterns that would play while the game's screen scrolled across, and then once the screen was at the proper place, the music would continue on to a more dramatic phrase. Day of the Tentacle was one of the first games concurrently released on CD-ROM and floppy disk. A floppy disk version was created to accommodate consumers that had yet to purchase CD-ROM drives. The CD-ROM format afforded the addition of audible dialog. The capacity difference between the two formats necessitated alterations to the floppy disk version. Grossman spent several weeks reducing files sizes and removing files such as the audio dialog to fit the game onto six diskettes. ## Reception Day of the Tentacle was a moderate commercial success; according to Edge, it sold roughly 80,000 copies by 2009. Tim Schafer saw this as an improvement over his earlier projects, the Monkey Island games, which had been commercial flops. The game was critically acclaimed. Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World wrote in September 1993: "Calling Day of the Tentacle a sequel to Maniac Mansion ... is a little like calling the space shuttle a sequel to the slingshot". He enjoyed the game's humor and interface, and praised the designers for removing "dead end" scenarios and player character death. Ardai lauded the voice acting, writing that it "would have done the late Mel Blanc proud", and compared the game's humor, animation, and camera angles to "Looney Toons [sic] gems from the 40s and 50s". He concluded: "I expect that this game will keep entertaining people for quite some time to come". In April 1994 the magazine said of the CD version that Sanders's Bernard was among "many other inspired performances", concluding that "Chuck Jones would be proud". In May 1994 the magazine said of one multimedia kit bundling the CD version that "it packs more value into the kit than the entire software packages of some of its competitors". Sandy Petersen of Dragon stated that its graphics "are in a stupendous cartoony style", while praising its humor and describing its sound and music as "excellent". Although the reviewer considered it "one of the best" graphic adventure games, he noted that, like LucasArts' earlier Loom, it was extremely short; he wrote that he "felt cheated somehow when I finished the game". He ended the review, "Go, Lucasfilm! Do this again, but do make the next game longer!". Phil LaRose of The Advocate called it "light-years ahead of the original", and believed that its "improved controls, sound and graphics are an evolutionary leap to a more enjoyable gaming experience". He praised the interface, and summarized the game as "another of the excellent LucasArts programs that place a higher premium on the quality of entertainment and less on the technical knowledge needed to make it run". The Boston Herald's Geoff Smith noted that "the animation of the cartoonlike characters is of TV quality", and praised the removal of dead ends and character death. He ended: "It's full of lunacy, but for anyone who likes light-hearted adventure games, it's well worth trying". Vox Day of The Blade called its visuals "well done" and compared them to those of The Ren & Stimpy Show. The writer praised the game's humor, and said that "both the music and sound effects are hilarious"; he cited the voice performance of Richard Sanders as a high point. He summarized the game as "both a good adventure and a funny cartoon". Lim Choon Wee of the New Straits Times highly praised the game's humor, which he called "brilliantly funny". The writer commented that the game's puzzles relied on "trial and error" with "no underlying logic", but opined that the game "remains fun" despite this issue, and concluded that Day of the Tentacle was "definitely the comedy game of the year". Daniel Baum of The Jerusalem Post called it "one of the funniest, most entertaining and best-programmed computer games I have ever seen", and lauded its animation. He wrote that the game provided "a more polished impression" than either The Secret of Monkey Island or Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. The writer claimed that its high system requirements were its only drawback, and believed that a Sound Blaster card was required to fully appreciate the game. In a retrospective review, Adventure Gamers' Chris Remo wrote: "If someone were to ask for a few examples of games that exemplify the best of the graphic adventure genre, Day of the Tentacle would certainly be near the top". Day of the Tentacle has been featured regularly in lists of "top" games. In 1994, PC Gamer US named Day of the Tentacle the 46th best computer game ever. In June 1994 it and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers won Computer Gaming World's Adventure Game of the Year award. The editors wrote that "Day of the Tentacle's fluid animation sequences underscore a strong script and solid game play ... story won out over technological innovation in this genre". In 1996, the magazine ranked it as the 34th best game of all time, writing: "DOTT completely blew away its ancestor, Maniac Mansion, with its smooth animated sequences, nifty plot and great voiceovers". Adventure Gamers included the game as the top entry on its 20 Greatest Adventure Games of All Time List in 2004, and placed it sixth on its Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games in 2011. The game has appeared on several IGN lists. The website rated it number 60 and 84 on its top 100 games list in 2005 and 2007, respectively. IGN named Day of the Tentacle as part of their top 10 LucasArts adventure games in 2009, and ranked the Purple Tentacle 82nd in a list of top 100 videogame villains in 2010. ComputerAndVideoGames.com ranked it at number 30 in 2008, and GameSpot also listed Day of the Tentacle as one of the greatest games of all time. ## Legacy Fans of Day of the Tentacle created a webcomic, The Day After the Day of the Tentacle, using the game's graphics. The 1993 LucasArts game Zombies Ate My Neighbors features a stage dedicated to Day of the Tentacle. The artists for Day of the Tentacle shared office space with the Zombies Ate My Neighbors development team. The team included the homage after frequently seeing artwork for Day of the Tentacle during the two games' productions. In describing what he considered "the most rewarding moment" of his career, Grossman stated that the game's writing and use of spoken and subtitled dialog assisted a learning-disabled child in learning how to read. Telltale Games CEO Dan Connors commented in 2009 that an episodic game based on Day of the Tentacle was "feasible", but depended on the sales of the Monkey Island games released that year. In 2018, a fan-made sequel, Return of the Tentacle, was released free by a team from Germany. The game imitates the art style of the Remastered edition and features full voice acting. ## Remasters ### Special Edition According to Kotaku, a remastered version of Day of the Tentacle was in the works at LucasArts Singapore before the sale of LucasArts to Disney in 2012. Though never officially approved, the game used a pseudo-3D art style and was nearly 80% complete, according to one person close to the project, but was shelved in the days before the closure of LucasArts. ### Remastered A remastered version of Day of the Tentacle was developed by Schafer and his studio, Double Fine Productions. The remaster was released on March 22, 2016, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows and OS X, with a Linux version released at July 11 together with a mobile port for iOS. The Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita versions are cross-buy and also feature cross-save. An Xbox One port came in October 2020. The remastered game was released as a free PlayStation Plus title for the month of January 2017. Schafer credited both LucasArts and Disney for help in creating the remaster, which follows from a similar remastering of Grim Fandango, as well by Double Fine, in January 2015. Schafer said when they originally were about to secure the rights to Grim Fandango from LucasArts to make the remaster, they did not originally have plans to redo the other LucasArts adventure games, but with the passionate response, they got on the news of the Grim Fandango remaster, they decided to continue these efforts. Schafer described getting the rights to Day of the Tentacle a "miracle" though aided by the fact that many of the executives in the legal rights chain had fond memories of playing these games and helped to secure the rights. 2 Player Productions, which has worked before with Double Fine to document their game development process, also created a mini-documentary for Day of the Tentacle Remastered, which included a visit to the Skywalker Ranch, where LucasArts games were originally developed, where much of the original concept art and digital files for the game and other LucasArts adventure games were archived. Day of the Tentacle Remastered retains its two-dimensional cartoon-style art, redrawn at a higher resolution for modern computers. The high resolution character art was updated by a team led by Yujin Keim with the consultation of Ahern and Chan. Keim's team used many of the original sketches of characters and assets from the two and emulated their style with improvements for modern graphics systems. Matt Hansen worked on recreating the background assets in high resolution. As with the Grim Fandango remaster, the player can switch back and forth between the original graphics and the high-resolution version. The game includes a more streamlined interaction menu, a command wheel akin to the approach used in Broken Age, but the player can opt to switch back to the original interface. The game's soundtrack has been redone within MIDI adapted to work with the iMUSE system. There is an option to listen to commentary from the original creators, including Schafer, Grossman, Chan, McConnell, Ahern, and Bajakian. The remaster contains the fully playable version of the original Maniac Mansion, though no enhancements have been made to that game-within-a-game. Day of the Tentacle Remastered has received positive reviews, with the PC version having an aggregate review score of 87/100 tallied by Metacritic. Reviewers generally praised the game as having not lost its charm since its initial release, but found some aspects of the remastering to be lackluster. Richard Corbett for Eurogamer found the game "every bit as well crafted now as it was in 1993", but found the processes used to provide high-definition graphics from the original 16-bit graphics to making some of the required shortcuts taken in 1993 for graphics, such as background dithering and low animation framerates, more obvious on modern hardware. IGN's Jared Petty also found the remastered to still be enjoyable, and found the improvement on the graphics to be "glorious", but worried that the lack of a hint system, as was added in The Secret of Monkey Island remastered version, would put off new players to the game. Bob Mackey for USgamer found that while past remastered adventure games have highlighted how much has changed in gamers' expectations since the heyday of adventure games in the 1990s, Day of the Tentacle Remastered "rises above these issues to become absolutely timeless".

Neil Harvey

Australian cricketer (born 1928)

Robert Neil Harvey OAM MBE (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. An attacking left-handed batsman, sharp fielder and occasional off-spin bowler, Harvey was the senior batsman in the Australian team for much of the 1950s and was regarded by Wisden as the finest fielder of his era. Upon his retirement, Harvey was the second-most prolific Test run-scorer and century-maker for Australia. One of six cricketing brothers, four of whom represented Victoria, Harvey followed his elder brother Merv into Test cricket and made his debut in January 1948, aged 19 and three months. In his second match, he became the youngest Australian to score a Test century, a record that still stands. Harvey was the youngest member of the 1948 Invincibles of Don Bradman to tour England, regarded as one of the finest teams in history. After initially struggling in English conditions, he made a century on his Ashes debut. Harvey started his career strongly, with six centuries in his first thirteen Test innings at an average over 100, including four in 1949–50 against South Africa, including a match-winning 151 not out on a sticky wicket. As Bradman's team broke up in the 1950s due to retirements, Harvey became Australia's senior batsman, and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1954, in recognition of his feat in scoring more than 2,000 runs during the 1953 tour of England. In 1957, Harvey was passed over for the captaincy and was named as the deputy of Ian Craig, who had played just six matches, as Australia sought to rebuild the team with a youth policy following a decline in the team. Craig later offered to demote himself due to poor form, but Harvey prevented him from doing so. At any rate, Craig fell ill the following season, but Harvey had moved interstate, so Richie Benaud was promoted to the captaincy ahead of him. Harvey continued in the deputy's role until the end of his career, but he was captain for only one Test match. In the Second Test at Lord's in 1961, when Benaud was injured, Harvey led the team in the "Battle of the Ridge" on an erratic surface, grinding out a hard-fought victory. Only Bradman had scored more runs and centuries for Australia at the time of Harvey's retirement. Harvey was best known for his extravagant footwork and flamboyant stroke play, as well as his fielding. Harvey was particularly known for his innings in conditions unfavourable to batting, performing when his colleagues struggled, such as his 151 not out in Durban, his 92 not out in Sydney in 1954–55, and his 96 on the matting in Dhaka. In retirement, he became a national selector for twelve years but in recent times is best known for his strident criticism of modern cricket. In 2000, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in and selected in the Australian Cricket Board's Team of the Century. In 2009, Harvey was one of the 55 inaugural inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. ## Early years Harvey was the fifth of six boys born to Horace Harvey. Despite his small build, Harvey was born large, weighing in at 4.5 kilograms (10 lb). The family lived in Broken Hill, where Horace was a miner, before moving to Sydney, and finally to Melbourne in 1926, where they settled in the inner northern industrial suburb of Fitzroy. There the six boys were taught cricket under the guidance of their father. In conditions conducive to producing batsmen rather than bowlers, they played cricket using a tennis ball on cobblestones or a marble rebounding from the backyard pavement. The boys went to George Street State School and Falconer Street Central School. Cricket and cricket talk was an integral part of the daily family life. Horace held the family batting record with 198 for Broken Hill, and continued to play in Melbourne club cricket. Harvey's eldest brother Merv went on to play one Test for Australia, while Mick and Ray both played for Victoria. All six brothers, the other two being Brian and Harold, also played for Fitzroy in district cricket. Except for Harold, all five represented Victoria in baseball. Harvey played his first game aged nine as a wicket-keeper in the North Fitzroy Central School team, the average age of which was 14. In a school final, he once made 112 of the total of 140. Aged twelve, he joined the local Fitzroy club and rose to the first-grade team when he was fourteen. By this stage, he had transferred to Collingwood Technical School. On the advice of the Victorian coach, Arthur Liddicut, Harvey stopped wicket-keeping to focus on his batting. Joe Plant, another Fitzroy veteran, also gave advice on batting. Both Liddicut and Plant identified Harvey's potential as a batsman. "What they liked about him was his modesty, his eagerness to pick up every point in the game, and his willingness to listen to the old hands." Briefly playing for Fitzroy Football Club, Harvey gave up the sport and played baseball during winter. After leaving school, Harvey worked as an apprentice fitter and turner for the Melbourne City Council. The apprenticeship was supposed to take three years, but it eventually took six years because Harvey's cricket career caused frequent absences. First-class cricket had been cancelled during World War II and resumed in 1945–46. At the start of the season, Harvey was selected for a trial match. The Victorian state team played against the Rest of Victoria, and Harvey represented the latter. However, he made a duck in his only innings and was not selected for the senior state side during the season. An aggressive 113 for Fitzroy against Melbourne Cricket Club in 1946–47 saw Harvey selected for the Victorian team at the age of 18. He made 18 in his only innings during his first-class debut against Tasmania. In the next match against Tasmania, Harvey made his maiden first-class century, scoring 154. He said that his effort was inspired by elder brother Merv, who gained Test selection in the same year. At the time, Tasmania was not part of Sheffield Shield, and Harvey made his Shield debut against New South Wales. He was dismissed without scoring in the first innings before making 49 in the second innings in an emphatic 298-run win over their arch-rivals. Victoria went on to win the title convincingly. His next match for Victoria was against Wally Hammond's English tourists. After the fall of three early wickets, Harvey joined captain Lindsay Hassett. He dominated a partnership of 120, making 69 in his second match against the guileful leg spin of Doug Wright. His opponents had no doubt that he would become a Test player. English wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans congratulated him by proclaiming "We'll be seeing you in England next year [for Australia's 1948 tour of that country]". He ended his debut first-class season with 304 runs at 50.66. ## Test debut In 1947–48, Harvey played in two Shield matches with his brothers Merv and Ray. Merv had already gained Test selection, but soon Neil was attracting more attention. In the opening match of the season, Harvey struck 87 against the touring Indian cricket team. He was selected for an Australian XI, which played the Indians before the Tests in what was effectively a dress rehearsal. He made 32 in the first innings and was unbeaten on 56 in the second as the hosts succumbed for 203 and suffered a 47-run loss. Despite this, he was initially overlooked for the Tests. He reached 35 in each of his next five innings for Victoria, including two fifties. Three months after his 19th birthday, Harvey made his entry into international cricket, in the last two Tests against India. He batted at No. 6 and made 13 in his only innings on debut in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval as Australia swept to an innings victory. The selectors retained him for the Fifth Test on his home ground at Melbourne. After reaching stumps on 78, he reached his century the following day, 7 February 1948. His score of 153 after being promoted to No. 5 made him the youngest Australian Test centurion, surpassing Archie Jackson's previous record. He brought up the mark with an all run five, having turned a short ball from Lala Amarnath towards the square leg boundary. The innings in replacing Bradman was taken to be symbolism of the fact that Harvey had been tipped to become Australia's leading batsman. His innings laid the foundations that secured Australia another innings victory and a 4–0 series triumph. It was only his 13th match at first-class level. The innings ensured him a place on the 1948 tour of England. Speaking about Harvey's selection, Bradman opined "He has the brilliance and daring of youth, and the likelihood of rapid improvement." In the warm-up matches before the team headed to England, Harvey struck 104 against Tasmania and 79 against Western Australia. He had scored 733 runs at 52.36 for the season. Australia traditionally fielded its first-choice team in the tour opener, which was customarily against Worcestershire. Despite scoring a century in Australia's most recent Test, Harvey was made 12th man and it appeared that he was not initially in Bradman's Test plans. At first, Harvey struggled in the English conditions, failing to pass 25 in his first six innings. His most notable contribution in the early stages of the campaign was against Yorkshire in Bradford, on a damp pitch that suited slower bowling. The match saw 324 runs fall for 36 wickets. No sooner had Harvey walked out to bat, stand-in captain Lindsay Hassett was caught to leave Australia at 5/20 in pursuit of 60. To make matters worse, Sam Loxton was injured and could not bat, so Australia were effectively six wickets down and faced its first loss to an English county since 1912. Harvey had scored a solitary run when he hit a ball to Len Hutton at short leg, who dived forwards and grabbed it with both hands before dropping it. Harvey then swept the next ball for a boundary. Colin McCool was out at 6/31 before Harvey and wicket-keeper Don Tallon steadied Australia. Harvey was reprieved on 12; he charged the bowling but the wicketkeeper fumbled the stumping opportunity. Harvey then hit the winning runs with a six over the sightscreen, ending unbeaten on 18 not out. It was the closest Australia had come to defeat for the whole tour. Due to his weak performances in the opening matches, Harvey was omitted for the match against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and were basically a full strength Test team, while Australia fielded their first-choice team and went on to win by an innings. The omission signified that Harvey was on the outer with regards to Test selection. After asking Bradman about his difficulties, Harvey was told that these were caused by rash shot selection and a tendency to hit the ball in the air. Bradman said "He was technically perfect in his shot production. He was batting well enough and simply getting out early." Harvey adapted his style and improved his performance. He scored 36 and 76 not out against Lancashire at Manchester and an unbeaten 100 at Hove against Sussex in only 115 minutes in the last match before the First Test. Former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton described Harvey's innings as "a superb century, rich in youthful daring and stroke production". However, this was not enough for selection and reserve opener Bill Brown batted out of position in the middle-order, as he had done against Worcestershire and the MCC. Harvey was the 12th man because of his fielding abilities, and spent a large proportion of time on the field due to an injury to pace spearhead Ray Lindwall. During the first two Tests, Brown struggled in his unfamiliar role, and he was dropped for the third. During the Third Test, opener Sid Barnes was injured, opening a vacancy for the Fourth Test at Headingley. Harvey forced his way into the team with a scoring sequence of 49, 56, 43, 73\* and 95. After Harvey hit 49 and 56 against Yorkshire, Fingleton opined that he "probably gained the respect of this most discerning crowd more quickly than any other cricketer in recent years". Harvey then scored 43 and 73 against Surrey and had taken a catch amongst a flock of pigeons. Australia wanted to finish the run-chase quickly so they could watch the Australian John Bromwich play in the Wimbledon tennis final. Harvey volunteered to play as a makeshift opener and promised Bradman that he would reach the target quickly. Australia chased down the target of 122 in just 58 minutes and 20.1 overs. Harvey ended unbeaten on 73 and the Australians arrived at Wimbledon on time. He then added 95 against Gloucestershire, attacking the off spin of Tom Goddard. After England had amassed 496 in the first innings, Australia had slumped to 3/68 with Bradman one of the dismissed batsmen. Harvey, the youngest member of the squad, joined cavalier all-rounder Keith Miller. Australia were more than 400 behind and if England were to remove the pair, they would expose Australia's lower order and give themselves an opportunity to take a large first innings lead. Upon arriving in the middle, Miller greeted him cheerfully and said to Harvey, "OK, mate, get up the other end. I'll take the bowling for a while until you get yourself organised." Harvey said, "Mate, that will do me." I couldn't get up the other end quick enough. I watched him play a few overs and I thought, "This is good", and then they brought Laker on to bowl. The third and the fifth balls of Laker's over disappeared over my head, on the way up, and they both finished in the crowd for six. . . . I can honestly thank Keith Miller for the confidence he gave me during our partnership . . . and it did so much for my future cricket career." The pair launched a counterattack, with Miller taking the lead and shielding Harvey from Jim Laker, as the young batsman was struggling against the off breaks that were turning away from him. Miller then hit a series of boundaries against Laker. This allowed Australia to seize the initiative, with Harvey joining the counterattack during the next over, hitting consecutive boundaries against Laker, the second of which almost cleared the playing area. By the time Miller was out for 58, the partnership had yielded 121 runs in 90 minutes, and was likened by Wisden to a "hurricane". Fingleton said that he had never "known a more enjoyable hour" of "delectable cricket". Loxton came in at 4/189 to join Harvey, who continued to attack the bowling, unperturbed by Miller's demise. Australia went to lunch on the third day at 4/204, with Harvey on 70. After lunch, Harvey accelerated after the second new ball was taken, and 80 minutes into the middle session, reached his century to a loud reception as Australia passed 250. Harvey's knock had taken 177 minutes and included 14 fours. The partnership yielded 105 in only 95 minutes. Harvey was eventually out for 112 from 183 balls, bowled by Laker while playing a cross-batted sweep. His shot selection prompted Bradman to throw his head back in disappointment. Harvey ended as the first Australian left-hander to score a century on his Ashes debut, in an innings noted for powerful driving on both sides of the wicket. The innings and the high rate of scoring helped to swing the match into a balanced position when Australia were finally dismissed for 458. In the second innings, Harvey took two noted catches, including one where he bent over to catch the ball at ankle height while running. Fingleton said that it "was the catch of the season—or, indeed, would have been had Harvey not turned on several magnificent aerial performances down at The Oval [against Surrey]". On the final afternoon, Harvey was at the crease and got off the mark by hitting the winning boundary in the second innings as Australia successfully completed a Test world record run chase of 3/404 in less than one day. He had only one more innings in the series, scoring 17 in the Fifth and final Test at The Oval where Australia won by an innings. Harvey added centuries in consecutive matches after the Tests against Somerset and the South of England. In the entire first-class tour, he scored four centuries to aggregate 1129 runs at 53.76. Harvey was an acrobatic fielder, regarded as the best in the Australian team. Fingleton said that Harvey was "by far the most brilliant fieldsman of both sides, who was to save many runs in the field". He was twelfth man in the early Tests because of his fielding and he took several acclaimed catches throughout the tour. ## Consolidation No international matches were scheduled for the 1948–49 Australian season, and Harvey had a disappointing first-class season, scoring only 539 runs at 33.68. He scored 72 and 75 in Victoria's totals of 165 and 197 as they lost to arch-rivals New South Wales by 88 runs, but his only other score beyond 50 was an 87 for Lindsay Hassett's XI in a Test trial at the end of the season. Nevertheless, the selectors persisted with him for the 1949–50 tour of South Africa. Harvey was forced to shoulder more responsibility in the batting order now that Bradman had retired and Sid Barnes took an extended break. The youngest player in the team, Harvey rose to the challenge by establishing several Australian records. His Test figures of 660 at 132.00 was the most runs on a Test tour of South Africa by a visiting batsman, surpassing Len Hutton's previous mark by 83 runs, as were his 1,526 first-class runs at 76.30 and eight centuries on tour. His eight first-class centuries on one South African tour equalled the efforts of Denis Compton, Len Hutton and Arthur Morris. Harvey started the tour well and was highly productive in seven first-class matches leading into the Tests. He scored 100 and 145 not out against North Eastern Transvaal and Orange Free State. There were two matches against a South African XI that were effectively dress rehearsals for the Tests. In the first, Harvey made 34 in an innings victory. He then made an even 100 in the second match, a week before the First Test. He had scored 480 runs at 60.00 in the matches leading up to the Tests. After scoring 34 in the First Test at Johannesburg, Harvey amassed 178 in the first innings of the Second Test at Cape Town, which set up a first innings lead of 248 runs. He then scored 23 not out to guide Australia to an eight-wicket victory in the second innings. This was followed by an unbeaten 151 in five and a half hours at Durban, regarded as one of his finest Test innings. Having been dismissed for 75 on a wet wicket in the first innings, Australia had slumped to 3/59 in pursuit of a victory target of 336. On a crumbling, sticky pitch, the Australians were having extreme difficulty with the spin of Hugh Tayfield and faced their first Test defeat against South Africa for 39 years. Despite a few square cuts, Harvey adapted his game to play a patient innings, prompting heckling from spectators for the first time in his career. On 40, a ball from Tufty Mann broke through his defence and Harvey thought himself bowled, only to see that the ball had goven for byes. However, Mann and Tayfield began to tire in the heat and Harvey began to score more quickly, reaching 50 in 137 minutes by the lunch break. He registered his slowest ever century on his way to guiding his team to an improbable victory by five wickets. Harvey brought up the winning runs by clipping a ball from Mann to the midwicket boundary. Harvey continued his productive sequence in the Fourth Test in Johannesburg, scoring an unbeaten 56 and 100 in a drawn match. It was the first Test in which Harvey had played that Australia did not win. After scoring 100 not out against Griqualand West, Harvey finished the series with 116 in the Fifth Test at Port Elizabeth, as Australia won by an innings and took the series 4–0. He had amassed four centuries in consecutive Tests in the series and had scored six in his first nine Tests, totally 959 runs at 106.55. Harvey's fast scoring made him a crowd favourite and marketing drawcard in South Africa. When Harvey was rested for a tour match in East London, media complaints prompted Australian selectors to reverse their decision. He finished the season with 55 in an Australian total of 55 before the tourists dismissed a South African XI for 49 and 90 to complete an innings victory. Harvey's triple figure average from his first two Test seasons could not be maintained when Australia hosted the 1950–51 Ashes series. Following his success in South Africa, Harvey played regularly at either the No. 3 or No. 4 from that point onwards. He managed 362 runs at 40.22 with three half centuries as Australia took the series 4–1. Harvey had trouble with Alec Bedser's in-swingers in the early part of the series and Bedser was the only Englishman to dismiss Harvey in the first three Tests. On the first day of the series, Harvey top-scored with 74 out of Australia's 228. It turned out to be crucial as rain created a sticky wicket; England made 7/68 and Australia 7/32, both declared. Australia went on to win by 70 runs. The Second Test in Melbourne was also low scoring; Harvey made 42 and 31 as Australia won after neither team passed 200. He performed steadily through the series, with 39, 43 and 68 in the next two Tests, which were both won. He then made one and 52 in the Fifth Test defeat; it was the first in his 14 Tests and Australia's first since World War II and came on his home ground in Melbourne. Outside the Tests, Harvey scored 141 in a win over South Australia and then added 146 in the second innings of a match against New South Wales to stave off defeat. He ended the season with 1099 runs at 45.79. The 1951–52 season was less productive, with the West Indies touring Australia. Playing in all five Tests, Harvey scored 261 runs at 26.10 with one half century as Australia won 4–1. Harvey had difficulties in dealing with the dual spin bowling combination of Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin, who bowled left arm orthodox and leg spin respectively and accounted for him six times in the Tests. His only fifty was an 83 in the first innings of the Fourth Test in Melbourne. Australia went on to complete a dramatic one-wicket victory. Harvey had a poor season overall, scoring only 551 first-class runs at 32.41 without managing a single century. ## Peak years Harvey started the 1952–53 season without a first-class century in more than 18 months and in three matches ahead of the Tests, suffered two defeats and was yet to break his drought. Having failed to score a century in ten Tests and almost three years, the season saw Harvey at his productive best as South Africa, whom he had scored four centuries against three years earlier, toured Australia. On a slow pitch difficult for stroke play, Harvey scored 109 and 52 in Brisbane where Australia grounded out a victory in the First Test. He top-scored in the first innings and was the second top-score (run out) in the second. Such was his performance in the series that his scores of 11 and 60 in the Second Test, top-scoring in the second innings, were his worst, as Australia lost their first Test to South Africa for 42 years. He then top-scored with 190 in the Third Test in Sydney to set up a large first innings lead of 270 and an innings victory. Harvey alone made more than his opponents in the first innings and the innings saw him complete 1000 Test runs against the South Africans in only eight Tests. Harvey made it consecutive centuries in as many matches, with 84 and 116 in Adelaide. Starting with an on-driven boundary off the first ball of the last day's play, Harvey's century took 106 minutes and was the fastest record in the Australia since World War II and the sixth fastest of all time in Australia. With leading pacemen Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller breaking down in the match, Harvey bowled for only the third time in his Test career. He took his first of three wickets at Test level, that of Russell Endean as a depleted Australian attack could not defeat the visitors who finished seven wickets down. As the series 2–1 in Australia's favour and not yet won, the Fifth Test in Melbourne was a timeless Test. Harvey compiled his third consecutive century and highest Test score of 205 as Australia amassed 520 in the first innings. This put Australia in control of the Test, despite South Africa successfully chasing an unlikely target of 295. Harvey accumulated 834 Test runs at 92.66 in the series. This surpassed Bradman's aggregate of 806 runs in 1931–32 as a series record against South Africa. In ten Tests against South Africa, he had eight centuries, totalling 1494 runs at an average of 106.71. Harvey totalled 1,659 runs at 63.81 for the season, the second highest tally for a season in Australian history, just 31 runs behind Bradman's record. In the last four matches of the season, he scored 95, 148, 49, 81 and 48 to come within striking distance. In the last match of the season, Western Australian captain Wally Langdon declared early on the last afternoon to allow Harvey another innings so he could break the record. However, Harvey muttered "I wouldn't want to break a record that way" and managed only 13. In 1953 he became only the third Australian in a quarter of a century to score 2,000 runs on an Ashes tour. Bradman (three times) and Stan McCabe were the others. He made 2,040 at 65.80 and his ten centuries were twice that of the next best in the side. Harvey started the first-class campaign with an unbeaten 202 against Leicestershire, setting up an innings victory. After reaching 25 in each of the next four innings without converting any starts into a score beyond 66, Harvey rectified this in the two weeks before the Tests started. He struck 109 against the Minor Counties, 103 against Lancashire, 82 and 137 not out against Sussex and 109 against Hampshire. His 109 against Minor Counties was only nine less than the entire opposition managed in two innings, and he had scored 540 runs in four completed innings in 14 days. Harvey was not at his best in the five Tests. In the 11 innings leading up to the Tests, Harvey's lowest score was 14, and he had only failed to pass 30 twice. However, in the First Test at Trent Bridge, Harvey had a duck and two and falling twice to Bedser as Australia hung on for a draw in a rain-affected contest. After scoring 69 against Yorkshire, Harvey made 59 and 21 in the Second Test at Lord's, again falling to Bedser in both innings. Some tenacious batting in the second innings saw the hosts save the match with three wickets in hand. Harvey returned to form by striking 141 against Gloucestershire before taking 3/9, his first three-wicket haul at first-class level, to help Australia take a nine-wicket win. He added a second century in as many innings with 118 in an innings win over Northamptonshire. Harvey then struck 122 in the rain affected Third Test at Manchester; he helped Australia take a 42-run first innings lead, but was out for a duck in the second innings. Australia collapsed to 8/35 and were saved from defeat by the rain, which meant that less than 14 hours of play was possible. Harvey then returned to Headingley, the venue of his famous innings five years earlier. In a low-scoring match, he top-scored for the entire match with 71 in the first innings as Australia took a 99-run lead. The tourists looked set for victory and retention of The Ashes at the start of the final day, but time-wasting and defiant defence from the English batsmen left Australia a target of 177 in the last two hours. This would have required a scoring rate much higher than in the first four days of the match. Harvey quickly scored 34 at a run a minute, and Australia had made 111 in 75 minutes and were on schedule for a win. At that point, English medium-pacer Trevor Bailey began bowling with the wicket-keeper more than two metres down the leg side to deny the Australians an opportunity to hit the ball, but the umpires did not penalise them as wides. The match ended in a draw, and Harvey described Bailey's tactics as "absolutely disgusting". English wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans said that the tourists "were absolutely livid" and he sympathised with them, saying that "they were right" in claiming that Bailey's bowling was "the worst kind of negative cricket" and that he had "cheated [them] of victory". With the series locked at 0–0, the fate of The Ashes would be determined in the Fifth and final Test at The Oval. In the lead-up, Harvey scored 113 and 180 in consecutive innings against Surrey and Glamorgan, before failing to pass single figures in his next three innings before the deciding match. Harvey made 36 as Australia made 275 batting first. England then took a 31-run lead and Harvey was out for only one in the second innings as the hosts won the Ashes 1–0 after 19 years in Australian hands. Harvey scored 346 runs at 34.60 for the series; in a low-scoring series, this placed him second behind captain Lindsay Hassett (365 runs at 36.50). Harvey failed to pass 41 in the four first-class matches remaining after the Tests. With the retirement of Hassett at the end of the season, Harvey was to bear more responsibility in the batting line-up. In recognition of his performances during the summer, during which he scored 2040 runs at 65.40, he was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. The next highest Australian aggregate and average was 1433 at 51.17 by Miller, and the second most prolific centurymaker was Hassett with five. Harvey returned to Australia and played in the 1953–54 season, which was purely domestic. He scored 639 runs at 42.60, including a century against New South Wales and four fifties. He had a few near-misses during the season; he scored 97 against Queensland in two matches and made 88 against South Australia. The 1954–55 season saw England tour Australia, and Harvey scored 98 in three innings in warm-up matches against the visitors. He struck 162 in the First Test in Brisbane after Australia were sent in, helping to compile 8/601 to set up an innings victory. Between Tests, he scored 59 and 34 not out for Victoria against the Englishmen. This was followed by a low scoring Second Test in Sydney when Australia were 4/77 needing 223 to win on a poor wicket against the lethal pace of Frank Tyson and Brian Statham. The express Tyson was bowling with the help of tailwind and the slips cordon were over 50 m behind the bat. Harvey stood firm while Tyson scattered the stumps of his partners, and he farmed the strike ruthlessly, protecting the tailenders and counter-attacking the England fast bowlers, relying on the cut shot and clipping anything on his pads through the leg side. Schoolboys watching the game leaned over the fence to beckon the boundaries towards them. Last man Bill Johnston came in at 9/145 with 78 runs still required, but protected by Harvey he only had to face 16 balls in 40 minutes and they almost produced an unlikely Australian victory. Harvey continued to attack the bowling, and he hooked Tyson over fine leg's head for four. Together, Harvey and Johnston they had added 39 for the last wicket and halved the runs required. At this point, the Australian pair were confident. Harvey and Johnston felt that Tyson was about to run out of energy, and that their prospects would improve when Hutton would have been forced to change bowlers in the near future. However, it was not enough and England won by 38 runs when Johnston gloved a Tyson delivery down the leg side to the wicket-keeper. Harvey had played what many observers thought was the greatest innings of his life, a defiant, unbeaten 92, exactly half of the Australian innings of 184 in which no other batsmen reached 15. From there on, Harvey's series was unproductive, failing to pass 31 in the six innings of the final three Tests. Australia's form slumped along with that of Harvey, losing the next two Tests and the series 3–1. Harvey ended with 354 runs at 44.25 for the series. Despite this, he continued to productive in the other first-class matches and was by far the most productive batsman in the 1954–55 Australian season, accumulating 1100 at 47.83 runs ahead of Les Favell's 663. He scored a pair of 62s in a 36-run win over New South Wales, 95 and 66 against Queensland and 82 and 47 in a match for a Tasmania Combined XI against England. This was followed by a tour in early 1955 to the West Indies, the first by an Australian team. Harvey began with two consecutive centuries, scoring exactly 133 in both the First and Second Tests at Kingston and Port-of-Spain respectively. The matches ended in an innings victory and draw to Australia respectively. In a low scoring match in Georgetown, Harvey scored 38 and 41\* as Australia took a 2–0 lead. Another half century in the drawn Fourth Test followed, before Harvey scored the second double century of his career, 204 in the Fifth Test in Kingston in just over seven hours of batting. His 295 run partnership with Colin McDonald was the foundation of a Test total of 8/758, setting up an innings victory for Australia. He totalled 650 runs at 108.33 for the series. For the entire tour, he scored 789 runs at 71.73. After the tour Arthur Morris retired, leaving Harvey as the most experienced batsman of the team. Harvey had also expunged his demons that he experienced against Ramadhin and Valentine in the previous series. Of the spin duo, only Ramadhin was able to dismiss Harvey on one occasion. The 1955–56 Australian summer was another purely domestic season. Harvey had a successful campaign with 772 runs 55.14. He struck 128 and 76 against a New South Wales team composed mainly of Test players, but Victoria's arch-rivals hung on for a draw with three wickets in hand. He added two further centuries and a 96, and all of these innings came in the span of a month in which he amassed 612 runs. ## Struggles in 1956 The 1956 Ashes tour to England was a disappointment for Harvey individually as well for the Australians collectively. It was an English summer dominated by off spinner Jim Laker and his Surrey teammate Tony Lock, who repeatedly dismantled the tourists on dusty spinning pitches specifically tailored to their cater for them. The tour started poorly for Harvey. In five innings in the first three weeks, he scored only 36 runs at 7.20, and this included a ten-wicket defeat at the hands of Laker and Lock's Surrey. It was Australia's first loss to a county side since 1912. Harvey began to run into some form after that, scoring 45 against Cambridge University before the match against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which fielded a virtual England Test team in what was effectively a dress rehearsal for the Tests. Harvey made 225 in Australia's 413 and the hosts made 9/203 to draw the match. However, he was unable to replicate this form in the Tests. In the First Test at Nottingham Harvey scored 64 and three in a rain-affected draw. He then made a duck and ten as Australia took the series lead in the Second Test at Lord's. Despite Australia's success, Harvey was having an extended run-drought; he had made only 23 runs in three weeks. Then came the two Australian capitulations against Laker and Lock in the Tests. Harvey made 11 as Australia were bowled out for 143 and forced to follow on in the Third Test played on a turning pitch at Headingley. He then contributed 69 of 140 in the second innings of the Third Test at Headingley, when the rest of the team struggled to deal with Laker and Lock, who spun England to an innings victory. It was the first time Australia had suffered an innings defeat in a Test since 1938. However, Harvey was unable to repeat his defiant form over the next three weeks. The Fourth Test in Manchester was the low point, when Harvey managed a pair, falling both times to Laker, who took a world record 19 wickets. Australia were routed by an innings in what is known as "Laker's match" to concede the Ashes 2–1. The debacle at Old Trafford was part of a three-week trough during which Harvey scored only 11 runs, including three consecutive ducks in a 17-day period that yielded not a solitary run. Harvey then returned to productivity with 145 against Warwickshire and added a further half-century in the remaining matches. He also took 5/57 in an innings to help set up a seven-wicket win over the Minor Counties, although the match was not first-class. Harvey compiled 197 runs at 19.70 in five Tests with two half centuries. It was by far his most unproductive summer in England, with 976 runs at 31.48. Such was the dominance of the Laker-Lock-led attack that Harvey was Australia's fifth-highest runscorer in the Tests and fourth in the first-class matches. On the return to Australia, the team stopped on the Indian subcontinent to play their first Tests on Pakistani and Indian soil respectively. In a short tour, the four Tests were the only fixtures. Harvey failed to pass double figures in a one-off Test against Pakistan in Karachi, the first between the two countries. Moving to India, he scored 140 in the drawn Second Test in Bombay, scoring runs all around the ground. Due to injuries and illness to many of the bowlers, the Australians were unable to dismiss their hosts twice. In the final match, Australia were in trouble after taking a 41-run first innings lead. In the second innings they were struggling on a sticky wicket caused by flooding, but made 69 out of 9/189 in the low-scoring Third Test in Calcutta to help Australia to a 2–0 series win. He ended with 253 runs at 63.25 for the series. His performances on the subcontinent were marked by his aggressive footwork in moving down to meet the pitch of the ball. After seven months away, the Australians returned home. ## Senior player and vice captaincy As expected, the Australian team's leaders Ian Johnson and Keith Miller, retired from cricket after the tour. Harvey replaced Johnson as Victorian captain and was the logical choice as successor to the Test captaincy, as the most experienced member of the team (48 Tests). Queensland's captain, the veteran paceman Ray Lindwall, was no longer an automatic Test selection. However, both Harvey and Benaud had been criticised for their attitude towards Johnson in an official report to the board about the 1956 tour. Harvey was surprisingly overlooked for the captaincy, which went to Ian Craig, who had replaced Miller as New South Wales skipper. Craig was only 22 and had played six Tests; he had yet to establish himself in the team. After several disappointing results against England, the selectors chose a youthful team. Harvey was named vice-captain to Craig for both the 1956–57 non-Test tour of New Zealand and the 1957–58 Test tour to South Africa. Australia's two new leaders featured in a dramatic game during the season—the first tied match in Sheffield Shield history, played at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. New South Wales, chasing 161 to win, slumped to 7/70 when Craig (suffering tonsillitis) defied medical orders, left his hospital bed, and came out to bat. A partnership of 75 with Richie Benaud took them to within 16 runs of victory, but another collapse left the scores tied. The day after the captaincy announcement, the Harvey-led Victorians met Craig's New South Welshmen at the SCG in the last match of the Shield season. Harvey admitted to being irked by the board's snub and felt that it was because of his blunt nature. The men were cordial at the toss and Craig sent the Victorians in to bat. At the same time, Victorian batsman Colin McDonald hit a ball into his face and broke his nose while practising, as Harvey and Craig went out to toss. Harvey asked for a gentleman's agreement to allow a substitute for McDonald. Craig refused, citing the importance of the match. This evoked a rare angry response from Harvey, according to Benaud. Playing with ten men, Benaud said that Harvey "proceeded, with a certain amount of anger, to play one of the best innings I have seen in Sheffield Shield". He made 209 and later forced New South Wales to follow-on. In the end the match was drawn and Harvey was unable to deny New South Wales the title. Harvey said that his first double century for Victoria "gave me as much pleasure as any innings I had ever played". He finished his only season as Victorian captain by leading the Shield averages with 836 runs at 104.50. His other substantial scores were 108 (more than half the team total) and 53 in an innings loss to Queensland, 125 and 66 not out in a win over against South Australia and 115 in the return match against Queensland. In a selection trial, he led Harvey's XI to a seven-wicket win over Lindwall's XI, scoring 31 and 61 not out. The New Zealand tour was regarded as a test of Craig as a leader. Wicket-keeper Barry Jarman said that Craig "had to do it himself...I wasn't so dumb that I couldn't see the senior players didn't give him much support". The senior players resented his surprise selection as captain, but he gained favour by defying a management-imposed curfew, which was later scrapped. Harvey was unable to maintain his form from the Australian season after crossing the Tasman to face the New Zealanders. He scored 129 runs at 25.80, including an 84, as Australia won the third and final match to take the series 1–0. Outside the international matches, Harvey was productive, and he totalled 460 runs at 46.00 for the tour. Some players remained resentful of Craig's dubious elevation ahead of Harvey during the 1957–58 tour of South Africa but appreciated that he had not promoted himself and that he was fair and open to input from teammates. On the tour, Harvey broke a finger at catching practice and missed the early tour matches. After it healed, Harvey returned for a match against a South African XI, in a virtual dress rehearsal for the Tests. He scored 173 as the tourists crushed their hosts by an innings. However, he broke the same finger again and missed the First Test, ending a run of 48 consecutive Test matches. He returned for the remaining Tests and scored 68 in the Third Test to help to force a draw, after Australia had conceded a 221-run first innings lead, but apart from that he had a disappointing series, failing to pass 25 and finishing with 131 runs at 21.83. Despite the disagreement as to whether Craig was deserving of the captaincy, the team proceeded smoothly without infighting. Prior to the Fifth Test, Craig wanted to drop himself due to poor form, which would have made Harvey captain. Peter Burge, the third member of the selection panel and a Harvey supporter, was comfortable with this, but Harvey relinquished his opportunity to seize the leadership by ordering Burge to retain Craig. When the vote was formally taken, Harvey and Burge outvoted Craig, who was still offering to drop himself. The Tests aside, Harvey continued to score regularly in the other games, and ended with 759 first-class runs at 50.60, with two centuries and five fifties. The team under Craig and Harvey, labelled the worst to leave Australian shores, went home 3–0 victors in the five Test series. ## Move to New South Wales and non-captaincy After returning from South Africa, Harvey embarrassed the Board of Control when he frankly discussed his financial situation during a television interview. He revealed that the players earned only £85 per Test and that he was almost broke, despite being an automatic selection for Australia. Ten years of making time for cricket had disrupted his working life, so he was contemplating a move to South Africa, the homeland of his wife, Iris. Consequently, Harvey received a job offer to work as a sales supervisor for a glass manufacturer in Sydney, so he moved to New South Wales and gave up the Victorian captaincy. As a new player to NSW, he was behind vice-captain Richie Benaud in the state's pecking order, despite being the Test vice-captain, ahead of Benaud. Fatefully, Craig was unfit for the start of the 1958–59 season, due to the after-effects of hepatitis. This left the Australian captaincy open again. Harvey started the season strongly and scored 326 runs in his first three innings. This included 160 against Queensland and 149 for his new state against the touring England team of Peter May. In this match, Benaud had captained New South Wales and the hosts had the better of the play. They took a 214-run first innings lead and May's men when 6/356 when time ran out. Harvey was appointed to captain an Australian XI in a warm-up match against the touring Englishmen, indicating that the selectors were considering him for the Test captaincy. Harvey scored a duck and 38 and the Australians lost heavily by 345 runs on a wicket with a crater. Therefore, Benaud was made Australian captain ahead of Harvey. As Benaud's deputy, Harvey helped materially in Australia's surprise 4–0 series victory to reclaim the Ashes. Harvey's form was modest, though. He scored 296 runs at 42.29, with more than half coming in one innings—a brilliant 167 in the Second Test at Melbourne, more than half his team's 308, which helped secure an eight wicket victory in the match. Otherwise, a 41 in the Fourth Test was the only other time he passed 25 in the series. Outside the Tests, he scored 92 in the second match of the season between New South Wales and England, and ended the season with 949 runs at 49.95. It was season of two-halves; in the latter two months, he scored only 339 runs. During the 1959–60 season, Australian undertook an arduous tour of the subcontinent, with three and five Tests against Pakistan and India, respectively. Prior to the trip, Harvey made 112 in the second innings to help Lindwall's XI defeat Benaud's XI by seven wickets. In Dhaka, East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh), Harvey made 96 on a matting pitch over rough ground in the First Test, mastering the medium pace of Fazal Mahmood, while his teammates struggled to score. In the course of the innings, Harvey had to overcome a fever, dysentery and physical illness, which forced him to leave six times to recompose himself. Gideon Haigh called it "one of his most dazzling innings". Described by Benaud as "one of the best innings at Test level", it set up an Australian win. During his stay at the crease, his partners contributed 48 runs while seven wickets fell. Harvey's innings allowed Australia to score 225 in reply to the hosts' 200. Harvey then made 30 in the second innings to help ensure an eight-wicket win. After scoring 43 in the first innings, the second Test in Lahore came down to a run-chase for Australia, with Harvey and Norm O'Neill seemingly on schedule to win before time ran out. However, the Pakistani fielders began to waste time in an attempt to foil an Australian victory. They swapped the cover and midwicket fielders very slowly whenever the left and right-handed combination of Harvey and O'Neill took a single and changed the batsman on strike. To counter this, Harvey deliberately backed away from a straight ball and let himself be bowled, throwing his wicket away for 37. This allowed Benaud to come in and bat with O'Neill so that the two right-handed batsmen would give the Pakistanis no opportunity to waste time by switching the field. Australia won the match with minutes to spare. Harvey scored 54 and 13 not out in the drawn third Test at Karachi. Australia took the series 2–0, but would not win another Test in Pakistan until 1998. Harvey ended the series with 273 runs at 54.60. In India, Harvey scored 114 out of Australia's 468 in the First Test at Delhi, setting up an innings victory for Australia. On a pitch conducive to spin at Kanpur for the second Test, Harvey was given a rare opportunity to bowl and he took the wicket of the Indian captain, Gulabrai Ramchand. In addition, he scored 51 and 25, the second highest Australian score in each innings in a low-scoring match, but India won to square the series, with off spinner Jasu Patel taking 14/124. Harvey hit 102 in a drawn third Test in Bombay and took his third (and final) Test wicket, A. G. Milkha Singh, in the fourth Test at Madras. He ended the series with 356 runs at 50.86, a significant contribution to Australia's 2–1 triumph. ## International twilight In the last years of his Test career, Harvey struggled, making 876 runs at 33.69 in three Test series. At the start of the 1960–61 season, there was little indication of this. In his first five innings for the summer, Harvey hit 135 against Queensland, 80 and 63 for an Australian XI against the touring West Indies, 229 against Queensland and 109 for New South Wales against the Caribbean team. However, his form tapered away during the thrilling 1960–61 home series against the West Indies (which included the first tie in Test history). Harvey was ineffective apart from a score of 85 in the second innings of the Third Test, which Australia lost. He then missed the Fourth Test due to injury. He struggled in the Tests, scoring only 143 runs at 17.88, but prospered against the Caribbean tourists in the tour matches, scoring 326 runs at 81.50. Overall, he totalled 849 runs at 56.60 for the season. Harvey began his final tour to England in 1961, and Benaud's regular absences due to a shoulder injury allowed him to lead Australia for a third of the tour matches. This included most of the first month of the tour; Benaud hurt his shoulder in the first match against Worcestershire, and spent most of the next three weeks either not bowling or travelling to London away from his men for specialist treatment. At one stage, Australia were left with only 10 men on the field when Benaud excused himself and his replacement succumbed to illness, requiring an Englishman to stand in. Harvey scored 474 runs at 47.40 in eight matches leading up to the Tests, including centuries against Lancashire and Glamorgan. It seemed that Harvey would captain Australia in a Test for the first time with Benaud's shoulder still problematic, but the captain declared himself fit. Harvey then made 114 in the drawn First Test at Edgbaston. This helped Australia take a 321-run first innings lead and put them in control of the match, but the hosts batted for the remainder of the match to stave off defeat; Benaud's shoulder prevented him from bowling more than nine overs. The injury forced Benaud out of the next Test, meaning that Harvey finally captained Australia at the highest level, in the Second Test at Lord's, with Davidson carrying an injury and wicketkeeper Wally Grout with a black eye. This meant that Australia's two best bowlers were injured, although Davidson agreed to play. Played on a controversial pitch with a noticeable ridge running across it, which caused irregular bounce, it was one of the great Test matches, known as "The Battle of the Ridge". Davidson took 5/42 and bruised many of the English batsmen with the irregular bounce as the hosts were bowled out for 205. Australia then replied with 339, in large part due to Bill Lawry's 130, during which he sustained many blows. In the second innings, Harvey's captaincy moves proved to be highly productive. He gave the new ball to Graham McKenzie, a young paceman playing in his first international series. McKenzie responded by taking 5/37. Harvey brought the part-time leg spin of Bob Simpson into the attack when Ray Illingworth had just arrived at the crease, and moved himself into the leg slip position. Illingworth edged Simpson into Harvey's hands for a duck. England fell for 202, leaving Australia a target of 69. However, victory appeared to be far from certain when Australia slumped to 4/19 on the erratic surface. Harvey sent Peter Burge out to attack the bowling, a tactic that worked as Australia won by five wickets. Burge hit the winning runs after earlier being dropped. The "Battle of the Ridge" was the only time Harvey captained Australia in a Test match. Despite the win, Harvey was not prominent in terms of his individual contribution, scoring 27 and four. Harvey described the win as "propbably my proudest moment. We really got on the French champagne that afternoon. I knew it'd be my only Test match as captain and, being at Lord's, I decided to make the best of it." Benaud returned for the Third Test, when England levelled the series despite twin half-centuries of 73 and 53 from Harvey, who top-scored in both innings on a dustbowl in a match that lasted only three days. Harvey failed to pass 35 in the last two Tests, and ended with 338 runs at 42.25, and was a significant factor in Australia's eventual 2–1 victory. In the second half of the tour, Harvey added centuries against Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire and took his career best bowling fugres of 4/8 against Middlesex to help set up a ten-wicket win. He ended his final tour for Australia with 1452 runs at 44.00 with five centuries. During the season, Harvey and Benaud led aggressively to force a result through attacking strategy and a determination to avoid time-wasting. The 1961–62 was purely domestic, and Harvey played a full season in the Sheffield Shield as New South Wales won their ninth consecutive title. However, Harvey was not prominent in the team's success and scored only 425 runs at 26.56 with two fifties for the season. Having stated his intention to retire at the end of the summer, Harvey started his final season in 1962–63 strongly. He scored 83, 44 and 128 not in his first three interstate innings for the season, and then scored 51, 21 and 63 in warm-up matches against England. Harvey was thus selected in the series against England, his last in international cricket. During the season, Harvey applied to the Australian Cricket Board for permission to work as a journalist while also playing cricket. The application was refused, but Harvey wrote some bitter criticism of England captain Ted Dexter at the end of the series. Following a complaint from the Marylebone Cricket Club, the ACB said that it deplored Harvey's comments. Beginning steadily with half-centuries in the first and third Tests, Harvey made his 21st and final century in the fourth Test at Adelaide. Scoring 154 in a drawn match at the venue where his international career began 15 seasons earlier, Harvey then returned to his adopted hometown of Sydney for his farewell match. With the series level at 1–1, the Ashes were still alive but the game turned into a dull draw and Harvey scored 22 and 28. He was bowled by David Allen in the final innings. In the two English innings, he held six catches to equal the world record, a reminder of his prowess as one of Australia's great all-round fielders. Harvey retired as Australia's most capped player, and a tally of runs and centuries second only to Don Bradman. Harvey made centuries in two of his last three first-class matches. In his last Sheffield Shield match, he scored an unbeaten 231 against South Australia in less than five hours, including 120 runs in one session. This set up a ten-wicket victory. In his final season, Harvey scored 1110 runs at 52.85. ## Style Harvey was regarded as a mercurial batsman of great artistry and style. A short man at 172 cm (5 ft 8 in), he batted with aggression, and was known for his timing of the ball. His batting against spin bowling in particular was a crowd-pleaser, highlighted by his extravagant footwork in charging the bowlers. Harvey often charged five paces down the pitch to spinners, with one bowler quipping: "He kept coming so far along the track toward me that I thought he must want to shake my hands". Despite running out of the crease so much, Harvey was never stumped in a Test match. He was of the belief that any bowling could and should be hit, and he gave the impression that the balls were reaching the boundary with a minimum of power. According to Johnnie Moyes, "the sight of his slim figure, neat and trim-looking, always capless, coming to bat brought new hope for spectators. He will never prod a half volley or decline the challenge of a long hop...he will go looking for the ball which he can hit for four." Following the retirement of Sir Donald Bradman, he was seen as Australia's leading batsman, noted by critics for a similar ability to change the mood of matches with his attacking play. Ashley Mallett said that Harvey was Australia's best batsman since Bradman. This was despite the fact that he was found to have faulty eyesight. With the global expansion of cricket, Harvey was the first Australian to make Test centuries in 15 different cities, succeeding in a variety of conditions. Harvey made 67 first-class centuries spread across 35 venues in six countries. He scored 38 of these overseas, where his average was higher. He was the first batsman to score more than 10,000 runs for Australian teams at home and abroad. Harvey's attacking style often led to criticism that his batting was risky, with England captain Len Hutton feeling that he played and missed too much, while dour all-rounder Trevor Bailey quipped: "I wonder how many runs Harvey would make if he decided to stop playing strokes with an element of risk about them". Harvey was nevertheless happy to continue his flamboyant strokeplay. However, as Harvey progressed in seniority, he eschewed his hook shot and played more conservatively for his team's sake. He typically evaded bouncers by tilting his head, rather than ducking the ball. Although Harvey started as a wicketkeeper at school, he became a highly regarded cover fielder and later in his international career became an agile slips catcher. He bowled off spin from a three- to four-pace approach on rare occasions, taking only three wickets in his Test career. Away from the field, Harvey had a quiet and unassuming manner, in complete contrast to his dynamic batting, and his aversion to smoking and drinking set him apart from the prevailing cricket culture of his period. Harvey was known for his respect for umpiring decisions and for never appealing for leg before wicket when he fielded in the slips. When not travelling overseas on cricket tours, Harvey played baseball in the winter for the Fitzroy Baseball Club. He was twice named in the Australian baseball team, but the team was named only for the distinction accorded on the players; that is, they never competed. Harvey's fielding abilities were regarded by Wisden as the "finest outfielder in the world" during his career. As a baseball infielder, Harvey developed a half round-arm throw; its speed and accuracy caused many batsmen to be run out while attempting a run. Ray Robinson said that Harvey's throw was "arrow-like" in accuracy and that "as a versatile fieldsman, this ball-hawk...takes top place". His baseball training also influenced his habit of catching the ball above head height, with which he rarely dropped catches. This was based on the theory that the fielder need never take his eyes off the ball and, if it were to bounce out of his hands, he would have time to attempt to grab the rebound. Harvey also covered ground quickly and possessed an efficient method of picking up and returning the ball. From late 1958 when Norm O'Neill made his Test debut until Harvey's retirement in 1963, the duo formed a formidable pairing in the covers, helping to restrict opposition batsmen from scoring in the region. ## Later years He was an Australian selector from 1967 to 1979. Immediately after his appointment, he was embroiled in controversy during the First Test against India at Brisbane in 1967–68. The Queensland Cricket Association wrote to the board, complaining that Harvey, who was the selector on duty at the Test, had missed two hours of play. He had been at a race meeting at the invitation of the QCA president. The ACB gave Harvey a talking to. Despite this, he retained his position at the next annual election, with Queensland's Ken Mackay failing to gain a seat on the selection panel. From 1971 onwards, Harvey was the chairman of selectors. It was a tumultuous period in Australian cricket, where captain Bill Lawry was acrimoniously sacked in the middle of the 1970–71 series against England after a dispute between players and Australian officials. Lawry was not informed of his fate and learned of his omission on the radio when he was still one of Australia's most productive batsmen. The dispute was the genesis of the pay dispute which, led to the formation of World Series Cricket in 1977 and generated a mass exodus of players. This resulted in the recall of Bob Simpson after ten years in retirement at the age of 41 to captain the Test team. Following the rapprochement between the establishment and the WSC players, Harvey left the selection panel. The WSC representatives felt that Harvey's anti-WSC comments made him prejudiced against the selection of former WSC players. After returning from South Africa in 1950, Harvey was offered a job in captain Lindsay Hassett's sports store. Harvey accepted immediately because sports stores gave more flexible arrangements for leave to play cricket. Harvey was sponsored by Stuart Surridge to use their cricket equipment. He was paid £300 a year, but nevertheless lived at home and shared a bedroom with his brothers Brian and Ray until he married, due to poverty. He used the same cricket uniforms for more than five years. Harvey's career extended into a successful business, Har-V-Sales, which distributed tupperware, kitchen and cosmetic products. In later life, he was known for his blunt and critical comments towards modern players, believing the cricket in earlier times to be superior. After Steve Waugh's team set a world record of consecutive Test victories, Harvey named three Australian teams that he thought to be superiors, saying "no, far from it" in response to the suggestion that Waugh's men were the best team in history. He attributed the wins to weak opponents, stating "No I don't think they're up to the world standard they were years ago" and that the 1980s West Indies team were far superior. He also criticised the Australian team for publicly praising the skills of their opponents, believing that they did so to aggrandise their statistical performances against teams he considered to be weak. In 2000, he was named in the Australian Cricket Board's Team of the Century and criticised modern-day batsmen, noting that players in earlier eras had to play on sticky wickets, saying: "these guys who play out here are a little bit spoilt in my opinion. They play on flat wickets all the time and they grizzle if ... the ball does a little bit off the pitch, and whatever ... But we had to put up with that" and going to assert his opinion that the current players would be no match. Harvey was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000, in the first annual induction of two players since the inaugural ten members were announced in 1996. In 2009, Harvey was one of the 55 inaugural inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. Harvey vociferously called for Shane Warne and Mark Waugh to be banned from cricket after it was revealed that they accepted money from bookmakers to give pitch and weather information and the ACB privately fined them. He lamented the decline in player conduct in the modern era, also criticising the modern advent of sledging. In 2002, Harvey called for Mark and Steve Waugh to be dropped from the Australian team, claiming that they were a waste of space. He stated: > Money is the only thing that keeps them playing...If they earned the same money as I did when I was playing they'd have retired at 34 as I did, and Australian cricket would be the better for it. When Waugh was close to being dropped during the 2002–03 series against England, Harvey wrote off a half-century made by Waugh, saying "he's playing against probably one of the worst cricket teams I've ever seen." Following the death of Arthur Morris on 22 August 2015, Harvey became the last surviving member of the Invincibles who toured England in 1948. Harvey received the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours (Australia) for service to cricket. ## Personal life During the 1949–50 tour of South Africa, Harvey met his first wife Iris Greenish. At the time, Greenish was only 16 years old and Harvey 21, and their relationship became the subject of controversy when her father told the media that he would object to the couple's engagement until his daughter turned 18. They married four years later at Holy Trinity Church in East Melbourne and had three children: two sons and a daughter. ## Test match performance ### Test Centuries The following table summarises the Test centuries scored by Neil Harvey. - In the column Runs, \* indicates being not out. - The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

Indo-Roman trade relations

Trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire

Indo-Roman trade relations (see also the spice trade and incense road) was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade through the overland caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Middle East, though at a relative trickle compared to later times, preceded the southern trade route via the Red Sea which started around the beginning of the Common Era (CE) following the reign of Augustus and his conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE. The southern route so helped enhance trade between the ancient Roman Empire and the Indian subcontinent, that Roman politicians and historians are on record decrying the loss of silver and gold to buy silk to pamper Roman wives, and the southern route grew to eclipse and then totally supplant the overland trade route. Roman and Greek traders frequented the ancient Tamil country, present day Southern India and Sri Lanka, securing trade with the seafaring Tamil states of the Pandyan, Chola and Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with the Indian subcontinent by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty a few decades before the start of the Common Era and remained long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. ## Background The Seleucid dynasty controlled a developed network of trade with the Indian Subcontinent which had previously existed under the influence of the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek-Ptolemaic dynasty, controlling the western and northern end of other trade routes to Southern Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent, had begun to exploit trading opportunities in the region prior to the Roman involvement but, according to the historian Strabo, the volume of commerce between Indians and the Greeks was not comparable to that of later Indo-Roman trade. The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a time when sea trade between Egypt and the subcontinent did not involve direct sailings. The cargo under these situations was shipped to Aden: > Aden – Arabia Eudaimon was called the fortunate, being once a city, when, because ships neither came from India to Egypt nor did those from Egypt dare to go further but only came as far as this place, it received the cargoes from both, just as Alexandria receives goods brought from outside and from Egypt. The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with Indian kingdoms using the Red Sea ports. With the establishment of Roman Egypt, the Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade using these ports. Classical geographers such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder were generally slow to incorporate new information into their works and, from their positions as esteemed scholars, were seemingly prejudiced against lowly merchants and their topographical accounts. Ptolemy's Geography represents somewhat of a break from this since he demonstrated an openness to their accounts and would not have been able to chart the Bay of Bengal so accurately had it not been for the input of traders. It is perhaps no surprise then that Marinus and Ptolemy relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexander for how to reach "Cattigara" (most likely Oc Eo, Vietnam, or Kathiawar, India, where Antonine-period Roman artefacts have been discovered) in the Magnus Sinus (i.e. Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea) located east of the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula). In the 1st-century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, its anonymous Greek-speaking author, a merchant of Roman Egypt, provides such vivid accounts of trade cities in Arabia and India, including travel times from rivers and towns, where to drop anchor, the locations of royal courts, lifestyles of the locals and goods found in their markets, and favorable times of year to sail from Egypt to these places in order to catch the monsoon winds, that it is clear he visited many of these locations. ## Early Common Era Prior to Roman expansion, the various peoples of the subcontinent had established strong maritime trade with other countries. The dramatic increase in the importance of Indian ports, however, did not occur until the opening of the Red Sea by the Greeks and the Romans' attainment concerning the region’s seasonal monsoons. The first two centuries of the Common Era indicate a marked increase in trade between western India and the Roman east by sea. The expansion of trade was made possible by the stability brought to the region by the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus (r. 27 BCE–14 CE) which allowed for new explorations and the creation of a sound silver and gold coinage. The west coast of present-day India is mentioned frequently in literature, such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The area was noted for its strong tidal currents, turbulent waves and rocky sea-beds were dangerous for shipping experience. The anchors of ships would be caught by the waves and quickly detach to capsize the vessel or cause a shipwreck. Stone anchors have been observed near Bet Dwarka, an island situated in the Gulf of Kachchh, from ship lost at sea. Onshore and offshore explorations have been carried out around Bet Dwarka Island since 1983. The finds discovered include lead and stone objects buried in sediment and considered to be anchors due to their axial holes. Though it is unlikely that the remains of the shipwreck’s hull survived, offshore explorations in 2000 and 2001 have yielded seven differently-sized amphoras, two lead anchors, forty-two stone anchors of different types, a supply of potsherds, and a circular lead ingot. The remains of the seven amphoras were of a thick, coarse fabric with a rough surface, which was used for exporting wine and olive oil from the Roman Empire. Archeologists have concluded that most of these were wine amphoras, since olive oil was in less demand in the subcontinent. Since the discoveries at Bet Dwarka are significant for the maritime history of the region, archeologists have researched the resources in India. Despite the unfavorable conditions the island is situated in, the following items have made Bet Dwarka as well as the rest of western India an important place for trade. From Latin literature, Rome imported Indian tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, and serpents to use for circus shows – a method employed as entertainment to prevent riots in Rome. It has been noted in the Periplus that Roman women also wore Indian Ocean pearls and used a supply of herbs, spices, pepper, lycium, costus [Saussurea costus], sesame oil and sugar for food. Indigo was used as a color while cotton cloth was used as articles of clothing. Furthermore, the subcontinent exported ebony for fashioned furniture in Rome. The Roman Empire also imported Indian lime, peach, and various other fruits for medicine. Western India, as a result, was the recipient of large amounts of Roman gold during this time. Since one must sail against the narrow gulfs of western India, special large boats were used and ship development was demanded. At the entrance of the gulf, large ships called trappaga and cotymba helped guide foreign vessels safely to the harbor. These ships were capable of relatively long coastal cruises, and several seals have depicted this type of ship. In each seal, parallel bands were suggested to represent the beams of the ship. In the center of the vessel is a single mast with a tripod base. Apart from the recent explorations, close trade relations, as well as the development of ship building, were supported by the discovery of several Roman coins. On these coins were depictions of two strongly constructed masted ships. Thus, these depictions of Indian ships, originating from both coins and literature (Pliny and Pluriplus), indicate Indian development in seafaring due to the increase in Indo-Roman commerce. In addition, the silver Roman coins discovered in western India primarily come from the 1st, 2nd, and 5th centuries. These Roman coins also suggest that the Indian peninsula possessed a stable seaborne trade with Rome during 1st and 2nd century AD. Land routes, during the time of Augustus, were also used for Indian embassies to reach Rome. The discoveries found on Bet Dwarka and on other areas on the western coast of India strongly indicate that there were strong Indo-Roman trade relations during the first two centuries of the Common Era. The 3rd century, however, was the demise of the Indo-Roman trade. The sea-route between Rome and India was shut down, and as a result, the trading reverted to the time prior to Roman expansion and exploration. ## Establishment The replacement of Greek kingdoms by the Roman Empire as the administrator of the eastern Mediterranean basin led to the strengthening of direct maritime trade with the east and the elimination of the taxes extracted previously by the middlemen of various land based trading routes. Strabo's mention of the vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt indicates that monsoon was known from his time. The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing according to Strabo (II.5.12.): > At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia), and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to the subcontinent, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise. By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India. So much gold was used for this trade, and apparently recycled by the Kushan Empire (Kushans) for their own coinage, that Pliny the Elder (NH VI.101) complained about the drain of specie to India: > India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what fraction of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead? ## Trade of exotic animals There is evidence of animal trade between Indian Ocean harbours and the Mediterranean. This can be seen in the mosaics and frescoes of the remains of Roman villas in Italy. For example, the Villa del Casale has mosaics depicting the capture of animals in India, Indonesia and Africa. The intercontinental trade of animals was one of the sources of wealth for the owners of the villa. In the Ambulacro della Grande Caccia, the hunting and capture of animals is represented in such detail that it is possible to identify the species. There is a scene that shows a technique to distract a tiger with a shimmering ball of glass or mirror in order to take her cubs. Tiger hunting with red ribbons serving as a distraction is also shown. In the mosaic there are also numerous other animals such as rhinoceros, an Indian elephant (recognized from the ears) with his Indian conductor, and the Indian peafowl, and other exotic birds. There are also numerous animals from Africa. Tigers, leopards and Asian and African lions were used in the arenas and circuses. The European lion was already extinct at that time. Probably the last lived in the Balkan Peninsula and were hunted to stock arenas. The birds and monkeys entertained the guests of many villas. Also in the Villa Romana del Tellaro there is a mosaic with a tiger in the jungle attacking a man with Roman clothes, probably a careless hunter. The animals were transported in cages by ship. ## Ports ### Roman ports The three main Roman ports involved with eastern trade were Arsinoe, Berenice and Myos Hormos. Arsinoe was one of the early trading centers but was soon overshadowed by the more easily accessible Myos Hormos and Berenice. #### Arsinoe The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited the strategic position of Alexandria to secure trade with the subcontinent. The course of trade with the east then seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe, the present day Suez. The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports, Arsinoe, Berenice or Myos Hormos. The Romans repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to harbor center of Arsinoe on the Red Sea. This was one of the many efforts the Roman administration had to undertake to divert as much of the trade to the maritime routes as possible. Arsinoe was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hormos. The navigation to the northern ports, such as Arsinoe-Clysma, became difficult in comparison to Myos Hormos due to the northern winds in the Gulf of Suez. Venturing to these northern ports presented additional difficulties such as shoals, reefs and treacherous currents. #### Myos Hormos and Berenice Myos Hormos and Berenice appear to have been important ancient trading ports, possibly used by the Pharaonic traders of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic dynasty before falling into Roman control. The site of Berenice, since its discovery by Belzoni (1818), has been equated with the ruins near Ras Banas in Southern Egypt. However, the precise location of Myos Hormos is disputed with the latitude and longitude given in Ptolemy's Geography favoring Abu Sha'ar and the accounts given in classical literature and satellite images indicating a probable identification with Quseir el-Quadim at the end of a fortified road from Koptos on the Nile. The Quseir el-Quadim site has further been associated with Myos Hormos following the excavations at el-Zerqa, halfway along the route, which have revealed ostraca leading to the conclusion that the port at the end of this road may have been Myos Hormos. In Berenike in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating the main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of a Buddha, the Berenike Buddha, suggesting the presence of Buddhist merchants from India in Egypt at that time. ### Major regional ports The regional ports of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Sounagoura (central Bangladesh), Barygaza (Bharuch in Gujarat), Muziris (present day Kodungallur), Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu (Tamil Nadu) on the southern tip of present-day India were the main centers of this trade, along with Kodumanal, an inland city. The Periplus Maris Erythraei describes Greco-Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin clothing, figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine" in exchange for "costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo". In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth. #### Barigaza Trade with Barigaza, under the control of the Indo-Scythian Western Satrap Nahapana ("Nambanus"), was especially flourishing: > There are imported into this market-town (Barigaza), wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar, antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit when exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things as are brought here from the various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi. #### Muziris Muziris is a lost port city on the south-western coast of India which was a major center of trade in the ancient Tamil land between the Chera kingdom and the Roman Empire. Its location is generally identified with modern-day Cranganore (central Kerala). Large hoards of coins and innumerable shards of amphorae found at the town of Pattanam (near Cranganore) have elicited recent archeological interest in finding a probable location of this port city. According to the Periplus, numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris: > Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica (Limyrike), and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it is a village in plain sight by the sea. Muziris, of the same Kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant from Tyndis by river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty stadia" #### Arikamedu The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a marketplace named Poduke (ch. 60), which G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly being Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu, a centre of early Chola trade (now part of Ariyankuppam), about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the modern Pondicherry. Huntingford further notes that Roman pottery was found at Arikamedu in 1937, and archeological excavations between 1944 and 1949 showed that it was "a trading station to which goods of Roman manufacture were imported during the first half of the 1st century AD". ## Cultural exchanges The Rome-subcontinental trade also saw several cultural exchanges which had a lasting effect on both the civilizations and others involved in the trade. The Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum was involved in the Indian Ocean trade network and was influenced by Roman culture and Indian architecture. Traces of Indian influences are visible in Roman works of silver and ivory, or in Egyptian cotton and silk fabrics used for sale in Europe. The Indian presence in Alexandria may have influenced the culture but little is known about the manner of this influence. Clement of Alexandria mentions the Buddha in his writings and other Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period. Han China was perhaps also involved in the Roman trade, with Roman embassies recorded for the years 166, 226, and 284 that allegedly landed in Rinan (Jianzhi) in northern Vietnam, according to Chinese histories. Roman coins and goods such as glasswares and silverwares have been found in China, as well as Roman coins, bracelets, glass beads, a bronze lamp, and Antonine-period medallions in Vietnam, especially at Oc Eo (belonging to the Funan Kingdom). The 1st-century Periplus notes how a country called This, with a great city called Thinae (comparable to Sinae in Ptolemy's Geography), produced silk and exported it to Bactria before it traveled overland to Barygaza in India and down the Ganges River. While Marinus of Tyre and Ptolemy provided vague accounts of the Gulf of Thailand and Southeast Asia, the Alexandrian Greek monk and former merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes, in his Christian Topography (c. 550), spoke clearly about China, how to sail there, and how it was involved in the clove trade stretching to Ceylon. Comparing the small amount of Roman coins found in China as opposed to India, Warwick Ball asserts that most of the Chinese silk purchased by the Romans was done so in India, with the land route through ancient Persia playing a secondary role. Christian and Jewish settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the decline in bilateral trade. Large hoards of Roman coins have been found throughout India, and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of the south. The Tamilakkam kings reissued Roman coinage in their own name after defacing the coins in order to signify their sovereignty. Mentions of the traders are recorded in the Tamil Sangam literature of India. One such mention reads: "The beautifully built ships of the Yavanas came with gold and returned with pepper, and Muziris resounded with the noise." (from poem no. 149 of 'Akananuru' of Sangam Literature)" ## Decline and aftermath ### Roman decline Trade declined from the mid-3rd century during a crisis in the Roman Empire, but recovered in the 4th century until the early 7th century, when Khosrow II, Shah of the Sasanian Empire, occupied the Roman parts of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt until being defeated by the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius at the end of 627, after which the lost territories were returned to the Eastern Romans. Cosmas Indicopleustes ('Cosmas who sailed to India') was a Greek-Egyptian trader, and later monk, who wrote about his trade trips to India and Sri Lanka in the 6th century. ### Ravaging of the Gupta Empire by the Huns In India, the Alchon Huns' invasions (496–534 CE) are said to have seriously damaged India's trade with Europe and Central Asia. The Gupta Empire had been benefiting greatly from Indo-Roman trade. They had been exporting numerous luxury products such as silk, leather goods, fur, iron products, ivory, pearl or pepper from centers such as Nashik, Prathisthana, Pataliputra and Varanasi. The Huna invasions probably disrupted these trade relations and the tax revenues that came with it. Soon after the invasions, the Gupta Empire, already weakened by these invasions and the rise of local rulers, ended as well. Following the invasions, northern India was left in disarray, with numerous smaller Indian powers emerging after the crumbling of the Guptas. ### Arab expansion The Arabs, led by 'Amr ibn al-'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE. This advance marked the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Egypt. The capture of Alexandria and the rest of the country, brought an end to 670 years of Roman trade with the subcontinent. Tamil speaking south India turned to Southeast Asia for international trade where Indian culture influenced the native culture to a greater degree than the sketchy impressions made on Rome seen in the adoption of Hinduism and then Buddhism. However, knowledge of the Indian subcontinent and its trade was preserved in Byzantine books and it is likely that the court of the Emperor still maintained some form of diplomatic relation to the region up until at least the time of Constantine VII, seeking an ally against the rising influence of the Islamic states in the Middle East and Persia, appearing in a work on ceremonies called De Ceremoniis. The Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the 15th century (1453), marking the beginning of Turkish control over the most direct trade routes between Europe and Asia. The Ottomans initially cut off eastern trade with Europe, leading in turn to the attempt by Europeans to find a sea route around Africa, spurring the European Age of Discovery, and the eventual rise of European Mercantilism and Colonialism. ## See also

Star Trek (1971 video game)

1971 video game

Star Trek is a text-based strategy video game based on the Star Trek television series (1966–69) and originally released in 1971. In the game, the player commands the USS Enterprise on a mission to hunt down and destroy an invading fleet of Klingon warships. The player travels through the 64 quadrants of the galaxy to attack enemy ships with phasers and photon torpedoes in turn-based battles and refuel at starbases. The goal is to eliminate all enemies within a random time limit. Mike Mayfield wrote the game in the BASIC programming language for the SDS Sigma 7 mainframe computer with the goal of creating a game like Spacewar! (1962) that could be played with a teleprinter instead of a graphical display. He then rewrote it for the HP 2000C minicomputer in 1972, and it was included in Hewlett-Packard's public domain software catalog the following year. It was picked up from there by David H. Ahl, who ported it with Mary Cole to BASIC-PLUS and published the source code in the Digital Equipment Corporation Edu newsletter. It was republished with other computer games in his best-selling 101 BASIC Computer Games book. Bob Leedom then expanded the game in 1974 into Super Star Trek. Ahl left DEC and started Creative Computing magazine in 1974. He began porting the games from 101 to Microsoft BASIC, with the exception of Star Trek, where he ported Leedom's version rather than Mayfield's original. The result was released in 1978 under the new name BASIC Computer Games, just as the first microcomputers able to run the game were coming to market. BASIC Computer Games went on to become the first million-selling computer book, and versions of the game were available for almost all personal computers of the era. Additionally, dozens of variants and expansions were made for a variety of other systems, based either on Leedom's or the original Mayfield versions. ## Gameplay Star Trek is a text-based strategy video game based on the Star Trek television series in which the player, controlling the USS Enterprise starship, flies through the galaxy and hunts down Klingon warships within a time limit. The game starts with a short text description of the mission before allowing the player to enter commands. Each game starts with a different number of Klingons, friendly starbases, and stars spread throughout the galaxy. The galaxy is depicted as an 8-by-8 grid of "quadrants". Each quadrant is further divided into an 8-by-8 grid of "sectors". The number of stars, Klingons, and starbases in any one quadrant is set at the start of the game, but their exact position changes each time the player enters that quadrant. The player can view a text-based map of the current quadrant by issuing the short-range scan command. Stars, Klingon ships, starbases, and the Enterprise itself are shown as text-based figures in a square grid; the Enterprise, for example, is represented with `-E-`. The player can also use the long-range scan to print out a map of the quadrants lying directly around the Enterprise, with a list of the number of stars, Klingons, and starbases in each quadrant. The player moves between and within quadrants with the warp drive. Klingon ships can be attacked with either phasers or photon torpedoes. Phasers do not have to be aimed, but their power and therefore damage amount falls off with distance, and the player must select how much power to put into each shot. Torpedoes do not suffer this drop in power and will destroy a Klingon ship with a single hit, but have to be aimed using polar coordinates. Later versions of the game expanded on this combat system by adding features such as Klingon ships moving after each shot if not destroyed, enemy attacks damaging systems such as scanners or shields, stars absorbing torpedoes that hit them, and a calculator to help in determining the proper angle to fire the torpedoes. Combat is turn-based, and Klingon ships will fire back at the player in their turn. Movement, combat, and shields all drain the energy supply of the Enterprise, which can be restored by flying to a starbase. In some versions of the game, there are additional options for emergency situations, such as calling for help from a starbase, using the experimental Death Ray, loading raw dilithium crystals into the warp drive, or abandoning ship. Movement commands take up time depending on how far the player is moving. The game ends when the Enterprise is destroyed, all Klingons are destroyed, or the time limit runs out. A score in the form of a ranking is presented at the end of the game based on energy usage, damage taken and inflicted, and any remaining time. ## Development ### Star Trek In 1971, Mike Mayfield, then in his final year of high school, frequented a computer lab at the University of California, Irvine while teaching himself how to program. The lab operated both a SDS Sigma 7 and a DEC PDP-10 mainframe computer. The PDP-10 hosted a copy of Spacewar!, a multiplayer space combat video game developed in 1962 in the early history of video games. Mayfield had gained illicit access to the Sigma 7 at the lab and wanted to create his own version of the game for the system. Spacewar! required a vector graphics display, however, and the Sigma 7 only had access to a non-graphical Teletype Model 33 ASR teleprinter. Mayfield decided to create a game in the vein of Spacewar! that could be played on a teleprinter and brainstormed several ideas with his friends. As none of the group had much experience with computers, most of the ideas were unfeasible, but one concept he liked and thought was possible was a game based on Star Trek, then in syndication on television. The concept included the game printing a map of the galaxy and a map of the local star system, and phaser weapons whose attack power declined over distance. Mayfield began to program the game, creating a punched tape of the game at the end of each programming session and loading it back into the computer the next day. He worked on the game through the rest of the school year and into the summer after graduating. Later that summer, Mayfield purchased an HP-35 calculator and often visited the local Hewlett-Packard sales office. The staff there offered to let him use the HP 2000C minicomputer at the office if he would create a version of his Star Trek game for it; as the version of the BASIC programming language on the computer was different from the Sigma 7, he elected to abandon the Sigma 7 version and rewrite the program from scratch. He completed it on October 20, 1972, and the game was added to the HP public domain Contributed Program library of software as STTR1 in February 1973, with Mayfield attributing the game to Centerline Engineering, a company he was considering starting. It was also published in the People's Computer Company newsletter, and republished in their collection book, What to Do After You Hit Return (1975). David H. Ahl was an employee in the education department of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He had begun the Edu newsletter where user-submitted games became a major draw. He and fellow employee Mary Cole ported STTR1 to DEC's BASIC-PLUS in the summer of 1973, with some additions, and he published this version in the newsletter. Ahl attributed the game to "Mike Mayfield of Centerline Engineering and/or Custom Data". In late 1973, Ahl collected many of the game submissions in the book 101 BASIC Computer Games, containing descriptions and the source code for many early mainframe games. 101 BASIC Computer Games was a landmark title in computer games programming, and was a best-selling title with more than 10,000 copies sold — more copies than there were computers in existence at the time. As such, the BASIC ports of mainframe computer games included in the book were often more long-lived than their original versions or other mainframe computer games. He included Star Trek in the book as SPACWR, i.e. Space War. ### Super Star Trek In early 1974, Bob Leedom saw Ahl's version of the game in 101 BASIC Computer Games while working with a Data General Nova 800 minicomputer at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and, having never seen a Star Trek game before, started porting it to the system. After he got the game running, he began to expand it with suggestions from his friends. He changed the user interface, replacing the original game's numeric codes with three-letter commands and adding status reports from show characters and names for the galaxy quadrants, and overhauled the gameplay, adding moving Klingon ships, navigation and fire control options, and an expanded library computer. Once it was completed, he wrote a letter to the People's Computer Company newsletter describing the game. Ahl, who by then had left DEC to start Creative Computing magazine, saw Leedom's description in the newsletter and contacted him to publish the game in his magazine. Ahl ported it to Microsoft BASIC and published the source code of the game as Super Star Trek to distinguish it from the original Star Trek game, calling it "by far the best" version. He later included it under that name in the 1976 anthology The Best of Creative Computing as well as the 1978 edition of 101 BASIC Computer Games, retitled BASIC Computer Games. He added a note that he had permission from the rights holders to use the show's name in the title alongside a longer note written by Leedom explaining why the galaxy had 64 quadrants even though the term suggested there should only be four. BASIC Computer Games was the first million-selling computer book, giving Leedom's version a much wider audience than Mayfield and Ahl's original versions. ## Reception and legacy Star Trek, especially the Super Star Trek version, was immensely popular for the era. By 1975 it had spread to mainframes across the United States, and Ahl stated in 1978 in BASIC Computer Games that it was difficult to find a computer installation that did not contain a version of Star Trek. By 1980, Star Trek was described by Mark Herro in The Dragon magazine as "one of the most popular (if not the most popular) computer games around", with "literally scores of different versions of this game floating around". At least one published work of fiction that year mentioned the game, the short story "Another Game of Spacewar", published in an anthology by Creative Computing. A 2013 overview of the game and its myriad versions in The Register by Tony Smith concluded that "like most games of the period it was fun to play once or twice, but it lacked staying power." Regardless, for the players of the time period when it was released, it was "a shiny new gateway to 'strange new worlds'". The widespread popularity of the game, especially Super Star Trek, along with the availability of the source code, led to numerous ports of both versions of the game for mainframe and microcomputers. Alternate versions of the game were also produced, based on Star Trek, Super Star Trek, or both. David Matuszek and Paul Reynolds wrote an expanded Fortran version of the original game as UT Super Star Trek; Eric Allman ported this version to the C programming language to become BSD Trek, which is still included in the Debian classic Unix games package. BYTE published a BASIC version by David Price in March 1977 that used the original command system based on numbers. In 1983 BYTE columnist Jerry Pournelle claimed to have written "the world's most complex Star Trek game" in CBASIC. A shareware version for MS-DOS, EGATrek, was released in the late 1980s that replaced the original text-based screens with basic graphics that implemented a multi-paned display. In 2017, PC Gamer ranked EGATrek among the best Star Trek games. Multiple commercial versions of the game were released in addition to the free ports. Apple Inc. released a version for the Apple II+ called Apple Trek in 1979, and Atari, Inc. released a version for the Atari 2600 as Stellar Track in 1980. The TRS-80 had at least three separate commercially available Star Trek games, including Trek-80 by Processor Technology (later retitled Invasion Force) which added more interactivity and a number of new options incorporated from the unrelated Trek73, a second Trek-80 by Judges Guild, and Startrek 3.5 from Adventure International. Acornsoft released a version titled Galaxy for their computer systems, and Tandy Computers released Space Trek for theirs. Yet another version was written in BASICA for the IBM Personal Computer in 1982, Video Trek 88; written by Windmill Software, it used numbers for most commands, like the earlier BYTE version. Apex Software released TI-Trek for the TI-99/4A in 1983, which incorporates speech if the speech synthesizer is present. 1984's Star Fleet I: The War Begins by Interstel was a variant released commercially for several computer systems. This game was successful enough to spawn a series. Numerous hobby projects have continued to port the original game versions and enhanced variants to other languages and systems through to today. Additionally, some commercial games have been inspired by Star Trek, such as Star Raiders (1980), which was initially designed as a real time, 3D version of the game. As late as 1994, the collective Star Trek variants were still popular enough that Computer Gaming World claimed that the otherwise unrelated Stellar Explorer's gameplay was directly based on it, and that "anyone who remembers the old Trek games[...] will know exactly what this game is all about". ## See also - List of Star Trek games

1905 International Tourist Trophy

The 1905 International Tourist Trophy was an automobile motor race held on 14 September 1905 on closed public roads along the Highroads Course on the Isle of Man. It was organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, and was the first time that what became known as the RAC Tourist Trophy was awarded. The race lasted over six hours and was won by John Napier, driving an Arrol-Johnston. Percy Northey finished second in a Rolls-Royce, while the Vinot-Deguingand driver Norman Littlejohn was third. Prior to the Tourist Trophy the Isle of Man had hosted the English trials for the Gordon Bennett Cup as the English government had banned motor racing on its roads. The Automobile Club wanted to run an event to help develop fuel efficiency in motor cars and opted to use the same route as had been used for the trials. In order to make the event relevant to those cars on general sale they imposed rules to prevent specialist race cars from entering, though there were complaints that the rules were too restrictive and detracted from the spectacle. There were 58 entrants but only 42 of these started the race. Less than half of the cars completed the full 208.5 miles (335.5 km) and there were more retirements due to mechanical failures and crashes than a lack of fuel. The top three were separated by just over five minutes, while the final finisher took almost three hours longer than Napier. The event was held again in 1906 though the overall distance covered was shortened to around 160 miles (260 km). ## Background At the start of the twentieth century motor racing was banned on English roads, and although the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland (later renamed the Royal Automobile Club) had lobbied the British government to remove speed limits and allow provision for motor racing in England the Motor Car Act 1903 only raised the speed limit to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) and did not repeal the ban on racing. British cars and drivers had nonetheless been successful during the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup, and as such the Automobile Club wanted to host the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup in Britain. After their failure to persuade the government to allow racing in England the 1903 race had been held in Ireland under the provision of the Light Locomotives (Ireland) Act, but this had been a one-off, and the Automobile Club did not manage to get the law extended for further races. As such, when the Automobile Club wanted to hold trials for the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup to establish three vehicles to represent England at the race in Germany they approached the Manx legislature, the Tynwald, in early 1904 and proposed to hold the trials on the island. The Highway (Light Locomotives) Bill was rushed through the Tynwald in March 1904 but only allowed racing for three days during that year, specifically for the Gordon Bennett trials to take place. The following year, after further lobbying from the Automobile Club, the bill was renewed as the Highways (Motor Car) Bill, without a fixed term. The bill gave provision for six days of racing to take place; three for the Gordon Bennett trials in the spring, and three for the Tourist Trophy in the autumn. ### Course The course used for the race was the same as had been used for the 1904 and 1905 Gordon Bennett trials, a 52.125-mile (83.887 km) course featuring over 420 corners which followed much of the modern day Snaefell Mountain Course, known as the Highroads Course (or Highlands). The lap began at Quarterbridge in Douglas and proceeded down the A5 road towards Castletown, then back up the A3 to Ballaugh where it then headed towards Jurby along the A10, but turned onto the A13 towards Ramsey. From Ramsey the course followed the A18, commonly known as the Mountain Road, back to Douglas. The elevation of the Isle of Man was challenging for the cars; the course rose from being barely above sea-level at Douglas to 1,384 feet (422 m) at Brandywell. Many parts of the course were nothing more than rough tracks. In order to minimise disruption to the public two footbridges were built over the roads of the course, one at Kirkmichael and the other at Ramsey. ### Cars The cars were subject to a number of criteria: the chassis had to weigh between 1,300 and 1,600 pounds (590–730 kg), they were required to have a wheelbase of at least seven point five feet (2.3 m), and to carry a load of 950 pounds (430 kg), including the driver, an optional passenger, and ballast. Additionally, the car had to be able to carry four people, including the driver, and the model of car had to be available for sale for at least a month after the race. Initially, it was decided that each car was only allowed to use one imperial gallon (4.5 L) of fuel per 25 miles (40 km) of the race, but due to the conditions, this was altered to one imperial gallon per 22.5 miles (36.2 km). Most of the cars opted to use Continental tyres; just the Maudslays and Napiers used Palmer, the Whites and Swifts used Dunlop, while the Wolseley and Darracq vehicles used Michelin. The rules were introduced in an attempt to make the cars more representative of the touring cars that members of the public could drive. In many ways they were successful; Charles Rolls' 20 horsepower Rolls-Royce was one of the more powerful of the cars to enter the Tourist Trophy, but in contrast, during the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup he drove a 2,200-pound (1,000 kg) Wolseley which generated 112 horsepower. However, a number of manufacturers were put off from entering the contest due to the upper weight limit imposed. It was opined in The Graphic that this excluded the "kind of cars that were really wanted", as they suggested that the chassis of "an ordinary four-cylinder touring car, such as is sold to the public" weighed 1,792 pounds (813 kg). Although it had been originally suggested that the number of foreign entries should be limited, with no more than two foreign cars for every five British entries, no such restrictions were imposted, but it was decided to give special prizes for cars entirely British-built. While the majority of cars were British, there were also entries from France, including a Vinot-Deguingand and a Peugeot and the United States, including a pair of White steam cars and a Cadillac. ## Practice Of the 58 original entrants to the event, ten pulled out before the entry list was published, generally because they either could not reduce the weight of their car sufficiently to be within the limits, or they could not achieve the required fuel efficiency. The first of the cars to arrive on the Isle of Man was the 16 horsepower Minerva, entered by Charles Rolls, but driven by E. H. Arnott, which arrived more than two weeks before the race. During the weeks before the race the cars were tested around the island's roads, during which Arnott managed the fastest circuit of the course. There were also a number of accidents during the practices; Ernest de Wilton crashed his Swift into a stone wall near Castletown, causing significant damage to the car. Although it was repaired in time there was a miscommunication between de Wilton and the race organisers, and de Wilton did not present the car for inspection in time to be entered into the race. Another of the competitors, A. McCormack in a Gladiator, hit some cows after coming off the road, and caused such damage to the car's brakes that it could not be repaired in time for the race. On the Sunday prior to the race local residents were upset that forty of the cars were driving the course, and meetings were held where they expressed their indignation that it was a "desecration of the sanctity of the Sabbath". Three days prior to the race, the organisers began weighing the cars and filling them with the specified amount of fuel. The Mors car which was to have been driven by Dorothy Levitt never arrived on the island, and so Levitt was unable to take part in the race. ## Race report Due to the limited fuel allowance, the cars were towed to the start line by horses. The first car, a Rolls-Royce being driven by Charles Rolls, started at 9 am, and the following 41 cars were released at one minute intervals. Due to the fuel-saving nature of the event most of the drivers began the race by letting their car coast down the initial slope under its own momentum before engaging gear. Early on the first lap of the race Rolls heard a crunching noise from his gear box and the car stopped. He claimed that upon investigation he discovered that small nuts and screws had been dropped into the gearbox, which had smashed a gear. Rolls claimed that this "was a common trick abroad" but voiced surprise at it happening in an English race. There was further speculation of foul play when it was discovered that Arnott's Minerva had been tampered with; two spark plugs had been smashed and an air valve bent, causing his engine to overheat. Before the race Rolls and Arnott had been two of the favourites, and The Automobile magazine said that "this unfortunate incident has greatly detracted from the success of the race." Early in the race John Downie crashed into a pub in Ballasalla, but the car did not sustain extensive damage and he was able to continue the race. At Keppel Gate on the Mountain Road, Frederick Bennett, who had been unable to take part in the practice sessions and therefore did not know the course very well, approached a corner with too much speed in his Cadillac and crashed, ripping off two of the wheels. Bennett managed to stay in the vehicle and avoided serious injury. Another driver to go off the track was J. Hadley in his Wolseley, who also carried too much speed into a corner, leading him to drive off through a hedge and into a field. The Thornycroft driven by Tom Thornycroft had been following closely behind, and the two cars collided during the incident, damaging one of the Thornycroft's rear wheels. Napier in his Arrol-Johnston made the quickest circuit of the first lap in one hour, 32 minutes and 36 seconds. During the second lap a number of drivers were forced to retire with broken wheels. Both Darracq drivers, A. Rawlinson and Algernon Lee Guinness, suffered from the issue; Rawlinson broke his in Ramsey, while Lee Guinness hit a well at Hilberry. A. J. Dew also broke a wheel, but continued the race in W. H. Warren's car; both being entered by J. W. H. Dew. A fourth driver, in one of the White steam cars, succumbed to the same problem, while A. J. Hancock crashed his Vauxhall into a tree, also breaking a wheel. Napier was once again the quickest driver around the circuit, followed by Percy Northey in a Rolls-Royce, and Norman Littlejohn in the Vinot-Deguingand. After his earlier crash Downie retired on the third lap with a broken wheel, while Thornycroft, who had also had first lap trouble, was forced to stop with a broken rear axle. Over the final two laps a number of cars ran out of fuel, and of the 42 starters only 18 completed the race. The first car to finish was the Rolls-Royce of Percy Northey. He had started twenty minutes ahead of Napier's Arrol-Johnston so Napier had to finish within twenty minutes of Northey in order to win. He did so, passing the finish line eighteen minutes later, having run the fastest lap of the race at the end to win by just over two minutes. Napier's time was 6 hours 9 minutes 14.6 seconds, followed by Northey in 6:11:23 and Norman Littlejohn in a French Vinot-Deguingand, in 6:14:32.4. The three drivers had been consistently the quickest throughout the race and were separated by just over five minutes. The next quickest driver was E. J. C. Roberts in the second of the Arrol-Johnstons, but he was over 25 minutes behind his victorious team-mate. ### Ancillary incidents Around an hour after the start of the race, three children were struck by car driven by one of the race officials on a side road from Quarter Bridge Road, near the finish line. None sustained serious injuries; two of them had cuts dressed, while the third rushed back to watching the racing. Another, more serious, accident occurred on the Snaefell Mountain Railway, which had been transporting people up the mountain to watch the racing. A tramcar that had been descending the railway had broken down, and a second car had stopped close behind it. A third tram, on rounding the bend above them, was unable to stop in time and collided into the rearmost car, which was then propelled into the car in front of it. Minor injuries were sustained by some of the passengers, though none were serious. ## Post-race and legacy Opinion as to the success of the race was divided in the press; The Automobile magazine declared that "it must be said that it was a success", while The Yorkshire Post went even further, claiming that "the end of the monster racing-car is in sight". They suggested that racing cars were only useful to help develop technology for ordinary cars, and that the cars used in the Gordon Bennett races and similar were no longer relevant. Along with the withdrawal of France and Britain from the Gordon Bennett races, and the amount of support for the Tourist Trophy, they commended the Automobile Club for "[recognising] the changed conditions of affairs." In contrast, Filson Young of The Manchester Guardian was strong in his criticism of the event. He opined that it had been a disappointment, though it had "never many possibilities as a spectacle" due to the fact that the cars only passed each point four times during the day. Though he conceded that the concept of the race had been admirable he felt that the cost of fuel was negligible in the running of a motor car and that other factors, such as general reliability over a thousand or more miles, were more important. The Tourist Trophy was held on the Isle of Man again in each of the subsequent three years. The race remained four laps, but was run over a shorter course of around 40 miles (64 km). Charles Rolls won the 1906 event, while Napier finished over an hour behind in his Arrol-Johnston. After further races on the Isle of Man in 1914 and 1922, the event moved to Dundonald in Northern Ireland. The "Tourist Trophy" moniker became more closely associated with the Isle of Man TT motorcycle races, which began in 1907 and have continued to run on the Isle of Man ever since. ## Classification

Handshaking lemma

Every graph has evenly many odd vertices

In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, the handshaking lemma is the statement that, in every finite undirected graph, the number of vertices that touch an odd number of edges is even. For example, if there is a party of people who shake hands, the number of people who shake an odd number of other people's hands is even. The handshaking lemma is a consequence of the degree sum formula, also sometimes called the handshaking lemma, according to which the sum of the degrees (the numbers of times each vertex is touched) equals twice the number of edges in the graph. Both results were proven by in his famous paper on the Seven Bridges of Königsberg that began the study of graph theory. Beyond the Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem, which subsequently formalized Eulerian Tours, other applications of the degree sum formula include proofs of certain combinatorial structures. For example, in the proofs of Sperner's lemma and the mountain climbing problem the geometric properties of the formula commonly arise. The complexity class PPA encapsulates the difficulty of finding a second odd vertex, given one such vertex in a large implicitly-defined graph. ## Definitions and statement An undirected graph consists of a system of vertices, and edges connecting unordered pairs of vertices. In any graph, the degree $\deg(v)$ of a vertex $v$ is defined as the number of edges that have $v$ as an endpoint. For graphs that are allowed to contain loops connecting a vertex to itself, a loop should be counted as contributing two units to the degree of its endpoint for the purposes of the handshaking lemma. Then, the handshaking lemma states that, in every finite graph, there must be an even number of vertices for which $\deg(v)$ is an odd number. The vertices of odd degree in a graph are sometimes called odd nodes (or odd vertices); in this terminology, the handshaking lemma can be rephrased as the statement that every graph has an even number of odd nodes. The degree sum formula states that $\sum_{v\in V} \deg v = 2|E|,$ where $V$ is the set of nodes (or vertices) in the graph and $E$ is the set of edges in the graph. That is, the sum of the vertex degrees equals twice the number of edges. In directed graphs, another form of the degree-sum formula states that the sum of in-degrees of all vertices, and the sum of out-degrees, both equal the number of edges. Here, the in-degree is the number of incoming edges, and the out-degree is the number of outgoing edges. A version of the degree sum formula also applies to finite families of sets or, equivalently, multigraphs: the sum of the degrees of the elements (where the degree equals the number of sets containing it) always equals the sum of the cardinalities of the sets. Both results also apply to any subgraph of the given graph and in particular to its connected components. A consequence is that, for any odd vertex, there must exist a path connecting it to another odd vertex. ## Applications ### Euler paths and tours Leonhard Euler first proved the handshaking lemma in his work on the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, asking for a walking tour of the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) crossing each of its seven bridges once. This can be translated into graph-theoretic terms as asking for an Euler path or Euler tour of a connected graph representing the city and its bridges: a walk through the graph that traverses each edge once, either ending at a different vertex than it starts in the case of an Euler path or returning to its starting point in the case of an Euler tour. Euler stated the fundamental results for this problem in terms of the number of odd vertices in the graph, which the handshaking lemma restricts to be an even number. If this number is zero, an Euler tour exists, and if it is two, an Euler path exists. Otherwise, the problem cannot be solved. In the case of the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, the graph representing the problem has four odd vertices, and has neither an Euler path nor an Euler tour. It was therefore impossible to tour all seven bridges in Königsberg without repeating a bridge. In the Christofides–Serdyukov algorithm for approximating the traveling salesperson problem, the geometric implications of the degree sum formula plays a vital role, allowing the algorithm to connect vertices in pairs in order to construct a graph on which an Euler tour forms an approximate TSP tour. ### Combinatorial enumeration Several combinatorial structures may be shown to be even in number by relating them to the odd vertices in an appropriate "exchange graph". For instance, as C. A. B. Smith proved, in any cubic graph $G$ there must be an even number of Hamiltonian cycles through any fixed edge $uv$; these are cycles that pass through each vertex exactly once. used a proof based on the handshaking lemma to extend this result to graphs in which all vertices have odd degree. Thomason defines an exchange graph $H$, the vertices of which are in one-to-one correspondence with the Hamiltonian paths in $G$ beginning at $u$ and continuing through edge $uv$. Two such paths $p_1$ and $p_2$ are defined as being connected by an edge in $H$ if one may obtain $p_2$ by adding a new edge to the end of $p_1$ and removing another edge from the middle of $p_1$. This operation is reversible, forming a symmetric relation, so $H$ is an undirected graph. If path $p$ ends at vertex $w$, then the vertex corresponding to $p$ in $H$ has degree equal to the number of ways that $p$ may be extended by an edge that does not connect back to $u$; that is, the degree of this vertex in $H$ is either $\deg(w)-1$ (an even number) if $p$ does not form part of a Hamiltonian cycle through $uv$, or $\deg(w)-2$ (an odd number) if $p$ is part of a Hamiltonian cycle through $uv$. Since $H$ has an even number of odd vertices, $G$ must have an even number of Hamiltonian cycles through $uv$. ### Other applications The handshaking lemma (or degree sum formula) are also used in proofs of several other results in mathematics. These include the following: - Sperner's lemma states that, if a big triangle is subdivided into smaller triangles meeting edge-to-edge, and the vertices are labeled with three colors so that only two of the colors are used along each edge of the big triangle, then at least one of the smaller triangles has vertices of all three colors; it has applications in fixed-point theorems, root-finding algorithms, and fair division. One proof of this lemma forms an exchange graph whose vertices are the triangles (both small and large) and whose edges connect pairs of triangles that share two vertices of some particular two colors. The big triangle necessarily has odd degree in this exchange graph, as does a small triangle with all three colors, but not the other small triangles. By the handshaking lemma, there must be an odd number of small triangles with all three colors, and therefore at least one such triangle must exist. - The mountain climbing problem states that, for sufficiently well-behaved functions on a unit interval, with equal values at the ends of the interval, it is possible to coordinate the motion of two points, starting from opposite ends of the interval, so that they meet somewhere in the middle while remaining at points of equal value throughout the motion. One proof of this involves approximating the function by a piecewise linear function with the same extreme points, parameterizing the position of the two moving points by the coordinates of a single point in the unit square, and showing that the available positions for the two points form a finite graph, embedded in this square, with only the starting position and its reversal as odd vertices. By the handshaking lemma, these two positions belong to the same connected component of the graph, and a path from one to the other necessarily passes through the desired meeting point. - The reconstruction conjecture concerns the problem of uniquely determining the structure of a graph from the multiset of subgraphs formed by removing a single vertex from it. Given this information, the degree-sum formula can be used to recover the number of edges in the given graph and the degrees of each vertex. From this, it is possible to determine whether the given graph is a regular graph, and if so to determine it uniquely from any vertex-deleted subgraph by adding a new neighbor for all the subgraph vertices of too-low degree. Therefore, all regular graphs can be reconstructed. - The game of Hex is played by two players, who place pieces of their color on a tiling of a parallelogram-shaped board by hexagons until one player has a connected path of adjacent pieces from one side of the board to the other. It can never end in a draw: by the time the board has been completely filled with pieces, one of the players will have formed a winning path. One proof of this forms a graph from a filled game board, with vertices at the corners of the hexagons, and with edges on sides of hexagons that separate the two players' colors. This graph has four odd vertices at the corners of the board, and even vertices elsewhere, so it must contain a path connecting two corners, which necessarily has a winning path for one player on one of its sides. ## Proof Euler's proof of the degree sum formula uses the technique of double counting: he counts the number of incident pairs $(v,e)$ where $e$ is an edge and vertex $v$ is one of its endpoints, in two different ways. Vertex $v$ belongs to $\deg(v)$ pairs, where $\deg(v)$ (the degree of $v$) is the number of edges incident to it. Therefore, the number of incident pairs is the sum of the degrees. However, each edge in the graph belongs to exactly two incident pairs, one for each of its endpoints; therefore, the number of incident pairs is $2|E|$. Since these two formulas count the same set of objects, they must have equal values. The same proof can be interpreted as summing the entries of the incidence matrix of the graph in two ways, by rows to get the sum of degrees and by columns to get twice the number of edges. For graphs, the handshaking lemma follows as a corollary of the degree sum formula. In a sum of integers, the parity of the sum is not affected by the even terms in the sum; the overall sum is even when there is an even number of odd terms, and odd when there is an odd number of odd terms. Since one side of the degree sum formula is the even number $2|E|$, the sum on the other side must have an even number of odd terms; that is, there must be an even number of odd-degree vertices. Alternatively, it is possible to use mathematical induction to prove the degree sum formula, or to prove directly that the number of odd-degree vertices is even, by removing one edge at a time from a given graph and using a case analysis on the degrees of its endpoints to determine the effect of this removal on the parity of the number of odd-degree vertices. ## In special classes of graphs ### Regular graphs The degree sum formula implies that every $r$-regular graph with $n$ vertices has $nr/2$ edges. Because the number of edges must be an integer, it follows that when $r$ is odd the number of vertices must be even. Additionally, for odd values of $r$, the number of edges must be divisible by $r$. ### Bipartite and biregular graphs A bipartite graph has its vertices split into two subsets, with each edge having one endpoint in each subset. It follows from the same double counting argument that, in each subset, the sum of degrees equals the number of edges in the graph. In particular, both subsets have equal degree sums. For biregular graphs, with a partition of the vertices into subsets $V_1$ and $V_2$ with every vertex in a subset $V_i$ having degree $r_i$, it must be the case that $|V_1|r_1=|V_2|r_2$; both equal the number of edges. ### Infinite graphs The handshaking lemma does not apply in its usual form to infinite graphs, even when they have only a finite number of odd-degree vertices. For instance, an infinite path graph with one endpoint has only a single odd-degree vertex rather than having an even number of such vertices. However, it is possible to formulate a version of the handshaking lemma using the concept of an end, an equivalence class of semi-infinite paths ("rays") considering two rays as equivalent when there exists a third ray that uses infinitely many vertices from each of them. The degree of an end is the maximum number of edge-disjoint rays that it contains, and an end is odd if its degree is finite and odd. More generally, it is possible to define an end as being odd or even, regardless of whether it has infinite degree, in graphs for which all vertices have finite degree. Then, in such graphs, the number of odd vertices and odd ends, added together, is either even or infinite. ### Subgraphs By a theorem of Gallai the vertices of any graph can be decomposed as $V=V_e\cup V_o$ where $G(V_e)$ has all degree even and $G(V_o)$ has all degree odd with $|V_o|$ even by the handshaking lemma. In 1994 Yair Caro proved that $|V_o|/|V|>1/\sqrt{n}$ and in 2021 a preprint by Ferber Asaf and Michael Krivelevich showed that $|V_o|/|V|>1/10000$. ## Computational complexity In connection with the exchange graph method for proving the existence of combinatorial structures, it is of interest to ask how efficiently these structures may be found. For instance, suppose one is given as input a Hamiltonian cycle in a cubic graph; it follows from Smith's theorem that there exists a second cycle. How quickly can this second cycle be found? `investigated the computational complexity of questions such as this, or more generally of finding a second odd-degree vertex when one is given a single odd vertex in a large implicitly-defined graph. He defined the complexity class PPA to encapsulate problems such as this one; a closely related class defined on directed graphs, PPAD, has attracted significant attention in algorithmic game theory because computing a Nash equilibrium is computationally equivalent to the hardest problems in this class.` Computational problems proven to be complete for the complexity class PPA include computational tasks related to Sperner's lemma and to fair subdivision of resources according to the Hobby–Rice theorem.

Battle of Kliszów

Battle during the Great Northern War

The Battle of Kliszów (also spelled Klissow or Klezow) took place on July 19, 1702, near the village of Kliszów in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Great Northern War. A Swedish army under the command of King Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Polish–Saxon army twice the size that was led by King Augustus II the Strong of Saxony. During the second year of the war, following Swedish victories at Narva and Düna, Charles launched a campaign against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In May 1702, Charles captured Warsaw, the Commonwealth's capital, where he received intelligence that Augustus was assembling a large Saxon army in Kraków. Charles chose to pursue Augustus and called for Swedish reinforcements. By July, after minor skirmishes and the arrival of his reinforcements, Charles was ready to attack Augustus's army, which had taken up a strong defensive position at Kliszów. The battle began on July 9 with the Swedish army attempting to encircle the Saxon right wing. At the same time, the Polish Crown Army arrived to assist Augustus. The Swedish wings withstood attacks by the Saxon–Polish cavalry, which was driven from the battlefield. The Swedish cavalry and infantry were then able to jointly attack the Saxon infantry, which was forced to retreat. Augustus retreated to Sandomierz with his largely-intact army and retained control of large parts of Poland, but his military power was greatly weakened following the battle, which was a tactical and political victory for Charles. ## Background ### Context On February 12, 1700, the Great Northern War began when Augustus II the Strong, King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and elector of Saxony, crossed the Düna river with his Saxon troops and laid siege to the city of Riga in Swedish Livonia. At the same time, the Royal Danish Army under King Frederick IV of Denmark invaded the Swedish-allied duchies of Holstein and Gottorp to secure his rear before commencing with the planned invasion of Scania. In September 1700, Russian forces under Tsar Peter I invaded Swedish Ingria and laid siege to Narva in Swedish Estonia. These three nations had secretly agreed on a joint pact to attack the Swedish Empire from three separate fronts and each aimed to win back territories they had lost to Sweden in previous wars. The Swedish Army under the command of King Charles XII of Sweden first repelled the Danish threat. After a successful Swedish landing operation at Humlebæk on Zealand on July 25, 1700, Frederick IV was forced to withdraw from the war on August 8 the same year by signing the Peace of Travendal. On November 20, the Russians were forced to withdraw to Russia after their crushing defeat by Charles's main army at the Battle of Narva. On his march towards Riga, Charles defeated a Saxon–Russian army at the Battle of Düna on July 9, 1701. The majority of the Saxon–Russian troops under Field Marshal Adam Heinrich von Steinau withdrew from the battle in a relatively orderly fashion, leaving Charles unable to completely defeat Augustus. The Swedish army later crossed the Düna and occupied the Duchy of Courland. Charles then launched a military campaign in Poland to outmaneuver Augustus's troops and depose him as King of Poland before moving against Russia. Several of the king's advisors, including Polish magnates and foreign diplomats, were worried about the king's war plans, especially his plan to depose Augustus. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was still neutral in the conflict because since Augustus had attacked Swedish Livonia in his capacity as elector of Saxony and not as King of Poland. ### Swedish invasion of Poland At the beginning of February 1702, Charles marched into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with 14,000 men. He left 25,000 men in Sweden's Baltic dominions; they were distributed to different garrisons without a common leadership, and another 4,000 men were in Courland under the command of Major General Carl Magnus Stuart. On March 29, 1702, Charles left Lithuania and marched with his main army towards Warsaw, the Commonwealth's capital. Both Augustus and the Commonwealth's main representative Cardinal Primate Michał Stefan Radziejowski left Warsaw, leaving Charles to enter the city unopposed on May 14. There, he had unsuccessful negotiations with Polish noble factions who were in opposition to Augustus. He then received intelligence that Augustus had fled to Kraków, where he gathered his Saxon troops. On May 24, Charles sent orders to General Nils Gyllenstierna in Swedish Pomerania to immediately advance with 10,000 men towards Kraków. On June 2, Charles gave orders to Major Generals Carl Mörner and Magnus Stenbock with their 4,000 men from Vilnius in Lithuania, and to Major General Georg Johan Maidel with his troops in Courland, to return to the main Swedish army. Maidel, however, reported he was unable to move his troops until June 17 and was therefore far away from Charles's army. The king received a similar report from Gyllenstierna, whose troops remained in Stettin, whereupon the king decided not to wait for Gyllenstierna. On June 16, Charles marched out of Warsaw with four cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments, totaling 8,000 men, leaving a few thousand men to form a garrison in the city. During the march, the king dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Axel Gyllenkrok with 500 cavalry and 300 infantry to collect supplies for the maintenance of the main Swedish army. He also sent repeated messages to Mörner to order his troops to immediately cross the Vistula river and reunite with him. On the day of his departure from Warsaw, the king encamped at Tarczyn on the road to Kraków. He then continued on through Grójec and Łęczeszyce, and camped for a few days in Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą. The march then continued via Drzewica and Gowarczów to Radoszyce, where he camped for a few days. On July 1, Charles received a report from Gyllenkrok, who was having difficulty providing sufficient supplies. The king moved his army west toward the city of Kielce in Lesser Poland, where his troops would be well supplied and he could more easily make contact with Mörner's and Stenbock's troops. Stenbock arrived at Lublin on June 26, after which they crossed the Vistula at Kazimierz Dolny on June 29. At Wierzbica on July 5, Mörner and Stenbock had an unexpected meeting with Charles, who had ridden the 160 kilometres (99 mi) from Kielce in two days to give them oral directions for the march to his camp. The king then returned to his troops on July 6 and ordered them to withdraw to the south. Augustus received intelligence of Charles's approach and Lieutenant General Jacob Heinrich von Flemming urged him to march north with a large army and defeat Charles before he could unite with Gyllenstierna's troops. On July 2, after receiving news of Gyllenstierna's decampment from Stettin, Augustus marched out of Kraków with a Saxon army of 15,000 men. On July 6, he encamped at the village of Kliszów, about 30 km (19 mi) south of Kielce. Later on July 8, he received word the Crown Army under Hetman Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski was on the march only 10 km (6.2 mi) from Kliszów. ### Prelude On July 7, Charles and the main Swedish army arrived at the village of Obice, 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Kliszów. On July 2, the king had detached Colonel Johan August Meijerfeldt, who with 600 cavalry was to reconnoitre the Saxon positions at Pińczów 12 km (7.5 mi) south of Kliszów. On his way there, a cavalry force of 200 Cossacks and Wallachians ambushed Meijerfeldt in a forest near Obice. The attack was repulsed by thirty Swedish dragoons under Captain Tomas Funck [sv], and the ambushers retreated with heavy casualties. Meijerfeldt returned to Charles on July 5 and made a report on the incident. The king contemplated launching a surprise attack against Augustus on the morning of July 8 but on the advice of Lieutenant General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, he decided to wait another day for Mörner's and Stenbock's troops to arrive at his camp. On the morning of July 8, Ryttmästare Carl Gustaf Örnestedt [sv]'s outposts near the army's field camp at Obice were attacked by 200 Saxon soldiers and about 100 Wallachians under Major General von Brause, whom Augustus had ordered to gather intelligence about the Swedes' location. Örnestedt repelled the attack and the Saxons' losses were about 20 killed or wounded, and either eight or nine captured. Among the Swedes, Ryttmästare Gustaf Fägerskiöld and some of the horsemen died. After receiving the alarming report, the king immediately went there to survey the previous skirmish. That evening, Mörner's and Stenbock's troops arrived at the royal camp, ending their five-week-long expedition from Vilnius. Their troops were largely exhausted, several men were sick, and their horses were starved as a result of their forced marches. The troops slept for a few hours before they were ordered to line up the following morning. On the morning of July 9, on the anniversary of the Battle of Düna, a false rumor the Saxon army were on the move spread around the Swedish camp. At 06:00, Charles ordered his troops to conduct a mass and issue the battle cry "With God's help". Then, the troops were ordered to march out and divide themselves into four marching columns. They moved south toward Kliszów under the cover of a large forest and intermediate heights. Steps were taken to give the impression it was only a small reconnaissance force rather than the whole army on the march, and the troops were ordered to march with lowered weapons and banners. Saxon reconnaissance patrols at the western edge of the forest sighted some Swedish units, whom they thought were part of the rearguard sent to mask a large Swedish retreat. When the Swedes arrived at a field outside the southern edge of the forest, Charles sighted the Saxon positions near Kliszów, wheeled right and arranged his troops in the order of battle. At 10:00, the Saxon troops sighted Charles's army; Augustus sounded the alarm with two cannon shots and prepared his troops for battle. ## Battlefield The site of the upcoming battle was situated 30 km (19 mi) south of Kielce and 75 km (47 mi) northeast of Kraków, in an area dominated by wetlands, oak forests and hills. The battlefield was surrounded by small villages including Rebów in the west; Kliszów and Kokot in the south; Kije, Lipnik and Wymoslów in the east; and Górki, Wierzbica and Borczyn in the north. The Swedes made their field camp at Obice north of their later rallying point at Borczyn, both of which were separated by the large forest the Swedes used to cover their advance. The Saxon camp was located just east of Kliszów. The Nida river flowed through a large swamp just west of Kliszów. The Hajdaszek forest was located south of Kliszów and Kokot. The Saxon army used the river and the forest as flank protection. To the east of Rebów and Kliszów, and in front of the Saxon field camp, was Kulaki Height, a sloping hill about 220 m (720 ft) high. Its front was protected by a marshy stream that ran from the Nida. The Saxons had dug both trenches and moats around the hill, and placed their artillery on its summit and chevaux de frise on its slopes. The Saxon center stood between the artillery and the camp. The left wing was placed on a ridge behind Rebów while the right wing was placed in front of Kokot facing northeast. ## Order of battle ### Swedish army The Swedish army prior to the battle had an official strength of 16,230 men, with four four–pounder regimental guns. Though due to famine, disease, and exhaustion, only between 10,000 and 12,000 of these men were fit for combat. The fighting force consisted of 8,000 infantry distributed between 18 infantry battalions, and 25 cavalry squadrons, and 12 dragoon squadrons totaling 4,000 men. The troops were deployed in two lines in front of Borczyn, with infantry in the center and cavalry on both wings. The first line consisted of 25 squadrons and 12 battalions, and the second line had 15 squadrons and 6 battalions. Charles took command of the Swedish right cavalry wing of 21 squadrons, with Lieutenant General Rehnskiöld as his second-in-command. The first cavalry line under the command of Major General Mörner consisted of the Drabant Corps squadron under Major General Arvid Horn, the Life Regiment on Horse's seven squadrons under Major Carl Gustaf Creutz; the Life Dragoon Regiment's three squadrons under Colonel Hugo Johan Hamilton [sv] and Östergötland Cavalry Regiment' four squadrons under Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Burensköld [sv]. The second cavalry line under the command of Lieutenant General Jakob Spens [sv] consisted of three Life Regiment squadrons under Ryttmästare Peter Wetzler [sv] and four Östergötland squadrons under Major Starkenfelt. The Swedish left cavalry wing of nineteen squadrons was under the command of Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, with cavalry General Otto Vellingk as his second-in-command. The first cavalry line under the command of Alexander Stromberg [sv] consisted of the Life Regiment on Horse; the Life Dragoon Regiment; the Southern Scanian Cavalry Regiment's six squadrons under Lieutenant Colonel Johan Ridderschantz; and the Småland Cavalry Regiment's three squadrons under Lieutenant Colonel Johan Stålhammar [sv]. The second cavalry line under the command of Major General Carl Nieroth consisted of two Scanian squadrons and five Småland squadrons, both under Major Mörner. The Swedish center's 17 battalions consisted of the Svea Life Guards's four battalions under Major General Knut Posse, the Dalarna Regiment's two battalions under Lieutenant Colonel Gustaf Henrik von Siegroth [sv] and Captain Carl Svinhufvud; the Kalmar Regiment's two battalions under Colonel Gustaf Ranck and Lieutenant Colonel Erik Silfversparre; the Närke-Värmland Regiment's two battalions under Colonel Carl Gustaf Roos and Lieutenant Colonel Johan Cronman; the Uppland Regiment's two battalions under Lieutenant Colonel von Holst and Major Carl Ludvig von Post; the Västerbotten Regiment's two battalions under Colonel Reinhold Johan von Fersen and Major Lars Björnhufvud; the Västmanland Regiment's two battalions under Colonel Axel Sparre and Lieutenant Colonel Mathias Fredrik von Feilitzen; and one battalion from the Östergötland Reserve Infantry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Claes Ekeblad [sv]. Lieutenant General Bernhard von Liewen [sv] commanded the center, with Major General Stenbock in charge of the first line and Major General Posse in charge of the second line. The Swedish baggage train was protected by 100 dragoons from Henrik Otto Albedyll's Dragoon Regiment under Major Johan Reinhold von Trautvetter [sv] and a battalion from Uppland Reserve Infantry Regiment under Nils Hammarhjelm. ### Saxon–Polish army The Saxon army in the battle had an official strength of 22,230 men and an effective fighting strength of 16,500 men. The fighting force consisted of 7,145 infantry distributed between 16 battalions, and 44 cavalry squadrons and 24 dragoon squadrons totaling 9,000 men. The Saxons had 355 artillerymen operating 46 artillery pieces, about half of which were heavy 12-pounder guns and the rest were four-pounder regimental guns. The Saxon–Polish army thus had numerical superiority in both cannons and cavalry. The army was under the command of Augustus. The Saxon left wing was under Field Marshal Steinau with Danish Major General Adam Fredrik von Trampe in charge of the first line and Major General Francuz de Plessis in charge of the second line. The center was commanded by Lieutenant General Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, who was supported by Major Generals Denhoff, Venediger and Ostromirski. The right wing was under the command of Lieutenant General Flemming, with Major General Marschewitz in charge of the first line and Major General von Beust in charge of the second line. The Crown Army, which was under the command of Hetman Lubomirski, was also placed on the right wing. The Saxon center's 16 battalions were formed on the first line by the four battalions of the Saxon and Polish Guards under Stanisław Ernest Denhoff, two battalions of the Elector's Regiment, two battalions of Wolf Dietrich von Beichlingen's Regiment, and two battalions of the Queen's Regiment; and on the second line by two battalions of Steinau's Regiment, Görtz regiment's two battalions, and Pistori's regiment's two battalions. The right cavalry wing consisted of about 3,000 men made up of the Life Guard on Horse's 10 squadrons, the Life Dragoon Regiment's six squadrons, the Joachim R. Goltz Dragoon Regiment's six squadrons, the Elector's Cuirassier Regiment's six squadrons, and the Eichstädt Cuirassier Regiment's six squadrons. The left cavalry wing consisted of about 4,000 men, made up of Steinau's Cuirassier Regiment's six squadrons, Carl G. Jordan's Cuirassier Regiment's six squadrons, the Queen's Cuirassier Regiment's six squadrons, the Horse Life Guard's four squadrons, Milkau's Dragoon Regiment's six squadrons, and the Crown Prince's Dragoon Regiment's six squadrons. The Polish Crown Army had an official strength of about 12,000 men but at least a third of these were civilians and not combat personnel, making the actual strength between 6,000 and 8,000 men, mainly cavalry. The Polish fighting force consisted of between 1,350 and 1,450 winged hussars; between 4,000 and 4,200 cavalry; between 560 and 600 infantry; and 159 artillerymen. The cavalry consisted of around 5,900 to 6,200 men. Together with the Polish infantry and artillery with four of five guns, the Crown Army had between 6,500 and 6,800 men. It was divided between 11 cavalry regiments and 109 squadrons: King Augustus, Prince August, Hetman Lubomirski, Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski, Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, Marcin Kątski, Rafał Leszczyński, Atanazy Miączyński, Stefan Aleksander Potocki, and Jan Sobieski each had a cavalry regiment with nine squadrons; Jerzy Dominik Lubomirski's cavalry regiment had eight squadrons, and the Wallachian Cavalry Regiment had 13 squadrons. The Polish infantry consisted of Lubomirski's Hungarian Infantry Regiment and mercenaries under the command of Marcin Kątski, General of Artillery. The first line consisted of 12 squadrons or 2,600 cavalry under Lubomirski's command and the second line had 14 squadrons or 3,000 men under Hetman Sieniawski. The Polish guns and infantry were placed in the middle of both cavalry lines. ## Battle ### Arrival of the Crown Army Charles's initial intention was to carry out a frontal assault against the Saxon infantry on Kulaki Height, but a reconnaissance of the wetlands in front of the Saxons' advantageous position indicated performing such a maneuver would be very difficult. To bypass the morass, he decided to pivot the entire Swedish army to the left. The army was to march up the slope near the village of Wierzbica, which they would use as a starting point in both their attack and their attempt to encircle the Saxon right wing. The Saxons intended to attack the Swedes from two sides during their approach; the left wing was to cross Rebów to attack the Swedish right wing while the Saxon infantry would advance northward towards Borczyn. The right wing would face the Swedish encirclement. Shortly thereafter, the Swedish army saw the Crown Army suddenly appear beyond the village of Kije, positioning themselves next to the Saxon right wing. The ongoing Swedish pivot maneuver became vulnerable to a Saxon–Polish pincer maneuver; their combined troops now consisted of about 9,000 cavalry against only 2,000 in the Swedish left wing. ### Swedish regroupment This sudden development forced Charles to halt his troops, transfer the command of the Swedish right wing to Rehnskiöld, and relocate himself to the weak Swedish left wing. There, he organized a cavalry front that would confront the Crown Army and called for infantry support from the Swedish center to protect the left wing from inevitable Polish cavalry attacks. Under Stenbock's command, the Swedish infantry was regrouped, and nine battalions from the Dalarna, Kalmar, Närke-Värmland, Uppland, and Västmanland regiments rushed into the widened gaps between the squadrons in the left wing. The king also ordered the Västerbotten Regiment and Uppland Reserve Regiment to move between the gaps in the Swedish right wing. At the same time, the Crown Army squeezed in and obscured the view of the Saxon right wing south of Kokot, causing the Saxons to have insufficient room to launch their own attack. These movements took around 30 minutes to execute, during which time the Saxon–Polish artillery fired their guns at the Swedes at a distance of 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) with limited effect. The Swedish regimental guns returned fire. ### Action at the Swedish left wing The reinforced Swedish left wing sought to confront the expected Polish attack. Shortly before 14:00, the left cavalry wing under Duke Frederick IV advanced against the Crown Army. At the beginning of the march, the duke was hit in the lower back by a Saxon falconet shot and the advance halted. The duke was escorted to a nearby oak grove and died there a few hours later. The command of the entire left wing was transferred to Vellingk. The Swedish cavalry were forced to give way to 600 winged hussars, who immediately charged towards the Swedish battalions lined up in the gaps between the Swedish squadrons. According to Vellingk: > At first, in pretty good order against our own, they held their ground against the first volley of our infantry. But after the second volley, they could no longer endure the fire. They quickly fell back before our own could advance, and ultimately escaped from our eyesight. Following the second volley fired by the Swedish musketeers, while also being daunted by the Swedish pikemen, the Polish cavalry charges were quickly repulsed. The Småland and Scanian cavalry regiments later made a countercharge, causing Lubomirski's Polish cavalry to quickly collapse. Due to the lack of coordination and trust between the Polish-Saxon units, Lubomirski withdrew from the battlefield along with the Crown Army. The Swedish cavalry chased the Poles to Kije before they were ordered to break off from the pursuit. At the same time, the crowded Saxon right wing tried to expand their ground by attacking Vellingk's reinforced left wing. The point of impact was against three battalions from the Uppland, Närke-Värmland and Västerbotten regiments from the Swedish center. Commanding four Scanian squadrons, Vellingk attacked the Saxon dragoons frontally and in the flank. The attack was completed by a Värmland battalion. In less than an hour, the Saxon right wing was forced into retreat. Communication to the rear of the Saxon army was almost cut off. During the fighting, Flemming received two wounds and a horse he was riding was shot. ### Action at the Swedish right wing By 14:00, while the engagements against the Swedish left wing still took place, the Saxon left wing under Steinau had crossed the wetlands using fascine bridges at Rebów and rapidly advanced towards Rehnskiöld's troops. While these were occupied with regrouping their ranks, Steinau attempted to cut off Rehnskiöld's troops from the Swedish center. Steinau and Trampe made a flanking maneuver and attacked Rehnskiöld in the front, flank, and rear. With 34 Saxon squadrons against 21 Swedish squadrons, each with about 125 Saxons against 100 Swedes, the Saxons had a numerical advantage. Observing the danger, Rehnskiöld quickly sent Adjutant General Gustaf Adam Taube [sv; de] across the battlefield to Charles with a request for help. The king rejected Rehnskiöld's request and urged him to hold his ground on his own. Rehnskiöld was forced to completely reorganize his troops, ordering the Västerbotten Regiment, the Uppland Reserve Regiment, and the squadrons of the Life Regiment on Horse to form square formations to face the Saxon attack from multiple directions. The ensuing battle was fierce and bloody. The Saxons fired a volley that caused heavy casualties among the Life Regiment on Horse in the front rank. These were supported by the Drabant Corps, who quickly repulsed the first Saxon attack. Rehnskiöld's cavalry then made a countercharge that penetrated several Saxon units. Steinau regrouped his units and performed a new attack against the Swedes east of Rebów but was again forced to withdraw. With great difficulty, several Saxon cavalry regiments reached safety on the west bank of the Nida while other units were pushed into the wetlands and drowned. A small body of Saxon cavalry occupied an adjacent height from which they attacked the Swedish cavalry trying to cross the wetlands but after a furious charge from the Drabant Corps, these were also forced to retreat. ### Saxon disintegration Later in the afternoon, the Saxon infantry on Kulaki Height were still intact and their location being used as a rallying point for scattered Saxon cavalry divisions. At 15:00, the Swedes carried out coordinated attacks against Kulaki Height; Rehnskiöld attacked from the west, Posse from the north, and Charles and Vellingk from the east. The cavalry engagements in the early afternoon generated large clouds of dust and gunpowder smoke that drifted in southeasterly winds towards the height, and obstructed the Saxon artillery's aim. Using the clouds as a smoke screen, eight battalions from the Swedish center, consisting of the Svea Life Guards, the Uppland Regiment, the Västerbotten Regiment, and the Östergötland Reserve Regiment, marched along the narrow passages across a marshy stream in front of the hill. Under fierce artillery fire, they rushed up the hill's slope past the chevaux de frise and made a furious charge against the Saxon infantry. Their attack came at the cost of the Life Guards, which accounted for the majority of the Swedish losses in the battle. The Swedes captured the Saxon light regimental artillery and aimed the guns at the Saxons. Steinau's regiment was forced to lay down their arms. At the same time, Lieutenant General Schulenburg rallied a significant number of retreating Saxon regiments to a new position on Kulaki Height. At 16:30, due to heavy enemy pressure from all sides, Augustus decided to fall back towards Hajdaszek Forest. After a quick recovery, they would continue their retreat through Pinczów and on to the road toward Kraków. Augustus took command of some remaining squadrons, who guided the retreat, and assigned a rearguard to cover his retreat. Squadrons of the Swedish left wing blocked the road to Pinczów at 16:00 and the last remnants of Augustus's army were chased away or captured in the former Saxon field camp. Many Saxon soldiers fell and drowned in the swamps behind Kliszów and Rebów, and Swedish musketeers fired at them "like wild animals stuck in a net". At 17:30, Charles recalled his troops from the battlefield to regroup in the newly conquered Saxon field camp. Between 17:00 and 18:00, the king ordered his musicians to "play songs of victory with fiddles and trumpets", and a mass was held. ## Casualties ### Swedish casualties The Swedish losses in the battle were 300 men killed, and between 500 and 900 wounded, but the widely accepted number is 800 wounded. According to other sources, up to 1,000 Swedes were killed in the battle. Among the dead were Duke Frederick IV, Lieutenant Colonel Ridderschantz, five captains, five ryttmästare, five lieutenants, two ensigns, two regimental quartermasters, and a corporal. Among the wounded were Major Generals Posse, Horn, and Spens; Lieutenant Colonel Stålhammar; one ryttmästare; three majors; two captains; three ensigns; and two non-commissioned officers. The Svea Life Guard's losses amounted to 337 privates and 34 officers—both killed and wounded. Two men—one of whom was an officer—were captured and 849 cavalry horses were killed. One standard was lost. The following day, Charles ordered the dead Swedish privates and officers to be buried with all honors, and gave his troops permission to plunder the Saxon wagons scattered around the wetlands. Charles also gave orders that every wounded officer and non-commissioned officer of the Drabant Corps and the Life Guards should be given a quarter of a jug of wine and two jugs of beer a day, with which they would be provided for the next few days. ### Saxon–Polish casualties The combined Saxon–Polish army lost between around 1,800 to 2,000 men on the battlefield, More men were killed during the retreat but their number is unknown. According to Saxon relations, 1,706 Saxon soldiers were killed, and 231 officers and privates were wounded. The Polish Crown Army losses in the battle were about 80 killed, of whom 60 were winged hussars. Around 1,500 Saxons and Poles—including Field Marshal Steinau, Lieutenant General Flemming, and Major General Trampe—were wounded. The Saxon infantry lost about 1,000 men. Saxon cavalry losses were 828 men, of whom 42 officers and 594 privates were killed, and 35 officers and 157 privates were wounded; and the Swedes captured 48 Saxon and Polish artillery pieces. Of the Saxon artillerymen, 70 were killed, 39 were wounded, and two officers were captured. According to other calculations, four Saxon cavalry regiments and five Saxon infantry regiments lost 1,406 men, of whom 475 were killed, 418 were wounded, and 513 were missing. About 1,700 men were captured, of whom 1,100 were unharmed. The Swedes seized Augustus's store of funds and equipment, the massed funds of the Russian envoy's chests to the value of 12,000 riksdaler, 60 standards and banners, and several ammunition stores and tents. Among the most precious spoils of war was a large Turkish tent that Augustus's father John George III had captured from the Ottoman Empire at the battle of Vienna in 1683. ## Aftermath Due to Schulenburg's actions in the final stages of the battle, Augustus was able to retreat with most of his troops but his infantry was almost broken and he lost his respect among Poles, undermining Polish unity within the Commonwealth. Following the battle, Cardinal Radziejowski urged Lubomirski to no longer fight against the Swedes. The Swedes failed to pursue the Saxon–Polish army and their victory was not decisive because Augustus was able to retreat to Kraków, where he rallied fresh reinforcements and continued through eastern Poland towards Sandomierz. For Charles, the victory at Kliszów gave him increased operational freedom of movement within Poland, allowing him to use the weakened Commonwealth for his own benefit. With Duke Frederick IV's death, his son Charles Frederick was proclaimed the new Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, under the guardianship of his mother Hedvig Sophia of Sweden and Frederick's brother Christian August. The duke's body was embalmed and on August 27 was escorted to Gottorf Castle by Georg Heinrich von Görtz. Among Görtz's escort were several wounded and disabled Swedish soldiers, each of whom was awarded 20 riksdaler to return to Sweden. In a letter to his sister Hedvig Sophia that was sent in August 1702 from the Swedish field camp at Kraków, King Charles wrote: > Thereto, I told about the blissful battle and that, which now, without any doubt, God knows better, must be as well known to my heart (Hedvig Sophia) as it is among us here, about the difficult and terrible misfortune that has befallen us, that we have lost our dear and precious brother-in-law, the duke, of which we will never fully regret and lament, and which turns all our joy into sorrow. On July 10, Charles ordered Major Creutz to take Pińczów with 100 dragoons and cavalry. At Pińczów, the king established a field hospital for wounded Swedes and Saxon prisoners of war, and the rest of the Swedish army arrived there in the following days and encamped near the banks of the Nida. The king decreed every unharmed Saxon prisoner should be enlisted in the Swedish service; 900 of these men were awarded two months of salary in advance and were sent for garrison duty in Swedish Pomerania. The enlisted Saxons, however, mutinied near the border of Silesia and dispersed, and several of them returned to serve Augustus. Charles later ordered Lieutenant Colonel von Feilitzen to form a garrison in Pińczów to guard the wounded and sick, and to collect supplies from the surrounding area. At the same time, the king and the rest of the army marched to Skalbmierz. On July 29, Charles conquered Kraków and established his headquarters there. During the following weeks in Kraków, Charles held fruitless peace talks with Augustus and collected contributions for the maintenance of the main army. With the arrival of Gyllenstierna's troops, Charles was able to march into Lublin in early October, where he established winter quarters with an army of 23,000 men. ## See also - Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706) - Swedish invasion of Saxony - Campaign of Grodno - Civil war in Poland (1704–1706)

WaHu Student Apartments

Apartment building in Minneapolis, Minnesota

WaHu Student Apartments (also known simply as WaHu or Wahu) is a luxury residential apartment building located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was first announced in 2012 with intent to cater to the campus population of the nearby University of Minnesota. The complex comprises 327 residential units within three apartment towers. It also contains designated retail space, currently leased by tenants such as Bank of America, Blaze Pizza, and local restaurants. Its name is a combination of the two roads at its adjacent intersection, Huron Boulevard Southeast and Washington Avenue Southeast. WaHu Student Apartments is located in the Stadium Village neighborhood of Minneapolis, built atop the site of a former blood plasma clinic that contributed to several construction delays for the complex. Neighboring structures to the apartment complex include TCF Bank Stadium and the Stadium Village light rail station. Construction of WaHu Student Apartments was completed in August 2015, in time for the start of the academic year. ## Construction and completion WaHu Student Apartments was designed by the Minneapolis-based architectural firm BKV Group. The project was first discussed in 2012, along with plans to relocate current businesses on the site, including a blood plasma donation center called CSL. Construction of WaHu Student Apartments was estimated to reach completion in 2014 in time for the start of the academic year, although this was later pushed back to 2015 due to CSL's decision to complete their original leasing agreement, which ended in August 2014. The plasma clinic initially explored relocating options as early as 2012, but the city of Minneapolis disapproved of a plan to rezone a lot across the street from its current location to allow for medical research. WaHu Student Apartment's client was local apartment developer CPM Development, the company behind 15 other housing projects in Minneapolis. Daniel Oberpriller, a co-founder of CPM Development, formally announced the project in mid-2013 and labeled it as a luxury student housing project. The CSL Plasma center prevented construction of the site from beginning due to their inability to lock down a new, suitable location. On September 20, 2013, Finance & Commerce magazine confirmed that the company was able to lease a suitably-zoned space for medical research, allowing work on WaHu Student Apartments to start, beginning in December 2013. Construction on the project was completed in August 2015. Its developers consisted of locally-based North Bay Companies and Reuter Walton Development. Cardinal Group Companies manages the residential units of WaHu Student Apartments, while Colliers International handles the retail tenants. ## Design and location WaHu Student Apartments consists of eleven stories with a total of 327 residential units. With an angular design, it contains two 6-story residential towers and one 11-story tower. The apartment units range from studio efficiencies to four bedroom and four bathroom units. The peak height of the tallest tower is 132 ft (40 m), comparable to neighboring apartment buildings in Stadium Village. The first floor of the apartment complex contains 24,000 sq ft (2,200 m²) of leasable retail space, designated for restaurants, bars, and shops. Tenants include Blaze Pizza, Bank of America, Sprouts Salad Company, and the MuMu bubble teahouse, formerly called Bambu. Two other available retail suites sit vacant. The complex's design contains elements of modern architecture, with "materials such as glass, metal panels, metal siding, and cement board panels". The first floor storefronts contain large quantities of glass, with certain sections of windows repeating upwards to the eleventh floor. WaHu Student Apartments is located at the intersection of Huron Boulevard Southeast and Washington Avenue Southeast, adjacent to other student housing projects like Stadium View Apartments, Solhaus, and Solhaus Tower. Set within the Stadium Village neighborhood of Minneapolis, it was constructed on the site of the former plasma donation center and an Arby's restaurant. WaHu Student Apartments is adjacent to the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium and across the street from the Stadium Village station for the Metro Green Line light rail line. According to officials from the city of Minneapolis, the project was compliant with the university's "master plan" for student housing, which calls for residential projects with similar unit densities and building heights.

Chi (Chobits)

Fictional character from Chobits

Chi (Japanese: ちぃ, Hepburn: Chii), "née" Elda (Japanese: エルダ, Hepburn: Eruda), is a fictional character in the manga series Chobits and its anime adaptation. Chi is a Chobit, a type of personal computer called a persocom that is far more technologically advanced than regular persocoms, and who are said to possess true machine intelligence rather than relying on software programs like other persocoms. She is found by Hideki, a high school graduate who has no idea about her unique abilities or of her past. Over the course of the series Hideki tries to discover what type of persocom Chi is, being told that she is something special. He finds her a job, and has to deal with her being kidnapped at one point. Chi learns about the things around her and what it means to be in love. At the end of the series, Chi finds the person "just for her", and her forgotten identity is revealed, causing Hideki to confront his feelings. In two interviews describing the series Chi's creators, Clamp, said it would be much easier if computers could speak to you when they had errors. Chi is voiced by Rie Tanaka in the anime and Georgette Rose in its English counterpart. The manga and anime follow Hideki's find of Chi and their relationship, but differ in the storyline. Chi's critical reception has been mostly positive, with reviewers calling her "cute". In addition to Chobits, she is also a crossover character in the series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and is referenced in other works. ## Conception and creation In an interview when describing Chi's character, Clamp member Satsuki Igarashi stated "Lately we've been saying that the easiest to understand is Chii from 'Chobits.' Errors occur with computers. Things like 'Although it's fine to speak the instructions' and 'Please fix this problem here' might be spoken in a cute voice." In addition, an explanation for Chobits's plot was given by Igarashi who stated: "Back then, when our computer had problems all we would get were these inscrutable error messages. However, we had no idea what was wrong because it wouldn't tell us any more". Clamp also describes Chobits as a variation of the "boy living with mysterious girl" genre. Chi's design as a personal computer resulted from Ohkawa's wish to increase the sense of "emotional discomfort" around becoming emotionally involved with something considered to be merely a lifeless machine. The name "Chobi", came from the name of a cat at the place of Nekoi's former employment, which the group made into "Chobits", as the characters Elda and Freya were twins. In the series, Clamp had Chi's creator, Ichiro Mihara (a character from their shared universe work Angelic Layer), use the word "Chobi" to describe anything he thought was "small and hopelessly adorable"; two Chobi (the sisters Elda and Freya) become "Chobits". ## Appearances ### In the manga Chi first appears atop a trash pile in an alley where she is found by Hideki Motosuwa, a high school graduate who knows very little about computers or the androids known as "persocoms" (personal computers) that have become the fashionable item to have in the city. Unlike other persocoms, her activation switch is located in an unusual place: her crotch. She has difficulty communicating with Hideki at first; the only word that she says is "chi", which becomes her given name, but slowly she learns how to speak. Having no memory of her past life, she is taught by Hideki to perform simple tasks. Hideki's neighbor Shinbo and computer prodigy Minoru determine that Chi is no ordinary persocom, and may be a legendary "Chobit", possessing synthetic intelligence. At one point Hideki considers having to take on a second job due to his poor financial state. He is eventually able to convince his former employer Hiroyasu Ueda to hire Chi at his bakery during his anniversary sale. Chi eventually finds herself kidnapped by Yoshiyuki Kojima. Yoshiyuki initiates a program that he had created especially for Chi, which is designed to break through her firewalls, and when he embraces and gropes her, Freya intervenes by binding him with wires connected to Chi and releasing a powerful, concussive blast. Hideki and Shinbo find her, and Freya vanishes, causing Chi to collapse from the energy used. She recovers and briefly reunites with Hideki, before losing consciousness. Shinbo then forces Yoshiyuki to transfer his persocom Kotoko's registration to Hideki to prevent Yoshiyuki from deleting her memories, so that a record of his kidnapping exists. Hideki later learns that before he found Chi, her name was Elda. After Ichiro's wife, Chitose Hibiya, noticed that Freya—the first Chobit who was created to be the daughter she and her husband could never have—was becoming increasingly depressed as time went by, Elda was created to be her younger sister to cheer her up. Freya, however, had fallen in love with Ichiro, and the emotional pain of her unrequited love and her wish to not disturb her parents' happiness eventually caused her to severely malfunction. Elda took Freya's program, which included her mind and memories, into herself to preserve her memory. Before losing her own memories as a result of her actions, Elda requested to be left alone outside, away from her family, so that she would not have the possibility of suffering the same fate as her sister. Her father then gifted her with a program which will delete the recognition programs of all persocoms if she fails to find her soulmate, while her mother authored the children's book series A City with No People, a story within a story about the relationships between persocoms and people, to help Chi in her quest. Towards the end of the series, Zima and Dita, persocom agents for the Japanese government who know the outcome of Chi's special program, arrive at Hideki's apartment. A minor scuffle ensues between Dita and Chi, before Zima restrains Dita, wishing to see the outcome of Hideki's decision and ultimately too falling under Chi's influence. Hideki confirms his love for Chi, only to find that Freya has taken control of her body. Learning that he can never engage in sexual intercourse with Chi without rebooting her systems, erasing everything that makes her a unique individual, Hideki states that he will love Chi regardless. Freya confirms that while Chi and herself are indeed the legendary Chobits, they possess neither sentience nor emotions, but rely on software programs just like every persocom. Again, Hideki stands by his love for Chi. Hideki declines her offer to tell him about Chi's special ability, and Freya vanishes after imploring him to take care of her sister. Chi awakens, embracing Hideki. The series ends with Chi holding Hideki's hand with visible rings Chi had chosen for the two of them. ### In the anime Chi's character is voiced by Rie Tanaka, and Georgette Rose in its English counterpart. The anime and manga storylines are essentially the same, but they differ slightly. These differences include the events in the ending, other things such as describing Elda's memory loss, and her special program. In the anime for example, it is explained that Hibiya reset Elda's memories after her husband's death rather than Elda losing them when she took Freya's program in. Another difference is the special program that was placed into Elda in the anime, this program appears to have an alternative effect. If Chi finds the Person just for her, all persocoms would be granted the ability to feel emotion. The reason for this is since Ichiro Mihara was the creator of persocoms, he viewed them all as his children. His wish was that if Chi were able to find someone who loved her in return, all his children would be able to share in this happiness by being able to feel emotions the way humans do. In the anime, an organization known only as "The Syndicate" is aware of Chi and her special programming. Under the impression that something terrible will happen if her program executes successfully, they send two persocoms, Zima and Dita, to destroy her. Towards the end of the series Chi tells Hideki of her love, asking if it is requited. Hideki responds with a yes, and they embrace briefly before Chi's program executes. Chi floats up to the roof of the apartment and begins to run her program. Hideki makes his way on to the roof to save her. Chi is able to complete her program but chooses not to. She retreats inside herself, and Freya takes control as Chitose Hibiya arrives on the rooftop. Freya explains how she came to inhabit Chi's body. She reveals that she and Chi merely switched places inside the body, but Chi has shut herself away and Freya cannot contact her. Hideki asks why, and Freya explains that Chi discovered there were certain things that humans could do that she could not, leading her to believe that while Hideki would love her, it would make her existence unbearable. Hideki protests that it would not, but Freya tells him that Chi thought otherwise. She then tells Chitose that the time has come to destroy both of them, and she reluctantly agrees. Against Hideki's protestations, she deactivates Freya. Chi, however, has survived the deactivation and comes to the conclusion that while life with Hideki may seem painful because of her limitations, it is even more painful without him. She regains control of her body and completes her program, giving every persocom the ability to love then embraces Hideki. ### In other media Chi makes several appearances in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and is voiced by in the anime by: Kaori Nazuka (Japanese version) and Trina Nishimura (English version). In this crossover series, she is created by Fai D. Flourite as a guardian of the pool where his brother's body, and eventually the sealed Ashura-ou are kept. Fai modeled Chi after his memories of his mother, and was created using one of Princess Sakura's feathers. Chi eventually disintegrates after the feather is removed and given back to Sakura. Another version of Chi appears in episode 32 of the anime where she is the queen of a world that is in a never-ending night. Chi's character is also cosplayed in the anime adaptation of Hanaukyo Maid Team: La Verite. While trying to sell manga at the "Comic manga market", Ikuyo Suzuki has the cast of characters cosplay and Mariel goes as Chi. ## Reception Reviews of Chi's character have been mostly positive. Nanase Ohkawa of Clamp stated: "We had a lot of letters with comments saying Chi was really cute" THEM Anime Reviews critiqued Chi for being a main character but "not having a personality" in the series. Tony Chen from Anime News Network said that "The way Clamp executes the development of Chi's character, growing her from what is basically the mental equivalent of a five-year-old child to a much more intelligent and complex being, is not only clever but also very cute." On the website Screen Junkies, Chi is ranked number 3 of 10 of a "Top 10 anime girls" pick and number 6 of 10 for best anime couples (Chi and Hideki). In his book The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation, Thomas LaMarre describes Chi as "lighter than air" and a "slight slender undefined" body and with not much potential for physical movement. Thomas also describes Chi as "bony" and skeletal" in a physiological way and compares her to a curled up cat when reclining. Chi is also a cosplayed character by fans at anime conventions and related events. ## See also - Chobits - List of Chobits characters - Gynoid

Storming of Farnham Castle

Storming of the First English Civil War

The Storming of Farnham Castle occurred on 1 December 1642, during the early stages of the First English Civil War, when a Parliamentarian force attacked the Royalist garrison at Farnham Castle in Surrey. Sir John Denham had taken possession of the castle for the Royalists in mid-November, but after the Royalists had been turned back from London at the Battle of Turnham Green, a Parliamentarian force under the command of Sir William Waller approached the castle. After Denham refused to surrender, Waller's forces successfully stormed the castle. They captured it in under three hours, mostly due to the unwillingness of the Royalist troops to fight. This allowed the Parliamentarians to get close enough to breach the gates, after which the garrison surrendered. ## Background Farnham Castle, near the town of Farnham in Surrey, is a twelfth-century castle which was the home to the Bishop of Winchester, Walter Curle. At the outbreak of the civil war, most of the area around Farnham favoured the Royalists. In August 1642, King Charles I raised his royal standard in Nottingham and declared the Earl of Essex, and by extension Parliament, to be traitors, marking the start of the First English Civil War. That action had been the culmination of religious, fiscal and legislative tensions going back over fifty years. Both sides attempted to recruit the existing militia and new men into their armies. On 8 September, George Wither was given a commission as captain of a cavalry troop raised in Surrey. Just over a month later, on 14 October, with the addition of two squadrons described by the historian Stephen Manganiello as "weak, poorly-armed squadrons of volunteer horse with but 60 muskets between them", he occupied Farnham Castle. Wither repeatedly requested additional troops and weapons to hold the castle, but when the Royalist army approached London in November 1642, after the Battle of Edgehill, Farnham Castle was considered of no strategic value, and Wither was ordered to abandon the castle. On the night of 8 November he evacuated his men and what ammunition he could, and Royalist forces under Sir John Denham took possession of the castle the next day. Denham had been appointed the High Sheriff of Surrey earlier that year by the King, and had also been issued with a commission of array, a medieval device for levying soldiers which had not been used since 1557. Denham's forces subsequently ransacked Wither's estate, ejecting his wife and children. Wither himself had been sent with his troop to Kingston upon Thames, and they subsequently fought in the Battle of Turnham Green on 13 November. ## Prelude The Royalist army was turned back from London after the stand-off at Turnham Green; the King retreated to Oxford, leaving a garrison at Reading. With London no longer threatened by the King's large army, the commander of Parliament's army, the Earl of Essex, wanted to clear the Royalists out of the south east of England completely. Command of the operation was given to Sir William Waller, a Member of Parliament and experienced soldier, who had rapidly gained seniority within the Parliamentarian army. Most Royalist forces in the area withdrew to Reading or Oxford, but Denham remained at Farnham Castle. In his biography of Denham, Brendan O Hehir drew a parallel between Denham's experience and Wither's, saying that each had experienced "isolation amidst a rising enemy tide". Farnham Castle was not easily defensible, and Denham's troops reinforced the gate, barricading it with piles of wood. ## Battle On 30 November, the Parliamentarian force commanded by Waller, which comprised cavalry and dragoons, approached the castle and demanded its surrender. Denham refused, as the Parliamentarians had not brought any artillery with which to bombard the castle. The Royalists were well stocked; as well as plentiful weapons and ammunition, they also had 300 sheep, 100 oxen and plenty of other food. The inexperienced Royalist soldiers shied away from fighting, unwilling to show themselves on the castle walls and hiding behind the castle's defences instead. After three hours of fighting, in the absence of substantial defensive musket-fire, Waller's troops were able to get close enough to attach a petard to the gate. Despite the meagre defence, Colonel Anthony Fane, one of the Parliamentarian officers, was shot in the cheek, and died from the wound at his home in Kingston shortly thereafter. According to Elliot Warburton, in his 19th century history, Memoir of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, Fane was "almost the only person slain". Once the Parliamentarians had destroyed the gate, they were still unable to gain entrance to the castle because of the wooden barricade; however, the garrison surrendered after they had broken through and entered the keep. The Royalist courtier, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon was disdainful of the efforts of Denham and his men, writing in his history of the war that they "were taken with less resistance than was fit," and "deserved not the name of a garrison." ## Aftermath Denham and his men were taken prisoner and sent to London, where they arrived on 3 December. The common men were quickly released, but others were held for longer at Lambeth House. It is unclear exactly when Denham was released, but it was before 23 March 1643. After gaining his freedom, he joined the King in Oxford. He soon after petitioned to Charles I on behalf of Wither, who had been captured, brought to Oxford, and faced the death penalty for fighting against the King. Denham pled to the King to spare Wither, as "while Wither lives, Denham will not be the worst poet in England." Wither was given a reprieve, but after his release, he seized Denham's estate with Parliament's permission in an effort to offset his financial losses during the war. Denham retired from military life, and is best remembered as a poet; he published an array of propaganda for the Royalists during the war. Waller captured over £40,000 worth of plunder, along with gunpowder and shoes. He subsequently captured Winchester, Arundel and Chichester, and within one month, he had asserted Parliamentarian dominance over Surrey, Sussex and most of Hampshire. His successes saw him appointed as Major-General of the West the following spring, and he was sent by Essex to attempt to claim the south west of England for Parliament. Farnham Castle was subsequently used by Waller as his base of operations; after the war it was slighted by Parliament.

Psychological journeys of Middle-earth

Analysis of Tolkien's fiction

Scholars, including psychoanalysts, have commented that J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories about both Bilbo Baggins, protagonist of The Hobbit, and Frodo Baggins, protagonist of The Lord of the Rings, constitute psychological journeys. Bilbo returns from his journey to help recover the Dwarves' treasure from Smaug the dragon's lair in the Lonely Mountain changed, but wiser and more experienced. Frodo returns from his journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom scarred by multiple weapons, and is unable to settle back into the normal life of his home, the Shire. Bilbo's journey has been seen as a Bildungsroman, a narrative of personal growth and coming-of-age, and in Jungian terms as a journey of individuation, developing the self. Frodo's journey has been interpreted both as such a Jungian development, and in terms of the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and Lev Vygotsky. Jungian interpretations have identified numerous figures who correspond to archetypes, such as Gandalf and Saruman as the Wise Old Man, Gollum as Frodo's shadow, and Denethor and Théoden as the Old King, while Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and Gollum have all been described as guide figures. Several features of The Lord of the Rings have been interpreted as Jungian mandalas, figures of the self; one such is the group of four Hobbits, who may collectively represent the ego with its four cognitive functions. In Klein's theory, Frodo oscillates between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, striving to resolve internal conflicts. In Vygotsky's theory, the journey is towards death, which Tolkien acknowledged as the theme of his book. ## Context ### Jungian psychology Carl Jung (1875–1961), a Swiss psychiatrist, coined the term analytical psychology for his approach to the psyche, to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories. Concepts specific to Jung's analytical psychology include the anima and animus, archetypes, the collective unconscious, complexes, extraversion and introversion, individuation, the Self, the shadow and synchronicity. The findings of Jungian analysis have been applied in areas of life including social and family relationships, dreams and nightmares, work–life balance, architecture and urban planning, and politics, economics, and conflict. ### J. R. R. Tolkien and Jungian psychology J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of two high fantasy works set in Middle-earth, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a member of The Inklings, a literary club that included his friend C. S. Lewis, who was interested in Jungian psychology, "enchanted" by the idea of the collective unconscious, and probably shared these ideas with Tolkien. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger states that Tolkien's The Lost Road, a story of time-travel by a father-son pair who reappear in different ages in the past, was based on Jungian psychology, in particular the collective unconscious, with a hint of reincarnation. Flieger states that Tolkien's mythology for England was "not simply ... about England ... but ... ingrained in the memory of countless generations of Englishmen, memory revived, reexperienced, and re-possessed ... through the genetic recollections of their ancestors." Flieger comments that in The Lost Road, Tolkien uses the "recognised psychological phenomenon" of sudden flashbacks "as a psychic gateway into locked-off areas of the soul", extending it from past experience to past lives. She states that this was wholly compatible with J. W. Dunne's theory in his 1927 An Experiment with Time which allowed the mind to "dream through time in any direction". The clinical psychologist Nancy Bunting writes in Mallorn that Tolkien expressed a Jungian view in several places, such as in a letter to Christopher Tolkien which in her words "sounds the Jungian refrain of linking native soil, race, and language". ### Middle-earth narratives #### The Hobbit The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, safe in his comfortable home, Bag End, is invited by the Wizard Gandalf and a party of Dwarves to help recover the Dwarves' treasure from Smaug the dragon's lair in the Lonely Mountain. On the way he faces dangers from a group of Trolls in a wood, goblins and the monster Gollum – from whom he acquires a magic ring – in the Misty Mountains, Wargs in Wilderland, giant spiders in Mirkwood, the imprisonment of the Dwarves by wood-Elves, and finally Smaug himself; and many of the opposing groups meet in the climactic Battle of the Five Armies. He returns from his journey changed, but wiser and more experienced. #### The Lord of the Rings Gandalf demonstrates to the Hobbit Frodo Baggins that Bilbo's magic ring is the dangerous One Ring. Frodo, terrified, bravely sets out of the Shire, heading for Bree, accompanied by his gardener, Sam Gamgee, and two other Hobbits, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took, both cousins of Frodo's. They are pursued by Black Riders. They escape into the Old Forest, where they are nearly trapped by Old Man Willow, but rescued by Tom Bombadil, master of the forest. They are captured and put under a spell by the barrow-wight; Frodo awakens from the spell and summons Tom Bombadil, who frees them a second time. Reaching Bree, Frodo puts on the Ring, causing shock in the inn there. The Black Riders raid the inn during the night, but the party escape, hidden by a Ranger, Strider. He leads them across the Wild to Rivendell. The Black Riders attack on top of Weathertop hill, wounding Frodo with a magical Morgul-knife. He starts to fade to invisibility. He reaches Rivendell deathly ill, but is healed by Elrond. The Council of Elrond decides the Ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is chosen to bear the Ring; Elrond chooses eight companions to assist Frodo on the quest, forming the Fellowship of the Ring. They set off south, fail to cross the Misty Mountains in the face of a magical snowstorm, and cross beneath the mountains through the tunnels of Moria. At the entrance, Frodo is seized by the tentacles of the Watcher in the Water. Escaping into the tunnel through the magical Doors of Durin, the party is attacked by Orcs and then by a Balrog, an ancient fire-demon. Gandalf defends the party from the Balrog, but both he and it fall into a chasm and are killed. The others flee, and take refuge in the timeless Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by the Lady Galadriel. After leaving that land, one of the party, Boromir, tries to take the Ring, but Frodo evades him using the Ring, and sets off for Mordor. He and Sam are tracked and then led across the barren hills of the Emyn Muil and the Dead Marshes by Gollum, who is enslaved by the Ring. Failing to enter the Black Gate of Mordor, they travel to the pass of Cirith Ungol, guarded by the giant spider Shelob. Frodo uses the magical light of the Phial of Galadriel to drive Shelob back, and his sword Sting to cut through her web. Shelob ambushes and stings Frodo, and trusses him like a fly in a cobweb. Sam, thinking Frodo dead, takes the Phial, Sting, and the Ring. Sam rescues Frodo and they cross the wasteland of Mordor. At the Cracks of Doom, Frodo claims the Ring for himself, but Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and takes the Ring. Gollum falls into the fire of Mount Doom and the Ring is destroyed. The surviving members of the Fellowship of the Ring return home, and while the others become heroes, Frodo is scarred by multiple weapons, and is unable to settle back into the normal life of the Shire. ## Jungian interpretations ### The hero's journey The evolution and maturation of the Hobbit protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is central to The Hobbit. This journey, where Bilbo gains a clear sense of identity and confidence in the outside world, has been viewed as a Bildungsroman rather than a traditional quest. Dorothy Matthews writes in A Tolkien Compass that the Jungian concept of individuation, too, is reflected in this theme of growing maturity and capability, as Tolkien contrasts Bilbo's personal growth with the Dwarves' arrested development. Thus, while Gandalf exerts a parental influence over Bilbo early on, it is Bilbo who gradually takes over leadership of the party, a fact the dwarves could not bear to acknowledge. The hero's returning from the underworld, with a boon (such as the Ring, or an Elvish sword) that benefits his society is seen to fit Joseph Campbell's mythic archetypes of initiation and male coming-of-age. The Tolkien scholar Jared Lobdell comments that he is "profoundly unsympathetic" to Matthews's psychological approach, but that she "carries it off well". Lobdell explains, citing C. S. Lewis's essay "Psychoanalysis and Literary Criticism", that many different stories could, for instance, have the same Freudian interpretation, but be quite different as literature. He remarks on the other hand that a psychoanalytic approach is at least richer than a purely materialistic one. The psychologist Timothy O'Neill comments that The Lord of the Rings has the same overall plot and point as The Hobbit, but is far richer in structure and symbol, something that in his view does not detract from either work. O'Neill cautions that Tolkien's narrative is "not intended as an explicit description of the process of self-realization." Instead, as fantasy, it is "a sort of prose dream" where the unconscious has room "to parade its symbols". Noting that Tolkien is rather more thorough than many other authors "does not weaken its impact on the reader". He warns that "The unconscious is not educated in analytical psychology—quite the reverse—and we must make do with ready imagery and organization". Therefore, he writes, one should not "search for archetypes under every stone, behind every tree". All the same, O'Neill comments, "Tolkien's world ... [and] Jung's theoretical framework ... are waters drawn ... from the same enchanted well." Whether for that reason or not, Jungian interpretations have been offered for many features of Middle-earth. For instance, the essayist Allison Harl writes that the Watcher in the Water in The Lord of the Rings represents a gatekeeper whose goal, in the context of the archetypal journey, is to keep the heroes from entering into new territory, psychologically or spiritually. This "guardian theory" has been echoed by writers such as Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. Among the Jungian archetypes (shown in "Quoted Title Case") identified by scholars in Tolkien's narratives are: ### Paired characters Patrick Grant, a scholar of Renaissance literature, interpreted the interactions of Frodo with the other characters as fitting the oppositions and other pairwise relationships of Jungian archetypes, recurring psychological symbols proposed by Carl Jung. He stated that the Hero archetype appears in The Lord of the Rings both in noble and powerful form as the warrior-king Aragorn, and in childlike form as Frodo, whose quest can be interpreted as a personal journey of individuation. They are opposed by the Ringwraiths (the Black Riders). Frodo's anima is the Elf-queen Galadriel; the Hero is assisted by the Wise Old Man archetype in the shape of the Wizard Gandalf. Frodo's Shadow is the monstrous Gollum, appropriately in Grant's view, also a male Hobbit like Frodo. All of these, together with other characters in the book, create an image of the self. The psychologist Charles Nelson, analysing the guide figures in The Lord of the Rings, similarly describes Gandalf as the good and Gollum as the evil guide, noting that both are necessary to the quest. He observes that Thorin actually describes Gandalf as their "counsellor" at the start of The Hobbit. As for Gollum, he says in The Two Towers "Nice hobbits! We will come with them. Find them safe paths in the dark, yes we will." Nelson comments that Gollum accidentally served as guide to Bilbo in The Hobbit, leading him out of the caves under the Misty Mountains "out of ignorance". A third guide figure, Elrond, provides wise guidance both to Bilbo and to Frodo; indeed, he advises Gandalf too, and in The Council of Elrond, he advises the representatives of all the Free Peoples. Other guides along the way include Tom Bombadil and Faramir; Nelson identifies the Elf-queen Galadriel as possibly the most powerful of the Fellowship's guide figures. ### Multiple paths, multiple heroes Robin Robertson, a Jungian clinical psychologist, sets out seven separate "paths of the hero" to describe the process of individuation in The Lord of the Rings. These are the paths of curiosity, for the young Hobbits Merry and Pippin; of opposites, for the Dwarf Gimli and the Elf Legolas; of the wizard, for Gandalf; of the king, for Aragorn; of failed individuation, for the monster Gollum; of love, for Sam; and of transcendence, for Frodo. Robertson comments that "Frodo's path transcends that of any other hero in literature." He adds that while Frodo seems to be the least of characters, "always aware of his own fears, his own limitations", he manages to achieve more than any of the great or wise. This accomplishment is balanced by the bitter ending, since Frodo is the one character unable to find peace after the quest, because he cannot be made whole. Robertson likens Frodo to Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet who cannot find peace on Earth. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger compares and contrasts the journeys of Frodo and Aragorn, showing that while Frodo sets out as the little man of fairytale, it is Aragorn who gets the happy ending, while Frodo gets "defeat and disillusionment—the stark, bitter ending typical of [the heroes of] the Iliad, Beowulf, the Morte D'Arthur". Anna Caughey, in A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, notes that in 1961 the poet W. H. Auden called The Lord of the Rings a quest-narrative, and argued that fantasy's purpose is to provide a framework for thinking about the worst of human experiences. In Caughey's view, Auden thus anticipated later "psychoanalytical deconstruction of European fairy-tales". She comments that Tolkien provides not a single quest-narrative but several, at different levels. These include Aragorn's quest for kingship, and Merry, Pippin, and Sam's quests for maturity and social identity. Looking at the quests from another perspective, she describes Frodo as the broken hero; Aragorn and Sam as following patriarch's quests, both becoming leaders of their respective realms; and Merry and Pippin, like Bilbo in The Hobbit, following simple "There and Back Again" quests. Caughey adds that while Tolkien denied writing an allegory, one of the reasons that the book was so popular was that readers liked "engaging with the universal human experiences of failure, sacrifice, redemption and growth to maturity" of a hero's journey. ### Collective individuation The Jungian analyst and author Pia Skogemann sets out her own Jungian interpretation, with Frodo as hero and Gandalf as an inner guide. She writes that she sees the quest "as a collective individuation, a confrontation with the collective unconscious and its archetypes. The ego in the shape of the four hobbits has become transformed and expanded through this confrontation." She states, too, that Frodo repeatedly falls into "a trance or unconsciousness in the confrontation with archetypal figures", including when he is stung by Shelob. Skogemann interprets numerous characters and events in The Lord of the Rings in Jungian terms. For example, she describes the scene where Frodo looks into the Mirror of Galadriel and sees the Eye of Sauron: "Galadriel pulls Frodo back from his trancelike state". Galadriel's role as guide is made more explicit when she later gives Frodo a phial containing the light of Earendil's star, to guide him when all other light fails. Among the many Jungian themes that Skogemann identifies are: ### Mandalas of the self Jung observed that people in multiple religions and cultures, including himself, made use of drawings of a circle motif; he described these as mandalas. He hypothesized that these reflected the mind's inner state at the moment of creation, and were a kind of symbolic archetype in the universal subconscious, writing that "I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, [...] which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time. [...] Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: [...] the Self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious." Skogemann identifies the capital of Lothlórien, Caras Galadhon, as a Jungian mandala, describing it as a place of self-knowledge. She further proposes that a 4-fold structure is important throughout The Lord of the Rings. She adduces as evidence the mandala-structure of Minas Tirith, the 4 rivers, the 4 forests, the 4 Hobbits of the Fellowship, the 4 other members of the Fellowship (less Boromir, who dies), and finally the 4th Age. The 4 Hobbits, namely Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam stand for Jung's 4 psychological (or cognitive) functions: Thinking; Intuition; Sensation; and Feeling. Crossing the 4 rivers (Brandywine, Bruinen, Celebrant, and Anduin) symbolises the choice of destiny in the journey towards individuation, while crossing the 4 forests (the Old Forest, the Trollshaws, the Golden Wood, and Fangorn) represents visiting energetic centres in the collective unconscious. She notes Gandalf's battle with the Balrog using fire, then in deep water, then on stone, then high in mountains, describing these as the 4 classical elements, fire, water, earth, and air. She interprets the One Ring and the Three Elven-Rings as forming a 4-fold mandala of the collective self. She interprets the 4-fold structure as the archetype of the Anthropos, the Whole Man. In that scheme, the 4 Hobbits stand for the Ego archetype, while Legolas and Gimli represent the transcending of the old hostility of Dwarf and Elf (subterranean vs ethereal). The 4th Age is, she notes, called the age of Man, as Elf, Dwarf, Orc and the rest fade or depart, leaving Middle-earth to Man alone. ## Kleinian and Vygotskyian interpretations The psychoanalyst Paula Jean Manners applies the theory of Melanie Klein, an Austrian-British psychotherapist, to Frodo's case. She notes that both Tolkien and Klein's husband returned changed from the horrors of the First World War. She likens Tolkien's stated theme of The Lord of the Rings as death to the Russian psychoanalyst Lev Vygotsky's view, that "to develop is to die". Manners states that in Kleinian terms, "development is seen as striving towards resolution of conflicting states, particularly the oscillation between paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions." Further, she writes, Klein described the child's anxiety between the "good breast" and the "bad breast", feeding the child and then leaving the child. Manners suggests that the good breast is the Shire, the safe home, while the bad is whatever is outside the Shire's borders. The world is thus split into good and bad, "the paranoid-schizoid position". But Frodo is aware that evil will come into the Shire if he stays, so he sets off on his journey. She likens that to the setting off to war of the young men (including Tolkien) to keep England safe from the enemy. The other side of Klein's theory, the depressive position, appears when Frodo falls into self-pity, and becomes depressed. On the other hand, Manners writes, when Frodo genuinely feels pity for Gollum, Frodo ceases to be split: "he assimilat[es] the good and bad objects internally." She describes this as "essentially a maturing and loss of innocence", calling that a challenging developmental process, and notes that the therapist has to hold together the two halves of their client, the "villain" Gollum and the "victim" Sméagol (Gollum's better side). ## Validity Scholars have evaluated the validity of a psychological approach to Tolkien. Some reject it altogether: the biographer and literary theorist Joanny Moulin [fr] comments that Tolkien's "determined resistance" to allegory makes "theories of the fairy-tale which bear heavily on psychology or psychoanalysis ... of no avail for Tolkien, because these are inherently allegorical modes of interpretation." Others are more open to its possibilities: the Tolkien scholar Thomas Honegger records that Tolkien mentioned Jung in his notes for his essay "On Fairy-Stories", and that other members of The Inklings, an Oxford discussion group, especially Owen Barfield and C. S. Lewis, were familiar with Jung's writings. He comments that while Skogemann's book introduces key Jungian terms like archetype and archetypal image, she does not work within the framework of Jungian studies; nor does she use many Tolkien studies. As a result, in his view, Skogemann identifies instances of archetypal images in The Lord of the Rings, but does little to interpret them, producing a "rather mechanistic" application of a "Jungian grid" to Tolkien's text. Edith L. Crowe, in Mythlore, writes that Jungian interpretation had been fashionable among literary scholars, but as Gergely Nagy had written, it had come to be seen as a "mystical ... paradigm" which was "hopelessly dated". All the same, Crowe states, the way fiction illustrates Jungian archetypes remains "irresistibly fascinating". She notes that Skogemann was correct, if "dismissive", to say of O'Neill that he was untrained in Jungian analytical psychology, but that she omits to mention that he was a psychology professor (in another field). Crowe writes that Skogemann, an experienced Jungian analyst and co-founder of Copenhagen's Jung Institute, might have been expected to provide a much richer analysis of Tolkien than O'Neill, but disappointingly spent some 80-90% of her text quoting or paraphrasing Tolkien. She notes that Tom Shippey is the only Tolkien scholar that Skogemann cites frequently, and that she shares his view that Tolkien's writings reflect the 20th century's collective unconscious. Crowe calls the identification of the "thoroughly evil" Ring with the Self a "serious misstep in O'Neill's otherwise enjoyable and readable book". She states that Skogemann's account of the One Ring and the Three Elven-rings is "a useful correction to this", adding that Skogemann "relates the three Elven rings plus the One Ring to Jung's 'analysis of the Christian age in the light of alchemical symbolism, with the Good Trinity and Satan or the Antichrist as the hidden fourth'." On the other hand, she adds that Skogemann's failure to consider Jungian analysis of Tolkien by other authors in journal articles and dissertations, "even to refute it", is "a significant weakness". Honegger states that O'Neill's 1979 The Individuated Hobbit clearly and succinctly introduces theories of mind and situates Jung's work among them. O'Neill then outlines Jung's framework and defines the key terms that Jung uses, including archetype, anima, shadow, collective unconscious, and individuation, where (he writes) Skogemann relies on web links. Further, the book analyses The Lord of the Rings in The Silmarillion's framework of myth, thereby reaching effectively (in Honegger's view) into the "archetypal dimension". Dorothy Matthews's 1975 "The Psychological Journey of Bilbo Baggins", one of the first studies of Tolkien and Jung, in Honegger's view helpfully interprets some features of the story, such as seeing Bilbo's Mirkwood spiders "as psychic fixations that have to be resisted", or arguing that that Tolkien does not have Bilbo kill Smaug the dragon, because Tolkien did not want to position him as an epic hero, but rather to leave him as "Everyman". Matthews shows, Honegger writes, that a Jungian approach can offer new insights and highlight archetypal motifs found both in Middle-earth and in folklore or fairytales. But against this, in his view, she falls into the trap of "uncritical[ly]" identifying a string "of archetypal images and motifs": Gandalf embodies Jung's Wise Old Man, or "debatably", Gollum as the nightmarish Devouring Mother. Like other critics, Honegger argues, Matthews appears to believe that identifying archetypal images is an end in itself, though the question it answers, perhaps why the book has such an emotional impact, remains unstated. He notes that "emotional involvement and its explanation do not constitute legitimate literary criticism," even though Tolkien's power is not explainable by literary features like style or plot structure. He concludes that Jungian approaches to Tolkien need to go further than just arguing that "a halfling ... with some helper-figures, became a wiser and more individuated hobbit", no matter how true that is.

Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz

German World War II general

Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz (also known as Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Camminetz) (30 July 1893 – 25 April 1968) was a German officer of aristocratic descent in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Strachwitz was born in 1893 on his family estate in Silesia. He was educated at various Prussian military academies and served in World War I. He was taken prisoner by the French forces in October 1914. He returned to Germany after the war in 1918. He joined the Freikorps and fought against the Spartacist uprising of the German Revolution in Berlin, and in the Silesian Uprisings. In the mid-1920s he took over the family estate from his father and became a member of the Nazi Party and the Allgemeine-SS. Strachwitz participated in the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and in the Battle of France in 1940. Transferred to the 16th Panzer Division he fought in the Invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, for the Battle of Kalach in the summer of 1942. He received the Swords to his Knight's Cross for his actions in the Third Battle of Kharkov. He then fought in the Battle of Kursk and the German retreat to the Dnieper. While commanding a battle group in the Battle of Narva in early 1944 he was awarded the Diamonds to his Knight's Cross on 15 April. In 1945, he surrendered to US forces and was released in 1947. He died in 1968 and was buried with full military honours. ## Early life and career Strachwitz was born on 30 July 1893 in Groß Stein, in the district of Groß Strehlitz in the Province of Silesia, the Kingdom of Prussia. Today it is Kamień Śląski, in Gogolin, Opole Voivodeship, Poland. Strachwitz was the second child of Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz (1864–1942) and his wife Aloysia (1872–1940), née Gräfin von Matuschka Freiin von Toppolczan und Spaetgen. He had an older sister, Aloysia (1892–1972), followed by his younger brother Johannes (1896–1917) nicknamed "Ceslaus", his sister Elisabeth (1897–1992), his brother Manfred (1899–1972), his brother Mariano (1902–1922), and his youngest sister Margarethe (1905–1989). His family were members of the old Silesian Catholic nobility (Uradel), and held large estates in Upper Silesia, including the family Schloss (castle) at Groß Stein. The family claimed a number of members killed fighting the 1241 Mongol invasion at the Battle of Legnica. As the first-born son he was the heir to the title Graf (Count) Strachwitz, and following family tradition he was christened Hyazinth, after the 12th century saint. Some clothing belonging to the saint were in the family's possession until 1945. Strachwitz attended the Volksschule (primary school) and the Gymnasium (advanced secondary school) in Oppeln—present-day Opole. He received further schooling and paramilitary training at the Königlich Preußischen Kadettenkorps (Royal Prussian cadet corps) in Wahlstatt—present-day Legnickie Pole—before he transferred to the Hauptkadettenanstalt (Main Military Academy) in Berlin-Lichterfelde. Among his closest friends at the cadet academy were Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I flying ace and a fellow Silesian, and Hans von Aulock, brother of the World War II colonel Andreas von Aulock. In August 1912, Cadet Strachwitz was admitted to the élite Gardes du Corps (Life Guards) cavalry regiment in Potsdam as a Fähnrich (Ensign). The Life Guards had been established by Prussian King Frederick the Great in 1740, and were considered the most prestigious posting in the Imperial German Army. Their patron was Emperor Wilhelm II, who nominally commanded them. Strachwitz was sent to an officer training course at the Kriegsschule (War School) in Hanover in late 1912, where he excelled at various sports. Strachwitz was commissioned as Leutnant (Second Lieutenant) on 17 February 1914. Upon his return to the Prussian Main Military Academy from Hanover, Strachwitz was appointed as the sports officer for the Life Guards. He introduced daily gymnastics and weekly endurance running. The Life Guards sports team was selected to participate in the planned 1916 Olympic Games, and this further encouraged his ambition. He participated equestrian, fencing and track and field athletics, which became his prime focus. Strachwitz continued to excel as a sportsman, and with his friend Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, according to Roll Strachwitz was among the best athletes to train for the Olympic Games. ## World War I At the outbreak of World War I Strachwitz was mobilized. His regiment was subordinated to the Guards Cavalry Division and scheduled for deployment in the west. His unit arrived at their position near the Belgian border. Strachwitz and his platoon volunteered for a mounted, long-distance reconnaissance patrol, which would penetrate far behind enemy lines. His orders were to gather intelligence on enemy rail and communications connections and potentially disturb them, as well as report on the war preparations being made by the enemy. If the situation allowed, he was to destroy railway and telephone connections and to derail trains, causing as much havoc as possible. His patrol ran into many obstacles and they were constantly on the verge of being detected by either British or French forces. Their objective was the Paris–Limoges–Bordeaux train track. Strachwitz dispatched a messenger, who broke through to the German lines and delivered the intelligence they had gathered. The patrol blew up the signal box at the Fontainebleau railway station, and tried to force their way through to presumed German troops at the Marne near Châlons. However the French forces were too strong and they were unable to get through. After six weeks behind enemy lines their rations were depleted and they had to live by stealing or begging. Strachwitz then intended to head for Switzerland, hoping that the French-Swiss border was not as heavily protected. After a brief skirmish with French forces, one of Strachwitz's men was seriously wounded, which forced them to seek medical attention. During many weeks of outdoor living their uniforms had deteriorated, so Strachwitz took that opportunity to buy new clothes for his men. Their progress was slowed by a wounded comrade, and they were caught in civilian clothes by French forces. Strachwitz and his men were questioned by a French captain and accused of being spies and saboteurs. They were taken to the prison at Châlons the next day where they were separated. Strachwitz, as an officer, was placed in solitary confinement. Early in the morning they were all lined up for the firing squad, but a French captain arrived just in time to stop the execution. Strachwitz and his men were then tried before a French military court on 14 October 1914. The court sentenced them all to five years of forced labour on the prison island of Cayenne. At the same time they were deprived of rank, thus losing the status of prisoners of war. Strachwitz was then taken to the prisons at Lyon and Montpellier, and then to the Île de Ré, from where the prison ship would depart for Cayenne. It is unclear what circumstances prevented his departure, but he was imprisoned at Riom and Avignon instead. At Avignon prison he was physically and mentally tortured by both the guards and the other prisoners. The torture included being chained naked to a wall, deprived of food and beaten severely. After one year at Avignon he was put in a German uniform and taken to Fort Barraux, used as a prisoner of war facility during the war. At Barraux he learned that the war in the west had turned into a war of attrition and that only on the Eastern Front were German troops still reporting successes. His health improved rapidly and Strachwitz started making escape plans. With other German soldiers he started digging an escape tunnel, which was detected. Strachwitz was again put in solitary confinement. As a deterrence against German U-boat attacks, German prisoners of war were sometimes carried in the cargo holds of French merchant ships. Now classified as "determined to escape", Strachwitz was put in the cargo hold of a ship which commuted between Marseilles or Toulon and Thessaloniki, Greece. Appearing skeletal after four trips without food, he was returned to Barraux. During further solitary confinement he recovered again, and made further escape plans. With a fellow soldier, he climbed over the prison walls, planning to head for neutral Switzerland. However, Strachwitz injured his foot when he fell into barbed wire, and the injury caused blood poisoning. While searching for help, they were picked up by the French police and turned over to a military court. He was then sent to a war prison for officers at Carcassonne where his request for medical attention was ignored. The injury was severe and he became delirious. An inspection by the Swiss medical commission from the International Red Cross ordered him transferred to a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, where he awoke after days of unconsciousness. Strachwitz recovered quickly in Geneva. During his convalescence he was visited by the Queen of Greece, the sister of the German Emperor, Sophia of Prussia, the Duke of Mecklenburg Frederick Francis IV and the Duke of Hesse Ernest Louis. The Archbishop of Munich Michael von Faulhaber, who was on his way to the Vatican, also stopped by to pay his respects. The doctors told Strachwitz that the French government had requested his extradition back to France once he had fully recovered, to serve his full term of five years of forced labour. Strachwitz then moved into a villa in Luzern where he was visited by his mother and sister. He had a great fear of being returned to France, and together they came up with a plan to avoid his extradition. He would "sit out the war" in a mental asylum in Switzerland. The plan worked, though Strachwitz was on the verge of going genuinely mad in the process. The war ended and Strachwitz was released to return to Germany. For his service during the war while imprisoned by the French he was awarded the Iron Cross, Second and First Class. ## Interwar period ### In the Weimar Republic After the Armistice in November 1918, Strachwitz was repatriated and returned to a Germany in civil turmoil. He travelled to Berlin via Konstanz, at the Swiss-German border, and Munich. On his journey he saw many former German soldiers whose military discipline had broken down. Unable to tolerate this situation and fearing a Communist revolution, he travelled on to Berlin, arriving at the Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof where he was met by a friend. Strachwitz had called ahead asking his friend to bring him his Gardes du Corps uniform, which he put on immediately. Berlin was in a state of revolution. The newly established provisional government under the leadership of Chancellor Friedrich Ebert was threatened by the Spartacist uprising of the German Revolution, whose ambition was a Soviet-style proletarian dictatorship. Ebert ordered the former soldiers, organized in Freikorps (paramilitary organizations) among them Strachwitz, to attack the workers and put down the uprising. In early 1919, following these events in Berlin, Strachwitz returned to his home estate, where he found his family palace taken over by French officers. Upper Silesia was occupied by British, French and Italian forces, and being governed by an Inter-Allied Committee headed by a French general, Henri Le Rond. The Versailles Treaty at the end of World War I had shifted formerly German territory into neighbouring countries, some of which had not existed at the beginning of the war. In the case of the new Second Polish Republic, the Treaty detached some 54,000 square kilometres (21,000 sq mi) of territory, which had formerly been part of the German Empire, to recreate the country of Poland, which had disappeared as a result of the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. His father urged him to prepare and educate himself in order to take over the family estate and business. He was put under the guidance of his father's Oberinspektor (Chief Inspector). In parallel, Strachwitz, fearing that Silesia was being "handed over to the Poles", as he viewed the actions of the Inter-Allied Committee, joined the Oberschlesischer Selbstschutz (Upper Silesian Self Defence). Strachwitz collected weapons and recruited volunteers, which was prohibited. He was caught four times and put in prison in Oppeln by the French. Also his father had to go to prison for his opposition to the Inter-Allied Committee. His distrust for the French, rooted in his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War I, was immense. He believed that only the Italians had played an honest and neutral role in the occupation of Upper Silesia. On 25 July 1919, he married Alexandrine Freiin Saurma-Jeltsch, nicknamed "Alda", and their first child, a son, was born on 4 May 1920. In 1921, during the Silesian Uprisings, when Poland tried to separate Upper Silesia from the Weimar Republic, Strachwitz served under the Generals Bernhard von Hülsen and Karl Höfer. At the peak of the conflict when the Poles dug in on the Annaberg, a hill near the village of Annaberg—present-day Góra Świętej Anny. The German Freikorps launched the assault in what would become the Battle of Annaberg, which was fought between 21 May and 26 May 1921. Strachwitz and his two battalions outflanked the Polish positions and overran part of them in hand-to-hand combat around midnight on 21 May. Strachwitz was the first German to reach the summit. They captured six field guns, numerous machine guns, rifles and ammunition. On 4 June the Freikorps attacked Polish positions at Kandrzin—present-day Kędzierzyn—and Slawentzitz—present-day Sławięcice. In this battle Strachwitz and his men captured a Polish artillery battery which they turned against the Poles. For these services he received the Schlesischer Adler (Silesian Eagle) medal, Second and First Class with Oak Leaves and Swords. His younger brother Manfred also fought for Silesia, and was severely wounded leading his men at Krizova. Two months later his wife gave birth to their second child, a daughter named Alexandrine Aloysia Maria Elisabeth Therese born on 30 July 1921, nicknamed "Lisalex". The Ministry of the Reichswehr informed him in 1921 that he had been promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant), the promotion backdated to 1916. The Strachwitz family grew further when on 22 March 1925 a third child, a son named Hubertus Arthur, nicknamed "Harti", was born on their manor at Schedlitz, later renamed Alt Siedel—present-day Siedlec. In 1925, Strachwitz and his family moved from Groß Stein to their manor in Alt Siedel, because of personal differences with his father, who remained in Groß Stein. Between 1924 and 1933 Strachwitz founded two dairy cooperatives which many local farmers joined. In parallel he studied a few semesters of forestry. He used his influence in Upper Silesia to modernize forestry and farming. His ambitions were aided by his presidency of the Forstausschuss (Forestry Committee) of Upper Silesia and his membership in the Landwirtschaftskammer (Chamber of Agriculture). Strachwitz completely took over his father's estate in 1929, first as the general manager and then as owner. This made Strachwitz one of the most wealthy land and forest owners in Silesia. Along with the palace in Groß Stein he owned a lime kiln and quarry in Klein Stein—present-day Kamionek—and Groß Stein, a distillery in Groß Stein and Alt Siedel. ### National Socialism Strachwitz applied for membership in the Nazi Party with the Reichsleitung (Reich Leadership) of the Nazi Party in Munich in 1931. He was accepted and in 1932 joined the Ortsgruppe (Local Group) of the party in Breslau with a membership number 1,405,562. On 17 April 1933 he became a member of the Allgemeine-SS with the SS membership number 82,857, and reached the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer in 1936. In parallel to his SS career, his military rank in the military reserve force also advanced. He attained the rank of Hauptmann of the Reserves in 1934 and a year later became a Rittmeister (cavalry captain) of the Reserves. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, came to power and began to rearm Germany. The Germany Army was increased and modernized with a strong focus on the Panzer (tank) force. Personnel were recruited from the cavalry. In October 1935 Panzer Regiment 2 was created and was subordinated to the 1st Panzer Division, at the time under command of General Maximilian von Weichs. Strachwitz, who had served as an officer of the reserves in the 7th Cavalry Regiment in Breslau, had asked to be transferred to the Panzer force and, in May 1936 and then from July to August 1937, Strachwitz was involved in manoeuvres and training exercises. The 1st Panzer Division was moved to Silesia in preparation for the invasion of Poland on 25 August 1939. ## World War II Panzer-Regiment 2, as part of the 1st Panzer Division, consisted of four light companies and two medium companies totaling 54 Panzer Is, 62 Panzer IIs, 6 Panzer IIIs, 28 Panzer IVs and 6 command tanks. The Wehrmacht invaded Poland without a formal declaration of war on 1 September 1939, and Strachwitz's regiment crossed the border that day. In early October the division was transferred back to Germany; Strachwitz returned to his regiment in late 1939. ### Battle of France The 1st Panzer Division was preparing for the attack on France and the Low Countries, with Strachwitz serving as a supply officer in the 2nd Panzer Regiment. He was out sick with meningitis and in a hospital from 1–9 March 1940, and then from 28 April – 9 May 1940 with an injured foot. The division was subordinated to XIX Army Corps under the command of General Heinz Guderian. The German attack, under the Fall Gelb directive, began on the morning of 10 May 1940. The XIX Army Corps advanced without resistance through Luxemburg and reached the Belgian border at 10:00. During the crossing of the Meuse, the first objective, Strachwitz organized the traffic across the bridge and ensured delivery of the anti-aircraft ammunition to help fend off an Allied aerial attack. The French resistance was broken near Vendresse. The 1st Panzer Division continued to push forward, reaching the Channel coast near Calais on 23 May 1940, where they encountered heavy British resistance. The 10th Panzer Division was tasked with taking Calais, while Guderian ordered the 1st Panzer Division to head for Gravelines. Elements of the 1st Panzer Brigade and the subordinated Infantry Regiment (motorized) Großdeutschland reached the river Aa south of Gravelines that night, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) southwest of Dunkirk. Strachwitz went on one of his "solo runs", penetrated the French and British lines and almost reached Dunkirk, where he observed the evacuation of British and allied forces by sea, which he reported to his commanding officer and the divisional staff. Parts of the 1st Panzer Division were relocated to Rethel on 2 June. The second phase of the Battle of France, Fall Rot (Case Red), was about to begin and Strachwitz returned to the 2nd Panzer Regiment where he again served as a supply officer. Strachwitz in the meantime had been awarded the Clasp to the Iron Cross 1st Class on 6 June for his daring "solo runs". The two regiments of the 1st Panzer Division crossed the Aisne on the night of 9/10 June 1940. The final objective was Belfort, which capitulated after a short resistance. This ended the Battle of France for Strachwitz's regiment. After having detached two Panzer companies for Operation Sea Lion, the planned and aborted invasion of the United Kingdom, the remaining units of the 2nd Panzer Regiment were transferred to East Prussia. ### Balkans campaign On 2 October 1940, following the Battle of France, Panzer Regiment 2 was subordinated to the 16th Panzer Division. Strachwitz asked the divisional commander Generalmajor Hans Hube for the command of a Panzer company, and Hube gave Strachwitz the 1st Battalion, a position he held until October 1942. In December 1940, 16th Panzer Division was declared a Lehrtruppe (demonstration troop), a unit to be involved in experimentation with new weapons and tactics. Via Bavaria, Austria and Hungary they were transferred to Romania, with Strachwitz's I. Battalion stationed at Mediaș. The division was tasked with the protection of the oil fields at Ploiești, which were vital to the German war effort. They trained some Romanian officers in German Panzer tactics. Apart from training, the soldiers had nothing to do and became bored. In March 1941 Strachwitz was sent back to Cosel in Germany where a new replacement unit was to be founded. He returned via his home town and 24 hours later a telegram from Hube called him back. This was preceded by a series of events in Belgrade. On 25 March 1941, the government of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia had signed the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis powers in an effort to stay out of World War II. This was immediately followed by mass protests in Belgrade and a military coup d'état led by Air Force commander General Dušan Simović. As a result, Hitler chose not only to support Mussolini's ambitions in Albania and in the Greco-Italian War but also to attack Yugoslavia. For this purpose the mobilized forces of 1st Panzer Group under the command of Generaloberst Ewald von Kleist were ordered to attack Belgrade in what would become the Invasion of Yugoslavia. Strachwitz's 1st Battalion received the order to prepare for the attack on 6 April 1941. His orders were to break through with the Infanterie-Regiment (motorized) "Großdeutschland" to Belgrade via Werschetz—present-day Vršac. His right flank was protected by the SS-Division "Das Reich" and his left flank by the 11th Panzer Division. The attack was preceded by a heavy artillery barrage and the Germans crossed the border at 10:30. The defences were quickly taken and the German troops reached the Werschetz where they were greeted by cheering inhabitants and a band. Their next objective was the River Danube. They reached the Danube at Pančevo only to find the bridge there destroyed. At Pančevo Strachwitz's unit linked up with the 11th Panzer Division. Here he encountered his oldest son Hyazinth, who was serving with the 11th Panzer Division. Strachwitz started confiscating boats and barges in an attempt to cross the Danube. This work had begun when Strachwitz received the order to halt all activities. His unit was ordered to retreat to Timișoara. On 16 April Hube announced that the 16th Panzer Division would no longer be needed in the campaign and were ordered to regroup at Plovdiv. In early May 1941 Oberstleutnant Rudolf Sieckenius was given command of Panzer-Regiment 2. The entire 16th Panzer Division was ordered back to their home bases in Germany, with Panzer-Regiment 2 ordered to Ratibor—present-day Racibórz, where their equipment was overhauled. Strachwitz was awarded the Coroana României on 9 June 1941. In mid-June 1941, the division received new orders to relocate. The 16th Panzer Division crossed the German-Polish border at Groß Wartenberg—present-day Syców, heading for Ożarów at the Vistula, which was reached on 19 June 1941. The German soldiers initially believed that they were just going to transit through Russia, on their way to the Middle East where they would link up with Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps. But Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Walther von Reichenau, who visited his son, a Leutnant in the 4th company of Panzer-Regiment 2, revealed to them the true objective of the next campaign. It would be Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. ### War against the Soviet Union The German offensive began at 3:30 on 22 June 1941 with an artillery strike against the Soviet Union. The 16th Panzer Division was subordinated to Army Group South under the command of Field Marshal von Rundstedt. The goal, together with the 6th Army and 17th Army as well as Panzer Group 1, was to follow the pincers of both armies, heading for Kiev and rolling up the Soviet flanks in the process, and encircling them at the Dnieper River. The main objective was to occupy the economically important Donets Basin as well as the oil field in the Caucasus. German Army reconnaissance aircraft spotted the first enemy formations in the vicinity of the 16th Panzer Division on the morning of 26 June. By this date the division had already progressed 125 kilometres (78 mi) beyond the German-Soviet demarcation line and secured a bridgehead over the Bug River. Supplies were lagging behind and not before 28 June was his regiment resupplied. His unit first encountered the T-34 and a few KV-1 and KV-2 tanks the following day. These tanks had stronger armour and outgunned his Panzer III tanks. With the support of the 88 mm Flak artillery, deployed in an anti tank role, they able to repulse the Soviet forces. The brigade crossed the Dnieper on the night of 11/12 September. Following the encirclement of Soviet forces in the Battle of Kiev the brigade was dispatched to prevent Soviet troops from escaping the pocket. The brigade remained in action until 4 October 1941. Strachwitz was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) of the Reserves on 1 January 1942. He returned to the Eastern Front in mid-March 1942. Throughout the summer of 1942 Strachwitz led his tanks in the advance to the Don River and across it to Stalingrad. His unit was the first to reach the Volga River north of Stalingrad on 23 August 1942. By this time the 16th Panzer Division was assigned to the 6th Army, which was encircled at Stalingrad in November 1942. By now, Strachwitz had been promoted to command the Panzer-Regiment. Strachwitz was severely wounded on 13 October 1942, requiring immediate treatment in a field hospital. A direct hit on his command tank caused severe burns. Strachwitz handed over command of his I./Panzer-Regiment 2 to Hauptmann Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven. He then had to be flown out and was treated at a hospital at Breslau until 10 November 1942. He received further treatment at the Charité in Berlin from 11 to 18 November 1942. During this stay he received news that he had been awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He was ordered to the Führerhauptquartier in December 1942 for the presentation of the Oak Leaves by Hitler himself. He then went to Bad Gastein for a period of convalescence before spending his vacation at home in Alt Siedel. Strachwitz was promoted to Oberst (colonel) of the Reserves on 1 January 1943. ### Großdeutschland Panzer-Regiment At the end of January 1943 Strachwitz was ordered to the Führerhauptquartier. Talking to General Rudolf Schmundt and Kurt Zeitzler, the Chief of Staff of the Oberkommando des Heeres, he was tasked with the creation of the Panzer-Regiment "Großdeutschland". The regiment was subordinated to the Infanterie-Division (motorized) "Großdeutschland" then under the command of Generalmajor Walter Hörnlein. Strachwitz was officially placed in command of the regiment on 15 January, arriving with this unit in late February at Poltava. According to Tewes, this assignment intended to increase the combat effectiveness of the "Großdeutschland" division. Hörnlein had little experience with tank warfare and needed an experienced tank commander as an advisor. He led the regiment when it took part in the Third Battle of Kharkov, fighting alongside SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser's II SS Panzer Corps. Strachwitz was awarded the Swords to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves on 28 March 1943. He received the latter for his leadership at Kharkov and Belgorod. On 5 July 1943, the first day of Operation Citadel (5–16 July 1943), the German code name for the Battle of Kursk, in the Großdeutschland area of operations, the Panther battalion got bogged down in the mud near Beresowyj and failed to support the Füsilier's attack. Nipe indicates that often Oberst Karl Decker and Oberstleutnant Meinrad von Lauchert have been made responsible for this failure. However, Nipe argues "that it can safely be assumed that Strachwitz was present; thus, any responsibility regarding actions of Großdeutschland's Panzers belongs to the Panzer Count." Following the battle, Decker wrote a letter to Guderian complaining about the unnecessary losses infringed by the Großdeutschland division. In this letter Decker stated, that how Strachwitz lead his tanks on the first day of Kursk must be characterized as "idiotic". Strachwitz was wounded again on 10 July. His battle group had been ordered into combat by Hörnlein. The objective was to capture Hill 258.4, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Werchopenje. The battle group encountered roughly 30 Soviet tanks on evening of 9 July. An attack proved unfeasible due to the settling darkness. During these events he received news that his son, Hyazinth, had been severely wounded. At dusk on 10 July he ordered the attack on the Soviet tanks. The first T-34s had been destroyed and Strachwitz was directing the attack from his command tank and had ordered his gunner to hold fire. Strachwitz was carelessly resting his left arm on the gun-breech. The gunner, without orders, fired the gun, causing the recoiling gun to smash his left arm. Strachwitz was immediately evacuated to a field hospital. In consequence, Strachwitz passed command of the battle group to Hauptmann Walter von Wietersheim. Strachwitz's arm was put in a cast and against medical advice returned to his regiment. When Hörnlein learned of this he went furious and gave Strachwitz a direct order to return to the field hospital. In November 1943, Strachwitz left the "Großdeutschland". ### Battle for the Krivasoo Bridgehead The severe injury to Strachwitz's left arm had forced him to retire from the front line. After a stay in the hospital at Breslau and a period of convalescence at home he received an order assigning him as "Höheren Panzerführer" (higher tank commander) to the Army Group North. Strachwitz reported to the commander-in-chief of the 18th Army, Generaloberst Georg Lindemann, commander of Army Group North. On 26 March 1944, the Strachwitz Battle Group consisting of the German 170th, 11th, and 227th Infantry Divisions and tanks, attacked the flanks of the Soviet 109th Rifle Corps south of the Tallinn railway, supported by an air strike. The tanks led the attack and the infantry followed, penetrating the fortified positions of a Soviet rifle corps. By the end of the day, the Soviet 72nd and parts of the 109th Rifle Corps in the Westsack (west sack) of the bridgehead were encircled. The rest of the Soviet rifle corps retreated, shooting the local civilians who had been used for carrying ammunition and supplies from the rear. As Strachwitz had predicted, the rifle corps counterattacked on the following day. It was repelled by the 23rd East Prussian Grenadier Regiment which inflicted heavy casualties on the Soviets. Two small groups of tanks broke through the lines of the rifle corps on 28 March in several places, splitting the bridgehead in two. Fierce air combat followed, with 41 German dive bombers shot down. The west half of the bridgehead was destroyed by 31 March, with an estimated 6,000 Soviet casualties. The Ostsack (east sack) of the Krivasoo bridgehead, defended by the Soviet 6th and the 117th Rifle Corps, were confused by the Strachwitz Battle Group's diversionary attack on 6 April. The attack deceived the Soviet forces into thinking that the German attack intended to cut them out from the west flank. The actual assault came directly at the 59th Army and started with a heavy bombardment. The positions of the 59th Army were attacked by dive bombers and the forest there was set afire. At the same time, the 61st Infantry Division and the Strachwitz tank squadron pierced deep into the 59th Army's defences, splitting the two rifle corps apart and forcing them to retreat to their fortifications. Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov was outraged by the news, sending in the freshly re-deployed 8th Army. Their attempt to cut off the Tiger I tanks was repelled. On 7 April, Govorov ordered his troops to switch on to the defensive. The 59th Army, having lost another 5,700 troops from all causes, was withdrawn from the bridgehead. For these successes Strachwitz received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 15 April 1944. The official presentation was made a few weeks later by Hitler. The spring thaw meant that the tanks were then impossible to use. The 8th Army repelled the German attack, which lasted from 19 to 24 April. The Germans lost 2,235 troops, dead and captured, in the offensive, while the total of German casualties in April, from all causes, was 13,274. Soviet casualties in April are unknown, but are estimated by Mart Laar to be at least 30,000 men from all causes. The losses exhausted the strengths of both sides. The front subsequently stagnated with the exception of artillery, air, and sniper activity and clashes between reconnaissance platoons for the next several months. ### Final battles Strachwitz led an ad-hoc formation in Operation Doppelkopf as part of Dietrich von Saucken's XXXIX Panzer Corps counter-offensive following the major Soviet advance in Operation Bagration. Saucken's goal was to relieve the encircled forces in the Courland Pocket. Strachwitz's attack on 18 August was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment from the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen; forces inside the pocket attacked to link up with Strachwitz's force. His troops reached the 16th Army at Tukums by midday. During a visit to a division command post on 24 August 1944 Strachwitz was badly injured in an automobile accident. The vehicle rolled over and the other occupants were killed. He sustained a fractured skull and other injuries, and his survival was in doubt. He was treated at a field hospital, and then at Riga and Breslau. Strachwitz signed himself out of the hospital and convalesced at his manor in Alt Siedel from 28 November to 23 December 1944. The Red Army started the Vistula–Oder Offensive on 12 January 1945. Within a matter of days the Soviet forces had advanced hundreds of kilometres, taking much of Poland and striking deep within the borders of the Reich. The offensive broke Army Group A and much of Germany's remaining capacity for military resistance. The Soviet forces crossed the Silesian border on 19 January and Generaloberst Ferdinand Schörner was appointed commander of the army group on 20 January. At Schörner's headquarters at Oppeln, Strachwitz requested a frontline command. Schörner initially assigned him to his staff where Strachwitz developed a proposal that would create a specialized Panzerjagdbrigade (tank-hunting brigade). The 3rd Guards Tank Army occupied Oppeln and Groß Stein on 23 and 24 January 1945, respectively. Schörner authorized the creation of tank destroyer brigade. These brigades were not mechanized units but rather infantry soldiers deploying hand-held weapons such as the Panzerfaust. On 30 January 1945, he was promoted to Generalleutnant of the Reserves and put in command of the newly created Panzerjäger Brigade Upper Silesia. Strachwitz's command received about 8,000 recruits, mostly from the threatened territories of Pomerania, East Prussia and Silesia. Strachwitz' tactics quickly made news within the Wehrmacht. Strachwitz then became commander of the Panzerjagdverbände of Army Group Vistula, and, in April, of the Panzerjagdeinheiten of Army Group Centre. Strachwitz and his men fought under the command of Schörner until the German capitulation on 8 May 1945. Strachwitz surrendered to the US Army in Bavaria. He was taken to the prisoner of war camp at Allendorf near Marburg, where he was interned together with former Wehrmacht generals Franz Halder, Heinz Guderian and Adolf Galland. ## Involvement with the German resistance According to the historian Steinbach, Strachwitz was in contact with the German military resistance to Nazism. Hoffmann states, with Generals Hubert Lanz, Hans Speidel and , he is shown as being associated with "Plan Lanz", as testified by General der Gebirgstruppe Hubert Lanz. The plan was to arrest or kill Hitler in early February 1943 during Hitler's scheduled visit to Army Detachment Lanz at Poltava. In this account, Strachwitz's role was to surround Hitler and his escorts shortly after Hitler's arrival with his tanks. Lanz stated that he would have then arrested Hitler, and in the event of resistance, Strachwitz's tanks would have shot and killed the entire delegation. Hitler cancelled the visit and the plan was dropped. In addition, Tewes states that this plan was discussed by Lanz and Strachwitz at Valky. The idea was to arrest and hand over Hitler into the custody of Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge, at the time commander-in-chief of Army Group Centre. Author Röll however casts doubt on this account citing that Strachwitz's cousin, Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1943, had recounted that Strachwitz had expressed the belief to him several times that killing Hitler would have constituted murder. Röll concludes that Strachwitz was too much a Prussian officer to consider assassinating Hitler. ## After World War II and final years Strachwitz was released by the Allies in June 1947. By the time of his release, he had lost his wife, his youngest son and his estate. Alda was killed in a traffic accident on 6 January 1946, run over by a US military truck in Velden an der Vils. Strachwitz, still a US prisoner of war in camp Allendorf near Marburg, was denied permission to attend the funeral. Harti, who had lost a leg, was killed in action shortly before the end of the war on 25 March 1945 near Holstein. Strachwitz married Nora von Strumm (1916–2000), on 30 July 1947 in Holzhausen. He and Nora had four children, two daughters and two sons, born between 1951 and 1960. At the invitation of Husni al-Za'im, Strachwitz was in Syria acting as an agricultural and military advisor for the Syrian Armed Forces from January–June 1949 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The influential man behind Husni al-Za'im was Adib Shishakli, who wanted a Pan-Arabian revolution and was trying to run the state from behind the scenes. Seeing himself as a state-maker, the Otto von Bismarck of the Arabian peoples, Shishakli's goal was to transform Syria into a kind of "Prussian Arabia". Under his leadership, Syria brought over 30 advisors to Syria. Strachwitz, bragging about his military successes in Russia, had a very difficult time with the Syrian officers, and his agricultural suggestions were ignored as well. When Adib Shishakli seized power, Strachwitz and his wife left Syria. In the meantime, they had received a visa for Argentina, where they hoped to find another advisory position. Via Lebanon, they arrived in Livorno, Italy, where they changed their plans and ran a winery. They returned to Germany in 1951 with a Red Cross passport. He settled on an estate in Winkl near Grabenstätt in Bavaria and founded the "Oberschlesisches Hilfswerk" (Upper Silesian Fund) supporting fellow Silesians in need. Strachwitz died on 25 April 1968 of lung cancer in hospital in Trostberg. He was laid to rest in the village cemetery of Grabenstätt, beside his first wife. The Bundeswehr provided an honour guard as a mark of respect. Heinz-Georg Lemm delivered the eulogy. ## Awards - Iron Cross (1914) - 2nd Class (1914) - 1st Class (1914) - Silesian Eagle 2nd and 1st Class with Oak Leaves and Swords (1921) - Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) - 2nd Class (5 October 1939) - 1st Class (7 June 1940) - Order of the Crown (Romania) (9 June 1941) - Panzer Badge - in Silver (1941) - in Gold with engagement numeral "100" (1943/1944) - Eastern Front Medal (August 1942) - Wound Badge (1939) - in Black (1941) - in Silver (17 March 1942) - in Gold (16 February 1943) - Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds - Knight's Cross on 25 August 1941 as Major of the Reserves and commander of the I./Panzer-Regiment 2 - 144th Oak Leaves on 13 November 1942 as Oberstleutnant of the Reserves and commander of the I./Panzer-Regiment 2 - 27th Swords on 28 March 1943 as Oberst of the Reserves and commander of the Panzer-Regiment "Großdeutschland" - 11th Diamonds on 15 April 1944 as Oberst of the Reserves and commander of a Panzer-Gruppe with the Heeresgruppe Nord - Units under his command have been mentioned numerous times in the Wehrmachtbericht

Adrift (Torchwood)

2008 Torchwood episode

"Adrift" is the eleventh episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was first broadcast on BBC Three on 19 March 2008, and repeated on BBC Two one week later. The episode was written by series one and two head writer Chris Chibnall, directed by Mark Everest and produced by Sophie Fante and Richard Stokes. The episode featured the five initial series regulars John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David Lloyd plus recurring actors Kai Owen and Tom Price. The episode begins with the alien hunter Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) being called in to investigate a missing person case by her former colleague in the police Andy Davidson (Tom Price). When bereaved mother Nikki Bevan (Ruth Jones) starts a support group for missing people, Gwen realises the problem is widespread. She pursues the investigation against the wishes of her boss Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and is able to track Nikki's son to an isolation facility. It is revealed that Nikki's son Jonah (Robert Pugh and Oliver Ferriman), like the other missing individuals around Cardiff, was taken by the space-time rift and returned physically and mentally scarred. After realising she cannot have a relationship with her son, Nikki implores Gwen not to reveal the truth to any other bereaved relative. Chibnall wanted to write a story that tackled the issue of loss and revolved around a missing person case. Executive producer Russell T Davies appreciated the character dynamics and domestic themes in the episode and cited the script as one of his inspirations in continuing the series. Ruth Jones, who is generally better known for her comedic roles, was cast against type in the central guest role of Nikki Bevan. The episode was filmed largely on location in South Wales with the island of Flat Holm featuring prominently. Response to the episode was generally positive. Reviewers generally praised the episode for illuminating the conflicting elements of Gwen's character and providing a central dilemma with no easy answer. Some critics identified ostensible plot holes, though felt that the episode's emotional successes negated these. ## Plot At the instigation of her former police colleague Andy Davidson, Torchwood agent Gwen is investigating Jonah Bevan's disappearance. After Jonah's mother Nikki starts a support group for relatives of missing people in the Cardiff area, Gwen realises that there are more cases resembling Jonah's disappearance. Gwen collates a chart of the missing people and her colleague Toshiko discovers that all the disappearances occurred during negative spikes of activity from the Cardiff Rift. Gwen and Toshiko postulate the implications of this: that the Rift can take people away and discard them elsewhere. Gwen confronts her boss Jack with her research but he repeatedly orders her to stop the investigation. Gwen becomes consumed with the issue of the missing individuals and this takes its toll on her relationship with her husband Rhys. They argue, and he states that if Gwen is working to safeguard ordinary life then she has not been successful. Returning to Torchwood's Hub, Gwen is given a GPS device with coordinates to a hidden location by Ianto. The device leads Gwen to a facility on Flat Holm which is home to 17 individuals taken by the Rift who have returned. Gwen finds Jack there, and demands access to Jonah. An older Jonah has been physically deformed whilst on a burning planet in the midst of a burning solar system. Jack reveals that he set up the facility when he first took command of Torchwood, in order to care for the victims of the Rift, who had previously been locked away in the Torchwood vaults. Gwen brings Nikki in to see Jonah under the supervision of a facility staff member. Nikki thinks about taking Jonah home to care for him herself. However, Jonah starts screaming horribly, the result of looking into the heart of a dark star, and necessitating that everyone leave his company. Gwen visits Nikki a week later, who implores her not to show the island to anyone else. At home that night Gwen prepares a romantic candle-lit dinner for Rhys who, realising that she is upset, insists that Gwen shares her burden. ## Production "Adrift" was produced as part of its own production block: block seven. Filming of the episode was "double banked" with block five, which consisted of the episodes "From Out of the Rain" and "Fragments". This accounted for the lack of availability of some of the regular cast members. Unlike the rest of the episodes in the series, this episode was not solely produced by regular series Richard Stokes but by guest producer Sophie Fante. Discussing the premise of the story writer Chris Chibnall states that "the issue of loss" is what drives the narrative and that he had "always wanted to write a story about people who go missing". Director Mark Everest noted that "people go missing all the time" and that to tackle this theme was "a brave thing to do". Executive producer Russell T Davies felt it provided good drama to have a story that would also examine elements of "paranoia" and "fear" and "mistrust" between Gwen and Jack as result of her realising she does not know the full extent of his work within Torchwood. Davies later stated in his book The Writer's Tale that "Adrift" was one of the scripts that "paved the way" for the third series of the show; his intention being to write Torchwood characters as "real people" with "families, feuds, aches and pains". The episode underwent less rewriting than any other script from the first two series with the final version being essentially a second draft. Gwen was initially referred to by her husband's surname, Williams, but Eve Myles vetoed this idea as she believed that an independent professional woman would want to keep her maiden name. A change made in the editing of the episode was the cutting of a short scene hinting at a possible romance between Nikki and Andy. This scene is included in the deleted scenes included in the series two boxset. Ruth Jones was cast in the central guest role of Nikki. The actress stated that she was both "excited" and "scared" to appear in the series as it was "a very serious role" and comedy had previously been her "comfort zone". Robert Pugh was cast as the aged and scarred version of Nikki's son Jonah. Richard Stokes estimated that the actor had to spend between two and two and a half hours in make-up in addition to a twelve-hour filming day to have prosthetics applied to create the appearance of scarring. Ruth Jones found the prosthetics to be "absolutely fantastic" and "very gruesome". The reveal of Jonah's Scream was initially going to be a wholly alien effect with Pugh just miming on set. However, Pugh was keen to give the scream a go. Everest states that in the final dub the scream was "tweaked" and "layers were added" although stated that the fundamental basis of it was Pugh "screaming his lungs out". Discussing the return of Andy, Stokes stated that it was always the plan for the production team to give the character greater focus in an episode due to his "comic value", whilst Eve Myles had joked it was her "personal mission" to get the character back. The episode was largely filmed on location around South Wales. Jonah's disappearance and Jack's subsequent investigation were filmed at the Cardiff Bay Barrage. The exteriors of Nikki's house were filmed at the Penarth Marina, whilst the scenes of the missing persons meeting were filmed at the Church of All Saints on Victoria Square, Penarth on 22 September 2007. The café sequences with Gwen and Andy were recorded in Fortes Café on Barry Island whilst the scene of Gwen and Rhys' picnic and argument were shot in Bute Park, Cardiff. The main location shoot for the episode was the island of Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel where exterior shots were filmed at the end of September. As the island does not allow vehicular access the production team were restricted in the filming equipment they could take on to the island. Though Flat Holm does possess a derelict cholera isolation hospital, the scenes of Torchwood's isolation facility were in fact filmed inside a Ministry of Defence building in Caldicot, Monmouthshire. Incidental music used included Richard Hawley's song "Serious" from his 2007 album Lady's Bridge and the song "Hard to Beat" by Hard-Fi from their album Stars of CCTV which are heard the first and second time Gwen and Andy meet in the café. Also used is the song "Other Side of the World" from KT Tunstall's album Eye to the Telescope which plays during a scene where Gwen brings Rhys breakfast. ## Broadcast and reception "Adrift" was first broadcast on the digital channel BBC Three on 19 March 2008 at 10:00 pm. It received its first terrestrial broadcast two days later, 21 March, at 9:00 pm on BBC Two. A pre-watershed version of the episode was aired at 7:00 pm 25 March 2008. According to consolidated figures the episode's BBC Three broadcast was watched by 0.97 million viewers, its BBC Two debut by 2.52 million viewers and the pre-watershed version by 1.00 million viewers, amounting to an aggregated total of 4.49 million viewers across its three initial showings. The episode was also available to watch on the online catch up service BBC iPlayer, where it was the 16th most viewed individual broadcast between 1 January and 31 March 2008. ### Critical reception Ian Berriman of SFX rated the episode four and a half stars out of five and felt that it showed "how every SF-related casualty is more than just a statistic – it’s also someone’s life-destroying tragedy". He thought the episode had a few logic gaps but that the emotional focus was enough to distract the audience from this. He felt that the sequence where Gwen's husband Rhys "tears a strip off Gwen, then reminds her what Torchwood is fighting for" was the episode's highlight. Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy stated that the script "neatly brings out the conflicting components within Gwen's character" and praised the episode for raising the moral dilemma of whether to reveal the truth or not. He gave the episode four stars, feeling it to highlight the versatility of Torchwood as a series and to show "how badly science-fiction is overlooked as serious, well-crafted drama". IGN's Travis Fickett rated the episode 9.5 out of ten ("Amazing") and stated it to be "the kind of science fiction that every series should aspire to create." He felt that the episode worked for viewers unfamiliar with the show whilst managing to progress "every regular character in the series". He felt that the episode handled the subject matter of missing people thoughtfully and sensitively whilst furthering the relationship between Rhys and Gwen, stating that it was the "best episode Gwen has had to date" which showcased "Eve Myles range" and Kai Owen's "tremendous power as an actor." Fickett concluded his review by stating that "this is very nearly a perfect episode of not just Torchwood, but the genre of science fiction and the medium of television". Joan O'Connell Hedman of Slant Magazine also gave a positive review feeling the episode to explore "Torchwood's bread and butter topic: the intersection of the human and the alien, and what it means to be human in the aftermath." She stated that the episode "played to its strengths, namely Eve Myles' Gwen and how she relates to both human and alien" and stated it to demonstrate "how perfect Rhys is for Gwen". She felt that the episode was flawed in its "cop-out" ending and Jack's handling of Gwen but in her conclusion noted it be "the first episode of Torchwood that left me choked up, crying with Gwen at the end". Airlock Alpha's Alan Stanley Blair felt the episode to be a vast improvement on its predecessors stating it be "hard hitting, edgy and explores much bleaker and darker avenues to life in Torchwood". He also felt that the personal effect of Gwen's struggles on her domestic life was one of the most interesting aspects comparing it to the television series Angel which "touched on some of these threads through the meta-story and vampire mythology" but not "on the scale of this [episode]". He concluded that the episode's conclusion was both to its credit and its biggest disappointment because it showed that there is "no way to make everything all right" but left its audience "screaming for a happy ending that will never come". Jason Hughes of AOL TV was more mixed in his review. He felt that the episode was a "vast improvement over last week's episode" and stated that it lived up to Torchwood's reputation as "the darker, more mature cousin of Doctor Who". However, he stated that the episode had "some logistical problems" and "at least one ridiculously convenient coincidence that the emotional hook of the episode hinged on". He praised the "tragic emotional impact of the moment when Jonah's mom told Gwen to promise her not to do that to any other families" and stated that he liked "that there weren't any easy answers". io9's Charlie Jane Anders described "Adrift" as "easily the best episode of the Doctor Who spin-off since the one where Martha Jones showed up". She stated that "the fact that it offered no easy solutions and gave us that super-bleak ending was enough to win me over".

Stanley Internment Camp

Civilian internment camp in Hong Kong

Stanley Internment Camp (Chinese: 赤柱拘留營) was a civilian internment camp in Hong Kong during the Second World War. Located in Stanley, on the southern end of Hong Kong Island, it was used by the Japanese imperial forces to hold non-Chinese enemy nationals after their victory in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. About 2,800 men, women, and children were held at the non-segregated camp for 44 months from early January 1942 to August 1945 when Japanese forces surrendered. The camp area consisted of St Stephen's College and the grounds of Stanley Prison, excluding the prison itself. ## Evacuation and arrival at camp In 1939, the British government had drawn up evacuation plans for the British and other European residents of Hong Kong, which was a Crown colony of the United Kingdom (UK) at the time. The War Office thought the city would inevitably fall to Japanese forces in the event of an attack, so it should not be reinforced with more defensive forces. The presence of a large number of British women and children would have been an "embarrassment" for the government when the Japanese forces took Hong Kong, and additionally it was thought the internment of thousands of British civilians would cause unnecessary suffering and serve the Japanese as propaganda material. In July 1940, the colonial government of Hong Kong received orders from the UK to proceed with the evacuations. By 3 August, all service families and registered non-service British women and children were moved to the Philippines. However, the hurried compulsory evacuations prompted criticism from many evacuees, their husbands, and their employees, who felt the evacuations were premature and unnecessary. According to historians Bernice Archer and Kent Fedorowich, the local Chinese population were angered by their exclusion from the evacuations and condemned the plans as racist. Additionally, the plans excluded British passport holders who were not of European ancestry. Amidst the criticism, the government subsequently made the evacuations non-compulsory. Existing evacuations already ordered were cancelled provided evacuees volunteered for auxiliary roles, such as nursing or administrative work. On 8 December 1941 Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, marking the start of the Battle of Hong Kong. Seventeen days later, on Christmas Day of 1941, which came to be known as "Black Christmas", the Hong Kong government surrendered, and Hong Kong came under Japanese occupation. On 4 January 1942, a notice appeared in an English-language newspaper that all "enemy nationals" were to assemble on Murray Parade Grounds. Many people did not see the notice, but about 1,000 people were eventually gathered on the grounds. In addition to those who gathered voluntarily, there were people forcibly removed from their homes. The people assembled were marched to and initially interned in hotel-brothels on the waterfront near the present-day Macau Ferry Pier. The conditions there were dirty and overcrowded, and the food was poor. After 17 days, the internees were taken by boat to Stanley. The "enemy nationals" who failed to assemble on Murray Parade Grounds avoided internment at the hotel-brothels. However, by the end of January, most of the civilians to be interned were moved to Stanley. Upon arrival at camp, the internees discovered little was prepared for them there. There were no cooking facilities, no furniture, little crockery or cutlery. The toilet facilities were dirty, inadequate, and without water. The rooms were soon overcrowded with random assortments of people unrelated to each other, and with little attention paid to hygiene or public health. ## Camp grounds The Stanley site was chosen by the Japanese through consultation with two Hong Kong government officials – Dr. P. S. Selwyn-Clarke, Director of Medical Services, and F. C. Gimson, the Colonial Secretary. Located on Stanley Peninsula, which was about nine kilometres from the city at the time, the camp consisted of St. Stephen's College and the grounds of Stanley Prison, excluding the prison itself; the prison was used by the Japanese authorities to hold what they considered "criminals" from Hong Kong. Several hundred internees lived at St. Stephen's, while the majority of them lived on the prison grounds. Prior to Japanese occupation, St. Stephen's was a secondary school whose facilities, in addition to classrooms, included an assembly hall, bungalows for teachers, and science laboratories. Over twenty internees occupied each bungalow, which was built for one family, and more than that occupied each science laboratory, living between partitions of sacking and old blankets. Almost all the buildings in the camp were used for housing. Certain buildings and areas on the prison grounds had specific functions: - The Prison Officers' Club was used for multiple functions, including as a canteen, a kindergarten, Catholic church, and recreation centre. - Two main divisions of quarters existed – the Warders' Quarters and the Indian Quarters. Before the war, the Warders' Quarters housed European warders, with large flats designed for one family each, and the Indian Quarters housed Indian prison guards, built with smaller flats. An average of thirty internees lived in each Warders' Quarters flat, and an average of six internees lived in each Indian Quarters flat. - A building which had housed single Indian warders before the war was turned into a hospital called Tweed Bay Hospital. - Two houses, originally used as homes for the prison superintendent and the prison doctor, were turned into the Japanese headquarters for the camp. - The cemetery on the grounds became a popular spot for quiet relaxation as well as a place for intimate meetings between male and female internees. ## Life at camp The internees numbered at 2,800, of which an estimated 2,325 to 2,514 were British. The adult population numbered at 1,370 men and 858 women, and children 16 years of age or younger numbered at 286, with 99 of whom were below the age of 4. The camp was under the control of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Department, but according to historian Geoffrey Charles Emerson, the Japanese forces had not made plans for dealing with enemy civilians in Hong Kong. As such, the camp was provided with few necessities, and the internees were left to govern the camp themselves. Committees were formed for such matters as housing, food, and medical care. The national groups remained mostly independent of each other except for matters of welfare and medical care. Very few government servants were selected to serve on these committees, due to anti-government sentiment; most internees blamed the government for the quick surrender of Hong Kong. The biggest concern was food; ensuring there was enough food occupied most of the internees' time. Little food was provided by the Japanese authorities, and it was of poor quality – frequently containing dust, mud, rat and cockroach excreta, cigarette ends, and sometimes dead rats. Every day, the internees were served rice congee at 8 am, and meals consisting of rice with stew at both 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Additionally, they relied on food mailed from friends or relatives in the city, Red Cross aid, garden-grown vegetables, and bought food from the canteen or the black market. Another concern was the health and medical care of the internees. Although medical facilities were inadequate, the internees counted amongst them about 40 doctors, two dentists, six pharmacists, 100 trained nurses, and a large number of volunteer auxiliary nurses. Because of this, according to historian G. B. Endacott, no major epidemic occurred. The most common sickness amongst the internees were malaria, malnutrition and its associated diseases, beriberi, and pellagra. The shortage of medical supplies and equipment posed a challenge for those in charge of medical care, with the lack of soap and disinfectant being a particularly troublesome concern. The women and children contributed to a sense of normality as their presence provided conventional social, family, and gender relations. The internees believed the children's presence made them less selfish, as it forced them to think of the latter's welfare. The women organised Christmas and birthday celebrations. Other diversions such as musicals, plays, recitals, and variety shows were also staged. Although the camp lacked books and educational supplies, the teachers and educational administrators amongst the internees were able to provide lessons for the children at the primary and secondary levels. Additionally, extensive educational opportunities were available for the adults: language courses for Chinese, Malay, and French, and also lectures on photography, yachting, journalism, and poultry-keeping. In addition to the personal diaries kept by internees, many of them now held by the Imperial War Museum, a record of life in the camp was created using a double bed sheet. The Day Joyce Sheet was embroidered and appliquéd with 1100 names, signs and figures including a diary in code. ## Deaths Records show that 121 internees died in the camp, mostly due to illness, with half the deaths being of internees over the age of 50. There were also a few accidental deaths. Two internees died from falls and one child drowned. The worst accident occurred during the large US Navy attack against Hong Kong on 16 January 1945, when a plane accidentally bombed Bungalow 5 at St. Stephen's College, killing 14 internees. These internees were buried at Stanley Military Cemetery. Another seven internees were executed by the Japanese authorities. These internees had possessed a radio set which they used to pass messages in and out of camp. The radio was discovered by the Japanese and the internees were arrested. The other internees were forced to watch their public torture. Military trials were subsequently held and on 29 October 1943, some of the internees were executed by being shot and at least one, John Fraser, was beheaded. Aside from this, the Japanese authorities had executed by decapitation three Chinese policemen for bringing cigarettes and tobacco to the camp's internees. ## Escape attempts A number of factors made escape attempts daunting for the internees. They would have to navigate through Japanese-occupied territory, find food, and as few internees spoke Cantonese, they would also have to deal with the language barrier if they succeeded in escaping. Despite these difficulties, there were three major escape attempts, of which two in March 1942 were successful. One group of eight internees escaped on a small boat to neighbouring Macau. Another group, consisting of two internees, escaped through the New Territories and into mainland China. The third group, four policemen, in April 1942 managed to escape the camp grounds but were caught within a few miles of camp. They were subsequently imprisoned and released back to camp after a few weeks. ## Early repatriation Repatriation was one of the two most talked-about subjects at camp (the other being food). On 6 May 1942, the Japanese authorities informed the internees repatriation for the Americans would take place on 15 June. Japanese treatment of the American internees improved during this period before the actual repatriation took place; more and better food was given to them, and they were allowed contacts with Chinese friends outside of camp. American journalists were interviewed by a Japanese news agency and asked questions about the war and the camp. The internees came to find out later the interview became war propaganda for the Japanese, in the form of an article claiming that American journalists had complimented the Japanese military and the camp itself, stating the camp was "probably the most comfortable in the world." It was not until 29 June that repatriation for the Americans finally took place, after Japanese and Thai citizens held in the US and South America boarded ships in late June in preparation for exchange of internees. Those being repatriated were given smallpox vaccination, cholera inoculation, and thorough medical examinations. No books, bibles, diaries, or addresses were allowed to leave with the Americans, but the remaining internees were each allowed to write a 150-word letter for the Americans to take with them. The American internees boarded the ship, the Asama Maru, along with other Americans who had been allowed to stay in Hong Kong outside of the camp. After picking up Americans for repatriation from other locations in Asia, the Asama Maru arrived at Maputo, Mozambique (then called Lourenço Marques) on 22 July, where the Americans and Japanese exchanged internees. The Americans were to finally reach New York City on 25 August. Reportedly a total of 377 Americans were repatriated from Hong Kong. Repatriation of Canadian internees and remaining American internees was announced in August 1943 (not all American internees had been repatriated in June 1942). Preparations similar to the prior repatriation were made, including messages and reports to be delivered. The ship, the Teia Maru, reached Hong Kong on 23 September, taking on board 73 Canadian internees, 24 American internees, and 13 Latin American internees. The ship sailed to Goa, where an exchange of prisoners and internees with Japan took place. There were indications and notices to the British internees that their repatriation was possible; Gimson told them a Swiss Red Cross representative had spoken "encouragingly" about repatriation, the Japanese authorities twice informed them (on 24 May 1943 and 2 November 1943) that they would be repatriated, and 25 May 1943 issue of the Hong Kong News reported negotiations for repatriation were "going on rather smoothly". Despite this, the British internees were not repatriated until the end of the war. ## Freedom The internees were freed on 16 August 1945, the day after Emperor Hirohito broadcast his acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation in surrender. About two weeks later, the British fleet came for the internees, and several weeks after that, the camp was closed. Many internees went back to the city and began to adjust back to their former lives, and many others, particularly those of poor health, remained on the camp grounds to await for ships to take them away. Historian Geoffrey Charles Emerson wrote the "probable" reason the British internees were not repatriated before the end of the war was related to the Allied forces refusing to release Japanese nationals held in Australia. These nationals were the only sizeable group of Japanese nationals held by the Allies after the repatriation of the American and Canadian internees. They had been pearl fishermen in Australia before the war, and knew the Australian coastline well. Their knowledge would have been "militarily important" to the Japanese if an invasion of Australia was attempted, hence the Allied refusal to release them. ## Compensation In 1948 the US government, through the War Claims Act, authorised a payment of US\$60 for every month an adult spent in an internment camp, and US\$25 per month for child internees. Some also received US\$1 per day for "missed meals". In the UK, from 1952 to 1956, about 8,800 British internees, specifically those who normally resided in the UK when the war began, received a sum of £48.50 as reparation. Payments for American and British internees were made from the proceeds of Japanese assets seized per the Treaty of San Francisco. Dutch internees each received a sum of US\$100, with the payments funded by a separate agreement signed between the Dutch and the Japanese in 1957. The rise of Japan as an economic power and the opening of World War II files at the UK's Public Record Office created a sentiment in the 1990s that not enough had been done to redress the suffering of internees and prisoners-of-war. In November 2000, the British government announced a compensation scheme for British civilians who had been interned in World War II. The scheme called for a package of £167 million, and by February 2001, the first raft of payments of £10,000 were being made. Initially, the plan excluded British persons who had no "bloodlink" to Britain, a point of distinction that was made between those who were "British citizens" and those who were "British subjects". In reaction to this, former Stanley internee Diana Elias launched a civil action case against the British government, alleging the distinction of "bloodlink" made by the compensation scheme was discriminatory, and that the Japanese authorities had made no such distinction in their treatment of the internees. Elias' family, including her parents and her grandparents, were all holders of British passports. The "bloodlink" distinction, however, made her ineligible for compensation because she is of Iraqi Jewish ancestry. In July 2005, the High Court in London ruled in her favour, and was subsequently backed by the Court of Appeals when the Ministry of Defence appealed the High Court's decision. This allowed for hundreds of surviving civilian internees to collect the compensation earlier denied to them by the "bloodlink" distinction. ## Post-war St. Stephen's College was re-opened in 1945 after the war. St. Stephen's Chapel was built on the grounds of the school in 1950; the memorial window over its west door was a donation, serving to remember the suffering at Stanley Internment Camp. ## Notable internees - Sir Mark Aitchison Young – Governor of Hong Kong - Captain Mateen Ansari GC (c. 1915 – 29 October 1943) of the 5th Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment - Sir C. Grenville Alabaster – Attorney General of Hong Kong - Morris Abraham Cohen - Kenelm Hutchinson Digby - Geoffrey Herklots - Elly Kadoorie - Sir Atholl MacGregor – Chief Justice of Hong Kong - Lewis Morley - Hilda Selwyn-Clarke - Andrew Lusk Shields - Francis Arthur Sutton - Sir Franklin Charles Gimson KCMG KStJ – Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong and later Governor of Singapore ## See also - Pacific War - History of Hong Kong - Japanese occupation of Hong Kong - List of Japanese-run internment camps during World War II - North Point Camp - Second Sino-Japanese War - St. Stephen's College massacre - Battle of Hong Kong

Blackburn Firebrand

WWII British naval strike-fighter

The Blackburn Firebrand was a British single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and the allocation of its Napier Sabre piston engine by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for the Hawker Typhoon caused it to be redesigned as a strike fighter to take advantage of its load-carrying capability. Development was slow and the first production aircraft was not delivered until after the end of the war. Only a few hundred were built before it was withdrawn from front-line service in 1953. ## Development In general, the Fleet Air Arm had required fighters that were capable of navigating long ranges over sea and speed differential over attackers was not critical. Defence of British naval bases was a RAF commitment but provision had not been made for this and so the Admiralty accepted that it would have to take on the duty. For this it needed an interceptor fighter and experience in the Norwegian Campaign of early 1940 had also shown a high-performance, carrier-based, single-seat fighter would be an advantage. Blackburn tendered their B-37 design using the Napier Sabre 24-cylinder H-type engine, and this was accepted by June 1940 with a proposal to order "off the drawing board" (meaning without prototypes). Air Ministry Specification N.11/40—stating a minimum top speed of 350 knots (650 km/h; 400 mph)—was raised to cover this design and an order placed in January 1941 for three prototypes. The B-37, given the service name "Firebrand" on 11 July 1941, was a low-winged, all-metal monoplane. Aft of the cockpit the fuselage was an oval-shaped stressed-skin semi-monocoque, but forward it had a circular-section, tubular-steel frame that housed the 169-imperial-gallon (770 L; 203 US gal) main fuel tank and the 71-imperial-gallon (320 L; 85 US gal) auxiliary fuel tank behind the engine. The radiators for the neatly cowled Sabre engine were housed in wing-root extensions. The large wing consisted of a two-spar centre section with manually folded outer panels (with five degrees of dihedral) to allow more compact storage in the hangar decks of aircraft carriers. To increase lift and reduce landing speed the wing was fitted with large, hydraulically powered Fairey-Youngman flaps that extended to the edges of the Frise ailerons. The fixed armament of four 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano autocannon was fitted in the outer wing panels with 200 rounds per gun. The fin and rudder were positioned forward of the elevator to ensure spin recovery and that the rudder would retain its effectiveness. The mainwheels of the conventional landing gear were mounted at the ends of the centre wing section and retracted inwards. The Firebrand was unusual in the fact that there was an airspeed gauge mounted outside of the cockpit so that during landing the pilot would not have to look down into the cockpit to take instrument readings, foreshadowing the modern heads-up display. The unarmed first prototype first flew on 27 February 1942 using the Sabre II, the first of two armed prototypes following on 15 July. The initial flight trials were a disappointment as the aircraft could only reach 32 mph (51 km/h) below Blackburn's estimated maximum speed. Replacement of the Sabre II with a Sabre III (an engine built specifically for the Firebrand) improved its top speed to 358 mph (576 km/h) at 17,000 ft (5,182 m). The second prototype, DD810, conducted deck-landing trials, with Commander Dennis Cambell at the controls, aboard the fleet carrier HMS Illustrious in February 1943. The Sabre engine was also used in the Hawker Typhoon, a fighter already in production and the Ministry of Air Production (MAP) decided that the Typhoon had priority for the Sabre. The Sabre was also experiencing production problems and so a new engine was needed, along with the necessary airframe adaptations. To use the time and effort invested in the design, the MAP decided to convert the Firebrand into an interim strike fighter, to meet a Fleet Air Arm requirement for a single-seat torpedo bomber capable of carrying bombs, rockets and being capable of air-to-air combat. Nine production F. Mk I aircraft were built to the original specifications and were retained for trials and development work. After it was badly damaged during an emergency landing, DD810 was converted into a prototype of the first strike variant, the Firebrand T.F. Mk II (with the company designation B-45), that flew on 31 March 1943. It was an adaptation of the Mk I with the wing centre section widened by 1 foot 3.5 inches (39.4 cm) to make room for the torpedo on the centreline between the mainwheels. Like the Mk I, the TF Mk II only saw a very limited production run of 12 aircraft and they were also allocated for development work, including those assigned to 708 Naval Air Squadron, a shore-based trials unit. Blackburn proposed several versions of the Sabre-powered aircraft including one for the RAF as the B-41, a version with a high-lift wing as the B-42, and the B-43 floatplane, none of which were accepted for further development. A new specification was issued as S.8/43 to cover the development of the Firebrand T.F. Mk III (B-45) with the 2,400-horsepower (1,800 kW) Bristol Centaurus VII radial engine. Two prototypes were converted from incomplete F Mk Is and 27 additional aircraft were delivered, completing the first batch of 50 aircraft. The first prototype flew on 21 December 1943, but construction of the new aircraft was very slow with the first flight not being made until November 1944. Most changes were related to the installation of the larger-diameter Centaurus engine, including air intakes for the carburetor and oil cooler in the wing-root extensions that formerly housed the engine's radiators. Spring-loaded trim tabs were also fitted to all control surfaces. Production aircraft after the first 10 were fitted with the improved Centaurus IX engine. The Mk III was found to be unsuitable for carrier operations for a variety of reasons. The new engine produced more torque than the Sabre, and rudder control was insufficient on takeoff with the full flaps needed for carrier use. Visibility while landing was very poor, the tailhook attachment to the airframe was too weak, and the aircraft had a tendency to drop a wing at the stall while landing, so development continued to rectify these issues. The T.F. Mk IV (B-46), as the new development was designated, featured larger tail surfaces for better low-speed control. The enlarged rudder was horn balanced and the vertical stabilizer was offset three degrees to port to counteract the four-bladed Rotol propeller's torque. The wings now featured hydraulically operated dive brakes on both upper and lower surfaces. The aircraft's wings were now stressed to carry one 2,000-pound (910 kg) bomb under each wing or a 45-imperial-gallon (200 L; 54 US gal) drop tank or eight RP-3 rockets. The frame that held the torpedo was connected to the undercarriage so that it pivoted nose-downward to increase ground clearance with the landing gear extended and pivoted upward to reduce drag while in flight. A 100-imperial-gallon (450 L; 120 US gal) fuel tank could be fitted on the centreline in lieu of the torpedo. The Mk IV first flew on 17 May 1945, and was the first version of the Firebrand to enter mass production, with 170 built, although 50 more aircraft were cancelled. The later Firebrand T.F. Mk 5 featured minor aerodynamic improvements and 123 were converted from Mk IVs. The final version was the Firebrand T.F. Mk 5A with hydraulically boosted ailerons to increase the aircraft's rate of roll. Two Mk 5s and five Mk IVs were converted to the Mk 5A standard. ## Operational history The Firebrand did not see action in World War II, as TF 4s were not issued to 813 Naval Air Squadron until 1 September 1945. The squadron was disbanded 30 September 1946 without deploying to sea. It was reformed with TF 5s on 1 May 1947 and flew them from the carrier HMS Implacable, later HMS Indomitable, until it was re-equipped with turboprop Westland Wyvern attack aircraft in February 1953. 827 Naval Air Squadron received their TF 5 and 5As on 13 December 1950 and flew them primarily off the carrier HMS Eagle until it disbanded on 19 November 1952. A variety of second-line squadrons were issued Firebrands of various marks for training or trials at one time or another. In test pilot and naval aviator Captain Eric Brown's opinion the aircraft was "short of performance, sadly lacking in manoeuvrability, especially in rate of roll". The position of the cockpit even with the trailing edge of the wing gave the pilot a very poor view over the nose, inhibited his ability to view his target and to land his aircraft aboard a carrier, sufficient for Brown to call it "a disaster as a deck-landing aircraft". ## Variants Blackburn B-37 Three prototypes ordered to meet Specification N.11/40, named Firebrand on 11 July 1941. Second prototype re-built as T.F. II prototype. Firebrand F. I Production variant of the Blackburn B.37 with an order for 50 aircraft to be built at Brough, most completed as T.F. II and T.F. III variants, first nine completed as F. Is. Firebrand T.F. II Improved variant, 12 built from original production branch. Firebrand T.F. III Blackburn B-45, a Centarus VII powered-variant, two prototypes to S.8/43 and 27 production aircraft for original production batch. Firebrand T.F. IV Blackburn B-46, improved variant with 2,520 bhp (1,880 kW) Centaurus IX or Centaurus 57, 250 ordered, but only 170 were completed, of which 124 were converted to T.F. 5 standard, some before delivery. Six were modified and designated as T.F. IV(mod). Firebrand T.F. 5 Improved variant, 124 modified from T.F. IV, two conversions to T.F. 5A. Firebrand T.F. 5A One prototype modified from a T.F. 5 and six conversions from either T.F. IV or Vs. ## Operators United Kingdom - Royal Navy - Fleet Air Arm - 700 Naval Air Squadron - 703 Naval Air Squadron - 708 Naval Air Squadron - 736 Naval Air Squadron - 738 Naval Air Squadron - 759 Naval Air Squadron - 767 Naval Air Squadron - 778 Naval Air Squadron - 799 Naval Air Squadron - 813 Naval Air Squadron - 827 Naval Air Squadron ## Specifications (Firebrand T.F. Mk IV) ## See also

Fighting Temptation

Song by Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, Free

"Fighting Temptation" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé and American rappers Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free for the film The Fighting Temptations (2003), starring Beyoncé. It was written by Beyoncé, Elliott, Lana Moorer, Marie Wright, Jonathan Burks, LaShaun Owens, Karriem Mack, and Walter Murphy. An R&B-funk song, "Fighting Temptation" samples Uncle Louie's "I Like Funky Music" (1979). Lyrically, the song makes a reference to fighting against negativity in life as well as waiting for the right person before falling in love. It was released as the lead single from the soundtrack for The Fighting Temptations on August 18, 2003, by Columbia Records. "Fighting Temptation" received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented the theme, Beyoncé's vocal performance, and the verse-raps. Commercially, it received attention only in European countries, peaking at number 11 in the Netherlands. The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Antti Jokinen. ## Background "Fighting Temptation" appeared on the soundtrack album for The Fighting Temptations (2003), as well as in the film. As a whole, seven tracks featured the vocals of Beyoncé, who had a starring role in the film, along with a choir made up of gospel, R&B and hip hop recording artists. "Fighting Temptation" features additional vocals from American female rappers Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free. ## Music and lyrics "Fighting Temptation" was written by Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, Lana Moorer, Marie Wright, Jonathan Burks, LaShaun Owens, Karriem Mack, Walter Murphy, and Gene Pistilli. Production was handled by Elliott. An R&B-funk song, it samples Uncle Louie's 1979 song "I Like Funky Music". Lyrically, the song is about a group of women's strict "no sex" rule similar to a part of the film's plot, where the female lead Lilly (portrayed by Beyoncé) abstains from being intimate with her love interest (portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr.). Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that the song's lyrics make reference to a "celebration of ladies' night out and waiting for true love." According to Dani Boobyer of the United Kingdom-based website, The Situation, "Fighting Temptation" has "a well worn message about striving for the best and fighting against negativity." Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine found that Elliott notices pleasure and joy in sins that make people go to church on Sundays, but in reality, the "party people" are no different from the churchgoers, who sin in their song and music. ## Release During a string of soundtrack releases, Beyoncé commented on the song with Billboard stating: "A lot of music was written especially for the film. At first, I was concerned about the timing of the soundtrack, [because] my solo album was supposed to come out way before the movie. But then the solo album got delayed." While later announcing the release of the soundtrack album in a press release, Beyoncé said: > Once you hear the song 'Fighting Temptation', and all the music in this film, you can't help but fall in love with it. You'll definitely get emotional. You might become happy or even sad, but your heart will get full. All the songs are touching and spiritual, and that's what the movie itself is like. "Fighting Temptations" was released as a CD single in Germany on July 5, 2004. Prior to that, it was sent to urban contemporary radio for airplay in the United States on August 18, 2003. ## Critical reception Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote: "[...] the seven tracks that feature Beyoncé on her own or with other collaborators are more striking: in particular, the movie's title track, a surprisingly fun and funky celebration." Dani Boobyer of The Situation UK commented that the soundtrack album "jumpstarts with the explosive 'Fighting Temptation' [...] setting R&B princess Beyoncé's sweet vocals against the hard sounds of Missy and MC Lyte's raps." Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine wrote that the song's artists are not fighting temptations like the song's title says, but are looking for them. ## Commercial performance "Fighting Temptation" charted across mainland Europe in early 2004, failing to chart altogether in the United States. In the Netherlands, it debuted at number 20 on the Dutch Top 40, peaking at number 13 in its second week. The song reached its peak of number 37 in its sixth week on the Flanders Singles Chart in Belgium, charting for a total of seven consecutive weeks until mid-April 2004. On August 29, the song debuted and peaked at number 42 on the Swiss Singles Chart. ## Music video The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Antti Jokinen and it features Beyoncé, Elliott, MC Lyte and Free. It was shot in an abandoned mansion near Los Angeles by the end of June 2003. Performance footage was seamlessly melded with clips from the movie. On the set, Beyoncé expressed herself: > "Basically, it's kind of like a ladies' night 'cause it's all us females and the song is about basically all these temptations you have with this guy and you're kind of fighting it. The house came from the movie because it kind of reminds me a lot of the house that we filmed in for the movie." ### Synopsis The video begins with Beyoncé in a red dress moving across a screen of multiple changing colors and then moves to multiple shots of Elliott rapping in a white and red jersey and matching hat, Lyte in a blue dress, and a church choir group. Next, Elliott is shown on roller skates in a white and black outfit rollerskating throughout the mansion. Shots are shown of Elliott in bed with a man and Beyoncé at a party with a guy and singing to the people there. As the song moves to Beyoncé singing the chorus, she is shown in a golden top and black shorts, sitting on a bed and dancing in a room, while back at the party, she is singing for her lover and blowing him kisses. The song then moves to a verse by Mc Lyte and we see her dancing in the middle of a semicircle of men wearing orange prison jumpsuits. Scenes of the movie and of Mc Lyte in front of an ever-changing background are intercut throughout this. Beyoncé then sings the chorus again and dances in her red dress in front of the background. Mc Lyte and Free are seen at a backyard barbecue party as Mc Lyte's verse begins and she mingles with the party guests, with Elliott as the party DJ. Again, Beyoncé comes back to sing the chorus of the song, now at the barbecue party, with scenes of her dancing in a room of the mansion and scenes from the movie in which she is singing on a stage in front of a large audience with a group of people behind her. With the end of the final chorus, the song moves back to Elliott and Lyte, with the former on her rollerskates as at the beginning and the latter in front of the semicircle of men. The video ends with the four of them sitting at a picnic table at the barbecue party as two small girls clap hands on the opposite bench. ## Track listings and formats ## Charts ## Release history

Origen

Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian (c. 184 – c. 253)

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185 – c. 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced". Origen sought martyrdom with his father at a young age but was prevented from turning himself in to the authorities by his mother. When he was eighteen years old, Origen became a catechist at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. He devoted himself to his studies and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. He came into conflict with Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria, in 231 after he was ordained as a presbyter by his friend, the bishop of Caesarea, while on a journey to Athens through Palestine. Demetrius condemned Origen for insubordination and accused him of having castrated himself and of having taught that even Satan would eventually attain salvation, an accusation which Origen vehemently denied. Origen founded the Christian School of Caesarea, where he taught logic, cosmology, natural history, and theology, and became regarded by the churches of Palestine and Arabia as the ultimate authority on all matters of theology. He was tortured for his faith during the Decian persecution in 250 and died three to four years later from his injuries. Origen was able to produce a massive quantity of writings because of the patronage of his close friend Ambrose of Alexandria, who provided him with a team of secretaries to copy his works, making him one of the most prolific writers in all of antiquity. His treatise On the First Principles systematically laid out the principles of Christian theology and became the foundation for later theological writings. He also authored Contra Celsum, the most influential work of early Christian apologetics, in which he defended Christianity against the pagan philosopher Celsus, one of its foremost early critics. Origen produced the Hexapla, the first critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, which contained the original Hebrew text as well as four different Greek translations of it, and one Greek transliteration of the Hebrew, all written in columns, side by side. He wrote hundreds of homilies covering almost the entire Bible, interpreting many passages as allegorical. Origen taught that, before the creation of the material universe, God had created the souls of all the intelligent beings. These souls, at first fully devoted to God, fell away from him and were given physical bodies. Origen was the first to propose the ransom theory of atonement in its fully developed form, and he also significantly contributed to the development of the concept of the Trinity. Origen hoped that all people might eventually attain salvation, but was always careful to maintain that this was only speculation. He defended free will and advocated Christian pacifism. Origen is considered by some Christian groups to be a Church Father. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential Christian theologians. His teachings were especially influential in the east, with Athanasius of Alexandria and the three Cappadocian Fathers being among his most devoted followers. Argument over the orthodoxy of Origen's teachings spawned the First Origenist Crisis in the late fourth century, in which he was attacked by Epiphanius of Salamis and Jerome but defended by Tyrannius Rufinus and John of Jerusalem. In 543, Emperor Justinian I condemned him as a heretic and ordered all his writings to be burned. The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 may have anathematized Origen, or it may have only condemned certain heretical teachings which claimed to be derived from Origen. His teachings on the pre-existence of souls were rejected by the Church. ## Life ### Early years Almost all information about Origen's life comes from a lengthy biography of him in Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History written by the Christian historian Eusebius (c. 260 – c. 340). Eusebius portrays Origen as the perfect Christian scholar and as a literal saint. Eusebius, however, wrote this account almost fifty years after Origen's death, and had access to few reliable sources on Origen's life, especially his early years. Anxious for more material about his hero, Eusebius recorded events based only on unreliable hearsay evidence, and frequently made speculative inferences about Origen based on the sources he had available. Nonetheless, scholars can reconstruct a general impression of Origen's historical life by sorting out the parts of Eusebius's account that are accurate from those that are inaccurate. Origen was born in either 185 or 186 AD in Alexandria. Porphyry called him "a Greek, and educated in Greek literature". According to Eusebius, Origen's father was Leonides of Alexandria, a respected professor of literature and also a devout Christian who practised his religion openly (and later a martyr and saint with a feast day of April 22 in the Catholic church). Joseph Wilson Trigg deems the details of this report unreliable, but admits that Origen's father was certainly at least "a prosperous and thoroughly Hellenized bourgeois". According to John Anthony McGuckin, Origen's mother, whose name is unknown, may have been a member of the lower class who did not have the right of citizenship. It is likely that, on account of his mother's status, Origen was not a Roman citizen. Origen's father taught him about literature and philosophy, and also about the Bible and Christian doctrine. Eusebius states that Origen's father made him memorize passages of scripture daily. Trigg accepts this tradition as possibly genuine, given Origen's ability as an adult to recite extended passages of scripture at will. Eusebius also reports that Origen became so learned about the holy scriptures at an early age that his father was unable to answer his questions. In 202, when Origen was "not yet seventeen", the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus ordered Roman citizens who openly practised Christianity to be executed. Origen's father Leonides was arrested and thrown in prison. Eusebius reports that Origen wanted to turn himself in to the authorities so that they would execute him as well, but his mother hid all his clothes and he was unable to go to the authorities since he refused to leave the house naked. According to McGuckin, even if Origen had turned himself in, it is unlikely that he would have been punished, since the emperor was only intent on executing Roman citizens. Origen's father was beheaded, and the state confiscated the family's entire property, leaving them impoverished. Origen was the eldest of nine children, and as his father's heir, it became his responsibility to provide for the whole family. When he was eighteen years old, Origen was appointed as a catechist at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Many scholars have assumed that Origen became the head of the school, but according to McGuckin, this is highly improbable and it is more likely that he was simply given a paid teaching position, perhaps as a "relief effort" for his destitute family. While employed at the school, he adopted the ascetic lifestyle of the Greek Sophists. He spent the whole day teaching and would stay up late at night writing treatises and commentaries. He went barefoot and only owned one cloak. He did not drink alcohol and ate a simple diet and he often fasted for long periods. Although Eusebius goes to great lengths to portray Origen as one of the Christian monastics of his own era, this portrayal is now generally recognized as anachronistic. According to Eusebius, as a young man, Origen was taken in by a wealthy Gnostic woman, who was also the patron of a very influential Gnostic theologian from Antioch, who frequently lectured in her home. Eusebius goes to great lengths to insist that, although Origen studied while in her home, he never once "prayed in common" with her or the Gnostic theologian. Later, Origen succeeded in converting a wealthy man named Ambrose from Valentinian Gnosticism to orthodox Christianity. Ambrose was so impressed by the young scholar that he gave Origen a house, a secretary, seven stenographers, a crew of copyists and calligraphers, and paid for all of his writings to be published. Sometime when he was in his early twenties, Origen sold the small library of Greek literary works which he had inherited from his father for a sum which netted him a daily income of four obols. He used this money to continue his study of the Bible and of philosophy. Origen studied at numerous schools throughout Alexandria, including the Platonic Academy of Alexandria, where he was a student of Ammonius Saccas. Eusebius claims that Origen studied under Clement of Alexandria, but according to McGuckin, this is almost certainly a retrospective assumption based on the similarity of their teachings. Origen rarely mentions Clement in his own writings, and when he does, it is usually to correct him. ### Alleged self-castration Eusebius claims that, as a young man, following a literal reading of Matthew 19:12, in which Jesus is presented as saying "there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven", Origen either castrated himself or had someone else castrate him in order to ensure his reputation as a respectable tutor to young men and women. Eusebius further alleges that Origen privately told Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria, about the castration and that Demetrius initially praised him for his devotion to God on account of it. Origen, however, never mentions anything about having castrated himself in any of his surviving writings, and in his exegesis of this verse in his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, written near the end of life, he strongly condemns any literal interpretation of Matthew 19:12, asserting that only an idiot would interpret the passage as advocating literal castration. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, some scholars have questioned the historicity of Origen's self-castration, with many seeing it as a wholesale fabrication. Trigg states that Eusebius's account of Origen's self-castration is certainly true, because Eusebius, who was an ardent admirer of Origen, yet clearly describes the castration as an act of pure folly, would have had no motive to pass on a piece of information that might tarnish Origen's reputation unless it was "notorious and beyond question." Trigg sees Origen's condemnation of the literal interpretation of Matthew 19:12 as him "tacitly repudiating the literalistic reading he had acted on in his youth." In sharp contrast, McGuckin dismisses Eusebius's story of Origen's self-castration as "hardly credible", seeing it as a deliberate attempt by Eusebius to distract from more serious questions regarding the orthodoxy of Origen's teachings. McGuckin also states, "We have no indication that the motive of castration for respectability was ever regarded as standard by a teacher of mixed-gender classes". He adds that Origen's female students (whom Eusebius lists by name) would have been accompanied by attendants at all times, meaning that Origen would have had no good reason to think that anyone would suspect him of impropriety. Henry Chadwick argues that, while Eusebius's story may be true, it seems unlikely, given that Origen's exposition of Matthew 19:12 "strongly deplored any literal interpretation of the words". Instead, Chadwick suggests, "Perhaps Eusebius was uncritically reporting malicious gossip retailed by Origen's enemies, of whom there were many." However, many noted historians, such as Peter Brown and William Placher, continue to find no reason to conclude that the story is false. Placher theorizes that, if it is true, it may have followed an episode in which Origen received some raised eyebrows while privately tutoring a woman. ### Travels and early writings In his early twenties Origen became less interested in work as a grammarian and more interested in operating as a rhetor-philosopher. He gave his job as a catechist to his younger colleague Heraclas. Meanwhile, Origen began to style himself as a "master of philosophy". Origen's new position as a self-styled Christian philosopher brought him into conflict with Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria. Demetrius, a charismatic leader who ruled the Christian congregation of Alexandria with an iron fist, became the most direct promoter of the elevation in status of the bishop of Alexandria; prior to Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria had merely been a priest who was elected to represent his fellows, but after Demetrius, the bishop was seen as clearly a rank higher than his fellow priests. By styling himself as an independent philosopher, Origen was reviving a role that had been prominent in earlier Christianity but which challenged the authority of the now-powerful bishop. Meanwhile, Origen began composing his massive theological treatise On the First Principles, a landmark book which systematically laid out the foundations of Christian theology for centuries to come. Origen also began travelling abroad to visit schools across the Mediterranean. In 212 he travelled to Rome – a major center of philosophy at the time. In Rome, Origen attended lectures by Hippolytus of Rome and was influenced by his logos theology. In 213 or 214 the governor of Arabia sent a message to the prefect of Egypt requesting him to send Origen to meet with him so that he could interview him and learn more about Christianity from its leading intellectual. Origen, escorted by official bodyguards, spent a short time in Arabia with the governor before returning to Alexandria. In the autumn of 215 the Roman Emperor Caracalla visited Alexandria. During the visit, the students at the schools there protested and made fun of him for having murdered his brother Geta (died 211). Caracalla, incensed, ordered his troops to ravage the city, execute the governor, and kill all the protesters. He also commanded them to expel all the teachers and intellectuals from the city. Origen fled Alexandria and traveled to the city of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Palestine, where the bishops Theoctistus of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem became his devoted admirers and asked him to deliver discourses on the scriptures in their respective churches. This effectively amounted to letting Origen deliver homilies, even though he was not formally ordained. While this was an unexpected phenomenon, especially given Origen's international fame as a teacher and philosopher, it infuriated Demetrius, who saw it as a direct undermining of his authority. Demetrius sent deacons from Alexandria to demand that the Palestinian hierarchs immediately return "his" catechist to Alexandria. He also issued a decree chastising the Palestinians for allowing a person who was not ordained to preach. The Palestinian bishops, in turn, issued their own condemnation, accusing Demetrius of being jealous of Origen's fame and prestige. Origen obeyed Demetrius's order and returned to Alexandria, bringing with him an antique scroll he had purchased at Jericho containing the full text of the Hebrew Bible. The manuscript, which had purportedly been found "in a jar", became the source text for one of the two Hebrew columns in Origen's Hexapla. Origen studied the Old Testament in great depth; Eusebius even claims that Origen learned Hebrew. Most modern scholars regard this claim as implausible, but they disagree over how much Origen actually knew about the language. H. Lietzmann concludes that Origen probably only knew the Hebrew alphabet and not much else, whereas R. P. C. Hanson and G. Bardy argue that Origen had a superficial understanding of the language but not enough to have composed the entire Hexapla. A note in Origen's On the First Principles mentions an unknown "Hebrew master", but this was probably a consultant, not a teacher. Origen also studied the entire New Testament, but especially the epistles of the apostle Paul and the Gospel of John, the writings which Origen regarded as the most important and authoritative. At Ambrose's request, Origen composed the first five books of his exhaustive Commentary on the Gospel of John, He also wrote the first eight books of his Commentary on Genesis, his Commentary on Psalms 1–25, and his Commentary on Lamentations. In addition to these commentaries, Origen also wrote two books on the resurrection of Jesus and ten books of Stromata (miscellanies). It is likely that these works contained much theological speculation, which brought Origen into even greater conflict with Demetrius. ### Conflict with Demetrius and removal to Caesarea Origen repeatedly asked Demetrius to ordain him as a priest, but Demetrius continually refused. In around 231, Demetrius sent Origen on a mission to Athens. Along the way, Origen stopped in Caesarea, where he was warmly greeted by the bishops Theoctistus of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem, who had become his close friends during his previous stay. While he was visiting Caesarea, Origen asked Theoctistus to ordain him as a priest. Theoctistus gladly complied. Upon learning of Origen's ordination, Demetrius was outraged and issued a condemnation declaring that Origen's ordination by a foreign bishop was an act of insubordination. Eusebius reports that as a result of Demetrius's condemnations, Origen decided not to return to Alexandria and instead to take up permanent residence in Caesarea. John Anthony McGuckin, however, argues that Origen had probably already been planning to stay in Caesarea. The Palestinian bishops declared Origen the chief theologian of Caesarea. Firmilian, the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, was such a devoted disciple of Origen that he begged him to come to Cappadocia and teach there. Demetrius raised a storm of protests against the bishops of Palestine and the church synod in Rome. According to Eusebius, Demetrius published the allegation that Origen had secretly castrated himself, a capital offense under Roman law at the time and one which would have made Origen's ordination invalid, since eunuchs were forbidden from becoming priests. Demetrius also alleged that Origen had taught an extreme form of apokatastasis, which held that all beings, including even Satan himself, would eventually attain salvation. This allegation probably arose from a misunderstanding of Origen's argument during a debate with the Valentinian Gnostic teacher Candidus. Candidus had argued in favor of predestination by declaring that the Devil was beyond salvation. Origen had responded by arguing that, if the Devil is destined for eternal damnation, it was on account of his actions, which were the result of his own free will. Therefore, Origen had declared that Satan was only morally reprobate, not absolutely reprobate. Demetrius died in 232, less than a year after Origen's departure from Alexandria. The accusations against Origen faded with the death of Demetrius, but they did not disappear entirely and they continued to haunt him for the rest of his career. Origen defended himself in his Letter to Friends in Alexandria, in which he vehemently denied that he had ever taught that the Devil would attain salvation and insisted that the very notion of the Devil attaining salvation was simply ludicrous. ### Work and teaching in Caesarea During his early years in Caesarea, Origen's primary task was the establishment of a Christian School; Caesarea had long been seen as a center of learning for Jews and Hellenistic philosophers, but until Origen's arrival, it had lacked a Christian center of higher education. According to Eusebius, the school Origen founded was primarily targeted towards young pagans who had expressed interest in Christianity but were not yet ready to ask for baptism. The school therefore sought to explain Christian teachings through Middle Platonism. Origen started his curriculum by teaching his students classical Socratic reasoning. After they had mastered this, he taught them cosmology and natural history. Finally, once they had mastered all of these subjects, he taught them theology, which was the highest of all philosophies, the accumulation of everything they had previously learned. With the establishment of the Caesarean school, Origen's reputation as a scholar and theologian reached its zenith and he became known throughout the Mediterranean world as a brilliant intellectual. The hierarchs of the Palestinian and Arabian church synods regarded Origen as the ultimate expert on all matters dealing with theology. While teaching in Caesarea, Origen resumed work on his Commentary on John, composing at least books six through ten. In the first of these books, Origen compares himself to "an Israelite who has escaped the perverse persecution of the Egyptians." Origen also wrote the treatise On Prayer at the request of his friend Ambrose and Tatiana (referred to as the "sister" of Ambrose), in which he analyzes the different types of prayers described in the Bible and offers a detailed exegesis on the Lord's Prayer. Pagans also took a fascination with Origen. The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry heard of Origen's fame and traveled to Caesarea to listen to his lectures. Porphyry recounts that Origen had extensively studied the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, but also those of important Middle Platonists, Neopythagoreans, and Stoics, including Numenius of Apamea, Chronius, Apollophanes, Longinus, Moderatus of Gades, Nicomachus, Chaeremon, and Cornutus. Nonetheless, Porphyry accused Origen of having betrayed true philosophy by subjugating its insights to the exegesis of the Christian scriptures. Eusebius reports that Origen was summoned from Caesarea to Antioch at the behest of Julia Avita Mamaea, the mother of Roman Emperor Severus Alexander, "to discuss Christian philosophy and doctrine with her." In 235, approximately three years after Origen began teaching in Caesarea, Alexander Severus, who had been tolerant towards Christians, was murdered and Emperor Maximinus Thrax instigated a purge of all those who had supported his predecessor. His pogroms targeted Christian leaders and, in Rome, Pope Pontianus and Hippolytus of Rome were both sent into exile. Origen knew that he was in danger and went into hiding in the home of a faithful Christian woman named Juliana the Virgin, who had been a student of the Ebionite leader Symmachus. Origen's close friend and longtime patron Ambrose was arrested in Nicomedia, and Protoctetes, the leading priest in Caesarea, was also arrested. In their honor, Origen composed his treatise Exhortation to Martyrdom, which is now regarded as one of the greatest classics of Christian resistance literature. After coming out of hiding following Maximinus's death, Origen founded a school of which Gregory Thaumaturgus, later bishop of Pontus, was one of the pupils. He preached regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays, and later daily. ### Later life Sometime between 238 and 244, Origen visited Athens, where he completed his Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel and began writing his Commentary on the Song of Songs. After visiting Athens, he visited Ambrose in Nicomedia. According to Porphyry, Origen also travelled to Rome or Antioch, where he met Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism. The Christians of the eastern Mediterranean continued to revere Origen as the most orthodox of all theologians, and when the Palestinian hierarchs learned that Beryllus, the bishop of Bostra and one of the most energetic Christian leaders of the time, had been preaching adoptionism (the belief that Jesus was born human and only became divine after his baptism), they sent Origen to convert him to orthodoxy. Origen engaged Beryllus in a public disputation, which went so successfully that Beryllus promised only to teach Origen's theology from then on. On another occasion, a Christian leader in Arabia named Heracleides began teaching that the soul was mortal and that it perished with the body. Origen refuted these teachings, arguing that the soul is immortal and can never die. In c. 249, the Plague of Cyprian broke out. In 250, Emperor Decius, believing that the plague was caused by Christians' failure to recognise him as divine, issued a decree for Christians to be persecuted. This time Origen did not escape. Eusebius recounts how Origen suffered "bodily tortures and torments under the iron collar and in the dungeon; and how for many days with his feet stretched four spaces in the stocks". The governor of Caesarea gave very specific orders that Origen was not to be killed until he had publicly renounced his faith in Christ. Origen endured two years of imprisonment and torture, but obstinately refused to renounce his faith. In June 251, Decius was killed fighting the Goths in the Battle of Abritus, and Origen was released from prison. Nonetheless, Origen's health was broken by the physical tortures enacted on him, and he died less than a year later at the age of sixty-nine. A later legend, recounted by Jerome and numerous itineraries, places his death and burial at Tyre, but little value can be attached to this. ## Works ### Exegetical writings Origen was an extremely prolific writer. According to Epiphanius, he wrote a grand total of roughly 6,000 works over the course of his lifetime. Most scholars agree that this estimate is probably somewhat exaggerated. According to Jerome, Eusebius listed the titles of just under 2,000 treatises written by Origen in his lost Life of Pamphilus. Jerome compiled an abbreviated list of Origen's major treatises, itemizing 800 different titles. By far the most important work of Origen on textual criticism was the Hexapla ("Sixfold"), a massive comparative study of various translations of the Old Testament in six columns: Hebrew, Hebrew in Greek characters, the Septuagint, and the Greek translations of Theodotion (a Jewish scholar from c. 180 AD), Aquila of Sinope (another Jewish scholar from c. 117–138), and Symmachus (an Ebionite scholar from c. 193–211). Origen was the first Christian scholar to introduce critical markers to a Biblical text. He marked the Septuagint column of the Hexapla using signs adapted from those used by the textual critics of the Great Library of Alexandria: a passage found in the Septuagint that was not found in the Hebrew text would be marked with an asterisk (\*) and a passage that was found in other Greek translations, but not in the Septuagint, would be marked with an obelus (÷). The Hexapla was the cornerstone of the Great Library of Caesarea, which Origen founded. It was still the centerpiece of the library's collection by the time of Jerome, who records having used it in his letters on multiple occasions. When Emperor Constantine the Great ordered fifty complete copies of the Bible to be transcribed and disseminated across the empire, Eusebius used the Hexapla as the master copy for the Old Testament. Although the original Hexapla has been lost, the text of it has survived in numerous fragments and a more-or-less complete Syriac translation of the Greek column, made by the seventh-century bishop Paul of Tella, has also survived. For some sections of the Hexapla, Origen included additional columns containing other Greek translations; for the Book of Psalms, he included no less than eight Greek translations, making this section known as Enneapla ("Ninefold"). Origen also produced the Tetrapla ("Fourfold"), a smaller, abridged version of the Hexapla containing only the four Greek translations and not the original Hebrew text. According to Jerome's Epistle 33, Origen wrote extensive scholia on the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Psalms 1–15, Ecclesiastes, and the Gospel of John. None of these scholia have survived intact, but parts of them were incorporated into the Catenaea, a collection of excerpts from major works of Biblical commentary written by the Church Fathers. Other fragments of the scholia are preserved in Origen's Philocalia and in Pamphilus of Caesarea's apology for Origen. The Stromateis were of a similar character, and the margin of Codex Athous Laura, 184, contains citations from this work on Romans 9:23; I Corinthians 6:14, 7:31, 34, 9:20–21, 10:9, besides a few other fragments. Origen composed homilies covering almost the entire Bible. There are 205, and possibly 279, homilies of Origen that are extant either in Greek or in Latin translations. The homilies preserved are on Genesis (16), Exodus (13), Leviticus (16), Numbers (28), Joshua (26), Judges (9), I Sam. (2), Psalms 36–38 (9), Canticles (2), Isaiah (9), Jeremiah (7 Greek, 2 Latin, 12 Greek and Latin), Ezekiel (14), and Luke (39). The homilies were preached in the church at Caesarea, with the exception of the two on 1 Samuel which were delivered in Jerusalem. Nautin has argued that they were all preached in a three-year liturgical cycle some time between 238 and 244, preceding the Commentary on the Song of Songs, where Origen refers to homilies on Judges, Exodus, Numbers, and a work on Leviticus. On June 11, 2012, the Bavarian State Library announced that the Italian philologist Marina Molin Pradel had discovered twenty-nine previously unknown homilies by Origen in a twelfth-century Byzantine manuscript from their collection. Prof. Lorenzo Perrone of Bologna University and other experts confirmed the authenticity of the homilies. The texts of these manuscripts can be found online. Origen is the main source of information on the use of the texts that were later officially canonized as the New Testament. The information used to create the late-fourth-century Easter Letter, which declared accepted Christian writings, was probably based on the lists given in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History HE 3:25 and 6:25, which were both primarily based on information provided by Origen. Origen accepted the authenticity of the epistles of 1 John, 1 Peter, and Jude without question and accepted the Epistle of James as authentic with only slight hesitation. He also refers to 2 John, 3 John, and 2 Peter but notes that all three were suspected to be forgeries. Origen may have also considered other writings to be "inspired" that were rejected by later authors, including the Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, and 1 Clement. "Origen is not the originator of the idea of biblical canon, but he certainly gives the philosophical and literary–interpretative underpinnings for the whole notion." ### Extant commentaries Origen's commentaries written on specific books of scripture are much more focused on systematic exegesis than his homilies. In these writings, Origen applies the precise critical methodology that had been developed by the scholars of the Mouseion in Alexandria to the Christian scriptures. The commentaries also display Origen's impressive encyclopedic knowledge of various subjects and his ability to cross-reference specific words, listing every place in which a word appears in the scriptures along with all the word's known meanings, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he did this in a time when Bible concordances had not yet been compiled. Origen's massive Commentary on the Gospel of John, which spanned more than thirty-two volumes once it was completed, was written with the specific intention not only to expound the correct interpretation of the scriptures, but also to refute the interpretations of the Valentinian Gnostic teacher Heracleon, who had used the Gospel of John to support his argument that there were really two gods, not one. Of the original thirty-two books in the Commentary on John, only nine have been preserved: Books I, II, VI, X, XIII, XX, XXVIII, XXXII, and a fragment of XIX. Of the original twenty-five books in Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, only eight have survived in the original Greek (Books 10–17), covering Matthew 13.36–22.33. An anonymous Latin translation beginning at the point corresponding to Book 12, Chapter 9 of the Greek text and covering Matthew 16.13–27.66 has also survived. The translation contains parts that are not found in the original Greek and is missing parts that are found in it. Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew was universally regarded as a classic, even after his condemnation, and it ultimately became the work which established the Gospel of Matthew as the primary gospel. Origen's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans was originally fifteen books long, but only tiny fragments of it have survived in the original Greek. An abbreviated Latin translation in ten books was produced by the monk Tyrannius Rufinus at the end of the fourth century. The historian Socrates Scholasticus records that Origen had included an extensive discussion of the application of the title theotokos to the Virgin Mary in his commentary, but this discussion is not found in Rufinus's translation, probably because Rufinus did not approve of Origen's position on the matter, whatever that might have been. Origen also composed a Commentary on the Song of Songs, in which he took explicit care to explain why the Song of Songs was relevant to a Christian audience. The Commentary on the Song of Songs was Origen's most celebrated commentary and Jerome famously writes in his preface to his translation of two of Origen's homilies over the Song of Songs that "In his other works, Origen habitually excels others. In this commentary, he excelled himself." Origen expanded on the exegesis of the Jewish Rabbi Akiva, interpreting the Song of Songs as a mystical allegory in which the bridegroom represents the Logos and the bride represents the soul of the believer. This was the first Christian commentary to expound such an interpretation and it became extremely influential on later interpretations of the Song of Songs. Despite this, the commentary now only survives in part through a Latin translation of it made by Tyrannius Rufinus in 410. Fragments of some other commentaries survive. Citations in Origen's Philokalia include fragments of the third book of the commentary on Genesis. There is also Ps. i, iv.1, the small commentary on Canticles, and the second book of the large commentary on the same, the twentieth book of the commentary on Ezekiel, and the commentary on Hosea. Of the non-extant commentaries, there is limited evidence of their arrangement. ### On the First Principles Origen's On the First Principles was the first ever systematic exposition of Christian theology. He composed it as a young man between 220 and 230 while he was still living in Alexandria. Fragments from Books 3.1 and 4.1–3 of Origen's Greek original are preserved in Origen's Philokalia. A few smaller quotations of the original Greek are preserved in Justinian's Letter to Mennas. The vast majority of the text has only survived in a heavily abridged Latin translation produced by Tyrannius Rufinus in 397. On the First Principles begins with an essay explaining the nature of theology. Book One describes the heavenly world and includes descriptions of the oneness of God, the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, the nature of the divine spirit, reason, and angels. Book Two describes the world of man, including the incarnation of the Logos, the soul, free will, and eschatology. Book Three deals with cosmology, sin, and redemption. Book Four deals with teleology and the interpretation of the scriptures. ### Against Celsus Against Celsus (Greek: Κατὰ Κέλσου; Latin: Contra Celsum), preserved entirely in Greek, was Origen's last treatise, written about 248. It is an apologetic work defending orthodox Christianity against the attacks of the pagan philosopher Celsus, who was seen in the ancient world as early Christianity's foremost opponent. In 178, Celsus had written a polemic entitled On the True Word, in which he had made numerous arguments against Christianity. The church had responded by ignoring Celsus's attacks, but Origen's patron Ambrose brought the matter to his attention. Origen initially wanted to ignore Celsus and let his attacks fade, but one of Celsus's major claims, which held that no self-respecting philosopher of the Platonic tradition would ever be so stupid as to become a Christian, provoked him to write a rebuttal. In the book, Origen systematically refutes each of Celsus' arguments point by point and argues for a rational basis of Christian faith. Origen draws heavily on the teachings of Plato and argues that Christianity and Greek philosophy are not incompatible, and that philosophy contains much that is true and admirable, but that the Bible contains far greater wisdom than anything Greek philosophers could ever grasp. Origen responds to Celsus's accusation that Jesus had performed his miracles using magic rather than divine powers by asserting that, unlike magicians, Jesus had not performed his miracles for show, but rather to reform his audiences. Contra Celsum became the most influential of all early Christian apologetics works; before it was written, Christianity was seen by many as merely a folk religion for the illiterate and uneducated, but Origen raised it to a level of academic respectability. Eusebius admired Against Celsus so much that, in his Against Hierocles 1, he declared that Against Celsus provided an adequate rebuttal to all criticisms the church would ever face. ### Other writings Between 232 and 235, while in Caesarea in Palestine, Origen wrote On Prayer, of which the full text has been preserved in the original Greek. After an introduction on the object, necessity, and advantage of prayer, he ends with an exegesis of the Lord's Prayer, concluding with remarks on the position, place, and attitude to be assumed during prayer, as well as on the classes of prayer. On Martyrdom, or the Exhortation to Martyrdom, also preserved entire in Greek, was written some time after the beginning of the persecution of Maximinus in the first half of 235. In it, Origen warns against any trifling with idolatry and emphasises the duty of suffering martyrdom manfully, while in the second part he explains the meaning of martyrdom. The papyri discovered at Tura in 1941 contained the Greek texts of two previously unknown works of Origen. Neither work can be dated precisely, though both were probably written after the persecution of Maximinus in 235. One is On the Pascha. The other is Dialogue with Heracleides, a record written by one of Origen's stenographers of a debate between Origen and the Arabian bishop Heracleides, a quasi-Monarchianist who taught that the Father and the Son were the same. In the dialogue, Origen uses Socratic questioning to persuade Heracleides to believe in the "Logos theology", in which the Son or Logos is a separate entity from God the Father. The debate between Origen and Heracleides, and Origen's responses in particular, has been noted for its unusually cordial and respectful nature in comparison to the much fiercer polemics of Tertullian or the fourth-century debates between Trinitarians and Arians. Lost works include two books on the Resurrection, written before On First Principles, and also two dialogues on the same theme dedicated to Ambrose. Eusebius had a collection of more than one hundred letters of Origen, and the list of Jerome speaks of several books of his epistles. Except for a few fragments, only three letters have been preserved. The first, partly preserved in the Latin translation of Rufinus, is addressed to friends in Alexandria. The second is a short letter to Gregory Thaumaturgus, preserved in the Philocalia. The third is an epistle to Sextus Julius Africanus, extant in Greek, replying to a letter from Africanus (also extant), and defending the authenticity of the Greek additions to the book of Daniel. Forgeries of the writings of Origen made in his lifetime are discussed by Rufinus in De adulteratione librorum Origenis. The Dialogus de recta in Deum fide, the Philosophumena attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, and the Commentary on Job by Julian the Arian have also been ascribed to him. ## Views ### Christology Origen writes that Jesus was "the firstborn of all creation [who] assumed a body and a human soul." He firmly believed that Jesus had a human soul and abhorred docetism (the teaching which held that Jesus had come to Earth in spirit form rather than a physical human body). Origen envisioned Jesus' human nature as the one soul that stayed closest to God and remained perfectly faithful to Him, even when all other souls fell away. At Jesus's incarnation, his soul became fused with the Logos and they "intermingled" to become one. Thus, according to Origen, Christ was both human and divine, but like all human souls, Christ's human nature was existent from the beginning. Origen was the first to propose the ransom theory of atonement in its fully developed form, although Irenaeus had previously proposed a prototypical form of it. According to this theory, Christ's death on the cross was a ransom to Satan in exchange for humanity's liberation. This theory holds that Satan was tricked by God because Christ was not only free of sin, but also the incarnate Deity, whom Satan lacked the ability to enslave. The theory was later expanded by theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa and Rufinus of Aquileia. In the eleventh century, Anselm of Canterbury criticized the ransom theory, along with the associated Christus Victor theory, resulting in the theory's decline in western Europe. The theory has nonetheless retained some of its popularity in the Eastern Orthodox Church. ### Cosmology and Eschatology One of Origen's main teachings was the doctrine of the preexistence of souls, which held that before God created the material world he created a vast number of incorporeal "spiritual intelligences" (ψυχαί). All of these souls were at first devoted to the contemplation and love of their Creator, but as the fervor of the divine fire cooled, almost all of these intelligences eventually grew bored of contemplating God, and their love for him "cooled off" (ψύχεσθαι). When God created the world, the souls which had previously existed without bodies became incarnate. Those whose love for God diminished the most became demons. Those whose love diminished moderately became human souls, eventually to be incarnated in fleshly bodies. Those whose love diminished the least became angels. One soul, however, who remained perfectly devoted to God became, through love, one with the Word (Logos) of God. The Logos eventually took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary, becoming the God-man Jesus Christ. In recent years it has been questioned whether Origen believed this, being in reality a belief of his disciples and a misrepresentation of Justinian, Epiphanius and others. Origen may or may not have believed in the Platonic teaching of metempsychosis ("the transmigration of souls"; i.e. reincarnation). He explicitly rejects "the false doctrine of the transmigration of souls into bodies", but this may refer only to a specific kind of transmigration. Geddes MacGregor has argued that Origen must have believed in metempsychosis because it makes sense within his eschatology and is never explicitly denied in the Bible. Roger E. Olson, however, dismisses the view that Origen believed in reincarnation as a New Age misunderstanding of Origen's teachings. It is certain that Origen rejected the Stoic doctrine of eternal return, although he did posit the existence of a series of non-identical worlds. Origen believed that, eventually, the whole world would be converted to Christianity, "since the world is continually gaining possession of more souls." He believed that the Kingdom of Heaven was not yet come, but that it was the duty of every Christian to make the eschatological reality of the kingdom present in their lives. Origen is often believed to be a Universalist, who suggested that all people might eventually attain salvation, but only after being purged of their sins through "divine fire". This, of course, in line of Origen's allegorical interpretation, was not literal fire, but rather the inner anguish of knowing one's own sins. Origen was also careful to maintain that universal salvation was merely a possibility and not a definitive doctrine. Jerome quotes Origen as having allegedly written that "after aeons and the one restoration of all things, the state of Gabriel will be the same as that of the Devil, Paul's as that of Caiaphas, that of virgins as that of prostitutes." However, Origen expressly states in his Letter to Friends in Alexandria that Satan and "those who are cast out of the kingdom of God" would be not included in the final salvation. ### Ethics Origen was an ardent believer in free will, and he adamantly rejected the Valentinian idea of election. Instead, Origen believed that even disembodied souls have the power to make their own decisions. Furthermore, in his interpretation of the story of Jacob and Esau, Origen argues that the condition into which a person is born is actually dependent upon what their souls did in this pre-existent state. According to Origen, the superficial unfairness of a person's condition at birth—with some humans being poor, others rich, some being sick, and others healthy—is actually a by-product of what the person's soul had done in the pre-existent state. Origen defends free will in his interpretations of instances of divine foreknowledge in the scriptures, arguing that Jesus's knowledge of Judas's future betrayal in the gospels and God's knowledge of Israel's future disobedience in the Deuteronomistic history only show that God knew these events would happen in advance. Origen therefore concludes that the individuals involved in these incidents still made their decisions out of their own free will. Like Plato, Plotinus and Gregory of Nyssa, Origen understands that only the agent who chooses the Good is free; choosing evil is never free but slavery. Origen was an ardent pacifist, and in his Against Celsus, he argued that Christianity's inherent pacifism was one of the most outwardly noticeable aspects of the religion. While Origen did admit that some Christians served in the Roman army, he pointed out that most did not and insisted that engaging in earthly wars was against the way of Christ. Origen accepted that it was sometimes necessary for a non-Christian state to wage wars but insisted that it was impossible for a Christian to fight in such a war without compromising his or her faith, since Christ had absolutely forbidden violence of any kind. Origen explained the violence found in certain passages of the Old Testament as allegorical and pointed out Old Testament passages which he interpreted as supporting nonviolence, such as Psalm 7:4–6 and Lamentations 3:27–29. Origen maintained that, if everyone were peaceful and loving like Christians, then there would be no wars and the Empire would not need a military. ### Hermeneutics Origen bases his theology on the Christian scriptures and does not appeal to Platonic teachings without having first supported his argument with a scriptural basis. He saw the scriptures as divinely inspired and was cautious never to contradict his own interpretation of what was written in them. Nonetheless, Origen did have a penchant for speculating beyond what was explicitly stated in the Bible, and this habit frequently placed him in the hazy realm between strict orthodoxy and heresy. According to Origen, there are two kinds of Biblical literature which are found in both the Old and New Testaments: historia ("history, or narrative") and nomothesia ("legislation or ethical prescription"). Origen expressly states that the Old and New Testaments should be read together and according to the same rules. Origen further taught that there were three different ways in which passages of scripture could be interpreted. The "flesh" was the literal, historical interpretation of the passage; the "soul" was the moral message behind the passage; and the "spirit" was the eternal, incorporeal reality that the passage conveyed. In Origen's exegesis, the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs represent perfect examples of the bodily, soulful, and spiritual components of scripture respectively. Origen saw the "spiritual" interpretation as the deepest and most important meaning of the text and taught that some passages held no literal meaning at all and that their meanings were purely allegorical. Nonetheless, he stressed that "the passages which are historically true are far more numerous than those which are composed with purely spiritual meanings" and often used examples from corporeal realities. Origen noticed that the accounts of Jesus's life in the four canonical gospels contain irreconcilable contradictions, but he argued that these contradictions did not undermine the spiritual meanings of the passages in question. Origen's idea of a twofold creation was based on an allegorical interpretation of the creation story found in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. The first creation, described in Genesis 1:26, was the creation of the primeval spirits, who are made "in the image of God" and are therefore incorporeal like Him; the second creation described in Genesis 2:7 is when the human souls are given ethereal, spiritual bodies and the description in Genesis 3:21 of God clothing Adam and Eve in "tunics of skin" refers to the transformation of these spiritual bodies into corporeal ones. Thus, each phase represents a degradation from the original state of incorporeal holiness. ### Theology Origen's conception of God the Father is apophatic—a perfect unity, invisible and incorporeal, transcending all things material, and therefore inconceivable and incomprehensible. He is likewise unchangeable and transcends space and time. But his power is limited by his goodness, justice, and wisdom; and, though entirely free from necessity, his goodness and omnipotence constrained him to reveal himself. This revelation, the external self-emanation of God, is expressed by Origen in various ways, the Logos being only one of many. The revelation was the first creation of God (cf. Proverbs 8:22), in order to afford creative mediation between God and the world, such mediation being necessary, because God, as changeless unity, could not be the source of a multitudinous creation. The Logos is the rational creative principle that permeates the universe. The Logos acts on all human beings through their capacity for logic and rational thought, guiding them to the truth of God's revelation. As they progress in their rational thinking, all humans become more like Christ. Nonetheless, they retain their individuality and do not become subsumed into Christ. Creation came into existence only through the Logos, and God's nearest approach to the world is the command to create. While the Logos is substantially a unity, he comprehends a multiplicity of concepts, so that Origen terms him, in Platonic fashion, "essence of essences" and "idea of ideas". Origen significantly contributed to the development of the idea of the Trinity. He declared the Holy Spirit to be a part of the Godhead and interpreted the Parable of the Lost Coin to mean that the Holy Spirit dwells within each and every person and that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was necessary for any kind of speech dealing with God. Origen taught that the activity of all three parts of the Trinity was necessary for a person to attain salvation. In one fragment preserved by Rufinus in his Latin translation of Pamphilus's Defense of Origen, Origen seems to apply the phrase homooúsios (ὁμοούσιος; "of the same substance") to the relationship between the Father and the Son. But Williams states that it is impossible to verify whether the quote that uses the word homoousios really comes from Pamphilus at all, let alone Origen. In other passages, Origen rejected the belief that the Son and the Father were one hypostasis as heretical. According to Rowan Williams, because the words ousia and hypostasis were used synonymously in Origen's time, Origen almost certainly would have rejected homoousios, as a description for the relationship between the Father and the Son, as heretical. Nonetheless, Origen was a subordinationist, meaning he believed that the Father was superior to the Son and the Son was superior to the Holy Spirit, a model based on Platonic proportions. Jerome records that Origen had written that God the Father is invisible to all beings, including even the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that the Son is invisible to the Holy Spirit as well. At one point Origen suggests that the Son was created by the Father and that the Holy Spirit was created by the Son, but, at another point, he writes that "Up to the present I have been able to find no passage in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is a created being." At the time when Origen was alive, orthodox views on the Trinity had not yet been formulated and subordinationism was not yet considered heretical. In fact, virtually all orthodox theologians prior to the Arian controversy in the latter half of the fourth century were subordinationists to some extent. Origen's subordinationism may have developed out of his efforts to defend the unity of God against the Gnostics. ## Influence on the Later Church ### Before the Crises Origen is often seen as the first major Christian theologian. Though his orthodoxy had been questioned in Alexandria while he was alive, after Origen's death Pope Dionysius of Alexandria became one of the foremost proponents of Origen's theology. Every Christian theologian who came after him was influenced by his theology, whether directly or indirectly. Origen's contributions to theology were so vast and complex, however, that his followers frequently emphasized drastically different parts of his teachings to the expense of other parts. Dionysius emphasized Origen's subordinationist views, which led Dionysius to deny the unity of the Trinity, causing controversy throughout North Africa. At the same time, Origen's other disciple Theognostus of Alexandria taught that the Father and the Son were "of one substance". For centuries after his death, Origen was regarded as the bastion of orthodoxy, and his philosophy practically defined Eastern Christianity. Origen was revered as one of the greatest of all Christian teachers; he was especially beloved by monks, who saw themselves as continuing in Origen's ascetic legacy. As time progressed, however, Origen became criticized under the standard of orthodoxy in later eras, rather than the standards of his own lifetime. In the early fourth century, the Christian writer Methodius of Olympus criticized some of Origen's more speculative arguments but otherwise agreed with Origen on all other points of theology. Peter of Antioch and Eustathius of Antioch criticized Origen as heretical. Both orthodox and heterodox theologians claimed to be following in the tradition Origen had established. Athanasius of Alexandria, the most prominent supporter of the Holy Trinity at the First Council of Nicaea, was deeply influenced by Origen, and so were Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus (the so-called "Cappadocian Fathers"). At the same time, Origen deeply influenced Arius of Alexandria and later followers of Arianism. Although the extent of the relationship between the two is debated, in antiquity, many orthodox Christians believed that Origen was the true and ultimate source of the Arian heresy. ### First Origenist Crisis The First Origenist Crisis began in the late fourth century, coinciding with the beginning of monasticism in Palestine. The first stirring of the controversy came from the Cyprian bishop Epiphanius of Salamis, who was determined to root out all heresies and refute them. Epiphanius attacked Origen in his anti-heretical treatises Ancoratus (375) and Panarion (376), compiling a list of teachings Origen had espoused that Epiphanius regarded as heretical. Epiphanius's treatises portray Origen as an originally orthodox Christian who had been corrupted and turned into a heretic by the evils of "Greek education". Epiphanius particularly objected to Origen's subordinationism, his "excessive" use of allegorical hermeneutic, and his habit of proposing ideas about the Bible "speculatively, as exercises" rather than "dogmatically". Epiphanius asked John, the bishop of Jerusalem, to condemn Origen as a heretic. John refused on the grounds that a person could not be retroactively condemned as a heretic after that person had already died. In 393, a monk named Atarbius advanced a petition to have Origen and his writings censured. Tyrannius Rufinus, a priest at the monastery on the Mount of Olives who had been ordained by John of Jerusalem and was a longtime admirer of Origen, rejected the petition outright. Rufinus's close friend and associate Jerome, who had also studied Origen, however, came to agree with the petition. Around the same time, John Cassian, an Eastern monk, introduced Origen's teachings to the West. In 394, Epiphanius wrote to John of Jerusalem, again asking for Origen to be condemned, insisting that Origen's writings denigrated human sexual reproduction and accusing him of having been an Encratite. John once again denied this request. By 395, Jerome had allied himself with the anti-Origenists and begged John of Jerusalem to condemn Origen, a plea which John once again refused. Epiphanius launched a campaign against John, openly preaching that John was an Origenist deviant. He successfully persuaded Jerome to break communion with John and ordained Jerome's brother Paulinianus as a priest in defiance of John's authority. In 397, Rufinus published a Latin translation of Origen's On First Principles. Rufinus was convinced that Origen's original treatise had been interpolated by heretics and that these interpolations were the source of the heterodox teachings found in it. He therefore heavily modified Origen's text, omitting and altering any parts which disagreed with contemporary Christian orthodoxy. In the introduction to this translation, Rufinus mentioned that Jerome had studied under Origen's disciple Didymus the Blind, implying that Jerome was a follower of Origen. Jerome was so incensed by this that he resolved to produce his own Latin translation of On the First Principles, in which he promised to translate every word exactly as it was written and lay bare Origen's heresies to the whole world. Jerome's translation has been lost in its entirety. In 399, the Origenist crisis reached Egypt. Pope Theophilus I of Alexandria was sympathetic to the supporters of Origen and the church historian, Sozomen, records that he had openly preached the Origenist teaching that God was incorporeal. In his Festal Letter of 399, he denounced those who believed that God had a literal, human-like body, calling them illiterate "simple ones". A large mob of Alexandrian monks who regarded God as anthropomorphic rioted in the streets. According to the church historian Socrates Scholasticus, in order to prevent a riot, Theophilus made a sudden about-face and began denouncing Origen. In 400, Theophilus summoned a council in Alexandria, which condemned Origen and all his followers as heretics for having taught that God was incorporeal, which they decreed contradicted the only true and orthodox position, which was that God had a literal, physical body resembling that of a human. Theophilus labeled Origen as the "hydra of all heresies" and persuaded Pope Anastasius I to sign the letter of the council, which primarily denounced the teachings of the Nitrian monks associated with Evagrius Ponticus. In 402, Theophilus expelled Origenist monks from Egyptian monasteries and banished the four monks known as the "Tall Brothers", who were leaders of the Nitrian community. John Chrysostom, the patriarch of Constantinople, granted the Tall Brothers asylum, a fact which Theophilus used to orchestrate John's condemnation and removal from his position at the Synod of the Oak in July 403. Once John Chrysostom had been deposed, Theophilus restored normal relations with the Origenist monks in Egypt and the first Origenist crisis came to an end. ### Second Origenist Crisis The Second Origenist Crisis occurred in the sixth century, during the height of Byzantine monasticism. Although the Second Origenist Crisis is not nearly as well documented as the first, it seems to have primarily concerned the teachings of Origen's later followers, rather than what Origen had written. Origen's disciple Evagrius Ponticus had advocated contemplative, noetic prayer, but other monastic communities prioritized asceticism in prayer, emphasizing fasting, labors, and vigils. Some Origenist monks in Palestine, referred to by their enemies as "Isochristoi" (meaning "those who would assume equality with Christ"), emphasized Origen's teaching of the pre-existence of souls and held that all souls were originally equal to Christ's and would become equal again at the end of time. Another faction of Origenists in the same region instead insisted that Christ was the "leader of many brethren", as the first-created being. This faction was more moderate, and they were referred to by their opponents as "Protoktistoi" ("first createds"). Both factions accused the other of heresy, and other Christians accused both of them of heresy. The Protoktistoi appealed to the Emperor Justinian I to condemn the Isochristoi of heresy through Pelagius, the papal apocrisarius. In 543, Pelagius presented Justinian with documents, including a letter denouncing Origen written by Patriarch Mennas of Constantinople, along with excerpts from Origen's On First Principles and several anathemata against Origen. A domestic synod convened to address the issue concluded that the Isochristoi's teachings were heretical and, seeing Origen as the ultimate culprit behind the heresy, denounced Origen as a heretic as well. Emperor Justinian ordered for all of Origen's writings to be burned. In the west, the Decretum Gelasianum, which was written sometime between 519 and 553, listed Origen as an author whose writings were to be categorically banned. In 553, during the early days of the Second Council of Constantinople (the Fifth Ecumenical Council), when Pope Vigilius was still refusing to take part in it despite Justinian holding him hostage, the bishops at the council ratified an open letter which condemned Origen as the leader of the Isochristoi. The letter was not part of the official acts of the council, and it more or less repeated the edict issued by the Synod of Constantinople in 543. It cites objectionable writings attributed to Origen, but all the writings referred to in it were actually written by Evagrius Ponticus. After the council officially opened, but while Pope Vigillius was still refusing to take part, Justinian presented the bishops with the problem of a text known as The Three Chapters, which attacked the Antiochene Christology. The bishops drew up a list of anathemata against the heretical teachings contained within The Three Chapters and those associated with them. In the official text of the eleventh anathema, Origen is condemned as a Christological heretic, but Origen's name does not appear at all in the Homonoia, the first draft of the anathemata issued by the imperial chancery, nor does it appear in the version of the conciliar proceedings that was eventually signed by Pope Vigillius, a long time afterwards. Norman P. Tanner's edition of the Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (Georgetown University Press, 1990) says: "Our edition does not include the text of the anathemas against Origen since recent studies have shown that these anathemas cannot be attributed to this council." These discrepancies may indicate that Origen's name was retrospectively inserted into the text after the council. Some authorities believe these anathemata belong to an earlier local synod. Even if Origen's name did appear in the original text of the anathema, the teachings attributed to Origen that are condemned in the anathema were actually the ideas of later Origenists, which had very little grounding in anything Origen had actually written. In fact, Popes Vigilius, Pelagius I, Pelagius II, and Gregory the Great were only aware that the Fifth Council specifically dealt with The Three Chapters and make no mention of Origenism or universalism, nor spoke as if they knew of its condemnation—even though Gregory the Great was opposed to universalism. ### After the Anathemas As a direct result of the numerous condemnations of his work, only a tiny fraction of Origen's voluminous writings have survived. Nonetheless, these writings still amount to a massive number of Greek and Latin texts, very few of which have yet been translated into English. Many more writings have survived in fragments through quotations from later Church Fathers. Even in the late 14th Century, Francesc Eiximenis in his Llibre de les dones, produced otherwise unknown quotations from Origen, which may be evidence of other works surviving into the Late Medieval period. It is likely that the writings containing Origen's most unusual and speculative ideas have been lost to time, making it nearly impossible to determine whether Origen actually held the heretical views which the anathemas against him ascribed to him. Nonetheless, in spite of the decrees against Origen, the church remained enamored of him and he remained a central figure of Christian theology throughout the first millennium. He continued to be revered as the founder of Biblical exegesis, and anyone in the first millennium who took the interpretation of the scriptures seriously would have had knowledge of Origen's teachings. Jerome's Latin translations of Origen's homilies were widely read in western Europe throughout the Middle Ages, and Origen's teachings greatly influenced those of the Byzantine monk Maximus the Confessor and the Irish theologian John Scotus Eriugena. Since the Renaissance, the debate over Origen's orthodoxy has continued to rage. Basilios Bessarion, a Greek refugee who fled to Italy after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, produced a Latin translation of Origen's Contra Celsum, which was printed in 1481. Major controversy erupted in 1487, after the Italian humanist scholar Giovanni Pico della Mirandola issued a thesis arguing that "it is more reasonable to believe that Origen was saved than he was damned." A papal commission condemned Pico's position on account of the anathemas against Origen, but not until after the debate had received considerable attention. The most prominent advocate of Origen during the Renaissance was the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus, who regarded Origen as the greatest of all Christian authors and wrote in a letter to John Eck that he learned more about Christian philosophy from a single page of Origen than from ten pages of Augustine. Erasmus especially admired Origen for his lack of rhetorical flourishes, which were so common in the writings of other Patristic authors. Erasmus borrowed heavily from Origen's defense of free will in On First Principles in his 1524 treatise On Free Will, now considered his most important theological work. In 1527, Erasmus translated and published the portion of Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew that survived only in Greek and in 1536, he published the most complete edition of Origen's writings that had ever been published at that time. While Origen's emphasis on the human effort in attaining salvation appealed to the Renaissance humanists, it made him far less appealing to the proponents of the Reformation. Martin Luther deplored Origen's understanding of salvation as irredeemably defective and declared "in all of Origen there is not one word about Christ." Consequently, he ordered for Origen's writings to be banned. Nonetheless, the earlier Czech reformer Jan Hus had taken inspiration from Origen for his view that the church is a spiritual reality rather than an official hierarchy, and Luther's contemporary, the Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli, took inspiration from Origen for his interpretation of the Eucharist as symbolic. In the seventeenth century, the English Cambridge Platonist Henry More was a devoted Origenist, and although he did reject the notion of universal salvation, he accepted most of Origen's other teachings. Pope Benedict XVI expressed admiration for Origen, describing him in a sermon as part of a series on the Church Fathers as "a figure crucial to the whole development of Christian thought", "a true 'maestro'", and "not only a brilliant theologian but also an exemplary witness of the doctrine he passed on". He concludes the sermon by inviting his audience to "welcome into your hearts the teaching of this great master of the faith". Modern Protestant evangelicals admire Origen for his passionate devotion to the scriptures but are frequently baffled or even appalled by his allegorical interpretation of them, which many believe ignores the literal, historical truth behind them. Origen is often noted for being one of the few Church Fathers who is not generally regarded as a saint. Nevertheless, there are notable individuals who referred to Origen as St. Origen. This includes Anglicans such as Edward Welchman, John Howson and Sir Winston Churchill; Calvinists such as Pierre Bayle, Georges-Louis Liomin and Heinrich Bullinger; American scholar and Orthodox Christian David Bentley Hart; Oriental Orthodox such as Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Fr. Tadros Yakoup Malaty and the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Origen's father, Saint Leonides of Alexandria, has a feast day on April 22 in the Catholic tradition, and the Evangelical Church in Germany celebrates April 27 as Origen's feast day. ## Translations ## See also - Adamantius (Pseudo-Origen) - Allegorical interpretations of Plato - Apocatastasis - Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross - Pre-existence of the soul - Priesthood of all believers

HMS Kent (54)

County-class heavy cruiser built in the late 1920s

HMS Kent, pennant number 54, was a County-class heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s. She was the lead ship of the Kent subclass. After completion the ship was sent to the China Station where she remained until the beginning of the Second World War, aside from a major refit in 1937–38. Kent hunted the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the East Indies in late 1939 and then was reassigned to troop convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean in early 1940. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in mid-1940, but was torpedoed shortly after arriving. The ship was under repair for a year and was then assigned to Home Fleet where she escorted convoys to and from North Russia for the next several years. In mid-1944 Kent escorted British aircraft carriers as their aircraft made attacks on German shipping and airfields in Norway. A few months later she was flagship of a force that intercepted a German convoy in Norwegian waters and sank two freighters and five escorts. The ship was paid off in early 1945 and placed in reserve until she was used as a target. Kent was sold for scrap in 1948. ## Description Kent displaced 9,850 long tons (10,010 t) at standard load and 13,520 long tons (13,740 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 630 feet (192.0 m), a beam of 68 feet 5 inches (20.9 m) and a draught of 20 feet 6 inches (6.2 m). She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving four shafts, which developed a total of 80,000 shaft horsepower (60,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by eight Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers. Kent carried a maximum of 3,425 long tons (3,480 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 13,300 nautical miles (24,600 km; 15,300 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The ship's complement was 784 officers and men. The ship mounted eight 50-calibre 8-inch (203 mm) guns in four twin gun turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of four QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk V anti-aircraft (AA) guns in single mounts. Kent mounted four single 2-pounder (40 mm) light AA guns ("pom-poms"). The ship carried two quadruple torpedo tube above-water mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes. Kent was only lightly protected with little more than a single inch of plating protecting vital machinery. Her magazines were the exception and were protected by 2–4.375 inches (50.8–111.1 mm) of armour. Space and weight was reserved for one aircraft catapult and its seaplane, but they were not fitted until after she was completed. ## History Kent was built by Chatham Dockyard and laid down on 15 November 1924. She was launched on 16 March 1926 and commissioned 25 June 1928. The ship was assigned to the 5th Cruiser Squadron on the China Station and spent the bulk of the interbellum period there. In 1929–30 she received a High-Angle Control System, used to direct her anti-aircraft guns, and an aircraft catapult was also fitted. Her AA armament was reinforced by the addition of two single 4-inch guns abreast the forward funnel in 1932–33. In January 1934, while serving as the flagship of Admiral Sir Frederick Dreyer, she attended the Far Eastern Naval Conference in Singapore together with Terror, Veteran, Wren and Eagle. At the conclusion of the conference, Dreyer transferred his flag to the Suffolk and Kent was dispatched to the United Kingdom for a refit. During the 1934 refit two quadruple Vickers .50-calibre (12.7 mm) Mark III machine guns were added. In 1937, Kent returned to Chatham and underwent a major refit, which included a 4.5-inch (114 mm) Krupp cemented armour belt abreast the engine and boiler rooms as well as the dynamo room and the fire control transmitting station. This belt extended 6 feet (1.8 m) down from the lower deck. Four inches of armour were also added to protect the sides of the boiler room fan compartments. The ship's aft director was moved to a pedestal abaft the searchlight tower that replaced the original aft control station. Two octuple-barrel 2-pounder mounts were added abreast the searchlight tower. The changes raised the ship's displacement by 74 long tons (75 t) and cost an estimated £161,000. Unlike her sister ships, no aircraft hangar was added because that would have pushed her over the Washington Naval Treaty limits, but her catapult was replaced with a more powerful one capable of handling the heavier Supermarine Walrus flying boat. In November 1939 she joined with the French heavy cruiser Suffren and the Australian destroyers and to hunt for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the East Indies and then was reassigned to escort troop convoys in the Indian Ocean in January 1940. Following the declaration of war by Italy, she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, arriving at Alexandria in August 1940 with the 3rd Cruiser Squadron. On 17 August 1940, Kent, the battleships Warspite, Malaya, Ramillies and twelve destroyers bombarded Italian positions near Bardia and Fort Capuzzo. Two weeks later the ship participated in Operation Hats, escorting a convoy from Alexandria to Malta. On 15 September 1940 the battleship Valiant, the aircraft carrier Illustrious, Kent, the anti-aircraft cruisers Calcutta and Coventry, and seven destroyers left Alexandria bound for Benghazi. During the night of 16/17 September 1940, aircraft from the Illustrious mined the harbour of Benghazi. They also attacked shipping in the harbour with torpedoes and bombs, sinking two destroyers and two merchant ships. Kent and two destroyers were detached to bombard Bardia while returning to Alexandria. During the night of 17/18 September 1940 the ship was hit in the stern by a torpedo from Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers from the 279th Independent Torpedo Squadron (Italian: Squadriglia Autonoma Aerosiluranti) led by Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia. She was towed back to base by the destroyers with great difficulty. Kent was given temporary repairs at Alexandria from 19 September to 18 October to allow her to return to the United Kingdom. Extensive repairs at Devonport Dockyard followed from 1 January to 20 September 1941. During this time six Oerlikon 20 mm light AA guns were added and the ship received a variety of radars. These included Type 284 radar for surface gunnery control, Type 285 anti-aircraft gunnery radar, and a Type 281 air warning radar. When her repairs were completed in September 1941, she spent several months working up. On 8 December Kent sailed from Scapa Flow carrying the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, and the Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain, Ivan Maisky. She reached Murmansk on 12 December where the diplomats disembarked to meet with Joseph Stalin. Kent sortied on 17 December, with two Soviet destroyers, in a failed attempt to intercept the German 8th Destroyer Flotilla that was engaging two British minesweepers attempting to rendezvous with Convoy PQ 6. The ship brought Eden back home by 29 December. The cruiser was assigned to the Home Fleet and escorted convoys to and from North Russia. She briefly escorted Convoy QP 8 on the return leg from Russia in March 1942 and provided distant cover for Convoy QP 10 the following month. Kent attempted to rendezvous with the damaged light cruiser Trinidad west of Bear Island as she returned from Murmansk in May, but Trinidad was sunk by German aircraft before that could happen. On 21 May the ship joined Convoy PQ 16 as part of the close escort. After her return from the Soviet Union, the ship was refitted in Liverpool from 18 July to 7 November. Her catapult and quadruple .50-calibre machine guns were removed and six more single 20 mm Oerlikon guns were added. In early January 1943 the cruiser provided cover for Convoy RA 51 and, several weeks later, Convoy JW 52. While on the latter mission, Kent was unsuccessfully attacked by the German submarine U-625. During a brief refit between 22 September and 4 October at Chatham Dockyard, the ship exchanged six single 20 mm guns for three twin 20 mm gun mounts. In November she provided cover to Convoys RA 54A, JW 54A and JW 54B. The ship covered the outbound Convoys JW 56A, JW 56B and the returning Convoy RA 56 in January–February 1944. The following month Kent was part of the covering force for Convoy JW 57. On 17 July 1944, the ship was formed part of the covering force protecting three British aircraft carriers flying off aircraft to attack the German battleship Tirpitz during Operation Mascot. Kent escorted three aircraft carriers that attacked the German airfield at Kristiansand on 10 August. She escorted two carriers on 12 September while their aircraft attacked German shipping near Stadlandet. On the night of 13/14 November 1944, as flagship of Rear-Admiral Rhoderick McGrigor during Operation Counterblast, the ship, with the light cruiser Bellona and four destroyers, attacked Convoy KS.357 off Listerfjord, south-east of Egersund, Norway. The convoy consisted of four freighters escorted by the minesweepers M.416, M.427 and four submarine chasers. Opening fire at 2300 hrs, the cruisers and destroyers sank two of the freighters and all the escorts above except one unidentified vessel. With the Naval War in the Atlantic winding down, the ship's age and material condition, and a shortage of crews to man her; Kent was paid off in January 1945 and remained in reserve for several years until she was used as a target. The ship was struck off the Naval List (the first of the Countys to go) and allocated to BISCO on 22 January 1948 and arrived at Troon on 31 January to be broken up by West of Scotland Shipbreakers. Footage shot by a crew member in the period 1941-45 was discovered in the archives of the Cinema Museum in London.

Sappho 94

Fragment of poem written by Sappho

Sappho 94, sometimes known as Sappho's Confession, is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho. The poem is written as a conversation between Sappho and a woman who is leaving her, perhaps in order to marry, and describes a series of memories of their time together. It survives on a sixth-century AD scrap of parchment. Scholarship on the poem has focused on whether the initial surviving lines of the poem are spoken by Sappho or the departing woman, and on the interpretation of the eighth stanza, possibly the only mention of homosexual activities in the surviving Sapphic corpus. ## Preservation The poem was one of a group (Sappho 92–97) preserved on a sixth-century piece of parchment discovered in Egypt. This parchment, P. Berol. 9722, was probably originally part of a book. The parchment is 12 cm high (though the page was originally about twice this height) and 43.5 cm wide, and consists of a double-page spread with a third page sewn to the right hand side. The page on which Sappho 94 is preserved is 16 cm wide. It is part of the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, which acquired it in 1896, a gift of a Dr Reinhardt, then the German vice-consul in Bushehr. It was first published by Wilhelm Schubart in 1902. Parts of ten stanzas of the poem are preserved, though only twelve lines are complete. Only two lines of the first stanza of the poem are preserved, showing that at least one line – the first of that stanza – is missing. It is unknown whether the poem originally had further stanzas either before or after the surviving portion. ## Poem ### Content The poem is composed in stanzas of three lines, the first two glyconic and the third glyconic with dactylic expansion. That is, the first two lines of each stanza are of the form "× × ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄", and the third is in the form "× × ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄", where × is an anceps (a syllable that can be long or short), ̆ is a short syllable, and ̄ is a long syllable. It was part of Book V of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry, which may have contained poems in a number of different metres based on glyconics. The poem begins in media res, with at least one prior line missing. The first surviving line of the fragment has either Sappho or the woman leaving her saying that they wish to be dead; as it stands, it is not possible to determine with certainty to which speaker the line should be attributed. Most scholars attribute the initial line of the poem to Sappho. On the other hand, Wilhelm Schubart, the first to edit the poem, initially thought that it was spoken by the departing woman; this is a position that has been taken up more recently by scholars such as Stephanie Larson. The first two surviving stanzas of the poem establish the scene. Sappho describes the woman leaving her "weeping" and saying that she leaves unwillingly. In the third stanza, Sappho replies, telling the departing woman that she should "Go happily and remember me". The woman leaving Sappho is perhaps departing to marry, and the poem might be part of a group of works by Sappho associated with women's preparations for marriage. The remaining seven stanzas of the poem consist of Sappho recalling the happy times that she has shared with the woman – Dr. Ellen Greene describes the poem from line 12 as painting a picture of "blissful satisfaction". Many commentators have interpreted this as Sappho attempting to console her departing companion; John Rauk, however, argues that the work was not intended as a poem of consolation but as a lament for Sappho's loss of her lover. ### Interpretation The poem is typical of Sappho's work, with its subject and form both characteristically Sapphic. It deals with separation from someone the poet cares about – what Benjamin Acosta-Hughes describes as Sappho's "poetry of separation and longing". This theme is also treated in several other significant fragments of Sappho, including the Ode to Aphrodite, fr. 16, and fr. 31. The form of the poem – structured as a conversation Sappho has had – has parallels in the Ode to Aphrodite, and probably fragments including Sappho 95. Sappho's linking of love and death in this poem is a common trope of lyric poetry. Along with fragment 94, Sappho herself uses the conceit in fragment 31 ("to myself I seem needing but little to die") and fragment 95 ("a longing to die holds me"). Stephanie Larson compares this longing for death at the absence of a beloved in Sappho to Penelope's longing for death in the Odyssey – though where Penelope has already been separated from her husband for 20 years, Sappho and her beloved are only just about to separate. The eighth stanza of the poem has been subject of much scholarly debate – along with the identity of the speaker in the first paragraph, Margaret Williamson describes it as one of the two key points of uncertainty in the text. This reads: > > and on soft beds ... delicate... you quenched your desire. The lines may be the only clear reference to homosexual activity in the preserved fragments of Sappho. Not all commentators agree with this, however; Larson notes that scholars "have made every attempt" to "explain away the overt sexuality" of the lines. One suggestion, originating with Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, is that the poem is referring to satisfying the departing woman's desire for sleep. Sappho 94 has sympotic overtones, containing references to garlands, flowers, sweet oils, and soft beds, all of which are images associated with the symposium – an ancient Greek drinking party, which was accompanied by entertainment, including music and dance. Because of this, Ewen Bowie argues that the poem may have been one of those which was commonly performed at ancient symposia. The same images are also found in the world of female ritual, however. André Lardinois observes that they could describe the activities of a chorus of women culminating in a performance at a holy site ("no holy site... we left uncovered, no grove... dance"), and Margaret Williamson interprets the final section of the poem as discussing the same kind of religious practice as that in Sappho 2.

Microsoft v. MikeRoweSoft

Legal dispute

Microsoft v. MikeRoweSoft was a 2004 legal dispute between Microsoft and a Canadian Belmont High School student named Mike Rowe over the domain name "MikeRoweSoft.com". Microsoft argued that their trademark had been infringed because of the phonetic resemblance between "Microsoft" and "MikeRoweSoft". The case received international press attention following Microsoft's perceived heavy-handed approach to a 12th grade student's part-time web design business and the subsequent support that Rowe received from the online community. A settlement was eventually reached, with Rowe granting ownership of the domain to Microsoft in exchange for an Xbox and additional compensation. ## Background The domain name MikeRoweSoft.com was initially registered by Canadian student Mike Rowe in August 2003. Rowe set up the site as a part-time web design business, choosing the domain because of the phonetic pun by adding the word "soft" to the end of his name. Microsoft saw the name as trademark infringement because of its phonetic resemblance to their trademarked corporate name and demanded that he give up the domain. After receiving a letter from Microsoft's Canadian legal representatives Smart & Biggar on January 14, 2004, Rowe replied asking to be compensated for giving up the domain. Microsoft offered to pay Rowe's out-of-pocket expenses of \$10, the original cost of registering the domain name. Rowe countered asking instead for \$10,000, later claiming that he did this because he was "mad at" Microsoft for their initial \$10 offer. Microsoft declined the offer and sent a cease and desist letter spanning 25 pages. Microsoft accused Rowe of setting up the site in order to try to force them into a large financial settlement, a practice known as cybersquatting. ## Press coverage and settlement Rowe went to the press, creating publicity for the case and garnering support for his cause, including donations of over \$6,000 and an offer of free advice from a lawyer. At one point Rowe was forced to take down his site after it was overwhelmed by around 250,000 page views over a period of twelve hours, only managing to get the site back up after changing to a service provider with a higher capacity. The case, portrayed as a David versus Goliath struggle by the media, characterized Microsoft in a negative light. The resulting bad publicity was later described as a "public-relations mess". The public showing of support that Rowe received was credited with "softening Microsoft's stance", leading to an eventual settlement. In late January 2004, it was revealed that the two parties had come to an out-of-court settlement, with Microsoft taking control of the domain. In return Microsoft agreed to pay all of the expenses that Rowe had incurred, including setting up a new site at and redirecting traffic to MikeRoweforums.com, a website now defunct. Additionally, Microsoft provided Rowe with a subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network, an all-expenses-paid trip for him and his family to the Microsoft Research Tech Fest at their headquarters in Redmond, Washington, training for Microsoft certification and an Xbox with a selection of games. Following an online poll, Rowe donated most of his legal defense fund to a children's hospital and used the remaining money for his future university education. ## Further developments After settling the dispute with Microsoft, Rowe attempted to auction off the documentation he had received on the on-line auction site eBay, describing it as "a piece of Internet history". The materials included one copy of the original 25-page cease and desist letter, as well as an inch-thick WIPO book containing copies of trademarks, web pages and e-mails between him and Microsoft. The auction received more than half a million page views and bidding rose to more than \$200,000. The high bids turned out to be fraudulent, and the auction was restricted to pre-approved bidders. After restarting from the reserve price of \$500, the documents eventually sold for \$1,037. Microsoft later admitted that they may have been too aggressive in their defense of the "Microsoft" trademark. Following the case, it was suggested by Struan Robertson – editor of Out-Law.com – that Microsoft had little choice but to pursue the issue once it had come to light, or they would have risked weakening their trademark. This view was also espoused by ZDNet, who noted that had Microsoft knowingly ignored Rowe's site, the company would have risked losing the right to fight future trademark infringements. Robertson opined that – had legal proceedings ensued – Rowe would have made a strong argument for keeping his domain, as he was using his real name and was not claiming to be affiliated with Microsoft. ## See also - Microsoft Corp. v. Shah - Nissan Motors v. Nissan Computer - Streisand effect

Amazon parrot

Genus of birds

Amazon parrots are parrots in the genus Amazona. They are medium-sized, short-tailed parrots native to the Americas, with their range extending from South America to Mexico and the Caribbean. Amazona is one of the 92 genera of parrots that make up the order Psittaciformes and is in the family Psittacidae, one of three families of true parrots. It contains about thirty species. Most amazons are predominantly green, with accenting colors that depend on the species, and they can be quite vivid. They feed primarily on seeds, nuts, and fruits, supplemented by leafy matter. Many amazons have the ability to mimic human speech and other sounds. Partly because of this, they are popular as pets or companion parrots, and a small industry has developed in breeding parrots in captivity for this market. This popularity has led to many parrots being taken from the wild to the extent that some species have become threatened. The United States and the European Union have made the capture of wild parrots for the pet trade illegal in an attempt to help protect wild populations. Feral populations of amazons can be found in different parts of the world, including in South Africa, Europe, and major cities in the Americas. ## Taxonomy The genus Amazona was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1830. The type species was subsequently designated as the southern mealy amazon (Amazona farinosa) by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori in 1891. The genus name is a Latinized version of the name Amazone given to them in the 18th century by the Comte de Buffon, who believed they were native to Amazonian jungles. Amazona contains about thirty species of parrots, such as the Cuban amazon, festive amazon, and red-necked amazon. The taxonomy of the yellow-crowned amazon (Amazona ochrocephala complex) is disputed, with some authorities only listing a single species (A. ochrocephala), while others split it into as many as three species (A. ochrocephala, A. auropalliata and A. oratrix). The split is primarily based on differences related to extension of yellow to the plumage and the colour of bill and legs. Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA do not support the traditional split. A 2017 study published by ornithologists Tony Silva, Antonio Guzmán, Adam D. Urantówka and Paweł Mackiewicz proposed a new species from the Yucatán Peninsula area in Mexico called the blue-winged amazon (Amazona gomezgarzai). However, subsequent studies question its validity, indicating that these organisms possibly had an artificial hybrid origin. The yellow-faced parrot (Alipiopsitta xanthops) was traditionally placed within this genus, but recent research has shown that it is more closely related to the short-tailed parrot and species in the genus Pionus, resulting in it being transferred to the monotypic genus Alipiopsitta. ### Extinct hypothetical species Populations of amazon parrots that lived on the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe are now extinct. It is not known if they were distinct species or subspecies, or if they originated from parrots introduced to the islands by humans, so they are regarded as hypothetical extinct species. No evidence of them remains, and their taxonomy may never be established. Populations of several parrot species were described mainly in the unscientific writings of early travelers, and subsequently scientifically described by several naturalists (to have their names linked to the species that they were proposing) mainly in the 20th century, with no more evidence than the earlier observations and without specimens. An illustration of a specimen termed "George Edwards' parrot" has sometimes been considered a possibly distinct, extinct species, but it may also have been a yellow-billed or Cuban amazon with aberrant colouration. - Martinique amazon, Amazona martinica. A.H. Clark, 1905. - Guadeloupe amazon, Amazona violacea. Originally called Psittacus violaceus by J.F. Gmelin in 1789. ## Description Most amazon parrots are predominantly green, with contrasting colors on parts of the body such as the crown, face and flight feathers; these colours vary by species. They are medium- to large-sized parrots, measuring between 23–45 cm (9–17+3⁄4 in) long, and have short, rounded tails and wings. They are heavy-billed, and have a distinct notch on the upper mandible and a prominent naked cere with setae on it. Male and female amazon parrots are roughly the same size, though males can be larger at times - most amazon parrots do not show sexual dimorphism, exceptions being the white-fronted amazon, Yucatan amazon and the turquoise-fronted amazon, the latter species being sexually dimorphic when viewed in the ultraviolet spectrum, invisible to humans. They can weigh from 190g to more than 565g. The average body temperature of an amazon parrot is 41.8 degrees Celsius, or 107.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Their heart rates range from 340 to 600 beats per minute, with 15-45 breaths per minute. ## Distribution and habitat Amazon parrots are native to the Neotropical Americas, ranging from South America to Mexico, and the Caribbean. Outside of their native habitats, more than 14 species of amazon parrots have been observed. In Italy, there are only two reproductive populations of Amazona, dating back to their introduction in 1991 to the city of Genoa. The birds are present in Germany, but their status is unclear. They are also found in Spain, where the most common parrot present is the turquoise-fronted amazon. Portugal, California (where the birds were largely introduced during the 20th century), Puerto Rico, South Africa, and the Netherlands have also reported sightings of Amazona parrots. More than 12 species of amazon parrots can be found in the US state of Florida, mostly around the city of Miami. Feral populations are also present in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Buenos Aires, and Río Cuarto within South America. Amazon parrots mostly inhabit forests such as scrub forests, palm groves and rainforests, but some prefer drier areas such as savannas. Vinaceous-breasted amazons are thought to prefer parana pine trees, and have been shown to prefer forest fragments or isolated trees, while Tucumán amazons nest at higher elevations than other amazon parrots, mostly in Blepharocalyx trees, within the cloud-forest. Yellow-headed amazons nest in the canopy of tall trees, mostly in Astronium graveolens and Enterolobium cyclocarpum. ## Behavior ### Breeding The exact breeding age of wild birds is not precisely known. For captive-bred birds, the average breeding age is around four years, with some larger groups like yellow-crowned amazons requiring six years. Captive birds as old as 30 years have laid eggs. Amazon parrots average 5 weeks for nest initiation, with most successful nestings averaging 2.2 fledglings. Amazon parrots mostly breed during late winter and spring, as they are seasonal breeders. This may happen due to seasonal food availability or a lower chance of flooding, as the period is generally dry. West Indian amazon parrots tend to breed earlier than Mexican amazon parrots, with Mexican amazon parrots having their peak at March to April while West Indian amazon parrots peak in March. Captive birds are likelier to be less fertile. A variety of hypotheses to explain the phenomenon have been proposed - Low (1995) suggests that this is because amazon parrots have shorter breeding seasons, while Hagen (1994) suggests that this is because male and female parrots may not be ready for breeding at the same times. ### Feeding Amazon parrots feed primarily on seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, buds, nectar, and flowers, supplemented by leafy matter. Their beaks enable them to crack nut shells with ease, and they hold their food with a foot. In captivity, the birds enjoy vegetables such as squash, boiled potato, peas, beans, and carrots. Mainland amazon parrots forage and then feed their young twice a day (usually one hour after sunrise and one and a half hours before sunset), while West Indian amazon parrots do so 4-5 times. Hypotheses proposed for why this is include the nutritional value of food in the region as well as temperature stress. During the downtime before foraging expeditions in the afternoon, amazon parrots spend their time preening themselves and their mates. ### Communication and sociality Amazon parrots mostly communicate vocally. Species such as orange-winged amazons have nine different recorded vocalizations used in different situations. However, patterns of gestural communication have been observed with the birds, thought to be used to avoid predators. In general, amazon parrots are very social birds in their foraging, roosting, and nesting. Most amazon parrots travel in large groups and have clumped nesting, but the four species in the Lesser Antilles are less social. Theories for why this is include the lack of predation risk. In captivity, amazon parrots are known for their ability to talk- learning to communicate by mimicking speech and other sounds of human origin. They also appear to have an affinity for human music and singing. Extensive studies of vocal behavior in wild yellow-naped amazons show the presence of vocal dialects, in which the repertoire of calls that parrots vocalize change at discrete geographic boundaries, similar to how humans have different languages or dialects. Dialects are stable over long periods of time and are meaningful to the parrots; they are less responsive to calls that are not their own dialect. ## Conservation status As of June 2020, 58% (18 out of 31) of species were listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as threatened or extinct in the wild. The most common threats are habitat loss, persecution, the pet trade, and the introduction of other species. The Puerto Rican amazon is critically endangered. 15 species are on Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, while 16 are on Appendix 2. In the case of illegal smuggling of amazon parrots, some smugglers bleach the heads of green-headed parrots to make them look yellow and sell them off as young amazon parrots, which can cause dermatitis. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Department of Agriculture sometimes confiscate and quarantine parrots for Newcastle disease and then auction them off. The Puerto Rican parrot in particular, as a critically endangered species, has seen considerable conservation efforts, including but not limited to changes in land management, legal protection, research, and increasing nesting success. However, these efforts were significantly hindered by natural events such as Hurricane Hugo, which affected the Luquillo forest in which most Puerto Rican parrots were living. Within the rest of the West Indies, the four species of amazon parrots in the Lesser Antilles have seen successful attempts at increasing their population. In the Greater Antilles, the population of amazon parrots has been stable. The Cuban amazon has seen greatly successful conservation efforts and as a result has experienced a large increase in its population. ## Aviculture Low (2005) describes adaptability and joyfulness as the special positive attributes of the genus from an avicultural perspective. The yellow-headed amazon, yellow-naped amazon, and turquoise-fronted amazon are some of the species which are commonly kept as pets. They can live for 30 to 50 years, with one report of a yellow-crowned amazon living for 56 years in captivity. However, some amazons can have hormonally-induced aggressiveness and attack their owners, which has led to owners seeking behavior modification for their parrots. On the other hand, unlike many other amazon species, the lilacine amazon and mealy amazon are said to possess gentle, easy-going and affectionate temperaments. To maintain health and happiness, pet parrots require much more training than domesticated animals such as dogs or even cats. They require understanding, manipulative toys, and rewards for good pet-like behavior, or they can develop quite aggressive behaviors (particularly male birds), which can be clearly observed through the bird's body language - pinning the eyes, flaring the tail, raising the head and neck feathers and engaging in a "macho strut". They have a strong, innate need to chew; thus, they require safe, destructible toys. One of the main problems amazon parrots face in captivity is obesity, which can be avoided with the correct diet and exercise. Within captivity, it is recommended to feed amazon parrots a variety of food, mostly consisting of pelleted food. Seeds should never be used as a whole diet and should be used as part of a balanced diet, balanced with food such as fresh fruit (except avocado, which is toxic to parrots) and vegetables, with nuts and seed provided only in moderation. Amazon parrots should also be given opportunities to forage for food instead of simply being given it, as they are motivated to forage even when an easier alternative is available. Amazon parrots should be given a dark and quiet sleeping area. It is recommended to give the bird either downtime and naps or to keep them in total darkness for 12 hours so they can rest. Parrots also need to be bathed or sprayed with water once every week to allow for bathing behaviors. ### Trade Amazon parrots are traded and exploited as pets. Archeological evidence shows that the parrot trade has existed in South America since pre-Columbian times, with mummified parrots (including amazon species) being found in the Atacama Desert region of Chile. The most traded species of amazons are blue-fronted amazons and yellow-crowned/yellow-headed amazons. A 1992 ban on wild bird trade by the US led to a sharp drop in the trade and a diversion of 66% of it to the European Union, and a further EU ban on the trade in 2005 led to another drop. Between 1980 and 2013, 372,988 amazon parrots were traded. Some illegal trade still occurs between Mexico and the United States.

Beat the Chefs

American television series

Beat the Chefs is an American television cooking game show broadcast by Game Show Network (GSN) and hosted by Matt Rogers. The series features contestants preparing a home-cooked family recipe, while professional chefs Beau MacMillan, Antonia Lofaso and Jeff Henderson make the same recipe in an upscale restaurant version. The two dishes are then judged by a panel of food critics who are Christy Jordan and Brad A Johnson. The series premiered on August 23, 2012, and aired its last episode on November 26, 2012. ## Format The series features two families, one in each half-hour of the episode, preparing their family recipe while the professional chefs cook a restaurant version of the same meal. The family begins by revealing the dish they have selected to cook to the chefs as well as how longer they think it will take to prepare it. The chefs are then given the same amount of time to create their own version. Once the first cook-off is complete, the second family is brought out, and the procedure is repeated with their own meal. After the second cook-off, the judges reveal the winning dish from each round. If the family's home cooked meal beats the chefs' professional version, the family wins \$25,000, if the chefs win, the family receives \$1,000 worth of kitchen supplies. ## Production Production company RelativityREAL had pitched the series to CBS as early as March 2010; however, it was not until two years later that Beat the Chefs first appeared at an upfront presentation from Game Show Network (GSN) in New York City as an original green-lit series on March 21, 2012. GSN later put out a one-month casting call from May 25, 2012 to June 25, 2012, looking for "great cooks" who had never been "formally trained.” On July 2, 2012, GSN announced the series' premiere date as August 23, 2012, right after the premiere of The American Bible Challenge. GSN then released the cast for the series on July 24, 2012, announcing former American Idol contestant Matt Rogers as the host of the show. The press release also revealed Beau MacMillan, Antonia Lofaso and Jeff Henderson as the professional chefs, as well as Brad A. Johnson and Christy Jordan as judges. In addition, Johnson and Jordan were joined by a guest judge each episode; these judges included Eric Roberts, Julie Powell, Richie Palmer, and Melissa Rycroft. The show was taped at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, California. The series premiered on August 23, 2012, immediately following the premiere of The American Bible Challenge. GSN continued to air one new episode a week until November 26, 2012. The show was not seen on GSN after its fourth episode and was canceled in October 2012. ## Reception Beat the Chefs earned mixed reception from critics. Carrie Grosvenor of About Entertainment argued that Rogers was a good fit for the show as host and called the show "enjoyable," but also claimed that there wasn't "enough of a focus on the food and preparation." Meanwhile, Hollywood Junket praised the series, calling it a "guaranteed winning show" while arguing that it had the potential to become "extremely successful." The series earned relatively average ratings for GSN's standards. Despite The American Bible Challenge debuting to record ratings for GSN, Beat the Chefs maintained less than a third of the viewers that tuned in to its lead-in. The series premiere averaged 521,000 viewers, compared to the 1.73 million viewers who watched The American Bible Challenge. The following week, Beat the Chefs dropped to 357,000 viewers, while its lead-out, a sneak peek of GSN's upcoming revival of Pyramid, earned 443,000 viewers.

Adventures in Modern Recording

Adventures in Modern Recording is the second and final studio album by English new wave group the Buggles, released on 11 November 1981 by Carrere Records. Although the Buggles began as a duo of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, the album ended up as mostly Horn's solo effort, as Downes left to join the English rock band Asia on the day recording was originally scheduled to begin. It contains nine tracks, including a version of a track from the Buggles' collaborative album with Yes, Drama (1980); it was originally named "Into the Lens", but the Buggles rendition is titled "I Am a Camera". A stylistically and sonically varied progressive electronic album, Adventures in Modern Recording depicts Horn perfecting his skill as producer and was described by journalists as a document for how he would produce his later works. It was one of the earliest albums to use the Fairlight CMI, one of the first digital sampling synthesizers. Upon its release, Adventures in Modern Recording faced mixed reviews from music critics and performed poorly commercially in the United Kingdom, failing to make it on the UK Albums Chart. The album did well in other territories, such as in North America and mainland Europe, reaching number 161 on the US Billboard 200. Additionally, retrospective reviews praised how comparable in quality its sound was to music released in later years. Five singles were released from Adventures in Modern Recording: "I Am a Camera", the title track, "On TV", "Lenny", and "Beatnik". Except for "Beatnik", the singles were minor hits in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, "Lenny" being a top-20 hit in the latter country. Both "We Can Fly from Here" and "Riding a Tide" (appearing as demos on the 2010 reissue) were re-recorded by Yes (with Horn as producer and Downes on keyboards) for their twentieth studio album Fly from Here (2011). ## Background On the day studio sessions for Adventures in Modern Recording were to begin, the Buggles' keyboardist Geoff Downes left to form the English rock band Asia. Although Island Records' publisher renegotiated with Downes, his departure gave the publisher a false impression that Buggles singer and bassist Trevor Horn's career ended, resulting in Island dropping the duo; this in turn led to Horn's other industry acquaintances having a similar viewpoint. Horn recalled feeling "astounded" and "fucking angry [...] I hadn't even got started yet..." Shortly afterwards, Horn's wife Jill Sinclair made a deal with French label Carrere Records to fund, promote and release the album. While Adventures in Modern Recording was mostly a Horn solo project, Downes was still involved in the writing and production of "Vermillion Sands", "I Am a Camera" and "Lenny" (where he also handled the drum programming) and played keyboards on "Beatnik". Other collaboraters included Julian Mendelsohn and Gary Langan as engineers; Anne Dudley, who would later form The Art of Noise with Langan and Horn, as keyboardist on "Beatnik"; Horn's long-time collaborator Luis Jardim as percussion on "Beatnik"; and Yes bassist Chris Squire as providing "sound effects" for the title track. One of the tracks, "I Am a Camera," started as a Buggles demo that turned into a "slightly more overblown" track for their Yes collaboration album Drama (1980), named "Into the Lens"; although Horn appreciated the Yes version's "unadulterated" melody and complex arrangement, he liked the Buggles' recording more. ## Concept and sound A more left-field record than the Buggles' previous album The Age of Plastic (1980) as Horn planned it to be, Adventures in Modern Recording is a progressive electronic album containing both dance cuts and big-sounding tracks. It is stylistically and sonically diverse, as heard in "Vermillion Sands" alone; compared by Chris Roberts of BBC Music to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", the song consists of "electro-pop, harmony vocals, key signature changes, incongruous blasts of synthetic trumpet and boogie woogie piano and swing", described Mojo's David Buckley. The title track mashes together electronic and acoustically made instruments, as well as dreamy and "hyper-alert" vibes, analyzed Joe Stannard of The Quietus. During the recording of the album, Horn also produced for the pop act Dollar; this influenced how he created Adventures in Modern Recording and in turn his works for Dollar. He envisioned the duo as a "technopop orchestra" playing at the Vermillion Sands hotel (the subject of one of the album's tracks). This not only gave Horn the idea of songwriting and production concepts for Adventures in Modern Recording, but also how the Buggles' visual aesthetic would change; the group went from two human players to a four-piece led by Horn and backed by three male dummies a la the Autons and members of Kraftwerk. Horn described producing Adventures in Modern Recording as a training of his production craft with experimentations of gear. Retrospective pieces have labeled it a document of how he would produce his later works. The album was one of the first commercially available albums to feature sounds from the Fairlight CMI, one of the first digital sampling synthesizers, and was one of Horn's earliest times working with sampling techniques he'd later incorporate into his works for Grace Jones, Art of Noise and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. ## Release and promotion Initially, Carerre only planned three single releases of Adventures in Modern Recording tracks: "I Am a Camera" with a B-side of "Fade Away" in October 1981, the title track with "Blue Nylon" as its B-side in January 1982 and "On TV" with a longer version of "Blue Nylon" later that year. However, the album's success in continental Europe led to the label releasing both "Lenny" and "Beatnik" as singles in 1982. "On TV" and "Fade Away" garnered an exclusive flexidisc release via Trouser Press magazine, while the title track ran on the seventh issue of SFX Cassette Magazine, where guest critic Richard Skinner applauded Horn's singing and compared it to the works of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. ## Critical reception Reviews of Adventures in Modern Recording upon release were mixed. Tim de Lisle of Smash Hits praised Horn's production and the first five tracks for having "enough strong tunes, witty ideas and funky noises", but generally found the album "much less than the sum of the parts, and Side Two deteriorates into tedious Yes-style pomposity". A reviewer from The Morning Call also made an unflattering Yes comparison towards some of the songs, like "Beatnik"; he wrote that while it has the "melancholic frenzy" of the duo's biggest hit "Video Killed The Radio Star", it also has the same Yes-style mixture of "pretentious, meaningless lyrics" and "soaring, grandiose harmonics". Opined Mike Gardner in Record Mirror, "Instead of an invigorating glimpse into their world of hi-sci techno wizardry, we get a weedy piece of whimsy." A Record Mirror review by Sunie Fletcher of the title track negatively compared it to the "yukky strain of studiedly bouncy, vacuous pop" of "Video Killed the Radio Star". Smash Hits published an unfavorable review of "I Am a Camera", written by Fred Dollar. However, it also ran Martin Fry's review for "On TV", which noted its ahead-of-the-curve production, particularly with its huge drum and clear recording quality. Retrospective reviews were far more enthusiastic, noting how Adventures in Modern Recording's sound was comparable in quality to music released in later years. AllMusic's Jeri Montesan found the sound of it and The Age of Plastic better than the "unimaginative" pop of the 1990s. Roberts, on the other hand, felt that while Horn's project was ambitious, it had some outdated and chintzy-sounding moments. Stannard called its songwriting "vastly more sophisticated and satisfying" than The Age of Plastic, while The Bolton News journalist Martin Hutchinson highlighted Horn's vocals. ## Commercial reception Horn admitted to being uninterested in Adventures in Modern Recording near the end of production "because I didn’t think there was a single there". In his home country of the United Kingdom, the album's economic performance confirmed that doubt, failing to make an impact. It was unable to enter the UK Albums Chart, and the title track and "On TV" were only minor hits on the singles and airplay charts of UK magazine Record Business. However, Adventures in Modern Recording fared better in North America and continental Europe, particularly France, the Netherlands and the US where it was the Buggles' only entry on the country's official Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 161. "On TV" was certified gold by Music Canada for sales of 5,000 units. In the Netherlands, "I Am a Camera" was a minor hit and "Lenny" was in the top 20, particularly reaching number nine in the Netherlands. This led to Horn lip-syncing "Lenny" on the country's TopPop series (with ABC as the backing band) on an episode aired 10 April 1982. The performance signaled the end of the Buggles project; Horn stated in the interview after the performance that while the Buggles were going downhill, he was more focused on his more successful venture as a producer for other acts. ## Track listing ## Personnel The following is taken from the liner notes of the 2010 re-issue of Adventures in Modern Recording. Buggles - Geoff Downes – keyboards (2–4, 7), drum programming (7), production (3–4, 7, 12) - Trevor Horn – vocals, bass (1, 6, 9–11), guitar (2–4, 7), drum programming (4), production Other - John Sinclair – drum programming (1, 5–6, 8–11), cymbals (1, 8–9), guitar (2), vocals (5), production (1–2, 5–6, 8–9, 16) - Simon Darlow – keyboards and guitar (1, 5–6, 8–11) - Chris Squire – sound effects (1, 9) - Anne Dudley – keyboards (2) - Luís Jardim – percussion (2) - Bruce Woolley – vocals (5) - Danny Schogger, Rod Thompson – keyboards (7) - Gary Langan, Julian Mendelsohn – engineering - Stuart Bruce – assistant engineering - Rory Kee – illustrator - Glenn Travis Associates – design ## Charts

Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul

Napoleonic general

Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul (; 13 May 1754 – 14 February 1807) was a French cavalry general of the Napoleonic Wars. He came from an old noble family of France whose military tradition extended for several centuries. Efforts by the French Revolutionary government to remove him from his command failed when his soldiers refused to give him up. A big, loud-voiced man, he led from the front of his troops. Although the failure of his cavalry to deploy at the Battle of Stockach (1799) resulted in a court martial, he was exonerated and went on to serve in the Swiss campaign in 1799, at the Second Battle of Stockach, the Battle of Biberach, and later at Battle of Hohenlinden. He served under Michel Ney and Joachim Murat; he was killed in Murat's massive cavalry charge of the Battle of Eylau in 1807. ## Early life Born in an ancient noble family from the Languedoc, he entered the French royal army as a volunteer in 1769. After having served in the Corsican legion, he transferred in 1771 to a Dragoon regiment. From 1777, he served as an officer in the Dragoon Regiment of the Languedoc. By 1792, he had become its colonel. In 1802, he married Alexandrine Daumy, and they had one child, born 29 May 1806, named Alexandre Joseph Napoléon. His cousin, Alphonse Henri, comte d'Hautpoul, also served in the Napoleonic Wars, as a lieutenant in the Iberian peninsula, and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Salamanca. He later became the 28th prime minister of France, from 1849–1851. ## Revolutionary Wars By contemporary accounts, d'Hautpoul was a big man, possibly taller than Joachim Murat, who was nearly six feet tall. Endowed with broad shoulders and a big voice, he spoke the language of the common soldier, and led from the front. Early in the French Revolution, commissioners visited the various regiments to weed out dangerous, and prospectively traitorous nobles; generally, the commissioners cowed the army into submission, but d'Hautpoul's cavalry regiment refused to be intimidated. When the commissioners came for their colonel, a scion of impoverished nobility, his soldiers refused to give him up: "No d'Hautpoul, no 6th Chasseurs." Thus, despite his noble birth, at the exhortations of his soldiers he remained in the French Revolutionary Army. d'Hautpoul served in the 1794–1799 campaigns against the armies of the First and Second Coalitions. In April 1794, d'Hautpoul was promoted in the field to general of brigade and he commanded the brigade under both Jacques Desjardin and his successor, François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers. After the battle of Fleurus, his unit was transferred to the division of François Joseph Lefebvre. In June 1795, his provisional rank of general of brigade was made permanent by the Committee of Public Safety. He distinguished himself in a fight at Blankenberge on 13 September 1795. In June 1796, d'Hautpoul was promoted to general of division and inspector of the cavalry. At Altenkirchen, he was wounded in the shoulder by a musket ball. After his recovery, d'Hautpoul was given command of the heavy cavalry of the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under General Paul Grenier. After Neuwied, he was transferred to the Army of England under the command of Lazare Hoche. When the French Directory abandoned the idea of an invasion of England, he was again deployed on the German front, this time as part of the Army of the Danube. After the French loss at the Battle of Ostrach, his Cavalry reserve protected the French retreat from Pfullendorf. A few days later, after failing to lead a timely charge at the Battle of Stockach, he was suspended on orders of the Army commander, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, who blamed d'Hautpoul for the defeat. Acquitted by a court-martial in Strasbourg, d'Hautpoul resumed his duties at the end of July 1799, having missed the critical actions at the First Battle of Zurich. In 1799, d'Hautpoul commanded cavalry brigades under Ney, Lecourbe and Baraguey d'Hilliers in the rest of the campaign in northeastern Switzerland. In the German campaign of 1800, he served under Moreau and distinguished himself at the battles of Biberach and Hohenlinden, during which his heavy cavalry was instrumental in disrupting the Austrian infantry defenses. ## Napoleonic wars In July 1801, First Consul Bonaparte appointed d'Hautpoul as inspector-general of the cavalry and then awarded him command of the cavalry in the camps of Compiègne and Saint-Omer. In August 1805, d'Hautpoul was given command of the 2nd division of cuirassiers under Joachim Murat. At Austerlitz, d'Hautpoul distinguished himself by leading his heavy cavalry into the Russian center at the Pratzen heights, breaking the infantry squares. In 1804, Napoleon made him a grand officer (grand cordon) of the Légion d'honneur and a senator, which carried with it an annual income of 20,000 francs. In the War of the Fourth Coalition, d'Hautpoul served at Jena and in the capture of Lübeck. Transferred to the Corps of Marshal Bessières in December 1806, he again served under Murat in the maneuvers in East Prussia in the Winter of 1807. ### Battle of Eylau When military activity resumed in the winter of 1807, Napoleon hoped to overwhelm a Russian rearguard at Hof near Eylau, which was called "Preußisch Eylau" (and is now within the borders of the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast). He ordered his dragoons to take a bridge; they failed and suffered severe casualties. D'Hautpoul and his cuirassiers—heavy cavalry of big men on big horses—thundered over the bridge and scattered the Russian rearguard. As the retreating infantry fled, d'Hautpoul's cuirassiers captured four guns and two standards. Napoleon was so pleased with d'Hautpoul and his cuirassiers that he embraced the six-foot man in front of his division the next day. In his own turn, d'Hautpoul was so pleased that he announced first, to have such a compliment, he must be willing to die for his emperor, and second, to his troops: "The Emperor has embraced me on behalf of all of you. And I am so pleased with you that I kiss all your arses." The pursuit of the Russian troops continued. On 7 February 1807, the French arrived outside the village of Eylau, as night was falling. In some confusion, the Imperial coach rumbled into the village, although the Emperor was setting up his camp a few kilometers away. The Russian patrol in the village chased off the coach driver and his men and plundered the Emperor's belongings; in turn, the Imperial escort chased them off. More and more men were sent into the engagement, and in the end the French took the village when the Russians withdrew. Both sides lost 4,000 men in the contest for the village and the Emperor's nightshirt. Settling for the night, they prepared to engage the next day. The next morning, the two armies of unequal strength faced each other across frozen fields fissured by ice-covered streams and ponds, which were in turn covered by snow and drifts. The snow and gloom meant that neither side was aware of the inequalities of men and artillery. Napoleon opened the engagement by sending Soult's's corps, which successfully pushed the Russian right flank back, nearly turning the Russian force. To follow up on this success, he ordered Pierre Augereau's force to attack the left-center. No sooner had Augereau and VII Corps, plus St. Hilaire's division, sallied out when a sudden snow storm engulfed the battlefield. In white-out conditions, Augereau's entire corps disappeared in a flurry of whirling snow. When the snow cleared, friend and foe alike discovered that the first units onto the field had wandered off course. The line of march should have taken them directly to the Russian flank; have no point of reference, they had instead followed the terrain and led the entire corps parallel to the Russian line, along with a V-shaped formation in which the left and center merged, and directly into the face of the Russian 70–gun batteries. The artillery, although shocked to find a French Corps advancing straight toward them, immediately opened fire, as did the Russian infantry on both sides of Augereau's corps. The result was devastating. Five thousand French soldiers fell in a matter of minutes and the entire engagement stood on the brink of disaster. Not only did they face the Russian fire, but the French artillery pounded them as well. Augereau's Corps melted under the withering fire, the bayonets of the Russians, and the onslaught of the cavalry; as they retreated to their own lines, Napoleon was nearly captured at the Eylau churchyard, where he had established a lookout post, but his escort cavalry chased the Russians away. #### Charge at Eylau To fill the breach left by Augereau's decimated corps, Napoleon ordered Murat's cavalry reserve, 80 squadrons of 10,700 cavalrymen, into action at 10:30 in the morning. They had to cover 2,500 yards (2,300 m) of snow-covered, obstacle-filled ground, which they could not do at a gallop. Murat's Reserve charged into the Russian squares in two columns: Grouchy's cavalry, d'Hautpoul's cuirassiers and General Louis Lepic's grenadiers—24 squadrons in total—were flank to flank when they hit the Russian center. This was the occasion of Lepic's famous comment, "Heads up, by God! those are bullets, not turds!" Grouchy, Lepic, and d'Hautpoul's horse broke the center, wheeled, and charged a second time. On the second charge, they broke the second formation of squares; at this point, Grouchy's men were forced back, but d'Hautpoul's cuirassiers pounded forward, reaching the Russian reserve. At this point, the horses were nearly blown, but d'Hautpoul's cuirassiers charged the third line, which they also broke. The Russian Cossacks, assembled in the reserve, entered the melee, but their light horses were no match for the French mounts, big horses confiscated from the Prussians the previous year. The Russian infantry had started to reform their squares behind d'Hautpoul's men. During this charge, d'Hautpoul was struck by artillery grapeshot and badly wounded. Several of his men managed to carry or drag him back to French lines. Napoleon's valet recounted: > ... I seem still to hear the brave d'Hautpoul saying to His Majesty, just as he was galloping off to charge the enemy: "Sire, I am going to show you my big heels; they will go into the enemies' squares as if they were made of butter!" An hour later he was dead. One of his regiments while fighting in an interval of the Russian army, was shot down and cut to pieces by the Cossacks; only eighteen of them escaped. General d'Hautpoul, three times forced to recoil with his division, thrice rallied them to the charge; the third time, he again rushed on the enemy, crying in a loud voice: "Cuirassiers, forward, in the name of God! [F]orward, my brave cuirassiers!" But grapeshot had mowed down too many of these heroes. Very few of them were in condition to follow their leader, who fell, covered with wounds, in the middle of a Russian square into which he had flung himself almost alone. The Emperor ordered the best surgeons to attend to d'Hautpoul, but they disagreed on the best method of treatment. Against the advice of the military surgeon, Larrey, d'Hautpoul refused to have his leg amputated and died not long afterwards. There is some disagreement in the records about his actual date of death: the original death record of the parish at Eylau indicates he died of wounds on 1 February 1807, but this was before the battle, and it is possible that the pastor simply left off a digit in his record, or, more likely, that the record was transcribed incorrectly. Other records suggest that he died the day after the battle (8 February), on 11 February, or on 14 February. Originally buried at Worienen, His son, Alexandre Joseph Napoléon, brought his remains to France in 1840 to be buried in the family crypt at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. D'Hautpoul's heart is conserved in a vault in Les Invalides, and his name is inscribed on Column 16 of the Arc de Triomphe, among the first 384 names to be inscribed on it. ## See also - Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, Eastern pillar, column 16

2017 FIA GT World Cup

3rd World Cup for GT3-spec sports cars in Macau

The 2017 FIA GT World Cup (formally the SJM Macau GT Cup – FIA GT World Cup) was a non-championship Grand Touring (GT) sports car race held on the streets of the Macau autonomous territory on 19 November 2017. It was the event's third edition, and the tenth Macau GT3-specification cars race. The Automobile General Association Macau-China appointed the motorsports organiser Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) to form a grid for the race. The race itself consisted of an 11-lap qualifying race that set the starting order for the 18-lap main race. Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy's Edoardo Mortara won the main race from pole position in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 after winning the Qualification Race the afternoon before. Mortara led from the start and every lap of the main race to achieved his sixth Macau victory. Second place was taken by the highest-placed rookie, Robin Frijns, driving an Audi R8 LMS for Audi Sport Team WRT. Maro Engel of Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing completed the podium in third. ## Background and entry list The 2017 FIA GT World Cup was the event's third iteration and the eleventh time GT3 vehicles had raced in Macau. It was held on the 6.2 km (3.9 mi) 22-turn Guia Circuit on 19 November 2017 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying. Following the 2016 iteration, in which an accident involving Laurens Vanthoor curtailed the race and time constraints meant that all scheduled laps could not be completed, the FIA moved the first race of the 2017 Guia Race of Macau from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon to increase the likelihood that the race would run for all 18 scheduled laps. Manufacturer-supported teams with professional drivers rated platinum or gold were permitted to compete as part of organiser Stéphane Ratel Organisation's goal of having a World Cup event for professionals and one for amateurs. Safety and trackside recovery procedures were enhanced. Following the 2016 race, some kerbs at turns one and two were modified for safety reasons, and TecPro energy absorption barriers were installed. Drivers had to have competed in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated GT3-based championship race in the preceding two seasons or have substantial experience in Grand Touring (GT) cars to enter the FIA GT World Cup in Macau. Only drivers with a platinum or gold racing licence could compete, with silver-ranked drivers eligible on a case-by-case basis at the FIA GT World Cup Committee's discretion. Bronze-level competitors were not permitted to compete. On 24 October 2017, the entry list was made public. Twenty drivers from 13 nations raced, representing seven brands (Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche). It featured defending winner Vanthoor, 2016–17 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi, 2016 FIA World Endurance co-champion Romain Dumas, Blancpain GT Series champion Mirko Bortolotti, two-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Marco Wittmann, and 2014 Bathurst 1000 co-winner Chaz Mostert. ## Practice and qualifying There was one 30-minute practice session each on Thursday morning and Friday morning preceding Sunday's race. In the first practice session, Maro Engel's No. 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing car lapped fastest at 2 minutes, 18.948 seconds on his final lap. Raffaele Marciello's sister No. 888 car was second, Edoardo Mortara's No. 48 Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy third, the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 of Felix Rosenqvist fourth and Robin Frijns' No. 1 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 LMS fifth. Daniel Juncadella, Markus Pommer, Augusto Farfus, Nico Müller and Darryl O'Young filled positions six through ten. With ten minutes remaining, Di Grassi lost control of his car and collided with a barrier alongside the circuit in the track's mountain section, but he continued with minor damage. Frijns led the second practice session with a 2 minutes, 18.507 seconds lap, ahead of Audi brandmate Pommer in second. Farfus, Juncadella, Müller, Engel, Marciello, di Grassi, Bortolotti and Vanthoor completed the top ten drivers. Pommer spun through 360 degrees on the kerb on the inside of Mandarin Bend corner at more than 250 kilometres per hour (160 mph). He narrowly avoided hitting the wall, and practice was not stopped. Fabian Plentz spun and caused the first stoppage, but he recovered and returned to the pit lane. When Hiroki Yoshimoto crashed his Porsche 911 at Solitude Esses turn and was in a dangerous position, a second red flag appeared. Friday afternoon's half-hour qualifying session set the starting grid for the qualification race through each driver's fastest lap times. Mercedes-AMG took the first four places in fading light, with Mortara leading for most of qualifying to take his second consecutive pole position in Macau with a lap of 2 minutes, 17.565 seconds set in the final minutes. His teammate Juncadella joined him on the grid's front row and Team GruppeM Racing's Engel and Marciello were third and fourth. Müller was the quickest Audi driver in fifth. eight-thousands of a second behind Marciello. Tom Blomqvist's No. 99 Rowe Racing car qualified seventh, behind brandmate Farfus' No. 18 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 in sixth. Pommer, eighth, was the highest-placed silver ranked driver. Vanthoor's No. 911 Craft-Bamboo Racing car and di Grassi's No. 11 HCB-Rutronik Racing car were ninth and tenth. Rosenqvist was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten due to a car set-up error. Renger van der Zande's No. 84 Honda NSX was 12th, with Wittmann's No. 91 FIST Team AAI car in 13th. Bortolotti's Lamborghini Huracán GT3, Dumas and O'Young's Porsche, Frijns and Plentz's Audi, and Mostert's BMW were the last drivers to set a qualifying lap. Yoshimoto did not record a lap time because his team was unable to repair his car after a crash in the second practice session. Two drivers had incidents, but the session ended without the need for a stoppage. A malfunctioning anti-lock braking system caused Frijns to crash into the wall at Fisherman's Bend, but he slowly returned to the pit lane for repairs. Vanthoor crashed into the inside barrier at Fisherman's Bend turn at the end of the session. Following qualifying, the FIA altered the balance of performance in an attempt to achieve parity. The weight of the Mercedes-AMGs was increased from 1,330 kg (2,930 lb) to 1,360 kg (3,000 lb) and the weight of the Honda NSX was increased from 1,275 kg (2,811 lb) to 1,280 kg (2,820 lb). ### Qualifying classification ## Qualifying race The qualifying race to determine the main race's grid order in overcast, dry weather began on November 18 at 12:25 p.m. Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00). Mortara fell behind Mercedes-AMG teammate Engel into Lisboa corner at the rolling start. Juncadella, another of Mortara's brandmates, attempted the same thing on the outside, but he knocked his steering arm out of alignment when he made contact with an outside barrier at Reservoir Bend turn. Juncadella's handling put him wide into an exit barrier as the field entered the right-hand Police Bend turn, considered one of the track's narrowest sections and a blind corner. Marciello narrowly avoided a collision with Juncadella, but Vanthoor was unsighted and understeered into Juncadella's stalled car's right-rear corner. A domino effect of accidents occurred behind Juncadella and prevented drivers behind him in the tightly-crowded field from being able to avoid the resulting road block. Di Grassi's car was suspended on Wittmann's bonnet, close to Pommer. No driver was seriously injured in the collision, but the race was immediately stopped for more than an hour so that track marshals could clear the circuit, and cars were extricated using cranes on the right side of the circuit. The accident involved four uninvolved drivers, and four more damaged cars were deemed repairable and returned to the track. With 25 minutes remaining, the race resumed behind the safety car at 13:20 local time. Because his car failed to start in the pit lane due to a battery failure, Engel's brandmate Mortara led the restart. When racing resumed on lap three, Mortara quickly established a small lead over Farfus, who pressured him but was unable to overtake him. As a result, Mortara won the qualification race after 11 laps and started the main race from pole position. Farfus came in second 1.566 seconds later, and Marciello rounded out the podium in third. Frijns in fourth unsuccessfully pressured Maricello, and the final classified finishers were Mostert, O'Young, Yoshimoto, and Engel. ### Qualifying race classification ## Main race The race began at 12:10 p.m. local time on November 19 on a wet track in overcast weather. Many teams worked overnight to repair the structural damage done to their cars in the qualification race accident so that their drivers could compete in the main event. Blomqvist, Bortolotti, Pommer, Plentz, Rosenqvist, and Vanthoor's cars, however, could not be repaired by their respective teams in Macau due to extensive structural damage and were withdrawn from the race. Because of the damp track caused by an earlier rain shower, the race director decided to start behind the safety car, allowing drivers to adjust to the changing conditions. At the end of lap two, the safety car was withdrawn, allowing drivers to overtake. Mortara made a clean getaway from the rolling start but went slightly wide at Reservoir Bend corner and hit the outside wall leaving the corner. He was however untroubled as Farfus could not get close enough to challenge him. At Lisboa turn, Marciello rammed Farfus from behind, causing Farfus to lose third place to Marciello. Farfus slowed, hit an barrier and the car's boot cover lifted. Engel overtook Yoshimoto and O'Young to move into sixth on lap four. At the start of lap five, Marciello retired in the pit lane with smoke coming from the front of his car after sustaining radiator damage. The contact between Farfus and Marciello gave Mortara a six-second lead. On the sixth lap, track marshals waved a black flag with an orange disc to Farfus, instructing him to enter the pit lane and repair the loose car bodywork. The safety car was deployed on the same lap because di Grassi hit the barrier through the Solitude Esses at high speed. He then stopped his car in the mountain section. Farfus made his pit stop under the safety car to remove his boot cover and dropped to the back of the field. Three laps were spent behind the safety car and Mortara maintained the lead at the lap 10-restart. When Farfus made his pit stop, Engel moved to fourth before passing Mostert for third on the outside at Lisboa corner. O'Young crashed on cold tyres leaving the hill to the right-hand San Francisco Bend turn half a lap later. Müller hit him, sending O'Young spinning into a barrier. To allow O'Young's car to be removed from the circuit, the safety car was deployed until the end of lap eleven. At the restart, Mortara maintained his lead, with Frijns second. Engel slipstreamed Frijns to remain with him. Mostert slid wide after exiting the Solitude Esses, allowing the recovering Farfus to overtake him for fourth. Engel spent the next few laps close by Frijns but the latter established a rhythm and began to draw closer to Mortara. However, Mortara led every lap achieved his sixth victory in Macau by 0.618 seconds over the closing Frijns who failed to overtake him. Engel finished third, Farfus fourth, and brandmates Mostert and Wittmann fifth and sixth. Dumas finished seventh, Juncadella eighth, and Yoshimoto was the final classified finisher. The attrition rate was moderate, with nine of the fourteen starters finishing the race, and the safety car was on track for six laps. ### Post-race In response to the sixteen car accident on the first lap of the qualification race, di Grassi called for a Global Positioning System (GPS) and accelerometer monitored automated warning system to caution drivers about an incident on the track two days after the race to warn drivers about an incident on the track. Drivers and fans of motor racing sharply criticised the proposal on social media because they perceived it as a system to slow the cars. Di Grassi said G-force sensors and accelerometers can determine whether a car has crashed, "By GPS positioning you can say if the car is in front of you or behind you. If the car is in front of you, there is a light on the dash that glows yellow automatically, without anyone having to press a button with the same information. We don't have the same race director and marshals, especially in the base categories and amateur series. So we need a system that reacts fast. A system like that may have avoided a lot of crashes because first you don't need to look for the flag, if you’re following someone. It's much brighter if something is in front of you. And then it does not react as a human component." ### Main race classification ## See also - 2017 Macau Grand Prix - 2017 Guia Race of Macau

Challis railway station

Railway station in Perth, Western Australia

Challis railway station (officially Challis Station) is a suburban railway station in Kelmscott, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It is on the Armadale line which is part of the Transperth network, and is 27.3 kilometres (17.0 mi) southwest of Perth station and 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi) north of Armadale station. The station opened on 29 October 1973, as did the adjacent Sherwood station, filling the large gap between Armadale station and Kelmscott station. It consists of two side platforms with a pedestrian level crossing. It is not fully accessible due to steep ramps and wide gaps at the pedestrian level crossing. Services are operated by Transperth Train Operations, a division of the state government's Public Transport Authority. Peak services reach seven trains per hour in each direction, whilst off-peak services are four trains per hour. The station is one of the least used ones on the Transperth network, with just 259 boardings per day in October 2017. The City of Armadale rezoned nearby land in the 2010s with the goal of increasing patronage. ## Description Challis station is along the South Western Railway, which links Perth to Bunbury. The northern 30.4 kilometres (18.9 mi) of this railway, between Perth and Armadale, is used by Armadale line suburban rail services as part of the Transperth network. The line and the station are owned by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), an agency of the Government of Western Australia. Challis station is located between Kelmscott station to the north and Sherwood station to the south, within the suburb of Kelmscott, Western Australia. The station is between Streich Avenue to the east and Railway Avenue to the west, 27.3 kilometres (17.0 mi), or a 30-minute train journey, from Perth station, and 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi), or a 5-minute train journey, from Armadale station. This places the station in Transperth fare zone three. Challis station consists of two side platforms which are approximately 100 metres (330 ft) long, enough for a four-car train but not a six-car train. Eventually, as part of the PTA's efforts to make all stations compatible with six-car trains, the platform will be lengthened to 150 metres (490 ft). The only way to cross the tracks is at a pedestrian level crossing at the northern end of the station. Two car parks with 32 bays in total are on either side of the station, and there are bike racks as well. Challis station is not fully accessible due to the ramps to the platforms being too steep and the pedestrian crossing containing large gaps. ## History With the 1970 Corridor Plan for Perth, new areas between Armadale and Kelmscott were opened up for development. The Armadale–Kelmscott Shire Council began lobbying the state government for new stations within the large gap between Armadale and Kelmscott stations. Plans were completed by May 1973 for two new stations, with construction commencing soon afterwards. Originally planned to open on 20 October 1973, Challis station opened on 29 October, as did the adjacent Sherwood station (then known as Kingsley station). The shire council wanted the station to be named "Streich" after a well known local doctor, but the Western Australian Government Railways decided on "Challis", which came from the nearby Challis Primary School. The school was named after Challis Road, which was named after a family who had established an orchard in the area in the 1910s. Shelters were added in 1982–83. The City of Armadale rezoned nearby land for higher densities in the late 2010s, with the goal of increasing patronage. ## Services Challis station is served by Armadale line services operated by Transperth Train Operations, a division of the PTA. The line goes between Perth station and Armadale station. Armadale line services reach seven trains per hour during peak, dropping to four trains per hour between peaks. At night, there are two trains per hour, dropping to one train per hour in the early hours of the morning. Apart from at night and on Sundays/public holidays, most train services follow the "C" stopping pattern, which skips Burswood, Victoria Park, Carlisle, Welshpool and Queens Park stations. There are also two "B" stopping pattern services which run during the afternoon Armadale-bound. Those services are the same as the "C" pattern except they stop at Queens Park. Starting at night, trains stop at all stations. On Sundays and public holidays, half of all trains are "C" pattern trains and half are all stops trains. On Railway Avenue is a pair of bus stops for route 907, the rail replacement bus service. In the 2013–14 financial year, Challis station had 73,805 boardings, making it the second least used station on the Armadale and Thornlie lines behind Seaforth station. On an average weekday in October 2017, the station had 259 boardings, making it the third least used Transperth station behind Seaforth station (136) and Success Hill station (139). The weekend average number of boardings was 209 in October 2018, the third lowest after Success Hill station (124) and Seaforth (170).

Mothra vs. Godzilla

1964 Japanese kaiju film by Ishirō Honda

Mothra vs. Godzilla (Japanese: モスラ対ゴジラ, Hepburn: Mosura tai Gojira) is a 1964 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., it is the fourth film in the Godzilla franchise. The film stars Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kenji Sahara, and Emi and Yumi Itō, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla. In the film, humans beseech the aid of the insect god Mothra to stop Godzilla from destroying Japan. Due to the success of Mothra (1961) and King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Toho chose to pair Godzilla against Mothra for the following film. The film was intended for children as well as adults, as a way to compete with television's growing popularity in Japan. A new Godzilla suit and Mothra prop were built although the 1962 Godzilla suit was used for water scenes. At Tsuburaya's insistence, Toho purchased an Oxberry 1900 optical printer to remove damages in composite photography shots. It is the final film in the franchise's Shōwa era to depict Godzilla as the antagonist. Mothra vs. Godzilla was released theatrically in Japan on April 29, 1964. An edited version titled Godzilla vs. the Thing was released by American International Pictures in the United States on August 26, 1964. The film received generally positive reviews from early and contemporary American critics. American film historians have praised the film's themes of unity, greed, and Honda's depiction of Godzilla as a "specter of nuclear annihilation" and a symbol of moral judgement. The film was followed by the fifth film in the Godzilla franchise Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, released on December 20, 1964. ## Plot Kurata Beach is stricken by a typhoon. The following morning, reporter Ichiro Saki and his photographer Junko Nakanishi find a strange blue-gray object amongst the wreckage. Later, a giant egg is found floating near Nishi Beach in Shizunoura. Professor Miura attempts to investigate the egg, only to be pestered with questions by Saki. They soon learn that the villagers had sold the egg to businessman Kumayama for exploitation purposes for his firm Happy Enterprises. At a local hotel, Saki, Junko, and Miura discuss how to legally counter Kumayama's plans, and find him at the lobby. Kumayama meets with his financial backer Jiro Torahata, who reveals his plans to build the Shizunoura Happy Center around the egg. They are visited by the Shobijin, tiny twin fairies, who attempt to convince them to return the egg but have to escape when the businessmen try to capture them. The Shobijin run into Saki, Junko, and Miura, and reveal to them that the egg belongs to the colossal insect god Mothra, the recent typhoon caused it to wash up on Japanese waters, and destruction will follow when the larva emerges. The trio agree to help them retrieve the egg, and try to plead with Kumayama and Torahata but are met with resistance. The Shobijin eventually return home to Infant Island without the egg. Later, Saki writes scathing articles about Happy Enterprises' insensitivity towards the Shobijin. However, the firm dismisses the articles as slander and open the Shizunoura Happy Center to the public. Kumayama is confronted by the villagers for not paying in full for the egg and renting from their land. Torahata agrees to loan Kumayama additional funds in exchange for putting the egg up as collateral. Kumayama reluctantly accepts and begins incubating the egg. Miura decontaminates Saki and Junko after touching the object they found in the wreckage, revealing it to be highly radioactive. The trio return to Kurata beach to investigate further, but the giant reptilian monster Godzilla emerges from the buried mud. Citizens evacuate as Godzilla wrecks havoc on Yokkaichi and Nagoya. The Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) are deployed to lead Godzilla to the coast to minimize casualties. At the suggestion from a colleague, the trio travel to Infant Island to appeal with the Shobijin for Mothra's help. When they arrive, they are horrified by the desolation left behind by past nuclear tests. They are captured by the natives and reveal their intentions to ask for Mothra's help against Godzilla. The Shobijin and natives refuse, seeing it as divine retribution on outsiders for ravaging their island with nuclear tests, and not returning the egg. Junko and Saki plead that the innocent are also in danger, that they have no right to decide which lives deserve salvation, and that civilization is flawed, but is trying hard to make the world better. Mothra agrees to help, but the Shobijin warn that she is on her deathbed. Back in Japan, the JSDF launch multiple campaigns against Godzilla but to no avail. After losing his finances, Kumayama confronts Torahata at his hotel, attacks him, and steals his secret funds. Torahata shoots Kumayama, and attempts to escape with the money but is crushed as Godzilla destroys the hotel. Godzilla reaches Nishi Beach, and prepares to destroy the egg until Mothra intervenes and engages Godzilla in battle. Mothra initially gets the upper hand, but is defeated by Godzilla's atomic breath. Mothra uses her last strength to fly to the egg and die next to it. As the JSDF resume their attacks on Godzilla, the trio and the Shobijin remain with the egg as the twins attempt to make the egg hatch quicker via musical incantations. Twin larvae emerge from the egg and follow Godzilla to Iwa island. As the monsters battle, the trio join a rescue party to retrieve students and their teacher left behind on Iwa Island. Godzilla is entrapped by the larva's silk, tumbles into the sea and sinks. The students and teacher are returned to safety, and the larvae and Shobijin return to Infant Island. Sakai asserts that humanity will thank them by building a better world. ## Cast Cast taken from Japan's Favorite Mon-Star, except where cited otherwise. ## Themes The film historian Steve Ryfle calls Mothra vs. Godzilla a "classic good-versus-evil stand-off". He says the film raises philosophical questions about unity and humanity's will to put aside their differences for the greater good. Ryfle refers to Godzilla as a "specter of nuclear annihilation", metaphorically casting its shadow over Japan. Ryle also describes Godzilla as a symbol of moral judgement after indirectly killing the film's villains. The director Ishirō Honda had directed the original Godzilla (1954) and Mothra (1961) films, and the actor Hiroshi Koizumi said Honda was able to emphasize his themes better through Mothra than Godzilla, stating, "Mothra's role was a messenger of peace". Kenji Sahara said his character Torahata symbolized greed. Honda purposely chose to portray the film's version of Infant Island as a partial wasteland as a way to "visualize the terror and the power of the atomic bomb". The film historian David Kalat writes that the film brings the shame of civilized man to the forefront, and says that the film's Japanese character do little to nothing to return Mothra's egg yet travel to Infant Island to ask Mothra for more. Kalat writes that Mothra is the first to respond to Saki's speech about the brotherhood between mankind, adding that Mothra "possesses a more developed faculty of forgiveness than her subjects," thus making Mothra "morally and spiritually superior" than humans. ## Production ### Crew - Ishirō Honda – director - Eiji Tsuburaya – special effects director - Kōji Kajita – assistant director - Boku Norimoto – production coordinator - Sadamasa Arikawa – special effects photography - Akira Watanabe – special effects art director - Takeo Kita – art director - Hiroshi Mukoyama – optical effects Personnel taken from Japan's Favorite Mon-Star. ### Development After having success with King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Toho Co., Ltd. wanted to pair Godzilla with another popular monster and chose Mothra, the title character of a successful 1961 film. Honda and Toho aimed the film towards a general audience due to the rise of television at the time. To prepare for his role, Sahara spent time around "pushy" real-estate agents by posing as a buyer. Tanaka cast the twin sisters Emi and Yumi Itō as the Shobijin due to their popularity as the singing duo The Peanuts, as this would create publicity for the film. The story in Mothra vs. Godzilla was originally intended to pick up after Mothra, with the Rolisicans, the fictional people of the fictional country Rolisica, re-cast as the villains. The screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa's earlier drafts have several key difference from the final version: the villain Torahata did not exist; Sakai was accompanied by two scientists, a colleague and a friend's mentor; Godzilla's body washes ashore rather than Mothra's egg; the leads offer themselves as hostages to the Infant Island natives in exchange for Mothra's help; Rolisica was to be attacked by Godzilla; the Frontier Missiles were to be used by the Rolisican military; Himeji Castle was to be destroyed; Godzilla was to move East until reaching close to Tokyo; The artificial lightning tactic is conceived when Godzilla is repelled by electrical towers in Tokyo; Mothra attacks Godzilla when he becomes immune to electricity; Mothra engages Godzilla in a final battle when he stalks the lead characters on a beach. Honda changed much of Sekizawa's original script to accommodate his own vision. Saki's speech about the brotherhood of man was not in Sekizawa's script, but was later added by Honda during filming. The film marks the last time Godzilla is depicted as the antagonist during the franchise's Shōwa era. ### Music The film score was composed by Akira Ifukube. Ifukube adapted elements from Yuji Koseki's "Song of Mothra" theme from the 1961 film into his score. Honda and Ifukube were regular collaborators and held planning sessions to discuss which scenes would feature music. They had a disagreement over a scene which featured Godzilla rising behind a ridge-line. Honda asked for aggressive music for the scene but Ifukube refused, feeling that it was unnecessary due to Godzilla being "impressive enough". Godzilla's theme was eventually added to the scene, which upset Ifukube. The track "The Sacred Springs" was the only track Ifukube wrote for The Peanuts and was intended to lament Infant Island's destruction. For the 1980 re-release, the Japanese pop and rock band Talizman recorded a new song simply titled "Godzilla", which was later included as a bonus feature on Toho's 2014 Blu-ray. ### Special effects Mothra vs. Godzilla's special effects were directed by Eiji Tsuburaya. Teruyoshi Nakano served as the assistant special effects director. Mechanical props and puppets were built for both monsters. The Godzilla suit was constructed by Teizo Toshimitsu two months prior to filming, with input from the actor Haruo Nakajima whenever he visited the workshop. The new suit was lighter than previous ones and allowed Nakajima to make more fluid movement. Reinforced heels gave Nakajima freedom to roll and flip without losing his footing. The 1962 Godzilla suit was recycled for water scenes and a shot with Godzilla tumbling off a cliff. For Mothra, a new prop was built, similar to the 1961 prop, with Y-shaped braces attached to the back that allowed the wings to flap. High-powered fans were used to create wind for Mothra's wings. The wing-span for the new Mothra prop was 15 feet. Mechanisms were added that allowed the prop's head and legs to move via remote control. The larvae were a combination of hand puppetry and motor-driven mechanical props. The larvae's web was made of liquified polystyrene. When the web was shot off-screen, it was poured onto a cup stationed at the center of a heavy industrial fan. The cup was sealed with small gaps around the edges. To shoot the web out of the larvae's mouths, compressed air was run into a sealed tube of liquid polystyrene. At a high pressure level, the liquid polystyrene was forced through a tube that ran through the back of the larvae and into nozzles in their mouths. As long as the nozzle was small, the solution vaporized when first emitted and solidified into the web. Gasoline had to be used to remove the webbing and the suit had to be thoroughly dried to prevent it from combusting. The larva movements were designed by Soujiro Iijima and used a conveyor belt with rotating gears that allowed the bodies to move up and down. For the scenes with the Shobijin, furniture eight times their size was built to make the Shobijin appear to be 30 centimeters tall. Honda originally intended to depict the wasteland part of Infant Island with more realism and graphic imagery but this idea was dropped due to budgetary issues with the art department. Honda later regretted this decision, saying he should have been more stubborn. Tsuburaya had Toho purchase an Oxberry 1900 optical printer which was used to remove damages in composite photography shots. The optical printer was also used to create Godzilla's atomic breath. For a scene where Godzilla destroys Nagoya Castle, Nakajima was unable to completely destroy the model of the castle. He attempted to salvage the shot by having Godzilla appear enraged by the Castle's strong fortification, but the filmmakers chose to re-shoot the scene with a rebuilt model designed to crumble more easily. For a scene where Mothra drags Godzilla by the tail, the Godzilla suit was used for medium shots and a prop used for long shots. A sequence featuring the United States military attacking Godzilla with frontier missiles was filmed for the American market, but omitted in the Japanese version of the film. The Mothra prop used for the New Kirk City scenes in Mothra was recycled for the Infant Island scenes. This prop was smaller compared to the prop built for the new film's adult Mothra. The 1961 model had a motor built into it that flapped the wings at a rapid pace. For the scenes with Godzilla near the cliff face, part of the set's support structure was hidden by using matte painting. The miniature tanks used in the film were purchased from Ihara models rather than typically custom built. The tank models were built to a 1/15th scale and were constructed from aluminum. The antennas were used for remote control. For the scene where Godzilla destroys the incubator, the scene proved difficult for Nakajima and the wire staff, which required coordination. Close ups of the tail were done with a prop that was operated by two people due to the heavy weight of the tail. The scenes with Godzilla thrashing wildly at Mothra were shot at high speed, then projected at a quicker speed. The end results have been compared to the movement of stop-motion animation. The scene with Godzilla thrashing from the nets was shot with different cameras at once and as a result, the same scene plays over from different angles. A second egg was produced for the hatching scene. A styrofoam egg was molded and a calcium carbonate substance was mixed with glue and added on top. The styrofoam egg was removed from its interior with a heated wire, which left a hollow form. For the opening typhoon scene, Iijima built a shallow water tank to create the illusion of violent waves. Wider water scenes were filmed at massive pool at Toho's studios. Rubber glue was blown onto Godzilla's suit by an electric fan for the scene where Mothra's larvae entrap him in silk. In the process of filming, the rubber glue hardened, making it difficult to remove afterwards. ## Release ### Theatrical Mothra vs. Godzilla was released in Japan by Toho on April 29, 1964, as a double feature with Operation Anti Hell. Prior to the Golden Week, it sold 3.5 million tickets. According to Henry G. Saperstein, the film grossed \$217,000 for three weeks from eight theaters in Tokyo. In 1970, a heavily re-edited version was screened at the Toho Champion Festival, a children's festival centered on marathon screenings of kaiju films and cartoons. The Champion Festival version was edited by Honda, and runs 74 minutes. The Champion Festival release sold 730,000 tickets. In 1980, the film was theatrically re-released in Japan as a double feature with Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur. An entirely new poster featuring an illustration of Godzilla by Japanese manga artist Leiji Matsumoto was designed for the 1980 re-release. It sold 3 million tickets (¥2.33 billion), totaling 7.22 million tickets sold in Japan. ### American version In May 1964, Henry G. Saperstein acquired the American theatrical and television rights to the film, under the proposed working title Godzilla vs. the Giant Moth, and sold the rights to American International Pictures (AIP). AIP released the film as Godzilla vs. the Thing on August 26, 1964, when it premiered in Los Angeles. AIP chose the title Godzilla vs. the Thing purposely to generate curiosity and anticipation for Godzilla's foe. AIP hired Reynold Brown to create a poster that featured Godzilla, but censored the other monster. Brown was paid \$350 for his services. The American version of the film contains footage shot by Toho specifically for the American release. The American version of the film received only a few minor adjustments: the Shobijin song on Infant Island was shortened as was a scene where Sakai, Junko Miura and Makamura wave goodbye to the Mothras swimming home. Removed scenes include one of Kumayama handing out leaflets to attract visitors to the giant egg incubator and one where Torahata shoots Kumayama in a hotel room. New scenes added included a sequence where U.S. military officials help Japan against Godzilla. The American release of the film was double-billed with Voyage to the End of the Universe. Titra Studios dubbed the film into English. The film was followed by Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, released on December 20, 1964. ### Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 6.80/10. A 1964 review for Kinema Junpo praised the effects but criticized the military attacking Godzilla, writing, "It's strange that the people don't learn from the past. From the Self-Defense Forces on down, every single person just plain looks stupid." In a contemporary review from the Monthly Film Bulletin, the critic wrote that "In spite of some clumsy model shots, Godzilla's fight with the giant moth and its caterpillar progeny is one of Toho's better efforts". The critic praised Godzilla's design in the film and wrote that the "ineffectual attempts to bring him to a halt are cleverly and spectacularly staged. Unfortunately, nothing else quite matches the special effects", writing that the plot is "ridiculous" and the acting "lamentable, and the two miniature twins' habit of repeating every line of dialogue simultaneously is intensely irksome". Reviewing the American version, Variety said it was "long on special effect" and lacked "appeal for general trade", and that "in spite of the slick production, the story and acting don't offer enough to attract large general audiences". The review said that the "virtually all-Japanese cast, with unfamiliar faces and broad emoting typical of such Japanese pics, also detracts from general appeal". The review said that Honda's direction and the script "keep story moving at lively pace, building up to tense climactic scenes" and that Tsuburaya "labored mightily to cook up monsters and their battles, the tiny twins and the military assaults against Godzilla". In 1998, Ryfle praised Mothra vs. Godzilla as it stood "indisputably as the greatest of all the Godzilla sequels, with a fast-paced story and likable characters, the most impressive Godzilla design ever, two of the Big G's most spectacular battles, and an abundance of special-effects "money shots" that evoke the thrills of the 1954 original." In 2017, Ryfle and Godziszewski gave their impression that "[t]he final twenty-plus minutes hint at the genre's impending tilt toward young boys. It's a near nonstop barrage of military hardware and monster action", and added that "Honda seemed to know that kids were now rooting for Godzilla, and so the film never gets too scary". In his 2007 audio commentary, Ryfle praised the English dubbing for the American version, saying that it is one of the reasons that the film is considered amongst the best Godzilla films. Ryfle said that the English script was "snappy" and "well written" and that the voice performances sounded sincere and pulled with effort, stating, "You'd be hard pressed to find another movie where the dubbing is done as well as it is here." Reviewing the American version in 2017, the film critic Leonard Maltin gave it two and a half out of a possible four stars, praising the "vivid" special effects, which he called the highlight of the film. Den of Geek ranked Mothra vs. Godzilla at number three in their 2019 ranking of the Shōwa Godzilla films, writing that the film has an "intelligent script that brings together mythology and modern sociopolitical themes is married to some of the best monster action in the series." Screen Rant ranked it at number three on their list of the "Best Kaiju Movies Featuring Mothra", calling the film a "kaiju classic" and a "great time overall" despite a lackluster final battle. Collider ranked the film number three on their Shōwa Godzilla list in 2022, calling the Godzilla suit an "impressive figure", the marionette work and puppeteering done with Mothra and the larvae as "impressive", and describing the battles as the "most unique" in the series. ## Home media ### Japan In 1983, the Japanese version of Mothra vs. Godzilla was released on VHS in Japan by Toho, followed by a LaserDisc release in 1986. The Champion Festival cut was given a LaserDisc release in 1992, and the American version was included on a LaserDisc combo pack the following year. Toho released the film on DVD in 2003, and later included the film, along with the rest of the Godzilla films, on the Godzilla Final Box DVD Set in 2005. The film was included along with Godzilla (1954), Godzilla Raids Again (1955), and King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) on the Godzilla DVD Collection I, released by Toho on January 25, 2008. In 2010, Toho released the film on Blu-ray. In 2008, Toho remastered the film in High-definition and premiered it on the Japanese Movie Speciality Channel, along with the rest of the Godzilla films also remastered in HD. In 2021, Toho premiered a 4K remaster of the film on the Nippon Classic Movie Channel, along with seven other Godzilla films also remastered in 4K. The film was downscaled to 2K for broadcast. ### United States In 1989, the American version was released on VHS in North America by Paramount Home Video under the title Godzilla vs. Mothra. In 1998, Simitar Video reissued the American version on VHS and DVD, which included a widescreen edition. This release retained the previous title Godzilla vs. Mothra, however, the widescreen side of the DVD featured the original American print with the title Godzilla vs. The Thing. In 2002, Sony Music Entertainment released a pan-and-scan version of the American version on DVD. This release also retained the previous title, Godzilla vs. Mothra. In 2007, Classic Media released both the Japanese and American versions on a single disc DVD in North America. The special features include an audio commentary by film historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski, a featurette on Akira Ifukube's life and career by Godziszewski and Bill Gudmundson, a slideshow, and the film's theatrical trailer. In 2017, Janus Films and The Criterion Collection acquired the film, as well as other Godzilla titles, to stream on Starz and FilmStruck. In 2019, the Japanese version was included in a Blu-ray box set released by the Criterion Collection, which included all 15 films from the franchise's Shōwa era. In May 2020, the Japanese version became available on HBO Max upon its launch.

Apoorva Raagangal

1975 Indian Tamil-language film by K. Balachander

Apoorva Raagangal ( ) is a 1975 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars Kamal Haasan, Sundarrajan, Srividya and Jayasudha, while Nagesh and Rajinikanth, in his feature film debut, play supporting roles. The film revolves around Prasanna (Haasan) who falls in love with the much older Bhairavi (Srividya) while Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani (Jayasudha) is drawn to Prasanna's father Mahendran (Sundarrajan). Apoorva Raagangal's theme was based on a riddle featured in the Indian folktale collection Vetala Panchavimshati about a king marrying a woman and his son marrying her mother, and Vetala, the riddler asking Vikramaditya what would be their kinship relations if these couples were to beget children. The film was produced by V. Govindarajan and J. Duraisamy under the Kalakendra Films banner, photographed by B. S. Lokanath and edited by N. R. Kittu; the music is composed by M. S. Viswanathan. Unlike many contemporaneous Tamil films, it was shot entirely in actual houses for their interiors without building sets, as Balachander wanted to convey a more authentic narration. Apoorva Raagangal was released on 15 August 1975. Despite exploring the concept of relationships between people with wide age gaps, which challenged Indian social mores, it received critical acclaim and became a commercial success, and a breakthrough for Srividya and Haasan. The film won three National Film Awards, including Best Feature Film in Tamil, and three Filmfare Awards South in the Tamil branch: Best Feature Film, Best Director for Balachander and Best Actor for Haasan, and a Special Award for Srividya. It was remade in Telugu as Thoorpu Padamara (1976) where Srividya and Nagesh reprised their roles, and in Hindi by Balachander as Ek Nai Paheli (1984) where Haasan reprised his role. ## Plot Prasanna is a young man who indulges in several revolutionary activities against the wishes of his father Mahendran, a widower. After Prasanna tells him that, due to the price of rice increasing, he stole rice from a lorry, distributed it to the poor and set fire to the lorry before the police arrived, a disgusted Mahendran helps the police arrest him, widening the already existing rift between them. After his release, Prasanna opts to stay away from his hometown, Bangalore, and reaches Madras. One day, Prasanna is beaten up for abusing the passengers of a car that splashed water on him. Carnatic singer Bhairavi, returning home after a katcheri, notices him lying unconscious on the roadside, takes him home and her doctor friend Suri treats him. At Bhairavi's request, Prasanna continues to live in her house even after he recovers. He slowly develops passionate feelings for her even though she is much older. Before Prasanna's arrival, Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani, who believes she was adopted, learns that she is actually Bhairavi's biological daughter born out of wedlock. Unable to digest her mother's hypocrisy, she runs away from home and meets Mahendran in Bangalore while trying to sell some items. She ends up staying at his house for a few days at his request. Impressed by his love for his deceased wife, his longing for his son Prasanna who left him, and his commitment to help her, she expresses a desire to marry him, despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father. Both Bhairavi and Mahendran reject Prasanna and Ranjani's proposals, citing their age difference and other situations, but with perseverance, Prasanna and Ranjani are able to convince them that their respective marriages could work. Bhairavi is forced to accept Prasanna's proposal when he ends his revolutionary activities and takes up music for her sake, becoming a mridangam player. Prasanna is happy that Bhairavi has accepted his proposal, but Pandiyan, her ex-lover and Ranjani's father, turns up to meet her and to apologise. Prasanna does not allow this and, as Pandiyan is dying from blood cancer, takes him away for treatment at his place. He tells Pandiyan of his plan to marry Bhairavi and seeks his co-operation. Pandiyan agrees not to meet her. Mahendran, seeing an advertisement placed by Bhairavi about her missing daughter, comes to meet Bhairavi at her house and sees Prasanna's photograph there. He realises they are in love. Mahendran advertises for his missing son. Bhairavi sees the advertisement so she tells Prasanna to get his father's consent before marrying her. They both meet Mahendran, who introduces Ranjani as Prasanna's future mother since she is his future wife. A riddle is explained: Prasanna's wife will be the mother of his father's wife, meaning Ranjani will be the mother-in-law of her own mother and Mahendran will be the son-in-law of his own son. Mahendran asks Prasanna how this riddle is going to be cleared in their case. During Bhairavi's next katcheri, where Prasanna is a mridangam player, she sings "Kelviyin Nayagane, Indha Kelvikku Badhil Edhayya?" (Oh hero of the question, what is the answer to this question?). Ranjani changes her mind and joins her mother by singing at the concert. Observing this, Prasanna also changes his mind and joins his father. When all these issues are cleared, Pandiyan sends a note to Bhairavi in the middle of the katcheri. Bhairavi searches for him after it ends and finds him dead with a note in his hand, wishing her well with Prasanna. She erases the kumkuma from her forehead to declare herself a widow and leaves with Ranjani, while Prasanna joins Mahendran. ## Cast - Kamal Haasan as Prasanna - Sundarrajan as Mahendran - Srividya as Bhairavi - Jayasudha as Ranjani - Nagesh as Suri / Hari - Rajinikanth as Pandiyan Kannadasan, Jaishankar and members of the Madras-based United Amateur Artistes make "friendly appearances". ## Production ### Development The Indian folktale collection Vetala Panchavimshati features many stories where the ghost-like being Vetala poses many riddles to Vikramaditya. In the final riddle, a king marries a woman and his son marries her mother; Vetala asks, "If these couples were to beget children, what would be their kinship relations?" and Vikramaditya keeps quiet since it does not have an answer. This riddle inspired K. Balachander to write the script of Apoorva Raagangal, which he would also direct. V. Govindarajan and J. Duraisamy produced the film under their production banner, Kalakendra Films. B. S. Lokanath was chosen as the cinematographer, N. R. Kittu as the editor, and Ramasamy as the art director. Before the film's release, author N. R. Dasan accused Balachander of plagiarising Verum Mann, a story he had written for the magazine Kannadasan. The matter was taken to the Madras High Court, and Dasan won the case. Although he did not seek money, the judge ordered Balachander to pay him ₹1,000 (equivalent to ₹28,000 or US\$350 in 2023) as a fine. ### Casting Kamal Haasan was cast as the protagonist Prasanna. He spent seven months learning to play the mridangam required for the role. The film was the debut of Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, who later became one of Tamil cinema's biggest stars, Rajinikanth. He was a student at the Madras Film Institute, when Balachander, who came there, met him. Balachander was impressed by his appearance: his "fragile" health, "powerful" eyes, "chiselled" face and dark skin and did not view them as negatives. He sought to "give him a good role, and see what can be drawn out of him". The script of Apoorva Raagangal had been readied, and Balachander wanted Gaekwad to play a "small but interesting part", which he agreed to. The part was that of Bhairavi's (Srividya) ex-lover Pandiyan. As Gaekwad, who primarily spoke Kannada and his native Marathi, was only "tangentially familiar" with Tamil, Balachander advised him to learn the language. Gaekwad practised by speaking only Tamil with his friend Raja Bahaddur, a native Tamil speaker; he mastered the language in 20 days. After meeting Balachander again, and impressing him with his Tamil, he was given the part. When it came to giving Gaekwad a screen name, Balachander had three options: Rajinikanth, Chandrakanth and Srikanth. He chose Rajinikanth, the name of A. V. M. Rajan's character from his 1966 film Major Chandrakanth; the name means "colour of night", referring to Gaekwad's skin colour, though it was misspelled in the credits as "Rajanikanth". ### Filming Unlike many contemporaneous Tamil films, Apoorva Raagangal was shot entirely in actual houses for interiors without building sets, as Balachander wanted a more authentic narration to be conveyed. With Lokanath's help, he found houses which belonged to A. V. Meiyappan's family members, one of which was Meiyappan's house, Chettiar Bungalow. For Prasanna's look, Haasan kept his moustache thin and hair long, and had him sporting bell-bottoms and polo shirts. According to historian G. Dhananjayan, the song "Athisaya Raagam" was filmed at the cashew farms of VGP Golden Beach; however, Roshne Balasubramanian of The Indian Express says it was filmed at the Theosophical Society Adyar. The camera was moved manually by the cameraperson at this time, without the use of a dolly. In a 2000 interview with Rediff, Jayasudha, who portrayed Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani, recalled that it was hard portraying a girl in love with the much older Mahendran (Sundarrajan): "Balachander Sir was a very tough taskmaster. He would not be satisfied unless he got 100 per cent from you. He used to reprimand me and shout at me if I messed up." She also had to wear a sari and needed help since she had never worn one before. The scene where Pandiyan opens the gate of Bhairavi's house was filmed at a house in 1st Crescent Park Road, Gandhi Nagar. The scene was shot on 27 March 1975, the same day that Balachander gave Rajinikanth his name; it was approved after only five or six takes. For the character's looks, Rajinikanth sported stubble and wore a loose-fitting suit consisting of a dusty coat, loosely worn tie, untucked shirt and trousers; his make-up was done by R. Sundaramoorthy. During the initial stages of principal photography, Rajinikanth found Balachander's directing methods very difficult to follow. Nagesh, who portrayed the doctor Suri who lives a double life as a drunkard named Hari, observed his difficulty and told him, "Don't get tensed up. Just imitate whatever Balachander is doing. That's what I’m doing as well!" After listening to Nagesh's advice, it became easier for Rajinikanth to complete his portions in the film. For the scene where Suri speaks to his own shadow, it was Nagesh's idea by making the character utter "Cheers" and throw the glass at his own shadow. The final reel length of the film was 3,949 metres (12,956 ft). ## Themes Apoorva Raagangal explores the concept of relationships between couples with a large disparity in their ages, which challenged Indian social mores. Although it is based on a Vetala Panchavimshati riddle, it has frequently been compared to the American film 40 Carats (1973), which tells the story of a widow who falls in love with a much younger man. In Apoorva Raagangal, Ranjani often poses the riddle "Ennudaya appa yaarukku maamanaro, avarudaya marumagalin appa en maganukku maamanar. Appa avarukkum enakkum enna uravu?" (My father is father-in-law to someone; that person's daughter-in-law's father is my son's father-in-law. What is the relationship between him and me?), summing up the film's theme. While the source riddle in Vetala Panchavimshati does not have an answer, G. Dhananjayan believes the answer to the film's riddle is, "for a husband, the relation is his wife and for the wife, the relation is her husband". Because one of the lead characters is a Carnatic singer, the film uses various Carnatic music terms as placeholders to carry forward the narrative. The first is "sarali varisai", referring to the beginner lessons that Carnatic music students learn; "mohanam", meaning enchantment or infatuation, appears when Prasanna falls in love; and the film ends with "mangalam", referring to the closing part of a katcheri. The female lead characters are named after the Carnatic ragas Bhairavi and Ranjani. V. Ramji of the Hindu Tamil Thisai believes the scene where Prasanna beats up a man for not standing still when "Jana Gana Mana" (the Indian national anthem) is playing, reflects Balachander's penchant for depicting patriotism. During Pandiyan's first appearance, "Sruthi Bedham" (Change of Sruthi) appears. Historian Mohan Raman said that by including these words, Balachander "meant that the man who changed the course of the story would also the change the industry". Anand Kumar RS, of The News Minute, however, says the term which also means "pitch distortion", was used to symbolise Pandiyan making "an entry at the wrong time". Balachander said Pandiyan's first shot was deliberate and representative of Rajinikanth making his first appearance in cinema. According to critic Naman Ramachandran, the character is not entirely villainous despite popular belief since he commits no villainous act on screen. Having deserted Bhairavi after impregnating her offscreen, in the present he voluntarily agrees to stay away from her after realising she is content with Prasanna. Ramachandran said three things that happen soon after Pandiyan's death prove he is not a villain: the music playing in the background is the type usually played when a sympathetic character dies; Bhairavi erases her kumkuma, like any Indian woman would upon becoming a widow; and Pandiyan is found to be holding a note saying his last wish is to see the raga and tala meet, referring to the proposed joint performance of Bhairavi the singer and Prasanna the mridangam player. Dhananjayan considers the entire story of the film is conveyed through the song "Kelviyin Nayagane". ## Music The film's soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan; the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. It was released as an LP on the EMI label with an HMV logo. Two songs are ragamalikas, i.e. compositions having different verses set to different ragas. "Yezhu Swarangalukkul" is set in Panthuvarali, Kambhoji, Sindhu Bhairavi and Ranjani. "Athisaya Raagam" begins in Mahati, and shifts to Bhairavi with the line "Oru Puram Paarthaal". "Kelviyin Nayagane" is set in a single raga, Darbari Kanada. Singer M. Balamuralikrishna recalled in a 2006 interview, "I ran into [M. S. Viswanathan] in AIR who was setting music for the movie. As the story revolved around strange relationships, the music director wanted to introduce new ragas to go with the ambient theme. I offered my \`Mahati' scale and the records created then are history now." "Yezhu Swarangalukkul" became "the rage everywhere" and was a breakthrough for its singer Vani Jairam. ## Release Apoorva Raagangal was released on 15 August 1975. When the film was released in Bangalore's Kapali theatre, Rajinikanth and Raja Bahaddur went to watch it. The latter recalled, "Nobody knew that he had acted in a film, We saw the film. When we came out, he started crying. I asked him, "Why are you crying?" He said, "I'm on the screen finally, I'm so happy. These are tears of joy". Despite being released on the same day as Sholay, which went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film at the time, Apoorva Raagangal became a box office success, completing a 100-day theatrical run. On its 100th day, Balachander held a ceremony in Madras to reward the cast and crew. The ceremony was attended by M. Karunanidhi, then the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. ### Critical reception Apoorva Raagangal received critical acclaim. On 22 August 1975, The Hindu said, "K. Balachander has contributed a unique story, dialogues and superb direction in Kala Kendra's [Apoorva Raagangal]. A film with a revolutionary offbeat theme it provides poetic experience". The reviewer praised the performances of the main cast, Nagesh's dual role performance as a doctor and a drunkard, and called Rajinikanth "dignified and impressive". They also appreciated the music and Vani Jairam's singing, and Lokanath's cinematography. The reviewer concluded, "Some of the most memorable scenes in this outstanding film emerge from the clash of personalities between the two odd pairs. The end should satisfy even conservative tastes and carries a subtle message about loving too well but not wisely." On 31 August, M. S. Udhayamurthy, writing for the Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan, appreciated the film overwhelmingly for its quality, calling it one big musical concert happening before his eyes. He said he got so involved with the characters, to the point of forgetting they were artistes who were enacting their roles and started living with and empathising with them at the end. On the same day, Kanthan of Kalki praised the film for the screenplay and characters being innovative, along with the cast performances and music. Though some reviewers criticised Rajinikanth's performance and told him to improve, he complemented them over the reviewers praising his performance. ### Awards ## Remakes In 1976, Apoorva Raagangal was remade by Dasari Narayana Rao in Telugu as Thoorpu Padamara; Srividya and Nagesh reprised their roles. In 1984, the film was remade in Hindi as Ek Nai Paheli by Balachander himself, with Haasan reprising his role. ## Legacy Apoorva Raagangal became a landmark in Tamil cinema, and a breakthrough for Srividya and Haasan. The Times of India wrote that it was "innovative for the way it brought out the O Henry sort of twist in the plot. [...] It was experimental in bringing out complexities involved in relationships and how certain relationships, no matter what, do not leave you and emerge abruptly to create new equations." Chitra Mahesh of The Hindu wrote that it "was bold and unapologetic about love transcending age, caste and all barriers one can think of". In 2011, after Balachander had been given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff called the film one of his best and wrote, "Many filmmakers of that time would have hesitated to touch a subject like this, particularly at a time when relationships were still being gingerly tested on celluloid. But not K Balachander." The scene where a drunk Suri talks to his own shadow and hurls the empty glass at it while saying "Cheers" led to filmgoers imitating him and throwing cups on the lobby walls in theatres. In 2003, Rediff wrote, "In an era where every other moviemaker claims to have come up with a daring, original, premise, this 28-year-old film is worth remembering. A trademark K Balachander film, this was the first to showcase Kamal's histrionic abilities." In 2015, Tamil Canadian journalist D. B. S. Jeyaraj wrote, "Though Nagesh has acted in many different roles in Balachander films, one sequence that is perhaps best remembered is the drunkard-doctor of [Apoorva Raagangal]." Director Mani Ratnam credited Balachander, with Mahendran and C. V. Sridhar, for "weaning the audience away from theatricality", citing a scene in Apoorva Raagangal as an example: "The shadow of the woman upstairs drying her hair falls across the path of the rebellious young man sneaking out of the house. It is enough to stop him. This scene could have been dramatic, with lot of dialogue. Instead you get a silent visual." The film was novelised in 2008 by Vikatan Prasuram. Apoorva Raagangal has been referenced in other Rajinikanth films. In Athisaya Piravi (1990), Yama (Vinu Chakravarthy) has to restore Kaalai (Rajinikanth) to life by putting him in the body of a lookalike. He shows him numerous alternatives, one of which is Pandiyan from Apoorva Raagangal; Kaalai refuses after learning that Pandiyan is going to die of blood cancer. In Petta (2019), Kaali (Rajinikanth) opens the gates to a house in a scene that director Karthik Subbaraj confirmed was inspired by Pandiyan's first scene in Apoorva Raagangal.

Último Guerrero

Mexican professional wrestler (born 1972)

José Gutiérrez Hernández (born March 1, 1972), better known by his ring name Último Guerrero (Spanish for Last Warrior), is a Mexican luchador (or professional wrestler), who works for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). He is not related to the lucha libre legend Gory Guerrero or any of his children; "Guerrero" in this case is the Spanish word for warrior and not the surname of the character. On September 19, 2014, Último Guerrero lost a Lucha de Apuestas match to Atlantis, after which he was forced to unmask and reveal his birth name. He is a former holder of the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship, the CMLL World Tag Team Championship (where he and Dragón Rojo Jr. are the longest reigning tag team champions) and CMLL World Trios Championship on multiple occasions. Guerrero is a charter member of the stable of wrestlers known as Los Guerreros de Infierno / Los Guerreros de la Atlantida and has also made appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the United States. In TNA where he was part of Team Mexico, which won the 2008 World X Cup. Guerrero is the only wrestler to win the Torneo Gran Alternativa tournament three times and the CMLL Universal Championship tournament twice. He is also part of the CMLL booking committee. ## Professional wrestling career ### Early career (1990–1997) Gutiérrez was trained in "Gimnasio El Ranchero" by Tinito and Halcón Suriano and made his debut in 1990 as "Halcón Dorado" (Spanish for "Golden Hawk"). Shortly after his debut he changed name and "ring persona", or gimmick, and became known as "Flanagan". He worked for several years in local promotions in his native Durango area before getting his first break in Promo Azteca. Guerrero and his training partner Super Punk changed their names in 1996 with Guerrero adopting the name "Último Guerrero" ("Last Warrior") and Super Punk becoming "Último Rebelde" as they started teaming together using a British hooligan inspired gimmick. The team was scheduled to lose their masks in a Luchas de Apuestas mask vs. mask" match (a "Bet match" where the loser would unmask), but instead Último Guerrero decided to join Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council") in late 1997 and thus saved his mask. ### Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (1997–present) Initially Guerrero worked lower card matches, in the first-to-third match on the show with some success. On September 11, 1998 he defeated Mr. Águila in his first ever Lucha de Apuestas match, forcing his opponent to unmask and reveal his real name as part of the CMLL 65th Anniversary Show. Mr. Águila already worked for the World Wrestling Federation without his mask, so it was not seen as a surprise that he lost to Guerrero. In 1999 Último Guerrero teamed up with veteran Blue Panther to win the Gran Alternativa ("Grea Alternative") tournament, a tournament where a young wrestler teams with a veteran. Winning the Gran Alternativa tournament is often a sign that the promotion has plans to move a wrestler up the rankings. Shortly after winning the tournament, Guerrero won a match that made him the number one contender for Great Sasuke's NWA World Middleweight Championship. Último Guerrero did not win the match but the fact that he worked a featured match in CMLL's main arena, Arena México, showed that the company had plans for him. #### Los Infernales (1999–2001) In 1999 El Satánico reformed the group Los Infernales, recruiting Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero for the group. Working with the veteran El Satánico allowed both Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero to rise up the ranks as well as develop into a regular tag team in CMLL. In the summer of 2000 Bucanero and Guerrero were one of sixteen teams entered into a tournament for the vacant CMLL World Tag Team Championship. In the end they defeated Villano IV and Mr. Niebla to win the championship. Throughout the summer of 2000 El Satánico had been working a storyline against Tarzan Boy, which was used to turn both Bucanero and Último Guerrero against El Satánico. Bucanero, Guerrero and Tarzan Boy claimed that they deserved the name Los Infernales and that El Satánico was holding them back. For the storyline El Satánico recruited two other wrestlers to even the numbers, which on TV was presented as if he used his "Satanic powers" to turn wrestler Rencor Latino into Averno (Spanish for "Hell") and transformed the Astro Rey Jr. into a character known as Mephisto. When Tarzan Boy was injured and unable to wrestle Bucanero and Guerrero recruited Máscara Mágica to even the numbers. The storyline between the two factions reaches its high point at the CMLL 68th Anniversary Show where all seven wrestlers faced off in a steel cage match. The stipulation of the match was that the winning side would gain the rights to use the name Los Infernales while the loser on the opposite side would be forced to unmask or have their hair shaved off. In the end El Satánico pinned Máscara Mágica, forcing him to unmask. After losing the match Guerrero, Bucanero and Tarzan Boy became known collectively as Los Guerreros del Infierno (The Infernal Soldiers). #### Los Guerreros del Infierno (2001–2005) After the feud with El Satánico ended Bucanero and Guerrero moved on to a storyline feud with Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo over the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. After a match with an inconclusive finish in October, Los Guerreros lost to Santo and Casas on November 2, 2001. In 2002, Guerrero and Bucanero regained their tag team title from Santo and Casas. defeating them on May 31 to become three-time champions. The team successfully defended their title against Damián 666 and Halloween of La Familia de Tijuana in July. Los Guerreros del Infierno then began feuding with Vampiro Canadiense and Shocker. Los Guerreros successfully defended their tag team championship against the duo but Bucanero lost his hair to Vampiro in a Luchas de Apuestas match in December. In December 2002, Último Guerrero defeated Shocker for the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship, his first singles title in CMLL. The storyline continued into 2003 with Shocker defeating Guerrero in a singles match to earn a title shot but losing against Guerrero when the title was on the line a week later. When L.A. Park signed with CMLL in December 2003, he aligned himself with Shocker and they immediately began to feud with Guerrero and Bucanero. Los Guerreros regained the tag team championship in early 2004, but Bucanero suffered a knee injury and was temporarily replaced by Black Warrior. Los Guerreros lost the tag team title to Atlantis and Blue Panther on June 25. Bucanero and new Los Guerreros member Olímpico challenged Atlantis and Panther for the tag team championship on the first Arena México show of 2005 but they lost when Olímpico injured his neck while attempting a dive. Bucanero and Olímpico teamed up to unsuccessfully challenge the visiting Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP World Tag Team Championship. In 2005, Último Guerrero began an angle with Místico during the early part of the year, losing a singles match to him on February 25. 2005 leading to a tag program with Guerrero and Bucanero against Místico and Dr. Wagner Jr. #### Los Guerreros de la Atlantida (2005–2011) Near the end of 2005 Guerrero helped Atlantis during a match, thus turning Atlantis rudo for the first time in his career. When he joined Los Guerreros the group changed their name to Los Guerreros de la Atlantida (the Warriors of the Atlantis). In May 2006, Guerrero won CMLL's annual "International Grand Prix" tournament that featured wrestler for Mexico, Japan and the United States. later on Los Guerreros ejected Rey Bucanero from the group, with Guerrero and Tarzan Boy tearing up Bucanero's tights, signifying he was no longer a member of the group. On July 14, 2006 Rey Bucanero defeated Guerrero for CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship, ending the reign after 3 and a half years. On June 29, 2007, CMLL's annual Gran Alternativa tournament took place at Arena Mexico. Guerrero teamed up with Euforia, but the team was defeated by Místico and his partner La Sombra. After the loss Guerrero publicly asked Dr. Wagner, Jr. to join him for a challenge to Místico and Negro Casas for the CMLL Tag Team Championship. The match was held on July 13, 2007 at Arena Mexico and saw Guerrero and Wagner win the championship. A week later Guerrero and Wagner lost the titles back to Místico and Casas, making the team the shortest reigning CMLL World Tag Team Champions ever. The loss caused the two fighting in mutual accusations of betrayal, which in turn led to a feud between the two wrestlers. On July 27, at Arena Mexico, Dr. Wagner, Jr. and Místico held a mano a mano match which was decided by a treacherous intervention by Guerrero, who climbed into the ring, attacked Wagner from behind and caused him to lose the match, then the aftermath, Guerrero ripped off Wagner's mask. On August 3, 2007, Guerrero teamed up with Atlantis and Sangre Azteca against Dr. Wagner Jr., Alex Koslov and Volador Jr. at Arena México after the match Guerrero took the microphone and challenged Wagner for a mask versus mask match but no match ever came of it as Dr. Wagner, Jr. left CMLL shortly after. In 2008 Último Guerrero teamed with newcomer Dragón Rojo Jr. to win the 2008 Gran Alternativa tournament. After Blue Panther lost his mask to Villano V, Guerrero began siding with Panther as they were both "Laguneros" (from the "lagoon" area of Mexico) seeking revenge for the unmasking. Guerrero, Panther, Black Warrior and other wrestlers from "the lagoon" formed a group called La Ola Lagunero (Spanish for "the Lagoon Wave") and feuded with Los Villanos. On December 22, 2008 Guerrero defeated Dos Caras Jr. to win the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship. On March 20, 2009 Último Guerrero faced Villano V in a mask vs mask match at the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show. Guerrero won two falls to one and thus forced Villano V to unmask and reveal his real name as per Lucha Libre tradition. On April 2, 2009 Guerrero successfully defended his CMLL World title against Rey Mendoza Jr. (the unmasked Villano V) on an independent wrestling promotion show in Gómez Palacio, Durango, marking the first time the CMLL championship was defended on a non-CMLL show. On July 12, 2010, at the Promociones Gutiérrez 1st Anniversary Show Último Guerrero participated in a match where 10 men put their mask on the line in a match that featured five pareja incredibles teams, with the losing team being forced to wrestle each other with their mask on the line. His partner in the match was Averno, facing off against the teams of Atlantis and Olímpico, Místico and El Oriental, Histeria and La Sombra, Volador Jr. and El Alebrije. Averno and Último Guerrero was the third team to escape the match. In the end Místico defeated El Oriental to unmask him. Último Guerrero was one of 14 men who put their mask on the line in a Luchas de Apuestas steel cage match, in the main event of the CMLL 77th Anniversary Show. Último Guerrero was the eighth man to leave the steel cage, keeping his mask safe. The match came down to La Sombra pinning Olímpico to unmask him. On November 2, 2010, Guerrero and Dragón Rojo Jr. defeated Los Invasores (Mr. Águila and Héctor Garza) to win the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. After the title win, Rojo Jr. was made an official member of Los Guerreros de la Atlantida. On April 8, 2011, Último Guerrero won his third Gran Alternativa tournament, this time teaming with Escorpión, becoming the first person to have won the tournament three times. In May, Guerrero became a member of the CMLL booking committee. On August 12, Guerrero lost the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship to Héctor Garza, ending his reign at 963 days, the third longest in the championship's history. #### Los Guerreros Laguneros (2011–present) Guerrero and Atlantis faced each other in a big grudge match on September 23, which saw Atlantis pick up the win. In July 2012, Guerrero officially fired Rey Escorpión from Los Guerreros del Infierno, and named Euforia and Niebla Roja as his replacements. On the August 3 Super Viernes show, Guerrero and Rojo Jr. lost the CMLL World Tag Team Championship to Atlantis and Diamante Azul, ending their reign at 640 days, the longest reign in the title's history. In early 2013 the long-running feud between Atlantis and Último Guerrero came to the forefront of CMLL booking once more. The two were booked for the 2013 Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles tournament, forcing the two rivals to team up. Before their qualifying round both Atlantis and Gurrero stated that they would put their differences aside for the sake of the tournament. Atlantis and Guerrero displayed the teamwork they had developed by being partners in Los Guerreros de la Atlantida for several years as they defeated the teams of Valiente and Pólvora, Diamante Azul and Euforia and finally Dragón Rojo Jr. and Niebla Roja to qualify for the finals of the tournament. The finals took place as part of the 2013 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show and saw La Sombra and Volador Jr. win the match and the tournament. Following the loss a frustrated Atlantis attacked Último Guerrero and tore his mask apart. Atlantis subsequently made a Luchas de Apuestas challenge to Último Guerrero that was not immediately accepted. The two rivals officially signed the contract for the mask vs. mask match on March 21, but did not announce an actual date for the match. The act of signing a Luchas de Apuestas match between two of the top-ranked CMLL workers without announcing a specific date has let people to speculate that it would take place at the CMLL 80th Anniversary Show in September, 2013. During the celebration of Atlantis' 30th anniversary as a wrestler Guerrero appeared after a match to berate Atlantis, which turned out to only be a distraction for the real Último Guerrero to attack Atlantis from behind. The two identically dressed Guerreros proceeded to beat up Atlantis and tear his mask apart. Following the match Último Guerrero introduced his brother "Gran Guerrero". It was not verified if Gran Guerrrero actually is the brother of Último Guerrero, someone not related to Guerrero, or as speculated by many his son who wrestled for CMLL as Taurus. The much anticipated and hyped Mask vs. Mask match between Guerrero and Atlantis at the 80th Anniversary Show on September 13 never came to fruition as the two were defeated in a Relevos Suicidas match by La Sombra and Volador Jr., who instead advanced to the Lucha de Apuestas against each other. From January 14 to 19, 2014, Guerrero worked his first Fantastica Mania tour, co-produced by CMLL and New Japan Pro-Wrestling in Japan. On March 28, 2014, Guerrero, Euforia and Niebla Roja defeated Los Estetas del Aire (Máscara Dorada, Místico and Valiente) for the CMLL World Trios Championship. On August 29, Guerrero defeated La Sombra in the finals to win the 2014 Universal Championship, becoming the first two-time winner of the tournament. On September 19, Guerrero lost to Atlantis in the main event of the CMLL 81st Anniversary Show and thus was forced to unmask for the first time in his career and reveal his birth name; José Gutiérrez Hernández. In January 2015, Guerrero returned to Japan to take part in the Fantastica Mania 2015 tour, during which he defeated Atlantis in a rematch. On February 13, Los Guerreros Laguneros lost the CMLL World Trios Championship to Sky Team (Místico, Valiente and Volador Jr.). On July 17, Guerrero defeated Rey Escorpión in a Lucha de Apuestas in the main event of Sin Salida forcing Escorpión to have all his hair shaved off after the match as per the stipulation. On August 31, Guerrero defeated La Sombra to win the NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship. Guerrero closed out a successful 2016 by winning the 2016 Leyenda de Azul tournament, lastly eliminating Valiente. During the 2018 Fantastica Mania tour of Japan, Último Guerrero and Gran Guerrero teamed up for the first ever CMLL Brothers tag team tournament. The Guerreros defeated Ángel de Oro and Niebla Roja in the first round and then Dragon Lee and Místico to win the tournament. On July 1, 2018 Los Guerreros, in this case Último Guerrero, Gran Guerrero and Euforia, defeated the Sky team (Místico, Valiente and Volador Jr.) for Guerrero's fourth CMLL WOrld Trios Championship reign. During their reign, Los Guerreros started a storyline feud with "The Cl4n" (Ciber the Main Man, The Chris and Sharlie Rockstar), which included The Cl4n defeating Los Guerreros at the CMLL 85th Anniversary Show, and lost the championship back to Los Guerreros two weeks later. On October 16, 2018, Guerrero defeated Diamante Azul to win the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship for a second time. On May 31, 2019, Último Guerrero defeated Máscara Año 2000 in a lucha de apuestas match in the main event of the 2019 Juicio Final ("Final Justice") show, forcing Máscara Año 2000 to be shaved bald as a result. Following the Juicio Final show, Guerrero became involved in a multi-man storyline that included Bárbaro Cavernario, Big Daddy, Ciber the Main Man, Gilbert el Boricua, Negro Casas, and Volador Jr. All seven wrestlers faced off in a steel cage match as part of the CMLL 86th Anniversary Show, which saw Guerrero pin Negro Casas, forcing Casas to be shaved bald as a result. On March 26, 2021, they lost the Trios Championship against Nueva Generación Dinamita. ### Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2008) In 2008 Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) invited Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero, along with Averno and Volador Jr. to compete in the 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament, making them that year's "Team Mexico" entrants, with Guerrero serving as the team captain. Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero defeated Team Japan representatives "Speed Muscle" (Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi) in the first round of the tournament. In the second round Guerrero lost to Team TNA's Kaz. Team Mexico was eliminated in a 12-man elimination match at Victory Road. Later during the same show Volador Jr. won an Ultimate X match, earning enough points for Team Mexico to win the entire tournament, becoming the 2008 World X Cup holders. Volador Jr. would work more matches for TNA, but Último Guerrero, Rey Bucanero and Averno did not. ## Personal life Many sources mistakenly list Hooligan and Ephesto as brothers of José Gutiérrez but they are not blood relatives. Gutiérrez, Ephesto, and Hooligan trained together and became close friends leading to often referring to each other as "brother" without having any blood relationship. Hooligan and Ephesto are brothers which is why Ephesto is sometimes mistaken for Gutiérrez's brother as well. In 2008 Último Guerrero introduced "Último Guerrero Jr." to the wrestling world. While it is not uncommon for fake relatives to be promoted in lucha libre, it is believed that Último Guerrero Jr. is indeed the son of Último Guerrero. Later on Guerrero Jr. would be reintroduced as Gran Guerrero, with the storyline explanation being that Gran Guerrero was the much younger brother of Último Guerrero. On May 19, 2017 footage emerged of Daniel Alvarado (Brazo de Platino) and other members of the Alvarado family, notably his nephews José (Máximo Sexy), Felipe Alvarado (La Máscara), Psycho Clown and Robin, destroying a Ford Mustang belonging to Gutiérrez. The vandalism was reportedly motivated by the fact that Gutiérrez had spoken out against Felipe Alvarado as a possible the head of the wrestlers' union after the death of Alvarado's father. The head of the CMLL wrestlers' union had been in the Avarado family for over a decade and the Alvarado family believed it should go to someone in their family. The following day CMLL reportedly fired both Felipe and José Alvarado. ## Championships and accomplishments - Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre - CMLL World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) - CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) - CMLL World Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Rey Bucanero (3), Dr. Wagner Jr. (1), Atlantis (1) and Dragón Rojo Jr. (1) - CMLL World Trios Championship (5 times) – with Atlantis and Tarzan Boy (1), Atlantis and Negro Casas (1), Euforia and Niebla Roja (1) and Euforia and Gran Guerrero (2) - NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship (1 time) - Carnaval Incredible Tournament (2000) – with Rey Bucanero and Mr. Niebla - Copa de Arena Mexico: 1999 – with El Satánico and Rey Bucanero - Copa Bobby Bonales (2014) - International Gran Prix (2006, 2007) - Leyenda de Azul (2016) - Torneo Gran Alternativa (1999 – with Blue Panther), (2008 – with Dragón Rojo Jr.) and (2011 – with Escorpión) - Universal Championship (2009, 2014) - CMLL Rudo of the Year (2009) - CMLL Tag Team of the Year (2010) – with Atlantis - Federacion Mundial de Lucha Libre - Champion du Monde (1 time) - International Wrestling Revolution Group - Copa Higher Power (1999) – with Astro Rey Jr., Máscara Mágica, Rey Bucanero and El Satánico - Lucha Libre Azteca - LLA Azteca Championship (2 times) - New Japan Pro-Wrestling - CMLL's Brother Tag Team Tournament (2018) – with Gran Guerrero - Pro Wrestling Illustrated - Ranked No. 10 of the best 500 singles wrestlers in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 in 2009. - Toryumon Mexico - Copa Mundial (2014) - Copa NSK (2013) - Total Nonstop Action Wrestling - TNA World X Cup (2008) – with Volador Jr., Rey Bucanero and Averno - Universal Wrestling Entertainment - UWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Atlantis - World Wrestling Association - WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Perro Aguayo Jr. - Wrestling Observer Newsletter - Best Tag Team of the Decade (2000–2009) – with Rey Bucanero - Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2019) ## Luchas de Apuestas record

Washington State Route 544

Highway in Washington

State Route 544 is a state highway in northern Whatcom County, Washington, United States. It runs east–west for 9 miles (14 km) near the Canadian border, connecting SR 539 near Lynden to Everson and a junction with SR 9 in Nooksack. The Lynden–Everson highway was built in the 1880s as a wagon road, with onward connections to Nooksack via a ferry over the Nooksack River that was later replaced with a bridge. It was paved by the Whatcom County government in the 1930s and incorporated into the state highway system in 1951 as a branch of Secondary State Highway 1A. During the 1964 state highway renumbering, the branch became SR 544. The Nooksack River bridge between Everson and Nooksack was replaced in 1994 after a major flood damaged the old structure. ## Route description SR 544 begins at a roundabout with SR 539 (the Guide Meridian) on the south side of Wiser Lake near Lynden. The highway travels east on Pole Road through farmland and passes a housing subdivision near the Raspberry Ridge Golf Course. SR 544 continues due east along Fourmile Creek and turns north at a junction with Everson Goshen Road near several gravel pits and the Nooksack Indian Reservation. After passing several industrial businesses, the highway turns northeast to enter Everson and turns north onto Mead Avenue near the city's elementary school. SR 544 then turns east once again at Kale Street and continues northeast onto Everson Road as it crosses the Nooksack River alongside a section of the Bay to Baker Trail. The highway travels east through downtown Everson on Main Street, passing several businesses, the city hall, and a branch of the Whatcom County Library System. SR 544 continues across a small patch of farmland to neighboring Nooksack, where it becomes Columbia Street and runs for several blocks on the southern outskirts of the town. SR 544 terminates at a junction with SR 9, which uses a block Columbia Street to cross over the BNSF Railway's Sumas Subdivision before continuing north towards Sumas and south towards Sedro-Woolley. SR 544 is maintained by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which conducts an annual survey on state highways to measure traffic volume in terms of average annual daily traffic. Average traffic volumes on the highway in 2016 ranged from a minimum of 6,700 vehicles at the SR 539 roundabout to a maximum of 9,800 vehicles on the Nooksack River Bridge. The entire length of SR 544 is also served by Whatcom Transportation Authority bus route 71X, which connects Bellingham to Everson, Nooksack, and Sumas. ## History The route from Bellingham to Everson was originally part of the Whatcom Trail, used by the indigenous Nooksack people and later prospectors during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in the 1850s and 1860s. The Whatcom County government ordered the construction of a permanent county road in January 1857 and construction began nine months later. By the following May, the road had been completed and was later named Telegraph Road. The Bellingham and Northern Railway was later built in the 1880s along the route from Bellingham to Everson and Sumas and included a crossing of the Nooksack River west of Everson. The Everson bridge was later joined by a road bridge that was constructed a decade later to replace a ferry on a major wagon road. The east–west road connecting Everson and Nooksack to the Guide Meridian was paved in the early 1930s by the county government. The Everson road was designated as a branch of Secondary State Highway 1A (SSH 1A) by the state legislature in 1951. SR 544 was created during the 1964 renumbering to replace the Everson branch, while the rest of SSH 1A became SR 9. After suffering damage during a major flood in November 1990, the original truss bridge over the Nooksack River was replaced with a longer span, which opened in 1994. The entire highway was repaved by WSDOT in summer 2005, requiring the three-month closure of sections near Everson. The project cost \$2.6 million to complete and was delayed by the discovery of gasoline-contaminated soil under Everson's Main Street. ## Major intersections

The Division Bell

The Division Bell is the fourteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 March 1994 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and on 4 April by Columbia Records in the United States. The second Pink Floyd album recorded without founding member Roger Waters, The Division Bell was written mostly by guitarist and singer David Gilmour and keyboardist Richard Wright. It features Wright's first lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album since The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Gilmour's fiancée, the novelist Polly Samson, co-wrote many of the lyrics, which deal with themes of communication. It was the last Pink Floyd studio album to be composed of entirely new material, and the last recorded with Wright, who died in 2008. Recording took place in locations including the band's Britannia Row Studios and Gilmour's houseboat, Astoria. The production team included longtime Pink Floyd collaborators such as producer Bob Ezrin, engineer Andy Jackson, saxophonist Dick Parry and bassist Guy Pratt. The Division Bell received mixed reviews, but reached number one in more than 10 countries, including the UK and the US. In the US, it was certified double platinum in 1994 and triple platinum in 1999. Pink Floyd promoted it with a tour of the US and Europe; the tour sold more than 5 million tickets and made around \$100 million in gross income. A live album and video, Pulse, was released in 1995. Some of the unused material from the Division Bell sessions became part of Pink Floyd's next album, The Endless River (2014). ## Recording In January 1993, guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright began improvising new material in sessions at the remodelled Britannia Row Studios. They recruited bassist Guy Pratt, who had joined them on their Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour; according to Mason, Pratt's playing influenced the mood of the music. Without the legal problems that had dogged the production of their 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Gilmour was at ease. If he felt the band were making progress, he would record them on a two-track DAT recorder. At one point, Gilmour surreptitiously recorded Wright playing, capturing material that formed the basis for three pieces of music. After about two weeks, the band had around 65 pieces of music. With engineer Andy Jackson and co-producer Bob Ezrin, production moved to Gilmour's houseboat and recording studio, Astoria. The band voted on each track, and whittled the material down to about 27 pieces. Eliminating some tracks, and merging others, they arrived at about 11 songs. Song selection was based upon a system of points, whereby all three members would award marks out of ten to each candidate song, a system skewed by Wright awarding his songs ten points each and the others none. Wright, having resigned under pressure from bassist Roger Waters in the 1970s, was not contractually a full member of the band, which upset him. Wright reflected: "It came very close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album, because I didn't feel that what we'd agreed was fair." Wright received his first songwriting credits on any Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Gilmour's fiancée, the novelist Polly Samson, also received songwriting credits. Initially, her role was limited to providing encouragement for Gilmour, but she helped him write "High Hopes", a song about Gilmour's childhood in Cambridge. She co-wrote a further six songs, which bothered Ezrin. Gilmour said that Samson's contributions had "ruffled the management's [feathers]", but Ezrin later reflected that her presence had been inspirational for Gilmour, and that she "pulled the whole album together". She also helped Gilmour with the cocaine addiction he had developed following his divorce. Keyboardist Jon Carin, percussionist Gary Wallis, and backing vocalists including Sam Brown and Momentary Lapse tour singer Durga McBroom were brought in before recording began. The band moved to Olympic Studios and recorded most of the tracks over the space of a week. After a summer break, they returned to Astoria to record more backing tracks. Ezrin worked on the drum sounds, and Pink Floyd collaborator Michael Kamen provided the string arrangements, which were recorded at Abbey Road Studio Two by Steve McLaughlin. Dick Parry played saxophone on his first Pink Floyd album for almost 20 years, on "Wearing the Inside Out", and Chris Thomas created the final mix. Between September and December recording and mixing sessions were held at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick and the Creek Recording Studios in London. In September, Pink Floyd performed at a celebrity charity concert at Cowdray House, in Midhurst. The album was mastered at the Mastering Lab in Los Angeles, by Doug Sax and James Guthrie. Jackson edited unused material from the Division Bell sessions, described by Mason as ambient music, into an hour-long composition tentatively titled The Big Spliff, but Pink Floyd decided not to release it. Some of The Big Spliff was used to create the band's next album, The Endless River (2014). ### Instrumentation With the aid of Gilmour's guitar technician, Phil Taylor, Carin located some of Pink Floyd's older keyboards from storage, including a Farfisa organ. Sounds sampled from these instruments were used on "Take It Back" and "Marooned". Additional keyboards were played by Carin, along with Bob Ezrin. Durga McBroom supplied backing vocals alongside Sam Brown, Carol Kenyon, Jackie Sheridan, and Rebecca Leigh-White. "What Do You Want from Me" is influenced by Chicago blues, and "Poles Apart" contains folksy overtones. Gilmour's improvised guitar solos on "Marooned" used a DigiTech Whammy pedal to pitch-shift the guitar notes over an octave. On "Take It Back", he used a Gibson J-200 guitar through a Zoom effects unit, played with an EBow, an electronic device which produces sounds similar to a bow. ## Themes The Division Bell deals with themes of communication and the idea that talking can solve many problems. In the Studio radio host Redbeard suggested that the album offers "the very real possibility of transcending it all, through shivering moments of grace". Songs such as "Poles Apart" and "Lost for Words" have been interpreted by fans and critics as references to the estrangement between Pink Floyd and former band member Roger Waters, who left in 1985; however, Gilmour denied this, and said: "People can invent and relate to a song in their personal ways, but it's a little late at this point for us to be conjuring Roger up." The title refers to the division bell rung in the British parliament to announce a vote. Drummer Nick Mason said: "It's about people making choices, yeas or nays." Produced a few years after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, "A Great Day for Freedom" juxtaposes the general euphoria of the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the subsequent wars and ethnic cleansing, particularly in Yugoslavia. Audio samples of Stephen Hawking, originally recorded for a BT television advertisement, were used in "Keep Talking"; Gilmour was so moved by Hawking's sentiment in the advert that he contacted the advertising company for permission to use the recordings. Mason said it felt "politically incorrect to take ideas from advertising, but it seemed a very relevant piece". At the end of the album Gilmour's stepson Charlie is heard hanging up the telephone receiver on Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke, who had pleaded to be allowed to appear on a Pink Floyd album. ## Title and packaging To avoid competing against other album releases, as had happened with A Momentary Lapse, Pink Floyd set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would begin a new tour. By January of that year, however, the band still had not decided on an album title. Titles considered included Pow Wow and Down to Earth. At a dinner one night, writer Douglas Adams, spurred by the promise of a payment to his favourite charity, the Environmental Investigation Agency, suggested The Division Bell, a term which appears in "High Hopes". Longtime Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson provided the album artwork. He erected two large metal heads, each the height of a double-decker bus, in a field near Stuntney, Cambridgeshire. The sculptures were positioned together and photographed in profile, and can be seen as two faces talking to each other or as a single, third face. Thorgerson said the "third absent face" was a reference to Syd Barrett. The sculptures were devised by Keith Breeden, and constructed by John Robertson. Ely Cathedral is visible on the horizon. The pictures were shot in February for optimal lighting conditions. In 2001, the sculptures were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2017, they were moved to the London Victoria and Albert Museum for display in a Pink Floyd exhibition. An alternate version of the cover photo, featuring two 7.5-metre (25 ft) stone sculptures by Aden Hynes, was used on the compact cassette release and the tour brochure. ## Release and sales On 10 January 1994 a press reception to announce The Division Bell and world tour was held at a former US Naval Air Station in North Carolina, in the US. A purpose-built Skyship 600 airship, manufactured in the UK, toured the US until it returned to Weeksville, and was destroyed by a thunderstorm on 27 June. Pieces of the aircraft were sold as souvenirs. The band held another reception, in the UK, on 21 March. This time they used an A60 airship, translucent, and painted to look like a fish, which took journalists on a tour of London. The airship, which was lit internally so it glowed in the night sky, was also flown in northern Europe. The Division Bell was released in the UK by EMI Records on 28 March 1994, and in the US on 4 April, and went straight to \#1 in both countries. The Division Bell was certified silver and gold in the UK on 1 April 1994, platinum a month later and 2× platinum on 1 October. In the US, it was certified gold and double platinum on 6 June 1994, and triple platinum on 29 January 1999. In the United States the album debuted at number one in the Billboard 200 during the week of 23 April 1994 selling more than 460,000 units, at the time it was the 12th largest single-week total since Billboard began using SoundScan data in May 1991 and also became the fifth-largest first-week sales sum back then. The next week it stayed at the top of the chart selling a little less than half its first-week total, it moved 226,000 units during its second week on chart. The next week sales slid by 30% from last week's sum selling 157,000 units, despite this sales decrease the album stayed at number one. The following week, on 14 May 1994 The Division Bell remained at number one on the Billboard 200 and sales declined by 17%. In its fifth week, it fell off to the fourth place on the chart. It was present on the Billboard 200 for 53 weeks. It was certified three times platinum by the RIAA on 29 January 1999 for shipments of three million units. ## Tour Two days after the album's release, the Division Bell Tour began at Joe Robbie Stadium, in suburban Miami. The set list began with 1967's "Astronomy Domine", before moving to tracks from 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and The Division Bell. Songs from Wish You Were Here and The Wall were featured, as well as the whole Dark Side of the Moon. Backing musicians included Sam Brown, Jon Carin, Claudia Fontaine, Durga McBroom, Dick Parry, Guy Pratt, Tim Renwick, and Gary Wallis. The tour continued in the US through April, May and mid-June, before moving to Canada, and then returning to the US in July. As the tour reached Europe in late July, Waters declined an invitation to join the band, and later expressed his annoyance that Pink Floyd songs were being performed again in large venues. On the first night of the UK leg of the tour on 12 October, a 1,200-capacity stand collapsed, but with no serious injuries; the performance was rescheduled. During the tour, an anonymous person using the name Publius posted on an internet newsgroup, inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the album. The message was verified during a show in East Rutherford, where lights in front of the stage spelled out "Enigma Publius". During a televised concert at Earls Court, London, in October 1994, the word "enigma" was projected in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Mason later acknowledged that the riddle, known as the Publius engima, was created by the record company. It remains unsolved. The tour ended at Earls Court on 29 October 1994, and was Pink Floyd's final concert performance until Live 8 in 2005. Estimates placed the total number of tickets sold at over 5.3 million, and gross income at about \$100 million. A live album and video, Pulse, was released in June 1995. ## Critical reception The Division Bell received mixed reviews on release. Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "avarice is the only conceivable explanation for this glib, vacuous cipher of an album, which is notable primarily for its stomach-turning merger of progressive-rock pomposity and New Age noodling". Rolling Stone's Tom Graves criticised Gilmour's performance, writing that his guitar solos had "settled into rambling, indistinct asides that are as forgettable as they used to be indelible ... only on 'What Do You Want from Me' does Gilmour sound like he cares". The album won the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance on "Marooned". The Division Bell was nominated for the 1995 Brit Award for Best Album by a British Artist, but lost to Blur's Parklife. In Uncuts 2011 Pink Floyd: The Ultimate Music Guide, Graeme Thomson wrote that The Division Bell "might just be the dark horse of the Floyd canon. The opening triptych of songs is a hugely impressive return to something very close to the eternal essence of Pink Floyd, and much of the rest retains a quiet power and a meditative quality that betrays a genuine sense of unity." In 2014, Uncut reviewed the album again for its 20th-anniversary reissue, and praised its production, writing that it sounded much "more like a classic Pink Floyd album" than The Final Cut (1983) and that the connection between Wright and Gilmour was "the album's musical heart". Roger Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, dismissed The Division Bell as "just rubbish ... nonsense from beginning to end." ## Reissues The Division Bell was reissued in 2011. It was remastered by Andy Jackson and released as a standalone CD and as part of the Discovery box set which collects all of the 14 studio albums together for the first time. It was reissued again on 30 June 2014, as a "20th anniversary deluxe edition" box set and a 20th anniversary double-LP vinyl reissue. The box set contains the 2011 remaster of the album; a 5.1 surround sound remix by Jackson; 2-LP record on 180g vinyl; a red 7" "Take It Back" single; a clear 7" "High Hopes/Keep Talking" single; a blue, laser-etched 12" "High Hopes" single; book and assorted art cards. The 2014 reissues saw the first release of the full album on vinyl as the 1994 vinyl release saw only edited versions of the songs to keep it to a single LP. The Division Bell was reissued again with the Pink Floyd Records label on 26 August 2016. A limited-edition 25th anniversary double-LP was announced on 11 April 2019, with a release date set for 7 June. The reissue is on blue vinyl and uses the two-LP master created for the 20th anniversary vinyl release. ## Track listing ### Original release All lyrics are written by David Gilmour and Polly Samson, except where noted. ### LP ### 20th anniversary double-LP edition ## Personnel Pink Floyd - David Gilmour – lead vocals (2, 3, 5, 7-11), acoustic, electric, classical & steel guitars, bass guitar (3, 5, 10, 11), keyboards, programming, backing vocals, talkbox, production, mixing - Nick Mason – drums, percussion, church bell (11) - Richard Wright – piano, organ and synthesizers, lead vocals (6), backing vocals (2) Additional musicians - Jon Carin – piano, keyboards, programming, arrangements (10) - Guy Pratt – bass guitar (2, 4, 6-9) - Gary Wallis – percussion (8), programming (9) - Tim Renwick – additional guitars (3, 7) - Dick Parry – tenor saxophone (6) - Bob Ezrin – percussion, keyboards (3, 7), production - Sam Brown – backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 9) - Durga McBroom – backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 9) - Carol Kenyon – backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 9) - Jackie Sheridan – backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 9) - Rebecca Leigh-White – backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 9) - Stephen Hawking – vocal samples (9) Production' - Andrew Jackson – engineering - Michael Kamen – orchestral arrangements on A Great Day for Freedom and High Hopes - Edward Shearmur – orchestrations on High Hopes - Steve McLoughlin – orchestra recording - Chris Thomas – mixing - James Guthrie – mastering engineer - Doug Sax – mastering engineer - Storm Thorgerson – album art design - Tony May – photography - Rupert Truman – photography - Stephen Piotrowski – photography - Ian Wright – graphics - Aubrey Powell – album art design (2014 anniversary edition and 2016 Pink Floyd Records re-issues) ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications and sales

Leptospirosis

Blood infection caused by bacteria

Leptospirosis is a blood infection caused by the bacteria Leptospira that can infect humans, dogs, rodents and many other wild and domesticated animals. Signs and symptoms can range from none to mild (headaches, muscle pains, and fevers) to severe (bleeding in the lungs or meningitis). Weil's disease, the acute, severe form of leptospirosis, causes the infected individual to become jaundiced (skin and eyes become yellow), develop kidney failure, and bleed. Bleeding from the lungs associated with leptospirosis is known as severe pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome. More than ten genetic types of Leptospira cause disease in humans. Both wild and domestic animals can spread the disease, most commonly rodents. The bacteria are spread to humans through animal urine, or water or soil contaminated with animal urine, coming into contact with the eyes, mouth, nose or breaks in the skin. In developing countries, the disease occurs most commonly in pest control, farmers and low-income people who live in areas with poor sanitation. In developed countries, it occurs during heavy downpours and is a risk to pest controllers, sewage workers and those involved in outdoor activities in warm and wet areas. Diagnosis is typically by testing for antibodies against the bacteria or finding bacterial DNA in the blood. Efforts to prevent the disease include protective equipment to block contact when working with potentially infected animals, washing after contact, and reducing rodents in areas where people live and work. The antibiotic doxycycline is effective in preventing leptospirosis infection. Human vaccines are of limited usefulness; vaccines for other animals are more widely available. Treatment when infected is with antibiotics such as doxycycline, penicillin, or ceftriaxone. The overall risk of death is 5–10%. However, when the lungs are involved, the risk of death increases to the range of 50–70%. It is estimated that one million severe cases of leptospirosis in humans occur every year, causing about 58,900 deaths. The disease is most common in tropical areas of the world but may occur anywhere. Outbreaks may arise after heavy rainfall. The disease was first described by physician Adolf Weil in 1886 in Germany. Infected animals may have no, mild or severe symptoms. These may vary by the type of animal. In some animals Leptospira live in the reproductive tract, leading to transmission during mating. ## Signs and symptoms The symptoms of leptospirosis usually appear one to two weeks after infection, but the incubation period can be as long as a month. The illness is biphasic in a majority of symptomatic cases. Symptoms of the first phase (acute or leptospiremic phase) last five to seven days. In the second phase (immune phase), the symptoms resolve as antibodies against the bacteria are produced. Additional symptoms develop in the second phase. The phases of illness may not be distinct, especially in patients with severe illness. 90% of those infected experience mild symptoms while 10% experience severe leptospirosis. Leptospiral infection in humans causes a range of symptoms, though some infected persons may have none. The disease begins suddenly with fever accompanied by chills, intense headache, severe muscle aches and abdominal pain. A headache brought on by leptospirosis causes throbbing pain and is characteristically located at the head's bilateral temporal or frontal regions. The person could also have pain behind the eyes and a sensitivity to light. Muscle pain usually involves the calf muscle and the lower back. The most characteristic feature of leptospirosis is the conjunctival suffusion (conjunctivitis without exudate) which is rarely found in other febrile illnesses. Other characteristic findings on the eye include subconjunctival bleeding and jaundice. A rash is rarely found in leptospirosis. When one is found alternative diagnoses such as dengue fever and chikungunya fever should be considered. Dry cough is observed in 20–57% of people with leptospirosis. Thus, this clinical feature can mislead a doctor to diagnose the disease as a respiratory illness. Additionally, gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea frequently occur. Vomiting and diarrhea may contribute to dehydration. The abdominal pain can be due to acalculous cholecystitis or inflammation of the pancreas. Rarely, the lymph nodes, liver, and spleen may be enlarged and palpable. There will be a resolution of symptoms for one to three days. The immune phase starts after this and can last from four to 30 days and can be anything from brain to kidney complications. The hallmark of the second phase is inflammation of the membranes covering the brain. Signs and symptoms of meningitis include severe headache and neck stiffness. Kidney involvement is associated with reduced or absent urine output. The classic form of severe leptospirosis, known as Weil's disease, is characterised by liver damage (causing jaundice), kidney failure, and bleeding, which happens in 5–10% of those infected. Lung and brain damage can also occur. For those with signs of inflammation of membranes covering the brain and the brain itself, altered level of consciousness can happen. A variety of neurological problems such as paralysis of half of the body, complete inflammation of a whole horizontal section of spinal cord, and muscle weakness due to immune damage of the nerves supplying the muscles are the complications. Signs of bleeding such as non-traumatic bruises at 1 mm (0.039 in), non-traumatic bruises more than 1 cm (0.39 in), nose bleeding, blackish stools due to bleeding in the stomach, vomiting blood and bleeding from the lungs can also be found. Prolongation of prothrombin time in coagulation testing is associated with severe bleeding manifestation. However, low platelet count is not associated with severe bleeding. Pulmonary haemorrhage is alveolar haemorrhage (bleeding into the alveoli of the lungs) leading to massive coughing up of blood, and causing acute respiratory distress syndrome, where the risk of death is more than 50%. Rarely, inflammation of the heart muscles, inflammation of membranes covering the heart, abnormalities in the heart's natural pacemaker and abnormal heart rhythms may occur. ## Cause ### Bacteria Leptospirosis is caused by spirochaete bacteria that belong to the genus Leptospira, which are aerobic, right-handed helical, and 6–20 micrometers long. Like Gram-negative bacteria, Leptospira have an outer membrane studded with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on the surface, an inner membrane and a layer of peptidoglycan cell wall. However, unlike Gram-negative bacteria, the peptidoglycan layer in Leptospira lies closer to the inner than the outer membrane. This results in a fluid outer membrane loosely associated with the cell wall. In addition, Leptospira have a flagellum located in the periplasm, associated with corkscrew style movement. Chemoreceptors at the poles of the bacteria sense various substrates and change the direction of its movement. The bacteria are traditionally visualised using dark-field microscopy without staining. A total of 66 species of Leptospira has been identified. Based on their genomic sequence, they are divided into two clades and four subclades: P1, P2, S1, and S2. The 19 members of the P1 subclade include the 8 species that can cause severe disease in humans: L. alexanderi, L. borgpetersenii, L. interrogans, L. kirschneri, L. mayottensis, L. noguchii, L. santarosai, and L. weilii. The P2 clade comprises 21 species that may cause mild disease in humans. The remaining 26 species comprise the S1 and S2 subclades, which include "saprophytes" known to consume decaying matter (saprotrophic nutrition). Pathogenic Leptospira do not multiply in the environment. Leptospira require high humidity for survival but can remain alive in environments such as stagnant water or contaminated soil. The bacterium can be killed by temperatures of 50 °C (122 °F) and can be inactivated by 70% ethanol, 1% sodium hypochlorite, formaldehyde, detergents and acids. Leptospira are also classified based on their serovar. The diverse sugar composition of the lipopolysaccharide on the surface of the bacteria is responsible for the antigenic difference between serovars. About 300 pathogenic serovars of Leptospira are recognised. Antigenically related serovars (belonging to the same serogroup) may belong to different species because of horizontal gene transfer of LPS biosynthetic genes between different species. Currently, the cross agglutination absorption test and DNA-DNA hybridisation are used to classify Leptospira species, but are time consuming. Therefore, total genomic sequencing could potentially replace these two methods as the new gold standard of classifying Leptospira species. ### Transmission The bacteria can be found in ponds, rivers, puddles, sewers, agricultural fields and moist soil. Pathogenic Leptospira have been found in the form of aquatic biofilms, which may aid survival in the environment. The number of cases of leptospirosis is directly related to the amount of rainfall, making the disease seasonal in temperate climates and year-round in tropical climates. The risk of contracting leptospirosis depends upon the risk of disease carriage in the community and the frequency of exposure. In rural areas, farming and animal husbandry are the major risk factors for contracting leptospirosis. Poor housing and inadequate sanitation also increase the risk of infection. In tropical and semi-tropical areas, the disease often becomes widespread after heavy rains or after flooding. Leptospira are found mostly in mammals. However, reptiles and cold-blooded animals such as frogs, snakes, turtles, and toads have been shown to have the infection. Whether there are reservoirs of human infection is unknown. Rats, mice, and moles are important primary hosts, but other mammals including dogs, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, cows, sheep, swine, raccoons, opossums, and skunks can also carry the disease. In Africa, a number of wildlife hosts have been identified as carriers, including the banded mongoose, Egyptian fox, Rusa deer, and shrews. There are various mechanisms whereby animals can infect each other. Dogs may lick the urine of an infected animal off the grass or soil, or drink from an infected puddle. House-bound domestic dogs have contracted leptospirosis, apparently from licking the urine of infected mice in the house. Leptospirosis can also be transmitted via the semen of infected animals. The duration of bacteria being consistently present in animal urine may persist for years. Humans are the accidental host of Leptospira. Humans become infected through contact with water or moist soil that contains urine from infected animals. The bacteria enter through cuts, abrasions, ingestion of contaminated food, or contact with mucous membrane of the body (e.g. mouth, nose, and eyes). Occupations at risk of contracting leptospirosis include farmers, fishermen, garbage collectors and sewage workers. The disease is also related to adventure tourism and recreational activities. It is common among water-sports enthusiasts in specific areas, including triathlons, water rafting, canoeing and swimming, as prolonged immersion in water promotes the entry of the bacteria. However, Leptospira are unlikely to penetrate intact skin. The disease is not known to spread between humans, and bacterial dissemination in recovery period is extremely rare in humans. Once humans are infected, bacterial shedding from the kidneys usually persists for up to 60 days. Rarely, leptospirosis can be transmitted through an organ transplant. Infection through the placenta during pregnancy is also possible. It can cause miscarriage and infection in infants. Leptospirosis transmission through eating raw meat of wildlife animals have also been reported (e.g. psychiatric patients with allotriophagy). ## Pathogenesis When animals ingest the bacteria, they circulate in the bloodstream, then lodge themselves into the kidneys through the glomerulular or peritubular capillaries. The bacteria then pass into the lumens of the renal tubules and colonise the brush border and proximal convoluted tubule. This causes the continuous shedding of bacteria in the urine without the animal experiencing significant ill effects. This relationship between the animal and the bacteria is known as a commensal relationship, and the animal is known as a reservoir host. Humans are the accidental host of Leptospira. The pathogenesis of leptospirosis remains poorly understood despite research efforts. The bacteria enter the human body through either breaches in the skin or the mucous membrane, then into the bloodstream. The bacteria later attach to the endothelial cells of the blood vessels and extracellular matrix (complex network of proteins and carbohydrates present between cells). The bacteria use their flagella for moving between cell layers. They bind to cells such as fibroblasts, macrophages, endothelial cells, and kidney epithelial cells. They also bind to several human proteins such as complement proteins, thrombin, fibrinogen, and plasminogen using surface leptospiral immunoglobulin-like (Lig) proteins such as LigB and LipL32, whose genes are found in all pathogenic species. Through innate immune system, endothelial cells of the capillaries in the human body are activated by the presence of these bacteria. The endothelial cells produce cytokines and antimicrobial peptides against the bacteria. These products regulate the coagulation cascade and movements of white blood cells. Macrophages presented in humans are able to engulf Leptospira. However, Leptospira are able to reside and proliferate in the cytoplasmic matrix after being ingested by macrophages. Those with severe leptospirosis can experience a high level of cytokines such as interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin 10. The high level of cytokines causes sepsis-like symptoms which is life-threatening instead of helping to fight against the infection. Those who have a high risk of sepsis during a leptospirosis infection are found to have the HLA-DQ6 genotype, possibly due to superantigen activation, which damages bodily organs. Leptospira LPS only activates toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) in monocytes in humans. The lipid A molecule of the bacteria is not recognised by human TLR4 receptors. Therefore, the lack of Leptospira recognition by TLR4 receptors probably contributes to the leptospirosis disease process in humans. Although there are various mechanisms in the human body to fight against the bacteria, Leptospira is well adapted to such an inflammatory condition created by it. In the bloodstream, it can activate host plasminogen to become plasmin that breaks down extracellular matrix, degrades fibrin clots and complemental proteins (C3b and C5) to avoid opsonisation. It can also recruit complement regulators such as Factor H, C4b-binding protein, factor H-like binding protein, and vitronectin to prevent the activation of membrane attack complex on its surface. It also secretes proteases to degrade complement proteins such as C3. It can bind to thrombin that decreases the fibrin formation. Reduced fibrin formation increases the risk of bleeding. Leptospira also secretes sphingomyelinase and haemolysin that target red blood cells. Leptospira spreads rapidly to all organs through the bloodstream. They mainly affect the liver. They invade spaces between hepatocytes, causing apoptosis. The damaged hepatocytes and hepatocyte intercellular junctions cause leakage of bile into the bloodstream, causing elevated levels of bilirubin, resulting in jaundice. Congested liver sinusoids and perisinusoidal spaces have been reported. Meanwhile, in the lungs, petechiae or frank bleeding can be found at the alveolar septum and spaces between alveoli. Leptospira secretes toxins that cause mild to severe kidney failure or interstitial nephritis. The kidney failure can recover completely or lead to atrophy and fibrosis. Rarely, inflammation of the heart muscles, coronary arteries, and aorta are found. ## Diagnosis ### Laboratory tests For those who are infected, a complete blood count may show a high white cell count and a low platelet count. When a low haemoglobin count is present together with a low white cell count and thrombocytopenia, bone marrow suppression should be considered. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein may also be elevated. The kidneys are commonly involved in leptospirosis. Blood urea and creatinine levels will be elevated. Leptospirosis increases potassium excretion in urine, which leads to a low potassium level and a low sodium level in the blood. Urinalysis may reveal the presence of protein, white blood cells, and microscopic haematuria. Because the bacteria settle in the kidneys, urine cultures will be positive for leptospirosis starting after the second week of illness until 30 days of infection. For those with liver involvement, transaminases and direct bilirubin are elevated in liver function tests. The Icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup is associated with jaundice and elevated bilirubin levels. Hemolytic anemia contributes to jaundice. A feature of leptospirosis is acute haemolytic anaemia and conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, especially in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Abnormal serum amylase and lipase levels (associated with pancreatitis) are found in those who are admitted to hospital due to leptospirosis. Impaired kidney function with creatinine clearance less than 50 ml/min is associated with elevated pancreatic enzymes. For those with severe headache who show signs of meningitis, a lumbar puncture can be attempted. If infected, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination shows lymphocytic predominance with a cell count of about 500/mm³, protein between 50 and 100 mg/ml and normal glucose levels. These findings are consistent with aseptic meningitis. #### Serological tests Rapid detection of Leptospira can be done by quantifying the IgM antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Typically, L. biflexa antigen is used to detect the IgM antibodies. This test can quickly determine the diagnosis and help in early treatment. However, the test specificity depends upon the type of antigen used and the presence of antibodies from previous infections. The presence of other diseases such as Epstein–Barr virus infection, viral hepatitis, and cytomegalovirus infection can cause false-positive results. Other rapid screening tests have been developed such as dipsticks, latex and slide agglutination tests. The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) is the reference test for the diagnosis of leptospirosis. MAT is a test where serial dilutions of patient sera are mixed with different serovars of Leptospira. The mixture is then examined under a dark field microscope to look for agglutination. The highest dilution where 50% agglutination occurs is the result. MAT titres of 1:100 to 1:800 are diagnostic of leptospirosis. A fourfold or greater rise in titre of two sera taken at symptoms' onset and three to 10 days of disease onset confirms the diagnosis. During the acute phase of the disease, MAT is not specific in detecting a serotype of Leptospira because of cross-reactivity between the serovars. In the convalescent phase, MAT is more specific in detecting the serovar types. MAT requires a panel of live antigens and requires laborious work. #### Molecular tests Leptospiral DNA can be amplified by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from serum, urine, aqueous humour, CSF, and autopsy specimens. It detects the presence of bacteria faster than MAT during the first few days of infection without waiting for the appearance of antibodies. As PCR detects the presence of leptospiral DNA in the blood it is useful even when the bacteria is killed by antibiotics. ### Imaging In those who have lung involvement, a chest X-ray may demonstrate diffuse alveolar opacities. ### Diagnostic criteria In 1982, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed the Faine's criteria for the diagnosis of leptospirosis. It consists of three parts: A (clinical findings), B (epidemiological factors), and C (lab findings and bacteriological data). Since the original Faine's criteria only included culture and MAT in part C, which is difficult and complex to perform, the modified Faine's criteria was proposed in 2004 to include ELISA and slide agglutination tests which are easier to perform. In 2012, modified Faine's criteria (with amendment) was proposed to include shortness of breath and coughing up blood in the diagnosis. In 2013, India recommended modified Faine's criteria in the diagnosis of leptospirosis. ## Prevention Rates of leptospirosis can be reduced by improving housing, infrastructure, and sanitation standards. Rodent abatement efforts and flood mitigation projects can also help to prevent it. Proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by people who have a high risk of occupational exposure can prevent leptospirosis infections in most cases. There is no human vaccine suitable for worldwide use. Only a few countries such as Cuba, Japan, France, and China have approved the use of inactivated vaccines with limited protective effects. Side effects such as nausea, injection site redness and swelling have been reported after the vaccine was injected. Since the immunity induced by one Leptospiraserovar is only protective against that specific one, trivalent vaccines have been developed. However, they do not confer long-lasting immunity to humans or animals. Vaccines for other animals are more widely available. Doxycycline is given once a week as a prophylaxis and is effective in reducing the rate of leptospirosis infections amongst high-risk individuals in flood-prone areas. In one study, it reduced the number of leptospirosis cases in military personnel undergoing exercises in the jungles. In another study, it reduced the number of symptomatic cases after exposure to leptospirosis under heavy rainfall in endemic areas. ## Treatment Most leptospiral cases resolve spontaneously. Early initiation of antibiotics may prevent the progression to severe disease. Therefore, in resource-limited settings, antibiotics can be started once leptospirosis is suspected after history taking and examination. For mild leptospirosis, antibiotic recommendations such as doxycycline, azithromycin, ampicillin and amoxicillin were based solely on in vitro testing. In 2001, the WHO recommended oral doxycycline (2 mg/kg up to 100 mg every 12 hours) for five to seven days for those with mild leptospirosis. Tetracycline, ampicillin, and amoxicillin can also be used in such cases. However, in areas where both rickettsia and leptospirosis are endemic, azithromycin and doxycycline are the drugs of choice. Based on a 1988 study, intravenous (IV) benzylpenicillin (also known as penicillin G) is recommended for the treatment of severe leptospirosis. Intravenous benzylpenicillin (30 mg/kg up to 1.2 g every six hours) is used for five to seven days. Amoxicillin, ampicillin, and erythromycin may also be used for severe cases. Ceftriaxone (1 g IV every 24 hours for seven days) is also effective for severe leptospirosis. Cefotaxime (1 g IV every six hours for seven days) and doxycycline (200 mg initially followed by 100 mg IV every 12 hours for seven days) are equally effective as benzylpenicillin (1.5 million units IV every six hours for seven days). Therefore, there is no evidence on differences in death reduction when benzylpenicillin is compared with ceftriaxone or cefotaxime. Another study conducted in 2007 also showed no difference in efficacy between doxycycline (200 mg initially followed by 100 mg orally every 12 hours for seven days) or azithromycin (2 g on day one followed by 1 g daily for two more days) for suspected leptospirosis. There was no difference in the resolution of fever and azithromycin is better tolerated than doxycycline. Outpatients are given doxycycline or azithromycin. Doxycycline can shorten the duration of leptospirosis by two days, improve symptoms, and prevent the shedding of organisms in their urine. Azithromycin and amoxicillin are given to pregnant women and children. Rarely, a Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction can develop in the first few hours after antibiotic administration. However, according to a meta-analysis done in 2012, the benefit of antibiotics in the treatment of leptospirosis was unclear although the use of antibiotics may reduce the duration of illness by two to four days. Another meta-analysis done in 2013 reached a similar conclusion. For those with severe leptospirosis, including potassium wasting with high kidney output dysfunction, intravenous hydration and potassium supplements can prevent dehydration and hypokalemia. When acute kidney failure occurs, early initiation of haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis can help to improve survival. For those with respiratory failure, tracheal intubation with low tidal volume improves survival rates. Corticosteroids have been proposed to suppress inflammation in leptospirosis because Leptospira infection can induce the release of chemical signals which promote inflammation of blood vessels in the lungs. However, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether the use of corticosteroids is beneficial. ## Prognosis The overall risk of death for leptospirosis is 5–10%. For those with jaundice, the case fatality can increase up to 15%. For those infected who present with confusion and neurological signs, there is a high risk of death. Other factors that increase the risk of death include reduced urine output, age more than 36 years, and respiratory failure. With proper care, most of those infected will recover completely. Those with acute kidney failure may develop persistent mild kidney impairment after they recover. In those with severe lung involvement, the risk of death is 50–70%. Thirty percent of people with acute leptospirosis complained of long-lasting symptoms characterised by weakness, muscle pain, and headaches. ### Eye complications Eye problems can occur in 10% of those who recovered from leptospirosis in the range from two weeks to a few years post-infection. Most commonly, eye complications can occur at six months after the infection. This is due to the immune privilege of the eye which protects it from immunological damage during the initial phase of leptospiral infection. These complications can range from mild anterior uveitis to severe panuveitis (which involves all three vascular layers of the eye). The uveitis is more commonly happen in young to middle-aged males and those working in agricultural farming. In up to 80% of those infected, Leptospira DNA can be found in the aqueous humour of the eye. Eye problems usually have a good prognosis following treatment or they are self-limiting. In anterior uveitis, only topical steroids and mydriatics (an agent that causes dilation of the pupil) are needed while in panuveitis, it requires periocular corticosteroids. Leptospiral uveitis is characterised by hypopyon, rapidly maturing cataract, free floating vitreous membranes, disc hyperemia and retinal vasculitis. ## Epidemiology It is estimated that one million severe cases of leptospirosis occur annually, with 58,900 deaths. Severe cases account for 5–15% of all leptospirosis cases. Leptospirosis is found in both urban and rural areas in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions. The global health burden for leptospirosis can be measured by disability-adjusted life year (DALY). The score is 42 per 100,000 people per year, which is more than other diseases such as rabies and filariasis. The disease is observed persistently in parts of Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. Antarctica is the only place not affected by leptospirosis. In the United States, there were 100 to 150 leptospirosis cases annually. In 1994, leptospirosis ceased to be a notifiable disease in the United States except in 36 states/territories where it is prevalent such as Hawaii, Texas, California, and Puerto Rico. About 50% of the reported cases occurred in Puerto Rico. In January 2013, leptospirosis was reinstated as a nationally notifiable disease in the United States. Research on epidemiology of leptospirosis in high-risk groups and risk factors is limited in India. The global rates of leptospirosis have been underestimated because most affected countries lack notification or notification is not mandatory. Distinguishing clinical signs of leptospirosis from other diseases and lack of laboratory diagnostic services are other problems. The socioeconomic status of many of the world's population is closely tied to malnutrition; subsequent lack of micronutrients may lead to increased risk of infection and death due to leptospirosis infection. Micronutrients such as iron, calcium, and magnesium represent important areas for future research. ## History The disease was first described by Adolf Weil in 1886 when he reported an "acute infectious disease with enlargement of spleen, jaundice, and nephritis." Before Weil's description, the disease was known as "rice field jaundice" in ancient Chinese text, "autumn fever", "seven-day fever", and "nanukayami fever" in Japan; in Europe and Australia, the disease was associated with certain occupations and given names such as "cane-cutter's disease", "swine-herd's disease", and "Schlammfieber" (mud fever). It has been known historically as "black jaundice", or "dairy farm fever" in New Zealand. Leptospirosis was postulated as the cause of an epidemic among Native Americans along the coast of what is now New England during 1616–19. The disease was most likely brought to the New World by Europeans. Leptospira was first observed in 1907 in a post mortem kidney tissue slice by Arthur Stimson using silver deposition staining technique. He called the organism Spirocheta interrogans because the bacteria resembled a question mark. In 1908, a Japanese research group led by Ryukichi Inada and Yutaka Ito first identified this bacterium as the causative agent of leptospirosis and noted its presence in rats in 1916. Japanese coal mine workers frequently contracted leptospirosis. In Japan, the organism was named Spirocheta icterohaemorrhagiae. The Japanese group also experimented with the first leptospiral immunisation studies in guinea pigs. They demonstrated that by injecting the infected guinea pigs with sera from convalescent humans or goats, passive immunity could be provided to the guinea pigs. In 1917, the Japanese group discovered rats as the carriers of leptospirosis. Unaware of the Japanese group's work, two German groups independently and almost simultaneously published their first demonstration of transmitting leptospiral infection in guinea pigs in October 1915. They named the organism Spirochaeta nodosa and Spirochaeta Icterogenes respectively. Leptospirosis was subsequently recognised as a disease of all mammalian species. In 1933, Dutch workers reported the isolation of Leptospira canicola which specifically infects dogs. In 1940, the strain that specifically infects cattle was first reported in Russia. In 1942, soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were recorded to have an infectious disease which caused a rash over their shinbones. This disease was later known to be caused by leptospirosis. By the 1950s, the number of serovars that infected various mammals had expanded significantly. In the 1980s, leptospirosis was recognised as a veterinary disease of major economic importance. In 1982, there were about 200 serovars of Leptospira available for classification. The International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology's subcommittee on taxonomy of Leptospira proposed classifying these serovars into two big groups: L. interrogans containing pathogenic serovars and L. biflexa containing saprophytic serovars. In 1979, the leptospiral family of Leptospiraceae was proposed. In the same year, Leptospira illini was reclassified as the new genus Leptonema. In 2002, "Lepthangamushi syndrome" was coined to describe a series of overlapping symptoms of leptospirosis with Hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, and scrub typhus caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. In 2005, Leptospira parva was classified as Turneriella. With DNA-DNA hybridisation technology, L. interrogans was divided into seven species. More Leptospira species have been discovered since then. The WHO established the Leptospirosis Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (LERG) to review the latest disease epidemiological data of leptospirosis, formulate a disease transmission model, and identify gaps in knowledge and research. The first meeting was convened in 2009. In 2011, LERG estimated that the global yearly rate of leptospirosis is five to 14 cases per 100,000 population. ## Other animals Infected animals can have no, mild, or severe symptoms; the presenting symptoms may vary by the type of animal. In some animals the bacteria live in the reproductive tract, leading to transmission during mating. Animals also present with similar clinical features when compared to humans. Clinical signs can appear in 5–15 days in dogs. The incubation period can be prolonged in cats. Leptospirosis can cause abortions after 2–12 weeks in cattle, and 1–4 weeks of infection in pigs. The illness tends to be milder in reservoir hosts. The most commonly affected organs are the kidneys, liver, and reproductive system, but other organs can be affected. In dogs, the acute clinical signs include fever, loss of appetite, shivering, muscle pain, weakness, and urinary symptoms. Vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain may also present. Petechiae and ecchymoses may be seen on mucous membranes. Bleeding from the lungs may also be seen in dogs. In chronic presentations, the affected dog may have no symptoms. In animals that have died of leptospirosis, their kidneys may be swollen with grey and white spots, mottling, or scarring. Their liver may be enlarged with areas of cell death. Petechiae and ecchymoses may be found in various organs. Inflammation of the blood vessels, inflammation of the heart, meningeal layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and uveitis are also possible. Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is the most common disease associated with Leptospira infection in horses in North America and may lead to blindness. ERU is an autoimmune disease involving antibodies against Leptospira proteins LruA and LruB cross-reacting with eye proteins. Live Leptospira can be recovered from the aqueous or vitreous fluid of many horses with Leptospira-associated ERU. Risk of death or disability in infected animals varies depending upon the species and age of the animals. In adult pigs and cattle, reproductive signs are the most common signs of leptospirosis. Up to 40% of cows may have a spontaneous abortion. Younger animals usually develop more severe disease. About 80% of dogs can survive with treatment, but the survival rate is reduced if the lungs are involved. ELISA and microscopic agglutination tests are most commonly used to diagnose leptospirosis in animals. The bacteria can be detected in blood, urine, and milk or liver, kidney, or other tissue samples by using immunofluorescence or immunohistochemical or polymerase chain reaction techniques. Silver staining or immunogold silver staining is used to detect Leptospira in tissue sections. The organisms stain poorly with Gram stain. Dark-field microscopy can be used to detect Leptospira in body fluids, but it is neither sensitive nor specific in detecting the organism. A positive culture for leptospirosis is definitive, but the availability is limited, and culture results can take 13–26 weeks for a result, limiting its utility. Paired acute and convalescent samples are preferred for serological diagnosis of leptospirosis in animals. A positive serological sample from an aborted fetus is also diagnostic of leptospirosis. Various antibiotics such as doxycycline, penicillins, dihydrostreptomycin, and streptomycin have been used to treat leptospirosis in animals. Fluid therapy, blood transfusion, and respiratory support may be required in severe disease. For horses with ERU, the primary treatment is with anti-inflammatory drugs. Leptospirosis vaccines are available for animals such as pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, and goats. Vaccines for cattle usually contain Leptospira serovar Hardjo and Pomona, for dogs, the vaccines usually contain serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae and Canicola. Vaccines containing multiple serovars do not work for cattle as well as vaccines containing a single serovar, yet the multivalent vaccines continue to be sold. Isolation of infected animals and prophylactic antibiotics are also effective in preventing leptospirosis transmission between animals. Environmental control and sanitation also reduce transmission rates.

Alfred Mordecai

American army officer (1804–1887)

Alfred Mordecai (January 3, 1804 – October 23, 1887) was an American army officer. He contributed to United States' military development through his research and writing, particularly in the area of artillery. He was instrumental in the United States' adoption of the M1857 12-pounder Napoleon. Mordecai served in a number of diplomatic missions for his country, but resigned at the start of the Civil War rather than fight for either side. He was one the first Jewish Americans to choose the army as a career. ## Early and personal life Mordecai was born in Warrenton, North Carolina, the son of Jacob Mordecai (1762–1838), who was in turn the son of Moses Mordecai (1707–1781), an Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant from Bonn. Alfred studied at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he remained as an assistant professor after graduating top of his class. Mordecai grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, observing Shabbat and kashrut. As the only Jew at West Point, however, he was unable to maintain his religious practices and was forced to attend Presbyterian chapel every Sunday. Mordecai later became an agnostic and never returned to Judaism. In 1836 Mordecai married Sara Ann Hays of Philadelphia, a niece of Rebecca Gratz. They had eight children. Sara was a practising Orthodox Jew and an abolitionist. In 1839 Mordecai set free a slave, Eugenia Hemings, who had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Mordecai had bought her in 1833, and she worked as his housekeeper and cook. ## Engineering work He was commissioned in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and in 1825 he became assistant engineer in the construction of Fort Monroe and Fort Calhoun. In 1828 he was appointed assistant to the Chief of Engineers in Washington, D.C., and in 1833 he was placed in command of the Washington Arsenal. In 1833, Mordecai joined the Ordnance Department. At the instruction of the Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, he prepared A Digest of the Laws Relating to the Military Establishment of the United States. He commanded the Frankford Arsenal from 1834 to 1838, after which he was appointed assistant to the Chief of Ordnance. In 1840, he was a member of a commission sent by the Ordnance Board on a nine-month trip to Europe to visit arsenals and cannon foundries to report on the latest artillery improvements there. In 1841, he wrote The Ordnance Manual for the Use of Officers of the United States Army. This was "the first ever ordnance manual that standardized the manufacture of American weaponry with interchangeable parts, an essential step in the advancement of American mass manufacturing". A second edition was published in 1850. Mordecai became assistant inspector of arsenals in 1842 and was engaged in constructing and experimenting with ballistic pendulums and gunpowder, with the idea of measuring muzzle velocity. His 1845 Report of Experiments on Gunpowder contains "an immense amount of research experimental material on gunpowder as it behaves in, or with, light and heavy artillery". Mordecai was again placed in command of the Washington Arsenal in 1844 and later of the Watervliet Arsenal in 1857. In 1849 he wrote Artillery for the United States Land Service which codified the American system of artillery, containing "complete drawings and descriptions of the different guns, howitzers, and mortars and their carriages that were in the Army's inventory." ## Diplomatic missions In 1853 Mordecai was one of a small group selected by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to travel to Mexico on a secret mission. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican–American War, the U.S. government had agreed to indemnify American citizens for losses sustained through military action by the Mexican government. A dentist named George A. Gardiner has claimed almost \$500,000 for the loss of a silver mine, which Mordecai proved did not exist. Gardiner was subsequently found guilty of fraud. Mordecai was promoted to major in 1854. In 1855–57 he was sent, along with Major Richard Delafield and Captain George B. McClellan, as a member of a military commission to act as an observer during the Crimean War. His report, Military Commission to Europe, in 1855 and 1856, was published in 1860. Mordecai praised the Canon obusier de 12 gun-howitzer, which soon afterward was manufactured in the United States as the M1857 12-pounder Napoleon. Alexander Rose notes that Mordecai's report is a "masterpiece of unbiased scholarship" but that he was curiously dismissive of repeaters and breechloaders. Instead, Mordecai emphasized marksmanship: > What mattered in a rifle, he believed, was its ability to allow a soldier to shoot his target at the longest distance possible and with the bare minimum of ammunition. To Mordecai, marksmanship was all, and in this he was adapting the historical American talent for fine shooting to the scientifically minded Victorian era. In 1858, Mordecai was sent by President James Buchanan as a special diplomatic agent to Mexico. ## Civil War and retirement With the advent of the Civil War in 1861, Mordecai was unwilling to fight either against the Confederacy or against his son, also called Alfred, who was serving in the Union Army. (Alfred Jr. remained in the army and retired in 1904 as a brigadier general.) Having been denied a request to be transferred to California, Mordecai resigned his commission on May 5, 1861. He retired to private life, "dejected, broken-spirited and depressed". Rose notes that "Mordecai grieved for the North's abolitionist 'interference' in affairs below the Mason-Dixon Line, but he had 'no sympathy' with slavery and he was a good and faithful servant of the federal government." For this, he was criticized by people on both sides: on the Union side, he was charged (and acquitted) of "secretly selling arms and ordnance to the South", while on the Confederate side he was never reconciled to most of his southern family members. Mordecai taught mathematics in Philadelphia until the war ended. After a brief stint in Mexico, where he worked as an assistant engineer for the Mexican Railway, Mordecai served as secretary and treasurer of the Pennsylvania Canal Company from 1867 until his death. ## Legacy Mordecai was one the first Jewish Americans to choose the army as a career. Stanley L. Falk notes that Mordecai was "an active and outstanding participant in the development of American military technology." Falk also suggests that Mordecai's work was "valued for its accuracy, its precise and systematic nature, and its immediate usefulness. It was an example and an inspiration for every other worker in the same field, and Mordecai was respected by all of them for his technical contributions no less than he was loved for his fineness of character, integrity, warmth and gentle humor." According to The Jewish Press, Mordecai is best known for "introducing scientific methods into the development of pre-Civil War military munitions that contributed to America's becoming a nineteenth century world power." He has, however, been largely forgotten, and was not included in Webster's American Military Biographies edited by Robert McHenry. Clarence Dutton assessed Mordecai's work as follows: > His memory is entitled in a peculiar degree to the care of army historians, for his work was such as appeals to technical and professional men rather than to the multitude. His contributions came, not in the shape of a few large nuggets, but in a steady stream of gold dust sustained for many years and far outweighing the nuggets in the end. The value of his work consisted in its accuracy, its systematic character, and its immediate utility, and still more in the subtle, potent way in which the spirit of it pervaded almost insensibly the entire corps. Alexander Rose notes that > By preserving marksmanship as the quintessential American trait — a belief adopted by the nascent NRA from the 1870s onward — he can be counted as the spiritual father of such fine-shooting legends as the Springfield Model 1903 and the M1 Garand. It was a proud legacy for this unfairly obscure weaponry wizard. In 1959, The Uncommon Soldier by Robert D. Abrahams, a fictionalized biography of Mordecai's life, was published by the Jewish Publication Society. ## Publications - A Digest of the Laws Relating to the Military Establishment of the United States (1833) - The Ordnance Manual for the Use of Officers of the United States Army (1841; second edition, 1850) - Report of Experiments on Gunpowder, made at Washington Arsenal, in 1843 and 1844 (1845) - Second Report of Experiments on Gunpowder, made at Washington Arsenal, in 1845, '47, and '48 (1849) - Artillery for the United States Land Service, as devised and arranged by the Ordnance Board (1859) - Military commission to Europe in 1855 and 1856 (1860)

Third Battle of Gaza

Battle between British and Ottoman forces in 1917

The Third Battle of Gaza was fought on the night of 1–2 November 1917 between British and Ottoman forces during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I and came after the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory at the Battle of Beersheba had ended the Stalemate in Southern Palestine. The fighting occurred at the beginning of the Southern Palestine Offensive, and, together with attacks on Hareira and Sheria on 6–7 November and the continuing Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe, which had been launched by General Edmund Allenby on 1 November, it eventually broke the Gaza-to-Beersheba line defended by the Yildirim Army Group. Despite having held this line since March 1917, the Ottoman Army was forced to evacuate Gaza and Tel el Khuweilfe during the night of 6–7 November. Only Sheria held out for most of the 7 November before it too was captured. Following British defeats at the First and Second battles of Gaza in March and April 1917, Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode commanding the EEF's Eastern Force and Kress von Kressenstein's Ottoman Empire force had each adopted a defensive posture and a stalemate had developed in Southern Palestine. Entrenched defences approximately on the lines held at the end of the second battle were strengthened, and both sides undertook regular mounted reconnaissances into the open eastern flank. In late June, Allenby replaced General Archibald Murray as commander of the EEF, which he quickly reorganised. At about the same time, the Ottoman Fourth Army was also restructured. As the stalemate continued in terrible conditions through the summer, reinforcements began to arrive to replace the large number of casualties suffered by the EEF during the previous fighting for Gaza, while several additional divisions also arrived. The Ottoman defenders were also reinforced at this time, and both sides carried out training while manning the front lines and monitoring the open eastern flank. By mid-October, as the Battle of Passchendaele continued on the Western Front, the last of the British reinforcements arrived as Allenby's preparations to commence a campaign of manoeuvre neared completion. Prior to the Second Battle of Gaza, the town had been developed into a strong modern fortress, with entrenchments, wire entanglements and a glacis on its south and south–eastern edges. A series of field works, mutually supported by artillery, machine guns and rifles, extended from Gaza eastwards to within 4 miles (6.4 km) of Beersheba. Beginning on 27 October, the EEF began a heavy and almost continuous bombardment of Gaza. During this time, the EEF's XXI Corps, holding the Gaza section of the line, had been mostly passive until the night of 1/2 November, when a series of determined night-time assaults were mounted against the Gaza defences. Yet these attacks were only partially successful due to the strength of the garrison. The bombardment of Gaza intensified on 6 November and during the night of 6/7 November successful attacks were launched on several trench systems. On the morning of 7 November, Gaza was found to have been evacuated during the night. The Gaza to Beersheba line subsequently collapsed and the Ottoman Seventh and Eighth Armies were forced into retreat. Following several battles during the pursuit, the EEF captured Jerusalem on 9 December 1917. ## Background Gaza was "a strong modern fortress, well entrenched and wired, with good observation and a glacis on its southern and south–eastern face." These defences which were too strong for a daytime attack were extended eastwards by a series of "field works" to four miles (6.4 km) from Beersheba. These fortifications were between 1,500 to 2,000 yards (1,400 to 1,800 m) apart, each mutually supported by fire from artillery, machine guns and rifles. As the troops of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) began to concentrate in preparation for their attacks, they left their camps standing to deceive German and Ottoman aerial reconnaissances. The EEF assumed their opponents thought there were still six infantry divisions in the Gaza area and one in the eastern sector towards Beersheba. However, according to Falls, "[t]here is evidence that the [Yildirim Army Group] were fairly accurately informed of the British dispositions." On 28 October, they knew the camps at Khan Yunis and Rafa were empty and accurately placed three infantry divisions east of the Wadi Ghuzzee with a fourth, the 10th (Irish) Division approaching the wadi. They estimated more cavalry at Asluj and Khalasa than was actually there. The loss of Beersheba on 31 October stunned the Yildirim Army Group commander and staff. The Beersheba garrison withdrew either to the Ottoman defences around Tel es Sheria or northwards to Tel el Khuweilfe to defend the Hebron road. Here a considerable force, including all available reserve units, was deployed in the Kuweilfeh area to stop a threatened advance up the Hebron road to Jerusalem about fifty miles (80 km) to the north. According to Powles, " ... the Turkish line had been thrown back on its left, but not broken." The remainder of the Ottoman line stretching westward to the Mediterranean coast continued to be strongly defended, particularly at Hareira, Sharia and Gaza, but the loss of Beersheba had placed EEF mounted units across the Beersheba to Hebron and Jerusalem road, and three Eighth Army infantry battalions were sent by the German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein to reinforce the Ottoman troops fighting at Khuweilfe to protect the road. They established a new defensive line north of Beersheba, and the 19th Division was sent from the XXII Corps defending Gaza to reinforce the new line at Ebuhof. However, the objective of the EEF advance north of Beersheba was to separate the Ottoman forces supplied by the roads and railways from Ramleh on the maritime plain from those supplied by the motor road from Jerusalem north of Beersheba. Such an advance would also place the EEF infantry corps in a position to begin to "roll up" the Ottoman flank. ## Prelude The EEF controlled the coastal sea lanes, and the Intelligence Service spread rumours about possible sea landings in the rear of Gaza. Ships were seen taking soundings off the coast and a fleet of small boats was located near Deir el Belah. During the late afternoon of 1 November, an embarkation of members of the Egyptian Labour Corps onto motor launches, trawlers and tugs at Deir el Belah was staged as a feint, giving the appearance of continuing into the night. The next morning, two trawlers appeared off the mouth of the Wadi el Hesi north of Gaza. To add to the confusion, between the Battle of Beersheba on 31 October and the main attacks at the Battle of Hareira and Sheria beginning on 6 November, the Ottoman left flank north of Beersheba was being fiercely contested during the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe for control of the road to Hebron and Jerusalem. According to Wavell, "an assault on a portion of the Gaza defences was to be made by the XXI Corps." The date of this attack, which was primarily a feint, was scheduled for between 24 and 48 hours before the attack on Sheria. Meanwhile, preparations for the main attacks on the Gaza line at Hareira and Sharia, began on 1 November when the 53rd (Welsh) Division, with the Imperial Camel Brigade on the right, advanced northwards to occupy a line 3 miles (4.8 km) to the west without opposition. This placed the infantry in a position from which they could cover the right flank of the proposed attack by the XX Corps on Hareira and Sheria. ### Defenders After the second battle for Gaza in April 1917, Kress von Kressenstein — commander of the victorious 3rd, 16th and 53rd Divisions—was reinforced by the 7th and 54th Divisions. The 7th Infantry Division (later part of the Eighth Army) had experienced four months of strategic movement, similar to that of the 54th Division. Having arrived at Jerusalem, in early May the 20th Infantry Regiment began company-level training. After moving to Beersheba where they remained in reserve, they participated in theatre-specific training until late June, when they went into the front line. Training in fortification, reconnaissance, and counter–reconnaissance continued. The 21st Infantry Regiment received similar training, and on 6 August the regimental colours of the 20th and 21st Infantry Regiments were awarded military medals for service in the Gallipoli Campaign. At Beersheba on 28 June, the 7th Infantry Division inactivated the fourth company of each infantry battalion, before activating a machine gun company armed with light machine guns, in every infantry battalion on 10 August. Every Ottoman infantry division in Palestine repeated this reorganisation, with one quarter of their rifle strength being replaced by light machine guns, considerably increasing their fire power and strengthening their offensive and defensive capabilities. Following orders from von Kressenstein commanding the Gaza to Beersheba line defences, assault detachments equivalent to the German Stosstruppen (Stormtroopers) were formed. The 7th Division activated an assault detachment of fifty men on 17 July 1917. The Yildirim Army Group under the command of Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn was responsible for the defence of Palestine. On the western flank the Ottoman Eighth Army was composed of the XXII Corps' 3rd and 53rd Divisions defending Gaza and the XX Corps' 26th and 54th Divisions defending the line stretching to the east of Gaza, under the command of von Kressenstein. The defence of Gaza was the responsibility of XXII Corps, which had two divisions in the front line (53rd, 3rd from west to east) and two in reserve (7th and 19th). The XXII Corps' four regiments had 4,500 rifles, which were reinforced by two divisions to bring the total to 8,000 defenders, deployed thus: - 53rd Division holding from the Mediterranean shore to the eastern side of Gaza (veteran of the Second Battle of Gaza), - 3rd Division on their left (veteran of the First and Second Battles of Gaza), and the - 7th Division in reserve close behind. These three divisions were supported by the 116 guns of the Ottoman XXII Corps artillery, six large naval guns and several batteries of 150 mm howitzers. On the left of the XX Corps the Ottoman Seventh Army defended Beersheba, under the command of Fevzi Pasa. ### Attackers The EEF comprised 200,000 men including Arab workers, 46,000 horses, 20,000 camels, more than 15,000 mules and donkeys, and hundreds of artillery pieces. The fighting strength of the EEF was 100,189: - Desert Mounted Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel had 745 officers, 17,935 other ranks in the Anzac, Australian and Yeomanry Mounted Divisions; - XX Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode had 1,435 officers, 44,171 other ranks in the 10th, 53rd, 60th and 74th (Yeomanry) Divisions; and - XXI Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Edward Bulfin had 1,154 officers and 34,759 other ranks in three infantry divisions. By 30 October there were 35,000 rifles in the XXI Corps deployed to attack Gaza. They were: \*52nd (Lowland) Division (veteran of the First and Second Battles of Gaza) \*54th (East Anglian) Division (veteran of the First and Second Battles of Gaza) \*75th Division \* Composite Force of almost a division, consisting of the 25th Indian Infantry Brigade, a West Indian battalion, the French Détachement français de Palestine and the Italian Distaccamento italiano di Palestina, was camped east of the 75th Division. \*Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade 1,000 sabres \*XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment, also known as the Composite Regiment, consisted of one squadron each from the Royal Glasgow Yeomanry, the Duke of Lancaster Yeomanry, and the 1/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry. The majority of General Edmund Allenby's infantry were Territorial divisions, mobilised at the outbreak of the war. Most had fought the Ottoman Army before. During the Gallipoli Campaign, the 52nd (Lowland) Division fought at Cape Helles, the 53rd (Welsh) Division and the 54th (East Anglian) Division fought at Suvla Bay, while the 60th (London) Division had served on the Western Front and on the Salonika front. The recently formed 74th (Yeomanry) Division was raised from eighteen under-strength yeomanry regiments, all of which had fought dismounted at Gallipoli. The 10th (Irish) Division was a New Army (K1) division, and had also fought at Suvla Bay and at Salonika. All three of the brigades of the Anzac Mounted Division and the two light horse brigades of the Australian Mounted Division had also fought at Gallipoli. Army Wing aircraft were assigned to carry out strategic reconnaissances, to report on Ottoman reserves well behind their lines, to carry out daily photography, and to conduct air raids. Fighter and bombing squadrons were established for these purposes while the Corps Squadrons were attached to the two infantry corps carried out artillery and contact patrols, along with tactical reconnaissance. #### Sherifial Forces In July, Allenby was hopeful that T. E. Lawrence and the Sherifial Arab force could support a September attack by the EEF, recognising that harvests were being collected before that time, and that after the end of September they normally moved to camel-grazing lands in the Syrian desert. He wrote, "They, naturally, won't and can't do much unless I move; and it is not much use their destroying the Turks' communications unless I take immediate advantage of such destruction ... If I bring them into the fight and do not make progress myself, this will also expose them to retaliation—which to some tribes, such as the Druzes, S. of Damascus, may mean annihilation." The EEF encouraged the Bedouin to defect: > The Arab rebellion is spreading well, and the Turkish communications will be difficult to guard against their raids. The enclosed photograph of the Shereef of Mecca, and the proclamation by him, is one of the means we have of inducing the Arabs to desert the Turks. We drop these papers and packets of cigarettes over the Turkish lines from aeroplanes. The proclamation is an appeal from the Shereef to the Arabs to leave the Turks and join in the war against them for the freedom and independence of Arabia. A good many come in, as a result of our propaganda. ## Battle Four EEF infantry brigades of 10,000 rifles attacked four Ottoman regiments of 4,500 rifles—which were reinforced by two divisions to over 8,000. Both sides suffered heavy losses. The attacks were to be carried out by well-prepared troops, with overwhelming artillery support and six Mark IV tanks. These attacks were designed to keep the Gaza garrison of 8,000 riflemen supported by 116 guns in place after the capture of Beersheba and during preparations for the main EEF attacks on Hareira and Sheria. ### Preliminary raids on Outpost Hill On 26 October, units of the 75th Division raided Outpost Hill. Then, just hours after the capture of Beersheba, on 1 November, a second raid by five officers and 220 riflemen of the 3/3rd Gurkhas Rifles (233rd Brigade 75th Division) was carried out against Outpost Hill. At 03:00, under cover of an intense bombardment, they entered the Ottoman defences on the hill; two Gurkhas were killed and twenty-three wounded. During the fighting, they killed twenty-eight Ottoman soldiers and captured sixteen, before returning to their lines. The division was to make another attack during the next night, (1/2 November) towards Atawineh Redoubt, on the Gaza to Beersheba road. ### Bombardment On 27 October, the XXI Corps artillery began the bombardment of Gaza, which gradually grew more intense with the support of British and French Navy's guns from 29 October. They included the fourteen inches (360 mm) guns on HMS Raglan, the Monitors M15 9.2 inches (230 mm) guns, the M29, the M31, and the M32 with 6 inches (150 mm) guns, the cruiser Grafton, and the destroyers Staunch and Comet. French vessels included the Requin, Arbalète, Voltigeur, Coutelas, Fauconneau and Hache. There were also two river gunboats Ladybird and Aphis, and three seaplane bombers. This flotilla was in action—although not altogether to allow for return to Port Said for refuelling—until the attack on Gaza was launched. The flotilla was targeted by hostile aircraft, while a shell from an Ottoman shore battery hit the mess deck of the Requin, causing 38 casualties. The land based artillery of Bulfin's XXI Corps' heavy artillery consisted of 68 medium and heavy guns and howitzers, which were directed on to the Ottoman batteries during the battle. In addition two 6-inch guns made a surprise attack on the Ottoman railhead at Beit Hanun at a range of nine miles (14 km), supported by balloon observation. Between 27 October and the attack on Gaza, 15,000 rounds were fired by the heavy artillery; three hundred rounds were allocated for the destruction of each Ottoman battery which had been located. The anti–battery bombardments between 29 and 31 October also fired gas shells, which apparently had little or no effect. Together with the corps' three divisional artilleries, the guns produced the heaviest bombardment of World War I outside European theatres. The sixth night's bombardment from onshore and offshore guns produced "an even heavier concentration of fire on a small area than had been put in on the first day of the Battle of the Somme." The six-day bombardment program was arranged "so that the whole of the front of our group is plastered all day and every day." ### 1/2 November night attacks The XXI Corps attacks were focused on a five thousand yards (4,600 m) stretch of sandhills stretching from Umbrella Hill about two thousand yards (1,800 m) south-west of Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea. They were timed for the night because the strength of the Ottoman machine guns in defensive positions made day-time attacks impossible. On the right flank, the final objective of the attack was only 500 yards (460 m) behind the Ottoman front line, but on the left it was 2,500 yards (2,300 m) away. The first phase was the attack at Umbrella Hill by the 1/7th Battalion Scottish Rifles with one company of 1/8th Battalion, Scottish Rifles (156th Brigade, 52nd Division). The second phase was the capture on a broad front of El Arish Redoubt to the Sea Post on the shore by the 1/4th Battalion, Royal Scots and one company of 1/8th Battalion, Scottish Rifles (156th Brigade). The third phase was to be conducted by the 161st Brigade (less one battalion) and the 163rd Brigade (54th Division) against Gaza's south-western defences, while the fourth phase by the 162nd Brigade was to capture Gun Hill and Sheikh Hasan 3,500 yards (3,200 m) behind the front line at Sheikh Ajlin. On 1 and 2 November, the Ottoman 7th and 53rd Divisions continued to defend most of their front line, carrying out locally successful counterattacks. #### Phase one: Umbrella Hill On 1 November, the assault of Umbrella Hill—a sand dune two thousand yards (1,800 m) south–west of Gaza to the west of the Rafa to Gaza road overlooking the main objectives—was to begin at 23:00. The defending garrison was "assumed to be about 350 strong". However, at 10:50 a preliminary move into No Man's Land was observed by Ottoman soldiers in Fisher's Orchard, who gave the alarm and began firing machine guns and rifles from the Ottoman trenches on Umbrella Hill. At 23:00, an intense EEF bombardment began enabling a tape to be laid, along which the attacking troops formed up to launch their attack ten minutes later. Under cover of the intense ten-minute bombardment, the 1/7th Battalion, Scottish Rifles with one company of 1/8th Battalion, Scottish Rifles (156th Brigade, 52nd (Lowland) Division) attacked Umbrella Hill. After killing many of the defenders, they quickly captured the hill, three officers, fifty-five Ottoman soldiers, three Lewis guns and numerous bombs. The attackers suffered light casualties; however the sand dune was difficult to defend because the Ottoman trenches—without revetments—had virtually disappeared during the previous bombardments. The following Ottoman bombardment of Umbrella Hill caused 103 casualties to the 1/7th Battalion Scottish Rifles during the next twenty-four hours. However, with the hill captured by the 52nd (Lowland) Division, the main attack could begin. #### Phase two: El Arish redoubt The second phase began at 03:00 on 2 November when the 156th Brigade of the 52nd (Lowland) Division launched the first attack on the El Arish Redoubt. This attack was aimed at breaking the line of defensive fortifications consisting of three groups of trench complexes and redoubts. These were the El Arish, Rafa, and Cricket redoubts, which were connected by a "series of trench lines several layers thick, and backed by other trenches and strong points" stretching two miles (3.2 km) along the seaward defences to the west of Umbrella Hill. The attack on El Arish redoubt was to be supported by two of the six available tanks of the Palestine Tank Detachment's eight tanks. The 1/4th Battalion, Royal Scots (156th Brigade) assault on El Arish Redoubt was carried out in waves through the Ottoman trenches, during which six Ottoman mines exploded, causing EEF casualties. The Ottoman artillery, which had become active as a result of the first attack, had stopped shortly before the second attack began at 06:00 with an intense, ten-minute bombardment. At 06:30, a heavy Ottoman counterattack drove back the leading company of Royal Scots, causing a number of casualties. A platoon from another company helped rally the remnants of the leading company, which was reinforced by the 1/4th Battalion Royal Scots and 1/8th Battalion Scottish Rifles when the position was consolidated. Two tanks passed through El Arish Redoubt, but shortly afterwards one was abandoned and the other hit, while a third tank moved along the front line rolling out wire from Sea Post on the coast to Beach Post. > A man who obviously had been able to get more than his allowance [of rum] started singing loudly, and was removed. We then set off in a long line, and passed through our front line trenches into "No–Man's–Land." I saw a man breaking the ranks, and dodging back towards our lines, obviously his nerves having given way. An NCO dashed out, got hold of him, and took him away. I was with Hq. sigs. [headquarters signals] in the "fourth wave." Four parallel lines of white tape, had been laid out, and I and the others spaced ourselves out along the fourth tape, and lay down, facing the enemy lines, to await the signal to advance. Two tanks came rumbling up from behind, and a few of us had to jump up and get out of the way to let them pass ... Our shelling increased in volume, and at 03:00 the 4th RS [Royal Scots] advanced in four lines on a front of 300 yards (270 m) towards the El Arish Redoubt. Two Turkish contact mines exploded as our "first wave" approached the redoubt, blowing many of the men to pieces. We were not, of course, aware of this at the time. As I got near the Turkish trenches the enemy shell and machine–gun fire became so intense, with shells bursting all around, that I and several others decided to stop in a large shell or mine crater for a few minutes till the shelling eased somewhat. When the barrage moved forward we resumed our advance. #### Phase three: coastal defences When the Royal Scots had entered the eastern section of the El Arish Redoubt during the second phase of the attack, the western half was still held by Ottoman defenders. These defences became the objectives of the attacks by the 161st and 163rd Brigades of the 54th (East Anglian) Division, supported by four tanks—including the two which had passed through the El Arish redoubt. On the right of the 163rd Brigade's advance, the 1/5th Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment moved towards the Ottoman trenches following a creeping barrage to attack and over–run the western El Arish trenches during hand–to–hand fighting when the 1/5th Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment suffered light casualties. Although they had captured the third line, part of this captured territory had to be abandoned because it was exposed to hostile fire, so they consolidated their position along the second line. Half of the 1/8th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment attacked Burj Trench while the other half attacked Triangle Trench, although it was not their objective. This caused some confusion, and the 1/4th and 1/5th Battalions, The Norfolk Regiment lost direction in the dust and smoke of the cloudy, hazy night. As a result, only small numbers reached Gibraltar and Crested Rock, from where they were quickly forced to withdraw. On the left, the attacks by the 161st Brigade were similarly weakened by loss of direction when the 1/5th Battalion, The Essex Regiment attacked Rafa Redoubt instead of Zowaiid trench. However, the 1/6th Battalion, The Essex Regiment attacked and captured Beach and Sea Posts before attacking the Rafa Redoubt and trench systems, suffering light casualties. In support, a tank rolled out wire as it drove along the front line from Sea Post to Beach Post. Cricket Redoubt was captured with the help of the tank from Beach Post; although the tank was temporarily disabled in the process. After being repaired, the tank was transporting some engineers' stores to Sheikh Hasan when it was hit and disabled again. Two reserve tanks were ordered forward carrying engineers' stores—including sandbags which were set on fire by hostile fire. > On the morning of the 2nd, Bulfin put in an attack, by the 54th and part of the 52nd Division, on the S.W. of Gaza. He got all his objectives, with the exception of a few yards of trench here and there ... The navy have given us great help. They are making splendid practice on the Gaza defences, and the railway bridge and junction at Deir Sineid. This is the result of careful preliminary work and close collaboration between land and sea. #### Phase four: 2 November On their right, the 1/10th Battalion, London Regiment (161st Brigade) finished capturing and consolidating the Rafa redoubt, which had only been partly captured by the 1/6th Battalion, The Essex Regiment. Without the assistance of tanks which had been put out of action, this battalion lost contact with the barrage and suffered heavy losses. Nevertheless, they captured Gun Hill and by 06:00 on 2 November they were preparing to attack Sheikh Hasan, which they captured fifteen minutes later along with 182 prisoners. Lion Trench, 0.75 miles (1.21 km) north-east of Sheikh Hasan, was attacked at 07:30 by the 1/4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment (162nd Brigade) with the objective of clearing a gap through which the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade could advance. However, 20 minutes after their successful attack, the Northamptonshire without artillery support were almost surrounded and forced to retreat to Sheikh Hasan on the coast. Here a strong counterattack was threatened by two regiments of reinforcements from the Ottoman 7th Division, which were advancing from Deir Sneid to the north and north-east. (See Falls Map 6 Coastal sector) These Ottoman reinforcements were stopped by accurate shelling by the Corps Heavy Artillery, which fired on a three thousand yards (2,700 m) line previously registered and by shelling from the monitors off the coast. A planned repeat of the Lion Trench attack was postponed when the 1/4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment attacked Yunis Trench instead. Although they captured the trench they were driven back by a counterattack. Throughout the remainder of the day, Ottoman heavy batteries shelled Sheikh Hasan, before the batteries were withdrawn during the night to the north-east of Gaza. During the night of 2/3 November, Ottoman troops strengthened their defences on Turtle Hill, facing Sheikh Hasan. The Third Battle of Gaza was never intended to capture the town, but to keep the garrison in place after the capture of Beersheba. Only the first line of Ottoman trenches had been the objectives of the XXI Corps, which used new infantry tactics, tanks and massed artillery organised in accordance with Western Front standards. Although all objectives had not been won, the operations had forced two regiments of the Ottoman 7th Division reserve to move away from Hareira and Sheria, forward to strengthen the Ottoman defences between Gaza and the sea. According to the British official historian, "The attack on the western defences of Gaza ... had fulfilled the Commander-in-Chief's object." The EEF had also inflicted severe losses on the Ottoman defenders; more than one thousand of whom the EEF buried in the captured trenches. The EEF captured twenty-eight officers, 418 soldiers, twenty-nine machine guns and seven trench mortars. During the fighting, the corps infantry had advanced about two miles (3.2 km) on a five thousand yards (4.6 km) front, and held their gains against repeated Ottoman counterattacks, although the attempt to create a gap for the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade to ride through was not successful. The front line defensive system on the south–west side of Gaza had been captured and the infantry occupied a position from which they could threaten "Ali Muntar and the rest of the defences in front of the town." The XXI Corps suffered 350 killed, 350 missing and two thousand wounded during this fighting. Many casualties were blamed on loss of direction and crowding in the captured trenches, which were too shallow. > This morning, at 3 o'clock, I attacked the SW front of the Gaza defences. We took them; on a front of some 6000 yards, and to a depth of some 1000 to 1500 yards. We now overlook Gaza; and my left is on the sea coast, NE of the town. The Navy cooperated with fire from the sea; and shot well. We've taken some 300 prisoners and some machine guns, so far. ### Air raids Air raids by the EEF were carried out during the night of 1/2 November, with twelve bombs being dropped on Gaza, and on 3 and 4 November, with air raids over the hills north of Beersheba. ## Aftermath ### 3–6 November During a Khamsin on 3 November while the bombardment of Gaza resumed, the 1/4th Battalion The Essex Regiment (161st Brigade, 54th Division, XXI Corps) attacked and captured Yunis trench at 04:30. However, they were heavily counterattacked and forced to withdraw. The following night, several strong Ottoman counterattacks were made on the 75th Division's position at Sheikh Abbas on the eastern side of Gaza, which were all stopped by machine gun and rifle fire. Meanwhile, the newly won position at Sheikh Hasan on the Ottoman right flank was consolidated. By 5 November 1917, the Ottoman XXII Corps commander in charge of the defence of Gaza, Colonel Refet Bele, was continuing to maintain the "integrity of the Gaza fortress", despite the Gaza garrison's artillery batteries having only about 300 shells left. These batteries had also been suffering from effective counter-battery fire from the EEF Heavy Artillery Groups. Refet had been warned the day before that evacuation may be necessary because of the loss of Beersheba, so plans were prepared for the complete withdrawal from the town during the night of 6/7 November, to a new defensive line on the Wadi Hesi. Falkenhayn commanding Yildirim Army Group realised that the Ottoman forces could not hold the EEF any longer, and he ordered the Eighth and Seventh Armies to withdraw about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). The first indications of the withdrawal were seen by EEF aerial reconnaissance, which reported Ottoman hospitals being moved back towards Mejdel. At midnight on 6/7 November, XXI Corps infantry patrols found Gaza had been evacuated by the Ottoman defenders. Until 6 November, German aircraft had rarely been seen over the Gaza lines, but that afternoon two R.E.8s and two B.E.12.as from No. 1 Squadron AFC patrolling and taking photographs were attacked and badly damaged by four Albatros aircraft. Meanwhile, the heavy EEF bombardment of the Ottoman line in the XXI Corps area at Gaza, which had resumed on 3 November, grew in intensity with the naval guns joining in on 5 and 6 November, and it reached its maximum intensity on 6 November. During the night of 6/7 November the XXI Corps was to launch an attack on Outpost Hill and the Yunus and Belah trench systems, after the main EEF attack on Hareira and Sheria began. This attack on the Wadi esh Sheria was to be "carried out in the most favourable circumstances" against only two Ottoman regiments holding the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) line. After launching the successful attack on 6 November against Hareira, the Sheria trenches were also attacked late in the day. These attacks were supported by renewed attacks in the Tel el Khuweilfe area at the eastern extremity of the Ottoman front line. During these attacks, the whole of the Kawukah trenches and part of the Rushdi system which protected Hareira Redoubt, were captured and the Ottoman defenders were forced to withdraw to the Hareira Redoubt. Late in the day a large part of the Sheria defences were also captured after Hareira was bypassed. Only Tel esh Sheria blocked the British advance and Allenby ordered the next day's attacks to continue on Tel esh Sheria, and to be renewed at Gaza. While these attacks took place on 6 November, EEF aircraft bombed Gaza, the main Ottoman positions behind the Kauwukah defences near Um Ameidat, and positions west of Sheria. Three air combats were also fought against three hostile aircraft during the day. Mejdel was also bombed by EEF aircraft. Allenby wrote: > We've had a successful day. We attacked the left of the Turkish positions, from N. of Beersheba, and have rolled them up as far as Sharia. The Turks fought well but have been badly defeated. Now, at 6 p.m., I am sending out orders to press in pursuit tomorrow. Gaza was not attacked; but I should not be surprised if this affected seriously her defenders. I am putting a lot of shell into them, and the Navy are still pounding them effectively. ### 7 November #### Occupation of Gaza The EEF's occupation of Gaza was not strongly resisted and a general advance during the morning of 7 November found the town abandoned. Orders for an attack at 04:50 by the 75th Division on Outpost Hill on the eastern side of Gaza had been issued; these were expanded to include Middlesex Hill and a 54th (East Anglian) Division attack on the Belah and Yunis trenches, and Turtle Hill in the coastal sector. However, by 04:35, two battalions each from the 161st and the 162nd Brigades (54th Division) supported by artillery had already advanced to occupy Lion and Tiger Trenches and Sheikh Redwan in the coastal sector to the north-north-west of Gaza. The advance by the 162nd Brigade took them through "the gardens and fields of Gaza to the main road northwards", when patrols sent into the city found it deserted. British artillery had destroyed all the homes of the 40,000 people who had lived in Gaza before the war. The 54th (East Anglian) Division subsequently took up a line stretching from the Jaffa road north of Sheikh Redwan to the Mediterranean sea. When the Ottoman withdrawal became apparent on 7 November, the Royal Flying Corps—which had been mainly involved in strategic reconnaissance for the 40th (Army) Wing, artillery registration and tactical photography for the 5th (Corps) Wing—began bombing and machine gun air raids. For seven days, they also made numerous air attacks on Ottoman infrastructure including aerodromes, transport, artillery, and retreating columns. #### Mounted breakthrough The 75th Division (XXI Corps) with the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade attached had been ordered to attack Outpost Hill on the eastern side of Gaza, and exploit any potential breakthrough. By 01:00 on 7 November, the 233rd Brigade (75th Division) had already occupied Outpost Hill, and as the brigade moved forward to occupy Green Hill and the Labyrinth at 05:00, they were only opposed by individual riflemen. By 07:00, the 233rd Brigade had patrols on Ali Muntar ridge, while on their right, the 234th Brigade found that the Beer trenches and Road Redoubt defending the Gaza to Beersheba road were still held in strength with machine guns. Throughout the day the Ottoman rearguards in Tank and Atawineh Redoubts continued to fire their artillery at the increasing numbers of EEF troops advancing behind both these Ottoman rearguard's flanks. However, by nightfall, the Beer trenches, and the Road and Tank Redoubts had been captured. The Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, which had been carrying out patrolling duties based at Tel el Jemmi, was ready to exploit a breakthrough at Gaza, and the Anzac and Australian Mounted Divisions were also prepared for a pursuit through a breach in the line at Sheria. At 09:00, the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade rode through the ruins of Gaza to reach Beit Hanun at 13:00, where they encountered part of the Gaza garrison defending a strong rearguard position on a ridge 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-east of Beit Hanun. The Hyderabad and Mysore Lancers had advanced through Jebaliya to link with the Glasgow, Lancashire, and Hertfordshire squadrons of the XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment, holding the high ground at Beit Lahl five miles (8.0 km) north of Gaza, where they threatened the Ottoman flank. While the Corps Cavalry Regiment captured Beit Lahia, the Hyderabad Lancers advanced at 15:00 to capture the ridge west of Beit Hanun at Sheikh Munam, but the village was strongly defended by numerous Ottoman machine gun detachments. Early in the afternoon, a regiment of the 4th Light Horse Brigade rode across to the north-west to link with the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, which had been out of contact with the XX Corps and the Desert Mounted Corps. The 12th Light Horse Regiment (4th Light Horse Brigade) met up with the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade one mile (1.6 km) east of Beit Hanun at 14:45. Here they delivered orders for the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade to attack the Ottoman rearguard on the Wadi el Hesi near Tumra to the north of Beit Hanun. (See sketch map showing the advance by the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade and the 52nd (Lowland) Division on 7 November 1917). By 16:55, the rearguard was reported to still be holding Beit Hanun, with concentrations of Ottoman forces at Al Majdal (also known as el Mejdel and Ashkelon) and Beit Duras. The lancers advanced from the east onto the ridge overlooking Beit Hanun, and despite meeting considerable resistance, captured the position. In the process, they secured twenty-three prisoners, some artillery pieces and a large quantity of ammunition. They also captured the town's water pumping machinery intact, but were forced to withdraw back to Jebaliye for water as the equipment ran on gas made from charcoal, which had to be converted before it could be used. #### Infantry pursuit While the 52nd (Lowland) Division was ordered by the XXI Corps to take up a line from the Jaffa road north of Sheikh Radwan to the sea on the northern outskirts of Gaza, the 157th Brigade (52nd Division) began the infantry pursuit by advancing along the shore, reaching Sheikh Hasan by 12:15. By 16:00, these troops were seen marching along the coast towards the mouth of the Wadi Hesi—the nearest likely defensive line north of Gaza. By dusk, the 157th Brigade had reached and crossed the Wadi el Hesi near its mouth seven miles (11 km) north of Gaza while the remainder of the XXI Corps occupied Gaza. Although dumps of rations, ammunition and engineer stores had been formed in concealed positions in the XXI Corps area before the battle, the corps was not in a position to move any distance. Almost all of their transport except ammunition tractors had been transferred to the XX Corps and the Desert Mounted Corps for their attack at the Battle of Beersheba. ### 8 November By the evening of 8 November, all the Ottoman positions of the Gaza to Beersheba line had been captured and the Eighth Army was in full retreat. In conjunction with the captures in the centre of the line at Sheria, the occupation of Gaza enabled a swift direct advance northwards, preventing a strong consolidation of the Wadi Hesi rearguard position. However, the Ottoman XXII Corps was not defeated at Gaza, but conducted a skillful, tactical retreat from the town, demonstrating both operational and tactical mobility. Late in the afternoon of 8 November, twenty-eight British and Australian aircraft flew over Huj, the headquarters of the Ottoman force, targeting German and Ottoman aerodromes, railway junctions, dumps, and troops in close formation with bombs and machine guns. Arak el Menshiye was raided twice during the day with two hundred bombs dropped, forty-eight hit ten hostile aircraft still on the ground. The next day, Et Tine was bombed, with at least nine hostile aircraft damaged. Virtually continual aerial attacks were made on railway stations, troops on the march and transport, while a German aircraft was shot down in flames near the Wadi Hesi.

Lonestar

American country music group

Lonestar (formerly known as Texassee) is an American country music group from Nashville, Tennessee. The group consists of Drew Womack (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (keyboards, acoustic guitar, background vocals), and Keech Rainwater (drums). Britt, Sams, and Rainwater co-founded the band in 1992 with original lead vocalist Richie McDonald and bass guitarist/vocalist John Rich. Rich exited the band in 1998 and went on to join Big Kenny as one-half of the duo Big & Rich. Since his departure, Lonestar has relied alternatingly on session and touring musicians for bass guitar accompaniment. McDonald exited the band in 2007 to record as a solo artist, and was replaced by former McAlyster vocalist Cody Collins before returning in 2011. McDonald left a second time in 2021 to join The Frontmen, with former Sons of the Desert lead vocalist Drew Womack replacing him. Lonestar has charted more than 20 singles on the Hot Country Songs chart, including 9 that reached No. 1: "No News", "Come Cryin' to Me", "Amazed", "Smile", "What About Now", "Tell Her", "I'm Already There", "My Front Porch Looking In", and "Mr. Mom". "Amazed" also charted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first country song to do so since "Islands in the Stream" in 1983. "Amazed" and "My Front Porch Looking In" were the top country songs of 1999 and 2003, respectively, on Billboard Year-End. The group has recorded seven albums, one EP, and a greatest hits package for the defunct BNA Records, and one album each for three different independent labels. Three of their albums have been certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The band's first two albums were defined by honky-tonk and neotraditionalist country influences, but subsequent albums largely drew from country pop. Along with his work with the band, McDonald has co-written singles for Clay Walker, The Wilkinsons, Billy Dean, and Sara Evans, in addition to singing guest vocals on Mindy McCready's 1996 single "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now". ## Foundation Lonestar began in 1992 as a band named Texassee. This portmanteau name was derived from the fact that all five members were natives of Texas, and met in Nashville, Tennessee's Opryland USA theme park. The original lineup consisted of lead singer/rhythm guitarist Richie McDonald (Lubbock), lead guitarist Michael Britt (Fort Worth), drummer Randy "Keech" Rainwater (Plano), keyboardist/rhythm guitarist Dean Sams (Garland), and bass guitarist/lead and background vocalist John Rich (Amarillo). Before Lonestar's foundation, Rainwater and Britt were members of the group Canyon, which recorded two albums for the independent 16th Avenue Records and charted in the country top 40 with "Hot Nights" in 1989. Soon after foundation, Texassee changed its name to Lonestar. The band first played at a concert in Nashville in 1993 and signed to BNA Records in January 1995. ## Musical career ### 1995–96: Lonestar Live and Lonestar Lonestar's first release for BNA was an extended play titled Lonestar Live, recorded at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville and issued in January 1995. Their debut single, "Tequila Talkin'", was released that August, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) chart. It was included on their self-titled debut album, which was released that October. Its producers were Don Cook (best known for his work with Brooks & Dunn) and songwriter Wally Wilson, with whom Rich wrote the track "I Love the Way You Do That". Other contributing songwriters included former solo artists Bill LaBounty, Rick Vincent, and Larry Boone. The next single, "No News", became the band's first No. 1, holding that position for three weeks in April 1996. A physical single release of "Tequila Talkin'" and "No News" as a double A-side also went to No. 22 on Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. After these two songs, "Runnin' Away with My Heart" also went to No. 8 on the country charts. It was followed by "When Cowboys Didn't Dance" (co-written by McDonald), which failed to reach the top 40, and "Heartbroke Every Day", the only single to feature Rich on lead vocals, at No. 18. Both of these songs had previously appeared on the Lonestar Live EP. Their chart runs both overlapped with then-labelmate Mindy McCready's "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now" (from her debut album Ten Thousand Angels), which featured McDonald as a backing vocalist and peaked at No. 18 as well. Lonestar was met with generally favorable reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic and Brian Wahlert of Country Standard Time both praised the band for having neotraditionalist country influences in their sound, with Wahlert also stating that the use of both Rich and McDonald on lead vocals gave the album "versatility". Rick Mitchell of New Country magazine was less positive, calling the band's sound "lite rock with a twang". In 1996, Lonestar won the Academy of Country Music award for Top New Vocal Group/Duet. ### 1997–98: Crazy Nights and departure of John Rich Lonestar's sixth chart single was "Come Cryin' to Me", which Rich and Wilson co-wrote with "No News" co-writer Mark D. Sanders. The song became the band's second No. 1 single in August 1997, two months after the release of its corresponding album, Crazy Nights. As with Lonestar, it was produced by Wilson and Cook. The next single, "You Walked In", was co-written by rock producer and songwriter Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It peaked at number 12 on the country charts and became the band's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 93. "Say When" and "Everything's Changed" followed it, with respective peaks at thirteen and two on the country music charts in 1998. The latter also went to number 95 on the Hot 100. Boone and Paul Nelson co-wrote both of these songs, collaborating with Rich on the former and McDonald on the latter. Also included on the album was a cover of Pure Prairie League's "Amie". Thom Owens gave the album a mixed review, saying that "Come Cryin' to Me" and the "Amie" cover were "solid", but criticizing the rest as "slick and bland". Shortly after the release of "Everything's Changed", Rich left the band, as they and their advisors felt that having two lead singers would be confusing to fans. Late in 1998, Keith Harling charted with "Coming Back for You", a song which Rich co-wrote with Wilson. Rich later charted two solo singles for BNA between 2000 and 2001, and recorded an album for the label titled Underneath the Same Moon, although it was not released at the time. In 2003, Rich began recording with Big Kenny as the duo Big & Rich, in addition to serving as a songwriter and producer for other country artists. ### 1999–2002: Lonely Grill, This Christmas Time, and I'm Already There After Rich departed from the band, the other four members began performing "unplugged" shows which included acoustic renditions of their songs. The band members also expressed a desire to "reinvent" their sound. They chose Dann Huff as their new producer, and added three members to their touring band: Robbie Cheuvront (bass guitar), Kurt Baumer (fiddle), and Jeremy Moyers (steel guitar). Lonely Grill was released in 1999. Huff produced all of the album, except for an acoustic version of "Everything's Changed", which Sam Ramage and Bob Wright produced. In Rich's absence, Cheuvront and session musician Mike Brignardello (with whom Huff previously recorded in the rock band Giant) alternated as bassists on the album. Although lead-off single "Saturday Night" failed to make the Top 40, its followup "Amazed" spent eight weeks at number 1 on the country charts. It would later reach number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well, becoming the first song to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot 100 charts since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream" in 1983. The song also peaked at number 2 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. In addition, "Amazed" was the number-one song on the 1999 Billboard Year-End chart for the country music format. All of the other singles from Lonely Grill ("Smile", "What About Now", and "Tell Her") reached the top of the country charts as well, and the album was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Erlewine found the album an improvement over Crazy Nights due to its combination of pop and country influences. "Smile" also achieved its number 1 peak on Hot Country Songs the same week that "Amazed" topped the Hot 100, making for the first time in Billboard chart history that an act had held the number one position on two different charts with two different songs. "Amazed" was also released as a single in England following its success in the States. Also in this album's timespan, McDonald co-wrote Clay Walker's "She's Always Right" and The Wilkinsons' "Jimmy's Got a Girlfriend", which were respectively released in 1999 and 2000. He worked with "No News" co-writer Phil Barnhart and Ed Hill on the former, and "What About Now" co-writers Ron Harbin and Anthony L. Smith on the latter. "Amazed" also gave the band its first Country Music Association nominations, for Single of the Year and Group of the Year. Lonestar's first Christmas album, This Christmas Time, was released in September 2000. It featured seven traditional Christmas songs, plus three original compositions: "If Every Day Could Be Christmas", "Reason for the Season", and the title track. The latter two songs were co-written by McDonald and Sams, respectively. The renditions of "Winter Wonderland", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", and "The Little Drummer Boy" included on this album all made the country charts in late 2000 based on Christmas airplay. Allmusic criticized the album as "an unfortunately slick and forgettable collection of holiday tunes, cloyingly done in a soulless pop-country style." I'm Already There, Lonestar's fourth album, was released in 2001. The same year, the band won the Country Music Association's award for Vocal Group of the Year. Serving as the lead single was the album's title track, which McDonald wrote with Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers. The song was inspired by McDonald's son, Rhett. It spent six weeks at number 1 on the country charts between June and July 2001, in addition to reaching number 24 on the Hot 100 and number 2 on the Adult Contemporary charts. After it, "With Me" peaked at number 10, "Not a Day Goes By" reached number 3, and the Mark McGuinn-penned "Unusually Unusual" went to number 12. The album received a platinum certification. Maria Konicki Dinoia of Allmusic compared the album favorably to the ballads on Lonely Grill, also praising McDonald's "vocal prowess." Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly was less favorable, saying that Huff's production was "generic". Also in 2001, the band announced a 30-date international tour with Jamie O'Neal and Blake Shelton. ### 2003–05: From There To Here: Greatest Hits and Let's Be Us Again BNA released Lonestar's first greatest hits package, From There to Here: Greatest Hits, in 2003. Three new songs were recorded for this album: "My Front Porch Looking In" (written by McDonald, Myers, and Don Pfrimmer), a cover of Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis", and "I Pray". The first two of these were both released as singles; "My Front Porch Looking In" went to number 1 and became the top country hit of 2003 on the Billboard Year-End charts, while the "Walking in Memphis" cover peaked at number 8. Let's Be Us Again was released in May 2004. This album produced three singles, all co-written by McDonald. The title track was the first, reaching number 4 on the country charts in mid-2004. "Mr. Mom" followed it, becoming their final number 1 by the end of the year. After it, "Class Reunion (That Used to Be Us)" peaked at number 16 in early 2005. Huff produced the entire album except for the closing track "Somebody's Someone", which the band produced by itself; although never released as a single, this song charted at number 53 on the country charts in mid-2004 due to unsolicited airplay. Also included on this album was "Let Them Be Little", co-written by McDonald and Billy Dean. Dean recorded his own version of the song for his 2005 album of the same name for Curb Records, and his version peaked at number 8 on the country charts in early 2005. Another track on Let's Be Us Again, "From There to Here", featured a guest vocal from Alabama lead singer Randy Owen. Erlewine praised the album for containing more up-tempo songs than its predecessors. Jeffrey B. Remz was less favorable, writing in Country Standard Time that "everything tends to have the same typical anthemic feel making it all sound so radio ready." ### 2005–06: Coming Home Coming Home followed in 2005. For this album, McDonald noted that Huff had told the band that he "didn't want to produce us anymore", so McDonald began searching for a new producer. In doing so, he purchased fifteen different albums at a Walmart to help in seeking a new producer, and chose Justin Niebank after hearing a demo that he produced for another group called BrittonJack. On July 19, 2005, Lonestar previewed the album at Sony Music Nashville's offices, accompanied by Moyers, Cheuvront, fiddler Rob Tyler, and BrittonJack member Jack Sizemore, who also co-wrote the track "Doghouse" on it. Only two singles were released from this album: "You're Like Comin' Home", which reached number 8, and "I'll Die Tryin'", which became their first single since "Saturday Night" to peak outside the top 40. Both of these songs were co-written by songwriter and producer Jeremy Stover, and both were previously recorded by Canadian country band Emerson Drive on their 2004 album What If? Erlewine wrote in Allmusic that Coming Home was a "perfectly dull set of songs of happy homes." Michael Sudhalter of Country Standard Time noted the presence of ballads comparable to the preceding albums, but also felt that most of the other content was comparable to the band's debut album. In early 2006, Sara Evans released the single "Coalmine" from her album Real Fine Place, which McDonald co-wrote with Roxie Dean and Ron Harbin. At a December 2006 concert in Corpus Christi, Texas, McDonald was unavailable while recovering from back surgery, so Josh Gracin sang lead vocals in his absence. ### 2006–11: Mountains, Party Heard Around the World, and departure of Richie McDonald Mountains was the band's final album for BNA. Released in late 2006, it was produced by Mark Bright, whose other production credits include Blackhawk, Rascal Flatts, and Carrie Underwood. Its title track, co-written by Larry Boone, went to number 10 on the country charts, while followup "Nothing to Prove" peaked at 51. Erlewine criticized the band for taking "fewer risks than ever" on the album. Billboard writer Ken Tucker praised the album for containing positive messages in the singles, while also noting the use of vocal harmony and country-rock instrumentation. Jeff Lincoln of Country Standard Time criticized some of the songs for overly "sensitive" lyrics, but felt that "Always in the Band", a song about a singer attempting to balance his career and family life, was "personal". In March 2007, Lonestar was dropped from BNA's roster due to declining sales. Guitarist Michael Britt attributes the group's commercial downfall in the mid-2000s to the label's choices in singles, saying in an interview with CMT, "I think we painted ourselves into a corner... They started putting out a bunch of family-type songs. I think that really pigeonholed us. The majority of the band didn't really want to continue doing that same thing. But that's what kept getting put out." McDonald also announced that he would be leaving the group at the end of 2007 to begin a solo career. Cody Collins, who had previously been the lead singer of the band McAlyster in 2000, was confirmed as his replacement. Lonestar's first release with Collins as lead singer was the 2007 Christmas music compilation titled My Christmas List, available exclusively at the restaurant and gift shop chain Cracker Barrel. Dan MacIntosh of Country Standard Time reviewed this album favorably, calling Collins' voice a "comfortable fit" while also praising the variety of arrangements given to traditional Christmas carols on the album. McDonald also released a Christmas album in late 2007, titled If Every Day Could Be Christmas. It was followed a year later by I Turn to You, a contemporary Christian music album released via Stroudavarious Records (later known as R&J Records). After this album, he had two chart singles in 2009, both peaking at number 51: "How Do I Just Stop" and "Six Foot Teddy Bear". The former appeared on his third solo album, Slow Down, which was released via Loremoma in 2010. The group's first single to feature Collins on lead vocals was "Let Me Love You", which was released in early 2008 on Saguaro Road Records. It is the first single from the album Party Heard Around the World, released on April 27, 2010, and produced by the band itself. A review in Country Standard Time criticized Collins' vocals as being too similar to those of Keith Urban, while also saying that it had "[a] lot of songs about love, life and relationships. The usual clichés you find in today's pop-country." Erlewine found little difference in the band's sound following the change to Collins, saying that "they're still gunning for a wide audience because commercialism simply is in their bones. The Lonestar name means nothing if the band isn't big, slick, and crowd-pleasing." ### 2011–2021: Life As We Know It and Never Enders Collins left in 2011 and McDonald returned to the group. To honor both his rejoining and the band's 20th anniversary, they began an international tour in 2012. Their first single after his rejoining was "The Countdown", released via 4 Star Records. It peaked at number 52 on the country charts in late 2012. The song is included on an album titled Life as We Know It, released on June 4, 2013. Erlewine was mixed toward the album's content, writing in Allmusic that it was "filled with bright, shiny songs about romance...infused with a genial fondness for everything that comes their way...All this sounds sweet enough in theory, but in execution, the calculation is a bit too apparent." Henry L. Carrigan Jr. of Country Standard Time wrote that it "is all about singing it loud, with one song barely distinguishable from another musically or thematically". In 2014, duo Haley & Michaels released "Just Another Love Song", which they wrote with McDonald. The song contains lyrical references to "Amazed", and features McDonald singing its chorus. Never Enders, Lonestar's tenth album, came out in 2016. The album's lead single and title track was delivered to country radio on March 17. Never Enders was released and distributed through Shanachie Entertainment on April 29. Erlewine was more positive toward this album than its predecessors, noting that "The songs may not be grabbers, but they're sturdy, melodic constructions given a lift by an enveloping, polished production that effectively softens the rougher edges of McDonald's voice; he's hardly gravelly, but he is nicely weathered." The album received a mixed review from Lincoln, who found some of the songwriting formulaic but also praised the melody of the title track and McDonald's singing voice. ### 2021–present: Richie McDonald's second departure On March 5, 2021, McDonald announced that he would again be departing Lonestar to pursue a career as a member of The Frontmen, which also consists of former Little Texas lead singer Tim Rushlow and Restless Heart lead singer Larry Stewart. McDonald was succeeded by Drew Womack, the former lead singer of Sons of the Desert, as Lonestar's new lead vocalist. In 2023, the band announced they would begin a new tour with Womack and would also release a new album titled Ten to 1. This album will feature all of the band's greatest hits re-recorded with Womack's vocals. The first such re-recording, of "Amazed", was issued in March 2023. ## Musical style Early on, the band's sound drew from honky-tonk and neotraditional country influences, but shifted more toward a country pop sound with subsequent albums. Erlewrine noted in a review of Let's Be Us Again that "Toward the end of the '90s, Lonestar decided to move firmly into the mainstream of contemporary country, leaving behind any hardcore country influences they may have had in favor of sweet anthemic ballads and poppy country-rockers." He had previously compared their debut album to Merle Haggard and George Jones, while a review of the same in Country Standard Time said that the band seemed "very similar to Shenandoah — energetic and fun, but not spectacular." The same review praised the same album for having "clever wordplay" on "No News" and prominent fiddle and steel guitar on "Runnin' Away with My Heart". Allmusic writer Thom Owens found the second album "veering toward smooth, Eagles-influenced contemporary country". Of Lonely Grill, Erlewine also stated that "Lonestar began as a fairly straight-ahead country band, indebted to pure honky tonk. With their second record, they moved themselves toward pop and, ironically, it didn't pay off in great dividends, even if it spawned a Top 10 single. For their third album, Lonely Grill, they take a middle ground, moving back toward hardcore country while retaining elements of the pop sheen of Crazy Nights." That album's "Amazed" also became a popular choice for fans to play at their weddings, while also becoming their first song to enter Adult Contemporary playlists. Dinoia noted that I'm Already There continued to emphasize the band's focus on "passionate ballads" as exemplified by "Amazed", while Jeffrey B. Remz of Country Standard Time described the same album's sound as "satisfactory music that is squarely in the country light category, but never really goes beyond that." He also noted in a review of Let's Be Us Again that the "big sound" achieved on that album and the ones immediately before it was the result of Huff's production style. For the Coming Home album, the band members said that they wanted to achieve a sound with more "edge" and less influenced by such ballads. As is typical of country music bands, most of their albums featured session musicians instead of having the individual members play most of the instruments themselves. New Country magazine's review of their debut album criticized the band's sound for this reason, while Andrew W. Griffin of Country Standard Time also noted the effect on the band's overall sound: "McDonald's voice made Lonestar. It's a good voice. Full of passion and country-embracing enthusiasm. As for his band mates, Lonestar relied way too much on sidemen to have developed a discernible sound of their own." ## Television appearances McDonald competed on one episode of the television game show Wheel of Fortune recorded at the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville and aired in February 2003. The episode was part of a special week that paired contestants with country music singers, who made donations to charity equivalent to their respective contestants' winnings. For his episode, McDonald donated to Habitat for Humanity. All four members of Lonestar appeared on separate episodes of the same game show that aired in February 2007, during another week with identical gameplay and payouts. McDonald and Britt both won the bonus round, respectively donating \$61,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and \$59,350 for Adopt-a-Platoon, while Sams and Rainwater won \$10,000 each for charities. The group also appeared on The Price Is Right, serving as the house band on the episode that aired June 17, 2010. They performed the show's theme song, along with a sample of songs from Party Heard Around the World. ## Personnel Current members - Drew Womack (born July 8, 1970) - lead vocals, acoustic guitar (2021-present) - Michael Britt (born June 15, 1966) - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, background vocals (1992–present) - Dean Sams (born August 3, 1966) - keyboards, acoustic guitar, harmonica, background vocals (1992–present) - Randy "Keech" Rainwater (born January 24, 1963) - drums (1992–present) Former members - Richie McDonald (born February 6, 1962) - lead vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards (1992–2008, 2011–2021) - John Rich (born January 7, 1974) - bass guitar, lead and background vocals (1992–1998) - Cody Collins (born June 1, 1984) - lead vocals, acoustic guitar (2008–2011) Current touring musicians - Robby Wilson- bass guitar, vocals Former touring musicians - Kurt Baumer - fiddle - Robbie Cheuvront - bass guitar - Jeremy Moyers - steel guitar ## Discography ### Albums - Lonestar (1995) - Crazy Nights (1997) - Lonely Grill (1999) - I'm Already There (2001) - Let's Be Us Again (2004) - Coming Home (2005) - Mountains (2006) - Party Heard Around the World (2010) - Life as We Know It (2013) - Never Enders (2016) Number-one singles (Billboard Hot Country Songs) - "No News" (1996) - "Come Cryin' to Me" (1997) - "Amazed" (1999) - "Smile" (1999) - "What About Now" (2000) - "Tell Her" (2000-2001) - "I'm Already There" (2001) - "My Front Porch Looking In" (2003) - "Mr. Mom" (2004)

Hubert Pierlot

Belgian politician and 32nd Prime Minister of Belgium

Hubert Marie Eugène Pierlot (, 23 December 1883 – 13 December 1963) was a Belgian politician and Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1939 and 1945. Pierlot, a lawyer and jurist, served in World War I before entering politics in the 1920s. A member of the Catholic Party, Pierlot became Prime Minister in 1939, shortly before Belgium entered World War II. In this capacity, he headed the Belgian government in exile, first from France and later Britain, while Belgium was under German occupation. During the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, a violent disagreement broke out between Pierlot and King Leopold III over whether the King should follow the orders of his ministers and go into exile or surrender to the German Army. Pierlot considered Leopold's subsequent surrender a breach of the Constitution and encouraged the parliament to declare Leopold unfit to reign. The confrontation provoked a lasting animosity between Pierlot and other conservatives, who supported the King's position and considered the government's exile to be cowardly. While in exile in London between 1940 and 1944, Pierlot served as both the prime minister of Belgium and minister of Defence and played an important role in wartime negotiations between the Allied powers, laying the foundation for Belgian post-war reconstruction. After the liberation of Belgium in September 1944, Pierlot returned to Brussels where, against his wishes, he headed a fresh government of national unity until February 1945. Criticism from the political left and the failure of the new government to deal with the serious issues facing the country following the liberation led to the fall of the government in February 1945 and he was replaced by the socialist Achille Van Acker. Pierlot's stance against Leopold III during the war made him a controversial figure during his lifetime and he was widely disliked in the same royalist and conservative circles from which his own Catholic Party (later the Christian Social Party) drew most of its support. He retired from politics in 1946 amid the crisis of the Royal Question, surrounding whether Leopold could return to the Belgian throne, and died peacefully in 1963. After his death, Pierlot's reputation improved as the decisions he took during the war were reconsidered by historians. ## Birth and early career Pierlot was born in Cugnon, a small village between Bertrix and Bouillon, in the Belgian Province of Luxembourg on 23 December 1883. His parents belonged to an eminent and wealthy Catholic family which was part of the Belgian conservative establishment. His brother, Jean Pierlot, would later become a member of the Belgian Resistance during the war and died in a German concentration camp in 1944. Hubert Pierlot was educated in religious schools in Maredsous and later attended the prestigious Jesuit Collège Saint-Michel secondary school in Brussels. He studied at the Catholic University of Louvain where he received a licence in Political Science and a doctorate in Law. During his early life, he travelled to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He later married Marie-Louise ( De Kinder) and had seven children. With the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914, he volunteered for the Belgian infantry as a private. He served at the Battle of the Yser and on the Yser Front where he was decorated for valour. By the end of the war, he had reached the rank of Lieutenant and was serving in the 20th Regiment of the Line. After the war, Pierlot joined the Catholic Party (Parti catholique), the main centre-right party in Belgium and one of the three that dominated Belgian political life. The Catholic Party, which was considered the party of stability and the establishment, was extremely electorally successful during the interwar period and headed a series of coalition governments. On 23 December 1925, Pierlot entered parliament as a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing Neufchâteau-Virton but left just a week later to become a senator. He served as provincial senator for Luxembourg from 1926 to 1936 and as directly elected senator for the same province between 1936 and 1946. He received a reputation for his oratorical abilities and for personal sincerity during the late 1920s. In the successive Catholic government of the interwar period, he served as the minister of Internal Affairs (1934–35), minister of Agriculture (1934–35; 1936–39), and minister of Foreign Affairs (1939). He first led a coalition of Catholics and Socialists, and then one of Catholics and Liberals. ## As Prime Minister During the interwar period, Belgium pursued a policy of political neutrality and attempted to avoid confrontation with Nazi Germany. When the Phoney War broke out, Pierlot became the leader of a tripartite national government of Catholics, Liberals and Socialists which stayed in power until the German invasion in May 1940. ### Break with Leopold III During the fighting in May 1940, the Pierlot government came into conflict with King Leopold III who had taken personal command of the Belgian Army. The first confrontation between the government and the King occurred on 10 May, when the King, against the wishes of the government, left for his military headquarters without addressing the Chamber of Representatives like his father, Albert I, had done in 1914. Contact between the King and the government became sporadic while the government feared that the King was acting beyond his constitutional powers. Like his father, Leopold was subject to Article 64 of the constitution which specified that no act of the King was valid unless counter-signed by a government minister, yet also given supreme power in military matters under Article 68. The two clauses appeared to contradict each other and gave all the king's acts in military-political matters an unclear constitutional footing. As the Belgian forces, together with their French and British allies, were forced to retreat, Leopold decided that surrendering the army was the only viable course of action. On 24 May, as the government was leaving the country for exile in France, a group of ministers including Pierlot held a final meeting with Leopold at the Kasteel van Wijnendale. They called for him to follow the example of the Norwegian king, Haakon VII, and join them in exile as a symbol of continued resistance. Leopold refused, believing that as commander, he should surrender alongside his army, provoking real animosity. He also believed that, by leaving for France, the Belgian government would surrender its neutrality and become a puppet government. He also believed that, as a neutral power with no formal treaty of alliance with France or Britain, the Belgian army was not obliged to hold out as long as it possibly could if it incurred huge casualties and had no chance of defending its own territory. On 28 May, after a brief attempt to form a new government of sympathetic politicians under Henri de Man and after denouncing Pierlot and his government, Leopold surrendered to the Germans and was made a prisoner of war. Leopold's decision to surrender was seized on by the British and French press who blamed him for the military situation. The Belgian government met in Paris on 26 May and invoked Article 82 of the Constitution, declaring the monarch unable to reign (dans l'impossibilité de régner), and resolved to continue the fight against Germany. The following day, Pierlot held an important meeting with the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, in which the French premier called for the Belgian government to publicly denounce the King and his surrender. Following the meeting, Pierlot gave a radio speech denouncing the King whom he accused of acting unconstitutionally and in sympathy with the Germans. Before being broadcast, Pierlot's speech was heavily edited by the French minister Georges Mandel to ensure a position favorable to the French. The denunciation of the King, who was popular across most strata of Belgian society and supported by the church, led to a big loss of public support and alienated Pierlot from his supporters and party. ### Exile government in France The government met in Limoges and then withdrew to Poitiers and Bordeaux, but as the French military situation deteriorated, became split over what should happen. The government was split between those who supported staying in France or staying with the French government and those who supported withdrawing to the United Kingdom. Pierlot supported retreating to London, but was keen to preserve the unity of his government, most of which supported remaining in France. Hoping to keep the Belgian Congo under Belgian sovereignty, Pierlot allowed the Minister of the Colonies, Albert de Vleeschauwer, to leave France while the government met to consider whether it should resign to make way for a new constitutional authority in occupied Brussels. Fearing a surrender to the Germans, Marcel-Henri Jaspar, a junior minister, left France for London where, together with Camille Huysmans, he appeared to form a rebel government or Belgian National Committee (Comité national belge) condemned by the official government. De Vleeschauwer arrived in London, where he was joined by Camille Gutt, the Minister of Finances, to deal with the threat. Pierlot remained in France. De Vleeschauwer travelled to neutral Spain where, at Le Perthus on the French-Spanish border, he met with Pierlot and Paul-Henri Spaak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to attempt to persuade them to join him in London. Pierlot refused. Continued negotiations with the new Vichy government of Philippe Pétain proved fruitless. In August 1940, under pressure from the Germans, the French broke off diplomatic relations with the Belgian government and ordered it to disband. On 22 August, Pierlot and Spaak received the permission of the government to leave for London while the rest of the government remained in France. Pierlot and Spaak, together with Pierlot's family, crossed into Francoist Spain with an official visa, but were arrested in Barcelona and held under house arrest in a hotel. On 18 October, they escaped from confinement and headed for Portugal where the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, although neutral, was more sympathetic to the Allied cause than Spain. They finally arrived in London on 22 October. ### Exile government in London Shortly after his arrived in London, during the middle of the Blitz, Pierlot narrowly avoided being killed when the Carlton Hotel, where he was staying, was destroyed in bombing in November 1940. The arrival of Pierlot and Spaak officially began the period of the "Government of Four" (Pierlot, Spaak, Gutt and De Vleeschauwer) which formed the core of the Belgian government in exile. Nonetheless, the Foreign Office distrusted Pierlot for not leaving France sooner. The Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, is said to have remarked that "Pierlot is not impressive, but he is legitimate". Pierlot's status as the last elected Prime Minister did however provided sufficient legitimacy for the official government to undermine the Jaspar-Huysmans government in the eyes of the British government and achieve officially-approved status. The government in exile received full diplomatic recognition from the Allied countries. The bulk of the Belgian government was installed in Eaton Square in the Belgravia area of London, which before the war had been the location of the Belgian Embassy. Other government departments were installed in nearby Hobart Place, Belgrave Square and in Knightsbridge. By May 1941, there were nearly 750 people working in the government in London in all capacities. The government in exile directed the formation of the Free Belgian Forces and was negotiated with the Resistance and other Allied governments. The government in exile also controlled much of Belgium's gold reserves, which had been evacuated before the defeat, which it loaned to the British and American governments. It was also involved in coordinating the war effort of the Belgian Congo which was an important source of raw materials, like uranium, to the Allies. From early in the war, the government was able to make contact with Leopold, through various intermediaries, but was unable to create a full reconciliation between the royal and Pierlot factions. On 28 April 1941, Pierlot's two eldest children were travelling to their boarding school when the train they were on caught fire near Westborough, Lincolnshire. Both were killed. Pierlot was one of the chief supporters of the Benelux Customs Union negotiated with both the Dutch and Luxembourgish governments in exile and signed in September 1944. Unlike Spaak, who was a staunch supporter of greater cooperation between states in Western Europe, Pierlot supported a transatlantic alliance with the United States to guarantee Belgian independence after the end of the war. #### Defence ministry crisis From its inception, the position of Minister of Defence in the government in exile was heavily contested. The appointment of Henri Rolin, an academic, to the position was particularly resented. In October 1942, Pierlot dismissed Rolin who he accused of involving himself in factional internal politics of the army, parts of which had begun to behave mutinously about their perceived inaction. To resolve the deadlock, Pierlot decided to take on the position personally. He began a major restructuring of the command structure of the infantry in an ultimately successful attempt to resolve the situation. A minor mutiny among soldiers from an artillery battery was quickly suppressed in November 1942, but Pierlot was widely criticised by the British press during the soldiers' court martial in January 1943. In 1944, Pierlot began drawing up plans for the reorganization of the Belgian Army after the liberation, known as the Pierlot Plan (Plan Pierlot). The plan called for the formation of two brigades of infantry, six battalions of fusiliers, logistics and support units in Belgium immediately after liberation in order to fight alongside Allied troops during an invasion of Germany. In the longer term, these troops would form the core of a new division around which more troops could be raised. ### Liberation governments The liberation of Belgium begun in September 1944 as Allied forces moved eastwards. Brussels was liberated on 3 September. On 8 September, Pierlot and the government in exile arrived in the city by aeroplane. The return of the government was met with general indifference by the population, which felt the government had been indifferent to the plight of the population during the occupation. Parliament met for the first time since 1940 on 19 September 1944 in which Pierlot presented a summary of the government's actions in Britain during the occupation. One of the first acts of the government was to make Prince Charles, Leopold's brother, the prince regent on 20 September. On 26 September, a new liberation government of national unity was created. Because of a shortage of candidates, Pierlot continued to head it. The new government included members of the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-KPB) for the first time. It presided over the eventual liberation of all of Belgium, delayed by a German offensive in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944. The government was weakened by continued problems with the national food supply in the winter of 1944 which caused popular discontent. During this period, the government was involved in launching Gutt's monetary reform plan as well as the disarming of the resistance as part of the transition to stability. A major crisis emerged within the government over the refusal of the Front de l'Indépendance (FI-OF) and the Partisans Armés (PA), two large left-wing resistance groups, to disband and disarm. Pierlot, suspicious of their motivations, came into confrontation with the Communists. The three Communist ministers resigned from the government, and the party began agitating against Pierlot. Amid fears of a Communist coup d'état, parliament voted through emergency powers allowing the Gendarmerie to forcibly disarm the resistance though sporadic strikes continued. The government also voted through important social security reforms. Continued problems with the food supply, coupled the unpopularity of some of the government's measures, led to widespread press criticism of the Pierlot government. Strikes across the country in February 1945 further destabilised the government. On 7 February 1945, Pierlot publicly defended the actions of the government in parliament, but failed to make a significant impression. The government fell in February, and was replaced by a new, short-lived national union government under Achille Van Acker while the polemic surrounding the possible dismissal or restatement of Leopold III were considered. ## Later life and death After the fall of his government, Pierlot returned to his position as senator of the arrondissements of Arlon, Marche-en-Famenne, Bastogne, Neufchâteau and Virton until the elections of February 1946. In September 1945, Pierlot was appointed to the honorary role of Minister of State by Charles and, shortly after the 1946 election, was awarded the title of Count. Because he was considered an anti-Leopoldist during the crisis surrounding the Royal Question, he was ostracised by the pro-Leopoldist successor to the Catholic Party, the Christian Social Party (Parti social-chrétien or PSC-CVP). Retiring from politics, Pierlot returned to practicing law in Brussels. In 1946, a book entitled the Livre Blanc (White Book) was published at the request of Leopold, defending the King and attacking the exile government's record. Responding to the criticism, Pierlot published a widely distributed series of articles in the newspaper Le Soir. He remained a controversial figure. King Baudouin, replacing his father as King in 1950, also refused to receive Pierlot at the palace. After 1947, he refused to return to politics or to respond publicly to criticism from his political enemies. Pierlot died in Uccle, a wealthy suburb of Brussels, on 13 December 1963, ten days before his 80th birthday. He is buried in Cugnon. A charitable organisation, the Fondation Hubert Pierlot (Hubert Pierlot Foundation), was established by friends of Pierlot in 1966. ## Posthumous rehabilitation After his death, Pierlot's political reputation was reappraised by historians who reconsidered the decisions he took during his wartime government. He was notably praised by his colleague, Paul-Henri Spaak who later became first President of the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary General of NATO, and one of the founding fathers of the European Union. In his 1969 memoires, Spaak praised Pierlot as "serious to the point of severity, honest to the point of scrupulosity, a tireless worker, a devout Christian, a patriot, a model of civic, professional, and family virtues, he was an exceptional man."

Thunder Force IV

1992 shoot 'em up video game

known in North America as Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar, is a shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Technosoft for the Mega Drive in 1992. It is the fourth installment in Technosoft's Thunder Force series, and the third and final one created for the Mega Drive. It was developed by the team at Technosoft that ported Devil's Crush to the Mega Drive rather than the team that developed the previous Thunder Force games. Like its predecessors, it is a horizontally scrolling shooter, but it also features extensive vertical scrolling with large playing fields. The game was considered by journalists as one of the best shooters on the Mega Drive when it was launched. Critics especially praised the game's graphics, including the vertical and parallax scrolling for illustrating the immense environments. Some believed that underneath the graphical sheen, the gameplay was relatively average however. Thunder Force IV was rereleased on the Sega Saturn in 1996 and the Nintendo Switch in 2018. ## Gameplay Thunder Force IV is a horizontal shoot 'em up. The story takes place two years after the events of Thunder Force III. The player takes on the role of a fighter pilot to battle the Orn Empire, which is plotting the extinction of the human race. The first four stages can be selected in any order. There are ten stages total. They scroll horizontally automatically, and the player can also explore up and down to scroll the screen vertically and reveal a larger playing field. The player can change the speed of their ship at any time for easier maneuverability. Scrolling up and down will reveal different waves of enemies the player can shoot down, as well as hidden power-ups. At the end of each stage is a boss, and sometimes there are bosses mid-stage. Some enemies will drop power-ups that if picked up by the player will arm the ship with new weaponry, including a variety of missiles and lasers that fire in different patterns. Each weapon has advantages and drawbacks, and is more or less effective depending on the battle situation the player finds themselves in. The player can hold multiple weapons and cycle through them at will. Other power-ups include shields and satellite ships that revolve around their ship and multiply their firepower. Half-way through the game, the player gains a powerful "Thunder Sword" attack which deals massive damage to enemies. It requires that the player have two satellite ships. ## Development Thunder Force IV was developed in Japan by Technosoft as the third Thunder Force game for the Mega Drive. Only the sound department was brought over from the original staff of Thunder Force II (1988) and Thunder Force III (1990); the rest of the team had previously ported the pinball game Devil's Crush to the Mega Drive. They chose to develop Thunder Force IV when given the opportunity to develop an original game. Having taken the reins for the Thunder Force series, the team felt a responsibility to surpass the quality of earlier series titles. They borrowed code from the previous games, and built upon it using what they learned when porting Devil's Crush. The composer for Thunder Force IV previously worked on Thunder Force III and also composed some original music for Devil's Crush. The sound team staff, led by Naosuke Arai, were fans of heavy metal, so they worked on finding a method to create an electric guitar sound using the Mega Drive's FM synthesizer. They ran into difficulties and eventually settled on using the system's distortion sound effects to positive results. ## Release Technosoft held a promotional event for the game at a convention in Tokyo on June 7, 1992. The event included a tournament, giving fans an early opportunity to play the game. The game was released in Japan on July 24, and in Europe and North America in January 1993. Sega of America renamed the North American version to Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar [sic]. The game was ported to the Sega Saturn as a part of Thunder Force: Gold Pack 2, a compilation disc released on November 29, 1996, in Japan. The compilation also includes Thunder Force AC (an arcade port of Thunder Force III). This version improved on the original by eliminating sluggish frame rate issues, adding an easier mode which gives the player bonus defensive abilities, as well as adding the fighter from Thunder Force III as a secret playable ship. In 2016, Sega acquired the rights to the Thunder Force series. Two years later, the game was released on September 20, 2018, along with Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) on Nintendo Switch and other Sega games under the Sega Ages brand. Players can choose between the Japanese and international versions and take advantage of the improvements and other features from the Saturn port. ## Reception Thunder Force IV was quickly identified as one of the best Mega Drive shooters when it was released. Critics agreed that the graphics were one of the game's best qualities. Mean Machines called them "state of the art" and highlighted the vertical scrolling for "evoking a sense of vastness". The vertical scrolling also impressed other journalists. Mega wrote that the landscapes were expansive, and appreciated the parallax scrolling effects. The parallax scrolling was also picked up by Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, which called it "the most stunning use of parallax ever seen on the 16-bit Sega". They believed the game pushed the technical capabilities of the Mega Drive. Other visual aspects highlighted by critics included the large sprites and smooth animation. Most critics liked the music and sound effects as well. Mega disliked the music, calling it "aimless, twittery, Japanese meanderings". GameFan called the graphics and sound great quality considering the game was on a cartridge and not a CD. The graphical quality came at a cost however, as some reviewers experienced slow frame rate issues when the screen was busy with action. The high quality presentation of Thunder Force IV was not enough to cover up some concerns with its gameplay. While most critics enjoyed the game, even calling it "addictive" and "pure adrenaline", some thought the game lacked originality and felt like an average shooter. Mean Machines wrote that it was similar to Thunder Force III and called it ""the best shoot 'em up you'll get on the Mega Drive, but suffers from complete lack of originality. This is the genre taken to its extreme". Sega Force agreed that it was similar to the earlier Thunder Force games. Mega added on to this, saying "beneath the graphical gymnastics of the surface, the game really is...decidedly average". Critics that were more receptive to the gameplay commended the level of difficulty, the ability to pick the stage order, and the variety of weapons and power-ups. ### Retrospective coverage Thunder Force IV continues to be regarded as one of the best shoot 'em ups of its era. IGN rated it as the fourth best classic shoot 'em up, calling it Technosoft's best shooter and "the pinnacle of Genesis shooters". Retro Gamer placed it among their top ten Mega Drive games, praising its sense of scale, exotic environments, frenetic action, and graphical fidelity. In another review, Retro Gamer called Thunder Force IV "Technosoft's masterpiece" and an essential game for shooter fans. Both USGamer and Hardcore Gaming 101 discussed the game's presentation in high regard. At Kotaku, Peter Tieryas described it as "the ultimate adrenaline rush and hands down one of the best shooters on the Sega Genesis". Paul Brownlee, writing for Hardcore Gaming 101, called it one of the best looking Mega Drive games and said of the soundtrack: "It's one of the best on the system from both an artistic and technical standpoint, standing among greats such as Streets of Rage 2 and MUSHA".

Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo

Indonesian badminton player

Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (born 2 August 1995) is an Indonesian badminton player who was formerly ranked world number 1 in the men's doubles by the Badminton World Federation. He plays for PB Djarum, and has been a member of the club since 2007. He won the men's doubles titles at the All England Open in 2017 and 2018; World Superseries Finals in 2017; and at the Asian Games in 2018. He also featured in the Indonesia winning team at the SEA Games in 2015; Asia Team Championships in 2018 and 2020; and at the Thomas Cup in 2020. Together with his current partner, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, they were awarded the BWF Best Male Players of the Year for two years in a row after collecting seven Superseries titles in 2017 and eight World Tour titles in 2018. Sukamuljo and Gideon are often referred to as "the Minions" because of their below average height and for their fast and agile playing style, jumping and bouncing just like the Minions in the film Despicable Me. Gillian Clark, a BWF commentator, stated that the fast play shown by Sukamuljo and Gideon have taken the men's doubles game to a new level and makes the matches more exciting to watch. ## Early and personal life Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo was born on 2 August 1995 in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, to parents Sugiarto Sukamuljo and Winartin Niawati of Chinese Indonesians ethnicity. He is the nephew of former world number 1 men's doubles player, Alvent Yulianto. Sukamuljo started to learn about badminton at two and a half years, by seeing his father play on the court behind their house. Noticing young Sukamuljo's interest in badminton, his father then found a coach in Jember at the Putra 46 club to foster his child's talent for a year. Sukamuljo later entered the Sari Agung club in Banyuwangi and in 2006, at the age of eleven, he won a Graha Bhakti Cup tournament. Recognizing his talent, Sukamuljo's parents encouraged him to join a bigger club. He then took part at the general auditions scholarship held by PB Djarum, but failed due to his small physique. However, he refused to give up, and began training everyday, instead of his usual 4 days a week routine. With these additional hours, he finally managed to pass the audition at PB Djarum in 2007. After joining PB Djarum, Sukamuljo went through defeat after defeat. At first, Sukamuljo played in the men's singles discipline. However, he was then turned toward the doubles disciplines, experimenting with both the men's and mixed doubles. Initially, he and his parents resisted this turn toward specialization in doubles, but men's doubles coach Ade Lukas believed that this was where Sukamuljo's skills and abilities would be best utilized. After a year of training in doubles, he showed progress and had great expectations going forward. In January 2022, Sukamuljo revealed his romantic relationship with entrepreneur Valencia Tanoesoedibjo, the second daughter of Indonesian media businessman and politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo, after much speculation from the public from around December 2021. The two were officially engaged in August 2022, in which Sukamuljo proposed to Tanoesoedibjo at the Jakarta International Stadium. The couple got married on March 23, 2023 in Paris, France. Sukamuljo's teammates Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto were present as groomsmen in the ceremony. ## Career ### 2010–2013: Junior and early senior career In the PB Djarum club, Sukamuljo was trained by Sigit Budiarto. He won some National Circuit tournaments in his age group with different partners. In 2010, he won the Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, Pekanbaru, and Jakarta circuits, and also the Candra Wijaya men's doubles championships. In 2011, he won the Jakarta circuit and Pertamina Open. He represented Indonesia at the 2011 ASEAN School Games held at the Yio Chu Kang Sports Hall, Singapore, and won a gold in the mixed doubles with Aris Budiharti, and a silver in the boys' doubles with Felix Kinalsal. In July 2011, just before turning 16, Sukamuljo qualified to compete in the international senior age group, by reaching the finals of the Singapore International Series tournament partnered with Lukhi Apri Nugroho. He also played at the World Junior Championships held in Taoyuan City, but was eliminated in the quarter-finals in the boys' doubles event with his partner Nugroho. In 2012, Sukamuljo won the U-19 National tournament the Jakarta Open and West Java circuits, also the Candra Wijaya men's doubles championships. In July, he won a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships in the boys' doubles event with Alfian Eko Prasetya. He was named as the "future athlete" at the Tangkas Specs Junior Challenge after showing a good performance and finished as runner-up in that tournament. In August, he was ranked as number 1 in the BWF World Junior Ranking. In October–November, he competed at the World Junior Championships held in Chiba, Japan, but lost in the early stages of both the boys' and mixed doubles events. In December, he clinched the boys' doubles title at the Junior National Championships with Rafiddias Akhdan Nugroho. In 2013, Sukamuljo was selected to join the national men's doubles team squad. He started the season by competing in Vietnam International Challenge partnered with Rafiddias Akhdan Nugroho, but lost in the quarter-finals to the Hong Kong pair Chan Yun Lung and Wong Wai Hong in a close rubber game. In May, he won the West Java circuit tournament teamed with Hafiz Faizal. In July, he competed at the Asian Junior Championships held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, and captured bronze medals in the mixed team and boys' doubles events partnered with Arya Maulana Aldiartama. Turning eighteen in August, he won the mixed doubles title at the Tangkas Specs Junior International Challenge with Masita Mahmudin. In October–November, he participated at the World Junior Championships in Bangkok, Thailand where he helped Indonesia to win the silver medal in the mixed team event. In the individual tournament he earned mixed doubles silver with Mahmudin, losing the final match to the Chinese pair Huang Kaixiang and Chen Qingchen, whom they had beaten the previous week in the semifinals of team play. ### 2014–2016: From International Challenge to Superseries titles Sukamuljo began the 2014 season playing with a new partner, Selvanus Geh, and won his very first tournament with Geh, the Vietnam International Challenge by beating Australians Robin Middleton and Ross Smith in the finals. In his second month playing with Geh, he captured his first Grand Prix doubles title at the New Zealand Open, when he and Geh upset the second seeds from Chinese Taipei Chen Hung-ling and Lu Chia-pin in the finals. In June, he competed against the world's best players at the Indonesia Open paired with Geh and with Greysia Polii in mixed doubles . Starting from the qualification round in both events, he was stopped in the second round of the main draw in both, but in the first round of mixed doubles, he and Polii put out the defending champions and world number ones Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, 15–21, 21–18, 23–21. In July, Sukamuljo and Geh reached the quarterfinals of the Chinese Taipei Open. In September, they reached their first Grand Prix Gold final as a team at the Indonesia Masters where they were beaten in three games by Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and doubles great Markis Kido the top seeds. Sukamuljo then won his third title with Geh at the Bulgarian International defeating compatriots Ronald Alexander and Edi Subaktiar in the final. Sukamuljo's mixed doubles partnerships with Della Destiara Haris and Maretha Dea Giovani were less successful reaching no farther than the quarterfinals of any 2014 tournament. In December Sukamuljo joined Indonesia's team for the Axiata Cup in Kuala Lumpur, but the squad was narrowly edged by Thailand. In 2015, head coach of the Indonesia national men's doubles juniors, Chafidz Yusuf, paired Sukamuljo with Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, because Selvanus Geh had to resign from the national team due to illness. The new partnership opened the season in Europe playing at the All England and Swiss Open. In England they reached the quarterfinals before falling to the Danish pair Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding, Partnered with Greysia Polii, Sukamuljo lost in the second round of mixed double to fifth seeds Chris and Gabby Adcock. In Switzerland, he and Gideon were stopped in the semi-finals by the Malaysian pair Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong. Sukamuljo then took part in the Sudirman Cup held in Dongguan, China, where Indonesia settled for a bronze medal. At the June SEA Games in Singapore, he helped his team win the gold medal, and in the individual men's doubles event, he and Gideon captured the silver medal. In July, Sukamuljo and Gideon competing as an unseeded pair in the Chinese Taipei Open, and the duo reached the final by defeating then World Champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, but they failed to take the title, losing the final tamely to Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan. After this tournament, Indonesian badminton fans dub them as "the Minions" because of their below average height and for their fast and agile playing style, jumping and bouncing just like the Minions in the film Despicable Me. The former badminton player who is currently a BWF commentator, Gillian Clark, also highlighted that the fast play shown by Sukamuljo and Gideon have taken the men's doubles game to a new level and makes the matches exciting to watch. In the next tournament, the duo then reached the semifinals of the Vietnam and Thailand Opens before capturing their first title together at the Chinese Taipei Masters in October where they beat Malaysia' Hoon Thien How and Lim Khim Wah in the finals. In the Hong Kong Open, Sukamuljo and Gideon beat the World Championship silver medalists Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan before losing to top seededed South Koreans Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong in the quarterfinals. In December, they were stopped in the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters by second seeds Chai Biao and Hong Wei in three games. They ended the 2015 season ranked 16th in the world. Sukamuljo and Gideon kicked off the 2016 season by winning the Malaysia Masters in January. They then suffered a slump with early exits from several tournaments, including a first round exit from the All England Open. After this All England low their form, though inconsistent, improved significantly. They reached the semifinals of the New Zealand Open in late March and in April clinched their first Superseries title as a team at the India Open, beating their senior compatriot Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi in the final. In the following weeks they were defeated in the second round of Malaysia Open, then in the quarter-finals of Singapore Open and Asian Championships. In May, Sukamuljo participated in the Thomas Cup held in Kunshan, China, but he failed to contribute points to the Indonesian team during the Thomas Cup Group B tie against Thailand. and was not selected to play in the knockout stage of the tournament between qualifying teams. Here Indonesia won the silver medal, losing the final 2 matches to 3 against Denmark. In June, Sukamuljo and Gideon were eliminated in the second round of Indonesia Open by world number 1 Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong. A week later, however, the duo won their second Superseries title at the Australian Open, in the quarterfinals defeating Zhang Nan and Fu Haifeng for the first time, to whom they had lost three previous matches. Due to an injury suffered by Gideon, Sukamuljo was paired with Wahyu Nayaka at the home soil Indonesian Masters tournament, but the scratch partnership still managed to win the title. After Gideon's recovery the reunited duo won the Superseries Premier tournament at the China Open. The team was ranked as number 4 in Destination Dubai rankings, and qualified to compete for the year-end Superseries Finals, but they failed to advance from the group phase. Nevertheless, at year's end Sukamuljo and Gideon occupied the number 2 position in the world rankings. ### 2017: World number 1 Now competing only in the world's biggest events, Sukamuljo and Gideon started 2017 by making up for their 2016 first round defeat with a tournament victory at the coveted All England Open in March, thus earning a number one men's doubles world ranking. They then secured their second consecutive India Open title, and after that won the Malaysia Open. Their remarkable winning run was then stopped by Danish veterans Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in the semifinals of the Singapore Open. In May, they played for Indonesia at the Sudirman Cup held in Australia. In group round robin play they won their country's only point in its surprising loss to India but in group play against Denmark they again lost to Boe and Mogensen, as Indonesia, for the first time in the Cup's 28-year history, was eliminated in the group stage of the competition. In June the duo was upset by another Danish pair, Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, in the first round of Indonesia Open. In August, Sukamuljo and Gideon went to the World Championships held in Glasgow, Scotland, as third seeds, but lost in the quarter-finals to China's Chai Biao and Hong Wei in three close games. In September they reached the final of the Korea Open but were again beaten by Boe and Morgensen, however, one week later they exacted a measure of revenge against the Danes in the semi-finals of Japan Open, then went on to win the tournament by defeating the host pair of Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko. In October, Sukamuljo and Gideon lost the final of the Denmark Open in a tight match to reigning World Champion Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan. Citing an arm injury suffered during their semifinal match in Denmark, Gideon withdrew from the next Superseries tournament in France. Back together in November, Sukamuljo and Gideon improved their head-to-head record against Boe and Mogensen to 3–4, after defeating them in the finals and securing their second China Open title. They won the Hong Kong Open a week later, their sixth Superseries victory of the season, thus equaling the previous men's doubles record of six set by South Koreans Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong in 2015. For their achievements Sukamuljo and Gideon were named Best Male Players of the Year by the Badminton World Federation. The duo then closed out the year by capturing the Dubai World Superseries Finals, making them the first men's doubles pair to win seven Superseries titles in a year. ### 2018: Asian Games gold medalists Under the new BWF player commitment regulations, Sukamuljo and Gideon who ranked as world number 1, are obligated to play in 12 BWF World Tour. They were unbeaten in the first 3 tournaments that they participated in, capturing his second Indonesia Masters and All England Open, and also his third India Open titles. He and Gideon then defeated at the quarterfinals of Malaysia Open by Chinese pair He Jiting and Tan Qiang. In July, he and Gideon won the Indonesia Open, however, in the quarterfinals Sukamuljo felt the umpire was not fair during a match and he continued to protest, and earned him a yellow card from the umpire. At the 2018 World Championships, Sukamuljo and Gideon lost in the quarterfinals to Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda in straight games. Sukamuljo competed at the 2018 Asian Games, won a silver in the team events, and then captured the men's doubles gold medal, after he and Gideon beat their compatriots Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in a close rubber games in the final. In September, he and Gideon retained their Japan Open title, defeating the reigning World Champions Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen. A week later, they finished as semifinalists in China Open, lost to Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong of China. On the Europe tour in October, Sukamuljo and Gideon clinched the Denmark Open title. But in France, they again defeated by Han and Zhou in the final, made their head-to-head record deficit to 1–2. In November, he and Gideon won the Fuzhou China Open and Hong Kong Open. After the victory they achieved in Hong Kong, Sukamuljo and Gideon managed to set a record as the first ever men's doubles pair to win eight world tour titles in a season. At the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals gala dinner, the duo then awarded as the BWF Best Male Players of the Year for two consecutive year. As the defending champions of the World Tour Finals, Sukamuljo and Gideon had to withdraw from the competition before their last group match, due to the neck injury suffered by Gideon. ### 2019: Eight World Tour titles Sukamuljo opened the season in January by winning his second Malaysia Masters and third Indonesia Masters titles. He and Gideon reached his record 20th titles at the Superseries/Super 500 above tournaments. They later had to defeat in the early round of 2019 All England Open to Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan. In April, they lost in the quarter finals at the Malaysia Open, and in the semifinals of Singapore Open. He then played at the Asian Championships held in Wuhan, China as first seed. He and Gideon proceeded to the final, but inflicted a crushing defeat by number 5 seed Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe. He then played with Indonesia mixed team at the Sudirman Cup held in Nanning, China. Teamed up with Gideon, they have never lost in their three matches against England, Chinese Taipei and Japan, but the team lost 1–3 in the semifinals tie against Japan. In July, Sukamuljo successfully defended his title at the Indonesia Open, later won the Japan Open for three consecutive times alongside Gideon. They beat Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in straight games in the final in both events. In August, the duo managed to reaching the quarter finals of Thailand Open, but stopped by the Japanese pair Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe. They then suffered first match loss, in the second round of Basel World Championships to Choi Sol-gyu and Seo Seung-jae of South Korea after they succumbed 21–23 in the deciding game. In September, Sukamuljo and Gideon won their third China Open title, beating Ahsan and Setiawan in the final. They next went to Korea Open, but lost in the quarter finals to Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto. In October, he won his second Denmark Open and first French Open titles with Gideon. At the East Asia tour in November, he won the Fuzhou China Open, and the following week he lost in the quarter finals at the Hong Kong Open against Endo and Watanabe. He and Gideon were nominated again as the BWF Best Male Player of the Year, but this time they lost to Kento Momota of Japan. They entered the World Tour Finals as the first seed. In the group stage, they beat Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen, lost to Endo and Watanabe, and then in the last match, they won against Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda, progressed to the next round as group runners-up. In the semifinal, they again defeated by the Japanese pair Endo and Watanabe, made their head-to-head record deficit to 2–5. Sukamuljo ended the 2019 season by winning eight World Tour titles, including three in a row at Denmark, France and China. ### 2020–2021 Sukamuljo began his 2020 season by playing in the Malaysia Masters, pairing up with Marcus Fernaldi Gideon again. However, they finished in the quarter finals after losing to Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in a close rubber game. Sukamuljo later won his fourth consecutive Indonesia Masters title (third with Gideon) defeating Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in straight games. In February, he alongside Indonesia men's team won the Asia Team Championships held in Manila. In March, he played at the All England Open with Gideon. The duo failed to win the title after lost to Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe in the final. This was their sixth loss in a row over Endo and Watanabe. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous tournaments on the 2020 BWF World Tour were either cancelled or rescheduled for later in the year. In June, he then took part at the PBSI home tournament partnered with Muhammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani. The duo won four matches, but unable to accomplish their victory after lost their last match against Fajar Alfian and Yeremia Rambitan, and finished as runner-up at that tournament. Sukamuljo planned to return in the international competitions at the 2020 Asian Leg tournament in January 2021, but then he had to withdraw from the competition after testing positive for COVID-19 in December 2020. Sukamuljo made his comeback at the All England Open in March 2021. He and Gideon had played in the first round by beating the host pair Matthew Clare and Ethan van Leeuwen in a rubber game, but later Indonesia team were forced to withdraw from the competition by BWF after the team members will self-isolate for 10 days from the date of their inbound flight after an anonym person traveling onboard tested positive for COVID-19. In July 2021, Sukamuljo competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics partnering Gideon as first seed. The duo led the group standings after won two matches and lost a match. Sukamuljo and Gideon were eliminated from the competition by Malaysian pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarter-finals. In September–October, Sukamuljo alongside Indonesia team competed at the 2021 Sudirman Cup in Vantaa, Finland. The team advanced to the knocked-out stage, but stopped in the quarter-finals to Malaysia. In the next tournament in Aarhus, Denmark, he helped Indonesia team reached the final of the World Men's Team Championships, and the team won the 2020 Thomas Cup. In the next tournament, Sukamuljo and Gideon played at the BWF World Tour in Denmark, French, and Hylo Opens. The duo ended the tour by winning the Hylo Open. At the Indonesia badminton festival, they finished as runner-up in the Indonesia Masters and triumph in the Indonesia Open. This was their three successive victory at the Indonesia Open following on from success in 2018 and 2019. Their achievements in 2021, lead them as the first seed in the BWF World Tour Finals. The duo reached the final, but lost a well contested match to Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in a close rubber games. ### 2022 In 2022, Sukamuljo and his partner, Gideon, started the BWF tour in the All England Open. Unfortunately, they were stopped in the semi-finals by the young compatriot, the eventual champions, Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana. Sukamuljo alongside Indonesia men's team competed at the Thomas Cup. At that tournament, he did not play with his regular partner, Gideon, who was then preparing to undergo surgery due to injuries. Indonesia was unable to defend the Cup after being defeated by India 0–3 in the final. Even though his partner, Gideon, not fully recovered, the duo returned to the tournament court in June, to compete in the Indonesia Masters and Open. At that tournament, Sukamuljo and Gideon finished as semi-finalists in the Indonesia Masters, and stopped in the second round in the Indonesia Open. Topped the BWF World rankings for 215 consecutive weeks, Gideon and Sukamuljo supremacy were dethroned by Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi on 20 September 2022. They then stepped on podium in October as runner-up of the Denmark Open, losing the final to Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto. ### 2023 Sukamuljo and his partner, Gideon, started the BWF tour in the Malaysia Open. Unfortunately, they were stopped in the second round by Chinese pair, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang. In the next tournament, they lost again by Liang and Wang in the quarter-finals of the India Open. They competed at the home tournament, Indonesia Masters, but retired in the second round from Chinese pair Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi following the injured of Gideon. After haven't been seen on the international circuit since January, Sukamuljo have been included in the Indonesian squad for the 2023 Sudirman Cup, but the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals. He and his partner later competed in the Malaysia Masters, but lost in the second round from 4th seed pair Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in straight game. They then reached the Thailand Open semi-finals, but lost to eventual winner Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in straight games. Sukamuljo and Gideon were later suffered a second round loss in the Singapore Open to Hoki and Kobayashi. ## Awards and nominations ## Achievements ### Asian Games Men's doubles ### Asian Championships Men's doubles ### SEA Games Men's doubles ### ASEAN University Games Men's doubles ### BWF World Junior Championships Mixed doubles ### Asian Junior Championships Boys' doubles ### BWF World Tour (19 titles, 6 runners-up) The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100. Men's doubles ### BWF Superseries (10 titles, 2 runners-up) The BWF Superseries, which was launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007, was a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries levels were Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries consisted of twelve tournaments around the world that had been introduced since 2011. Successful players were invited to the Superseries Finals, which were held at the end of each year. Men's doubles BWF Superseries Finals tournament BWF Superseries Premier tournament BWF Superseries tournament ### BWF Grand Prix (4 titles, 2 runners-up) The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017. Men's doubles BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament BWF Grand Prix tournament ### BWF International Challenge/Series (2 titles, 1 runner-up) Men's doubles BWF International Challenge tournament BWF International Series tournament ### BWF Junior International (1 title, 1 runner-up) Boys' doubles Mixed doubles BWF Junior International Grand Prix tournament BWF Junior International Challenge tournament BWF Junior International Series tournament BWF Junior Future Series tournament ## Performance timeline ### National team - Junior level - Senior level ### Individual competitions #### Junior level ##### Boys' doubles ##### Mixed doubles #### Senior level In the senior level tournament, Sukamuljo won gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games, and also won 33 individual titles in the BWF tour equivalent events. ##### Men's doubles ##### Mixed doubles ## Record against selected opponents Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarter-finalists. ### Marcus Fernaldi Gideon Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon lead the meeting record with a wide margin against Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty of India, Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China, and their senior compatriots Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. Meanwhile, Sukamuljo and Gideon have a poor head-to-head record against Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang (0–4), Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe (2–6), Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong (0–3), and also Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan (1–3).

Clal Center

Office tower and indoor shopping mall on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem.

Clal Center (Hebrew: מרכז כלל, Mercaz Clal), also known as Clal Building (Hebrew: בנין כלל, Binyan Clal), is a 15-story office tower and indoor shopping mall on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. Completed in 1972, it was the first upscale, indoor shopping mall in Jerusalem. Built as part of a plan to revitalize Jaffa Road, it enjoyed a brief period of high occupancy until many tenants relocated to malls and office buildings in new suburbs in the 1990s. It is widely viewed as a commercial and architectural failure. ## Location The Clal Center is located in Jerusalem, Israel, at the southeastern corner of Jaffa Road and Kiah Street, one block east of the Mahane Yehuda Market. Its northern facade faces Jaffa Road and Davidka Square and its southern facade faces Agrippas Street. The building has several entrances opening onto Jaffa Road, Kiah Street, and Agrippas Street, as well as an underground parking garage accessible from Kiah Street. ## History ### Alliance Vocational School campus The land on which the Clal Center stands was formerly part of the campus of the Alliance Vocational School (Kol Yisrael Haverim School), the first Jewish trade school in Jerusalem. Enrolling mostly Sephardic Jewish students, the school offered courses in tailoring, shoemaking, carpentry, blacksmithing, mechanics, engraving, sculpting (of stone, wood, and shell), coppersmithing, weaving, dyeing, stonecutting, and masonry. Founded in 1882 by the Alliance Israélite Universelle of Paris, the school occupied 17 dunams (0.017 km²; 0.0066 sq mi) of land and consisted of a main building surrounded by long workshop buildings and landscaped gardens. Most of the school buildings and garden were razed in 1970 to make way for the Clal Center. In 1976 a memorial to the demolished school was placed to the side of the Clal Center, facing Jaffa Road. The memorial consists of a decorative iron gate etched with the name of the school in French. The gate is mounted between two stone pillars; it is not standing in its original location. Another memorial to the destroyed school appears in the form of a mural in the Mahane Yehuda Market parking lot to the west. This mural depicts paintings of the main building and garden, and pictures of teachers and students. ### Project goals The Clal Center was envisioned as a means to increase commercial activity and pedestrian presence between Mahane Yehuda Market to the west and the city center and Ben Yehuda Street to the east. According to Jerusalem architectural historian David Kroyanker, the Clal Center was "the first attempt to create a luxurious roofed shopping center in Jerusalem". It was also the first project to have an additional wing. The city granted the planners "exceptional building rights" in the hope that the project would boost business and commercial activity on Jaffa Road. ## Design The Clal Center, completed in 1972, reflects the 1970s trend in Israeli architecture that moved away from small-scale buildings toward projects that contained "everything under one roof". The 15-story tower block was designed by Israeli architect Dan Eitan, who planned many large-scale public buildings and office towers in Israel, notably in Tel Aviv. The shopping levels in the Clal Building are exceptionally large, with space for stores and a cinema. Stores are situated around the perimeter of a large, central atrium. Originally the atrium was open-air, but weather damage forced planners to install a semi-transparent roof. Several banks of elevators access upper-floor offices. The exterior of the building reflects modern architecture with "straight lines, sequential windows, and a smooth, white stone facing". Because of the building's height, the Clal Center quickly became a popular venue for suicide jumpers who leaped from the upper-story windows. Rescue nets were subsequently installed on the outside of the building. After the Clal Center was erected, a popular legend sprung up in Jerusalem that two criminals had murdered a third and buried him in the concrete foundations of the Clal Center. This rumor may have been started by parties interested in the project's failure. ## Use The Clal Center enjoyed a high occupancy rate from government offices, businesses, and private companies until the mid-1980s. The construction of Malha Mall and government facilities at Givat Ram precipitated the exodus of many private and government firms in the 1990s, leaving entire floors of the office tower unoccupied. Stores on the commercial level also began closing due to lack of customers; as of 2010, many stores were being used as storerooms by Mahane Yehuda Market merchants. In the winter of 2011–2012, 25 homeless families that had been living in tent encampments in Independence Park and the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood were housed in empty offices in the Clal Center. Current tenants include the following government offices: Israel Police Accidents Division – Jerusalem District, Ministry of Transport and Road Safety, Ministry of Justice Corporations Authority, and the Collection and Enforcement Agency. Other major tenants are the Jerusalem Light Rail customer service center, and branches of Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank. The King of Kings, a non-denominational Messianic Christian congregation, opened a "Jerusalem Prayer Tower" on the 14th floor of the Clal Center in 2004, affording panoramic views of the city. King of Kings Jerusalem Hebrew and English Messianic churches meet in Clal Center for their church services. In 2011–2012, as part of the conversion of Jaffa Road into a pedestrian-only zone, a small parking area between the Clal Center and Jaffa Road was redeveloped into a public square. The project, costing over 4 million shekel, added a granite pavement, public seating, trees, and decorative lighting. ## Criticism Almost from its inception, the Clal Center was the target of criticism. Some critics decried the decision to demolish the historic Alliance Vocational School in order to build the project in the first place. Others pointed out that the style and height of the building were incompatible with typical low-rise Jerusalem architecture in the surrounding neighborhood. Kroyanker notes that the building has not aged well; some of the stone tiles have fallen off and the rest appear weather-beaten and grimy. Inside, on the shopping levels, the "maze" of staircases that connect the levels are difficult to navigate, and the "wide granite surfaces create a very mournful effect". Poor lighting and parking accessibility have also been cited as problematic. Eitan, the architect, candidly added the Clal Center to a 1992 Israeli exhibition titled "Bad Jobs". The goal of increasing commercial and business activity on Jaffa Road never materialized. Several attempts were made to bring a pedestrian presence to the street, such as the construction of the Windows residential tower next door, but to date nothing has been successful and the project has been deemed a commercial failure. Kroyanker contends that not only did the Clal Center fail to revitalize Jaffa Road, it "actually accelerated its degeneration". In particular, he points to the lack of anchor stores, the lack of continuity of small businesses, and the cessation of activity in the stores and banks in the Clal Center in the early afternoon for making the project "a typical Jerusalem commercial failure". ## Incidents On June 11, 2003, a suicide bomber dressed as a Haredi Jew detonated an explosive pack on an eastbound \#14 bus in front of the Clal Center. The attack killed 16 and injured more than 100. In July 2013, a man entered a law office in the Clal Center and shot dead a father and daughter who worked as a legal team over an apparent business dispute.

2016 Paris–Roubaix

The 2016 Paris–Roubaix was a one-day classic cycling race that took place on 10 April 2016 in northern France. It was the 114th edition of the Paris–Roubaix and was the tenth race of the 2016 UCI World Tour and the third monument of the season. The race took place over 257.5 kilometres (160.0 mi). The principal difficulty was provided by the 27 sectors of cobbled roads, which cover a total distance of 52.8 kilometres (32.8 mi). The difficult conditions caused by the cobbles have earned the race the name "the Hell of the North". It came at the end of the cobbled classics season, a week after the 2016 Tour of Flanders; the favourites included the winner of that race, Peter Sagan (), as well as Fabian Cancellara () and Tom Boonen (). The race was hard from the very beginning, with major attacks being made over 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the finish. Cancellara and Sagan were held up by crashes and a five-rider group formed in the final 20 kilometres (12 mi) and, despite many more attacks in the closing part of the race, came to the velodrome in Roubaix together. The sprint was won by Mathew Hayman () ahead of Boonen, with Ian Stannard () in third. ## Route The route of the 2016 Paris–Roubaix was not significantly changed from the 2015 edition. It was slightly longer at 257.5 kilometres (160.0 mi). There were 27 sectors of cobbled roads: these included one addition to the route, the uphill Hameau du Buat sector. Several sections of cobbles, including the difficult one at Mons-en-Pévèle, had been renovated since 2015. Despite its name, the race did not start in Paris: it started in Compiègne (80 kilometres (50 mi) to the north) and travelled generally north towards Roubaix. The main difficulty came from the 27 cobbled sectors, with a total distance of 52.8 kilometres (32.8 mi); the race organisers gave these sectors a difficulty rating with the three five-star sectors the most difficult and the one one-star sector the easiest. The first 98.5 kilometres (61.2 mi) were generally flat on normal roads, with the first sector coming between Troisvilles and Inchy. Over the following 60 kilometres (37 mi), there were another eight cobbled sectors, before the first five-star sector. This was the Trouée d'Arenberg (English: Arenberg Trench) and was 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) in length. The riders turned back on themselves several times around Wallers to take in several more sectors. With the route again heading north, the riders crossed several more cobbled sectors – all rated as either three-star or four-star in difficulty – on the way to the next five-star sector, a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) road through Mons-en-Pévèle. At the end of this sector, there were 45 kilometres (28 mi) to the finish line. After Mons-en-Pévèle, there were seven more cobbled sectors before the final five-star sector. This was the 2.4-kilometre (1.5 mi) Carrefour de l'Arbre; by the end there were 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) to the finish line. This included three more cobbled sectors – two two-star sectors and the final one-star sector as the route entered Roubaix itself. The route ended on the Roubaix Velodrome in Roubaix: the riders enter the velodrome half-way round; they ride one-and-a-half laps of the 500-metre (550 yd) circuit to complete the race. ### Maps Maps of the 2016 Paris–Roubaix route. Cobbled sectors are shown in green ### Cobbled sectors ## Teams As Paris–Roubaix is a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI World Teams were invited automatically and were obliged to send a squad. In February 2016, the race organisers announced the seven UCI Professional Continental teams that had received wildcard invitations, completing the 25-team peloton. With each team allowed to enter up to eight riders, the maximum size of the peloton was 200. was the only team to submit just seven riders. 's Jacopo Guarnieri failed to start the race, so the race began with 198 riders. ## Pre-race favourites The recent editions of Paris–Roubaix had been won in various ways. Seven of the previous ten editions had been won by riders who had made solo breakaways; the most recent of these was Niki Terpstra in 2014. Other editions had been won in small group sprints: there were three riders together at the finish in 2008 Paris–Roubaix, two riders in 2013 and six in 2015. John Degenkolb () won the sprint in 2015, but was unable to defend his title in the 2016 edition due to injuries sustained in a collision with a car during winter training. Greg Van Avermaet (), who finished third in 2015, was also unable to start the race after breaking his collarbone in a crash at the Tour of Flanders the previous week. The two principal favourites to win the race were Peter Sagan () and Fabian Cancellara (). Sagan, the reigning world champion, had won the Tour of Flanders (the other monument raced on cobbled roads) in a solo breakaway. He was able to win both from a breakaway and in a group sprint. Sagan's best previous result in Paris–Roubaix was his sixth-place finish in 2014. Cancellara had won the race on three previous occasions (in 2006, 2010 and 2013) and had finished in the top ten on five other occasions. Cancellara was racing in his final Paris–Roubaix, after announcing that he would retire at the end of the 2016 season. One of Cancellara's main rivals in classics races over his career was Tom Boonen (), who had won Paris–Roubaix on four occasions in the past. He had not been in strong form, however, in the 2016 season and had struggled with a wrist injury in the Tour of Flanders. His team, however, was very strong, with Terpstra, Stijn Vandenbergh and Zdeněk Štybar all possible winners of the race. Other possible winners included Sep Vanmarcke (), who was third in the Tour of Flanders, Alexander Kristoff (), Lars Boom (), Ian Stannard () and Edvald Boasson Hagen (). ## Race summary There was a high-speed start to the race, with several groups attempting to form breakaways; each was chased by the main peloton. An initial group of six riders was caught within 20 kilometres (12 mi) of the start; a group of 25 then briefly held a 30-second lead before they were recaptured by the peloton. After several more attacks and a total of 67 kilometres (42 mi), the riders were still all together in one group. A group of sixteen riders then attacked and built a lead, despite the efforts of the and teams to chase it. As the riders arrived on the first cobbled sectors, Sky took over at the front of the peloton to protect their riders and the breakaway's advantage increased to two minutes, although it was reduced to fourteen riders. The riders in the breakaway were Sylvain Chavanel (), Mathew Hayman and Magnus Cort (), Jelle Wallays (), Yaroslav Popovych (), Johan Le Bon (), Marko Kump (), Tim Declercq (), Salvatore Puccio (Sky), Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Frederik Backaert (), Maxime Daniel (), Borut Božič () and Imanol Erviti (). The breakaway was notable for the presence of Popovych, who had announced that the race would be the last of his career, and Erviti, who had finished in the top ten at the Tour of Flanders a week earlier having again been in the early breakaway. With 140 kilometres (87 mi) completed and more than 115 kilometres (71 mi) remaining, there was a crash in the peloton before the eighth cobbled sector. Etixx–Quick-Step immediately sent Tony Martin and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck to the front of the group and accelerated hard; this caused the group to split up. The front group included Boonen, Boasson Hagen, Stannard, Rowe and Vanmarcke along with several others, with Sagan, Cancellara, Štybar and Terpstra all in a chasing group. LottoNL–Jumbo had six riders in the front group. The gap between the first and second chasing groups quickly grew to a minute, thanks in particular to Martin's work; he spent around 40 kilometres (25 mi) at the front of Boonen's group. Martin's effort reduced the group to five riders, with Vanmarcke and Rowe among the riders dropped. As they reached the Trouée d'Arenberg, the break had just over a minute's lead over the first chasing group; the Vanmarcke group was around 20 seconds behind them, with Cancellara and Sagan in another group that was around a minute further back. Sagan himself was making efforts at the front of the group to try to bring the first chase group back. With 87 kilometres (54 mi) remaining, Vanmarcke's group merged with Boonen's, forming a 16-man group that was 55 seconds behind the breakaway group. Alexander Kristoff had punctured and been dropped from the group containing Cancellara and Sagan. Over the following kilometres, Hayman attacked solo from the breakaway; meanwhile, Jasper Stuyven (Trek–Segafredo) rode hard to bring his teammate Cancellara back to within 40 seconds of the first chasing group. Hayman was brought back by the rest of the group, while Popovych dropped back from the breakaway to help Cancellara's group with 64 kilometres (40 mi) remaining. After the next cobbled sector, Boonen's group caught the remainder of the breakaway and formed a group of around 20 riders, led by Team Sky, that was around 50 seconds ahead of the Cancellara group. Cancellara and Sagan worked hard together at the front of what was now the second group on the road. Shortly afterwards, the front group was disrupted when three of the four Team Sky riders in the front group – Rowe, Puccio and Gianni Moscon – crashed in just a few corners, leaving Stannard as the team's only rider in the leading group. With 48 kilometres (30 mi) remaining and the chasers 37 seconds behind the lead group, the riders crossed the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle cobbles. Cancellara crashed on a muddy section, slipping off the crown of the road. Sagan, riding immediately behind him, managed to bunny hop over him – with only one foot clipped into his bike – and continued in pursuit of the lead group; Cancellara, although able to continue the race, never rejoined the group. Terpstra was also among those to crash in the incident. Cycling Weekly described Sagan's manoeuvre as "unbelievable bike handling". Rowe rejoined the leading group with Heinrich Haussler and Aleksejs Saramotins (both ) to form a ten-man leading group which led Sagan's group by over a minute with 30 kilometres (19 mi) remaining. Rowe was tired after coming back from his crash; he agreed to work fully for Stannard. He put in a strong effort with 20 kilometres (12 mi) remaining that dropped Erviti, Haussler, Saramotins and Marcel Sieberg (), who formed a chase group behind. A five-man group then formed on the Camphin-en-Pévèle sector, with Stannard, Boonen, Boasson Hagen, Hayman and Vanmarcke the only riders remaining. Vanmarcke put in a big attack on the Carrefour de l'Arbre; although he briefly had a significant gap, the other four riders brought him back before the next section of cobbles. Stannard attacked with 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) remaining. He had a 20 metres (20 yd) advantage, but the group was able to come back to him. In the final 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), Boonen attacked several times. On the last of these attacks, Hayman accelerated past him and the two riders came together into the velodrome, with Vanmarcke joining soon afterwards. With one 500-metre (550 yd) lap remaining, Stannard and Boasson Hagen rejoined the group. Hayman led out the sprint: Boonen was on his wheel and Stannard came around the outside. Neither was able to come around him and Hayman crossed the line first to take the victory. Boonen was second with Stannard third. Vanmarcke finished with them in fourth place; Boasson Hagen was three seconds behind in fifth place. The chase group of Haussler, Sieberg and Saramotins finished a minute back, with Erviti a further seven seconds back to finish in ninth. Sagan's group arrived more than two minutes after Hayman, with Adrien Petit (Direct Energie) outsprinting Sagan for tenth place. ## Result ## Post-race analysis ### Reactions The race was given widespread praise. Bernard Hinault, who won the race in 1981, described it as "magnificent". He particularly praised Etixx–Quick-Step's aggression a long way from the finish, describing it as the kind of move that used to exist but had not been seen in a long time. Similarly, Marc Madiot (the manager of the FDJ team and the winner of the race in 1985 and 1991) described it as "a beautiful race, of great quality" and praised Hayman as "a fine winner". VeloNews described it as an "epic battle" and as "one-day racing at its absolute best". The cycling journalist and former cyclist Daniel Lloyd tweeted that it had been "one of the best races I've ever seen"; David Millar, another former cyclist, wrote "That was exhausting" after watching the race. Mathew Hayman described his reaction as "disbelief". He had broken his arm in a crash at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the beginning of the classics season and had barely raced before the race began. He said that he had realised that the other riders were not superior to him after they failed to get away from him in the closing kilometres. He stated that he could "gamble" and that it had paid off. Hayman's team manager, Shayne Bannan, described him as "so professional" and suggested that he had been helped by good preparation and motivation combined with a lack of expectation; he called it "an incredible ride". Boonen praised Hayman's victory. He said that Hayman was "the rider nobody was really looking at" and that he had ridden a "good sprint", although no one had much energy left by the velodrome; Vanmarcke had faded in the final metres and boxed Boonen in at the bottom of the track. He stated that he had received a text message on the morning of the race from a doctor who had treated him after he fractured his skull in the 2015 Abu Dhabi Tour; the doctor had said that the day of the race would be the first day that Boonen would be able to get back on his bike. He noted that he "couldn't be unsatisfied" even though he had not won the race. Stannard described the race as "so close yet so far" and thought that he could have managed a better result than his third place had he not attacked in the final kilometres. He said that he was "super happy" to see Hayman win; he also said that there were "two more steps to work my way up now". Fabian Cancellara finished his final Paris–Roubaix in 40th place, seven minutes behind Hayman. He said "I’m not sad, I’m happy not to be in hospital. I’m happy to have finished", and that he was hurting all over – as well as crashing during the race, he had crashed in the velodrome – but said that he was "happy it is done". Sagan described the race as "a crazy day"; he said that he was lucky not to have crashed with Cancellara, but that his race was over at that point. He described Paris–Roubaix as "very hard to win". ### UCI World Tour standings In the 2016 UCI World Tour season-long competition, the top 10 of the standings remained relatively unchanged after the race. Sagan was still on top, 49 points ahead of Alberto Contador. Vanmarcke moved up from eighth to fifth, while Stannard moved into tenth place. Tinkoff remained ahead of Team Sky in the team rankings; in the nations' rankings, Australia moved back into the lead, with Belgium moving into second and pushing Spain into third.

The Source Awards (30 Rock)

"The Source Awards" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock. It was written by Robert Carlock and Daisy Gardner, and directed by one of the season's supervising producers, Don Scardino. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 1, 2007. "The Source Awards" featured appearances by Wayne Brady, Kevin Brown, Grizz Chapman, Ghostface Killah, LL Cool J, and Jason Sudeikis. In the episode, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) enlists a rap producer, Ridikolous, to unload his line of inferior champagne while Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) reluctantly hosts the Source Awards. At the same time, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) tries to sever ties with a black man she dislikes without looking racist. ## Plot Liz has a date with Steven Black (Wayne Brady), Tracy's new business manager, whom she met in one of Tracy's after-parties. Many people around Liz make an issue of Steven being African American, but Liz does not care about his race. On her date with Steven, Liz is surprised to find out he is a staunch conservative, and does not have a good time. Steven believes that Liz doesn't like him because he is black, when really she does not like him as a person. She does not want to be thought of as racist, so she continues on the date. Later, Liz tries to break up with Steven and explain to him that she just does not like him as a person, not because of his race. To prove they are incompatible, she brings him as a guest to the Source Awards the following night. Jack, meanwhile, is producing his own wine, called Donaghy Estate Sparkling Wine. He and Liz taste it, and realize that it is practically undrinkable. This leaves Jack with the problem of disposing with the wine. He decides to market it to hip-hop producer Ridikolous (LL Cool J), and at the same time patch up things between Tracy and Ridikolous, who was not allowed into one of Tracy's parties. Jack and Ridikolous have a meeting, resulting in the wine becoming the corporate sponsor of the Source Awards, which is being produced by Ridikolous. To further mend things with Tracy, Jack proposes to let Tracy host the award show. This backfires when Tracy refuses to host it in fear that he will get shot, but Jack still sees it as the only way to work things out with Ridikolous. At the Source Awards, Tracy still does not want to host. Jack rhetorically asks him what Oprah would do, but Tracy misunderstands and starts acting like her. Backstage, Tracy shows Liz his gun, which she takes away from him. She fires it by accident and ends up shooting Steven in the buttocks. He thinks she shot him because he was going through her purse and calls her a racist. Following this, Ridikolous comes in and says that Jack has made a mockery of the award, adding: "Wait until I tell Tupac about this!". This leads to a short awkward moment, but Jack insists he did not hear anything. ## Production "The Source Awards" was written by executive producer Robert Carlock and Daisy Gardner, and directed by one of the season's supervising producers Don Scardino. This was Carlock's third writing credit, and was Gardner's first written episode. This episode was Scardino's fourth directed episode of 30 Rock. Rapper Ghostface Killah made his second appearance as himself on the show, having appeared in the episode "Jack-Tor", in which he and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) perform the song "Muffin Top". In one scene of "The Source Awards", Ghostface Killah is drinking Donaghy Estate Sparkling Wine as a music video is shooting, but cannot stand drinking the wine, which makes him sick. Actor Jason Sudeikis had a brief appearance, in which Liz tells Jenna she ran into him, though not knowing his name yet refers to him as "Flower Guy". ## Reception In its original American broadcast, "The Source Awards" was watched by 5.7 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings system. It received a 2.7 rating/7 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic, meaning that 2.7 percent of all people in that group, and 7 percent of all people from that group watching television at the time, watched the episode. Compared to the previous week, this episode was up 13 percent in the 18–49 demographic and 25 percent in overall viewers. The previous episode, "Hard Ball", was watched by 4.6 million American viewers. Julia Ward AOL's TV Squad said that while the episode "delivered plenty of funny" it "seemed a bit off-kilter. It had fewer laughs-per-minute than the past few episodes, and structurally, I think the writers couldn't decide which story to foreground." She complimented the series for having "an interesting take" on the hip-hop satire that was featured in "The Source Awards". "From where I sit, it's got to be in the top five, if not three", said TV Guide's Matt Mitovich in regards to this episode. Mitovich noted, "...I can only bow with great reverence to the effort that goes into 30 Rock, where in an episode like this week's, every other line is funny and/or fantastically absurd." IGN contributor Robert Canning opined than an episode like this one, with its guest stars and taking on the issue of race, got "some decent laughs", though it "failed to produce a solid half hour." Canning disliked LL Cool J's guest spot, observing that it was "nothing more than a generic caricature put in the role of a sub-par straight man", but enjoyed Wayne Brady's, as he was "a successful part of the episode's best storyline." Canning said that Tracy as Oprah was "more weird than funny, unfortunately", but liked that Jason Sudeikis made a brief appearance as "Flower Guy" in the episode. In conclusion, Canning gave the episode a 7.5 out of 10 rating. Mekeisha Madden Toby for The Detroit News found the episode a "side-splitter".

Dælenenga idrettspark

Sports facility in Oslo, Norway

Dælenenga idrettspark is a sports facility located at Grünerløkka in Oslo, Norway. It consists of an artificial turf football pitch, a club house and an indoor ice rink—Grünerhallen. The facilities are owned by the Municipality of Oslo and used and operated by Grüner IL, the local sports club. The venue opened in 1916 and was originally used for football, athletics and speed skating. The club house was completed in 1928 and has since been used for martial arts. From 1929, a velodrome course was installed, which remained in use until 1940. During the 1930s, the venue was the main Oslo stadium for the Workers' Sports Federation (AIF). A speedway course was installed in 1947 and remained in use until 1968. The venue featured eight ice hockey matches and two bandy matches during the 1952 Winter Olympics. Artificial ice was laid in 1985 and the skating hall opened in 1995, two years before the artificial turf was laid. ## History Construction started in 1915. The stadium opened in 1916 as a combined football and athletics venue with a capacity for 10,000 spectators. The track was iced during winter and used for speed skating. Dælenenga was one of two multi-sport venues serving eastern Oslo, along with Jordal Idrettspark. The club house, used for wrestling and boxing, opened in 1928. The following year, the ice rink was decommissioned and a velodrome was instead installed, which remained in use until 1940. During the Second World War, the club house was used as a school. In 1947, the velodrome was removed and the track converted for use for speedway. For the 1952 Winter Olympics, the venue was upgraded with a new ice hockey clock, a new lighting system and new ice hockey boards. The speedway course was dismounted in 1968. During the 1980s, the stadium became a central location for drug dealing, but the traffic moved away during the 1990s. In 1985, artificial ice was laid north of the football pitch, costing 2.1 million Norwegian krone (NOK). Of this, NOK 1.3 million was financed by Grüner IL through loans. At the same time a new gravel pitch was laid on the football field. The artificial ice increased the popularity of playing ice hockey in the neighborhood. The club therefore started working on plans to build an indoor ice rink over the artificial rink. Planning of the hall started in 1989, and in 1990 a proposal for a steel structure was launched. However, it was rejected by the municipality. The club therefore hired Einar Dahle Arkitekter to work on a new design, resulting in area planning regulations being passed in 1991. Financing of the steel structure had been secured in loans, but these were stopped following a credit crunch. In 1994, the municipality initiated a redevelopment program of the downtown residential areas, which included grants to build Grünerhallen. The hall was estimated to cost NOK 23.4 million and the contract was awarded to Mur 6 Tax. Construction started in March 1995 and the venue opened on 6 October 1995, as the 30th indoor ice rink in Norway. In 1996, the city council had to grant an additional NOK 4.6 million to cover cost overruns. Ahead of 1997, the municipal council granted NOK 3.2 million to lay artificial turf at Dælenenga. Construction started in May and the pitch was taken into use on 4 September 1997. The new turf was Belgian-manufactured, sand-filled Superfoot 32. The upgrade also saw the first upgrades to the terraces in the stadium's history. New artificial turf was laid in 2008. ## Facilities Dælenenga idrettspark consists of a club house, an artificial turf football pitch and an indoor ice rink. The venue is owned by Oslo Municipality, but the day-to-day operation is undertaken by Grüner IL, the main tenant. The park covers an area of 16.1 hectares (40 acres). The football pitch has artificial turf and measures 100 by 64 meters (109 by 70 yd). The club house has a floor area of 900 square meters (9,700 sq ft) and is built in brick. The building has suffered under lack of maintenance and has been subject to water damage, although the outer walls and foundation are in good condition. The club house has an impractical floor plan, and contains gyms for martial art and changing rooms for the pitch. Grünerhallen has a single 30-by-60-meter (98 by 197 ft) ice rink. It has a capacity for 200 sitting and 400 standing spectators and features six player and two referee change rooms. The hall's lighting produces 600 lux. The building also features a weight lifting room, a cafeteria and club offices. Dælenenga idrettspark is 1.5 kilometers (1 mi) from downtown Oslo and is located on Ruter bus route 30 and close to the light rail station Birkelunden on the Grünerløkka–Torshov Line. ## Events During the late 1920s and 1930s, Dælenenga was dominated by the Workers' Sports Federation (AIF) and served as its main stadium in Oslo. AIF's Grünerløkka chapter was established at Dælenenga and used it as its training ground. Dælenenga was used for major AIF tournaments and the largest tournament took place 5 July 1929, with 500 participants. It also served as the terminus of many of AIF's and other labor movement parades. Each May Day the stadium would be packed. From the early 1930s, AIF moved its largest tournaments to Jordal. The local AIF club was particularly good at boxing, and in 1937 gathered thousands of spectators to watch a boxing match at Dælenenga. From the 1920s to 1946, the Østkantstafetten relay race was held with start and finish at Dælenenga. The route ran through various streets in eastern Oslo and was a counter-measure to Holmenkollstafetten in the western part of town. From 1929 Dælenenga became a center of velodrome cycling. During the Second World War, Dælenengen was used for sports training in football and handball by the German Wehrmacht. After the war ended, the clubs in the neighborhood went through a consolidation process. In 1952, the clubs Spero, Strong and B-14 merged to create Grüner IL, which became the dominant club at the venue. Speedway events took place between 1947 and 1968, with Dælenenga growing to become a prime national venue, especially during the 1950s. The most notable regular local drivers were Basse Hveem, Henry Andersen, Werner Lorentzen and Aage Hansen. As of 2012, Grüner Fotball remains the football venue's tenant. Their main football team plays in Third Division. Grüner Hockey uses the hockey rink, with their main men's team playing in the First Division. The club house is used by Sportsklubben av 1909, Grüner IL and Fighter Kickboxingklubb. ### Speed skating The first speed skating competition took place on 24 January 1917, and the stadium remained in use for speed skating until 1929. AIF arranged their Norwegian championships in speed skating at Dælenenga in 1926 and 1929. Finland's Clas Thunberg set two unofficial world records in 1,000 meters of 1:31.60 twice in 1921. ### 1952 Winter Olympics Dælenenga was one of five ice hockey rinks used during the 1952 Winter Olympics. Hosting 8 of 37 matches, it the second-most use venue after Jordal Amfi. It was also the only hockey venue other than Jordal to be located in Oslo. Bandy was arranged as a demonstration sport at the 1952 Winter Olympics. Two of the three matches were conducted at Dælenenga.

2008 UEFA Champions League final

Final of the 2007–08 edition of the UEFA Champions League

The 2008 UEFA Champions League final was a football match that took place on 21 May 2008 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. It was contested by Manchester United and Chelsea, making it an all-English final for the first time in the history of the competition; it was only the third time that two clubs from the same country had contested the final, after 2000 and 2003. It was the first European Cup final played in Russia, and hence the easternmost final in the tournament's history. It also marked the 100th anniversary of Manchester United's first league triumph, the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, and the 40th anniversary of United's first European Cup triumph in 1968. It was Manchester United's third European Cup final after 1968 and 1999, while it was Chelsea's first. Manchester United won the match 6–5 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring for Manchester United in the 26th minute with a header from a cross by Wes Brown, but Frank Lampard equalised shortly before half-time. The second half and most of extra time passed without incident until Chelsea's Didier Drogba was sent off for slapping Nemanja Vidić four minutes from the end. In the penalty shoot-out, Ronaldo missed Manchester United's third kick, giving John Terry the chance to win the title for Chelsea, only for his shot to hit the post when he slipped as he was about to kick the ball. Edwin van der Sar then saved Nicolas Anelka's effort from Chelsea's seventh kick to secure Manchester United's third European Cup title. More than 67,000 people watched the game in the stadium, along with more than 17.5 million television viewers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In addition to prize money received from earlier in the competition, Manchester United received €7 million for winning the final, while Chelsea received €4 million. As winners, Manchester United went on to play in the 2008 UEFA Super Cup, losing 2–1 to 2007–08 UEFA Cup winners Zenit Saint Petersburg, and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup, which they won after beating 2008 Copa Libertadores winners LDU Quito 1–0 in the final. ## Background Manchester United and Chelsea had played each other 150 times prior to the Champions League final, including 18 meetings in domestic cup competitions (the FA Cup, the Football League Cup and the FA Community Shield). Due to various historical restrictions regarding the number of teams from the same country entering European competitions, they had never met in Europe before. Manchester United held the upper hand in the teams' previous meetings, winning 65 times to Chelsea's 41, with 44 draws. Their cup record was equally good, winning 10 of their 18 meetings, with 4 draws and 4 Chelsea wins. However, honours were even in cup finals, with Manchester United having won the 1994 FA Cup final 4–0, while Chelsea won the 2007 FA Cup final 1–0, the last cup game between the two sides. Manchester United responded to defeat in the 2007 FA Cup Final by beating Chelsea in the 2007 FA Community Shield the following August, winning 3–0 on penalties after a 1–1 draw in normal time. They went on to claim their 17th league title at the end of the 2007–08 Premier League season, finishing two points ahead of Chelsea. Both teams went into the final game of the season level on points, but United were ahead of Chelsea because of their superior goal difference, meaning United's 2–0 win against Wigan Athletic on the final day made Chelsea's late draw with Bolton Wanderers irrelevant. In the two sides' league meetings that season, United won 2–0 at Old Trafford in Avram Grant's first game in charge of Chelsea on 23 September 2007, while Chelsea won 2–1 at Stamford Bridge in the return game on 26 April 2008. Because of the aforementioned restrictions on entry to UEFA competitions, Manchester United had only met English opposition in Europe twice before, while Chelsea had far more experience against English opposition, having played 12 matches against compatriot clubs, winning five, drawing five and losing just two. There had been two previous Champions League finals between teams from the same country: in 2000, when Real Madrid beat fellow Spanish side Valencia 3–0 at the Stade de France; and in 2003, when Italian sides Milan and Juventus played out a 0–0 draw at Old Trafford before Milan won 3–2 on penalties. Both sides had a connection to the early history of European football; Chelsea were invited to take part in the inaugural European Cup in 1955–56 as champions of England, only to be denied entry by The Football League, allowing Manchester United to become the first English entrants in the competition the following season. In February 1958, eight Manchester United players were killed in the Munich air disaster, when the aeroplane carrying their team back from a match in Belgrade crashed while attempting to take off from a refuelling stop in Munich. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured in the crash and almost died as a result, but he rebuilt the team, and in May 1968, Manchester United became the first English winners of the European Cup, beating Benfica 4–1 in the 1968 European Cup final. Chelsea won their first European trophy three years later, when they beat Real Madrid 2–1 in the 1971 European Cup Winners' Cup final replay after a 1–1 draw in the first match. Both Chelsea and Manchester United won that same competition during the 1990s – first Manchester United beat Barcelona 2–1 in the 1991 final (followed by victory over Red Star Belgrade in the 1991 Super Cup), and then Chelsea beat VfB Stuttgart in the 1998 final (followed by victory over Real Madrid in the 1998 Super Cup, their most recent European success at the time). Manchester United then won their second European Cup the following year, beating Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final. ## Road to the final ### Manchester United Manchester United were drawn in Group F along with Roma, Sporting CP and Dynamo Kyiv. United won their first five group games; they first travelled to Lisbon, where Cristiano Ronaldo's header secured a 1–0 win against his old club, Sporting. Next was another 1–0 win at home to Roma, followed by back-to-back four-goal victories over Dynamo Kyiv (4–2 in Ukraine and 4–0 at Old Trafford). United secured top spot in the group with a 2–1 win at home to Sporting in their fifth game. They travelled to Roma for the final group game, in which both teams were already guaranteed to progress; it finished as a 1–1 draw, with Gerard Piqué scoring his second goal for the club before Mancini's equaliser. United finished with 16 points, the most of all the group winners. In the first knockout round, United were drawn against Lyon. They drew the away leg 1–1, thanks to a late equaliser from Carlos Tevez, before winning the second leg 1–0 – Ronaldo scoring the only goal – to ensure a 2–1 aggregate victory and a place in the quarter-finals, where they were again drawn against Roma. The quarter-final matches represented the fifth and sixth times these two clubs had met in Europe in just over 12 months; they had met at the same stage of the previous season's competition and then again in the group stage this season. United went to Rome and secured a 2–0 win with a first-half header from Ronaldo and a second-half goal tapped in by Wayne Rooney. United went on to secure the tie in the second leg with a 1–0 win, their record 11th consecutive home Champions League win. The semi-final pitted United against Barcelona; the teams had not met since the group stage of the 1998–99 tournament, the last time United won it. The teams also had identical records going into the semi-final, each having won eight and drawn two of their 10 games, scoring 18 goals and conceding just five. The first leg at the Camp Nou saw United spend most of the game defending, while Barcelona tried to pass the ball around them. United were awarded a penalty in the first minute, but Ronaldo sent the ball wide, hitting the stanchion behind the goal. That was as close as either team got to a goal in the first leg and it ended 0–0. The second leg at Old Trafford was played at a higher tempo, and United won 1–0 thanks to a goal from Paul Scholes after 14 minutes. This result extended United's consecutive home win record in the Champions League to 12 and ensured that they reached the final unbeaten. In reaching the final, United won nine and drew three of their 12 matches, dwarfing their record of four wins and six draws in the 10 games they took to reach the final in 1999 (when teams advanced from the group stage directly into the quarter-finals). United scored 19 goals en route to the final, Ronaldo scoring seven of them, more than any other player. ### Chelsea In the group stage, Chelsea were drawn into Group B, along with Schalke 04 of Germany, Rosenborg of Norway and Spanish club Valencia. Chelsea's first match in the group was against Rosenborg at Stamford Bridge, where they were held to a 1–1 draw. Two days later, manager José Mourinho left Chelsea by mutual consent, and was replaced by their director of football, former Israel national team coach Avram Grant. Chelsea's second match was against Valencia, whom they beat 2–1, leaving Chelsea with four points from their two matches. They then faced Schalke in their next two matches; the first was played at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea winning 2–0, while the return match in Gelsenkirchen ended in a 0–0 draw. Chelsea's final two matches in their group resulted in a 4–0 victory away to Rosenborg and a goalless draw at home to Valencia. Chelsea progressed as group winners with 12 points from six games. Chelsea faced Greek side Olympiacos in the first knockout round. The first leg in Athens ended in a 0–0 draw, but a 3–0 win in the second leg, with goals from Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and Salomon Kalou, saw Chelsea through to the quarter-finals. There, they were drawn against Fenerbahçe of Turkey. The first leg was held at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul, and ended in a 2–1 defeat, as Deivid made up for an early own goal by scoring the winner nine minutes from time after Colin Kazim-Richards' equaliser. Chelsea won the second leg at Stamford Bridge 2–0, with goals from Ballack and Lampard, to claim a 3–2 aggregate victory over the Turkish side. Chelsea faced fellow English club Liverpool in the semi-finals. This was the fourth year in succession that these teams had met in the Champions League, following semi-final meetings in 2004–05 and 2006–07, and two group stage matches in 2005–06. The first leg at Anfield was a 1–1 draw, in which Chelsea got a 95th-minute equaliser through a John Arne Riise own goal after Dirk Kuyt had put Liverpool 1–0 up just before half-time. Chelsea won the second leg 3–2 after extra time, with two goals from Didier Drogba and one from Lampard sending the Blues through to the first Champions League final in their history. ## Pre-match ### Venue The Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow was selected as the venue for the match at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 4 October 2006. The committee – who decided the venue for the 2009 final and the 2008 and 2009 UEFA Cup finals at the same meeting – based their decision on a number of factors, including stadium capacity, safety and security facilities, and accessibility. The other venues in contention were the Estadio Olímpico in Seville, the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Wembley Stadium in London, and the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which was chosen to host the 2009 final. This was the easternmost final in the history of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League. It was the first time the competition's showpiece match had been played in Russia, although the Luzhniki Stadium had previously played host to the 1999 UEFA Cup final, in which Italian club Parma beat French side Marseille 3–0. Because of the difference in time zones, the match kicked off at 22:45 Moscow Time, making it the first Champions League final to start on one day and finish in the next. Originally known as the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, the venue opened in 1956 as a new national stadium for the Soviet Union national football team. In 1973, it served as the principal venue for the seventh Summer Universiade, before going on to perform the same function at the 1980 Summer Olympics. By this point, the stadium's capacity was 103,000; however, renovations in the mid-1990s reduced the capacity to just under 85,000. The stadium was given five-star status by UEFA in 1998, before hosting the UEFA Cup final the following year. To help the stadium cope with cold Russian winters, the grass pitch was replaced by an artificial FieldTurf surface in 2002. Although UEFA allowed matches in earlier rounds and European Championship qualifying to be played on the synthetic surface, they mandated that the Champions League final should be played on natural grass. The FieldTurf was removed after Russia's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying match against England on 17 October, but the first grass pitch laid was deemed to be too bumpy. Another pitch was laid less than three weeks before the final at a cost of £160,000, using turf shipped in from Slovakia, but groundsman Matt Frost said, "I'm totally disappointed with the whole project and what we are presenting for the final." UEFA's director of communications, William Gaillard, said the pitch might not look as good as they had hoped to television audiences, but was confident that it would be fine to play on. As part of the marketing for each Champions League final since 1997, UEFA commissions a unique design concept inspired by the cultural and historical heritage of the host city. The 2008 final's design was announced on 31 October 2007 in a ceremony at the Luzhniki Stadium, attended by the ambassador for the final, former Russian goalkeeper Rinat Dasayev. The design was based on a colour scheme of deep red and gold, inspired by the predominant colours of Red Square, the Kremlin and the gold domes of Moscow's cathedrals, and featured images of the Moscow skyline, as well as the UEFA Champions League logo and trophy rendered in a Russian artistic style, with text in a font similar to Cyrillic script. As has also taken place for every Champions League final since 1997, a ceremonial handover of the UEFA Champions League trophy was held in the host city; the 2008 ceremony was at the GUM Centre in Moscow's Red Square on 3 April 2008. On behalf of 2007 champions Milan, their technical operations director and former player Leonardo, and club director Umberto Gandini presented the trophy to UEFA president Michel Platini, who passed it on to the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, for it to be displayed in five cities around the country – Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Saint Petersburg and Samara – before returning to Moscow ahead of the final. Also in attendance at the ceremony were final ambassador Rinat Dasayev and Russian Football Union president Vitaly Mutko. ### Ticketing and supporters Although the Luzhniki Stadium had a usual capacity of almost 85,000 spectators, that was reduced to 69,500 for the final. Of those tickets, approximately 21,000 were reserved for each finalist club, with a further 10,500 available for purchase by the general public via the UEFA website. Recipients of those tickets were determined by a random ballot following an online application process that ran from 28 February to 19 March 2008. Tickets were available in three categories, priced at €80, €140 and €200 depending on their location in the stadium. UEFA received around 125,000 applications for tickets from the general public over the course of the three-week application process. The clubs were able to distribute their tickets however they wished; Manchester United chose to make their allocation available to all Executive Seat Holders and any Season Ticket Holders who had successfully applied for a ticket to at least one of the club's five away Champions League matches between the group stage and the quarter-finals, while Chelsea opened up applications to all club members and season ticket holders. Manchester United chief executive David Gill expressed disappointment that his club had only been allocated 21,000 tickets for their supporters, claiming that they could have potentially sold up to 100,000. While Manchester United managed to sell out their entire allocation, UEFA's William Gaillard indicated that Chelsea still had "up to a couple of thousand" tickets unsold the day before the game, despite claims by Chelsea's chief operations officer, Ron Gourlay, to the contrary. One of the major concerns for English fans attending the final was the acquisition of visas for entry into Russia. However, after a period of negotiations between representatives of Russia, the United Kingdom, UEFA and the two clubs, it was agreed that fans with tickets for the match would not require a visa, provided they were also able to produce a passport with at least six months before expiry and a completed immigration card on entry into Russia. The visa-free period was initially supposed to run for 72 hours between 19 May and 23 May, but this was later extended to an eight-day period lasting from 17 to 25 May. Because of the difficulty and expense of acquiring a ticket and visa, fans who had not already got tickets were advised against travelling to Moscow by Gaillard, who also warned fans about Russia's strict laws regarding the consumption of alcohol. Although the two clubs claimed to have sold most of the 42,000 tickets allocated to them, only about 25,000 fans were said to have travelled to Moscow from the United Kingdom, with about 110 charter flights arriving ahead of the game. According to the head of the Russian national tourist office, Mikhail Ignatiev, many fans were put off by the cost of travel and accommodation. Additionally, most of Moscow's hotels were full on the night of the game. As some fans looked to offload tickets to the match, The Moscow Times reported that the black-market price dropped from a high of €2,000 (£1,600) to around €500 (£400), while Russian TV channel Sport-1 was reporting prices as low as £300 for tickets belonging to fans who had failed to make the trip to Moscow. Among the celebrities who did not travel were Chelsea supporter and chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) Sebastian Coe, who had to attend meetings ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and Manchester United fan and Simply Red lead singer Mick Hucknall, who was due to perform at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. ### Match ball The match ball for the final was the Adidas Finale Moscow, the eighth in the Adidas Finale range. The ball's design was based around the "starball" pattern, inspired by the UEFA Champions League logo; the stars are dark red with gold detailing, tying in with the overall design concept for the final. Technically, the ball is based on the Adidas Europass, which was used at UEFA Euro 2008 later that summer; it has the same 14-panel configuration as the Adidas Teamgeist, but with the proprietary surface texture developed for the Europass. The ball was unveiled at a ceremony in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square, attended by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor, former Germany player and coach Franz Beckenbauer, final ambassador Rinat Dasayev and Russian Football Union president Vitaly Mutko. ### Officials The referee for the final was 40-year-old Slovakian referee Ľuboš Micheľ, the first Slovak to take charge of a European Cup final. His team was completed by fellow Slovak assistant referees Roman Slyško and Martin Balko, and fourth official Vladimír Hriňák. Having presided over the 2003 UEFA Cup final, Micheľ was the second man to referee the finals of both the Champions League and UEFA Cup since the latter changed to a single-legged affair in 1998; the other was Pierluigi Collina, who had been the referee in Manchester United's last Champions League final appearance in 1999. Micheľ began refereeing in 1987 at the age of 19, and took charge of his first top-flight game in 1993. That same year, he was promoted to the FIFA list of international referees, and in November 1993, he refereed his first international match – a UEFA Under-21 Championship qualifier between San Marino and England. Micheľ's first UEFA Champions League matches came in the 1998–99 season, including Manchester United's 5–0 win over Brøndby in the group stage. Up to the 2008 final, he had refereed 55 Champions League matches (including qualifying), notably the second leg of the semi-final between Chelsea and Liverpool in 2005, in which Liverpool's Luis García scored a controversial goal that Micheľ chose to allow. He was also selected to referee at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups, and the European Championships in 2004 and 2008. ## Match ### Team selection Sir Alex Ferguson guaranteed a place in the starting line-up for Paul Scholes, after the midfielder had missed the 1999 final through suspension. Ferguson made one change from the team that had beaten Wigan Athletic to secure the league title 10 days earlier, with Owen Hargreaves starting on the right side of midfield in a 4–4–2 formation in place of Park Ji-sung, who did not even make the substitutes bench despite starting both legs of the semi-final. Cristiano Ronaldo started on the left wing, where he was pitted against makeshift Chelsea right-back Michael Essien. This went against the prediction of The Guardian's David Pleat, who thought a duel between Ronaldo and Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole would be key to the final. Ferguson hoped his substitutes might have a big impact on the match, just as Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær did in 1999, when the pair came off the bench to help Manchester United come from behind and beat Bayern Munich. A week before the game, Ryan Giggs was philosophical about his chances of being included in the starting line-up; he was eventually named as one of seven allowed substitutes. The day before the match, Chelsea manager Avram Grant predicted that the game would throw up few tactical surprises due to the two teams' knowledge of each other from the domestic league. Like Ferguson, Grant made only one change to the team that started Chelsea's final league game against Bolton 10 days earlier; centre-back Ricardo Carvalho overcame a recurring back injury to start in place of Alex. Captain John Terry (dislocated elbow) and striker Didier Drogba (knee) also recovered from injuries suffered against Bolton to start the match. Florent Malouda retained his place on the left wing ahead of Salomon Kalou, while Michael Essien continued at right-back, rather than in his preferred midfield position, ahead of Paulo Ferreira – who did not even make the bench despite starting both legs of the semi-final – and Juliano Belletti. Ashley Cole also started despite hurting his right ankle in training the day before the game under a heavy challenge from Claude Makélélé; Cole's replacement would have likely been Wayne Bridge, but he recovered sufficiently that Bridge was not even included in the matchday squad as cover. ### Summary #### First half After a fairly cagey first 21 minutes, the first major incident of the game occurred when Scholes and Makélélé clashed in mid-air, resulting in both players being booked and Scholes having to leave the field for treatment to a bloody nose. The first goal of the game came five minutes later, when an interchange of passes between Scholes and Wes Brown after a throw-in on the right flank gave Brown time to pick out a cross for Ronaldo, who directed his header past Petr Čech; it was the first time United had scored in the first half of a European final, and the first time Chelsea had gone behind in their three final appearances. Chelsea almost equalised in the 33rd minute when Frank Lampard's cross was headed back into the goal area by Drogba. United's Rio Ferdinand, under pressure from Michael Ballack, was forced to head the ball towards his own goal and Edwin van der Sar pulled off a one-handed save to deny Chelsea a goal. United spent the rest of the first half pressing for a second goal, and had two good opportunities to extend their lead, but were denied by a double-save from Čech. Wayne Rooney delivered a long ball into the path of Ronaldo and the United goalscorer placed his cross on the head of the diving Carlos Tevez, only for Čech to deny him. Chelsea's failure to clear the loose ball gave Michael Carrick the chance to extend his side's lead, but Čech was again equal to the task with another save. Chelsea survived the pressure, as Tevez failed to connect with a low cross from Rooney, and equalised in the final minute of the first half. The goal followed a long-range shot by Michael Essien, which deflected first off Nemanja Vidić and then Ferdinand. The ball's change in direction caused Van der Sar to lose his footing, leaving Lampard, who had made a run from deep, with a simple finish. In celebration, Lampard looked up and pointed to the sky with both hands in memory of his mother, Pat, who had died a month earlier. At the end of the first half, Sir Alex Ferguson confronted referee Micheľ, "jabbing out an angry finger and spitting out a few choice words". #### Second half Lampard's equaliser at the end of the first half led to a transformed Chelsea in the second, and they kept United on the back foot for long periods. Nevertheless, the Red Devils managed to contain most of Chelsea's attacks. Chelsea had a few opportunities to take the lead, with Essien breaking free of United's defence in the 54th minute, only for his left-footed shot to curl well over the goal. Chelsea's closest opportunity to take the lead came in the 77th minute when a Drogba shot struck the post from 25 yards (23 m) out. The Ivorian striker came very close to turning Joe Cole's low cross home for the winner four minutes from time, but fired wide. Ryan Giggs was then introduced in place of Scholes, making a record 759th appearance for Manchester United. #### Extra time The game moved into extra time, and both teams had chances to score a vital second goal; first, Lampard hit the underside of the bar with a left-footed shot after the ball was played in to him with a disguised pass from Ballack, then Giggs stabbed the ball left-footed towards goal instead of sweeping it with his weaker right foot, only to see it headed off the line by Terry. Late in the second half of extra time, the ball was put out of play so players could be treated for cramp. In returning the ball to Chelsea, Tevez put it out for another throw-in deep in Chelsea's half then signalled to his teammates to put pressure on the restart. Terry and Ballack reacted angrily to this and were joined by several of their teammates, while Manchester United's players rushed in to protect Tevez. Ultimately, most of the 22 players were involved in the fracas. Amid the melée, assistant referee Martin Balko saw Drogba slap Nemanja Vidić and reported the incident to referee Micheľ. After showing a yellow card to Ballack, Micheľ showed a red card to Drogba for violent conduct, making him only the second player in history to be sent off in a European Cup final after Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in 2006. In preparation for the penalty shoot-out, both clubs made last-minute substitutions; Manchester United brought on Anderson in place of Brown, while Chelsea took off Makélélé in favour of Belletti. #### Penalty shoot-out As the match went to penalties, Rio Ferdinand won the coin toss for Manchester United, and opted for his side to go first in the shoot-out, which would be taken at the end housing the Manchester United fans. Tevez stepped up first and sent Čech the wrong way. Ballack was next up, shooting powerfully past Van der Sar. Carrick buried his spot-kick, as did Belletti with his first touch of the game. The first miss of the shoot-out came from Ronaldo, who characteristically stuttered in his run-up in an attempt to put Čech off, but the goalkeeper dived to his right to save. Lampard then put Chelsea 3–2 ahead, but Hargreaves levelled things up with a shot into the top corner. Ashley Cole was the next up, and Van der Sar got a strong hand to the ball but could not keep it out. Nani then knew he had to score to keep United in it, and he did, leaving it up to Terry to win the cup for Chelsea; however, Terry lost his footing when planting his standing foot by the ball, and, even though Van der Sar was sent the wrong way, Terry's mis-hit effort struck the outside of the right post and went wide. With the first penalty of sudden death, Anderson – like Belletti – scored with his first kick of the game. Kalou then sent Van der Sar the wrong way to make it 5–5. Giggs was next up and he was also successful. Van der Sar then pulled off the crucial save for United; he pointed to his left to indicate to Nicolas Anelka that he thought he would kick to that side, as had the six players who had kicked before him, only to correctly dive to his right to deny Anelka, whose kick was at a good height to be saved, securing European football's top prize for United for the third time in their history. ### Details ### Statistics ## Post-match Having missed what would have been Chelsea's winning penalty, John Terry had to be consoled by his manager, Avram Grant. The Manchester United players formed a guard of honour for Chelsea, lining up in two opposite rows at the foot of the steps up to the presentation party and applauding as the Chelsea team – led by chief executive Peter Kenyon – walked through. As Drogba had been sent off during the game, he was not allowed to collect his medal himself and it was given to Grant; when he returned to pitch level, Grant tossed his own medal into the crowd. After Chelsea's team received their medals, Munich air disaster survivor Bobby Charlton, who had captained United to the European Cup title in 1968, led his team up to collect their medals in his capacity as a club director. UEFA President Michel Platini presented both Kenyon and Charlton with commemorative plaques and medals, but Charlton declined to accept his medal; he later donated it to the club museum. When all the players had received their medals, Platini presented Manchester United with the trophy, which Rio Ferdinand – as team captain for the match – and Ryan Giggs – standing in for injured club captain Gary Neville – lifted together. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said his side deserved to win the game despite Chelsea performing better in the second half, and acknowledged the historical significance of the win, which came 40 years after the club's first European Cup title and 50 years after the Munich air disaster. He also said it was the first penalty shoot-out he had ever won as a manager: "I won the Charity Shield that way, but that doesn't really count. The European Cup? The FA Cup? The Scottish cups? Never. I've lost three with Aberdeen and three with United, so seventh time lucky – magnificent." Ferguson later apologised to Park Ji-sung for not including him in the matchday squad. Ronaldo expressed his relief at his side's shoot-out victory, saying, "In my opinion I played well in the game, scored a goal, and then missed the penalty. It would have been the worst day of my life. We deserved to win as we played better in the whole game. It means everything to me, we have won both trophies, it is the best day in my life." He then attempted to quash speculation about his future and a potential transfer to Real Madrid, saying, "I am going to stay." Carvalho, Lampard and Grant all refused to point the finger of blame at Terry, but assistant manager Henk ten Cate admitted that Terry was not originally due to take one of the first five penalties (if Drogba had not been sent off, the Ivorian would have taken the fifth penalty). Chelsea offered Terry counselling to help cope with having missed his penalty and lost the match. Terry was later accused of spitting at Manchester United striker Tevez, but a UEFA report into the video evidence cleared him of any wrongdoing. Terry also wrote an open letter, published on Chelsea's official website, apologising for missing the penalty and costing Chelsea the trophy. Nicolas Anelka, who took the decisive kick, revealed he did not actually want to take a penalty, citing his lack of warm-up time. Following the loss, Grant's future as manager was thrown into doubt, and owner Roman Abramovich (who attended the final), chief executive Peter Kenyon, director Eugene Tenenbaum and chairman Bruce Buck were reportedly already seeking a replacement for Grant the day after the game. Buck was unimpressed with Chelsea's second-place league finish and being runners-up in the Champions League, saying, "We have very high expectations at Chelsea and a couple of second-place finishes is just not good enough for us." Grant was officially sacked three days after the match. Buck also confirmed plans to trim the Chelsea squad by selling at least three players, and said that discussions were due to take place regarding Drogba's future with the club, after the striker reportedly expressed a desire to leave earlier in the season. In Moscow, around 6,000 police were on duty to prevent a repeat of the 2008 UEFA Cup final riots in Manchester a week earlier, but police reported that none of the 40,000 visiting fans were arrested, due in part to public safety measures such as a ban on public drinking and no large screens being set up for members of the public to watch the game outdoors. In London, violence escalated outside Fulham Broadway tube station, near Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground; police arrested 12 people on public order offences, while one man was arrested for grievous bodily harm, drink driving and dangerous driving, after he hit a 31-year-old while attempting to drive down Fulham Broadway. Five police were also believed to have been injured in the incident. Manchester United had originally intended to hold a parade through the streets of Manchester to celebrate their Double triumph on their return from Moscow on 22 May. However, following the violence that occurred at the UEFA Cup final, Greater Manchester Police determined that any victory parade could only take place later in the summer. The public parade was ultimately cancelled, but fans were given the opportunity to photograph the players with the Premier League and Champions League trophies before Manchester United's home friendly against Juventus on 6 August 2008. ## Media ### Broadcasters The match was shown simultaneously in the United Kingdom by free-to-air channel ITV1 and subscription channel Sky Sports 1, whose networks in 2005 had won the rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League matches for three seasons from 2006–07 to 2008–09. Sky acted as the host broadcaster for UEFA, providing pictures to all other networks covering the final with around 30 cameras and 100 crew members. The ITV broadcast was led by Steve Rider, with Clive Tyldesley commentating, David Pleat as an analyst, and Andy Townsend and Mark Hughes as in-studio pundits. Sky's team consisted of presenter Richard Keys, joined in the studio by Graeme Souness and Jamie Redknapp, and Ruud Gullit via phone, with commentary from Martin Tyler and analysis from Andy Gray. ITV's viewing figures peaked at 14.6 million in the five minutes from 22:30, during the penalty shoot-out. During the match (from 19:45 to 22:35), the number of viewers averaged at 11.1 million (46% of the total audience), while the average over the entire broadcast from 19:00 to 23:15 was 9.6 million (43% of the total). Meanwhile, Sky Sports' peak was 2 million viewers in a five-minute period near the end of extra time; their average for the match was 1.8 million, and 1.3 million for the full broadcast. In Ireland, RTÉ Two's coverage of the match reached a one-minute peak of 998,000 (62% share), with an average over their four-hour broadcast of 653,000 (44% share). In the United States, viewership was split between the English-language channel ESPN2 and Spanish-language channel ESPN Deportes; viewership on ESPN2 averaged at 1.097 million, while ESPN Deportes received an average of 213,000 viewers, totalling 1.31 million. It was the first time a UEFA match on ESPN had been watched by more than 1 million viewers. ### Advertising Based on an expected audience of up to 13 million, ITV raised the prices of their 30-second advertising slots during the final from between £100,000 and £150,000 to as much as £250,000. It was estimated that ITV would stand to make £9 million in advertising revenue during the final, rising to £10 million if it went to extra time and penalties; this compared with amounts of £2–3 million normally received for its Wednesday night schedule and £3–4 million for a Champions League final with no British teams involved. Among the confirmed advertisers on ITV were Ford, Cadbury, Nike, Heineken, Audi and BlackBerry. Sky's advertising prices were not reported, but among their scheduled advertisers were Audi, Ford, Nike, Samsung and Pepsi. ## Rewards In addition to the €5.4 million participation bonus, €5.7 million won from the group stage and €7.7 million from the three rounds prior to the final, Manchester United also received €7 million for winning the final. Chelsea also received €5.4 million for participation and €7.7 million for the first three knockout rounds, but received only €5.1 million from the group stage, having drawn two more games and won two fewer than Manchester United. Chelsea also received €4 million for finishing as runners-up. In addition to the €23.4 million and €19.8 million earned respectively by the two clubs as prize money, Manchester United and Chelsea received money from the UEFA market pool share. The market pool share had a total value of €277 million, shared between the 32 clubs that qualified for the group stage. The pool was split in proportion to each national association's strength in the television market, with the Premier League clubs receiving around €60 million in total from the pool. The money was then split between the four teams who qualified for the Champions League from the 2006–07 FA Premier League based on their position in the league and the number of matches played in the 2007–08 Champions League. This meant that Manchester United, having won the 2006–07 Premier League, received around €19.5 million, and Chelsea, as runners-up, received around €16.5 million. As winners of the Champions League, Manchester United earned places in the 2008 UEFA Super Cup and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. In the Super Cup, United faced 2008 UEFA Cup final winners Zenit Saint Petersburg at Stade Louis II in Monaco on 29 August 2008; Zenit won the match 2–1. As UEFA's representative at the Club World Cup, Manchester United entered the tournament at the semi-final stage, where they beat 2008 AFC Champions League winners Gamba Osaka 5–3. They then beat 2008 Copa Libertadores winners LDU Quito 1–0 in the final to become the first English club to win the competition. ## See also - Chelsea F.C. in international football competitions - English football clubs in international competitions - Manchester United F.C. in European football

Geisel School of Medicine

Medical school of Dartmouth College

The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is one of the seven Ivy League medical schools. Several milestones in medical care and research have taken place at Dartmouth, including the introduction of stethoscopes to U.S. medical education (1838), the first clinical x-ray (1896), and the first multispecialty intensive care unit (ICU) in the United States (1955). The Geisel School of Medicine grants the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. The school has a student body of approximately 700 students and more than 2,300 faculty and researchers. Geisel organizes research through over a dozen research centers and institutes, attracting more than \$140 million in grants annually, and is ranked as a top medical school by U.S. News & World Report for both primary care and biomedical research. Geisel has numerous clinical partners, including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, White River Junction Veterans Administration Medical Center, California Pacific Medical Center, and Manchester Veterans Administration Medical Center. ## History ### Foundation and early years Dartmouth's medical school was founded in 1797 as the fourth medical school in the United States, following the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1765), the medical school of King's College (now Columbia University) (1767), and Harvard Medical School (1782). The founder was Nathan Smith, a Harvard University and University of Edinburgh Medical School educated physician from Cornish, New Hampshire. Noting the dearth of medical professionals in the rural Connecticut River Upper Valley area, Smith petitioned the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College in August 1796 to fund the establishment of a medical school to train more physicians for the region. Though Dartmouth College as a whole was financially strapped, the Board approved the request, and Smith began lecturing on November 22, 1797. For much of its early life, the school consisted only of Nathan Smith and a small class of students, operating in borrowed space at Dartmouth College. Students of Smith were educated as apprentices, and received a Bachelor of Medicine degree upon graduation. Like Dartmouth College as a whole, the medical school had continual funding shortages. As time passed, however, the popularity of both the medical instruction and the basic sciences taught at the school drew undergraduates and training physicians alike. Soliciting funds from the state of New Hampshire, Smith was able to obtain medical equipment and, by 1811, a dedicated physical plant for the school. Smith acted as the sole administrator and instructor of the medical school until 1810 when a second faculty member was hired. Smith also revamped the curriculum, allowing the school to begin offering the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1812. Smith ultimately left Dartmouth in 1816, founding three additional schools of medicine at Yale University, Bowdoin College, and the University of Vermont. ### Expansion Smith's departure provided for a period of expansion, both among the faculty and the student body. Former students of Nathan Smith's replaced him on the faculty, drawing medical professionals in the northeast such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. to join them. The first hospital at the school was founded by DMS alumnus Dixi Crosby in 1838, who used it to integrate academic instruction with hands-on patient care. In 1870, Carlton Pennington Frost, DMS '57, replaced Crosby as Dean of the school. Under Frost, the curriculum sustained another revamping, this time into a four-year program that included clinical and academic training. Frost also presided over the establishment of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in 1893, built to replace Crosby's defunct hospital. In 1908, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching conducted a survey of medical education institutions in the United States. At the time, the discipline emphasized "bedside teaching" and providing students experience with a broad variety of illnesses and patients. The school's rural location was deemed too remote for proper clinical training, and the school was advised to stop offering the Doctor of Medicine degree and only provide pre-clinical instruction. The class of 1914 was the last (until 1974) to receive the Doctor of Medicine degree; subsequent classes of students attended DMS for two years before transferring to other medical schools. The drop of clinical instruction worsened the school's problems by driving away talented faculty members. After World War II, the tide of the medical discipline had shifted towards research. Although the school was well regarded for preparing students for clinical education at other institutions, its faculty was criticized for its apparent disinterest in research. The school was also criticized for using Dartmouth College's undergraduate program as a feeder school. Based on these criticisms, DMS was placed on "confidential probation" in 1956 by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Council on Medical Education. ### "Refounding" At the time of the probation, Dartmouth College had already anticipated the medical school's plight, amassing capital to fund a revitalization of the school. In 1956, the trustees of the college formally agreed to a "refounding" of the school's academic offerings, physical facilities, and faculty. S. Marsh Tenney, DMS class of 1944, was appointed to carry out this task. Tenney more than doubled the size of the faculty and the student body, added several new departments, and oversaw the construction of five new campus buildings by 1964. In the 1960s, due to a national shortage of physicians and government incentives for schools that increased their class sizes, Dartmouth Medical School graduates began to experience difficulty in trying to transfer to other medical schools to complete their final two years of medical school as other medical schools had increased their class size and could not accommodate transfer students. In the meantime, Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital had grown to be a 400-bed medical center, and Dartmouth Medical School had established a partnership with a 224-bed Veterans Administration Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont. The Doctor of Medicine program, now possible with the expanded local medical centers, was reinstated by a vote of the trustees in 1968. The admission of M.D. candidates resumed in 1970. Initially, the medical school curriculum was three years in length, unlike most medical schools, but it later was increased to the usual four years in 1979. A cooperative program with Brown Medical School began in 1981 where students received training at both medical schools. Fifteen to twenty students were selected for the program, which combined the first two years of basic science coursework at Dartmouth with the final two years of clinical coursework at Brown. The program balanced Dartmouth's greater basic science facilities than Brown, but fewer clinical facilities than available at the urban setting of Brown, which is located in Providence, Rhode Island. Graduates of the program received M.D. degrees from Brown. The program was discontinued in 2010. ### New Medical Center In 1991, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center was established on a 225-acre (0.91 km²) campus in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The three-year project, completed at the cost of \$228 million, served as a replacement for the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, which was partially demolished in the early 1990s. A new curriculum was introduced in 1996 entitled "New Directions." The curriculum, still in place today, seeks to promote small classes, reduce the amount of lectures, and offer students extensive interactive experience with patients. 2009 saw the successful completion of a \$250 million capital campaign. On April 4, 2012, the Dartmouth Medical School was renamed the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine in honor of their many years of generosity to the college. ### Remote exams academic dishonesty charges In March 2021, 17 students were accused of cheating on remote exams held during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following an audit by university technical teams, the students were alleged to have accessed content related to exam questions using the university's learning management system, Canvas. Students, faculty, and independent technical experts called the university's claims into question, citing automated logging of activity by Canvas and inconsistencies in the criteria used to identify cheating, including access to pages unrelated to exam questions. Seven of the cases were quickly dropped following these complaints, but the university affirmed its position in the other cases and emphasized their commitment to academic honesty. In response, a group of students protested outside the office of Geisel Dean Duane Compton while several faculty members signed a letter condemning the audits for creating a culture of mistrust. Following a software review by The New York Times, the medical school dropped the cheating charges against the remaining ten students. In June, Compton released a statement that the school had apologized to the students and would review its honor code review process to ensure fairness in future cases, but further details were not revealed to protect the privacy of the students involved. ## Facilities The Geisel School of Medicine has facilities on the campus of Dartmouth College, which is situated in the Upper Valley town of Hanover, New Hampshire, as well at the hospital campus of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The medical school facilities at Dartmouth College sit in a complex on the north end of Dartmouth's campus and includes academic, administrative, research, and presentation facilities. Geisel School of Medicine is served by two libraries, the Dana Biomedical Library and the Matthews-Fuller Health Sciences Library, which together offer over 240,000 volumes. Off-campus housing is available through Dartmouth College. In addition, the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center was completed in August 2011 at a cost of \$92 million. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in nearby Lebanon, New Hampshire, is the primary affiliated teaching hospital of the Geisel School of Medicine. The 396-bed inpatient facility acts as the medical school's teaching hospital and main teaching site. Other constituent elements include the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic (a network of physicians in Vermont and New Hampshire) and a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont. In total, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center serves an area with a population of 1.6 million. In addition to on-campus instruction in Hanover and Lebanon, third- and fourth-year students may choose from 75 regional sites for their clerkships. Most clerkship facilities are located in central New England, although students are also able to clerk at sites in Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Florida. ## Academics ### Degree programs The Geisel School of Medicine offers the four-year Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in certain fields. There are six PhD programs based in the Geisel School of Medicine: pharmacology and toxicology, molecular and cell biology, immunology, molecular pathogenesis, systems biology, and experimental and molecular medicine. Research and teaching positions at the Geisel School of Medicine and its centers and institutes are available to PhD candidates. In addition to the MD degree, Geisel medical students participate in the following joint-degree programs at Dartmouth: - MD/PhD program with the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies at Dartmouth - MD/MBA program with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth - MD/MPH and MD/MS programs with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice - MD/MS program with the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth ### Curriculum The MD curriculum spans four years, combining required courses with electives. First-year students learn human anatomy and basic biomedical science in classes offered by the basic science departments, while beginning a two-year course of study in clinical studies. Second-year students study pathophysiology and take courses from almost every clinical and basic science department in the school. In their third year, students are required to participate in six eight-week medical clerkships with area medical institutions, covering both ambulatory clinics and hospitals. The final year is spent on additional clerkships, the designation of an area of focus, and preparation for a post-graduation residency. In addition to imparting medical and clinical knowledge, the MD program is designed to teach interpersonal and communications skills, professionalism, and other practical skills for a medical career. ### Admissions Admission to the MD program at the Geisel School of Medicine is highly selective. Geisel receives approximately 7,000 applications each year for about 92 places in the entering class. In 2021, the acceptance rate was 3.1%. In 2021, the Geisel School of Medicine ranked 45th in research and 24th in primary care by U.S. News & World Report. In November 2013, the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) granted the Geisel School of Medicine a full eight-year term of accreditation, the longest available. ### Organization Similar to Dartmouth College, the Geisel School of Medicine operates on a quarter system. The school is directly managed by a Dean who is advised by a 22-member Board of Overseers. Part of the larger institution, the Geisel School of Medicine is ultimately administered by Dartmouth's president and Board of Trustees. As of the 2008–2009 academic year, the school operates on a budget of \$237 million. ### Research and publications Besides research conducted within the infrastructure of academic departments, research at Geisel is also organized around over a dozen research centers and institutes. The centers cover various medical subjects such as neuroscience, oncology (Norris Cotton Cancer Center), psychiatry, and pediatrics. Funded research at Geisel School of Medicine amounted to \$140 million during the 2012–2013 academic year. The medical school publishes a magazine, Dartmouth Medicine. In addition, the school also publishes an innovative medical literary journal, Lifelines (literary journal). ## People ### Student profile and student life The Geisel School of Medicine's enrollment as of October 2013 totaled 700 students: 360 M.D. candidates and 340 graduate students. In addition to the student body, over 350 resident physicians and research fellows were on campus as of July 2007. The student population is split approximately evenly between men and women, while about 25 percent of the student body is made up of international or minority students. From an average class size of 75, over 60 undergraduate institutions and most of the U.S. states are represented. According to The Princeton Review, the small class size at Geisel helps to establish "a strong sense of community and collaborative spirit." The school offers dozens of community service, recreational, professional, and other student groups. ### Faculty As of November 2007, the Geisel School of Medicine employs a staff of 2,315 faculty and researchers: 766 full-time faculty, 1,301 part-time faculty and non-faculty instructors, and 248 research positions. The ratio of full-time, on-site faculty to students is given by the school as 2:1. Notable current faculty include Stuart Gitlow, palliative care physician Ira Byock, former astronaut and Democratic politician Jay C. Buckey, psychoanalyst Peter A. Olsson, and Jay Dunlap, professor and chair of genetics at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Notable former faculty include biochemist Mahlon Hoagland, pathologist and geneticist Kurt Benirschke, and former Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop. ### Notable alumni There are 4,891 living graduates of the Geisel School of Medicine as of June 2013. - Samuel Ford McGill, first black student to graduate from a U.S. medical school - Charles Knowlton, freethinker - Robert O. Blood, physician - John D. Bullock, ophthalmologist and epidemiologist - John Francis Eisold, attending physician at the United States Capitol - Robert E. Michler, heart surgeon and Surgeon-in-Chief at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine - Richard S. Molony, U.S. Representative - Robert Burns, U.S. Representative - Noah Martin, Governor of New Hampshire - Ian Smith, television personality - Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - William E. Flanary (Dr. Glaucomflecken), ophthalmologist and comedian

Causeway Bay Books disappearances

Hong Kong bookstore staff disappearances

The Causeway Bay Books disappearances are a series of international disappearances concerning five staff members of Causeway Bay Books, a former bookstore located in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Between October and December 2015, five staff of Causeway Bay Books went missing. At least two of them disappeared in mainland China, one in Thailand. One member was last seen in Hong Kong, and eventually revealed to be in Shenzhen, across the Chinese border, without the travel documents necessary to have crossed the border through legal channels. It was widely believed that the booksellers were detained in mainland China, and in February 2016 Guangdong provincial authorities confirmed that all five had been taken into custody in relation to an old traffic case involving Gui Minhai. While response to the October disappearances had been muted, perhaps in recognition that unexplained disappearances and lengthy extrajudicial detentions are known to occur in mainland China, the unprecedented disappearance of a person in Hong Kong, and the bizarre events surrounding it, shocked the city and crystallised international concern over the possible abduction of Hong Kong citizens by Chinese public security bureau officials and their likely rendition, and the violation of several articles of the Basic Law. In his report to the British government and parliament in early January 2016, foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the incident was "a serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong and undermines the principle of one country, two systems". Following the international focus on the disappearances, there were virtual reappearances by two of the missing men, Lee Bo, in the form of letters and photographs, and Gui Minhai, in a confessional video broadcast on national television, in which they insisted that their return to mainland China was voluntary but which failed to account for their movement across national borders. These efforts were widely derided by commentators as a farce and a charade, as they failed to satisfy concerns over the breach of "one country, two systems" and its practical and constitutional implications. On 16 June 2016, shortly after he returned to Hong Kong, Lam Wing-kee gave a long press conference in the presence of legislator Albert Ho in which he detailed the circumstances surrounding his eight-month detention, and describing how his confession and those of his associates had been scripted and stage-managed. Lam indicated the involvement of the Central Investigation Team, which is under direct control of the highest level of the Beijing leadership. His revelations stunned Hong Kong and made headlines worldwide, prompting a flurry of counter-accusations and denials from mainland authorities and supporters. ## Background Causeway Bay Books (銅鑼灣書店), located in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, was founded in 1994 by Lam Wing-kee. It was one of about 110 independent Hong Kong bookshops that rent out space in upstairs locations to avoid high rents at street level. The bookstore sold a number of political books that are considered sensitive and banned in mainland China. Freedom of speech in Hong Kong is protected under Basic Law Article 27, and these independent publishers thrive as they cater predominantly to people interested in the machinations of mainland politics. The bookstore became popular amongst mainland Chinese tourists for this reason. In 2014, the bookstore was sold to Mighty Current Media Company Limited (巨流傳媒有限公司), a publishing house. During the time of the disappearances, the company had three shareholders: Gui Minhai, Sophie Choi and Lui Bo. According to industry sources, Mighty Current is a prolific publisher with a number of publishing subsidiaries, and this group may be responsible for 30 to 60 percent of the output of salacious books about Chinese political figures that are widely available at newsstands and in book stores, including one at Hong Kong International Airport. Around the time of the disappearances, Gui Minhai was rumoured to have been working on a book regarding current CPC general secretary Xi Jinping's personal love history, tentatively named Xi and His Six Women (習近平和他的六個女人). The project was suggested to be linked to the disappearances. The publishing house had also already gone to press with a book entitled 2017: Upheaval in China, but it was withdrawn by the author before publication. In late 2013, Yiu Man-tin (姚文田), founder and chief editor of Morning Bell Press (晨鐘書局) and a Hong Kong resident, was arrested in Shenzhen after he had been tricked there. He was known to have been preparing to publish a book by a Chinese writer residing in the US about Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping, entitled Godfather of China, Xi Jinping (中國教父習近平). Yiu was arrested by police in Shenzhen on charges of falsely labelling and smuggling industrial chemicals worth \$220,000 in 2010 and was sentenced to prison for 10 years allegedly for smuggling, even though the real reason for the trumped up charges, in the eyes of many, was China's increasing restrictions on political expression under Xi. Two Hong Kong magazine publishers, Wong Kin-man and Wo Chung-hau, were arrested and tried in November 2015 for running an illegal business in China after sending copies of a political magazine to people on the mainland. Chinese PEN Center director Bei Ling alerted Apple Daily to Lee Bo's disappearance, and the journal reported on 1 January 2016 that Lee had become the fifth member of Causeway Bay Books to disappear. His wife was unwilling to speak to the press at the time, but filed a missing person's report with the Hong Kong police the following day. ### Guangdong Action Plan According to The Sunday Times, the mainland authorities had issued instructions on 25 April 2015 to eradicate illegal publications and those containing sexual content. The Sunday Times published what was described to be an alleged internal Communist Party document entitled "Guangdong Action Plan", a summary of which had been circulating in journalistic and political circles the previous week, and the full document gives apparent authorisation for excursions by Guangdong enforcers targeting authors, publishers and booksellers. In it, 14 publishing houses and 21 publications in Hong Kong were named. ## Disappearances Lui Bo (呂波, age ) is the manager and one of the three shareholders of Mighty Current. His last known location was the bookstore. On 14 October 2015, he logged in for the last time onto the bookstore computer. Unconfirmed sources state that he was taken away from his wife's home in Shenzhen. Gui Minhai (桂民海, age ) is a Swedish national and one of the three shareholders of Mighty Current. He was taken away from his home in Pattaya, Thailand by an unknown man on 17 October 2015. Gui had written some 200 books during his ten years as author/publisher. He kept his movements to himself and his communications routed, and his work projects were also shrouded in secrecy. Gui had not set foot inside the PRC for a long period – he never attended to his father when he was ill, and did not return upon his death. It is known that his home in Thailand was later searched by four Chinese men, who attempted to seize Gui's computer. A manager from the estate where Gui lived, in an effort to contact Gui, dialled the number that last called her regarding Gui, to be told by a taxi driver that the four men, who had left the telephone in the taxi, wanted to go to a border town in Cambodia. He was last heard from on 6 November when he called his wife to tell her that he was safe but was unwilling to reveal his whereabouts. Gui's family contacted the Swedish embassy, and the Swedish police filed a report through Interpol, but the Guardian, noting that the military junta was becoming increasingly accommodating to Chinese demands, observed that the Thais had done little to advance the case. The Thai authorities have no record of him leaving the country. Gui was a board member of Independent Chinese PEN Centre in 2014. Lam Wing-kee (林榮基, age ), the founder of Causeway Bay Books, went missing since 24 October 2015. He habitually spent long hours at the bookshop and occasionally slept there. His wife filed a missing persons report with the police on 5 November and his family received a telephone call from him several hours later; he refused to reveal his whereabouts. When filing the police report, they were referred to the Immigration Department, who said it was against privacy policy to reveal a person's records of entry and exit of Hong Kong without the subject's permission. However, legislator James To said this was a reasonable request that was exempt from privacy policy. Police followed up on his case once, asking whether they had heard from him. His family allege that upon learning that he had contacted his family, the officer who called them informed that the case would be closed as resolved. Cheung Chi-ping (張志平, age ), a manager of Mighty Current, was taken away from his wife's home in Fenggang, Dongguan by at least a dozen men in plainclothes. Lee Bo (aka Paul Lee, 李波, age ), was a British citizen and the husband of Sophie Choi, who is in turn one of the three shareholders of Mighty Current. Lee regularly helped out in the bookstore. Lee Bo's wife has written a column for 20 years under the pen name of Syu Fei at Ta Kung Pao – owned by the Liaison Office; Lee worked at Joint Publishing until he started work at the bookstore. Since the disappearances of four of his colleagues, he had been doing anonymous interviews with BBC and various media. After the arrest of Yiu Man-tin and the disappearance of three of his colleagues, Lee went on record to say that their motive was purely economic, and that not setting foot in the mainland was the cost to bear for being in the publishing business. Lee was last seen on 30 December 2015, while delivering books in Chai Wan to a certain unknown client. Choi, who had been expecting Lee home for dinner at around 7.15 pm on 30 December, raised the alarm when he failed to return home. Lee had apparently received an order for about ten books from a new customer and had arranged to hand them over in person that night. He descended his building in a lift with at least eight other people at around 6 pm, and witnesses saw him being pushed by a group of men into a minivan, which sped away the moment he was securely on board. Choi, Lee Bo's wife, later received a telephone call from him from a Shenzhen number. Uncharacteristically speaking in Mandarin Chinese and apparently with someone whispering over his shoulder, Lee said that he had to go to the mainland on urgent business and that he would not be back home for some time. He assured her that he was well but assisting with investigations. His wife was told to be discreet. The Immigration Department has no record of Lee having left Hong Kong, and Hong Kong does not have any extradition agreement with the PRC. The fact that his home return permit was left at home led many to fear that he may have somehow been abducted by the mainland public security bureau and renditioned to Shenzhen. His disappearance is the only known disappearance that occurred in Hong Kong territory, and thus sparked even more concern on whether the integrity of "one country, two systems" is being maintained. ## Reactions to Lee Bo's disappearance ### Local Amongst local media outlets, only Apple Daily and Ming Pao ran coverage on their front pages initially, while other local newspapers carried only brief pieces about a missing person. Television viewers remarked that TVB did not run the story during its prime time news programmes for the first few days after news of the Lee Bo disappearance broke. Lee Bo's disappearance spurred renewed interest about Lam Wing-kee, and his family received a police visit the same day after chief executive CY Leung spoke publicly on the case. Hong Kong's Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said that the Hong Kong government cares about the well-being of its people, and assured the public that police were working on the case. Chief Executive CY Leung stated in a press conference on 4 January 2016 that if mainland Chinese law officials were operating in Hong Kong, it would be "unacceptable" and a breach of the Basic Law. Article 22 states that no department of the central, provincial, or municipal governments within China may interfere in the affairs which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region administers on its own. Leung furthermore hoped that "anyone, especially Lee Bo himself, can provide relevant information" about his disappearance. In January 2016, after it was revealed that all five men were in mainland China, Lam expressed confidence in the sincerity and goodwill of the PRC government, and said that Lee Bo's disappearance was an isolated case that needed a swift resolution, but it did not amount to a breakdown of one country two systems. The American Chamber of Commerce asserted that with the rule of law, Hong Kong was still a preferable springboard to invest from, compared with Shanghai or Beijing, but nevertheless expressed concern at the disappearances. Leading pro-establishment figures cast doubt on the mainland's supposed role in the disappearances: Ip Kwok-him said that it was possible to use mainland telephone lines in Hong Kong, so the phone call from a Shenzhen number did not necessarily mean Lee was in the mainland; he added that there was no evidence of abduction. After Lee's wife cancelled her police report, Yiu Si-wing disputed the need for LegCo to discuss his disappearance due to the cancellation; Michael Tien said that if Lee had voluntarily gone to the mainland, it could not be a question of mainland officials acting across the border; Wong Kwok-kin said that kidnappers demand ransoms and not cancellation of missing persons reports. Regina Ip said it was odd that Lee would be able to apparently telephone his wife freely if he was in custody, unlike if he was detained in Hong Kong. Ng Leung-sing, during a legislative council discussion, claimed to have received a tip from "an old friend" that all five booksellers had taken clandestine speedboats to Wai Lingding Island (外伶仃島), an island south of Hong Kong that is administratively part of mainland China with no border facilities, and had been arrested for seeking prostitutes. The allegations of prostitution, criticised by pro-democracy figures as character assassination, were carried by TVB on its prime time evening news as the leading item. Ng later apologised under pressure, saying that he had repeated a rumour without having checked the facts but never mentioned Lee's name. Ng said he was merely trying to state that it was indeed possible to leave Hong Kong without identity documents, and that it was inappropriate to speculate at present. Lee's wife criticised Ng for his insincere apology. Martin Lee said that "according to all the evidence that has been reported, I believe that Mr. Lee had been taken against his will by certain law enforcement agents from across the border through illegal means". He described the disappearances as the "most worrying thing that has happened in Hong Kong since the handover in 1997". Benny Tai and former chief secretary Anson Chan both said the case poses a genuine threat to the "one country, two systems" principle, which China ought to uphold. Former legislator Margaret Ng suggested that Hong Kong's status as a world city was coming into question, and said "Hong Kong can be deemed to be no longer safe unless we have a clear resolution of the problem". Albert Chan said "this is the first time there has been such a clear violation of Hong Kong's law, a clear violation of 'one country, two systems' principle, that has taken place in such an open manner", and Lee Cheuk-yan, called the disappearances a "milestone for suppression". Joseph Wong, former secretary for the Hong Kong civil service, also said that the incident will have drastic consequences as foreign confidence in the one country two systems policy may be irreparably damaged, which may in turn jeopardise Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre. On 10 January, in excess of 6,000 people attended a protest march from the Hong Kong government headquarters in Admiralty to the China Liaison Office in Sai Wan demanding Beijing to respect the one country, two systems agreement to preserve Hong Kong's autonomy. Ta Kung Pao announced on the same day that Sophie Choi's regular "Syu Fei" column with the paper was temporarily suspended – a spokesman for the journal said that Choi had advised them just before the new year that she was unable to submit any copy in January. The Hong Kong police said that Lee Bo and his wife had met at a guesthouse in China on Saturday, 23 January. Choi acknowledged he was well and that he was "assisting in an investigation in the capacity of a witness". After the latest revelation, legislator Fernando Cheung criticised the CY Leung administration for limpness, remarking that "up to now the whole handling of the Lee Bo fiasco is being conducted through unofficial means, bypassing the Hong Kong authorities, and Lee Bo seems to be releasing messages under the gun". ### Authors and other publishers The disappearances led to a very severe crisis of confidence within the publishing sector, with many booksellers being afraid to sell such books on mainland politics or featuring gossip on political figures. As of 7 January 2016, over 500 publishers, writers, booksellers and members of the public had signed an online petition pledging to "not fear the white terror and uphold the principle of publication freedom". Some booksellers began to pull anti-China books off shelves. Singapore-owned Page One removed some of the books published by Mighty Current – in particular many titles focusing on Xi Jinping – from their retail outlet at Hong Kong airport. The head of Open Publishing decided to abort the publication of Xi Jinping's Nightmare, which had already come back from the printers. The author was unable to find a publisher in Hong Kong, and has gone to Taiwan. Richard Charkin, president of the International Publishers Association expressed "deep concern" for the missing men and called for their safe return home. He added that the disappearances "immediately raise dire questions about the Chinese government's commitment to freedom to publish". On the other hand, US-based writer Xi Nuo (西諾) released his book Xi Jinping and His Lovers that was turned down by Gui Minhai the previous year after he had received a visit from a Chinese government agent. Xi Nuo says his decision to publish the book was to challenge the Chinese authorities. "I want to tell the Chinese authorities and Xi Jinping, the president of China, that you are wrong. Completely wrong. You better release the five guys. Let them go back home". American and European associations of publishers and booksellers – including PEN American Center, the Authors Guild and the Federation of European Publishers – jointly wrote to CY Leung, urging him to take action on the missing Causeway Bay booksellers and "request a formal assurance from Beijing that it will respect Hong Kong's autonomy and abide by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration". ### National The Chinese Foreign Minister stated that despite Lee Bo's dual Hong Kong and British citizenship, Lee is above all a Chinese citizen. This is viewed as a rebuke to Britain and a characterisation of the disappearance as an internal matter. Wang claimed that there was no evidence that the missing persons were taken by the Chinese government, and urged for an end to "useless speculations." China's Foreign Ministry maintains that China opposes "any foreign country interfering with China's domestic politics or interfering with Hong Kong affairs". Global Times, a tabloid subsidiary of People's Daily, wrote three successive belligerent editorials on the case, an act viewed by Hong Kong media as an indirect recognition of China's role in the disappearances. The first editorial, on 4 January, opined that the bookshop's business model depended on "stirring up troubles on the mainland ... [and]... that it interferes with mainland affairs in a disguised way, and damages the mainland's vital interests to maintain its harmony and stability." On 6 January 2016, they published another editorial stating that Causeway Bay Books being under investigation by Chinese officials for slander is "reasonable", and also noted that "all powerful agencies in the world have ways to evade the law, so that those under investigation will cooperate". Mainland law enforcement agencies must notify their Hong Kong counterparts within 14 days under a reciprocal mechanism if any Hong Kong resident is detained across the border, but Hong Kong officials had received no word through these channels at the expiration of the deadline. On 8 January Chinese security officials acknowledged that Lee Bo was being held in China. This took the form of a nine-word message sent to the Hong Kong Police Force with no indication of his whereabouts or his activity status. ### Interested third countries Speaking anonymously, a senior foreign diplomat in Hong Kong revealed that at least six countries had expressed their concern and asked for information regarding the disappearances as at 23 January 2016. Reuters revealed that fifteen ambassadors or consuls were concerned about the broad interpretation of Chinese nationality, and that the denial of consular access to a Swedish and a British passport holder was a violation of international treaties. Eight countries including the US, UK, Sweden, Canada, Japan, Australia and Germany had privately expressed concerns about the apparent breach of "One country, two systems". - United Kingdom: As Lee Bo is a dual citizen of both the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office expressed "deep concerns" over the disappearances. On 5 January 2016, Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, urged China and Hong Kong to locate the missing persons. Hammond said it was important to "know what has happened and who is responsible for it", and that it would be an "egregious breach of the one country, two systems policy, Hong Kong's Basic Law and the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration for someone to be spirited out of Hong Kong in order to face charges in a different jurisdiction". About 50 people protested in front of the Chinese embassy in London on 10 January 2016. In his report on Hong Kong for the second half of 2015, British Foreign Secretary again expressed concern about Lee Bo's case, and called for Lee's immediate return to Hong Kong. - Sweden: As Gui Minhai is a Swedish national, on 5 January 2016, the Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that they took a "serious view" on Gui's disappearance. - Taiwan: On 5 January 2016, chairman of Kuomintang and 2016 presidential candidate Eric Chu urged the Hong Kong and Chinese government to give clear answers on the incident. Likewise, on 6 January, fellow presidential candidate and Democratic Progressive Party leader Tsai Ing-wen called for answers and the protection of the freedom of speech in Hong Kong. - European Union: On 7 January 2016, the European Union European External Action Service issued a statement calling the incident to be "extremely worrying," and urged the governments of China, Hong Kong and Thailand to investigate the disappearances. On 4 February, the European Parliament, while expressing their concern over the missing men, passed a motion calling for the immediate safe release of the booksellers and "all other persons arbitrarily arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and publication in Hong Kong". The parliament also urged the Chinese government "to stop suppressing the free flow of information, including by restricting the use of the internet". - United States: On 8 January 2016, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a regular news briefing that the US government is "disturbed" by the disappearances and "[shares] the concern of the people of Hong Kong regarding these disappearances." ### Commentators Commentators have noted a resurgent interest from citizens in renewing their BNO passports as they are feeling insecure in having a Hong Kong passport. Legal experts have become increasingly concerned at the reach of Chinese law enforcement. Jerome A. Cohen, expert in Chinese law at New York University, said China's increasing assertiveness in the world represents "not only the extending reach of Chinese law, but the extending reach of Chinese lawlessness." Willy Lam, professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, warned: "Not just the publishing and media circles, but the entire Hong Kong society, including people who do business in [mainland] China, and who might have commercial disputes with Chinese companies or different parts of the Chinese government, might fear for their safety because of such a very dangerous precedent". "Freedom from fear is a thing of the past for Hong Kong and this applies to everyone: businessmen or student," said a spokesman for the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. Although alternative options to doing business with China are few for the business sector, many companies large and small, including within the important financial sector, are uneasy about the changing political climate. The head of the one business association in Hong Kong said: "The middle-class, the professionals, even the accountants: people are just freaked out about what is going on... The last bastion of Hong Kong's guarantees is the law. What we have left is our legal system, but people fear that this may be under attack too". Steve Vickers, the principal of one local risk assessment firm said: "The Hong Kong government appears to now have considerably diminished autonomy and the liaison office seems to be strengthening its position, [the disappearances have] certainly sent a chill through the business and social arenas in Hong Kong". ## Reappearances ### Gui Minhai Chinese state media published an interview on 17 January where Gui Minhai confessed to causing the death of a student whilst driving under the influence of alcohol in 2005 and for which he supposedly received a two-year suspended sentence. He allegedly absconded before the damages could be settled. According to interviews with China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency, Gui said that he had been consumed with guilt and had returned to China in October to face the consequences of his misdeed. In the video footage Gui said: "Returning to the Chinese mainland and surrendering was my personal choice and had nothing to do with anyone else. I should shoulder my responsibility and I don't want any individual or institutions to interfere, or viciously hype up my return". Gui appealed for the public not to hype his disappearance. The confession has been received with incredulity, and many of the facts surrounding his mysterious disappearance from Thailand, including the release of the video three months after him vanishing, have been called into question. The president of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Jasper Tsang, said: "the China Central Television (CCTV) report [and broadcast of Gui Minghai's confession] did not seem to be able to calm the public. As the case drags on, there will be more speculation". Human Rights Watch was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying: "Given that Gui has been held nearly three months incommunicado, in a secret location, and without a lawyer, his confession on state-controlled TV lacks credibility." The Washington Post said: "The narrative seems messy and incoherent, blending possible fact with what seems like outright fiction. It feels illogical, absurd even. But that may be the point. Televised confessions don't tend to trade in logic, or truth. They trade in fear." Following China Central Television's release of videotaped confessions from Gui Minhai – and of Swedish NGO staffer Peter Dahlin, Reporters Without Borders condemned China's "dissemination of forced 'confessions' that have no informational value". The organisation urged the EU to sanction CCTV and Xinhua for "knowingly peddling lies and statements presumably obtained under duress". Hong Kong's chief executive said that he was unable to act as "the Gui Minhai case has not been reported to the Hong Kong police or the government". The Swedish foreign ministry said an envoy had visited Gui in February, but Swedish diplomats had not been given access to him since. In October 2017, he was formally released and ended up living in the eastern city of Ningbo, under heavy police presence and surveillance. In January 2018, Gui was travelling to Beijing for a medical exam at the Swedish embassy, accompanying him were two Swedish diplomats from the Swedish Consulate in Shanghai. Before reaching Beijing, 10 men in plain clothes kidnapped him away yet again in front of the diplomats. Chinese officials said that he was seized for allegedly sharing secret information with Swedish diplomats and of meeting them illegally. This incident caused Sweden to summon the Chinese ambassador in Stockholm to explain. In January 2019, Gui's daughter Angela claimed that the Swedish ambassador in Beijing, Anna Lindstedt, invited her to a meeting in Stockholm with several Chinese businessmen at a hotel, at which the businessmen and Lindstedt apparently tried to trade Gui's freedom for Angela's silence on his case. Swedish authorities denied authorising the negotiations. Lindstedt was charged in December 2019, risking 10 years' imprisonment under Swedish law. Later on, her trial in Stockholm District Court started in June 2020. Gui was awarded, in absentia, the 2019 Kurt Tucholsky prize for persecuted authors. Chinese authorities reacted by cancelling planned visits to Sweden by two large delegations of businessmen. ### Lee Bo After his wife reported his disappearance to the Hong Kong police, a letter purportedly handwritten by Lee Bo was faxed to Taiwan's Central News Agency on 4 January 2016, explaining that he had "returned to the mainland using my own methods" to work with "concerned parties". Saying that she believed the letter was written voluntarily, Lee Bo's wife withdrew her request for police help. However, the case remains open as Hong Kong police confirmed that a missing person report can only be cancelled by the subject in person. On 10 January 2016, Headline Daily claimed to have obtained an exclusive video in which Lee Bo claimed that he was safe and that his disappearance was merely a personal trip. It also published a letter, purporting to say that he was "perplexed and puzzled" about the reaction over the disappearances. He also condemned a protest that was to be held on the same day. Another letter allegedly written by Lee Bo to his wife was sent to Sing Tao Daily on 17 January, the day Gui Minhai's confession was aired, in which Lee denounced his colleague's reprehensible lack of morals in connection with his car accident, and blamed Gui for the fate that had befallen him. In it, Lee also said that he had become good friends with his captors. On 29 February 2016, Lee Bo met with Hong Kong police and then gave a televised interview on the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television in an undisclosed location in mainland China, in what was his first public appearance since he went missing. He held to the story that was in the letters published by Sing Tao, saying he "resorted to illegal immigration" to get to the mainland "to cooperate in a judicial investigation" as he did not want to draw attention to his visit. He denied that he was kidnapped, but did not give details as to how he actually entered Mainland China without his travel documents. Adding that his British citizenship had been sensationalised, Lee Bo says that he will abandon his right of abode in the United Kingdom. On 24 March, Lee Bo returned to Hong Kong and asked the authorities to drop the case like his three colleagues did before. He said he would never again sell banned books, and was transported back into the mainland in a vehicle with cross-border licence plates the next day. ### Lui Bo and Cheung Jiping On 4 February 2016, provincial authorities in Guangdong confirmed that Lui Bo, Cheung Jiping, and Lam Wing-kee had been taken into custody in relation to a case involving Gui Minhai. The Guangdong authorities accused them of being "involved in illegal activities on the mainland" saying that "criminal compulsory measures were imposed on them". On 28 February, the three men appeared on Phoenix Television along with Gui Minhai in which they confessed to conspiring with Gui to send banned books to mainland customers and expressed remorse for their "illegal book trading"; Lam, further claiming Gui's books were fabrication, having been compiled from information obtained from the internet and magazines, acknowledged that the books "generated lots of rumours in society and brought a bad influence". Phoenix TV, citing police sources, said the three men showed "good attitude" by confessing and might be allowed to return to Hong Kong within the week while they await trial. According to the Hong Kong government, Lui Bo had returned to Hong Kong and met with Hong Kong police on the morning of 4 March. He requested that his missing person case be closed and expressed that he does not require assistance from the Hong Kong government and police. Cheung Jiping also came back to Hong Kong two days later, and also asked the Hong Kong police to drop his missing person case. It appears that both men returned to mainland China hours after meeting with the Hong Kong authorities. ### Lam Wing-kee Lam Wing-kee was the last bookseller with Hong Kong citizenship to be allowed to return to Hong Kong from the mainland, eight months after he disappeared. On 13 June, Lam cancelled his missing person's report with the police, repudiating police assistance. Three days later, on the day he was due to return to the mainland, he held a press briefing in the presence of legislator Albert Ho during which he claimed that he was abducted by the mainland officials at the Hong Kong-China border control in Shenzhen on 24 October 2015. He revealed that he had been transported handcuffed and blindfolded to Ningbo. Lam was not told what offence he had committed until after he was taken to Ningbo, where he was held in solitary confinement and under 24-hour guard by six teams of gaolers from the "Central Investigation Team" (中央專案組) – a Cultural Revolution-era unit whose powers and authority exceed those of the public security bureaus (PSB), reporting to central leadership. Lam felt he had no choice and signed away his rights of access to a lawyer and to inform family members of his detention. During his detention, he was subject to frequent interrogations each lasting around 40 minutes during which he was repeatedly accused of illegally sending banned books to mainland China. After March 2016, Lam was transferred to Shaoguan, where he worked in a library, but was prevented from leaving the mainland. His release was conditional upon retrieving a hard drive from the bookstore containing lists of readers who had bought books from his business and without divulging any details of his detention. He also stated that his confession on mainland TV in February was scripted, and that Lee Bo, who told him he was "taken away from Hong Kong", had also been forced to make a televised confession. Lee Bo rejected Lam's assertions the next day, denying that he had told Lam how he ended up in the mainland or that he had handed over the bookstore's list of customers to mainland police. He also claimed that he was assisting Ningbo's PSB during his time there, and had never heard of the Central Investigation Team. Sing Tao Daily published a retort by a case officer in Ningbo, saying that Lam and his girlfriend had signed confessions to having been engaged in "illegal business operations" and agreements not to hire lawyers nor see their families. The officer said Lam was on bail, and was allowed to return to Hong Kong to attend to personal matters. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said: "Lam Wing-kee is a Chinese citizen, and he has violated China's laws on the mainland... Relevant authorities in China are authorised to handle the case in accordance with the law." He moved to Taiwan in April 2019. On 20 April 2020, a man threw red paint at him, just days before the reopening of his "Causeway Bay Books" in Taipei. ## See also - Book censorship in China - Extraordinary rendition - List of people who disappeared - Case 3/2008 in Macau

Kimball Island

Island in California

Kimball Island (formerly known as Hammond Island) is a small island in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. It is located in Sacramento County, California, in the United States. Since its discovery, it has been used to grow barley, farm fish, cultivate cannabis, and as residential land. Currently, however, it is uninhabited; since 2000, it has been left to "forever be a wetland habitat", and is sometimes used as a fishing spot. ## Geography Kimball Island is located in the San Joaquin River in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, west of West Island, southwest of the submerged southern tip of Sherman Island, south of the Sacramento River, and east of Winter Island. It is also south of several islands uncharted on United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps, like Lobree Island. It is part of Sacramento County, California. Its coordinates are , and the USGS measured its elevation at sea level in 1981. Since 2000, it has been uninhabited, as county officials voted for it to "forever be a wetland habitat"; currently, it is marshland, and used for wildlife mitigation. The currents of the San Joaquin River between Kimball Island and the northern shore of Antioch are strong, and the river is not passable by swimming: in 1973, the Los Angeles Times said that "the dark green current brooks few weaknesses and no errors", and that "no one, as far as the old-timers know, has ever made it across the 600 yards that separate the small, pleasant city of Antioch in Contra Costa County from Kimball Island, a verdant strip in the distance". ## History Kimball Island appears on an 1850 survey map of the San Francisco Bay area made by Cadwalader Ringgold, on which it is shown and labeled "Hammond Island" (with no relation to the island currently named Hammond Island, which is further downstream in Suisun Bay). In 1869, a real estate transaction was recorded in which George P. Sanford sold William M. Brown several acres of swamp land "near Kimball's Island". By 1871, barley was being grown there by a Captain Kimball; the Daily Evening Herald of Stockton said in March that "we have seen a bunch of barley stalks, from Kimball's Island, that are nearly 5 feet [1.5 m] long". In July of the same year, levees protecting Kimball Island from the waters of the Sacramento River failed, with Captain Kimball saying that he would "sustain damage of five or six hundred dollars in injury to growing crops". By 1882, two ponds on Kimball Island were being used by C. Dickenson of Concord to raise German carp. The ponds were said, at the time, to contain "about 3,000 fish". Dickenson sold them primarily to other fish farmers who needed to stock breeding ponds. By 1897, asparagus was being grown there, with the Contra Costa Gazette saying that "Kimball Island asparagus commands the best price in the San Francisco market [...] it is very large, delicious and of a most excellent flavor, and in constant demand." For some time, a navigational beacon was located at Kimball Island; it was discontinued in 1922, after having been reported missing. A cruiser had run aground on the island in 1935, stranding eight people aboard for the night. In 1935, Kimball Island was one of several locations along the San Joaquin River included in the Oakland Tribune Bass Derby, in which fishermen competed to catch the largest bass. By the late 1940s, Kimball Island had become a location for duck hunting. In 1961, the Napa Valley Register said that stripers could be caught at Kimball Island. In 1964, the Oakland Tribune reported on muskrat and beaver burrows threatening the stability of levees in the Delta, including on Kimball Island. A number of people have lived on Kimball Island. In 1890, a Captain Mitchell had "established himself" on Kimball Island. In 1893, a man named Ah Sing (who had lived there for some time) was found dead; while murder was suspected by his friends, it was eventually found that he had died of consumption. In 1930, Kimball Island was home to Captain Henry Mason. In 1941, two men were arrested in the act of stealing an electric motor, a tractor, a gasoline engine and two lawnmowers from Kimball Island. In 1967, a real estate development company from San Francisco made a request to Sacramento County supervisors that Kimball Island be "detached from Sacramento County and attached to Contra Costa" to develop it into a "marina-oriented subdivision". This project was never undertaken: Assistant County Counsel Fred Williams would later say that "when the developer found out what a long and complicated procedure would be involved, he gave up the idea". The next year, a different developer planned to "construct a 3,500-foot blacktop airplane landing strip", a public recreational area, and a pleasure craft marina on the island, which they would then call "Sky Island". The rezoning, transferring the land from the recreation-flood zone to the commercial zone, was approved on the condition that "provisions for water supply, sewage disposal, fire and police protection be approved by various county departments concerned and that the proposal be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, the State Aeronautics Board and the County Board of Supervisors". It was also conditional on development being started within one year of the approval; however, these plans never materialized. In 1983, a cannabis "plantation" was discovered on Kimball Island, with over 300 marijuana plants. As this occurred during the period when possessing or smoking cannabis was illegal in California, police responded by taking possession of the cannabis and setting it on fire. In 2000, the Sacramento County Policy Planning Commission voted to rezone Kimball Island from "commercial recreation and flood" to "permanent agriculture and flood", in a move that was described by the Sacramento Bee as making sure it would "forever be a wetland habitat". By September, 104 acres (42 ha) of Kimball Island was owned by Steve Morgan, the founder of Wildlands Incorporated, who used the property as a mitigation bank. In 2014, three houses on the island were damaged by a wildfire.

Conner Cappelletti

Guamanian footballer

Conner Cappelletti (born January 17, 1989) is an association football coach and former player. Previously the head coach at Lane United, Lane Community College, and North Alabama SC, he is an assistant coach for USL League One club Richmond Kickers. Born in the United States, he represented Guam at international level, playing as a defender. A native of Kent, Washington, Cappelletti grew up in Alabama and attended Bob Jones High School, where he was a three-sport athlete. After playing youth football with Valley FC and Birmingham United, he spent his first two years of college at Wallace State Community College before transferring to Valparaiso University. Cappelletti played while in school with Indiana Invaders and Kansas City Brass, both in the Premier Development League, and played three more years after graduating: two seasons in the National Premier Soccer League with Rocket City United and a pair of friendly matches with Lane United. Three years after ending his club career, he was called up for the first and only time by Guam, earning three caps at the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship. Cappelletti transitioned into coaching during his playing career, taking charge of youth and high school teams before taking a job as an assistant coach with Lane United following his playing retirement. In 2017, he was named the head coach at Lane Community College, and in 2019 doubled up when he was promoted to head coach at Lane United. He stepped down from both positions in November 2019. ## Early life Cappelletti was born on January 17, 1989, in Kent, Washington, the son of Cap and Christi Cappelletti. As a child, he lived in Tennessee and Germany before his family settled in Madison, Alabama, ahead of his sophomore year of high school. Cappelletti was a three-sport athlete at Bob Jones High School, playing basketball, American football, and association football. He was on varsity in all three sports as both a junior and senior; with the Patriots soccer team, he was team captain and MVP and scored 15 goals during his senior season. At club level, Cappelletti played two years with Valley FC and one year with Birmingham United. Without a Division I scholarship offer following his high school graduation, he elected to attend Wallace State Community College and play for the Lions' team in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). ## Playing career ### College and amateur For two seasons, Cappelletti played college soccer at Wallace State, serving as a team captain as a sophomore. He earned NJCAA All-Region honors in both seasons, with the Lions going 15–3–0 under his leadership in 2008. Academically, he was named to the President's List in May 2009. Following his two years at Wallace State, he was recruited and received a scholarship to attend Valparaiso University and play under head coach Mike Avery. Joining Cappelletti in transferring to Valpo was his Wallace State teammate Roby Del Giudice, and the Crusaders' 2009 recruiting class also included Stefan Antonijevic. On September 1, 2009, Cappelletti made his Division I and Valparaiso debut, starting in a 2–0 victory over Eastern Illinois. He played the full 90 minutes, anchoring a Crusader backline that allowed just four shots on target. He went on to appear in 13 matches during his junior season, including starting in all three games Valpo played that year against ranked opponents. Cappelletti was chosen to play less as a senior: he appeared in just six matches for the Crusaders. His lone start of the year came in his final collegiate game, as he played the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 victory over Detroit on November 6, 2010. Cappelletti played 19 matches over his two seasons with the Crusaders and was part of Valpo squads that earned two consecutive winning seasons for the first time in the team's history. #### Premier Development League While in college, Cappelletti spent two summers playing in the Premier Development League (PDL). Ahead of his first year at Valpo, he took the field with Indiana Invaders. In his lone season with the Invaders, Cappelletti appeared in 16 matches. He returned to the PDL ahead of his senior season with the Crusaders, this time playing with Kansas City Brass. Cappelletti appeared in 14 games for the Brass during his time with the club and trained with Major League Soccer club Kansas City Wizards. ### Later career Following his graduation from college, Cappelletti did not pursue a professional career, instead returning to Alabama. He signed on to play with National Premier Soccer League club Rocket City United, with who he would spend two seasons. While playing with Rocket City, Cappelletti also worked as a youth coach for his former youth club, Valley FC, as well as coaching at the high school level. He spent one year as the junior varsity coach at Sparkman High School and one year as the varsity head coach at James Clemens High School. Cappelletti returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2013, joining newly-formed PDL club Lane United. Although the club did not begin league play until the 2014 season, they did play several friendly matches over the summer of 2013. Cappelletti appeared for the Reds in the first match in club history, a 3–0 defeat against Portland Timbers U23s on July 18. He did not continue as a player once the club began league play, however, and ended his club career by accepting a role as an assistant coach with Lane United. While serving with the Reds, he additionally worked as a coach for local youth club Eugene Timbers. ## International career In October 2016, three years after ending his club career, Cappelletti was called up for the first time by the Guam national team for the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship. Although he was in the squad as a player, Cappelletti said he was excited for the callup as a "learning tool for coaching" and that he would be able to see firsthand what coaching is like at the national team level. He made his Guamanian debut on November 6, 2016, replacing Ian Mariano at halftime of an eventual 3–2 defeat against Hong Kong. Cappelletti appeared in all three of Guam's matches at the tournament and was not called up again by the country. ## Coaching career While still working as an assistant coach at Lane United, Cappelletti was named as the interim head coach at Lane Community College (LCC) on June 20, 2017. Without a formal announcement, he became the permanent head coach for the Titans before the 2017 season had begun. His first game in charge of Lane ended in a 3–2 victory over Skagit Valley on August 24. Lane finished with a 5–9–0 record in Cappelletti's first season in charge but recovered to go 6–6–3 in 2018, the program's best record since being brought back from hiatus. In 2019, the Titans led their region of the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) through seven games; they ended up finishing second and qualified for the NWAC playoffs for the first time in program history. Although the Titans were defeated in the regional playoff by Everett, Cappelletti was named as the Southern Region Co-Coach of the Year. Following the 2018 PDL season, Lane United head coach John Galas departed the club to become an assistant coach at FC Tucson; Cappelletti was promoted to become the Reds' new head coach. He became just the second head coach in club history. To fill out his staff, Cappelletti hired his youth and college teammate Chace Zanaty as an assistant and brought in former American international Nate Jaqua as strikers coach. In his first game in charge of the Reds, Cappelletti and Lane United earned a 1–1 draw against Victoria Highlanders on May 10, 2019. Lane United finished with a 5–4–5 record in Cappelletti's lone season in charge, equaling the best record in club history. On November 20, 2019, Cappelletti resigned his positions with both LCC and Lane United. He and his fiancée moved to Ohio, where Cappelletti took a position as a coach at Cincinnati-area youth club Cincinnati United SC. He departed Lane United with a 5–4–5 record from his lone season in charge and ended his Titans tenure with a record of 16–18–9. Cappelletti spent two years at Cincinnati United, then in 2021 was hired as an assistant coach for the Western Oregon Wolves, a brand-new NCAA Division II program. He was the first assistant in program history, but left the team before it ever played a game. In 2022, Cappelletti returned to Lane United as an assistant coach while also serving as an assistant for the Willamette Bearcats men's and women's teams. Ahead of the 2023 season, Cappelletti briefly joined North Alabama SC as the club's assistant director of coaching. Shortly after, he was named as the head coach of the senior men's team, playing in USL League Two, and as an assistant coach for the senior women's team, playing in the USL W League. However, after just one month in Alabama and without taking charge of a game, Cappelletti received a professional coaching offer and departed to become an assistant coach for USL League One club Richmond Kickers. The head coach of the Kickers, Darren Sawatzky, was the head coach of Guam when Cappelletti earned his three caps with the national team. ## Career statistics ### International ### Managerial ## Honors ### Individual - NWAC South Region Co-Coach of the Year: 2019

Belgian ship A4

Belgian naval trawler

Patrol vessel A4 (French: Patrouilleur A4) was a small Mersey-class trawler operated by Belgium during the Second World War. Originally built for the British Royal Navy, as HMS John Ebbs, the ship is notable for its role in evacuating Belgian gold reserves to England during the Battle of Belgium in May 1940. The success of the operation not only allowed the Belgian government in exile to fund its operations but deprived the German occupiers of an important asset to support their war effort. After the Belgian surrender, the vessel and its crew interned themselves in neutral Spain. Both crew and vessel were released in 1946 and A4 was scrapped soon afterwards. ## Background Pilote 4 (later renamed Patrouilleur A4) was purchased by the Belgian Corps de Marine in 1920, having previously served in the British Royal Navy during the First World War as HMS John Ebbs (FY3566). The vessel was a Mersey-class naval trawler, built by Cochranes in Selby, North Yorkshire, and was launched on 2 October 1917. Displacing 339 tonnes (334 long tons; 374 short tons), the vessel was 45 metres (148 ft) long, and had a draught of 4.5 metres (15 ft). Fitted with engines that were capable of producing 600 horsepower (450 kW), it could travel at between 9 and 10 knots (17 and 19 km/h; 10 and 12 mph). With a complement of 27, the Belgians armed the ship with two Maxim machine guns on the bridge and a 47 mm (1.9 in) gun at the stern. In 1939, A4 was waiting to be scrapped, but the deteriorating international situation caused by German expansionism led to its reactivation by the Ministry of National Defence. Because of Belgium's neutral status in the early stages of the Second World War, A4 had large Belgian tricolours painted on each side of its hull, as well as the word "BELGIË" (Dutch for "Belgium") in white, to prevent it being mistaken for a belligerent ship. After Belgium was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940, it was not repainted. ## Evacuation of Belgian gold During the interwar period, Belgium had created a gold-based currency, called the Belga, which ran parallel to the Belgian franc. The Belga was intended for international trading and meant that the National Bank of Belgium amassed considerable gold reserves, amounting to some 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons) by 1940. During the escalating international tensions in the 1930s, the Belgian government began moving large amounts of gold to the United States, Great Britain and Canada, but was forced to retain some gold in the country to maintain the Belga's value. By the time the Germans invaded Belgium in May 1940, there were still 40 tonnes (39 long tons; 44 short tons) of gold left in Belgium, held at the bank's offices in the port of Ostend. The only ship available in the area was A4, commanded by Lieutenant Van Vaerenbergh. On 19 May 1940, the vessel was loaded with the gold and, avoiding Dunkirk which was being bombed by the Luftwaffe, headed for the British coast, accompanied by the ship P16 which was carrying refugees. After being transferred from port to port because of concerns for the safety of the cargo during unloading, the gold was landed at Plymouth on 26 May, two days before the Belgian surrender. The gold was finally deposited at the Bank of England. A4 also carried Hubert Ansiaux, the civil servant charged with overseeing the evacuation of the gold to England and the future Governor of the National Bank. The fact that so much Belgian gold had been rescued before the German occupation allowed the Belgian government in exile to finance its own operations, unlike most other exiled governments which had to rely on British financial support. ## Aftermath Since Belgium had officially surrendered on 28 May and no official Belgian government yet existed in England, the crew of A4 took their ship to Bilbao in neutral Spain to avoid having to return to Belgium and become German prisoners of war. They arrived in Spain on 26 June and spent the rest of the war interned. Control of the ship was returned to Belgium in 1946 and it was scrapped in 1948. For his role in the evacuation of the gold, Lieutenant Van Vaerenbergh was awarded the Order of Leopold II.

HMS Prince of Wales (1902)

Pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy

HMS Prince of Wales was a London-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was one of two ships of the London- or Queen sub-class. Shortly after completion the ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and then to the Atlantic in 1909 and Home Fleets three year later. Prince of Wales often served as a flagship during her career. The ship was assigned to the Channel Fleet after the beginning of the First World War in August 1914 and ferried Royal Marines to Belgium that same month. In early 1915, she was ordered to the Mediterranean to support Allied forces in the Dardanelles Campaign, but Prince of Wales only remained there briefly before being ordered to the Adriatic to reinforce Italian forces there in case of an attack by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The ship was ordered home in early 1917 and reduced to reserve upon her arrival. Prince of Wales served as an accommodation ship until she was listed for sale in late 1919. The ship was sold for scrap in mid-1920 and broken up thereafter. ## Design and description The Director of Naval Construction, Sir William White, proposed a further pair of Londons to round out a tactical squadron of eight ships for the 1900 Naval Programme. After some hesitation, the Admiralty agreed, despite the ongoing construction of the smaller and faster Duncan class. A controversy engendered by Rear-Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet, about the retention of obsolete ironclads in the fleet in mid-1900 was largely responsible for the decision. The two ships were virtually identical to the preceding London sub-class of the Formidables and are generally considered part of the Formidable or London class, but the difference in the distribution of their 12-pounder 3-inch (76 mm) guns, their lower displacement, and their later construction than the Duncans lead some authors to view them as constituting a Queen class separate from the Formidable and London classes. Prince of Wales had an overall length of 431 feet 9 inches (131.6 m), a beam of 75 feet (22.9 m), and a mean draught of 27 feet 3 inches (8.3 m) at deep load. She displaced 14,140 long tons (14,370 t) at normal load and 15,380 long tons (15,630 t) at deep load, some 550 long tons (559 t) lighter than the last of the Londons, HMS Venerable. At deep load the ship had a metacentric height of 4.27 feet (1.30 m). Prince of Wales had a complement of 747 officers and ratings when she was completed in 1904. The ship was powered by a pair of three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller, using steam provided by 20 Belleville boilers. She was the last British battleship built with Belleville boilers as they had proven problematic and uneconomical in earlier ships. The engines were designed to produce a total of 15,000 indicated horsepower (11,000 kW) give her a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) and Prince of Wales slightly exceeded this on her sea trials on 8 February 1908, reaching 18.57 knots (34.4 km/h; 21.4 mph). She carried enough coal to steam 5,400 nautical miles (10,000 km; 6,200 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). ### Armament and armour The London-class ships' main armament consisted of four breech-loading (BL) BL 12-inch (305 mm) Mk IX guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Each gun was provided with 80 rounds. The guns had a maximum range of 15,150 yards (13,850 m) with their 850-pound (390 kg) shells. Their secondary armament consisted of a dozen BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk VII guns on single mounts positioned in casemates amidships, six on each broadside. Eight of these were mounted on the main deck and the remainder on the upper deck; the main-deck guns were difficult to work in heavy weather. 200 rounds per gun were carried by the ship. They had a maximum range of approximately 12,200 yards (11,200 m) with their 100-pound (45 kg) shells. Fourteen quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder 3-inch (76 mm) 12-cwt guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. Four of these were on the main deck, one pair at each end of the ship and the remaining ten on the upper deck. Prince of Wales also carried six 3-pounder 1.9 in (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns, two in each fighting top and one on each turret roof. The ship was fitted with four submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside abreast the barbettes. The Londons' armour scheme was similar to that of the Canopuses, although, unlike in the earlier ships, the waterline armour belt of Krupp cemented armour extended the length of the ship. The 9-inch (229 mm) thick portion was 238 feet (72.5 m) long and ran from just aft of the forward barbette to a point abreast the aft barbette, and had a total height of 15 feet (4.6 m) of which 10 feet 6 inches (3.2 m) was above water and the remainder below water at normal load. The thickness of the forward belt armour reduced in 7–5–3-inch (178–127–76 mm) steps to the 2-inch (51 mm) stem and there was a 1-inch (25 mm) belt running from the aft barbette to the stern. A 9–10-inch (229–254 mm) bulkhead extended obliquely from the aft end of the main belt to the rear face of the aft barbette. The gun turrets were protected by Krupp armour, 8 inches (203 mm) on their faces and 10 inches on their backs, with roofs 2 to 3 inches thick. The Krupp armour of the barbettes was 12 inches thick above the main deck, but 10 inches on the face and sides and 6 inches on the rear below it. The casemates were protected by 6 inches of Krupp armour. The thicknesses of the mild steel decks ranged from 1 to 2.5 inches (25 to 64 mm). The walls of the forward conning tower were 10 inches of Harvey armour with a 4-inch (102 mm) roof and the aft conning tower had three inches of nickel steel. ## Construction and career Prince of Wales, named after the title conferred upon the eldest son of the monarch, was the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 20 March 1901, the first keel plate laid by Lady Wharton, wife of Rear-Admiral Sir William Wharton, Hydrographer to the Admiralty. She was launched by the Princess of Wales (later Queen Mary) on 25 March 1902, in the presence of the Prince of Wales (later King George V), for whom the ship was named. Upon completion in March 1904, HMS Prince of Wales immediately went into reserve at Chatham Dockyard. The ship commissioned there on 18 May for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. While in the Mediterranean, she collided with the merchant steamer SS Enidwen off Oran, French North Africa, on 29 July 1905, Enidwen's anchor being pushed through her main deck plating. On 16 April 1906, Prince of Wales had an engine-room explosion in which three men were killed and four injured. On 28 May, she ended her first Mediterranean tour by paying off for a refit at Portsmouth Dockyard that lasted from June to November. On 8 September, the ship again commissioned for Mediterranean Fleet service. She became the flagship of the second-in-command of the fleet in August 1907, and underwent another refit at Malta in 1908. Prince of Wales transferred to the Atlantic Fleet as flagship of the fleet's commander in February 1909 and was damaged by an explosion in one of her stokeholds on 2 July. In December 1910, Rear-Admiral John Jellicoe, later commander of the Grand Fleet and First Sea Lord, hoisted his flag in Prince of Wales. The ship underwent a refit at Gibraltar in February–May 1911 before she was transferred to the Home Fleets on 13 May 1912. Initially Prince of Wales became flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron of the First Fleet, but then reverted to a private ship in the squadron on 13 May. The ship later became the flagship of the second-in-command of the Second Fleet, at Portsmouth. and part of the 5th Battle Squadron. By 18 February 1913, she was serving as the flagship for the second-in-command of the 5th Battle Squadron. On 2 June 1913, she was accidentally rammed by the submarine HMS C32 while participating in exercises, but suffered no damage. By 18 May 1914, Prince of Wales had relieved her sister ship, Queen, as flagship of the 5th Battle Squadron. ### World War I When World War I broke out in August 1914, the squadron was assigned to the newly reconstituted Channel Fleet on 7 November and based at Portland, from which it patrolled the English Channel. Prince of Wales was now the flagship of Rear-Admiral Bernard Currey and the first task of the squadron was to protect the transfer of the British Expeditionary Force over the English Channel to France. They patrolled the eastern end of the Channel while the 7th and 8th Battle Squadrons covered the cruiser squadron at the western entrance. The Germans made no significant effort to interfere with the traffic in the Channel and the 5th BS was allowed to return to Portland after the bulk of the BEF was across on 23 August. Several days later, the squadron ferried the Portsmouth Marine Battalion to Ostend, Belgium. On 14 November, the squadron transferred to Sheerness to guard against a possible German invasion of the United Kingdom, but it transferred back to Portland on 30 December 1914. On 19 March 1915, Prince of Wales was ordered to the Dardanelles to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign. She departed Portland on 20 March 1915 and was assigned to the British 5th Squadron of the Allied Fleet off the Dardanelles, where she arrived on 29 March. Prince of Wales supported the landings of the 3rd Brigade, Australian Army, at Gaba Tepe and Anzac Cove on 25 April. Her time at the Dardanelles was destined to be short as the Anglo-French-Italian Naval Convention of 10 May required that the British furnish a squadron of four battleships to reinforce the Italian Navy against the Austro-Hungarian Navy after Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian naval chief of staff, believed that the threat from Austro-Hungarian submarines and naval mines in the narrow waters of the Adriatic was too serious for him to use the fleet in an active way. He therefore kept his most modern battleships, plus the British ones, at Taranto to blockade the Austro-Hungarians in the Adriatic Sea. On 22 May, Prince of Wales, along with the battleships Implacable, London, and Queen, was transferred to the Adriatic to form the 2nd Detached Squadron and Prince of Wales arrived at her new base on 27 May. The ship became the flagship of the squadron in March 1916. She ended her flagship duties in June 1916, when she went to Gibraltar for a refit and then returned to the Adriatic. In February 1917, Prince of Wales was ordered to return to the United Kingdom. On her voyage home, she called at Gibraltar from 28 February 1917 to 10 March 1917 and arrived at Devonport Dockyard later in March. She was placed in reserve on arrival and used as an accommodation ship. Prince of Wales was placed on the disposal list on 10 November 1919, and was sold for scrap to Thos. W. Ward on 12 April 1920. The ship arrived at Milford Haven, Wales, to be broken up in June 1920.

Kevin Clash

American puppeteer (born 1960)

Kevin Jeffrey Clash (born September 17, 1960) is an American puppeteer, director and producer known for puppeteering Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 to 2012. He also performed puppets for Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, Oobi, and various Muppet productions. Clash developed an interest in puppetry at an early age and, in his teen years, performed for local television children's shows in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. He joined the cast of Captain Kangaroo in the early 1980s and began performing on Sesame Street in 1984. He was the fifth puppeteer to perform Elmo, who became his signature character, and he also served as an executive producer and director for the show. Clash worked in various productions with The Jim Henson Company and occasionally on other projects. Clash's autobiography, My Life as a Furry Red Monster, was published in 2006; he was later the subject of the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011). Clash resigned from Sesame Street in 2012 after allegations of sexual impropriety, all of which he denied and were later dismissed due to expiration of the statute of limitations. Clash returned to puppeteering as a supporting performer in the adult comedy The Happytime Murders (2018). ## Early years Clash was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 17, 1960, the third of four children born to George Clash, a flash welder and handyman, and Gladys Clash, who ran a small daycare center in their two-bedroom, one-bath home in the Turner Station area of Dundalk, Maryland. Clash developed an interest in puppetry at an early age, inspired by children's shows like Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Sesame Street. He made his first puppet, a version of Mickey Mouse, at the age of 10. When he was twelve, he made a monkey puppet out of the lining of his father's coat. His first performances were for his mother's daycare children. By the time he was a teenager, he had built almost 90 puppets, which he based upon commercials, popular music, and his friends. While still in high school, Clash performed at venues throughout Baltimore, including schools, churches, fundraisers, and community events. While appearing at a neighborhood festival, Clash was discovered by Baltimore television personality Stu Kerr, who became Clash's first mentor and hired him to perform in the children's show Caboose at Channel 2. Clash also built puppets for the Romper Room franchise. When he was 17, he contacted and met puppeteer Kermit Love, who became Clash's mentor, after seeing Love featured in an episode of the children's educational television series Call It Macaroni. In 1979, on Love's recommendation, Clash appeared as Cookie Monster in the Sesame Street float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and met Jim Henson, who later became his boss, mentor, and good friend. When he was 19, Clash became a puppeteer for Captain Kangaroo, initially as a guest performer, in which he also made occasional on-camera appearances. The producers of Captain Kangaroo used some of Clash's puppet creations for the show. In 1984, Clash had to turn down Henson's offer to work on his film The Dark Crystal because he was working on two TV shows at the same time, Captain Kangaroo and Love's syndicated program The Great Space Coaster, in which he was producer for the first time. ## Career Captain Kangaroo was canceled in 1984 after 29 seasons, and Great Space Coaster ended, freeing up Clash to work on projects with Henson such as the film Labyrinth and Sesame Street. Clash started working at Sesame Street for ten episodes in 1983, mostly performing nondescript, stand-in puppets known as Anything Muppets. Some of his earliest characters included the saxophone-playing Hoots the Owl (based on Louis Armstrong), the infant Baby Natasha, and inventor Dr. Nobel Price. After 1985, Elmo, a furry red monster, became his main character. Three puppeteers, including Richard Hunt, had performed Elmo previously, but it was Clash's development, with a falsetto voice, that established the character. He based Elmo's character on the preschool children that attended his mother's daycare in Baltimore and upon his own personality and the personality of his parents. Clash followed the advice of fellow puppeteer Frank Oz, who told Clash to always "find one special hook" for each character. Clash decided that the central characteristic for Elmo should be that he "should represent love". After the height of Elmo's popularity, especially the "Tickle Me Elmo" craze in 1996, Clash's responsibilities at Sesame Street increased. He recruited, auditioned, and trained its puppeteers, and became the senior Muppet coordinator, a writer, director, and co-producer of the "Elmo's World" segment of the show. Clash worked with and mentored the puppeteers of Sesame Street's international co-productions. He found working with the co-productions "a lot of fun" and "very rewarding". He worked on the 1985 feature film Follow That Bird. In 2007, he was promoted to senior creative adviser for the Sesame Workshop. Until 2011, he was the sole performer as Elmo in all his public relations appearances, making his schedule, as he called it, "crazy". Cheryl Henson, president of the Jim Henson Foundation, called him "essential" to the show. Clash worked on the first film version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in 1990 and the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, which was dedicated to Henson, in 1991, voicing Master Splinter. He performed in several productions with Jim Henson Productions, including as the Muppet Clifford in The Jim Henson Hour (1989), and performing the puppetry for Frank Oz's characters (Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, and Animal) in Muppet Treasure Island (1996). Clash performed in the films Muppets from Space (1999) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), and the TV series Muppets Tonight (1996—1998), in which he reprised Clifford, who served as the show's host. He performed characters and worked behind the scenes on the sitcom Dinosaurs. In 2006, Clash published his autobiography, co-written by Gary Brozek and Louis Henry Mitchell, entitled My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love and Laughing Out Loud. His life was featured in the 2011 documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey. After a hiatus of several years, Clash returned to performing with the film The Happytime Murders (2018), directed by Brian Henson and co-produced through Henson Alternative. He later puppeteered in the 2019 Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which serves as a prequel series to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. ## Personal life Clash has stated that although children ignore him and speak directly to Elmo, black adults tend to be surprised when they meet him. He has stated in interviews that his racial identity was pertinent to his work, and that it came through in his performances. Clash was married for 17 years and has a daughter who was born in 1993. In November 2012, Clash publicly revealed his homosexuality in response to the allegations that led to his resignation from Sesame Workshop, stating, "I am a gay man. I have never been ashamed of this or tried to hide it, but felt it was a personal and private matter." In 2015, Clash moved to Los Angeles to work on other Jim Henson Company productions, including The Happytime Murders and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, performing Lyle and Mr. Bumblypants in the former and Aughra in the latter. ### Abuse allegations In November 2012, 23-year-old Sheldon Stephens alleged that he had been in a sexual relationship with Clash that began when Stephens was 16 - which would be a felony under New York law. Sesame Workshop had initially been presented with the allegation in June, and its investigation found the allegation to be unsubstantiated. Clash acknowledged that he had been in a relationship with the accuser; however, he said the relationship was between two consenting adults. Stephens later recanted his accusation, but two weeks later, another accuser, Cecil Singleton, accused Clash of sexually abusing him when he was 15 years old, and lawsuits were filed by attorney Jeffrey Herman against Clash. Clash resigned from Sesame Workshop on November 20, 2012, and released a statement saying, "Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work 'Sesame Street' is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer. I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately". Sesame Workshop also released a statement: "Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding Kevin's personal life has become a distraction that none of us want, and he has concluded that he can no longer be effective in his job and has resigned from 'Sesame Street'." They stated that other puppeteers had been trained to serve as Clash's understudy and would take over his roles on the show. In July 2013, the three cases against Clash were dismissed because it was ruled that the claims were made more than six years after each man reasonably should have become aware of Clash's alleged violations during the three years after each turned 18. Clash's lawyers expressed his hope that the ruling would allow him to restore his personal and professional life. Lawyers for the plaintiffs appealed the ruling, alleging that the psychological effects of the abuse were not fully realized until 2012. In April 2014, the decision to dismiss the three lawsuits was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Months after the other alleged victims made legal accusations, Stephens filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania against Clash, but it was ultimately dismissed in June 2014 because the statute of limitations had passed. ## Filmography ## Awards and honors - Clash won Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work as Elmo on Sesame Street in 1990, 2005–2007, and 2009–2013. In all, he has won 27 daytime Emmys and one prime-time Emmy. - He was the first recipient of the 'Miss Jean' Worthley Award for Service to Families and Children given by Maryland Public Television on June 9, 2007. - On May 19, 2012, Clash was presented with an honorary degree from Washington & Jefferson College.

Pierre David (mayor)

Belgian politician (1771–1839)

Pierre David (9 January 1771 – 30 June 1839) was a Belgian civic official who was mayor of Verviers under French rule from 1800 to 1808; and after Belgian independence, from 1830 until his death. David's family were cloth-makers and he ran a weaving factory. He became involved in local government after serving as an officer in the city's police force. David, a Francophile and Republican, was appointed mayor of the city after the French annexation of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. He resigned in 1808 after disagreeing with one of the Emperor Napoleon's decrees but remained involved in the running of the city. When Verviers was incorporated into the United Netherlands, David secured a seat on the city's Regency Council. During the 1830 Belgian Revolution, David supported independence for Belgium as a republic, but when this proved unachievable, he instead voted for union with France. David was subsequently appointed the first mayor of Verviers within the independent Kingdom of Belgium, holding this position until his death. David was responsible for establishing the city's first fire brigade and creating a new cemetery to replace its inner-city burial ground. He also supported low-cost housing for workers, established a secondary school and several charitable organisations. David played a key role in constructing the city's second river crossing and also planted numerous lime trees. After his death he was memorialised in a fountain in the city centre, in which his heart was entombed. Several busts of David survive in the city and some of its streets are named after him. ## Early life Pierre David was born on 9 January 1771 to Pierre David and Catherine-Joseph Jacob David. The David family was involved in cloth manufacture and the junior Pierre David maintained a factory with 26 looms that employed 20 workers. His brother Jean-Nicolas David maintained a factory at Lambermont, west of Verviers, that had 140 looms and 200 workers. Pierre David was noted for his loyalty during the 1789 Liège Revolution, in which rebels overthrew the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and established the Republic of Liège. After Austrian troops restored Prince Bishop César-Constantin-François de Hoensbroeck to the throne David was appointed by him as a second lieutenant in the Verviers police force. David was sworn in on 20 February 1792, at the same time as Jean-Nicolas who was appointed adjutant; they were assigned particular responsibility for the Brassine (brewery) district. ## Civic official Liège was annexed by the French First Republic in 1795 and Verviers became part of the Ourthe department of France. David, a Francophile and supporter of the French Revolution, was appointed a municipal officer by the French authorities on 20 April 1799 and became maire (mayor) on 4 July 1800. David established a fire brigade in Verviers in 1802 and in 1808 supported the construction of low-cost housing for workers. After the establishment of the First French Empire decrees from Emperor Napoleon limited the freedom allowed to David as mayor. On 21 September 1808 he resigned the position. Succeeded by Jean-Toussaint Rutten, David remained a key adviser with a significant role in the management of the city. Verviers was captured by forces of the Sixth Coalition on 5 February 1814, as part of the campaign in north-east France. David was appointed by the coalition as a member of their commission d'arrondissement (council) for the area. The post-war Congress of Vienna, which concluded in 1815, stipulated that Belgium was to be incorporated into the new Kingdom of the Netherlands. Verviers was then governed by a Regency Council and David secured a seat on this body. In 1817 David closed the old church cemetery in the city and established a new cemetery on the outskirts. In 1830 Belgium began a revolution against Dutch rule. David, a supporter of the Belgian cause, was a member of the Commission of Public Safety. He was also a member of the National Congress; he was one of nine members who voted for the establishment of a Belgian republic and later voted for Belgium to be annexed to France. David was appointed the first burgomaster (mayor) of Verviers under the Kingdom of Belgium in 1830. David played a key role in stabilising the city in the aftermath of the revolution, during which it had been damaged. He led a campaign to build a second bridge across the Vesdre, laying the foundation stone on 9 May 1832. The following year David received the royal visit of King Leopold I and his new Queen Louise-Marie. David survived local government reforms in 1836, securing re-election as a city councillor and being reappointed as mayor by Royal decree. During his time in office he established a secondary school as well as a number of charitable organisations and planted 53 lime (Tilia spp.) trees on the Promenade des Récollets to provide shade. ## Death and legacy David never married and lived with his sister on a 5-hectare (12-acre) farm within the city boundary. On 30 June 1839 David went into his hay loft to air it out. The door had swollen due to heavy rain and in trying to force it open the hinges broke and he fell through. David hit his head and died instantly. A large number of city residents went to the mortuary to view David's corpse. The Regency Council arranged David's funeral for 2 July at the Notre-Dame des Récollets [fr] and requested that local businesses release their workers at 4 pm to attend. After the service a funeral procession accompanied the body to the cemetery. After his death, all three of the city's rival newspapers praised David, despite their differing political stances (liberal, conservative and republican). Prior to his burial, surgeons had reconstructed the broken bones in David's face to allow for a death mask to be made, which is now on display in the city museum. A portrait of David was commissioned from Laurent Olivier to hang in the city hall and is now also in the museum's collection. A bust by B Delbove is located in city hall. In 1843 David had a railway locomotive named after him and the city considered naming a new bridge in his honour, but opted to call it the Pont du Chêne (Oak Bridge) instead. David's brother named his son Pierre in his honour and Pierre's son was also named after David. Both men were involved in local and national government. Three days after David's death, with his family's permission, his heart was removed with the intention of entombing it within a suitable memorial structure. It was preserved in a jar of alcohol within a zinc casket. Disagreements over the type of memorial and funding meant that the heart sat in storage at the city hall for four decades. A memorial fountain, the Fontaine David in the city's Place Verte, was designed by Clément Vivroux and inaugurated on 25 June 1883. The fountain underwent extensive renovation works in 2020 and on 20 August the heart was rediscovered. It was found within a hollowed stone near to a bust of David. Its zinc casket was found to be engraved with the text "The heart of Pierre David was solemnly placed in the monument on 25 June 1883" in French. The case was put on display at the city's Fine Arts Museum until 20 September. In 1889, the 50th anniversary of his death, a medal commemorating David was struck. A number of streets in Verviers are named in David's honour.

2009 Samsung 500

The 2009 Samsung 500 was the seventh stock car race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on April 5, 2009, at Texas Motor Speedway, in Fort Worth, Texas before a crowd of 176,300 people. The 334-lap race was won by Jeff Gordon of the Hendrick Motorsports team after starting from second position. His teammate Jimmie Johnson finished second and Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle placed third. Gordon was the Drivers' Championship leader with 959 points entering the event. David Reutimann won the pole position by recording the fastest lap time in the qualifying session, and maintained his lead going into the first corner to begin the race, but Gordon took over the lead before the first lap was over. Afterward, Reutimann took back the lead, holding it until Matt Kenseth passed him on lap 47. Gordon led after the final pit stops. In the final laps, Johnson was gaining on Gordon, but Gordon maintained the lead to achieve the race victory. There were six cautions and twenty-eight lead changes among thirteen different drivers during the race. The race was Gordon's first win of the 2009 season, and the eighty-second of his career. The result kept Gordon in the lead of the Drivers' Championship, one-hundred and sixty-two ahead of Johnson, and one-hundred and eighty ahead of Kurt Busch. Chevrolet increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, ten points ahead of Ford, who bumped Toyota to third place, with twenty-nine races remaining in the season remaining. The race attracted 7.4 million television viewers. ## Background The 2009 Samsung 500 was the seventh of thirty-six scheduled stock car races of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It took place on April 5, 2009, in Fort Worth, Texas, at Texas Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at Texas Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, and both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch have a five degree banking. Before the race, Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 959 points, followed by Clint Bowyer with 870. Kurt Busch was third with 827 points, Jimmie Johnson was fourth with 817 and Denny Hamlin was fifth with 811 points. Kurt's younger brother Kyle Busch, along with Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top ten. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 39 points, five points ahead of their rival Toyota. Ford, with 32 points, was five points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third place. Edwards was the race's defending champion. Jeff Gordon had not won a race at Texas Motor Speedway in 16 attempts and said he would not base anything based on his second-place finish at the circuit in late 2008, "The team worked hard over the offseason and our performances on intermediate tracks have improved. We are just a different team with different race cars right now. Texas is one of those places that is on my radar. I want to turn things around and conquer it." ## Practice and qualifying Three practice sessions were before the Sunday race — one on Friday, and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, while the second session lasted 45 minutes. The third and final practice session lasted 60 minutes. During the first practice session, Mark Martin was fastest with a lap of 28.467 seconds, placing ahead of David Reutimann in second and Kurt Busch in third. Greg Biffle was scored fourth, and Johnson placed fifth. Jeff Gordon, Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Stremme and David Ragan rounded out the top ten fastest drivers in the session. Forty-eight drivers were entered in the qualifier on Friday afternoon; according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Reutimann clinched his second pole position in the Sprint Cup Series, with a time of 28.344 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Jeff Gordon, who held the pole position until Reutimann's lap. Matt Kenseth qualified third, Ragan took fourth in his best qualifying performance of the season, and Paul Menard started fifth to put three Fords in the first five places. Kahne in sixth was the sole Dodge driver in the top ten positions. Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Johnson were in places seventh to ninth. Joey Logano followed in tenth place due to his car being difficult to steer. The five drivers who failed to qualify were Joe Nemechek, Scott Speed, Jeremy Mayfield, Todd Bodine and Scott Riggs. After the qualifier Reutimann said, "We had a great car all day, right off the truck. This pole reminds me of how much things have changed for me in the past few years. I didn't make the field here two years ago, during a bad time in my racing career." On Saturday morning, Reuitmann was fastest in the second practice session by setting a time of 28.999 seconds, ahead of Johnson in second, and Hamlin in third. Edwards was fourth quickest, and Jeff Gordon took fifth. Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton rounded out the top ten. Later that day, Johnson paced the final practice session with a time of 29.393 seconds, with Hamlin and Kyle Busch followed in second and third respectively. Jamie McMurray was fourth fastest, ahead of David Gilliland and Burton. Martin placed seventh, Edwards eighth, Juan Pablo Montoya ninth, and Martin Truex Jr. tenth. ### Qualifying results ## Race Television coverage for the race began at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time live in the United States on Fox. Commentary was provided by Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, and Darrell Waltrip. Wind speeds at the start of the race were between 23 and 25 miles per hour (37 and 40 km/h). Roger Marsh of Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries began pre-race ceremonies with the invocation. Pianist Lewis Warren Jr. performed the national anthem, and contest winner Mark Fredde commanded the drivers to start their engines. No driver was required to move to the rear of the grid at the start of the race. The race began at 2:17 p.m. Jeff Gordon passed Reuitmann almost immediately by the end of the first lap. Three laps later, Kurt Busch collided with Robby Gordon, with the latter sustaining minor damage and both drivers managed to continue. On lap eight, Reutimann took back the lead from Jeff Gordon by passing him in the third turn. Jeff Gordon dropped a further position when he was passed by Kenseth during the following lap. By lap 20, Reuitmann had a lead of about 1.6 seconds over Kenseth. Kurt Busch, who began the race in twenty-sixth, had moved up seven positions to nineteenth by lap 24. On lap 29, Stewart claimed fifth from Menard. By lap 30, Earnhardt had moved up eight positions to twelfth. Ten laps later, Reutimann had maintained a lead of 1.7 seconds over Kenseth. On lap 42, Marcos Ambrose moved into seventh. Five laps later, Kenseth claimed the lead off Reutimann who was blocked by Casey Mears. On lap 51, green flag pit stops began, as Kenseth made a pit stop handling the lead to Stewart. On lap 54, Kyle Busch became the new race leader after Stewart came into pit road. Kyle Busch made a pit stop one lap later, handing the lead back to Kenseth. By lap 60, Kenseth had built up his lead over Reutimann by over two seconds. Eight laps later, Stewart passed Reutimann for second. On lap 79, Biffle passed Reutimann for third. Seven laps later, Stewart claimed the lead from Kenseth. During the 97th lap, debris was spotted on the backstretch, prompting the first caution of the race. During the caution, all of the drivers on the lead lap made pit stops. Kenseth reclaimed the lead and maintained it at the restart on lap 103. On the 109th lap, Kyle Busch's car suffered a cut left front tire from contact with John Andretti, forcing Kyle Busch to come to pit road. Seven laps later, Biffle passed Kenseth on the outside in the dogleg for the lead, while Jeff Gordon passed Reuitmann for fourth thirteen laps later. By the 135th lap, Biffle had built a lead over Kenseth to three seconds. Green flag pit stops began on the 152nd lap; Kenseth made his pit stop on the same lap. Johnson and Biffle made a pit stop the next lap, handing the lead to Jeff Gordon. After pit stops, Biffle reclaimed the first position. On lap 157, Elliott Sadler spun out exiting the final corner and went sideways across the start/finish line, causing the second caution. None of the leaders elected to pit under the caution. The race restarted on lap 162 with Biffle in the lead, ahead of Kenseth and Jeff Gordon. By the 190th lap, Biffle's lead was three seconds. Another round of green flag pit stops began on lap 203 when Truex made a pit stop; Kenseth was the first of the leaders to pit the following lap. On lap 208, Jeff Gordon became the new race leader after Biffle came into pit road. After pit stops, Biffle reclaimed the top position. On lap 220, the third caution was given when Ambrose's car suffered an engine failure. Jeff Gordon on the advice of his crew chief Steve Letarte over the radio remained on the circuit, and this promoted him to the lead and his car would not be affected by aerodynamic turbulence. Martin also stayed out on the circuit, while some of the leaders came to pit road. Earnhardt was required to make an additional pit stop because his crew needed to replace a missing lug nut. Jeff Gordon led the field back up to speed on the restart on lap 226. Five laps later, Sam Hornish Jr. spun exiting the second turn while driving alongside Bowyer and Labonte collided with the outside wall, prompting the fourth caution. During the caution, Johnson, Earnhardt and Hamlin made pit stops. Jeff Gordon stayed out of pit road and the led the field to restart on lap 237. Four laps later, Logano collided with the wall, but escaped with minor damage. Edwards moved into sixth on lap 247 during the 247th lap. Four laps later, a fifth caution came out when Robby Gordon's car suffered an engine failure. All of the leaders elected to pit under caution, giving the lead to Earnhardt. Kenseth was demoted from second to 15th position when lug nut issues on the right-rear tire during his pit stop caused him to remain in the pit lane for longer than usual. The race restarted on lap 259. On lap 260, Jeff Gordon moved back into the lead, while Earnhardt fell to the seventh position. Three laps later, Edwards passed Brian Vickers to move into ninth. On lap 290, Earnhardt was forced onto pit road after colliding with the wall at turn two. One lap later, Ragan drove to pit road because of overheating issues. On the 294th lap, Edwards reclaimed the lead off Gordon, who was delayed by a slower vehicle, while Ragan entered the garage, three laps later. On lap 298, Stewart moved into second after passing Jeff Gordon. Four laps later, a sixth and final caution came out, after Stremme collided with the wall and spun going into turn three. Edwards relinquished the lead to Jeff Gordon during the yellow flag pit stop cycle when the front tires on his car were slow to be fitted; he was demoted to 11th position and fell out of contention for the victory. Jeff Gordon led on the lap 309 restart. On the same lap, Johnson passed Stewart for the second position, while Jeff Gordon built up a 1.4 second lead four laps later. On the 314th lap, Biffle moved into the fourth position after overtaking Johnson. By lap 323, Jeff Gordon had increased his lead to 1.7 seconds over Johnson. Biffle overtook Stewart for third on the 330th lap. Jeff Gordon maintained the lead to win his first race of the 2009 season. Johnson finished second, ahead of Biffle in third, Stewart in fourth, and Kenseth in fifth. Martin, Montoya, Kurt Busch, Burton and Edwards rounded out the top ten finishers. There were twenty-eight lead changes among fourteen different drivers during the course of the race. Jeff Gordon led six times for a total of 105 laps, more than any other driver. ### Post-race Jeff Gordon appeared in victory lane to celebrate his first win of the 2009 season in front of 176,300 who attended the event, earning \$541,874 in race winnings. Gordon was delighted with his victory: "Incredible team effort. This whole year has been amazing. What a great car. I've never had a car like this at Texas. We finally had one and put it in position." Johnson was happy with his second-place result, saying, "It was nice to get our car up front and get some clean air on it. We had to work really hard all day long to keep the car right. I'm very proud of the team." Third-place finisher Biffle was candid with his performance: "We worked our way all the way back to fourth, third – 15 more laps, would've passed [runner-up Jimmie Johnson] and then a little while longer we could've gotten [Gordon]. But, I just ran out of time, lost track position and weren't able to capitalize on it." Earnhardt described his accident late in the race as him "Trying too hard and run well, and just got in to the wall down there in the middle of one and two. The car jumped sideways" and talked about his performance, "We were running pretty good all day. We were really fast." Edwards appeared to be certain that there would have been a different result had his slow pit stop late in the race not happened, saying, "I thought, ‘If we can have just one more [good pit stop], we’ll be all right. And then we went in leading and came out 11th, and that’s what cost us the race." His teammate Kenseth commented on the lug nut fault that lost him positions and caused him to finish fifth, "You can't really do much about it. We just got to the back and it was extremely tough to pass, and we were just stuck back there racing with them guys." Stewart described his fourth-place as his team being "good today, we just weren't good enough", and said his team's vehicle was the quickest on the circuit at any time during the race after approximately 25 laps. Eighth-placed finisher Kurt Busch said his team believed that they could not challenge the major competitors, but admitted his strong result was "exactly what we needed. ... Our car was better on the long runs. We needed to be out there as long as we could and stretch it out." The race results kept Jeff Gordon in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 1154 points. Johnson, who finished behind Gordon, moved to second on 992, eighteen points ahead of Kurt Busch and twenty-five ahead of Bowyer. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet increased their points total to 48, while Ford advanced to second with 38 and Toyota was bumped to third with 37. 7.4 million people watched the race on television. The race took three hours, twenty-five minutes and twenty-two seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 0.378 seconds. ### Race results ## Standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Manufacturers' Championship standings - Note: Only the top five positions are included for the driver standings.

French cruiser Pascal

Protected cruiser of the French Navy

Pascal was a protected cruiser of the French Navy built in the 1890s, the second and final member of the Descartes class. The Descartes-class cruisers were ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force. At the time, France was concerned with the growing naval threat of the Italian and German fleets, and the new cruisers were intended to serve with the main fleet, and overseas in the French colonial empire. Pascal was armed with a main battery of four 164.7 mm (6.5 in) guns, was protected by an armor deck that was 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). Pascal had a fairly short and uneventful career; after entering service in 1897, she was sent to French Indochina, where she served for the next seven years. During this period, she was part of the French squadron that responded to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China. In poor condition by 1904, she saw little further use and was struck from the naval register in 1911, thereafter being broken up. ## Design In response to a war scare with Italy in the late 1880s, the French Navy embarked on a major construction program in 1890 to counter the threat of the Italian fleet and that of Italy's ally Germany. The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire. The Descartes class, which comprised Descartes and Pascal, was ordered to as part of the program. The design for the Descartes class was based on the earlier cruiser Davout, but was enlarged to incorporate a more powerful gun armament. Pascal was 100.7 m (330 ft 5 in) long overall, with a beam of 12.95 m (42 ft 6 in) and an average draft of 6.01 m (19 ft 9 in). She displaced 4,005 t (3,942 long tons; 4,415 short tons) as designed. Her crew varied over the course of her career, and consisted of 383–401 officers and enlisted men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers. Steam was provided by sixteen coal-burning Belleville-type water-tube boilers that were ducted into two funnels. Her machinery was rated to produce 8,300 indicated horsepower (6,200 kW) for a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), but she exceeded these figures on trials, reaching 19.7 knots (36.5 km/h; 22.7 mph) from 8,943 ihp (6,669 kW). She had a cruising radius of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 19.5 knots. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 164.7 mm (6.48 in) guns. They were placed in individual sponsons clustered amidships, two guns per broadside. These were supported by a secondary battery of ten 100 mm (3.9 in) guns, which were carried in sponsons, casemates, and individual pivot mounts. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried eight 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and four 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder guns. She was also armed with two 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes in her hull above the waterline. Armor protection consisted of a curved armor deck that was 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) thick on its sloped sides and 25 mm (1 in) on the flat portion, along with 80 mm (3.1 in) plating on the sides of the conning tower. The main and secondary guns were fitted with 54 mm (2.1 in) gun shields. ## Service history Work on Pascal began with her keel laying in Toulon on 4 December 1893. She was launched on 26 September 1895 and was commissioned to begin sea trials on 20 May 1896. During her initial testing, she was found to suffer from stability problems and had to receive additional ballast to correct the problem. Work on the ship was completed in 1897, and she was placed in full commission for active service on 1 June. On 6 July, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron, based in Toulon. With the beginning of the unrest that led to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China in 1898, many European colonial powers began to reinforce their naval forces in East Asia. Pascal was sent to the region in January 1898 to reinforce the French squadron there, which at that time also included the old ironclad Bayard, the protected cruisers Descartes and Jean Bart, and the unprotected cruiser Duguay-Trouin. Pascal remained in East Asian waters in 1899, along with Descartes and Duguay-Trouin, though Jean Bart was recalled home. After the uprising broke out in China late that year, the French considerably strengthened the squadron in the Far East; by January 1901, they had assembled a force of nine cruisers, including Pascal. She remained in East Asian waters in 1902, but with fighting over in China, the unit began to be reduced in size. By 1903, the unit consisted of the armored cruiser Montcalm and the protected cruisers Châteaurenault and Bugeaud, in addition to Pascal. In April that year, Pascal joined a naval review held for the Japanese Emperor Meiji in Kobe, Japan. The foreign naval contingent included the British pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Glory and protected cruiser Blenheim, the German protected cruiser SMS Hansa, the Italian protected cruiser Calabria, and the Russian protected cruiser Askold. Pascal continued to operate in French Indochina in 1904, but she was in poor condition by that time and was unable to steam faster than 16 to 18 knots (30 to 33 km/h; 18 to 21 mph). In February 1904, she was at Chemulpo Bay, Korea, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out. She and several other neutral warships—including the British cruiser HMS Talbot, the Italian cruiser Elba, and the United States' gunboat USS Vicksburg—observed the Battle of Chemulpo Bay on 9 February. Pascal, Talbot, and Elba cleared for action in the event that the Japanese warships opened fire on them. After the battle ended in a Russian defeat, the three cruisers sent boats to pick up the survivors from the sinking cruiser Varyag and gunboat Korietz. The three cruisers rescued a total of 27 officers and 654 enlisted saved from the two Russian ships; Pascal later evacuated them to Saigon, French Indochina. Pascal had returned to France by early 1905, and she was placed in reserve at Toulon on 15 February. She was to undergo a major overhaul, but a report dated 12 July determined that by the time work was completed in 1906, the military value of a reconditioned Pascal would be at best mediocre, and so the planned reconstruction was cancelled and the ship lay idle until she was decommissioned on 10 June 1909. She was then struck from the naval register on 24 March 1910 and was placed for sale on 1 August 1911, along with several other older vessels, including the ironclads Amiral Baudin and Magenta and the unprotected cruiser Milan. The ship breaker M. Bénédic purchased Pascal that day and dismantled the ship in La Seyne-sur-Mer in 1912.

Franc affair

Plot by Hungarian nationalists to forge French bank notes

The Franc affair (Hungarian: frankhamisítási botrány) was a plot by Hungarian nationalists to forge French bank notes. In the aftermath of World War I, Hungary lost a large part of its territory and population in a series of treaties its people considered unjust. This led many Hungarians to turn towards nationalism and revanchism. In 1922, Prince Lajos Windischgraetz was approached by Gyula Mészáros who presented him with a plan to counterfeit the French franc. Windischgraetz sought to damage the French economy while simultaneously raising funds for an internal coup in Hungary and irredentist activities. The plan came to halt when the notes produced by Mészáros were judged to be too primitive. In the summer of 1923, Windischgraetz met with German nationalist and retired Prussian Army General Erich Ludendorff who prompted him to utilize the forging equipment left from a similar unrealized German conspiracy. The plot received widespread support in Hungarian nationalist circles including the patronage of high-ranking military and civilian officials. By September 1925, the plotters managed to produce 25,000 to 35,000 forged 1,000 franc banknotes. The conspirators began disseminating the banknotes in the Netherlands in December 1925, but were caught almost immediately. Twenty-four of the conspirators were tried in Budapest in May 1926. Most received light sentences in what is believed to have been a deliberate cover up by Hungarian Prime Minister István Bethlen. The affair facilitated the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency in April 1929 and formalized the role of the International Criminal Police Commission. ## Background ### Political developments in Hungary Following the conclusion of the First World War, the victorious Entente Powers began deliberating on the future of the defeated Central Powers. Austro-Hungarian diplomats struggled to advance their positions during negotiations as they lacked diplomatic missions in Entente capitals. At the same time, emigrants from the kingdom's nationalities created influential lobbying groups which pushed for self-determination for ethnic minorities. The efforts of Czech politician Edvard Beneš and British political activist Robert Seton-Watson, helped turn the opinion of British, French and American political elites in favor of the partition of Austria-Hungary. In late October 1918, the First Hungarian Republic declared independence. The Entente and in particular, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau, progressively hardened their stance against Hungary, in favor of the Kingdom of Romania, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the First Czechoslovak Republic. In order to both fulfill past promises and gain their support for the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Its territory was restricted as result of the November 1918 Armistice of Belgrade and the March 1919 Vix Note. The latter led to the resignation of Count Mihály Károlyi's government and the subsequent establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic on 21 March. The new communist government initiated a purge of its political opponents which later came to be known as the Red Terror, all while fighting against Romania and Czechoslovakia on multiple fronts. The Romanian army achieved a decisive victory on 1 August, occupying and pillaging Budapest. The Romanians withdrew from the capital on 15 November, paving the way for Admiral Miklós Horthy's national army to seize control. Horthy's army launched its own purge of perceived supporters of the previous government. The Hungarian throne was proclaimed vacant after King Charles I of Austria fled to Switzerland. The national army then pressured the national assembly into electing Horthy as the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary on 1 March 1920. Under those chaotic circumstances Horthy signed the Treaty of Trianon on 4 June 1920, formally ending the state of war between Hungary and the Entente. The Treaty of Trianon marked the end of historical Hungary, as it resulted in the loss of lands which were inhabited by 3.5 million ethnic Hungarians; reducing Hungary to 93,000 square kilometres (36,000 sq mi). The Hungarian population perceived the treaty as fundamentally unjust driving it towards nationalism, irredentism and revanchism. Post-war Hungary suffered economic hardship and was isolated diplomatically. ### Money forgery The post-war years were marked by a meteoric rise of money counterfeiting across Europe. Hyperinflation plagued many European currencies significantly increasing the profitability of forging the relatively stable United States dollar and Dutch guilder. At the same time political tensions hindered international police collaboration on the issue. Vienna became a hub of the clandestine trade. Its long‐established trade connections, the use of easily forgeable overprinted banknotes by the successor states of Austria-Hungary and the breakdown of police collaboration between said states led to the creation of large criminal syndicates dedicated to counterfeiting. In Hungary, nationalist groups began forging the currencies of neighboring countries with the tacit support of the Hungarian state. In 1921, a group of Hungarians led by Turkologist Gyula Mészáros set up a press in the town of Metzelsdorf outside Graz, Austria. The group managed to produce and put into circulation 60,000 500-Czechoslovak koruna banknotes. Most of the forgers were arrested in July 1921, by that time the Czechoslovak government was forced to pull the entire sokol note series out of circulation, undermining the credibility of its currency reforms. It was estimated that approximately 1 million United States dollars worth of counterfeit currency was put into circulation each year in the middle of the 1920s. The sokol affair prompted Czechoslovak police to establish a police unit specializing in countering money counterfeiting in Prague while also seeking cooperation with neighboring countries. In the Netherlands, K.H. Broekhoff founded the Dutch Counterfeit Money Center. Police authorities began closely collaborating with the issuing banks while criminal investigations of forgeries from different parts of the country were treated as a single case. In 1923, Vienna Chief of Police Johannes Schober convened the International Police Congress in Vienna which gave birth to the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC). The ICPC promoted the internationalization of policing, collating and disseminating information on crime between its members. ## Plot ### Preparation Upon the death of King Charles I in 1922, his close associate Prince returned to Hungary from Switzerland. During his brief spell as Hungarian Minister of Food Supply in 1918, he had misappropriated a large sum of money which he began using to fund Hungarian nationalist organizations. Windischgraetz met with Prime Minister István Bethlen, arguing in favor of uniting the various Hungarian irredentist organizations into a united front. Mészáros whose case had been dismissed by an Austrian court without going to trial, approached Windischgraetz with a plan to counterfeit the French franc. Windischgraetz agreed to provide funding for the operation with , the Chief Captain of National Police joining in the same year. The plan was put to a halt when Mészáros immigrated to Turkey and Windischgraetz realized that it relied on crude printing technology. In the summer of 1923, Windischgraetz came into contact with prominent German nationalists Erich Ludendorff and Adolf Hitler with Bethlen's tacit approval. German nationalists shared Hungary's animosity towards France and were eager to collaborate on clandestine operations. It was at that point that Ludendorff (a retired Prussian Army General) revealed to Windischgraetz that German industrialists from the French‐occupied Ruhr had financed a plot to counterfeit French francs. While the technical aspect of the plot had been nearly completed, it had to be abandoned due to the warming of Franco-German relations in the prelude to the Locarno Treaties. Ludendorff then offered Windischgraetz to execute the plot with the use of the left‐over equipment. German engraver Arthur Schulze was sent to Budapest, he in turn helped procure printing machines in Leipzig. In the meantime, Windischgraetz's secretary Dezsö Rába arranged for 9,000 pounds (4,100 kg) of special paper to be shipped from Cologne. The materials were transported aboard tugboats navigating the Danube River and in sealed railroad cars from Bavaria. Windischgraetz provided 1,300 dollars for the operation while Postal Savings Bank director Gábor Baross gave 6,000 dollars in additional funds. Baross also advised the plotters on matters of distribution. In early 1924, the scheme received the approval of former Prime Minister Pál Teleki. Cartographic Institute technical expert Major György Gerő initiated his supervisor General Lajos Haits and the director of the institute, General Sándor Kurtz into the conspiracy. The printing press was then set up in the institute's cellar and dynamite was planted in parts of the building in order to destroy any evidence of the operation in case of a raid by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. Gerő then helped Schulze resolve the final technical problems with producing the plates for the 1,000 franc banknote. Printing began in either 1924 or April 1925, by the summer of 1925 a lack of funds limited production to less than a thousand banknotes per day. The initial goal of producing 100 million dollars worth of counterfeits had to be scaled down to 100,000 banknotes worth 3.2 million dollars. The initial goal of destroying the French economy had to be abandoned. Participants of the plot offered conflicting testimonies regarding its other goals including conducting an invasion of Transylvania and funding a referendum in Slovakia. According to author Murray Bloom, the proceeds were to fund a coup that aimed to bring Archduke Albrecht to the Hungarian throne on Christmas Day 1925. When Baross showed specimens of the forgery to other Hungarian bank executives they decried their poor quality. Baross then discussed the issue with Bethlen who urged him not to disseminate the banknotes within Hungary. By September 1925, between 25,000 and 35,000 forged banknotes had been produced. The conspirators met at the house of Catholic Chief Chaplain of the Hungarian Army who blessed the banknotes and led an oath‐swearing ceremony. Colonel Arisztid Jankovich, the brother‐in‐law of the Minister of Defense, Count Károly Csáky, was to act as the main distributor of the money. The notes were stored in Zadravecz's house and in the Windischgraetz family castle in Sarostpak near Tokaj. Nádosy provided the conspirators with passports, Jankovich's bearing a diplomatic courier stamp. He then transported the money to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry where it was placed into diplomatic pouches and shipped abroad. Gaspar Kovács, Windischgraetz's personal valet had previously sent six of the 1,000 franc notes to a personal friend, a Dutch bank cashier named Severing, asking him to convert them to Dutch guilders. After Severing failed to detect the forgery, Windischgraetz ordered twelve distributors to depart for abroad. Private banks in the capitals of the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Italy were to be successively targeted. The distributors were to transfer the genuine money to the respective Hungarian embassies which would then ship it in diplomatic pouches to the Cartographic Institute. ### Discovery The distributors departed Budapest on 10 December 1925. On 13 December, Jankovich reached the Dutch border by train. Upon inspecting his passport Dutch customs officials noticed that it lacked a visa. They opened Jankovich's luggage but did not dare to open the packages it contained because they bore diplomatic seals. He was ordered to secure a visa in The Hague by the end of the next day. This incident threatened to derail his plans as he was originally supposed to hand over the parcel addressed to the Hungarian Minister in The Hague to two other conspirators and then depart for Stockholm the following day. Upon arriving at the Amsterdam Centraal station he booked a room at a nearby hotel. There he opened the parcel and took out twenty-five forged 1,000 franc notes and went to the Amsterdam Bourse. György Marsovszky and György Mankowicz met Jankovich behind the Bourse at 2 p.m., the two were staying at another hotel and were using fake names and forged Romanian passports. While handing them the notes, two fell down and Jankovich picked them up and placed them into his wallet. Having completed his assignment Jankovich traveled to The Hague early in the following day. He secured a visa at the passport office without incident and then went to a private bank to exchange one of the four 1,000 franc notes in his wallet (two being genuine and two being counterfeits). The bank's teller had stepped away from his post to respond to a phone call, so Jankovich was served by the bank's manager, a local expert in money forgery. It remains unknown whether Jankovich handed a counterfeit note on purpose or by accident, but the manager immediately became suspicious and ordered the bank's detective to follow him. The detective followed Jankovich to a local luxury hotel, alerting the bank and the police about his whereabouts. Two police detectives and the bank's manager entered Jankovich's suite questioning him about the incident. Jankovich professed his innocence declaring that he was a courier of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and therefore possessed diplomatic immunity. At that point one of the detectives noticed a 1,000 franc note protruding from under the bed, upon examining it he declared it to be a counterfeit. The detectives then opened a trunk in the corner of the room finding it to be stuffed with packets of money. Jankovich demanded to be taken to the Hungarian embassy. Jankovich was escorted to the embassy where he was met by the Hungarian consul. Visibly irritated, Jankovich demanded to speak with the ambassador in person, declaring that he was carrying out a special mission on behalf of the Hungarian police. The Dutch detectives then handed over the case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unaware of the plot, the ambassador sent a telegram to Budapest on 22 January expressing doubts about the credibility of Jankovich's statement. Dutch police captured Marsovszky and Mankowicz in The Hague after finding a note with their hotel addresses in Jankovich's room, confiscating the entire shipment of forged money. The three plotters initially refused to cooperate with the investigation, however the Bank of France and Sûreté Générale contacted the investigators and presented them with the six counterfeit notes previously sent by Kovács. When the investigators revealed Kovács' ties to Windischgraetz, the three arrested plotters made a full confession. Dutch Police Chief K.H. Broekhoff telegraphed the confessions to Paris and Budapest and sent descriptions of the forged banknotes to other members of the ICPC. Forty Sûreté detectives were dispatched to Vienna and Budapest, arriving on 28 December. French Prime Minister Aristide Briand initially sought to strengthen his country's political influence in central Europe by politicizing the affair. Pushing for Bethlen's removal from power and his replacement by a more liberal politician. The plotters began destroying the printing presses, but they forgot to get rid of the stocks of banknote paper which were later discovered by the investigators. Windischgraetz's secretary Rába sent all the money couriers abroad a telegram with the message "AUNT ILL COME HOME". By that time another courier Edmund von Olchvary, was tracked to Copenhagen and then arrested in Hamburg on 1 January 1926. The following day, Rába and Kovács were arrested. Reports of the case were widely discussed in the Dutch and French press, as well as Hungarian papers sympathetic to the opposition. Nádosy admitted his involvement in the operation to the Hungarian Justice and Interior Ministers. On 4 January, Windischgraetz and Nádosy were detained, the latter was also suspended from his position. The involvement of the Cartographic Institute in the plot prompted an appointment of a royal Hungarian persecutor to supervise the case. The Hungarian persecutor declared the case an internal affair and stopped collaborating with the French. In late January, French investigators leaked incriminating details about Bethlen's involvement in the plot to the press. On 20 January 1926, the Hungarian parliament approved the creation of a commission to investigate the government's involvement in the affair. The arrests of Haits, Kurtz and many other conspirators followed. Schulze was arrested on 16 February with the help of the German police. He died a month later under mysterious circumstances, allegedly due to being poisoned. Austrian police also assisted in the investigation. ## Aftermath ### Trials The trial of the 24 conspirators opened in Budapest on 7 May 1926. They attracted considerable attention from the press, including American journalists Dorothy Thompson and Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker. The French government was represented by Hungarian lawyer Paul de Auer. De Auer argued that while the damage inflicted to the French economy had the plot succeeded would have been minimal, it would have caused considerable harm to the country's reputation. The prosecution presented a general outline of the plot which was notable for its omissions regarding the role played by Bethlen and Teleki. Teleki claimed that he became aware of the plot in 1922, but stopped being involved after receiving a report from Gerő which claimed that the project was not viable. Bethlen likewise denied knowing anything concrete about the plot. Evidence presented at the trial pointed to Teleki's role as an intermediary between the government and the plotters, while Bethlen was most likely aware of the plot but allowed it to proceed. Windischgraetz revealed the plot's goals, he nevertheless refused to disclose the identities of other plotters. Several Hungarian parliament deputies testified in his defense, arguing that his actions were patriotic in nature. Rába's initial testimony implicated Bethlen, several of his political allies and a number of German nationals. However, he subsequently withdrew the most controversial parts of his initial testimony. Captain György Hir's testimony also implicated Bethlen, Hir died under mysterious circumstances two weeks before the conclusion of the trial. On 26 May, the court concluded the trial. Two of the defendants were acquitted. Windischgraetz was given four years in prison, Nádosy was given four years of hard labor and a fine of 2,000 dollars. Gerő received two years in prison, Rába one and a half years, Haits and Kurtz received one year in prison each. Zadravecz was forced to resign from his position and spent two years in an Austrian monastery as punishment. The court ruled that the defendants were motivated by patriotism as an extenuating circumstance. Gerő and Rába's sentences were reduced to six months on appeal. Neither Bethlen, nor any member of his cabinet were charged; it is believed that Bethlen exercised direct control over the proceedings. Windischgraetz spent several weeks in prison, before being moved to a luxurious sanatorium. A national petition for Windischgraetz to be pardoned received 100,000 signatures. Windischgraetz and Nádosy were pardoned by Horthy the following year. The plotters captured abroad were tried separately in the countries where they were captured. Jankovich, Marsovszky and Mankowicz were tried in The Hague, while von Olchvary was tried in Hamburg. All receiving light sentences. ### Impact Facing considerable public pressure Bethlen offered his resignation to Horthy, who refused to accept it. Bethlen subsequently shuffled his cabinet by replacing Interior Minister Iván Rakovszky. The outcome of the trials increased Bethlen's popularity in Hungary. The French Foreign Ministry saw Bethlen's exoneration in the Franc affair as a diplomatic defeat which emboldened nationalists in Hungary and Germany. When its attempt to push for the continuation of the League of Nations' economic oversight of Hungary failed, France turned its attention to combating international counterfeiting. French lawmakers revised a February 1926 Czechoslovak proposal to create an international police organization whose members would fight money counterfeiting. Briand's proposal called for the unification of anti-counterfeiting laws, police and judicial cooperation and the creation of national anti-counterfeiting centers within the borders of each signatory. The proposal was reviewed and later adopted by the League of Nations in the International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency in April 1929. The convention facilitated ICPC's recognition by the League of Nations and formalized its efforts to fight international crime.

There's a Blind Man Playin' Fiddle in the Street

1968 single by Tages

"There's a Blind Man Playin' Fiddle in the Street" is a song written by Swedish bass guitarist Göran Lagerberg, initially recorded by his band Tages. In December 1967, Tages released their fifth album, Studio, which largely was inspired by and saw influences from Swedish folk music; this had a major impact on Lagerberg. Inspired by the Beatles' single "Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane" from a meeting with club owner Styrbjörn Colliander, Lagerberg composed the song in a more commercial tone than Studio, while still retaining the genre's influences. First released as a single on 8 February 1968 in Sweden, the song also received release in Denmark, Finland, Norway and the UK, where it was Tages' fourth single release. "There's a Blind Man" is a "mini-suite", featuring two distinct sections, of which one consists of an intermezzo of fiddles being played together with a counter-melody on guitar. The verses and chorus alternate between major and minor chords. Lyrically, Lagerberg was inspired by a man that often could be seen playing a violin on the streets of Gothenburg. Tages recorded the song in January 1968 with Anders Henriksson producing. The song received critical acclaim in both the Swedish and British press, who mostly praised the chorus and fiddle interludes. Commercially, the song reached number 10 on Tio i Topp in Sweden and number 20 on Danmarks Radio chart in Denmark, becoming their final top-10 release in the former country. In retrospect, it has been considered one of Tages' best singles. ## Background On 4 December 1967, Tages released their fifth studio album Studio. A blend of psychedelic music, rock and Swedish folk music, it was largely written by bassist Göran Lagerberg and producer Anders Henriksson. Although the former had been the band's primary creative force since their fourth album Contrast (1967), Henriksson came to play a large part in Tages' career, introducing them to elements of Swedish folk music, owing to his heritage from Dalarna. Particularly Lagerberg found this interesting, stating that he "wanted to utilize" and pay respect to his cultural heritage while adopting it into his music. Lagerberg aspired to follow-up Studio with a release that was even more folk-influenced. During the Christmas of 1967, the band members along with manager Rolf Hedin took a break following the recording of Studio, going on a vacation to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands that allowed Lagerberg and the others to focus on writing new material for the band. Around the same time, Tages found out that Studio had become a commercial failure, with many fans finding it "too uncommercial". This took a toll on the band, particularly Lagerberg, who considered the album to be "some of the best" he had written up until that point. Keeping this in mind, he decided that the follow-up single which Parlophone demanded by February 1968 would be "more commercial" than Studio was. ## Composition and recording Lagerberg was inspired to compose the song by Styrbjörn Colliander, owner of the Cue Club, where Tages would perform regularly. Colliander would play him the Beatles' double A-Side single "Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane" (1967) for the first time. Lagerberg considered the song "one of the best he had heard thus far", leading to him "rushing home with the songs still ringing in my ears" and composing it on the piano he newly purchased. Lagerberg declared the song was written "rather quickly" after that, estimating it to have taken "only a few minutes, perhaps an hour" to write. Musically, the song continues the blend of rock and Swedish folk music present on Studio, heavily featuring the titular fiddle in various interludes across the song. There's a Blind Man" has been described as both psychedelic pop and vispop. Musically, the song acts as a "mini-suite", consisting of two distinct sections: the vocal verses and choruses along with the "musical interludes that are dependent on fiddles". The song was primarily composed in G minor, a "tonality which persists" through the musical interludes and verses, though "modulates up to G major during the bridge and choruses", creating a sense of "easiness and hope" once the chorus arrives. The intermezzo which appears in between choruses and verses "notably includes" lead guitarist Anders Töpel's playing, which acts as a counter-melody to "the established sound of the fiddles". During the more conventional parts of the song, a "clinking piano" dominates most of the sound frame. Lyrically, Lagerberg took inspiration from an almost "mythical figure" that could be spotted playing the violin on the sidewalks and town squares of Gothenburg, Tages' home town. Though initially shrouded in mystery, the man in question was confirmed to be a real individual, namely John Eriksson. Eriksson, who originally came from Kungälv, was allegedly divorced by his wife during the mid-1920s, leading to him "hiking to Gothenburg" and spending "up to sixty years of his life" there, playing the violin "in sorrow over his lost love". "There's a Blind Man" was recorded on 16 January 1968 at Europafilm Studios in Mariehäll together with Tages regular producer Anders Henriksson. Audio engineer Björn Almstedt was also present at the recording session. Henriksson contributed piano to the song, while the Spelmanslag from the open-air museum Skansen in Stockholm provided the fiddles. ## Release and commercial performance "There's a Blind Man Playin' Fiddle in the Street" was released through Parlophone on 8 February 1968, in an edition of only 2,000 copies. In a lack of new material, the B-side of the single, "Like a Woman", was taken from Studio. Around the same time as the Swedish release, Parlophone issued the song as their fourth and final single in Denmark as Tages were heavily marketed there, their sixth and final release in Finland followed shortly by a Norwegian release in March, proving to be their 11th and final there, too. Shortly before the release of the single, in January 1968, Tages' long time manager Rolf Hedin quit the role, instead being replaced by Börje Karlsson, who steadily began negotiating with new record label MGM Records for future releases worldwide a few months after Hedin's departure. Capitalizing on possibly losing the band from its roster, the British sublabel of Parlophone chose to issue "There's a Blind Man" as Tages' fourth single in the UK, on 7 June 1968. Despite having sufficient promotion in Sweden, the single was a relative chart failure compared to earlier releases. On Swedish record chart Tio i Topp, the single debuted at number 14 on 23 March 1968, staying there for only one week. Despite being voted out on 30 March, it returned to Tio i Topp on 6 April at a peak position of number 10. The song was last seen on 20 April 1968 at a position of number 13, having spent four non-consecutive weeks on the chart. Comparatively, Tages' previous charting single "Treat Me Like a Lady", had stayed on the chart for seven weeks. As it was a chart failure on Tio i Topp, the song did not sell well enough to land a spot on sales chart Kvällstoppen. In Denmark, it became Tages' final charting single, reaching number 20 for one week on 28 February. In the UK, despite being fairly promoted by British Parlophone, the song failed to crack the Record Retailer chart. The song was not released on Studio, even though the B-side was included on the album. "There's a Blind Man" got its first album release on the compilation album Good Old Tages, released by Odeon Records in February 1969, followed shortly by the Danish EMI Records release Tages Favoritter in 1974. Both sides of the single were included on Tages' career-spanning compilation Tages 1964-68! on 25 March 1983, getting their first CD-release once the album was re-issued in that format on 18 November 1992. A more circulated release of both tracks came on the CD Fantasy Island from the This One's For You! box set, released on 28 November 1994. Finally, "There's a Blind Man" was featured on both the 1998 and 2010 re-issues of Studio as a bonus track. ## Reception and legacy Upon release, the single was met with critical acclaim in the Swedish press. In a review for Göteborgs-Posten, the staff writer describes it as a "wonderful addition to Tages discography", stating that the "beautifully orchestrated sections" would've given the song a spot on "their latest album [Studio]". They note that while they "don't believe it to be a chart hit", it would become a "Swedish folk classic" with time. Similarly, in Arbetet, the writer also describes the song as a "return to their album Studio", owing to the fiddles played. They note the "inventive interplay" between major and minor chords to be "slightly genial", while also stating that the single may become a hit on Tio i Topp. In GT, the staff describe the song as "great", while also noting a "perfect follow up to Studio", which they found to be similar in sound. They state that it was "unbelievably catchy" owing primarily to the chorus, which they thought is a "wonderful creation". In Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning, both sides of the single receive praise, though the anonymous writer believes "There's a Blind Man" to be the superior song of the two. They assert the interlude featuring fiddles to be "interesting and unique" compared to the other songs reviewed that day. Despite them noting the "upbeat chorus", the writer is unsure of whether or not it would become a hit, stating the song to be "perhaps a bit too uncommercial". In Hudiksvalls Tidning, the writer considers the song "another one of Tages best", commenting it to be a "top song". They too note the chorus which they call an "earworm singalong" that would get stuck in your head, "whether you like Tages or not". Despite not charting in the UK, some music magazines reviewed the single. Penny Valentine of Disc and Music Echo found the song's sound "so similar to the Bee Gees" that she "almost collapsed". Writing for New Musical Express, Derek Johnson believe Tages manage to imitate an English sound flawlessly, "despite an annoying title". He ends by stating it to be "worthwhile". Writing for Record Mirror, Peter Jones gives the single five stars, describing it to be "his record of the week", despite the "unusual subject matter". He comments that "the beat" might make the song a hit, ending with the notion that it is "simple but very catchy and well done". Göran Brandels and Lennart Wrigholm consider "There's a Blind Man" to be the second in a row of releases from the band to be met by "disastrous commercial, though superb critical" reception, following Studio, but preceding their 1968 singles "Fantasy Island" and "I Read You Like an Open Book". Wrigholm states that as was the case with Studio, record buyers felt alienated by Tages "endeavours" with folk music that they "flat out refused" to purchase the band's records. In fact, "There's a Blind Man" was Tages final top-10 single on Tio i Topp; only "Fantasy Island" managed to chart after at a low number 14. Retrospectively, the song has been considered a nod to the Beatles, with Roger Wallis jokingly naming it "There's a Blind Man Playin' Fiddle on Penny Lane" on his radio shows. ## Charts

M-98 (Michigan highway)

Former state highway in Schoolcraft and Luce counties in Michigan, United States

M-98 is the designation of a former 16.2-mile (26.1 km) state trunkline highway in the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. It ran between M-77 at Germfask and M-28 near McMillan. The highway connected both small towns situated around Manistique Lake when it was designated with the rest of the original state highways in 1919. The section north of Helmer on the east side of the lake ran concurrently with M-135 after the latter's creation in the late 1920s. M-98 was extended at the end of the 1940s before the whole trunkline was removed from the highway system in the 1960s. Since the 1970s, part of M-98 has been designated as one of the two County Road H-44s in the state. ## Route description M-98 started at a junction with M-77 in Germfask next to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, a managed wetland in Schoolcraft County. The highway followed Ten Curves Road east and then north out town. The trunkline turned back due east and crosses the Fox River before a set of curves that shifted the highway along the Schoolcraft–Luce county line to pass north of Big Manistique Lake. Ten Curves Road passes between the Big and North Manistee lakes as it enters the community of Helmer in Luce County. There, M-98 intersected M-135, and the two ran concurrently north along Manistique Lakes Road. M-98/M-135 turned due east to intersect M-28 southwest of McMillan near East Lake. ## History M-98 was first designated by July 1, 1919, at the same time as the initial state highway system was signed. In 1929, M-135 was designated, creating the concurrency along the last several miles of M-98. By 1936, a series of corners were straightened out on the western end of M-98 near Germfask. In late 1949 or early 1950, M-28 was realigned to take an angled route southeasterly out of McMillan. The east–west section of the previous M-28 routing was added to M-98 while the north–south segment was added to M-135. By the middle of 1958, M-135 was shifted to follow M-98, removing the roadway section added to its routing previously; this change made M-98 and M-135 concurrent north of Helmer all the way to M-28 once again. M-98 was removed from the state trunkline system in late 1960 or early 1961, and the designation was decommissioned at that time. The M-98 designation has not been reused since. The routing was then assigned as a County Road H-44 after October 5, 1970, along the east–west section of the former M-98. The former M-98/M-135 was given the H-33 moniker at the same time. Both roads have retained those designations ever since. The Luce County Road Commission has also assigned the former highway the designations County Road 98 (CR 98) along Ten Curves Road and CR 135 on Manistique Lakes Road since taking control back from the state in the 1960s. ## Major intersections ## See also

Giant Dipper

Historic roller coaster in California

The Giant Dipper is a historic wooden roller coaster located at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, an amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. The Giant Dipper, which replaced the Thompson's Scenic Railway, took 47 days to build and opened on May 17, 1924 at a cost of \$50,000. With a height of 70 feet (21 m) and a speed of 55 miles per hour (89 km/h), it is one of the most popular wooden roller coasters in the world. As of 2012, over 60 million people have ridden the Giant Dipper since its opening. The ride has received several awards such as being named a National Historic Landmark, a Golden Age Coaster award, and a Coaster Landmark award. ## History The Thompson's Scenic Railway was built on the site of the current Giant Dipper in 1908 as the longest roller coaster in the United States. In October 1923, manager R.L. Cardiff and Walter Looff began negotiations to build a new ride to replace the Scenic Railway. The price was set at \$50,000, \$15,000 more than the Scenic Railway. In January 1924, the permit to build the Giant Dipper was granted to Arthur Looff. He wanted to create a ride that had "the thrill of a plunge down a mine shaft, a balloon ascent, a parachute jump, airplane acrobatics, a cyclone, a toboggan ride, and a ship in a storm." Demolition of the Scenic Railway began in January 1924 to make room for the Giant Dipper. It took 5 months to demolish the Scenic Railway and construct the Giant Dipper. The actual construction of the Giant Dipper took 47 days. The ride opened to the public for the first time on May 17, 1924. In 1974, the ride received a new coat of paint with Victorian-style architecture around the station. In the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the Giant Dipper was almost completely untouched. The ride was closed for about a month to be inspected. The park held a benefit for victims of the earthquake. In 2002, the ride celebrated its 50 millionth rider. Ten years after the 50 millionth rider, the park celebrated the Giant Dipper's 60 millionth rider on July 27, 2012. The park gave out trivia coasters leading up to the event. The 24 riders that were on the train when it hit 60 million riders received a hoodie among other prizes. The Giant Dipper was built by Arthur Looff and designed by Frederick Church. It required 327,000 feet (100,000 m) of lumber, 743,000 nails, and 24,000 bolts to construct. The lumber was provided by Homer T. Maynard Lumber, and the 70 horsepower motor, which is still used today, was provided by Santa Cruz Electric. The concrete was done by T.F. Costello, and the steel work was done by Berger and Carter. ### Fatalities The ride had a few incidents over the years in which three people have died. The first death on Giant Dipper occurred four months after it debuted, on September 21. A 15-year-old boy fell from the ride while standing up near the end of the ride. The emergency brake was applied, but the boy fell head first onto the track and was crushed by the roller coaster train. Other fatalities also occurred in 1940 and 1970. Several modifications have been made to the trains as a result. ## Ride experience After departing from the station, the train immediately enters a tunnel. After going through some drops and turns in the tunnel, the train emerges at the base of the lift hill. Once climbing 70 feet (21 m) to the top, the train drops 65 feet (20 m), reaching a top speed of 55 miles per hour (89 km/h). The train then rises up into a banked turn to the left. Riders then go through two hills next to the lift hill followed by a turnaround that is positioned over the tunnel at the beginning of the ride. The train then travels over three small hills situated next to the lift hill followed by another turnaround. Riders then go through three more small hills and enter the final brake run. ## Characteristics ### Trains The Giant Dipper currently operates with two trains with six cars per train. Riders are arranged two across in two rows for a total of 24 riders per train. The trains were built by Dana Morgan from D.H. Morgan Manufacturing. When the Giant Dipper first opened in 1924, it ran with three trains, each with ten cars. Over the years, the trains have been redesigned and replaced several times, with the current trains being the ride's third set. ### Track The wooden track is approximately 2,640 feet (800 m) in length, and the height of the lift is approximately 70 feet (21 m). The track is colored red with white supports. When built in 1924, 327,000 feet (100,000 m) of lumber was used. The track is inspected every two hours. ## Legacy In the early 1970s, the Giant Dipper became the last "classic roller coaster" between Vancouver, British Columbia and San Diego, California. It is only one of three Church rides to still operate. The other two are Dragon Coaster at Playland Park and Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. It is one of the only roller coasters that are still operating from what ACE calls the "golden age of roller coasters." Other than being the oldest roller coaster in California, the ride is also one of the oldest roller coasters in the world. ## Reception Since the Giant Dipper was one of the first roller coasters in existence when it opened, many people were concerned about the safety of the ride. Looff, as well as a local newspaper, insisted it was "virtually impossible" for the cars to leave the track because of the makeup of the trains and track. Although several incidents happened on the ride, none were related to the integrity of the track or trains. Many people call the Giant Dipper the icon and crown jewel of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk as well as one of the nation's most exciting roller coasters. It is considered to be the signature ride of the park. The Giant Dipper is referred to in the song "Big Dipper", from the 1996 album The Golden Age by David Lowery's band Cracker. The ride also appeared in many television commercials and movies, including The Lost Boys, Sudden Impact, The Sting II, Bumblebee and Dangerous Minds. ### Awards On February 27, 1987, the United States National Park Service recognized the Giant Dipper as a National Historic Landmark along with the Looff Carousel. It was awarded the American Coaster Enthusiasts Golden Age Coaster award in June 1994. The 1920s is often considered the "golden age of roller coaster construction" so the award recognizes the roller coasters that still remain today. It is only one of two roller coasters to receive this designation, the other being the Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. Giant Dipper was also awarded the ACE Coaster Landmark award on May 5, 2007 at the 100th anniversary of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It won the award for its innovative track design, unusual curved station and for being one of the ten oldest operating coasters in the world and one of only three remaining examples of Frederick Church's work. ### Rankings

Where No Fan Has Gone Before

"Where No Fan Has Gone Before" is the eleventh episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 65th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 21, 2002. Set in a retro-futuristic 31st century, the series follows the adventures of the employees of Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company. In this episode, the Planet Express team and most of the main cast of Star Trek: The Original Series face a court-martial after visiting the forbidden planet Omega 3. An existing idea to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series was scrapped and replaced with a new script written by David A. Goodman, after the newly hired writer was identified as the biggest Star Trek fan on the staff. All of the main cast of The Original Series agreed to appear, with the exception of DeForest Kelley – who had died in 1999, although a character in his likeness did appear, without speaking – and James Doohan, resulting in the creation of a new character called "Welshie". "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" was received positively by critics, with praise directed at the various Star Trek homages. The script was nominated for a Nebula Award, losing to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. ## Plot Philip J. Fry learns that the Star Trek franchise has been forbidden since the series became a worldwide religion in the 2200s; all of its fans were killed during the Star Trek Wars and the "sacred" tapes of its 79 episodes and six movies were burned, with the remaining copies sent to the forbidden planet Omega 3. Outraged, Fry takes Leonard Nimoy's head from the Head Museum and convinces Bender and Leela to join him in a mission to recover the tapes. On Omega 3, they find several original sets from Star Trek, and most of the original cast with new bodies and eternal youth. An energy being named Melllvar explains that he became a Trekkie after watching the discarded tapes over and over again. Melllvar gives Nimoy a body, and orders the actors and the Planet Express crew to participate in a Star Trek convention until the end of time, killing Welshie, a supporting character, to ensure their obedience. While Melllvar forces the cast to perform his fan script, Bender, Leela and Fry escape in the Planet Express Ship. Fry convinces the crew to attack Melllvar to save the actors, but Melllvar destroys the ship's engine as he drags it back to the planet. After seeing the Planet Express crew's attempt to defeat him, Melllvar wonders if they are more worthy of his adoration than the Star Trek cast, and decides to force them to battle to the death. After several minutes of fighting, Melllvar's mother appears and makes him come home for dinner. While he is gone, the two groups combine the engine of the cast's ship with the hull of the Planet Express Ship to escape. To lose enough weight to lift off, the cast jettison their bodies. Melllvar follows the crew into space in a Klingon Bird of Prey. Zapp Brannigan boards the Planet Express Ship and holds a court-martial of the occupants for trespassing on Omega 3. Leela points out that while the court-martial is in progress, Melllvar is still chasing them. Fry convinces Melllvar that he cannot spend his life watching Star Trek, and Melllvar agrees to end the chase, allowing the crew and cast to return to Earth. ## Production The writer for this episode, David A. Goodman, said that making this episode was a "dream come true" for many members of the crew including himself. At the time he was hired onto the staff, they were already talking about creating a Star Trek-centric episode. The initial idea was to have a giant Kirk and Spock fighting over New York-New York Hotel and Casino. Executive producer David X. Cohen assigned the writing task to Goodman, as they agreed he was the biggest Trek fan of the group. They agreed to drop the story idea with the giant characters and gave him two weeks to write the script. The deadline was complicated as Goodman had to spend the first week on jury duty, and then broke his ankle. Despite this, he described "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" as the most fun he has ever had writing a script. Series creator Matt Groening stated that while he is a fan of the Star Trek franchise, he has never seen an episode of The Original Series in its entirety, but has seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Director Pat Shinagawa said that there was a certain amount of jealousy among the crew that she got to work on the episode. All of the living members of the original Star Trek cast agreed to appear in the episode with the exception of James Doohan, whose agent replied, "No way." Because of this, the episode's working title was jokingly named "We got everybody but Scotty" and so Scotty was replaced with "Welshie". DeForest Kelley was physically portrayed but had no lines due to his death in 1999. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy recorded their lines together, which was unusual as actors usually record solo. Goodman later joined the writing staff of Star Trek: Enterprise. Several designs for the energy being were considered for this episode; however, the final version was decided upon due to a desire to keep the design simple. Shinagawa noted that even so, the final design for Melllvar is more sophisticated than some energy beings featured in the original series. ### Cultural references This episode contains many story elements based on episodes of Star Trek. In the DVD audio commentary, Goodman noted his pride in having included a large number of quotations from The Original Series, particularly those items which he claims "the people on the internet" had not found on their own. He noted that in "Shatner's Log", based on Star Trek's "Captain's log", the line "The impossible has happened" quotes the opening log in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". ## Broadcast and reception Although the episode was not the last episode produced for season four, it was used as the season finale for the fourth broadcast season, being broadcast on April 21, 2002, on Fox in the United States. The episode was subsequently nominated for a Nebula Award in 2004 for best script, but lost to the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002). Prior to the broadcast, Dusty Saunders previewed the episode for Rocky Mountain News, calling Futurama "under-appreciated" and that this episode had "Lots of fun and fantasy at the expense of the noted sci-fi series." Zack Handlen, while writing for The A.V. Club, gave the episode an 'A' grade. He said that the storyline could have been seen as "pretty mean-spirited if there wasn't such a clear thread of Trek love running through the episode". He felt that having the framing device set during the event rather than afterwards as "delightful", and that the Star Trek references were both "relevant to the story and funny in their own right". Andy Wilson reviewed the episode for BigShinyRobot, calling it the "greatest animated homage to Trek ever" and "one of the best episodes of Futurama". IGN ranked the episode in tenth place in their list of the top 25 episodes of the series in 2006, calling it "ultimate fan service episode", but "one that any sci-fi fan, Trekker or otherwise, can still enjoy". The popularity of this episode combined with the large volume of Star Trek references has made this episode a touchstone among Trekkies according to Chris Baker at Wired.com. This episode, along with "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", was the great moments of the fourth season by David Hofstede in his book 5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD. "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" was included in the Volume 4 release on DVD, including several deleted scenes, which was first released on August 24, 2004, in the United States. ## See also - The Squire of Gothos

2002 Football League Third Division play-off final

Association football match

The 2002 Football League Third Division play-off Final was an association football match played on 6 May 2002 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, between Cheltenham Town and Rushden & Diamonds. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from the Football League Third Division, English football's fourth tier, to the Second Division. The top three teams of the 2001–02 Third Division season gained automatic promotion to the Second Division, while those placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in play-offs. The winners of the play-off semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2002–03 season in the Second Division. Cheltenham Town finished in fourth place while Rushden & Diamonds ended the season in sixth position. Hartlepool United and Rochdale were the losing semi-finalists, being defeated by Cheltenham and Rushden respectively. The referee for the match, played in front of 24,368 spectators, was Anthony Leake. Neither side dominated the early stages of the match but in the 27th minute, Cheltenham took the lead. Martin Devaney struck the ball towards the Rushden goal where it was defended by Scott Partridge. His clearance went back to Devaney who struck the ball past Rushden's goalkeeper Billy Turley from a tight angle. Within 14 seconds, the score was level at 1–1 as Paul Hall beat three Cheltenham defenders before shooting past Steve Book. Four minutes into the second half, Julian Alsop headed Anthony Griffin's cross goal-bound and despite the ball being blocked by Andy Tillson, Alsop tapped it into the net to put Cheltenham back into the lead. In the 80th minute, substitute Neil Grayson's curling shot struck the Rushden goalpost but John Finnigan scored from the rebound. The match ended 3–1 and Cheltenham were promoted to the Second Division. Rushden & Diamonds ended their following season as champions of the Third Division and secured automatic promotion to the Second Division. Cheltenham Town's next season saw them finish in 21st position in the Second Division which meant they were relegated back to the Third Division for the 2003–04 season. ## Route to the final Cheltenham Town finished the regular 2001–02 season in fourth place in the Football League Third Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system, two positions ahead of Rushden & Diamonds. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places for promotion to the Second Division and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Cheltenham Town finished one point behind Mansfield Town (who were promoted in third place), nineteen behind Luton Town (who were promoted in second place), and twenty-four behind league winners Plymouth Argyle. Rushden & Diamonds ended the season five points behind Cheltenham Town. Rushden & Diamonds faced Rochdale in their play-off semi-final with the first match of the two-legged tie taking place at Nene Park, Rushden's home ground, on 27 April 2002. Lee McEvilly put the visitors ahead on eight minutes before a header from Stuart Wardley levelled the match in the 34th minute. Eleven minutes after half-time, Paul Simpson scored from distance with a curling shot before Rushden saw a potential equalising goal from Onandi Lowe disallowed for a foul. Garry Butterworth then scored for Rochdale in the 72nd minute from the edge of the penalty area, and the match ended 2–2. The second leg of the semi-final took place three days later at Spotland in Rochdale. After a goalless first half, Mark Peters scored an own goal when his backpass rolled into the Rushden goal to give Rochdale the lead. Immediately from the restart, Butterworth's pass found Lowe who turned and scored to make it 1–1. In the 75th minute, Hall took advantage of a mistake by Griffiths to go round Billy Turley, the Rochdale goalkeeper, and score the deciding goal. Rushden won the match 2–1 and progressed to the play-off final with a 4–3 aggregate victory. Cheltenham's opposition for their play-off semi-final were Hartlepool United; the first leg was held at Victoria Park in Hartlepool on 27 April 2002. The visiting side started strongly and eventually took the lead in injury time in the first half when Eifion Williams scored with a header from close range. With one minute remaining in the game, Martyn Lee won the ball from Chris Westwood and played it to Neil Grayson who levelled the score, ending the match 1–1. The second leg took place three days later at Whaddon Road in Cheltenham. Paul Arnison put Hartlepool ahead on 17 minutes with a low strike but Williams equalised ten minutes later with a shot from 25 yards (23 metres). The second half was goalless which meant the game ended 1–1 and 2–2 on aggregate, resulting in extra time. Grayson came close to scoring with a header but no goals were scored in the additional period so a penalty shootout was required to decide the match. Both sides scored four of their first five spot kicks. Alsop then scored to put Cheltenham ahead in sudden death before Ritchie Humphreys' strike hit the crossbar; despite appearing to have crossed the goalline, the shot was adjudged to have missed. Cheltenham progressed to the play-off final with a 5–4 victory on penalties. ## Match ### Background Neither side had appeared in the play-offs prior to this season. Rushden & Diamonds were playing in their maiden Football League season, having been promoted from the Conference as champions in the previous season. Cheltenham had also recently been promoted from non-League football, and had played in the Third Division since the 1999–2000 season. In the matches between the clubs during the regular season, Rushden had won the game at Nene Park 1–0 in September 2001 (the first competitive League meeting ever between the sides), while the return match at Whaddon Road the following March ended in a 1–1 draw. Julian Alsop was Cheltenham's top scorer during the regular season with 24 goals (20 in the league, 4 in the FA Cup), while Tony Naylor had 17 (12 in the league, 5 in the FA Cup). Lowe was Rushden's leading marksman with 19 (all in the league). Neither side were clear favourites to win the match, according to bookmakers. The match was shown live in the UK on ITV Sport Channel, one of the last games broadcast by the channel before it closed on 11 May 2002. The referee for the match was Anthony Leake. Both sides adopted a 4–4–2 formation and Cheltenham opted to wear their third-choice kit which was yellow in preference to their "unlucky" orange strip. ### Summary The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 6 May 2002 in front of 24,368 spectators at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Neither side dominated the early stages of the match but in the 27th minute, Cheltenham took the lead. Martin Devaney struck the ball towards the Rushden goal where it was cleared by Scott Partridge. The ball went back to Devaney who struck it past Rushden's goalkeeper Turley from a tight angle. Within 14 seconds, the score was level as Paul Hall beat three Cheltenham defenders before shooting past Steve Book to make it 1–1. Neither side made any personnel changes during the half-time interval and the second half commenced with Cheltenham dominating. Four minutes in, Julian Alsop headed Anthony Griffin's cross goal-bound and despite the ball being blocked by Andy Tillson, Alsop tapped it into the net to put Cheltenham back into the lead. Alsop then missed a chance when he headed wide, before Cheltenham saw claims for a penalty denied after it appeared that Stuart Gray had handled the ball in the Rushden penalty area. In the 69th minute, Rushden made two substitutions, with Jon Brady and Brett Angell coming on to replace Gray and Partridge. Devaney was then substituted with an injury in the 75th minute and replaced by Neil Grayson. Five minutes later, his curling shot struck the Rushden goalpost but John Finnigan scored from the rebound. The match ended 3–1 and Cheltenham were promoted to the Second Division. ### Details ## Post-match Steve Cotterill, the Cheltenham manager, suggested the play-off route to promotion was his preference: "I always said this is the way to go up ... Cheltenham will never have another season like this". His counterpart Brian Talbot admitted his side was second-best and that Cheltenham "edged it and deserved to win ... On the day the best team has won and we have got to reproduce it next season." Cheltenham became the eleventh consecutive team to win a final at the Millennium Stadium after being allocated the North End dressing room. Devaney was named as man of the match. Rushden & Diamonds ended their following season as champions of the Third Division and secured automatic promotion to the Second Division. Cotterill moved to Stoke City by the end of May 2002, replacing Guðjón Þórðarson who was sacked four days after leading Stoke to promotion in the 2002 Football League Second Division play-off final. Cheltenham Town's next season saw them finish in 21st position in the Second Division which meant they were relegated back to the Third Division for the 2003–04 season.

Peckforton Castle

Grade I listed English country house in Cheshire East, United Kingdom

Peckforton Castle is a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills one mile (2 km) northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The house was built in the middle of the 19th century as a family home for John Tollemache, a wealthy Cheshire landowner, estate manager, and Member of Parliament. It was designed by Anthony Salvin in the Gothic style. During the Second World War it was used as a hostel for physically disabled children. The Tollemache family used the castle for occasional gatherings, but otherwise it was unused until 1969. From 1969 to 1980 the castle was leased by the 4th Lord Tollemache to George W. Barrett, and it again became a private residence and closed to the public. The right wing and tower and the castle gardens were restored by Barrett, an American employed by the U.S. Government. His daughter Pascale's wedding was the first to be held in the chapel and a special decree had to be obtained by the Archbishop of Canterbury to legally hold Catholic weddings in the grounds of the castle. During the 1970s and 1980s it was used as a location for shooting films and television programmes. The castle was bought in 1988 by Evelyn Graybill, who converted it into a hotel. In 2006 it was purchased by the Naylor family, who expanded its use to include hosting weddings, conferences and other functions. ## Early history Peckforton Castle was built between 1844 and 1850 for John Tollemache, the largest landowner in Cheshire at the time, who was described by William Ewart Gladstone as "the greatest estate manager of his day". Tollemache's first choice of architect was George Latham of Nantwich, but he was not appointed, and was paid £2,000 in compensation. Instead Tollemache appointed Anthony Salvin, who had a greater reputation and more experience, and who had already carried out work on the Tollemache manor house, Helmingham Hall in Suffolk. The castle was built by Dean and Son of Leftwich, with Joseph Cookson of Tarporley acting as clerk of works. Stone was obtained from a quarry about 1 mile (2 km) to the west of the site, and a railway was built to carry the stone. The castle cost £60,000. Although it was built as a family home its design was that of a medieval castle. It has a gatehouse, a portcullis, a dry moat, external windows that are little more than arrow slots, and large towers. In 1851 The Illustrated London News said that it "seems to exhibit the peculiar beauties of Carnarvon Castle without its inconveniences" and in 1858 Sir George Gilbert Scott called it "the largest and most carefully and learnedly executed Gothic mansion of the present" and that it was "the very height of masquerading". It is regarded as "the last serious fortified home built in England" and "it was executed to the highest standards and is one of the great buildings of its age". There has been debate about the motives for building a more-or-less complete medieval-style castle in the 19th century. Although he was a great estate manager, Tollemache was also perceived as "a man of considerable eccentricity". Dr Jill Allibone is of the opinion that he might have been protecting himself and his family from the political troubles of the time. In a defensive building he would be able to protect himself against any revolution by the masses from nearby Manchester or Liverpool. A possible practical reason for building such a solid residence rather than an Italianate-style villa was to provide shelter from the adverse weather conditions which could affect the Cheshire plain. However Durdey comes to the conclusion that the decisive factors were to use his "vast inheritance" to provide himself with a house that was "impressive, dominant and suitable for Cheshire's greatest landowner". ## Location Peckforton Castle stands in a wooded area near the northern extremity of Peckforton Hills at an elevation of 469.2 feet (143 m). The land falls steeply downwards to the north and the west of the castle, and the Sandstone Trail, a long-distance footpath, runs along the base of these slopes. The ruins of Beeston Castle stand on a separate steeply sloping hill 0.75 miles (1 km) to the north. The village of Beeston is 0.75 miles (1 km) to the northeast and the village of Peckforton is 1 mile (2 km) to the southeast. Access is via the road between Beeston and Peckforton. ## Architecture ### Castle #### External The castle is faced with red sandstone, and has lead, asphalt and tile roofs. It is mainly in three storeys with a five-storey tower. The buildings are arranged around a ward with the principal accommodation on the north side. It is surrounded by a dry moat which is bridged at the gatehouse. To the west of the inner ward are the stables, the coach house, a rectangular bell tower and the kitchens and service area. To the north is the great hall range which consists of 18 bays. Behind the entrance to the hall is the circular main tower. At the east end of the gallery wing is the octagonal library tower. The outer walls of the castle have full-height slender turrets at the changes in direction. Corbel tables support part of the battlements. The walls contain arrow slots, and in the gatehouse is a garderobe. The flat roof has a crenellated parapet. #### Internal The porch leads into the great hall which has a Minton tile floor and a large stone chimney piece. In the east wing is the long gallery which has oak panelling, a chimney-piece and a panelled ceiling. Behind the long gallery is an irregularly-shaped billiard room and the drawing room. To the south of these is the library. Behind the great hall is the main staircase. The circular tower at the north-west corner contains the octagonal dining room with a Minton tile floor, two fireplaces, and a vault of eight radial ribs running to a central boss. The room contains an oak sideboard with a carved Green Man. Below the dining room is a wine cellar. On the fifth floor of the circular tower is a room designed for playing rackets, which is approached by a stone spiral staircase. ### Garden The castle had no formal garden, but at the bottom of the drive were kitchen gardens which included vegetable gardens, an orchard, extensive glass houses and a large orangery. At one time, 17 gardeners were employed. ### Chapel On the east side of the ward is the family's private chapel, a Grade II\* listed building. It was also designed by Salvin and is constructed of rock-faced sandstone with a tile roof. Its plan consists of a two-bay nave, a south aisle, a vestry, and a narrower and lower single-bay chancel. On the gable ends of the nave and chancel are stone cross finials. Over the chancel arch is a cruciform stone bellcote. Inside the chapel an arcade of three Gothic arches separates the south aisle from the nave. The reredos is made of oak and is inscribed with the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. The choirstalls and the benches in the nave are carved with poppyheads. The baptistry at the west end contains a carved stone font with a carved oak cover. Although it is described as a modest building, the chapel is considered to "complete the ensemble" of the castle. ### Entrance lodge The entrance lodge to the southeast of the castle is also listed at Grade II\*. It was designed by Salvin and is constructed in red brick and stone with a tile roof. It consists of an archway with a round turret behind and a two-storey lodge to the left. ## Later history and present use Before moving into the castle in the 1890s, Wilbraham Tollemache, 2nd Baron Tollemache added central heating and electric light. In 1922 a large scheme of afforestation was started on the Peckforton Hills, and the resulting woodland has been granted the status of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Bentley Tollemache, 3rd Baron Tollemache, grandson of Wilbraham Tollemache, and his family left Peckforton at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. During the war the castle was used as a hostel for physically handicapped children who had been evacuated from the London area. Bentley Tollemache died in 1955 and, as he had no sons, the estate passed to his cousin, John Tollemache. During the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, the castle was used as a location for shooting films and television programmes. These include the Doctor Who serial The Time Warrior, broadcast in 1973–74, and a 1991 movie of Robin Hood starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman. From 1982 to 1986, Treasure Trap, one of the world's first live action role-playing games, took place on the site. In 1988 the castle was purchased by an American, Evelyn Graybill, for £1 million. She renovated most of the building and secured planning permission to convert it into a hotel. In 2006 a member of the Naylor family was married in the castle, and the family subsequently bought it. Peckforton is now used as an hotel and for corporate events and weddings. The building was severely damaged by fire in June 2011 during a wedding, the cost of the damage being in the region of £6 million. In December 2011 the bridegroom admitted to a charge of arson. ## See also - Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire West and Chester - Listed buildings in Peckforton - Castles in Great Britain and Ireland - List of castles in England

William Eustis

Massachusetts-born physician, politician, and diplomat

William Eustis (June 10, 1753 – February 6, 1825) was an early American physician, politician, and statesman from Massachusetts. Trained in medicine, he served as a military surgeon during the American Revolutionary War, notably at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He resumed medical practice after the war, but soon entered politics. After several terms in the state legislature, Eustis won election to the United States Congress in 1800, serving as a moderate Democratic-Republican. He briefly returned to state politics after losing reelection in 1804, and was chosen to be Secretary of War in 1809 by President James Madison. Due in part to his inexperience at managing the army and a lack of preparedness, the military failures in the early months of the War of 1812 were laid on his shoulders, leading to his resignation. Madison then appointed Eustis Minister to the Netherlands, a post he held from 1814 until 1818. After another period in Congress, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1822. A popular successor to long-serving John Brooks, Eustis died in office in 1825. His Boston mansion, built in the 1750s by royal governor William Shirley, is known as the Shirley-Eustis House and is a National Historic Landmark. ## Early years and military service William Eustis was born on June 10, 1753, in Cambridge, to Benjamin Eustis, a prominent Boston doctor, and Elizabeth (Hill) Eustis. He was the second surviving son of twelve children. He was educated at the Boston Latin School before he entered Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1772. While at Harvard he belonged to an undergraduate militia unit called the Martimercurian Band. After graduation he studied medicine under Dr. Joseph Warren, a well-known Patriot political leader. When the Battles of Lexington and Concord sparked the American Revolutionary War in April 1775, Warren and Eustis both worked in the field, tending the injured revolutionaries. Warren secured for Eustis a commission as regimental surgeon to the rebel artillery. Eustis helped care for the wounded at the June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, in which Warren was killed. He served with the Continental Army in the New York and New Jersey campaign, refusing a lieutenant colonel's commission offered by artillery chief Henry Knox. During his Continental Army service, Eustis met and established an enduring friendship with New Jersey native Aaron Burr. In 1777 Eustis was placed in command of a military hospital established at the former residence of Loyalist Beverley Robinson north of New York City, where he remained for the duration of the war. In September 1780 he played a minor role in events surrounding the flight of traitor Benedict Arnold: he treated Arnold's wife Peggy, who was seemingly hysterical over the sudden departure of her husband and the discovery of his plot. After the war Eustis returned to medical practice in Boston. He was once again called on to serve in military matters when Shays' Rebellion broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786, becoming surgeon to the militia force raised by General Benjamin Lincoln that quashed the rebellion in the early months of 1787. Eustis was admitted as an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati in the state of Massachusetts when it was established in 1783. He later served as Vice President of the Massachusetts Society from 1786 to 1810, and again from 1820 to 1821. ## Legislator Eustis was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature) from 1788 to 1794, which he left because he was "sick of" the political gamesmanship in the body. He was thereafter chosen to serve on the Governor's Council for two years. In 1800 he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. During his successful campaign against Josiah Quincy, Eustis was charged with either authoring, or being complicit in the production of, letters that formed a part of the 1783 Newburgh Conspiracy, a threatened uprising in the Continental Army. Eustis publicly denied being the author of the letters, but was silent on his role in the affair. (John Armstrong later admitted to writing the letters, and Eustis acknowledged some years later that he was privy to the plot.) Eustis was a moderate Democratic-Republican who did not seek the significant reforms more radical Republicans wanted. He demonstrated this by voting against President Thomas Jefferson's repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, a Federalist bill passed in the late days of the John Adams administration that had greatly expanded the number of seats on the federal bench. In 1802 Eustis was reelected, defeating John Quincy Adams, and in a rematch of the 1800 election with Quincy, Eustis was defeated by fewer than 100 votes. While in the House, he was one of the impeachment managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1804 to conduct the impeachment proceedings (the first such action to succeed) against John Pickering, judge of the United States District Court for New Hampshire. In 1804 he argued in favor of arming merchant vessels headed for the West Indies. ## Secretary of War When James Madison became president in 1809, he sought to enhance the status of the Democratic-Republicans in Federalist-dominated New England. To that end he chose Eustis to be his Secretary of War. Eustis was not a good choice for the post, lacking the necessary administrative skills and detailed military background. He also had difficult relations with James Wilkinson and Wade Hampton, two senior army commanders. Eustis made a major push to update the military's field manuals, which had not changed since the Revolutionary War. After acquiring copies of manuals published in 1791 for use by the armies of the French Republic, Eustis commissioned a translation and lobbied for adoption of new manuals based on French tactics. Although a new manual was ready for use in 1812, it was not well received by the officer corps, and was not used in the war that broke out that year. As tensions grew between the United States and Great Britain, Eustis made modest moves to improve military readiness, but did not otherwise distinguish himself or introduce other initiatives or proposals. When the War of 1812 began, the army's logistics were in shambles, and it had no overall commander, forcing Eustis to make detailed decisions for nine military districts. When the war began poorly with the surrender of General William Hull at Detroit, Eustis was severely criticized. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin wrote that there was "a total want of confidence" in Eustis that was felt "through every ramification of the public service." Eustis tendered his resignation in December 1812, and Secretary of State James Monroe took over his duties until John Armstrong assumed the office on February 13, 1813. ## Netherlands minister Eustis was next appointed minister of the United States to the Netherlands by President Madison, serving from 1814 to 1818. Madison believed the post to be important for sounding out conditions in Europe due to The Hague's historical use as a neutral ground for negotiations, and he instructed Eustis to track European diplomatic sentiment. However, the status of the Dutch declined after the defeat of Napoleon, and the post was not particularly active. Eustis unsuccessfully pursued claims against the Dutch for seizures of American goods and ships that had taken place during the reign of Louis Bonaparte over the Kingdom of Holland (the claims were eventually acknowledged by France). Eustis was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1815. Eustis and Albert Gallatin, then the US Ambassador to France, negotiated a new commerce treaty with the Dutch government in 1817; it was ratified in 1818. Eustis was at a disadvantage due to his lack of French language skill, and was recalled in 1818 after the Dutch government reduced its American delegation head to a chargé d'affaires. While in Europe Eustis renewed an acquaintance with the Marquis de Lafayette, with whom he had served in the Revolutionary War. ## Later offices Upon his return from Europe, Eustis purchased the mansion in Roxbury built by royal governor William Shirley in the 1750s (which is now known as the Shirley-Eustis House). Eustis was again elected to Congress in a special election called after the resignation of Representative Edward Dowse. He served from 1820 to 1823, presiding as chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Military Affairs. In the debate on the admission of Missouri as a state (leading to the Missouri Compromise), Eustis made an impassioned speech in opposition to proposed language in the Missouri Constitution forbidding the entry of free blacks into the state. He ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts three times (1820–22), losing each time to the popular moderate Federalist John Brooks. In 1823 Eustis won the seat in a highly contentious contest with the unpopular arch-Federalist Harrison Gray Otis. Republicans presented Eustis as a moderate successor to Brooks who would be less partisan than Otis, and also highlighted his Revolutionary War experience. He carried Federalist strongholds in Hampshire and Essex Counties, and very nearly defeated in Otis in Boston. Eustis' victory in the election (combined with a Republican sweep of the legislature the following year) marked the effective end of the Federalist Party in Massachusetts. Eustis was a popular governor, continuing Brooks' moderate policies. He nominated his lieutenant governor, Levi Lincoln, Jr., to the state's high court, and won reelection in 1824 with former Representative Marcus Morton as his lieutenant. While governor he received his old friend Lafayette when he toured the United States. In March–April 1824, perhaps due to his popularity, William Eustis was honored with a single vote at the Democratic-Republican Party Caucus to be the party's candidate for U.S. Vice President at the election later that year. Eustis died in Boston of pneumonia while governor on February 6, 1825. His funeral and temporary interment took place Boston's Granary Burying Ground, and he was memorialized by his friend Edward Everett. He was later reinterred at Lexington's Old Cemetery. ## Personal life During the Revolutionary War Eustis became close friends with Aaron Burr, a friendship that deepened in the 1790s. Burr and Eustis exchanged letters on the most intimate subjects, recommending potential romantic partners to each other and sharing a taste for well-educated women. Eustis aided Burr on one occasion by helping him find accommodations for a young woman whose mother had been involved in an adulterous relationship with Alexander Hamilton; she was placed in a Boston-area boarding school. Eustis may have also been the subject of a teenage crush by Burr's daughter Theodosia, who shared intimate details of her life with him (including medical conditions emanating from a difficult pregnancy) well into adulthood. Eustis was for many years a confirmed bachelor, described as urbane and charming. He married Caroline Langdon in 1801; they had no children. She was the sister of Henry Sherburne Langdon, who had married Eustis' sister Ann, and the daughter of Woodbury Langdon, a prominent Portsmouth, New Hampshire, merchant and judge. His wife survived him by forty years, after which his Boston property was divided among relatives. The mansion fell into decay, but was acquired by preservationists in 1913 and restored to its 19th-century grandeur in the late 20th century. It is now a house museum and a National Historic Landmark.

Hairspray (2007 film)

2007 film directed by Adam Shankman

Hairspray is a 2007 musical romantic comedy film based on the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John Waters's 1988 comedy film of the same name. Produced by Ingenious Media and Zadan/Meron Productions, and adapted from both Waters's 1988 script and Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell's book for the stage musical by screenwriter Leslie Dixon, the film was directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman and has an ensemble cast including John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, and Nikki Blonsky in her feature film debut. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows the "pleasantly plump" teenager Tracy Turnblad (Blonsky) as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local television dance show and rallies against racial segregation. The film began development in 2004, and Dixon reworked Meehan and O'Donnell's first draft of the screenplay to tone down the musical's campiness. In 2005, Shankman agreed to direct the film. Composer/lyricist Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman reworked their songs from the Broadway musical for the film's soundtrack, and also wrote four new songs for the film. Principal photography commenced in September 2006 with a budget of \$75 million, and ended in December of that year; filming took place on locations in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and on sound-stages at Toronto's Showline Studios. Recording sessions for the film's songs and soundtrack took place in San Diego, California in the United States. Hairspray premiered on July 10, 2007, at the Mann Village Theater and was released on July 20, 2007, in the United Kingdom and the United States. The film was critically and financially successful, breaking the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a movie musical, which the film held until July 2008 when it was surpassed by Mamma Mia! and later High School Musical 3: Senior Year in October. Hairspray went on to become the tenth highest-grossing musical film in US cinema history, behind the film adaptations of Grease, Chicago, and Mamma Mia!, and stands as one of the most critically and commercially successful musical films of the 2000s. Available in a variety of formats, Hairspray's Region 1 home video release took place on November 20, 2007. USA Network purchased the broadcast rights to Hairspray and was scheduled to debut the film on cable television in February 2010, but in the end it did not broadcast that month. Instead the film was pushed back and premiered on USA on July 24, 2010, with sister channel Bravo also showing it multiple times, and in February 2011 aired on ABC for over-the-air broadcasts. ## Plot In May 1962, 16-year-old overweight high school student Tracy Turnblad lives in Baltimore along with her shy best friend Penny Pingleton, and both frequently watch The Corny Collins Show, a local teen dance television show broadcast live on the WYZT station. Several of the dancers on the show, among them lead dancers Amber von Tussle and her boyfriend Link Larkin, attend Tracy and Penny's high school. Amber's mother Velma, the station's manager, ensures that her daughter is prominently featured and, as Corny Collins and the main dancers are white, only allows African-American dancers to appear on the monthly "Negro Day", hosted by local R&B disc jockey "Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs. When Corny announces that Brenda, a dancer on the show, will be taking a nine-month leave of absence, Tracy becomes ecstatic, especially when Link announces auditions for a replacement to be held at the WYZT studio the next day. At the audition, Velma rejects her for both being overweight and supporting integration. Given detention for skipping class, Tracy discovers the "Negro Day" kids practicing in the detention room and befriends Motormouth Maybelle's son, Seaweed, who teaches her several dance moves. While leaving detention, she inadvertently meets Link, dreaming of life with him. At a record hop, her new moves garner Corny's attention, and he chooses her to join the cast. Tracy quickly becomes one of Corny's most popular performers, affecting Amber's chances of winning the show's annual "Miss Teenage Hairspray" pageant the following month and her relationship with Link, who grows fonder of Tracy. When Mr. Pinky enlists her as the spokesgirl for his Hefty Hideaway boutique, she persuades her agoraphobic mother, Edna, to accompany her there as her agent, where both receive makeovers, sharply boosting Edna's confidence. Tracy introduces Seaweed to Penny, and the two become smitten. Later, Seaweed and his younger sister Little Inez take Tracy, Penny, and Link to a party at Maybelle's store. Amber, upset over losing Link to Tracy, follows her mother's advice and anonymously calls Edna to reveal her daughter's current whereabouts, which causes Edna to rush to the store and attempt to take her home immediately, but Maybelle convinces her to stay and take pride in herself. After Maybelle sadly informs everyone that Velma has cancelled Negro Day, Tracy suggests they march for integration. Link, unwilling to endanger his career, sincerely apologizes to Tracy, upsetting her by explaining that he is scheduled to sing in front of talent scouts at the pageant. Edna returns to her husband Wilbur's shop, but Velma gets there first, and tries to seduce him. Though he remains impervious to Velma's advances, Edna arrives to see Velma forcing him into a compromising position and furiously storms out. After accusing Wilbur of infidelity and changing the locks, Edna, out of hatred for Velma, forbids Tracy to be on the show, but changes her mind reconciling with Wilbur. The next morning, Tracy sneaks out of the house to join the protest, which is halted by a police roadblock. The protesters engage in a brawl, while Tracy runs to the Pingletons' home, where Penny hides her in a fallout shelter. However, Penny's mother Prudy reports Tracy to the police and ties her daughter to her bed for "harboring a fugitive". Having been bailed out by Wilbur, Seaweed and his friends help Tracy and Penny escape. Link visits Tracy's house to find her, realizing that he loves her. Seaweed and Penny also acknowledge their love during the escape. With the pageant underway, Velma assigns police officers to guard the WYZT studio to prevent Tracy from entering and rigs the pageant tallies to guarantee Amber's victory. Penny arrives at the pageant with Edna, while Wilbur, Seaweed, and the Negro Day kids help Tracy infiltrate the studio. Link breaks away from Amber to dance with Tracy; later, he pulls Little Inez to the stage to dance in the pageant. Amber's attempt to re-claim her championship crown fails. Little Inez wins the pageant after a late surge of support, successfully integrating the program. Edna mans a camera to film Velma revealing her rigging scheme to Amber, resulting in Velma's dismissal. The set turns into a celebration as Tracy and Link cement their love by kissing each other. ## Cast Main characters - Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, an optimistic, overweight teenage girl who loves dancing. Tracy's racial acceptance leads her to become an active supporter for the integration of The Corny Collins Show. Hairspray was Blonsky's debut as a professional actress. - John Travolta as Edna Turnblad, Tracy's mother and a laundry business owner, who is agoraphobic and ashamed of her obesity. Travolta's casting as Edna continued the tradition of having a man in drag portray the character, going back to the original 1988 film, which featured drag queen Divine as Edna and at Hairspray's Broadway version, which featured Harvey Fierstein as Edna. Executives at New Line Cinema originally expected the part to be filled by an actor accustomed to playing comic roles, tossing around names such as Robin Williams, Steve Martin, and Tom Hanks. However, Travolta was aggressively sought after by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron for this role because he had starred as Danny Zuko in Grease, the second most successful movie musical to date, beaten only by Mamma Mia!. - Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle, the racist and sizeist manager of station WYZT. Velma is invested in keeping her daughter Amber in the spotlight and The Corny Collins Show segregated. Hairspray was the first film featuring Pfeiffer to be released in five years. Stardust, also featuring Pfeiffer, was shot before Hairspray, but released three weeks afterwards. The peculiarity of Pfeiffer and Travolta appearing onscreen together (Travolta starred in Grease, Pfeiffer in Grease 2) was not lost on the production staff; Travolta requested that Pfeiffer play the part of the villainess. - Amanda Bynes as Penny Lou Pingleton, Tracy's best friend, a sheltered girl who falls in love with Seaweed despite the disapproval of her stern, devoutly religious and racist mother Prudy. A young actress famous for appearances on Nickelodeon TV shows and in feature films, Bynes was one of the few movie stars cast among the teen roles. - Christopher Walken as Wilbur Turnblad, Tracy's father, the easygoing proprietor of the "Hardy-Har Hut" joke shop below the Turnblad family's apartment. John Travolta had asked that Walken be considered for the part, and he eventually beat out Billy Crystal and Jim Broadbent for the role of Wilbur. - Queen Latifah as "Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs, a Baltimore rhythm and blues radio DJ who hosts "Negro Day" on The Corny Collins Show. Maybelle also runs a record shop on North Avenue. Queen Latifah appeared in the successful Zadan/Meron film musical Chicago, and worked under Adam Shankman's direction in Bringing Down the House. Aretha Franklin had been previously considered for the role. - James Marsden as Corny Collins, the host of The Corny Collins Show; his politically progressive attitudes lead him to fight his show's imposed segregation. Corny Collins is based upon Baltimore TV personality Buddy Deane, who hosted an eponymous local teen dance show in the late 1950s and early 1960s. James Marsden beat out both Joey McIntyre and X-Men co-star Hugh Jackman for the part. - Brittany Snow as Amber Von Tussle, Velma's bratty daughter and the lead female dancer on The Corny Collins Show. Amber becomes Tracy's enemy when she threatens both Amber's chances of winning the "Miss Teenage Hairspray" crown and her relationship with her boyfriend, Link. Snow previously worked with Shankman in The Pacifier. Hayden Panettiere was also considered for the part of Amber, but was decided against in part because of her then-upcoming work with the NBC television series Heroes. - Zac Efron as Link Larkin, Amber's boyfriend and the lead male dancer on The Corny Collins Show. Link is a talented (and mildly narcissistic) singer who becomes more attracted to Tracy. The character is based in part upon Elvis Presley. Efron, a popular teen actor who played Troy Bolton in the Disney Channel TV film High School Musical, was initially thought by Shankman to be "too Disney" for the role; however Shankman's sister, executive producer Jennifer Gibgot, convinced him to cast Efron, believing that the teen star would draw a substantial teen crowd. - Elijah Kelley as Seaweed J. Stubbs, Maybelle's son, a skilled dancer who teaches Tracy some dance moves and falls in love with Penny. Kelley, a relative newcomer to film, overcame other auditioners and several popular R&B stars for the part of Seaweed. - Allison Janney as Prudence "Prudy" Pingleton, Penny's mother, a racist Christian fundamentalist whose strict parenting keeps Penny from experiencing social life. Her husband is serving a prison sentence for an unspecified crime. Minor roles - Paul Dooley as Harriman F. Spritzer, the owner of the "Ultra Clutch" company and the main sponsor of The Corny Collins Show. Although he prefers to keep The Corny Collins Show segregated, he will follow public opinion if it increases sales. - Jayne Eastwood as Miss Wimsey, Tracy's geography teacher, who gives Tracy the detention note that first leads her to Seaweed. - Jerry Stiller as Mr. Pinky, the owner of a dress shop called Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway, who hires Tracy as his spokesgirl. In the original film, Stiller played Wilbur Turnblad. - Taylor Parks as Little Inez Stubbs, Maybelle's teenage daughter and Seaweed's younger sister, and a skilled dancer. Inez is based in part upon Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend a formerly all-White school in the state of Louisiana. - George King as Mr. Flak, Amber, Link, and Tracy's history teacher. He gives Tracy detention when Amber frames Tracy for drawing a picture of him with breasts. He gives Link detention as well for coming to Tracy's defense. Council members - Curtis Holbrook as Brad - Hayley Podschun as Tammy - Phillip Spaeth as Fender - Cassie Silva as Brenda - Nick Baga as Sketch - Sarah Jayne Jensen as Shelley - Jesse Weafer as I.Q. - Kelly Fletcher as Lou Ann - J.P. Ferreri as Joey - Spencer Liff as Mikey - Laura Edwards as Vicky - Tabitha Lupien as Becky - Corey Gorewicz as Bix - Joshua Feldman as Jesse - Becca Sweitzer as Darla - Everett Smith as Paulie - Tiffany Engen as Noreen - Brooke Engen as Doreen The Dynamites - Nadine Ellis - Arike Rice - Tanee McCall Cameos In addition to the principal actors, the film contained several cameo appearances by individuals involved in the history of Hairspray: - Ricki Lake (Tracy Turnblad in the original film) as William Morris Talent Agent \#1, (Audio) performs "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now". - Adam Shankman (choreographer/director of the film) as William Morris Talent Agent \#2 (Audio) sings "Tied Up in the Knots of Sin" with Shaiman which is heard when Prudy turns the record player on while she ties Penny up. - Marc Shaiman (co-lyricist/writer of the film) as William Morris Talent Agent \#3 (Audio) sings "Tied Up in the Knots of Sin" with Shankman which is heard when Prudy turns the record player on while she ties up Penny. - Scott Wittman (co-lyricist and music writer of the film) as William Morris Talent Agent \#4. - John Waters (writer and director of the original film, who also cameoed as Dr. Frederickson in the original film) as the "flasher who lives next door" during "Good Morning Baltimore" - Jamal Sims (Associate choreographer) as one of the Detention Kids - Anne Fletcher (Associate choreographer) as the school nurse - Zach Woodlee (Associate choreographer) as Smoking teacher Singing cameos - Marissa Jaret Winokur (Original Broadway cast's Tracy) performs "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" - Harvey Fierstein (Original Broadway cast's Edna) as brief singing cameo in the end credits "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" - Corey Reynolds (Original Broadway cast's Seaweed) as singer of "Trouble on the Line". The song is heard shortly after "Big, Blonde and Beautiful" until Maybelle announces the cancellation of Negro Day. - Arthur Adams (One of the Broadway cast's Seaweed) performs "Boink-Boink" which is heard during "Big, Blonde and Beautiful". - Chester Gregory (One of the Broadway cast's Seaweed) performs "Breakout", which is heard during Tracy's introduction to Seaweed in detention. - Aimee Allen performs "Cooties" ## Musical numbers 1. "Good Morning Baltimore" – Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) 2. "The Nicest Kids in Town" – Corny and Council Members (James Marsden) 3. "It Takes Two" – Link (Zac Efron) 4. "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs" – Velma and Council Members (Michelle Pfeiffer) 5. "I Can Hear the Bells" – Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) 6. "Ladies' Choice" – Link (Zac Efron) 7. "The Nicest Kids in Town (Reprise)" – Corny, Council Members, Penny, Edna, Wilbur (James Marsden) 8. "The New Girl in Town" – Amber, Tammy, Shelley, and The Dynamites (Brittany Snow) 9. "Welcome to the 60's" – Tracy, Edna, The Dynamites, and Hefty Hideaway Employees (Nikki Blonsky & John Travolta) 10. "Run and Tell That" – Seaweed, Little Inez, and Detention Kids (Elijah Kelley ft. Taylor Parks) 11. "Big, Blonde and Beautiful" – Motormouth (Queen Latifah) 12. "Big, Blonde and Beautiful (Reprise)" – Velma and Edna (Michelle Pfeiffer & John Travolta) 13. "(You're) Timeless to Me" – Wilbur and Edna (Christopher Walken & John Travolta) 14. "I Know Where I've Been" – Motormouth (Queen Latifah) 15. "Without Love" – Link, Tracy, Seaweed, Penny, and Detention Kids (Zac Efron, Nikki Blonsky, Elijah Kelley, Amanda Bynes) 16. "(It's) Hairspray" – Corny and Council Members (James Marsden) 17. "You Can't Stop the Beat" – Company (Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley, John Travolta and Queen Latifah) 18. "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)" (end credits) – (Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Nikki Blonsky, and Elijah Kelley) 19. "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" (end credits) – Ricki Lake, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Nikki Blonsky with Harvey Fierstein 20. "Cooties" (end credits) – Aimee Allen Music producer/composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman were required to alter their Broadway Hairspray song score in various ways in order to work on film, from changing portions of the lyrics in some songs (e.g., "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs", "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful", and "You Can't Stop the Beat") to more or less completely removing other songs from the film altogether. "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", a popular number from the stage musical, features Tracy, Penny, and Amber arguing with their respective mothers. Neither Shankman nor Dixon could come up with a solution for filming "Mama" that did not require a three-way split screen — something they wanted to avoid — and both felt the number did not adequately advance the plot. As a result, "Mama" was reluctantly dropped from the film during pre-production, although it is used by Shaiman as an instrumental number when the Corny Collins kids dance the "Stricken Chicken". A special version of "Mama" was recorded for the film's end credits in May 2007, during the final score recording process, which featured vocals from each of the three women most famous for portraying Tracy Turnblad: Ricki Lake from the 1988 film, Marissa Jaret Winokur from the original Broadway cast, and Nikki Blonsky from the 2007 film. Harvey Fierstein, who portrayed Edna as part of the original Broadway cast, has a brief cameo moment in the end credits version of "Mama" as well. "It Takes Two", a solo for Link, was moved from its place in the stage musical (on Tracy's first day on The Corny Collins Show) to an earlier Corny Collins scene, although only the coda of the song is used in the final release print, and the song's background music can be heard immediately after the reprise of "The Nicest Kids in Town". "Cooties", a solo for Amber in the stage musical, is present in this film as an instrumental during the Miss Teenage Hairspray dance-off. As with "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", a version of "Cooties", performed in a contemporary pop rendition by Aimee Allen, is present during the end credits. The performance of a vintage dance called The Madison, present in both the 1988 film and the stage musical, was replaced for this version by a newly composed song, "Ladies' Choice". Portions of the Madison dance steps were integrated into the choreography for the musical number "You Can't Stop the Beat", and the song to which the dance is performed on Broadway can be heard during Motormouth Maybelle's platter party in the film, re-titled "Boink-Boink". "The Big Dollhouse", "Velma's Revenge" (a reprise of "Miss Baltimore Crabs"), and the reprise of "Good Morning Baltimore" were the only numbers from the musical not used in the film in any way. Shaiman and Wittman composed two new songs for the 2007 film: "Ladies' Choice", a solo for Link, and "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)", a song performed during the end credits by Queen Latifah, Blonsky, Efron, and Kelley. Another "new" song in the 2007 film, "The New Girl in Town", had originally been composed for the Broadway musical, but was deemed unnecessary and discarded from the musical. Director Shankman decided to use the song to both underscore a rise-to-fame montage for Tracy and to showcase Maybelle's "Negro Day", which is never actually seen in either of the earlier incarnations of Hairspray. One additional Shaiman/Wittman song, a ballad entitled "I Can Wait", was composed for the film as a solo for Tracy, meant to replace the stage musical's reprise of "Good Morning Baltimore". "I Can Wait" was shot for the film (Tracy performs the number while locked in Prudy's basement), but was eventually deleted from the final release print. The audio recording of "I Can Wait" was made available as a special bonus track for customers who pre-ordered the Hairspray soundtrack on iTunes, and the scene itself was included as a special feature on the film's DVD release. Post-production took place in Los Angeles. Composer/co-lyricist Shaiman continued work on the film's music, employing the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra to record instrumentation for both the songs and the incidental score. ## Production ### Early development Following the success of the Broadway musical of the same name, which won eight Tony Awards in 2003, New Line Cinema, who owned the rights to the 1988 John Waters film upon which the stage musical is based, became interested in adapting the stage show as a musical film. Development work began in late 2004, while a similarly film-to-Broadway-to-film project, Mel Brooks' The Producers, was in production. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the executive producers of the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the Broadway musical Chicago, were hired as the producers for Hairspray, and began discussing possibly casting John Travolta and Billy Crystal (or Jim Broadbent) as Edna and Wilbur Turnblad, respectively. Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell, authors of the book for the stage musical, wrote the first draft of the film's screenplay, but were replaced by Leslie Dixon, screenwriter for family comedies such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Freaky Friday. After a year's deliberation on who should direct the film, Zadan and Meron finally decided to hire Adam Shankman to both direct and choreograph Hairspray. Upon learning he had been hired, Shankman arranged a meeting with John Waters, who advised him "don't do what I did, don't do what the play did. You've gotta do your own thing." Despite this, Shankman still noted "all roads of Hairspray lead back to John Waters." Tory Gardner and his company Alterian, Inc. were hired to design and create the look of Edna Turnblad on John Travolta. Costume designer Rita Ryack wanted to put Edna into several revealing outfits, so Travolta ended up being encapsulated in prosthetics. He wore silicone prosthetics on his head and neck, and foam latex arms and legs that connected to a spandex and foam body suit. ### Adaptation changes Dixon was primarily hired to tone down much of the campiness inherent in the stage musical. The 2007 film's script is based primarily on the stage musical rather than the 1988 film, so several changes already made to the plot for the stage version remain in this version. These include dropping several characters from the 1988 version (such as Arvin Hodgepile (the role Mr. Spritzer fills), Velma's husband Franklin, Corny's assistant Tammy, the beatniks, et al.), removing the Tilted Acres amusement park from the story, and placing Velma in charge of the station where The Corny Collins Show is filmed. One notable difference between the stage musical, the original film, and the 2007 film version of Hairspray is that Tracy does not go to jail in the 2007 version (thus eliminating the musical's song "The Big Dollhouse"). In both previous incarnations of Hairspray, Tracy is arrested and taken to jail along with the other protesters. Edna is presented in this version as an insecure introvert, in contrast to the relatively bolder incarnations present in the 1988 film and the stage musical. Among many other elements changed or added to this version are the removal of Motormouth Maybelle's habit of speaking in rhyming jive talk and doubling the number of teens in Corny Collins' Council (from ten on Broadway to twenty in the 2007 film). Dixon restructured portions of Hairspray's book to allow several of the songs to blend more naturally into the plot, in particular "(You're) Timeless to Me" and "I Know Where I've Been". "(You're) Timeless to Me" becomes the anchor of a newly invented subplot involving Velma's attempt to break up Edna and Wilbur's marriage and keep Tracy off The Corny Collins Show as a result. The song now serves as Wilbur's apology to Edna, in addition to its original purpose in the stage musical as a tongue-in-cheek declaration of Wilbur and Edna's love for each other. Meanwhile, "I Know Where I've Been", instead of being sung by Maybelle to the kids after being let out of jail, now underscores Maybelle's march on WYZT (which takes place in the stage musical at the end of "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful"). The song "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful" was inspired by a line that Tracy delivered in the original film ("Now all of Baltimore will know: I'm big, blonde and beautiful!"), but in the stage version and in this film, Motormouth Maybelle performs the song. A reprise of the song was added to the 2007 film, which is sung by Edna and Velma. ### Pre-production and casting Hairspray was produced on a budget of \$75 million. Casting director, David Rubin, introduced an open casting call to cast unknowns in Atlanta, New York City, and Chicago. After auditioning over eleven hundred candidates, Nikki Blonsky a high school student from Great Neck, New York was chosen for the lead role of Tracy. Nikki Blonsky auditioned for the role of Tracy Turnblad in New York City in 2006 at eighteen years old. She had no previous professional experience in acting or in singing. Blonsky had auditioned for the role because it became her dream to play the role of Tracy after seeing the musical on Broadway. Blonsky, working at Cold Stone Creamery at the time, received the news from film director, Adam Shankman, that she had received the part. Relative unknowns Elijah Kelley and Taylor Parks were chosen through similar audition contests to portray siblings Seaweed and Little Inez Stubbs, respectively. John Travolta was finally cast as Edna, with Christopher Walken ultimately assuming the role of Wilbur. Several other stars, including Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Allison Janney were chosen for the other supporting adult roles of Motormouth Maybelle, Corny Collins, Velma Von Tussle, and Prudy Pingleton, respectively. Teen stars Amanda Bynes, and Zac Efron were cast as Tracy's friends Penny and Link, and Brittany Snow was cast as her rival, Amber Von Tussle. Jerry Stiller, who played Wilbur Turnblad in the original film, appears as plus-sized women's clothes retailer Mr. Pinky in this version. Since Hairspray's plot focuses heavily on dance, choreography became a heavy focus for Shankman, who hired four assistant choreographers, Jamal Sims, Anne Fletcher, and Zach Woodlee, and put both his acting cast and over a hundred and fifty dancers through two months of rehearsals. The cast recorded the vocal tracks for their songs as coached by Elaine Overholt in the weeks just before principal photography began in September. ### Principal photography Principal photography took place in Toronto, and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from September 5 – December 8, 2006. Hairspray is explicitly set in Baltimore, Maryland and the original 1988 film had been shot on location there, but the 2007 film was shot primarily in Toronto because the city was better equipped with the sound stages necessary to film a musical. The opening shots of the descent from the clouds and the newspaper being dropped onto the stoop are the only times that the actual city of Baltimore is shown in the film. Most of the film was shot at Toronto's Showline Studios. Most of the street scenes were shot at the intersection of Dundas Street West and Roncesvalles Avenue. A PCC streetcar with Toronto Transit Commission livery is seen in the opening sequence. Some of the signs for the 1960s-era stores remain up along the street. Toronto's Lord Lansdowne Public School was used for all of the high school exteriors and some of the interiors, while the old Queen Victoria School in Hamilton was also used for interiors. Scenes at Queen Victoria were shot from November 22 to December 2, and the school was scheduled to be demolished after film production was completed. As of the 2017–2018 school year, there are no plans to close this school. Thinner than most of the other men who have portrayed Edna, Travolta appeared onscreen in a large fat suit, and required four hours of makeup in order to appear before the cameras. His character's nimble dancing style belies her girth; Shankman based Edna's dancing style on the hippo ballerinas in the Dance of the Hours sequence in Walt Disney's 1940 animated feature, Fantasia. Although early versions of the suit created "a dumpy, Alfred Hitchcock version of Edna," Travolta fought for the ability to give his character curves and a thick Baltimore accent. Designed by Tony Gardner, the fat suit was created using lightweight synthetic materials, consisting of layered pads and silicone, which was used from the chest upwards. The suit provided the additional benefit of covering Travolta's beard, eliminating the problem of his facial hair growing through his makeup midday. ### Shankman's inspirations Shankman included a number of references to films that influenced his work on Hairspray: - The film's opening shot — a bird's eye view of Baltimore that eventually descends from the clouds to ground level — is a combination of the opening shots of West Side Story and The Sound of Music. - Before we see a full shot of Tracy, we see individual shots of her upraised right and left arms. This is reminiscent of our first views of Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) in the 1932 film Rain. - Several scenes involving Tracy, such as her ride atop the garbage truck during the "Good Morning Baltimore" number and her new hairstyle during "Welcome to the '60s", are directly inspired by the Barbra Streisand musical film version of Funny Girl. - During "Without Love", Link sings to a photograph of Tracy, which comes to life and sings harmony with him. This is directly inspired from the MGM musical The Broadway Melody of 1938, in which a young Judy Garland swoons over a photo of actor Clark Gable as she sings "You Made Me Love You". - The dress that Penny wears during "You Can't Stop the Beat" is made from her bedroom curtains, which can be seen during "Without Love". This is homage to The Sound of Music, where Maria uses old curtains to make play clothes for the von Trapp children. ## Reception ### Box office Hairspray debuted in 3,121 theaters in North America on July 20, 2007, the widest debut of any modern movie musical. The film earned \$27.5 million in its opening weekend at \#3, behind I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This made Hairspray the record-holder for the biggest opening weekend for a movie based on a Broadway musical. This record was later broken by the release of Mamma Mia!, which grossed \$27.8 million on its opening weekend. Hairspray is currently the twelfth highest grossing musical in U.S. cinema history, surpassing The Rocky Horror Picture Show (\$145 million) and Dreamgirls (\$103 million), released seven months prior. Ending its domestic run on October 25, 2007, Hairspray has a total domestic gross of \$118.9 million and \$202.5 million worldwide. Its biggest overseas markets include the United Kingdom (\$25.8 million), Australia (\$14.4 million), Japan (\$8 million), Italy (\$4.6 million), France (\$3.9 million) and Spain (\$3.8 million). At the time, this made Hairspray the third musical film in history to cross \$200 million internationally, behind 1978's hit Grease (\$395 million) and 2002's Chicago (\$307 million). It is the seventh highest-grossing PG-rated film of 2007, and has grossed more than other higher-budgeted summer releases like Ocean's Thirteen (\$117 million) and Evan Almighty (\$100 million). Two weeks after its original release, new "sing-along" prints of Hairspray were shipped to theaters. These prints featured the lyrics to each song printed onscreen as subtitles, encouraging audiences to interact with the film. On January 4, 2008, Hairspray was re-released in New York City and Los Angeles for one week because John Travolta was present for Q&A and autographs. ### Critical reception Hairspray has garnered acclaim from film critics such as Roger Ebert, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe, as well as a smaller number of reviews comparing it unfavorably to the Waters original. The film is one of the top picks on Metacritic, with an average of 81 from 37 critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 219 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80, making it one of 2007's best-reviewed films. The site's consensus states: "Hairspray is an energetic, wholly entertaining musical romp; a fun Summer movie with plenty of heart. Its contagious songs will make you want to get up and start dancing". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor named it the 4th best film of 2007. Lou Lumenick of the New York Post named it the ninth best film of 2007. Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying that there was "a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960s goofiness," also stating that "The point, however, is not the plot but the energy. Without somebody like Nikki Blonsky at the heart of the movie, it might fall flat, but everybody works at her level of happiness..." Ebert also noted that this film is "a little more innocent than Waters would have made it..." Krishna Shenoi, of the Shenoi Chronicle, called the movie "Shankman's masterpiece," saying that it moved away from his previous works into a different direction, making a light comedy that deals with serious issues maturely. Shenoi also said that the film was everything he wanted Grease to be. Lou Lumenick of The New York Post hailed Hairspray as "The best and most entertaining movie adaptation of a stage musical so far this century — and yes, I'm including the Oscar-winning Chicago," calling it "one of the best-cast movies in recent memory..." New York Daily News critic Jack Matthews called the film "A great big sloppy kiss of entertainment for audiences weary of explosions, CGI effects and sequels, sequels, sequels." The Baltimore Sun review offered Michael Sragow's opinion that "in its entirety, Hairspray has the funny tilt that only a director-choreographer like Shankman can give to a movie," pointing out that Shankman skillfully "puts a new-millennial zing behind exact re-creations of delirious period dances like the Mashed Potato." Dana Stevens from Slate called Hairspray "intermittently tasty, if a little too frantically eager to please." Stevens noted that "Despite its wholesomeness, this version stays remarkably true to the spirit of the original, with one size-60 exception: John Travolta as Edna Turnblad," saying "How you feel about Hairspray will depend entirely on your reaction to this performance..." The New Yorker's David Denby felt the new version of Hairspray was "perfectly pleasant," but compared unfavorably to the Broadway musical, since "[director Adam Shankman and screenwriter Leslie Dixon] have removed the traces of camp humor and Broadway blue that gave the stage show its happily knowing flavor." Denby criticized the dance numbers, calling them "unimaginatively shot," and he considered "the idea of substituting John Travolta for Harvey Fierstein as Tracy's hefty mother... a blandly earnest betrayal." Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com found Hairspray "reasonably entertaining. But do we really need to be entertained reasonably? Waters' original was a crazy sprawl that made perfect sense; this Hairspray toils needlessly to make sense of that craziness, and something gets lost in the translation." Zacharek was also displeased with the way Latifah's performance of "I Know Where I've Been" was incorporated into the movie, saying "The filmmakers may believe they're adding an extra layer of seriousness to the material... [but] the inclusion of this big production number only suggests that the filmmakers fear the audience won't get the movie's message unless it's spelled out for them." Despite critical and commercial success, Hairspray garnered some criticism upon its release from the LGBT community, particularly Travolta's portrayal of Edna Turnblad, a role played in the original film by drag performer Divine, and in the stage adaptation by Harvey Fierstein. Kevin Naff, a managing editor for a Washington, D.C./Baltimore area gay newspaper named the Washington Blade, called for a boycott of the film, alleging that Scientology, in which Travolta is an adherent, was homophobic, and it supported "cure" workshops for homosexuals. Adam Shankman rebuffed Naff's proposed boycott stating that Travolta was not a homophobe, as he (Shankman), Waters, Shaiman, Wittman, and several other crew and creative staff were homosexual, and Travolta got along well with the entire production. Shankman made it clear "John's personal beliefs did not walk onto my set. I never heard the word 'Scientology'." ### Accolades ### Home media Hairspray was released in standard DVD and HD Blu-ray Disc formats in Region 1 on November 20, 2007. The Blu-ray disc is encoded with 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio. The standard DVD was released in two versions: a one-disc release and a two-disc "Shake and Shimmy" edition. Bonus features on the two-disc release include two audio commentaries, a feature-length production documentary, featurettes on the earlier versions of Hairspray, dance instruction featurettes, deleted scenes including Tracy's deleted song "I Can Wait", a slightly extended ending, and an alternate version of the "Big, Blonde and Beautiful" reprise, and behind-the-scenes looks at the production of each of the film's dance numbers. The Blu-ray release, a two-disc release, includes all of the features from the two-disc DVD, and includes a picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes feature, which runs concurrently with the film. An HD DVD version of the film was originally slated for release in 2008, but was canceled due to New Line Cinema's announcement that it would go Blu-ray exclusive with immediate effect, thus dropping HD DVD support. ## Cancelled sequel Due to Hairspray's financial success, New Line Cinema had asked John Waters to write a sequel to the film. Waters reunited with director/choreographer Adam Shankman for the project, and songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were set to compose the film's musical numbers. The story would have looked at Tracy's entering the late 1960s era of music and the British Invasion, and used the Hippie movement and Vietnam War as backdrops. While no official casting was announced, New Line said that they hoped to "snag much of the original Hairspray cast." John Travolta, however, publicly announced that he would not return because he is "not a big sequel guy". The sequel was set for a mid-July 2010 release by Warner Bros., which owns New Line Cinema. However, in June 2010, Shankman told British press that Hairspray 2: White Lipstick was no longer in development. Shankman has also said that there will be no sequel. In February 2019, John Waters announced he had written a sequel for HBO, but did not produce it. ## See also - Cross-dressing in film and television - Hairspray (musical) - Hairspray (1988 film) - Civil rights movement in popular culture - Civil Rights Movement

Mat Latos

American baseball player (born 1987)

Mathew Adam Latos (/ˈleɪtoʊs/ LAY-tohs; born December 9, 1987) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres from 2009 through 2011, the Cincinnati Reds from 2012 through 2014, and the Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2015, the Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals in 2016, and the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Latos' family moved to Florida when he was young. He played baseball at Coconut Creek High School, where he became one of the best high school players in the state. Highly regarded for his talent before the 2006 MLB draft, he fell to the 11th round due to questions about his maturity. After pitching at Broward College for a season, he was signed by the San Diego Padres for a \$1.25 million bonus. He debuted for the Padres in 2009, and established himself in their starting rotation. The Reds traded four players, including three prospects, to acquire Latos before the 2012 season. Latos suffered a knee injury in 2014, which reduced his effectiveness. The Marlins traded for Latos before the 2015 season and then traded him to the Dodgers in July 2015. He signed with the White Sox for 2016, but was released during the season, and finished the year with the Nationals. He briefly appeared with the Blue Jays in 2017. ## Early life Latos is the only child born to Lisa and Rich Latos. He is originally from Alexandria, Virginia. When Latos was 12 years old, his grandfather insisted that he play in a baseball tournament rather than stay at his bedside the day he died. ## High school career Latos attended Coconut Creek High School in Coconut Creek, Florida, despite being recruited to attend high schools with more prestigious baseball programs. He was named the ace starting pitcher of the Coconut Creek baseball team's as a freshman. That year, he pitched to a 3–4 win–loss record and a 3.68 earned run average (ERA), with 41 strikeouts and 26 walks in 39+2⁄3 innings pitched. His fastball reached 88–89 miles per hour (142–143 km/h). He improved his fastball command and velocity as a sophomore, reaching 93 miles per hour (150 km/h) and his statistics improved to a 5–2 record, a 1.23 ERA, 89 strikeouts, and 21 walks in 68 innings. Heading into his junior year, Latos improved his training regimen and diet. He pitched to a 7–4 record with a 0.76 ERA as a junior with 128 strikeouts and 17 walks in 83 innings. Eleven of his thirteen starts were complete games. Coconut Creek reached the regional quarterfinals, and Latos was named an Aflac All-American and All-Broward County by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald. By his senior year, Latos could throw his fastball as high as 98 miles per hour (158 km/h). He was an honorable mention by the Florida Sports Writers Association for the All-State team. As a senior, Latos had a 7–3 record with 110 strikeouts and a 0.64 ERA in 69+2⁄3 innings pitched. He appeared in the Broward County Athletics Association All-Star Game, and was named South Florida Sun-Sentinel's player of the year. ## College career Latos committed to attend the University of Oklahoma to play college baseball for the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team. However, many scouts expected Latos to be a first-round pick in the 2006 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft. SchoolSports.com ranked Latos the fifth-best high school pitcher available in the 2006 Major League Baseball draft. The San Diego Padres selected Latos in the 11th round (333rd overall). He fell in the draft since his personality made him difficult to handle in high school, as he was considered immature, often yelled at teammates who made errors and reacted poorly when the umpire made a call with which he disagreed. After the draft, Latos demanded a \$3 million signing bonus from the Padres. When the Padres did not meet his demands, Latos enrolled at Broward College, a junior college, to pitch for their baseball team. As the Padres retained the right to sign Latos until the start of the 2007 MLB draft, they sent scout Joe Bochy to observe every start Latos made. Latos had a 10–3 win–loss record and a 2.03 ERA. Feeling that Latos was worth the gamble, the Padres paid Latos \$1.25 million a few days before he would have re-entered the draft in 2007. ## Professional career ### Minor leagues Latos started his professional career in 2007, minor league baseball with the Eugene Emeralds, the Padres' Class A-Short Season affiliate in the Northwest League. Pitching in 16 games for Eugene, Latos had a 1–4 record and a 3.83 ERA. In 2008, Latos started the season with the Fort Wayne Wizards of the Class A Midwest League, but missed playing time during the season due to abdominal and shoulder injuries. The Padres invited Latos to spring training in 2009, but he suffered a minor ankle sprain that limited his appearances. Latos started the 2009 season in Fort Wayne and allowed only one run in four starts. He was then promoted to the San Antonio Missions of the Class AA Texas League. At San Antonio, Latos had a 5–1 win–loss record and threw five perfect innings in his last start for San Antonio on July 9. Between Fort Wayne and San Antonio, Latos had an 8–1 record, a 1.38 ERA, 73 strikeouts, and a .168 batting average against (BAA). The Padres named Latos their Padres Minor League Pitcher of the Month for May. Latos was selected to play in the 2009 All-Star Futures Game, and threw one scoreless inning. ### San Diego Padres The Padres promoted Latos to make his major league debut on July 19, 2009, against the Colorado Rockies. In his major league debut, Latos pitched four innings, allowing three hits and two runs while striking out four, while throwing 75 pitches. He recorded his first major league win on July 24. Latos became the first pitcher in Padres history to win four of his first five career starts. Latos made ten starts for the Padres in 2009, pitching to a 4–5 record and a 4.68 ERA. On May 13, 2010, Latos threw a complete game shutout against the division foe San Francisco Giants. The only hit he allowed was an infield single. The Padres won the game 1–0. After posting a 5.47 ERA through May 1, Latos lowered his ERA down to 2.45 right before the All Star Break, also leading the league in BAA and WHIP (.193 and 0.97 respectively). On September 7, 2010, Latos set a major league record with a seven–inning, 10–strikeout performance in a win against the Dodgers. The victory was Latos' 15th consecutive start logging at least five innings and allowing two or fewer earned runs, which was at the time the longest streak in modern baseball history (since 1900) according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The record would be broken by Félix Hernández, who recorded 17 such straight outings during the 2014 season. Previously the mark had been set by Greg Maddux (1993–94) and Mike Scott (1986), who had such streaks lasting 14 starts. On the season, Latos pitched to a 14–10 win–loss record in 31 games started, with a 2.92 (ERA), 1.08 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP), and 189 strikeouts in 184+2⁄3 innings pitched. He placed eighth in voting for the National League Cy Young Award. However, Latos lost his last five starts of the 2010 season, culminating with a 3–0 loss to the San Francisco Giants on October 3 that, combined with an Atlanta Braves win, eliminated the Padres from playoff contention. The San Diego Union-Tribune attributed his struggles at the end of the year to fatigue, as his 189+2⁄3 innings for the season were 66+2⁄3 more than he pitched in 2009. Latos started 2011 on the disabled list due to a spring training shoulder injury. He lost his first four starts of the season, extending his losing streak to nine consecutive starts dating back to 2010. The streak tied the longest streak in Padres history, held by Andy Benes and Dennis Rasmussen. Latos had a no-decision in his next start after the bullpen blew a save opportunity, preventing him from earning a win. He lost another decision for a 10-game losing streak that was one less than the club record held by Gary Ross. Latos won on May 15 against the Colorado Rockies to end his losing streak. He ended the 2011 season with a 9–14 record and a 3.47 ERA. ### Cincinnati Reds After the 2011 season, the Cincinnati Reds were looking for another frontline starter to pair with Johnny Cueto in their starting rotation. On December 17, 2011, the Padres traded Latos to the Reds in exchange for prospects Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, and Brad Boxberger, along with veteran starting pitcher Edinson Vólquez. In the last week of June 2012, Latos pitched two complete games. He was named the National League Player of the Week for the week ending July 1. Latos finished the 2012 season with a 14–4 win–loss record a 3.48 ERA. The Reds reached the playoffs, and faced the San Francisco Giants in the 2012 National League Division Series (NLDS). On October 11, 2012, Latos gave up a grand slam to Buster Posey in a 6-run top of the fifth inning in the elimination game of the NLDS. Latos took the loss in this game, as the Reds were eliminated. The Reds signed Latos to a two-year contract worth \$11.5 million for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Latos had a 21-game streak without a loss, extending from August 2012 to June 2013. He finished the 2013 season with a 14–7 win–loss record and a 3.16 ERA in 210+2⁄3 innings pitched. Though he suffered an abdominal strain on June 30, he continued to pitch without missing any starts. He revealed the injury after a poor outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates in September. The Reds reached the 2013 National League Wild Card Game, opposing Pittsburgh. Reds' manager Dusty Baker wanted to start Latos for that game, but a bone spur in his elbow prevented him from being available. Baker chose Cueto as his starter. The Reds lost the game, ending their season. Latos had surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow during the offseason. During spring training in 2014, Latos tore cartilage in his left knee, which was repaired with surgery. His knee had not fully recovered in time for Opening Day of the 2014 season, which he started on the disabled list. He began a rehabilitation assignment with the Louisville Bats of the Class AAA International League on May 26, and made his 2014 season debut with the Reds on June 14. Latos said that he came back at "80–90 percent" effectiveness due to his desire to help his team, but experienced setbacks with his knee during the season. He averaged 90.7 miles per hour (146.0 km/h) on his fastball, down from 92.5 miles per hour (148.9 km/h) during the 2013 season. His last start came on September 7, as he suffered a bone bruise on the elbow of his pitching arm. His 2014 season ended with a 5–5 record and a 3.25 ERA in 16 starts. ### Miami Marlins With the goal of reducing their payroll, and with Latos eligible for free agency after the 2015 season, the Reds traded Latos to the Miami Marlins in exchange for Anthony DeSclafani and Chad Wallach during the 2014 Winter Meetings. Latos sought a \$10.4 million salary for the 2015 season in salary arbitration, but the arbiters sided with the Marlins, who proposed a salary of \$9.4 million. Latos had 90 cubic centimetres (5.5 cu in) of fluid drained from his left knee during spring training. He allowed seven runs in 2⁄3 of an inning in his first start for Miami, and struggled through knee pain through May. He went on the disabled list after his May 21 start to rest his knee, and returned in mid-June. Latos missed a start in July after a foul ball struck him in his foot while he was sitting in the dugout. ### Los Angeles Dodgers and Angels On July 30, 2015, in a three-team trade, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Latos, Michael Morse, Bronson Arroyo, Alex Wood, Jim Johnson, Luis Avilán, and José Peraza, while the Marlins acquired minor league pitchers Victor Araujo, Jake Brigham, and Kevin Guzman, while the Atlanta Braves received Héctor Olivera, Paco Rodriguez, minor league pitcher Zachary Bird, and a competitive balance draft pick for the 2016 MLB draft. He pitched to a 6.66 ERA in 24+1⁄3 innings. He lost his starting job due to his poor performance and was designated for assignment on September 17. The Dodgers released Latos on September 25. On September 28, 2015, Latos signed a contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim that would allow him to pitch the last week of the season for them. Latos was not eligible to pitch for the Angels in the postseason. He made his first appearance for the Angels as a relief pitcher on September 29. Latos had a 4.91 ERA in 3+2⁄3 innings pitched for the Angels. ### Chicago White Sox Latos signed a one-year contract worth \$3 million with the Chicago White Sox prior to the 2016 season. Latos pitched to a 0.74 ERA in his first four starts for the White Sox, but then struggled, allowing 29 earned runs in his next 36 innings pitched (7.25 ERA) after April 30. After acquiring James Shields, the White Sox designated Latos for assignment on June 9. ### Washington Nationals Latos signed a minor league contract with the Washington Nationals on June 29. After making three appearances for the Gulf Coast Nationals of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League, the Nationals assigned Latos to the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. He made his Nationals debut on September 4, 2016, against the Mets. He pitched 9+2⁄3 innings for the Nationals, recording a 6.52 ERA. ### Toronto Blue Jays On February 16, 2017, Latos signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. After not winning a spot on the Blue Jays' roster in spring training, Latos accepted an assignment to the Buffalo Bisons of the International League. He made two starts for the Bisons, pitching to a 1.00 ERA in nine innings, and the Blue Jays promoted Latos to the major leagues on April 21 after injuries to the team's starting rotation. Latos started three games for the Blue Jays, pitching to a 6.60 ERA and 1.80 WHIP. The Blue Jays designated Latos for assignment on May 5, and outrighted him back to Buffalo on May 8. He was released by the team on May 30. ### New Jersey Jackals On April 10, 2018, Latos signed with the New Jersey Jackals of the independent Can-Am League. During a game on June 9, Latos threw at a batter after another player collided with his catcher. The batter charged the mound, and a brawl ensued, leading to Latos's ejection. Latos finished the 2018 season with a record of 5-4 and ERA of 3.18 in 29 games pitched (10 games started), accumulating 4 saves. In 76+1⁄3 innings pitched, Latos allowed only 66 hits, 31 walks, and struck out 87. On September 3, Latos was the starting first baseman in the Jackals 6-5 win over the Québec Capitales, his first professional game at any position other than pitcher. Latos went 3-for-4 at the plate with two doubles and a run scored. On defense, Latos had eight putouts and was part of a 4-6-3 double play. Following the conclusion of the season, Latos was released by the Jackals on October 3, 2018. ### Southern Maryland Blue Crabs On March 28, 2019, Latos signed with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He became a free agent following the season. ### New Jersey Jackals (second stint) On January 29, 2020, Latos signed with the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League. On December 14, 2020, Latos had his contract exercised for the 2021 season. ### Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (second stint) On March 26, 2021, Latos was traded to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in exchange for a player to be named later. He became a free agent following the season. On March 8, 2022, Latos re-signed with the Blue Crabs for the 2022 season. He became a free agent following the season. ## Pitching style Latos throws five pitches. He throws a four-seam fastball (91–96 miles per hour (146–154 km/h)), a two-seam fastball (90–94 miles per hour (145–151 km/h)), a slider (84–87 miles per hour (135–140 km/h)), a curveball (78–82 miles per hour (126–132 km/h)), and a changeup (82–85 miles per hour (132–137 km/h)). He mostly relies on his four-seamer and slider against right-handed hitters while adding considerable variety against lefties. The 42% whiff rate on his slider is one of the best among major league starters. Latos is 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall and uses an over-the-top delivery. Latos has one of the highest delivery points in baseball. Latos has compiled good strikeout totals in his career as a starter, finishing in the NL's top 10 in strikeouts per 9 innings pitched rate twice. ## Personal life Mat was married in 2010 and divorced in 2017. As a result of the marriage, Mat Latos is father to a son that was born in August 2014. On September 29, 2018, Latos received a restraining order that required him to stay at least 500 feet away from his ex-girlfriend at all times. The restraining order was sought on the claims of physical and emotional abuse, as well as alleged threats. Latos honors his grandfather by writing his initials on the pitching mound and with a tattoo of his grandfather's initials. He enjoys drawing, especially airbrushing, and stated a desire to work on tattoos. Latos has many tattoos, and was described by Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune as "the righthanded tattoo canvas."

Playa de Oro virus

Species of virus

Playa de Oro virus (OROV) is a probable species of orthohantavirus found in the rodents Oryzomys couesi and Sigmodon mascotensis in the Mexican state of Colima. The former is thought to be the main host. The sequences of parts of the virus's RNA-based genome have been determined; they differ by 7–10% in amino acid composition and 22–24% in nucleotide composition from closely related viruses. Playa de Oro virus was identified as a new species in 2008 and is most closely related to Bayou virus, Catacamas virus, Muleshoe virus, and Black Creek Canal virus, found in other species of Oryzomys and Sigmodon. Catacamas virus is found in a different population of Oryzomys couesi, and the presence of different viruses in these two species has been used as an argument for classifying the two populations of the host as separate species. ## History and occurrence Playa de Oro virus was first identified in rodents collected in 2004 as part of a survey of wild mammals at Playa de Oro in Manzanillo, Colima, western Mexico. The discovery was published in 2008 by Yong-Kyu Chu and colleagues. Among 600 small mammals, antibodies against the hantavirus Sin Nombre virus were found in 23 individuals (out of 358 studied) of Oryzomys couesi, a rice rat that was the most common species found, six (out of 87) of the cotton rat Sigmodon mascotensis, and one (out of 77) of the pygmy mouse Baiomys musculus. In addition, twelve O. couesi and one S. mascotensis yielded hantavirus RNA. Viruses were found in males more often than in females. Because the amino acid sequences in sequenced parts of the virus's genome differed by as much as 7 to 10% from closely related hantaviruses, Chu and colleagues identified the virus found at Playa de Oro as a new species, called Playa de Oro virus or OROV. Although the authors could not prove that the virus fulfilled all the criteria for identifying a new virus species, they argued that it was likely that it did fulfill those criteria. It is currently treated as a probable species in the genus Hantavirus. ## Virology Hantaviruses have a genome that consists of three segments of single-stranded, negative-sense RNA (see RNA virus: Replication), called the large (L), medium (M), and small (S) segments. The entire S segment and a fragment of the M segment have been sequenced. The S segment consists of 1953 bases, of which 1287 (starting at position 43) code for the nucleocapsid protein. In addition, a second 192-base open reading frame occurs in the middle of this sequence (starting at position 122), as in several other hantaviruses. Among three specimens of O. couesi, the sequence in this segment differed by only 1%, and all changes were silent mutations. The amino acids of the S segment differ by 7 to 10% from those of the related hantaviruses Bayou virus (BAYV; from the marsh rice rat, Oryzomys palustris), Catacamas virus (CATV; from a Honduras population of Oryzomys couesi), and Black Creek Canal virus (BCCV; from the hispid cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus). The nucleotide sequence differs by 24% from those viruses. Among 1537-base fragments of the sequence of the M segment, several variable sites were observed, including some non-silent mutations. The sequence differs by 8 to 10% from BAYV, CATV, and BCCV in terms of amino acids and by 22% in terms of nucleotides. ### Epidemiology and effects Because OROV occurs frequently in Oryzomys couesi, Chu and colleagues suggested that it is the primary host of the virus and that infections in Sigmodon mascotensis are the result of spillover between these two rodent species, which occur closely together. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, the disease caused by hantaviruses such as Sin Nombre virus, has never been reported in Mexico, but antibodies against hantaviruses have been found in human blood samples in Yucatán and various wild rodents are known to be reservoirs of hantavirus species. Thus, there is a potential risk of OROV infection in humans. Before the discovery of OROV, one hantavirus species had been identified in Mexico—El Moro Canyon virus from the small rodent Reithrodontomys megalotis. ### Relationships According to phylogenetic analyses based on the sequences of both the S and M segments, OROV is most closely related to the clade formed by BAYV, CATV, BCCV, and Muleshoe virus (MUL; from the hispid cotton rat). In 2009, Piet Maes and colleagues proposed that the closely related BAYV, BCCV, and MUL be united into a single species. Chu and colleagues were surprised to find that the same species, Oryzomys couesi, harbored different viruses (OROV and CATV), though noted that the subspecies infected by the two viruses were different. In 2010, Delton Hanson and colleagues suggested on the basis of various lines of evidence, including the presence of different hantaviruses, that western Mexican populations of Oryzomys couesi represent a different species, Oryzomys mexicanus.

Jess Fishlock

Five-time Welsh Footballer of the Year, three-time NWSL Best XI Midfielder (born 1987)

Jessica Anne Fishlock MBE (born 14 January 1987) is a Welsh professional footballer and coach who plays as a midfielder for OL Reign and the Wales national team. She previously played for Bristol Academy in England's FA Women's Super League (FA WSL), AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch Eredivisie, Glasgow City in the Scottish Women's Premier League, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City in Australia's W-League, as well as Bundesliga club FFC Frankfurt in Germany. In February 2017, Fishlock coached Melbourne City to its second consecutive W-League Grand Final title. She previously coached Cardiff City Ladies F.C. On 5 April 2017, Fishlock became the first Welsh player to earn 100 caps for the national team. She was named Welsh Footballer of the Year in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2019. She has won multiple championships and regular season titles with the teams she has played for including the two consecutive Eredivisie championships, two W-League regular season titles, two W-League Grand Final championships, Scottish Women's Premier League and Scottish Women's Cup titles, and two consecutive NWSL Shield wins. Although Fishlock returned to Seattle prior to the 2015 UEFA Women's Champions League Final after playing on loan for FFC Frankfurt, her contributions to the team's journey to the title subsequently earned her a UEFA Women's Champions League medal. ## Early life Fishlock was born in Cardiff, Wales to Kevyn and Sharon Fishlock. She has two brothers and three sisters. As a child, she began playing football with her sister before joining Cardiff City Ladies F.C. at age 7. She later played for Newport Strikers. ## Club career ### Cardiff City LFC, 2002–2005 Fishlock started her career playing for Cardiff City Ladies F.C. and made her debut for the senior side at age 16. Fishlock made her debut against Reading Royals on 29 September 2002 and scored 19 times in 23 appearances in her first season at the club. Laura McAllister, who was captain of Cardiff City when Fishlock joined the squad said, "Jess joined the junior team but she was so good we fast-tracked her. Jess is just a fabulous player. She is technically superb with fabulous skills and among the 2 or 3% in Britain. She's ambitious and adventurous and to be a top, top sports-player you've got to be like that." At age 16, she was a member of the senior side that won the 2004–05 SW Combination League Championship without losing a point. The team later beat Everton en route to the last eight of the FA Cup and won the Welsh Cup to move on to the UEFA Women's Cup. As of February 2013, Fishlock remained the club's record goalscorer. ### AZ Alkmaar, 2008–2010 In 2008, the Dutch Champions AZ Alkmaar approached Jess to join them and become the first overseas player in the Eredivisie. Jess won back to back league titles during the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons, and were on track to defend a third title during the 2010/2011 season when she left to come back to the UK. ### Bristol Academy WFC, 2011–2012 In 2011, Fishlock joined Bristol in England's FA Women's Super League (FA WSL). During the 2011 season, Bristol achieved a higher-than-expected final league position, and also reached the FA Cup Final where they were defeated by Arsenal 2–0. Fishlock was awarded the 2011 Club Player of the Year, 2011 Fans Player of the Year, and was named to the league's All-Star Team. She was named Welsh Women's Footballer of the Year the same year. During the 2012 season, Bristol achieved their highest final league position, reached the semi-final of the FA Cup and Continental Cup. Jess was awarded the 2012 Club Players Player of Year, 2012 Fans Player of the Year and 2012 FA WSL Players Player of Year, voted on by managers and players of the FA WSL. ### Melbourne Victory, 2012–2014 In November 2012, Fishlock joined W-League side Melbourne Victory for six weeks on a guest player contract helping the team reach their first ever grand final. During the 94th minute of a match against former champions, Canberra United, she scored the game-winning goal boosting Melbourne to the top of the league table. During her six games with Melbourne, she became a favourite with the fans and was also nominated as one of four players for the league-wide Player of the Year Award. In September 2013, it was announced that Fishlock would return to the Victory for the 2013/14 season on loan from the Seattle Reign FC. During her 11 appearances for the team, she scored three goals and helped lead the team to the Grand Final where the Victory defeated Brisbane Roar 2–0. Fishlock served an assist to Lisa De Vanna in the 38th minute for the game-winning goal. She was named Most Valuable Player of the Match. The win marked the Victory's first Grand Final title in the history of the team. ### Reign FC, 2013–present In February 2013, Fishlock joined NWSL side, Reign FC for the league's inaugural season. During their second league match against the Portland Thorns FC, Fishlock scored her first goal in front of a record-setting 16,479 fans at Jeld-Wen Field, establishing herself as a powerful force for the Reign. The media named her NWSL Player of the Week for Week 2 of the 2013 season. Fishlock started in all 21 games that she played during the regular season, missing only one game due to Wales national team commitments. She was a leading scorer on the team with four goals and tallied a total of 1,879 minutes. Fishlock returned to the Reign for the 2014 season. The team set a league record unbeaten streak of 16 games during the first part of the season. During the 16 game stretch, the Reign compiled a record. The Reign finished first in the regular season clinching the NWSL Shield for the first time. After defeating the Washington Spirit 2–1 in the playoff semi-finals, the Reign were defeated 2–1 by FC Kansas City during the championship final. Following the regular season, Fishlock along with teammates Kendall Fletcher, Kim Little, and Nahomi Kawasumi was named to the league's Best XI team. Fishlock finished the 2014 season, having scored four goals and provided 8 assists. She started in all 22 matches in which she played. During the 2015 season, Fishlock scored her first goal of the season during the team's home-opener against Western New York Flash. Her goal in the 25th minute was the first of the match and assist to Megan Rapinoe in the 86th minute contributed to a 5–1 win for the Reign. During a match against the Washington Spirit on 2 May, Fishlock scored a goal in the 75th minute off an assist from Kim Little resulting in a 3–1 win over the Spirit. During a match against Sky Blue FC in New Jersey, Fishlock received a controversial red card in the 90th minute that required her to sit out the team's next match against league-leading Chicago Red Stars. The controversy stemmed from a scrum in the box after a Sky Blue corner kick and Fishlock's last-minute save on the goal line. Fishlock stated the ball bounced off her head, but Sky Blue forward Nadia Nadim said she blocked it with her hand and the ref awarded Sky Blue the penalty kick. Both matches resulted in 1–1 draws. During the team's second match against Sky Blue FC in Seattle on 6 June, Fishlock scored a goal and an assist earning Player of the Match after leading Seattle to a 3–0 win. She was named NWSL Player of the Week by the media for the ninth week of the season. The Reign finished the regular season in first place clinching the NWSL Shield for the second consecutive time. After advancing to the playoffs, Seattle faced fourth-place team Washington Spirit and won 3–0, advancing to the championship final. Seattle was ultimately defeated 1–0 by FC Kansas City during the championship final in Portland. Fishlock, along with teammates Kim Little, Beverly Yanez, and Lauren Barnes were named to the NWSL Best XI team. During the first few months of the 2016 season, Fishlock was unavailable due to injury along with a number of offensive players, including forwards Manon Melis and Megan Rapinoe. Seattle finished the regular season in fifth place with a record, narrowly missing a playoff spot by two points. #### Glasgow City loan After the conclusion of the NWSL season in August 2013, it was announced that Fishlock would join Scottish Women's Premier League champions Glasgow City on loan until November 2013. Of her signing Glasgow City head coach Eddie Wolecki Black said, "This signing is significant, not only for the club but also the country. Whilst we continue to set new records at home, our aim is to make progress on the European stage and the signing of Jess highlights this. She will bring experience, versatility, pace and intelligence to the team and most importantly will raise the standard of the players around her. That's what top players do, they make good players better players both on and off the park." She scored two goals in her six appearances for the club helping the club finish in first place during the regular season and win the Scottish Women's Cup. She also competed in four matches in the 2013–14 UEFA Women's Champions League with the club reaching the Round of 8. #### FFC Frankfurt loan Fishlock spent the 2014–15 Reign FC off-season on loan in the Frauen-Bundesliga with FFC Frankfurt. She was a vital part of the team's success, starting in all available matches. Frankfurt was unbeaten in the second half of the season, a run which led them to be crowned the champions of Europe. Although Fishlock returned to Seattle prior to the 2015 UEFA Women's Champions League Final, she was considered a huge part of the team's journey to the championship title by players, staff and fans and subsequently earned a UEFA Women's Champions League medal. #### Melbourne City loan #### Reading loan On 19 August 2020, it was confirmed that Fishlock had joined Reading Women on loan from OL Reign. The deal was signed as doubts remained about when the NWSL would resume. During a match against Brighton & Hove Albion, she scored two goals lifting Reading to a 3–1 win. ## International career Fishlock made her debut for the U-19 national team at age 16. After captaining the U–19 team, she was called up to the senior national team and made her debut against Switzerland in 2006. She captained the senior team from 2012 to 2015. After a 1–0 win over Mexico during Wales' first match at the 2013 Algarve Cup, Fishlock scored the game-winning goal of the match during the 11th minute. After Wales tied Hungary 1–1 on 11 March 2013, the team faced Portugal in the knockout stage. Fishlock scored Wales only goal in the 77th minute. Portugal scored an equalizing goal in the 93rd-minute leading to penalty kicks to determine the victor. Portugal won after scoring three penalty kicks over Wales' one. In February 2015, incoming Welsh manager Jayne Ludlow unveiled her squad for the 2015 Istria Cup which did not feature long-time captain Fishlock. Two months later, she was re-called to the team. On 5 April 2017, Fishlock became the first Welsh player to earn 100 caps for the national team. ## International goals ## Coaching career In 2012, Fishlock was the first team coach for her former team, Cardiff City Ladies FC, alongside Manager Jamie Sherwood. In Melbourne City FC's inaugural season in 2015–16, Fishlock was a player-assistant coach alongside head coach Joe Montemurro. She returned in the same role for the 2016–17 season. Midway through City's 2016–17 season, head coach Joe Montemurro became the chief assistant coach of Melbourne City men's team, and Fishlock was promoted to player-head coach. In February 2017, she coached Melbourne City to its second consecutive W-League Grand Final title and scored a goal in the 2–0 win over Perth Glory. With the win, she became the first player-coach to win the league title in the W-League's history. In October 2017, Melbourne City FC announced that Fishlock is returning for the 2017–18 season as a player-assistant coach. She will play under, and coach alongside, now-head coach Patrick Kisnorbo, who assisted Fishlock in the previous season. ## Personal life, other work, and endorsements Fishlock says she knew she was a lesbian at the age of 12, and was bullied at school for her sexuality. Fishlock has been featured in a column for BBC Sport since 2013. She gave an interview in October 2015, during which she described her struggles as a high-profile gay athlete. Demanding greater "respect", she railed against social media homophobia and threw her weight behind the work of Athlete Ally. Fishlock appeared in an advertisement for Adidas in 2016 along with Becky Sauerbrunn. She had an endorsement deal with natural sports beverage company, Golazo, Inc. prior to the company folding. In the 2018 Birthday Honours, Fishlock was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to women's football and the LGBT community." Fishlock officially received her MBE from The Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in December 2018. In December 2020, she was named to the Stonewall Sports Champion Team. As of October 2022, she is engaged to Tziarra King. ## Honours ### Player AZ Alkmaar - Eredivisie: 2008–09, 2009–10 Bristol Academy - FA Cup runner-up: 2010–11 Melbourne Victory - W-League Championship: 2013–14; runner-up: 2012–13 - W-League Premiership: 2013–14 OL Reign - NWSL Shield: 2014, 2015, 2022 - NWSL Championship runner-up: 2014, 2015 - The Women's Cup: 2022 FFC Frankfurt - UEFA Champions League: 2014–15 Melbourne City - W-League Championship: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18 - W-League Premiership: 2015–16 Lyon - Division 1 Féminine: 2018–19 - Coupe de France: 2018–19 - UEFA Champions League: 2018–19 Individual - FA WSL Club Player of the Year: 2011 - FA WSL Fans Player of the Year: 2011, 2012 - FA WSL Club Players' Player of the Year: 2012 - FA WSL Players' Player of the Year: 2012 - NWSL Most Valuable Player: 2021 - NWSL Best XI: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2021 - NWSL Second XI: 2016 - NWSL Team of the Month: 2x 2017 - NWSL Player of the Week: 2013, 2015, 2x 2017) - W-League Best XI: 2012 - W-League Grand Final: Player of the Match: 2013 & 2017 - W-League League Players Player of the Year: 2013 - W-League Club Players Player of the Year: 2013 - Welsh Footballer of the Year: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018 ### Manager Melbourne City''' - W-League Championship: 2016–17 ## See also - List of footballers with 100 or more caps - List of Melbourne Victory FC (A-League Women) players - List of foreign W-League (Australia) players - W-League records and statistics - List of foreign NWSL players - List of sportswomen

Thomas R. Cornelius

American politician

Thomas Ramsey Cornelius (November 16, 1827 – June 24, 1899) was a prominent American politician and soldier in the early history of Oregon. Born in Missouri, he moved to the Oregon Country with his family as a young man, where he fought in the Cayuse War and Yakima Indian War against the Native Americans. He settled in Washington County near what later became Cornelius, named in his honor. A Whig and later a Republican, he served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature where following statehood, he served in the Oregon State Senate. In the Senate, he served one term as the president of that chamber. He also built the Cornelius Pass Road that bears his name. He was the father of Benjamin P. Cornelius, who was also prominent in state politics. ## Early life Cornelius was born in Missouri, on November 16, 1827, to Elizabeth and Benjamin Cornelius. In 1845, Thomas and his family traveled over the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country and set up a farm on the Tualatin Plains, north of what would become the community of Cornelius. After the Whitman Massacre in late 1847, Thomas volunteered for the militia of the Oregon Provisional Government in 1848. The militia prosecuted the Cayuse War in an attempt to punish those responsible for the killings at the Whitman Mission. After gold was discovered in California, Cornelius journeyed there for a brief time, returning to the Oregon Territory in 1849. The next year, he married Florentine Wilkes, and they had six children together before she died in 1864, including son Benjamin. The family would settle on 640 acres (2.6 km²) of their Donation Land Claim near Cornelius. In 1855, a second war against the Native Americans started east of the Cascade Mountains against the Yakima tribe. Cornelius volunteered again for the militia. For three months, he led a company with the rank of captain before being elected as colonel after James W. Nesmith resigned his commission. Cornelius continued as colonel until the end of the war in 1856.During this campaign, his troops waged war indiscriminately against any natives found in the area. In one case, a Nez Perce native was accused of being a spy and summarily hanged, which alarmed members of the U.S. military. ## Political career In 1856, Cornelius was elected to upper chamber of the Oregon Territorial Legislature, called the Council. Serving as a Whig, he represented Washington, Columbia, and Multnomah counties in District 8. He won re-election to the Council in 1857 and again in 1858 to the final session of the territorial legislature. In 1859, he continued holding office in the newly formed Oregon State Senate after Oregon entered the Union on February 14, 1859 as the 33rd state. In the Oregon Senate, Cornelius continued as a Republican, representing Washington County and several other counties through the 1874 legislature. His service was interrupted by the American Civil War during 1862 session, when he was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln to raise a regiment of cavalry for federal service. He was chosen as colonel of the troops and they deployed to a military post at Walla Walla, Washington, where he assumed command. He resigned during the summer of 1862 and returned home. During the 1866 legislature, Cornelius was selected as President of the Oregon Senate. In 1886, he won the Republican nomination for Governor of Oregon, but lost the general election to Sylvester Pennoyer. ## Later life and family After his first wife died in 1864, Cornelius remarried in 1866 to Missouri A. Smith. In 1872, he moved to Cornelius, which would be renamed after him, and opened a store. In addition to the store, Cornelius owned a total of 1,500 acres (6.1 km²), including covering three farms, a warehouse, and a sawmill. He built the Cornelius Pass Road that linked the Tualatin Valley to the Columbia River. Cornelius died on June 24, 1899, at the age of 71. He was buried at the Cornelius Methodist Church Cemetery.

Iyad ibn Ghanm

7th-century Arab military commander

ʿIyāḍ ibn Ghanm ibn Zuhayr al-Fihrī (Arabic: عياض بن غنم بن زهير الفهري) (died 641), was an Arab general who played a leading role in the Muslim conquests of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and northern Syria. He was among the handful of Qurayshi tribesmen to embrace Islam before the mass conversion of the tribe in 630, and was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In 634, under Caliph Abu Bakr, he governed the north Arabian oasis town of Dumat al-Jandal. Later, in 637, he became governor of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), but was dismissed by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644) for alleged improprieties. Afterward, he became a close military aide of his cousin and nephew, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, under whose direction Iyad conquered much of Byzantine-held northern Syria, including Aleppo, Manbij and Cyrrhus. When Abu Ubayda died in 639, Iyad succeeded him as governor of Hims, Qinnasrin and al-Jazira. In the latter territory, he launched a campaign to assert Muslim rule, first capturing Raqqa after conquering the countryside. This was followed by the conquests of Edessa, Harran and Samosata under similar circumstances. With the exception of heavy fighting at Ras al-Ayn and Dara, Iyad received the surrenders of a string of other Mesopotamian towns with relatively little blood spilled. Overall, Iyad's conquest of Upper Mesopotamia left much of the captured towns intact and their inhabitants unharmed to maintain their tax payments to the nascent caliphate. According to historian Leif Inge Ree Petersen, Iyad "has received little attention" but was "clearly of great ability". ## Early life Iyad was the son of a certain 'Abd Ghanm ibn Zuhayr al-Fihri. He belonged to the al-Harith ibn Fihr ibn Malik branch of the Quraysh tribe. The latter were a mercantile Arab tribe based in Mecca in the western Arabian Peninsula. Iyad was among the few members of the Quraysh to have embraced Islam prior to the truce at Hudaybiyya between the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the largely pagan Quraysh in 628, and was present alongside Muhammad during the peace negotiations. Upon accepting Islam, Iyad had his name changed from "ibn ʿAbd Ghanm" to "ibn Ghanm"; "ʿAbd Ghanm", the name of his father, translates in Arabic as "servant of Ghanm", an idol worshiped by the pagan Arabs. The latter was an association that Iyad detested, according to 9th-century historian al-Baladhuri. The rest of the Quraysh converted to Islam in 630. ## Campaigns in Syria Iyad may have been the Muslim commander who defeated an Arab tribal revolt in the oasis town of Dumat al-Jandal during the Ridda wars of 632–633. The tribes involved in the revolt were the Banu Kalb, Banu Salīh, Tanukh and Ghassan. Other medieval reports attribute this victory to 'Amr ibn al-'As. In any case, according to 9th-century historian al-Tabari, Iyad was governor of Dumat al-Jandal in 634, during the reign of Caliph Abu Bakr. In 637, Iyad was made governor of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), but was dismissed by the latter due to allegations that he had used his office to accept gifts or bribes. Afterward, he became a close aide and lieutenant commander of his paternal cousin and maternal nephew, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, who had military authority over Syria. In 638, Iyad was dispatched by Abu Ubayda to subdue Aleppo (Beroea) in northern Syria, then part of the Byzantine Empire. Abu Ubayda himself arrived later, but as soon as he set up camp around the city, the townspeople signaled their desire to negotiate terms. Iyad, who was sanctioned by Abu Ubayda to negotiate on his behalf, agreed to the proposed terms guaranteeing the safety of Aleppo's inhabitants and properties, but with the condition that a site be made available for the construction of a mosque. Abu Ubayda later sent Iyad at the head of an army to capture Cyrrhus, whose inhabitants sent out a monk to meet Iyad; following this meeting, Iyad had the monk meet Abu Ubayda and arrange the surrender of Cyrrhus. Iyad continued on northward and eastward, overseeing the capitulation of Manbij (Hierapolis), Ra'ban and Duluk. ## Conquest of Upper Mesopotamia As response of the siege toward Emesa by Byzantine and Christian Arabs coalition in around 638, Iyad was tasked by caliph Umar through his superior, Abu Ubaydah to invade Al-Jazira.m When Abu Ubayda died in 639, Caliph Umar appointed Iyad in his place as the ʿamal (governor) of Hims, Qinnasrin (Chalcis) and al-Jazira with directions to conquer the latter territory from its Byzantine commanders because they had refused to pay the tributes promised to the Muslims in 638. By the time Iyad was given his assignment, all of Syria had been conquered by the Muslims, leaving the Byzantine garrisons in al-Jazira isolated from the empire. In August 639, Iyad led a 5,000-strong army toward Raqqa (Kallinikos) in al-Jazira and raided the city's environs. He encountered resistance from its defenders, prompting him to withdraw and send smaller units to make raids around Raqqa, seizing captives and harvests. After five or six days of these raids, Raqqa's patrician negotiated the surrender of the city to Iyad. According to historian Michael Meinecke, Iyad captured the city in 639 or 640. After Raqqa, Iyad proceeded toward Harran, where his progress was stalled. He diverted part of his army to Edessa, which ultimately capitulated after negotiations. Iyad then received Harran's surrender and dispatched Safwan ibn Mu'attal al-Sulami and his own kinsman Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri to seize Samosata, which also ended in a negotiated surrender after Muslim raiding of its countryside. By 640, Iyad had successively conquered Saruj, Jisr Manbij and Tell Mawzin. Before the capture of Tell Mawzin, Iyad attempted to take Ras al-Ayn, but retreated after stiff resistance. Later, he dispatched Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari to take the city. Umayr first assaulted the rural peasantry and seized cattle in the town's vicinity. The inhabitants barricaded inside the walled city and inflicted heavy losses on the Muslim forces, before ultimately capitulating. About the same time, Iyad besieged Samosata in response to a rebellion, the nature of which is not specified by al-Baladhuri, and stationed a small garrison in Edessa after the city's inhabitants violated their terms of surrender. After Samosata, al-Baladhuri, who gives a detailed but triumphalist account of the Mesopotamian campaign, maintains that Iyad subdued a string of villages "on the same terms" as Edessa's surrender. Between the end of 639 and December 640, Iyad and his lieutenants subdued, in succession, Circesium (al-Qarqisiya), Amid, Mayyafariqin, Nisibin, Tur Abdin, Mardin, Dara, Qarda and Bazabda. According to al-Baladhuri, with the exception of Nisibin, which put up resistance, all these cities and fortresses fell to the Muslims after negotiated surrenders. In contrast to al-Baladhuri's passive account of Iyad's capture of Dara, 10th-century historian Agapius of Hierapolis wrote that many were slain on both sides, particularly among the Muslims, but the city ultimately fell after a negotiated surrender. Iyad continued toward Arzanene, then to Bitlis and finally to Khilat; all three cities surrendered after negotiations with their patricians. Shortly after, Iyad entrusted the leader of Bitlis with collecting the land tax from Khilat, and left for Raqqa. On the way there, one medieval Muslim report holds that Iyad dispatched a force to capture Sinjar, after which he settled it with Arabs. Iyad died in Hims in 641. According to al-Tabari, Iyad was succeeded as governor of Hims and Qinnasrin by a certain Sa'id ibn Hidhyam al-Jumahi, but the latter died soon after and Umayr ibn Sa'd, one of Iyad's lieutenants, was appointed in his place by Caliph Umar. ### Assessment According to 9th-century biographer Ibn Sa'd, "not a foot was left of Mesopotamia unsubdued by Iyad ibn Ghanm", and Iyad "effected the conquest of Mesopotamia and its towns by capitulation, but its land by force". Petersen describes Iyad as "a commander who has received little attention, but who clearly was of great ability". The tactics used by Iyad in his Mesopotamian campaign were similar to those employed by the Muslims in Palestine, though in Iyad's case the contemporary accounts reveal his specific modus operandi, particularly in Raqqa. The operation to capture that city entailed positioning cavalry forces near its entrances, preventing its defenders and residents from leaving or rural refugees from entering. Concurrently, the remainder of Iyad's forces cleared the surrounding countryside of supplies and took captives. These dual tactics were employed in several other cities in al-Jazira. They proved effective in gaining surrenders from targeted cities running low on supplies and whose satellite villages were trapped by hostile troops. Iyad's overall goal was to conquer al-Jazira with minimal damage to ensure the flow of revenue to the caliphate. In the agreements he reached with the patricians of Raqqa, Edessa, Harran and Samosata, payments came in various forms, including cash, wheat, oil, vinegar, honey, labor services to maintain roads and bridges, and guides and intelligence for the Muslim newcomers. Ultimately, Iyad's settlements with Mesopotamia's cities "to a large extent left most of local society untouched". In the view of Petersen, Iyad's campaign partially diverted the Byzantines' attention away from the Muslims' central offensive against Syria's port cities and the province of Egypt, while also "demonstrating to the Armenian nobility that the Caliphate had become a viable alternative to the Persian Empire".

Schlumbergera

Genus of plants (cacti)

Schlumbergera is a small genus of cacti with six to nine species found in the coastal mountains of south-eastern Brazil. These plants grow on trees or rocks in habitats that are generally shady with high humidity, and can be quite different in appearance from their desert-dwelling cousins. Most species of Schlumbergera have stems which resemble leaf-like pads joined one to the other and flowers which appear from areoles at the joints and tips of the stems. Two species have cylindrical stems more similar to other cacti. Common names for these cacti generally refer to their flowering season. In the Northern Hemisphere, they are called Christmas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus, crab cactus and holiday cactus. In Brazil, the genus is referred to as Flor de Maio (May flower), reflecting the period in which they flower in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of the popular houseplants are cultivars of Schlumbergera, rather than species, with flowers in white, pink, yellow, orange, red or purple. The Easter cactus or Whitsun cactus, placed in the genus Rhipsalidopsis, is also called a holiday cactus and has flowers in red, orange, pink and white. The cultivars of the Christmas cactus fall into two main groups: - The Truncata Group contains all cultivars with features derived mainly from the species S. truncata: stem segments with pointed teeth; flowers held more or less horizontally, usually above the horizontal, whose upper side is differently shaped from the lower side (zygomorphic); and pollen which is yellow. They generally flower earlier than members of the Buckleyi Group and, although common names are not applied consistently, may be distinguished as Thanksgiving cactus, crab cactus or claw cactus. - The Buckleyi Group contains all cultivars with at least some features clearly showing inheritance from S. russelliana: stem segments with rounded, more symmetrical teeth; more or less symmetrical (regular) flowers which hang down, below the horizontal; and pollen which is pink. They generally flower later than members of the Truncata Group and are more likely to be called Christmas cactus. ## Description In the wild, the species of Schlumbergera grow either on trees (epiphytic) or on rocks (epilithic) and can form sizeable shrubs with woody bases; a height of up to 1.2 m (4 ft) has been reported for one species (S. opuntioides). They are leafless, the green stems acting as photosynthetic organs. The stems are composed of segments, which take one of two forms. In most species the segments are strongly flattened (cladodes), being made up of a central core with two (or more rarely three) "wings". Special structures characteristic of cacti, called "areoles", then occur at the ends of the segments of the stem. In two species the stems are less flattened, more cylinder-shaped, and the areoles are arranged in a more or less spiral pattern all over the segments. In both cases, the areoles, which may have wool and bristles, are where the flower buds appear. The flowers either hang downwards and are almost regular (radially symmetrical or actinomorphic) or, as in most species, are held more or less horizontally with the higher side of the flower different from the lower side (radially asymmetrical or zygomorphic). In those species whose flowers are held up, their angle with the horizontal is relatively constant and is characteristic of the species. Each flower has 20–30 tepals. The outer tepals – those closer to the base of the flower – are short and unconnected, and spread out or curve backwards. The inner tepals – those towards the tip of the flower – are longer and in most species become progressively more fused together at the base to form a floral tube. In some species the difference between the outer and inner tepals creates the appearance of a "flower within a flower". The flowers produce nectar in a chamber at the base of the floral tube. In most species, the many stamens are arranged in two series, with the inner stamens being fused at the base to form a short tubular structure and the outer stamens arising from along the floral tube. The style is usually dark red and has a stigma with 6–8 lobes; the style plus stigma is roughly the same length as the stamens. If the flower is fertilized, a fleshy fruit forms, either smooth or with ribs. The brown or black seeds are about 1 mm in diameter. ## Taxonomy The genus is one of a small number belonging to a group of cacti classified as the tribe Rhipsalideae. Species of cacti belonging to this group are quite distinct in appearance and habit from most other cacti since they grow on trees or rocks as epiphytes or lithophytes. Although the species are easy to identify as members of the Rhipsalideae, for many years there was confusion as to how they should be divided into genera. This confusion extended to Schlumbergera, whose complicated taxonomic history has been detailed by McMillan and Horobin. The modern genus Schlumbergera was created by Charles Lemaire in 1858. The name commemorates Frédéric Schlumberger, who had a collection of cacti at his chateau near Rouen. Lemaire placed only one species in his new genus – a plant discovered in Brazil in 1837 which had been named Epiphyllum russellianum by William J. Hooker. Lemaire renamed it Schlumbergera epiphylloides (under the current rules of botanical nomenclature it should have been called Schlumbergera russelliana, which is its current name). Lemaire noted the similarity of his Schlumbergera epiphylloides to a species first described as Epiphyllum truncatum by Adrian Hardy Haworth in 1819, but did not accept that the two species should be included in the same genus. In 1890, Karl Moritz Schumann created the new genus Zygocactus, transferring Epiphyllum truncatum to Zygocactus truncatus. Although he later placed it back in Epiphyllum, abandoning Zygocactus, the generic name Zygocactus continued to be widely used. In 1913, Nathaniel Britton and Joseph Rose followed Lemaire in keeping Schlumbergera russelliana and Zygocactus truncatus in separate genera. They also transferred the Easter cactus to Schlumbergera as S. gaertneri, initiating a lasting confusion between these two genera. In 1953, Reid Venable Moran placed both Schlumbergera russelliana and Zygocactus truncatus in the genus Schlumbergera. Other species were added later by David Hunt, including those formerly placed in Epiphyllanthus. Schlumbergera and Hatiora have long been confused. Species in the former genus generally have flowers that are zygomorphic with a distinct floral tube, while those in the latter have actinomorphic flowers with inconspicuous tubes. DNA data showed that as previously circumscribed the two genera are not monophyletic and the three species in Hatiora subgenus Rhipsalidopsis were transferred into Schlumbergera, although this change has not been universally adopted, with other sources placing two in the genus Rhipsalidopsis. ### Synonymy The following genera are now synonyms of Schlumbergera (i.e. they have no species not moved into Schlumbergera): - Epiphyllanthus A.Berger - Opuntiopsis Knebel (nom. inval.) - Zygocactus K.Schum. - Zygocereus Frič & Kreuz. (orth. var.) - Epiphyllum Pfeiff. but not Epiphyllum Haw. The case of Epiphyllum is complex. In 1753, Carl Linnaeus created the genus Cactus. As more species were discovered this proved too broad, and new genera were set up to subdivide the cacti. The genus Epiphyllum was created in 1812 by Haworth, based on Linnaeus's Cactus phyllanthus. In 1831, Johann Link created the genus Phyllocactus based on the same species. Following Ludwig Pfeiffer in 1837, the European tradition was to use Phyllocactus for epiphytic cacti with large regular flowers and Epiphyllum for the irregular-flowered species now called Schlumbergera truncata. Under modern rules, Phyllocactus is an illegitimate name, as is Epiphyllum in the sense of Pfeiffer; thus Epiphyllum Pfeiff. is a synonym of Schlumbergera. The true genus Epiphyllum Haw. now has around 19 species. ### Species Between six and nine species are currently recognized. In the narrowest circumscription, Schlumbergera sensu stricto, six species are accepted. Only synonyms which have been widely used (and their basionyms) are given in the list below. - Schlumbergera kautskyi (Horobin & McMillan) N.P.Taylor syn. S. truncata subsp. kautskyi Horobin & McMillan - Schlumbergera microsphaerica (K.Schum.) Hoevel syn. Cereus microsphaerica K.Schum., Epiphyllanthus microsphaericus (K.Schum.) Britton & Rose, Cereus obtusangulus K.Schum., Epiphyllanthus obtusangulus (K.Schum.) A.Berger, Zygocactus obtusangulus (K.Schum.) Loefgr., S. obtusangula (K.Schum.) D.R.Hunt - Schlumbergera opuntioides (Loefgr. & Dusén) D.R.Hunt syn. Epiphyllum opuntioides Loefgr. & Dusén, Zygocactus opuntioides (Loefgr. & Dusén) Loefgr., Epiphyllanthus opuntioides (Loefgr. & Dusén) Moran - Schlumbergera orssichiana Barthlott & McMillan - Schlumbergera russelliana (Hook.) Britton & Rose syn. Epiphyllum russellianum Hook., S. epiphylloides Lemaire, nom. illeg. - Schlumbergera truncata (Haw.) Moran syn. Epiphyllum truncatum Haw., Zygocactus truncatus (Haw.) K.Schum., nom. illeg. In a wider circumscription, one species formerly placed in Hatiora is transferred into Schlumbergera. - Schlumbergera lutea Calvente & Zappi, syn. Hatiora epiphylloides (Porto & Werderm.) P.V.Heath Two species that have been placed in Hatiora or Schlumbergera are placed in Rhipsalidopsis by Plants of the World Online as of January 2023: - Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri (Regel) Linding. (Easter cactus, Whitsun cactus) syns. Hatiora gaertneri (Regel) Barthlott, Schlumbergera gaertneri (Regel) Britton & Rose - Rhipsalidopsis rosea (Lagerh.) Britton & Rose syns. Hatiora rosea (Lagerh.) Barthlott, Schlumbergera rosea (Lagerh.) Calvente & Zappi Four hybrids of Schlumbergera s.s. have been named, all made in cultivation (although the first may possibly occur in the wild). The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants recommends that cultivated plants should be named under its rules, not those appropriate for natural species and hybrids. The Group names given below were provided by McMillan and Horobin. - Schlumbergera × buckleyi (T.Moore) Tjaden = S. russelliana × S. truncata; S. Buckleyi Group syn. Epiphyllum buckleyi T.Moore, E. rollissonii T.Moore, S. bridgesii (Lemaire) Loefgr. - Schlumbergera × eprica Süpplie = S. orssichiana × S. russelliana - Schlumbergera × exotica Barthlott & Rauh = S. truncata × S. opuntioides; S. Exotica Group - Schlumbergera × reginae McMillan = S. truncata × S. orssichiana; S. Reginae Group ## Distribution, habitat and ecology Schlumbergera occurs only in the coastal mountains of south-east Brazil, in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. Sites where it has been found range from close to the Tropic of Capricorn northwards to 20°S, i.e. in the southernmost part of the tropics. Plants grow at altitudes from 700 metres (2,300 ft) in the case of S. truncata to 2,780 metres (9,120 ft) in the case of S. microsphaerica, either in the coastal moist forests or in rocky areas. The natural distribution of Schlumbergera species has become confused because European cultivars were deliberately introduced into some areas, including the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, by the Brazilian Agricultural Department, to compensate for over-collecting of wild plants. Because of their height and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the coastal mountains produce high altitude moist forests – warm moist air is forced upwards into higher, colder locations where it condenses. Schlumbergera species grow in habitats which are generally relatively cool, shaded and of high humidity. David Hunt describes collecting specimens in conditions of cloud, drizzle and overnight temperatures down to −4 °C (25 °F). Plants are epiphytic or lithophytic, growing on moss-covered tree branches or in rock crevices, often in small pockets of substrate formed from decayed leaves and other vegetation. S. microsphaerica is found at higher altitudes, above 2,200 metres (7,200 ft), in barren rocky habitats, and tolerates higher light levels. The flowers of Schlumbergera have adaptations for pollination by hummingbirds: tubular flowers with abundant nectar, and colours towards the red end of the spectrum. Most species require cross-pollination to set seed. The exceptions are S. kautskyi and S. microsphaerica; as noted above, the latter is found at higher altitudes where hummingbirds may be absent or less common. The fruits of Schlumbergera do not open spontaneously when ripe, and appear to be adapted for distribution by birds, which eat the seeds and pulp contained in the fruit. Birds have been observed removing seeds which had stuck to their beaks by rubbing them on tree branches, where the seeds might be able to germinate. Segments may also break off from the stems and take root, thus enabling plants to propagate vegetatively. ## Cultivation of Christmas cacti ### History Schlumbergera truncata was in cultivation in Europe by 1818, and S. russelliana was introduced in 1839. The two species were deliberately crossed in England by W. Buckley resulting in the hybrid now called S. × buckleyi, first recorded in 1852. By the 1860s, a substantial number of cultivars (cultivated varieties) were available in a range of colours and habits, and were used as ornamental plants in "stoves" (heated greenhouses) and in houses, where they were popular for their autumn and winter flowering. Many cultivars were selected seedlings of S. truncata, but at least three S. × buckleyi hybrids were available, of which one, now called S. 'Buckleyi', is thought to be the original Christmas cactus. By the early part of the 20th century, the genus had become less popular, and many of the early cultivars were lost. From around the 1950s onwards, breeding resumed in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. New plants were produced by crossing among the species and existing cultivars of S. truncata, S. russelliana and the hybrid S. × buckleyi. Treatments which induced mutations were also used. The result was a wide range of flower colours which had not been available before, including the first true yellow to be sold commercially, S. 'Gold Charm' (which was a sterile triploid). Breeders aimed for plants which grew strongly, were upright at the point of sale rather than pendulous, had many flowers or buds, and were adapted to living as house plants. In the 1980s the species S. orssichiana was also used in crosses. The hybrid of S. truncata and S. orssichiana has been named S. × reginae or S. Reginae Group; one of the first cultivars was S. 'Bristol Queen'. S. opuntioides crosses have also been made, but have not resulted in commercially available cultivars. ### Modern cultivars McMillan and Horobin have listed hundreds of modern European, North American and Australian cultivars of the Christmas cactus, which they put into a number of cultivar groups: - The Truncata Group contains all cultivars with mainly S. truncata characteristics: stem segments with pointed teeth (dentate); zygomorphic flowers held more or less horizontally, usually above the horizontal; and pollen which is yellow. - The Buckleyi Group contains all cultivars with at least some features clearly showing inheritance from S. russelliana: stem segments with rounded, more symmetrical teeth (crenate); more regular flowers which hang down, below the horizontal; and pollen which is pink. There is considerable variation within this Group; McMillan and Horobin introduced subcategories: "TB" for those more like S. truncata and "BT" for those more like the classic S. × buckleyi, with "B" reserved for the first generation (F1) S. × buckleyi hybrids. - The Reginae Group contains cultivars known to be derived from hybrids with S. orssichiana. - The Exotica Group is used for the small number of hybrids involving S. opuntioides. Attempts have also been made to classify cultivars by colour. A difficulty is that the flowers of many cultivars exhibit different colours depending on the temperature during bud formation and growth. In particular, temperatures below 14 °C (57 °F) produce pink tones in otherwise white and yellow cultivars, and deepen the colour in pink and red cultivars. The availability of iron to the plant has also been suggested to affect flower colour. In the United States, cultivars are propagated in large numbers for sale before Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday in November). In Europe, plants are mainly sold later in the year, in the period before Christmas. A single Dutch grower (de Vries of Aalsmeer, the Netherlands) was reported in 1989 as producing 2,000,000 plants per year. ### Common names Plants are offered for sale under a variety of common names. The earliest English common name was "Christmas cactus". In Europe, where plants are largely produced for sale in the period before Christmas, this remains the most widely used common name in many languages for cultivars of all groups (e.g. Weihnachtskaktus in German, cactus de Noël in French, and cacto de Navidad in Spanish). This is also the name used in Canada. In the United States, where plants are produced for the Thanksgiving holiday in November, the name "Thanksgiving cactus" is used; "Christmas cactus" may then be restricted to cultivars of the Buckleyi Group, particularly the very old cultivars such as 'Buckleyi'. In Russia they are known as dekabrist ("decembrist") and rozhdestvennika ("nativity"). The name "crab cactus" (referring to the clawed ends of the stems) is also used for the Truncata Group. "Link cactus" is another common name, describing the way that the stems of the genus as a whole are made up of linked segments. The name "chain cactus" is common in New Zealand, and may also refer to Hatiora or Rhipsalidopsis species. The Easter cactus or Whitsun cactus was placed in the genus Rhipsalidopsis as of January 2023, but was at one time included in Schlumbergera (or one of its synonyms). The name "holiday cactus" has been used to include both Schlumbergera and Rhipsalidopsis cultivars. ### Care of cultivars When grown as house plants, Schlumbergera cultivars are said to be relatively easy to care for. McMillan and Horobin describe in detail their cultivation in both commercial and domestic conditions. Their specific recommendations include: - Growing medium: Free-draining, humus-rich, somewhat acid growing media are used for commercial production, such as a mixture of peat or leafmould and an inert material such as grit, sharp sand or polystyrene beads. It is recommended that plants should be grown in relatively small pots; half-height pots are suitable. - Watering: They are more tolerant of drought than many house plants, but can be damaged by both under- and over-watering. Keeping the growing medium just moist throughout the year avoids either extreme. - Light: They can be damaged by exposure to more than small amounts of sunlight. Members of the Buckleyi Group, such as the old-fashioned Christmas cactus with pendant flowers, are more tolerant of high light levels than members of the Truncata Group, such as most of the modern cultivars. Too much light causes stems to take on a reddish colouration; however, very low light levels will prevent flowering. Day length is important in controlling flowering; continuous darkness for at least 12 hours is necessary to induce bud formation. A period of about 8 days with 16 hours of darkness at 16 °C (61 °F) has been shown to cause flower buds to form. Lower temperatures slow this process. The advice sometimes given to withhold water to produce flower buds has been shown to be incorrect. - Propagation: Both commercially and in the home, propagation can be achieved by using short pieces of stem, one to three segments long, twisted off rather than cut. Cuttings are allowed to dry for 1–7 days, forming a callus at the broken end, and then rooted in an open growing medium. Temperatures above 21 °C (70 °F) and up to 27 °C (81 °F) in long day/short night conditions speed rooting. ### Pests and diseases In cultivation, these plants have been described as "remarkably free from pests and diseases". Two significant insect pests are aphids on young shoots, buds and flowers, and root mealybugs which attack below soil level. Stems and roots can be rotted by diseases caused by fungi and similar organisms; these include infections by species of Fusarium (a fungus), and Phytophthora and Pythium (both water moulds). Approved chemical treatments can be used in the case of insect attack or these diseases. Aphids, mealybugs and other invertebrate pests can spread viruses. Symptoms vary with the species, but a loss of vigour is usual. Cactus virus X has been isolated from S. truncata. There is no treatment for virus diseases; it is recommended that infected plants be destroyed.

New Jersey Route 10

State highway in northern New Jersey, US

Route 10 is a 23.51 mi (37.84 km) state highway in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs from an intersection with U.S. Route 46 (US 46) in Roxbury Township, Morris County, east to County Route 577 (CR 577)/CR 677 (Prospect Avenue) in West Orange, Essex County. Route 10 is a major route through northern New Jersey that runs through Ledgewood, East Hanover, and Livingston. It is a four-lane highway for most of its length with the exception of the easternmost part of the route. Route 10 features intersections with many major roads including Route 53 and US 202 in Morris Plains and Interstate 287 (I-287) in Hanover Township. Route 10 was designated in 1927 to run from Jersey City to Dover, following the former Newark and Mount Pleasant Turnpike west of Newark. The route continued east from its present-day routing on current CR 577, Park Avenue, CR 508, and Route 7 to end at US 1/9 at the Tonnele Circle. An alignment of Route 10 farther to the north of its current alignment in Essex County was proposed in 1952; however, it was never constructed with the route being designated to its present alignment a year later. Since 1953, Route 10 has seen improvements that eliminated the Ledgewood Circle at the western terminus in 1998 and improved safety along the portion of the route in Hanover and East Hanover Townships in the mid-2000s. ## Route description Route 10 begins at US 46 in the Ledgewood section of Roxbury Township, Morris County at the former Ledgewood Circle, heading to the southeast on a four-lane divided highway with some jughandles. The road passes by The Shops at Ledgewood Commons, the Roxbury Mall, and many other businesses, also crossing the Dover and Rockaway River Railroad's High Bridge Branch. The route crosses the Dover and Rockaway River Railroad's Chester Branch before it enters Randolph Township, where the road becomes less commercial in nature and passes Randolph Lake, reaching an interchange with CR 617. Past this interchange, Route 10 crosses over forested Mine Hill. The route crosses CR 513 and passes north of the County College of Morris past that intersection, with suburban development becoming more frequent again. Route 10 widens to six lanes and then runs through the southwestern corner of Denville before heading into the Mt. Tabor section of Parsippany-Troy Hills. The route then forms the border between Parsippany-Troy Hills to the north and Morris Plains to the south, passing over NJ Transit's Morristown Line before coming to an interchange with Route 53 and crossing US 202. The route fully enters Parsippany-Troy Hills again before crossing into Hanover Township, coming to an interchange with Dryden Way, where the route widens to eight lanes. Past Dryden Way, Route 10 features an interchange with I-287 and narrows to four lanes. The road heads through the Whippany section of Hanover Township, where it has an interchange with CR 511 and crosses the Morristown and Erie Railway's Whippany Line west of the Whippany Railway Museum. Route 10 enters East Hanover Township at the bridge over Whippany Brook. Along Route 10 in East Hanover, the road passes several businesses. Route 10 crosses the Passaic River into Livingston, Essex County, where it becomes Mt. Pleasant Avenue. The route comes to the Livingston Circle, a realigned traffic circle, in the community of Morehousetown, with CR 508 and CR 609 (Eisenhower Parkway). Past this traffic circle, the divided highway becomes a four-lane undivided road with some businesses and homes along the road. The route crosses CR 527 and narrows to two lanes a short distance past that intersection. The route enters West Orange at the point it crosses Nance Road. In West Orange, Route 10 ends at the Prospect Avenue intersection where radio station 1560 WFME's studios and 94.7 WXBK's transmitter facilities are located. At this intersection, CR 577 heads east on Mt. Pleasant Avenue and north on Prospect Avenue while CR 677 (signed as CR 577 Spur) heads south on Prospect Avenue. ## History Route 10 roughly follows a portion of an old Lenape trail from the Passaic River to Whippany. The Newark and Mount Pleasant Turnpike was established along the present-day alignment of Route 10 east of Dover on March 12, 1806, existing as a turnpike until before 1833. Route 10 was designated in 1927 to run from Jersey City west to Route 6 (now US 46) west of Dover, passing through Newark. This routing of Route 10 followed its current alignment and ran east along present-day CR 577, Mt. Pleasant Avenue, and Park Avenue to Newark, where it followed CR 508 and Route 7 to US 1/9 at the Tonnele Circle in Jersey City. By 1930, the road's western terminus had been moved to bypass Dover to terminate at Ledgewood. The earliest completed sections of an upgraded highway were completed from Livingston Circle to Whippany, with the bridge over the Passaic River completed in 1930. From there the road was extended to the Mount Tabor Road (Route 53), and finished at Ledgewood. In Essex County, the route that the highway would be constructed along was contentious from the start. In 1930 and 1931, three proposals for arteries were presented, all paralleling existing railroads. Though demands to decide a route and begin construction extended to at least 1937, no highway was ever constructed, and the road terminated at West Orange. To solve this issue, a new route for Route 10 was designated in 1952 to run along a new, never-built alignment farther to the north, running through Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair, West Orange, and along the Livingston/Roseland border, roughly along much of the routing of present-day CR 611 (Eagle Rock Avenue), and following its current alignment through Morris County to Ledgewood. A spur of the route was also planned in 1952 to run from Montclair south to Orange. A year later, in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 10 was defined onto its current alignment, with its eastern terminus moved to Prospect Avenue in West Orange. In 1998, the Ledgewood Circle at the western terminus of the route was replaced with a signalized T-intersection. In the mid-2000s, an \$11.5 million project was undertaken to improve safety on the portion of Route 10 in Hanover and East Hanover Townships by widening existing lanes and adding turning lanes to the road. Joint Resolution No. 3, page 844, of the 160th Legislature (1936) designated Route 10 as the American Legion Memorial Highway in honor of the services of the members of the American Legion in World War I. ## Major intersections ## See also

Japanese destroyer Yanagi (1944)

Japanese Matsu-class escort destroyers

Yanagi (柳, "Willow") was one of 18 Matsu-class escort destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Completed in early 1945, the ship was deployed to northern Japan for convoy escort duties in May. She was badly damaged during the American attacks on Hokkaido and northern Honshu in mid-July and was further damaged when they repeated those attacks on 9 August. Yanagi was scrapped in 1947. ## Design and description Designed for ease of production, the Matsu class was smaller, slower and more lightly armed than previous destroyers as the IJN intended them for second-line duties like escorting convoys, releasing the larger ships for missions with the fleet. The ships measured 100 meters (328 ft 1 in) long overall, with a beam of 9.35 meters (30 ft 8 in) and a draft of 3.3 meters (10 ft 10 in). Their crew numbered 210 officers and enlisted men. They displaced 1,282 metric tons (1,262 long tons) at standard load and 1,554 metric tons (1,529 long tons) at deep load. The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by two Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of 19,000 shaft horsepower (14,000 kW) for a speed of 27.8 knots (51.5 km/h; 32.0 mph). The Matsus had a range of 4,680 nautical miles (8,670 km; 5,390 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The main armament of the Matsu-class ships consisted of three 127-millimeter (5 in) Type 89 dual-purpose guns in one twin-gun mount aft and one single mount forward of the superstructure. The single mount was partially protected against spray by a gun shield. The accuracy of the Type 89 guns was severely reduced against aircraft because no high-angle gunnery director was fitted. The ships carried a total of twenty-five 25-millimeter (1 in) Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in 4 triple and 13 single mounts. The Matsus were equipped with Type 13 early-warning and Type 22 surface-search radars. The ships were also armed with a single rotating quadruple mount amidships for 610-millimeter (24 in) torpedoes. They could deliver their 36 depth charges via two stern rails and two throwers. ## Construction and career Authorized in the late 1942 Modified 5th Naval Armaments Supplement Program, Yanagi (willow) was laid down by Fujinagata Shipyards on 20 August 1944 in its Osaka facility and launched on 25 November. Upon her completion on 18 January 1945, the ship was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 11 of the Combined Fleet for working up. Upon the completion of her training, the ship was assigned to the squadron's Destroyer Division 53. The squadron was briefly attached to the Second Fleet on 1–20 April before rejoining the Combined Fleet. On 22 May, Yanagi was transferred to the Ominato area for convoy escort duties. During attacks by Task Force 38 on Hokkaido and northern Honshu on 14 July, the ship had her stern blown off when she was attacked by carrier aircraft in the Tsugaru Strait. Her crew casualties are unknown, but the destroyer was towed to Ominato. Destroyer Division 53 was disbanded the following day. Yanagi was still in Ominato when Task Force 38 conducted further attacks in the Hokkaido area on 9–10 August and was further damaged. The ship was turned over to Allied forces at Hakodate at the time of the surrender of Japan on 2 September and was stricken from the navy list on 20 November. Unrepaired, she was broken up at Ominato on 1 April 1947.

Pizza cheese

Cheese for use specifically on pizza

Pizza cheese encompasses several varieties and types of cheeses and dairy products that are designed and manufactured for use specifically on pizza. These include processed and modified cheese such as mozzarella-like processed cheeses and mozzarella variants. The term can also refer to any type of cheese suitable for use on pizza. The most popular cheeses used in the preparation of pizza are mozzarella (accounting for about 30%), provolone, cheddar and Parmesan. Emmental, Romano and ricotta are often used as toppings, and processed pizza cheeses manufactured specifically for pizza are mass-produced. Some mass-produced pizza cheeses are frozen after manufacturing and shipped frozen. Processed pizza cheese is manufactured to produce optimal qualities in browning, melting, stretchiness and fat and moisture content. Several studies and experiments have analyzed the impact of vegetable oil, manufacturing and culture processes, denatured whey proteins and other changes to create ideal and economical pizza cheeses. In 1997, it was estimated that annual production of pizza cheese products was 2 billion pounds in the United States and 200 million pounds in Europe, and in 2000 demand for the product in Europe was increasing by 8% per year. The trend of steadily-increasing production and consumption of mozzarella and pizza cheese continued into the first decade of the 21st century in the United States. ## Varieties and types The International Dictionary of Food and Cooking defines pizza cheese as "a soft spun-curd cheese similar to Mozzarella made from cow's milk..." that is "...used particularly for pizzas and contains somewhat less water than real Mozzarella..." Most are at least 95 percent Mozzarella, with different moisture and fat densities. Cheese for frozen pizzas may be comminuted, in which the cheese is processed into minute granules or fragments. Low-moisture Mozzarella can be formulated specifically for pizza. Cheese may be processed into blocks, from which the product can be grated, made into granules or sliced for use on pizza or other foods. Pizza cheese frequently consists of a blend of two or more cheeses, such as low-moisture Mozzarella or Provolone. Low-moisture Mozzarella was first manufactured in dairy factories in the Midwestern United States, and was originally called "pizza cheese". Compared to standard Mozzarella, low-moisture Mozzarella has a firmer texture, is easier to grate, has better browning and melting characteristics, and is less perishable. Globally, Mozzarella is the most popular pizza cheese. However, it has been estimated that in the United States only 30% of all pizza cheese used is actual Mozzarella. Provolone is the second most popular one. Cheddar may be mixed with Mozzarella to preserve chewiness. Grated Parmesan may be added to the top of a pizza, and typically does not melt well when cooked. A diverse variety of processed pizza cheeses are produced, including analogue cheese. Provel is one example. Other pizza cheeses include Emmental and Romano; Detroit-style pizza is noted for its use of Wisconsin brick cheese. Ricotta is used for calzones or as a topping. Several cheeses may be mixed together in its formulation, and each has individual browning and blistering characteristics. For example, a combination of Mozzarella and Cheddar may blister less when cooked compared to other combinations, because cheddar has less elasticity, while Mozzarella and provolone may brown less compared to other combinations. ### Processed pizza cheeses Pasteurized and processed cheese-like products for pizza that are quicker and cheaper to produce than real cheese and designed to melt well and remain chewy are used on many mass-produced pizzas in North America and the United Kingdom. These products are referred to as analogue (or analog) pizza cheese; in the UK the term "cheese analogue" is used, making clear that it is not actually cheese. In the book Technology of Cheesemaking, editors Law and Tamimethat state that analogue pizza cheese appears to be the leading type of cheese analogue produced globally. Each year in the United States, 700 million frozen pizzas are sold, three-quarters of which contain cheese substitutes. Analogue pizza cheeses may be formulated for processing with less sophisticated cheese-making equipment than is required for Mozzarella cheese, such as using simple mixing and molding. They tend to have a soft texture and once melted, may have a slightly "stringy" quality when pulled or bitten into. They may lack in a fusion, or melting together of the shredded product when cooked, in which the cheese gels together. New stabilizer systems have been developed that have helped to enable the creation of analogue pizza cheeses. An example of a processed pizza cheese is Provel, which uses Cheddar, Swiss, and Provolone cheeses as flavorants. Some analogue types are made with casein, a by-product of milk, and vegetable oil, rather than milk fat. Casein-based Mozzarella-like imitation processed cheeses prepared using rennet are also used as a Mozzarella substitute on frozen pizzas. In some instances, the production of analogue pizza cheese can be similar to the production of cream cheese, although production may be different and homogenization may be avoided. In some varieties, the product is heated to remain at a specific temperature and for a specific amount of time, which causes the proteins in the mix to gelatinize. During this process, salts in the mix serve to emulsify it and thus improve the meltability of the final product. The heated product is then placed in packaging such as bags-in-boxes while still hot, as it is more easily handled in this state compared to when in a solid state. During packaging, these types of pizza cheeses are then quick-cooled to avoid browning of the product, which can occur via the Maillard reaction. ## Research and development Manufacturers and academics have conducted studies and experiments in an effort to improve the stretchiness, melting characteristics, browning, fat content and water retention of pizza cheese. Several patents exist for specialized varieties of pizza cheese and for its processing. A study by Rudan and Barbano found that the addition of a thin layer of vegetable oil atop low- and reduced-fat pizza cheese increased meltability and reduced browning and dehydration when the product was cooked, but the texture remained overly chewy and tough. A study by Perry et al. found various methods to heighten the melt of low-fat pizza cheese by increasing its moisture, including the use of pre-acidification, fat-replacers, and exopolysaccharide starter cultures as well as higher pasteurization temperatures. Manufacturers aim for a moisture content of 50–52% and a fat-in-dry-matter content of 35–40%. A study published in the International Journal of Food & Science Technology found that a 12.5:87.5 blend of vetch milk and bovine milk improved stretchiness and melting characteristics. Vetch is a legume that has seeds which are similar to lentils. An experiment published in the International Journal of Dairy Technology suggested that the level of galactose, a monosaccharide sugar that is less sweet than glucose and fructose, can be reduced using different culture techniques. An article in the International Journal of Food Engineering found that trisodium citrate, a food additive used to preserve and add flavor to foods, slightly improved the preferred qualities of pizza cheese. Research published in Dairy Industries International suggested that denatured whey proteins increased moisture retention, but that the improvements were very slight and not economically worthwhile relative to the minor improvements. Some consumers prefer pizza cheese with less browning, which can be achieved using low-moisture part-skim Mozzarella with a low galactose content. Some varieties derived from skim mozzarella variants were designed not to require aging or the use of fermentation starter. Others can be produced through the direct acidification of milk, which may be used in place of bacterial fermentation. ## Production and business In the United States, the production and consumption of Mozzarella and pizza cheese steadily increased in the mid-20th century, and this trend has continued into the first decade of the 21st century. In the U.S., several hundred million pounds of pizza cheese is consumed annually. In 1997, it was estimated that annual production of the product was 1 million tons (2 billion pounds) in the United States and 100,000 tonnes (98,000 long tons; 110,000 short tons, 220,460,000 pounds) in Europe. It has been estimated that 30% of all pizza cheese used in the United States is mozzarella. As of 2000, demand for the product was growing in Europe by 8 percent per year. Mass-produced pizza cheese is used by the foodservice industry, quick service restaurants, and other industries and businesses. The world's largest manufacturer of pizza cheese, Leprino Foods Company, processes 600,000 tonnes (590,000 long tons; 660,000 short tons, 1,322,760,000 pounds) a year. Leprino Foods holds patents for some specialized Mozzarella production processes that enable the quick manufacture of the product. One such product is a frozen shredded cheese used for pizza that is created in a few hours from milk. Other U.S. companies also mass-produce pizza cheese, which is shipped in a frozen state. As of 2000, Glanbia is the largest producer of pizza cheese in Europe. Some retail and commercially mass-produced frozen pizzas have cheese stuffed into the pizza crust. ## Use by region Significant amounts of pizza cheese are used in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Whole milk mozzarella is popular in pizzas in the East and Southwest regions of the U.S., while one survey showed that Provolone was more popular on the east and west coast. Cheddar may be used more in the Eastern and Southern regions of the U.S. Provel cheese is typically used in the preparation of St. Louis-style pizza in the U.S. ## See also - Food processing - Novozymes - List of cheeses - Pasta filata – a technique to produce a stretched curd cheese suitable for pizza. - Pizza in the United States

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Commonwealth organisation responsible for war graves

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. The commission was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960. The commission, as part of its mandate, is responsible for commemorating all Commonwealth war dead individually and equally. To this end, the war dead are commemorated by a name on a headstone, at an identified site of a burial, or on a memorial. War dead are commemorated uniformly and equally, irrespective of military or civil rank, race or creed. The commission is currently responsible for the continued commemoration of 1.7 million deceased Commonwealth military service members in 153 countries. Since its inception, the commission has constructed approximately 2,500 war cemeteries and numerous memorials. The commission is currently responsible for the care of war dead at over 23,000 separate burial sites and the maintenance of more than 200 memorials worldwide. In addition to commemorating Commonwealth military service members, the commission maintains, under arrangement with applicable governments, over 40,000 non-Commonwealth war graves and over 25,000 non-war military and civilian graves. The commission operates through the continued financial support of the member states: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The current President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. ## History ### First World War At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Fabian Ware, a director of the Rio Tinto Company, found that he was too old, at age 45, to join the British Army. He used the influence of Rio Tinto chairman, Viscount Milner, to become the commander of a mobile unit of the British Red Cross. He arrived in France in September 1914 and whilst there was struck by the lack of any official mechanism for documenting or marking the location of graves of those who had been killed and felt compelled to create an organisation within the Red Cross for this purpose. In March 1915, with the support of Nevil Macready, Adjutant-General of the British Expeditionary Force, Ware's work was given official recognition and support by the Imperial War Office and the unit was transferred to the British Army as the Graves Registration Commission. The new Graves Registration Commission had over 31,000 graves of British and Imperial soldiers registered by October 1915 and 50,000 registered by May 1916. When municipal graveyards began to overfill Ware began negotiations with various local authorities to acquire land for further cemeteries. Ware began with an agreement with France to build joint British and French cemeteries under the understanding that these would be maintained by the French government. Ware eventually concluded that it was not prudent to leave the maintenance responsibilities solely to the French government and subsequently arranged for France to purchase the land (under the law of 29 December 1915), grant it in perpetuity, and leave the management and maintenance responsibilities to the British. The French government agreed under the condition that cemeteries respected certain dimensions, were accessible by public road, were in the vicinity of medical aid stations and were not too close to towns or villages. Similar negotiations began with the Belgian government. As reports of the grave registration work became public, the commission began to receive letters of enquiry and requests for photographs of graves from relatives of deceased soldiers. By 1917, 17,000 photographs had been dispatched to relatives. In March 1915, the commission, with the support of the Red Cross, began to dispatch photographic prints and cemetery location information in answer to the requests. The Graves Registration Commission became the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries in the spring of 1916 in recognition of the fact that the scope of work began to extend beyond simple grave registration and began to include responding to enquiries from relatives of those killed. The directorate's work was also extended beyond the Western Front and into other theatres of war, with units deployed in Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia. ### Formal establishment As the war continued, Ware and others became concerned about the fate of the graves in the post-war period. Following a suggestion by the British Army, the government appointed the National Committee for the Care of Soldiers' Graves in January 1916, with Edward, Prince of Wales agreeing to serve as president. The National Committee for the Care of Soldiers' Graves was created with the intention of taking over the work of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries after the war. The government felt that it was more appropriate to entrust the work to a specially appointed body rather than to any existing government department. By early 1917, a number of members of the committee believed a formal imperial organisation would be needed to care for the graves. With the help of Edward, Prince of Wales, Ware submitted a memorandum to the Imperial War Conference in 1917 suggesting that an imperial organisation be constituted. The suggestion was accepted and on 21 May 1917 the Imperial War Graves Commission was established by Royal Charter, with the Prince of Wales serving as president, Secretary of State for War Lord Derby as chairman and Ware as vice-chairman. The commission's undertakings began in earnest at the end of the First World War. Once land for cemeteries and memorials had been guaranteed, the enormous task of recording the details of the dead could begin. By 1918, some 587,000 graves had been identified and a further 559,000 casualties were registered as having no known grave. The scale, and associated high number of casualties, of the war produced an entirely new attitude towards the commemoration of war dead. Previous to the First World War, individual commemoration of war dead was often on an ad hoc basis and was almost exclusively limited to commissioned officers. However, the war required mobilisation of a significant percentage of the population, either as volunteers or through conscription. An expectation had consequently arisen that individual soldiers would expect to be commemorated, even if they were low-ranking members of the military. A committee under Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British Museum, presented a report to the Commission in November 1918 detailing how it envisioned the development of the cemeteries. Two key elements of this report were that bodies should not be repatriated and that uniform memorials should be used to avoid class distinctions. Beyond the logistical nightmare of returning home so many corpses, it was felt that repatriation would conflict with the feeling of brotherhood that had developed between serving ranks. An article in The Times on 17 February 1919 by Rudyard Kipling carried the commission's proposal to a wider audience and described what the graves would look like. The article entitled War Graves: Work of Imperial Commission: Mr. Kipling's Survey was quickly republished as an illustrated booklet, Graves of the Fallen. The illustrated booklet was intended to soften the impact of Kenyon's report as it included illustrations of cemeteries with mature trees and shrubs; contrasting the bleak landscapes depicted in published battlefield photos. There was an immediate public outcry following the publication of the reports, particularly with regards to the decision to not repatriate the bodies of the dead. The reports generated considerable discussion in the press which ultimately led to a heated debate in Parliament on 4 May 1920. Sir James Remnant started the debate, followed by speeches by William Burdett-Coutts in favour of the commission's principles and Robert Cecil speaking for those desiring repatriation and opposing uniformity of grave markers. Winston Churchill closed the debate and asked that the issue not proceed to a vote. Remnant withdrew his motion, allowing the commission to carry out its work assured of support for its principles. The 1920 United States Public Law 66-175 ensured American citizens who were killed while in service of a Commonwealth nation were eligible for burial in national cemeteries in the United States However, the commission made no repatriation policy exception for American citizens and attempts to retrieve loved ones from Commonwealth cemeteries were not supported by the American Graves Registration Service. ### First cemeteries and memorials to the missing In 1918, three of the most eminent architects of their day, Sir Herbert Baker, Sir Reginald Blomfield, and Sir Edwin Lutyens were appointed as the organization's initial Principal Architects. Rudyard Kipling was appointed literary advisor for the language used for memorial inscriptions. In 1920, the Commission built three experimental cemeteries at Le Treport, Forceville and Louvencourt, following the principles outlined in the Kenyon report. Of these, the Forceville Communal Cemetery and Extension was agreed to be the most successful. Having consulted with garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, the architects created a walled cemetery with uniform headstones in a garden setting, augmented by Blomfield's Cross of Sacrifice and Lutyens' Stone of Remembrance. After some adjustments, Forceville became the template for the commission's building programme. Cost overruns at all three experimental cemeteries necessitated some adjustments. To ensure future cemeteries remained within their budget the Commission decided to not build shelters in cemeteries that contained less than 200 graves, to not place a Stone of Remembrance in any cemetery with less than 400 graves, and to limit the height of cemetery walls to 1 metre (3.3 ft). At the end of 1919, the commission had spent £7,500, and this figure rose to £250,000 in 1920 as construction of cemeteries and memorials increased. By 1921, the commission had established 1,000 cemeteries which were ready for headstone erections, and burials. Between 1920 and 1923, the commission was shipping 4,000 headstones a week to France. In many cases, the Commission closed small cemeteries and concentrated the graves into larger ones. By 1927, when the majority of construction had been completed, over 500 cemeteries had been built, with 400,000 headstones, a thousand Crosses of Sacrifice, and 400 Stones of Remembrance. The commission had also been mandated to individually commemorate each soldier who had no known grave, which amounted to 315,000 in France and Belgium alone. The Commission initially decided to build 12 monuments on which to commemorate the missing; each memorial being located at the site of an important battle along the Western Front. After resistance from the French committee responsible for the approvals of memorials on French territory, the Commission revised their plan and reduced the number of memorials, and in some cases built memorials to the missing in existing cemeteries rather than as separate structures. Reginald Blomfield's Menin Gate was the first memorial to the missing located in Europe to be completed, and was unveiled on 24 July 1927. The Menin Gate (Menenpoort) was found to have insufficient space to contain all the names as originally planned and 34,984 names of the missing were instead inscribed on Herbert Baker's Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing. Other memorials followed: the Helles Memorial in Gallipoli designed by John James Burnet; the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme and the Arras Memorial designed by Edwin Lutyens; and the Basra Memorial in Iraq designed by Edward Prioleau Warren. The Dominions and India also erected memorials on which they commemorated their missing: the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial for the forces of India, the Vimy Memorial by Canada, the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial by Australia, the Delville Wood Memorial by South Africa and the Beaumont-Hamel Memorial by Newfoundland. The programme of commemorating the dead of the Great War was considered essentially complete with the inauguration of the Thiepval Memorial in 1932, though the Vimy Memorial would not be finished until 1936, the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial until 1938 and stonemasons were still conducting work on the Menin Gate when Germany invaded Belgium in 1940. The only memorial created by the Commission that was not in the form of a monument or cemetery was the Memorial Ophthalmic Laboratory at Giza, Egypt—complete with library, and bacteriology and pathology departments—as its memorial to men of the Egyptian Labour Corps and Camel Transport Corps. Its erection was agreed with local political pressure. ### Second World War From the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Commission organised grave registration units and, planning ahead based on the experience gained from the First World War, earmarked land for use as cemeteries. When the war began turning in favour of the Allies, the commission was able to begin restoring its First World War cemeteries and memorials. It also began the task of commemorating the 600,000 Commonwealth casualties from the Second World War. As with the First World War, casualties were commemorated with uniform memorials and bodies should not be repatriated. Exceptionally, the American Graves Registration were permitted to repatriate the remains of an unknown number of American citizens who were in service of a Commonwealth nation during the Second World War. In 1949, the Commission completed Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery, the first of 559 new cemeteries and 36 new memorials. Eventually, the Commission erected over 350,000 new headstones, many from Hopton Wood stone. The wider scale of the Second World War, coupled with manpower shortages and unrest in some countries, meant that the construction and restoration programmes took much longer. In Albania the graves of 52 of the 54 graves of British SOE personnel had been reburied in Tirana before Major McIntosh from the CWGC Florence base was expelled by the new regime. Three-quarters of the original graves had been in "difficult" or remote locations. Following the war, the Commission implemented a five-year horticultural renovation programme which addressed neglect by 1950. Structural repairs, together with the backlog of maintenance tasks from before the war, took a further ten years to complete. With the increased number of civilian casualties compared with the First World War, Winston Churchill agreed to Ware's proposal that the commission also maintain a record of Commonwealth civilian war deaths. A supplemental chapter was added to the Imperial War Graves Commission's charter on 7 February 1941, empowering the organisation to collect and record the names of civilians who died from enemy action during the Second World War, which resulted in the creation of the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour. The roll eventually contained the names of nearly 67,000 civilians. The Commission and the Dean of Westminster reached an agreement that the roll would eventually be placed in Westminster Abbey but not until the roll was complete and hostilities had ended. The Commission handed over the first six volumes to the Dean of Westminster on 21 February 1956; it added the final volume to the showcase in 1958. ### Post–Second World War Following the Second World War, the Commission recognised that the word 'Imperial' within its name was no longer appropriate. In the spirit of strengthening national and regional feelings the organization changed its name to Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1960. More recent conflicts have sometimes made it impossible for the commission to care for cemeteries in a given region or resulted in the destruction of sites altogether. Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in Germany was unkempt after the end of the Second World War and until the German reunification because it was located in an area occupied by Russian forces and was not entirely rebuilt until 2005. The Six-Day War and War of Attrition resulted in the destruction of Port Tewfik Memorial and Aden Memorial, and the death of a Commission gardener at Suez War Memorial Cemetery. During the Lebanese Civil War two cemeteries in Beirut were destroyed and had to be rebuilt. The maintenance of war graves and memorials in Iraq has remained difficult since Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, with regular maintenance being impractical since after the Gulf War. The commission also provides support for war graves outside its traditional mandate. In 1982, the British Ministry of Defence requested the commission's assistance to design and construct cemeteries in the Falkland Islands for those killed during the Falklands War. Although these cemeteries are not Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries, the Commission manages the administrative responsibilities for them. Since 2005, the commission has carried out similar management duties on behalf of the British Ministry of Defence for cemeteries and graves of British and Imperial soldiers who died during the Second Boer War. In 2003, Veterans Affairs Canada employed the commission to develop an approach to locate grave markers for which the Canadian Minister of Veterans Affairs has responsibility. As of 2011, the commission conducts a twelve-year cyclical inspection programme of Canadian veterans' markers installed at the expense of the Government of Canada. In 2008, an exploratory excavation discovered mass graves on the edge of Pheasant Wood outside of Fromelles. Two-hundred and fifty British and Australian bodies were excavated from five mass graves which were interred in the newly constructed Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery. This was the first new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in more than 50 years, the last such cemeteries having been built after the Second World War. ## Burial sites and memorials The commission is currently responsible for the continued commemoration of 1.7 million deceased Commonwealth military service members in 153 countries and approximately 67,000 civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. Commonwealth military service members are commemorated by name on either a headstone, at an identified site of a burial, or on a memorial. As a result, the commission is currently responsible for the care of war dead at over 23,000 separate burial sites and maintenance of more than 200 memorials worldwide. The vast majority of burial sites are pre-existing communal or municipal cemeteries and parish churchyards located in the United Kingdom, however the commission has itself constructed approximately 2,500 war cemeteries worldwide. The commission has also constructed or commissioned memorials to commemorate the dead who have no known grave; the largest of these is the Thiepval Memorial. ### Qualifications for inclusion The Commission only commemorates those who have died during the designated war years, while in Commonwealth military service or of causes attributable to service. Death in service included not only those killed in combat but other causes such as those that died in training accidents, air raids and due to disease such as the 1918 flu pandemic. The applicable periods of consideration are 4 August 1914 to 31 August 1921 for the First World War and 3 September 1939 to 31 December 1947 for the Second World War. The end date for the First World War period is the official end of the war, while for the Second World War the Commission selected a date approximately the same period after VE Day as the official end of the First World War was after the 1918 Armistice. Civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War are commemorated differently from those that died as a result of military service. They are commemorated by name through the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour located in St George's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. In addition to its mandated duties, the commission maintains, under arrangement with applicable governments, over 40,000 non-Commonwealth war graves and over 25,000 non-war military and civilian graves. ### Architects and sculptors As well as the main Principal Architects for France and Belgium (Baker, Blomfield and Lutyens), there were Principal Architects appointed for other regions as well. Sir Robert Lorimer was Principal Architect for Italy, Macedonia and Egypt, while Sir John James Burnet was Principal Architect for Palestine and Gallipoli, assisted by Thomas Smith Tait. The Principal Architect for Mesopotamia was Edward Prioleau Warren. As well as these senior architects, there was a team of Assistant Architects who were actually responsible for many of the cemetery and memorial designs. These architects were younger, and many of them had served in the war. The Assistant Architects were: George Esselmont Gordon Leith, Wilfred Clement Von Berg, Charles Henry Holden (who in 1920 became a Principal Architect), William Harrison Cowlishaw, William Bryce Binnie, George Hartley Goldsmith, Frank Higginson, Arthur James Scott Hutton, Noel Ackroyd Rew, and John Reginald Truelove. Other architects that worked for the commission, or won competitions for the Commission memorials, included George Salway Nicol, Harold Chalton Bradshaw, Verner Owen Rees, Gordon H. Holt, and Henry Philip Cart de Lafontaine. In January 1944, Edward Maufe was appointed Principal Architect for the UK. Maufe worked extensively for the commission for 25 years until 1969, becoming Chief Architect and also succeeding Kenyon as Artistic Advisor. Together with Maufe, the other Principal Architects appointed during and after the Second World War were Hubert Worthington, Louis de Soissons, Philip Hepworth and Colin St Clair Oakes. Leading sculptors that worked on the memorials and cemeteries after the First World War included Eric Henri Kennington, Charles Thomas Wheeler, Gilbert Ledward, and Charles Sargeant Jagger. Other sculptors, both in the inter-war period and after the Second World War, included William Reid Dick, Ernest Gillick, Basil Gotto, Alfred Turner, Laurence A. Turner, Walter Gilbert, Henry Poole, Vernon Hill, Robert Anning Bell, Ferdinand Victor Blundstone, Joseph Armitage, and Gilbert Bayes. ### Cemetery design #### Common architectural design features Structural design has always played an important part in the commission's cemeteries. Apart from a few exceptions, due to local geological conditions, the cemeteries follow the same design and uniform aesthetic all over the world. This makes the cemeteries easily recognisable and distinguishes them from war graves administered by other groups or countries. A typical cemetery is surrounded by a low wall or hedge and with a wrought-iron gate entrance. For cemeteries in France and Belgium, a land tablet near the entrance or along a wall identifies the cemetery grounds as having been provided by the French or Belgian governments. All but the smallest cemeteries contain a register with an inventory of the burials, a plan of the plots and rows, and a basic history of the cemetery. The register is located within a metal cupboard that is marked with a cross located in either the wall near the cemetery entrance or in a shelter within the cemetery. More recently, in larger sites, a stainless steel notice gives details of the respective military campaign. The headstones within the cemetery are of a uniform size and design and mark plots of equal size. The cemetery grounds are, except in drier climates, grass-covered with a floral border around the headstones. There is also an absence of any paving between the headstone rows which is intended to make the cemetery feel like a traditional walled garden where visitors could experience a sense of peace. However, Carter and Jackson argue that the uniform aesthetics are designed to evoke a positive experience which deliberately masks and sanitises the nature of the war deaths. #### Cross of Sacrifice and Stone of Remembrance Typically, cemeteries of more than 40 graves contain a Cross of Sacrifice designed by architect Reginald Blomfield. This cross was designed to imitate medieval crosses found in churchyards in England with proportions more commonly seen in the Celtic cross. The cross is normally a freestanding four-point limestone Latin cross, mounted on an octagonal base, and ranging in height from 14 to 32 feet (4.3 to 9.8 m). A bronze longsword, blade down, is embedded on the face of the cross. This cross represents the faith of the majority of the dead and the sword represents the military character of the cemetery, intended to link British soldiers and the Christian concept of self-sacrifice. Cemeteries with more than 1000 burials typically have a Stone of Remembrance, designed by Edwin Lutyens with the inscription "Their name liveth for evermore". The concept of the Stone of Remembrance stone was developed by Rudyard Kipling to commemorate those of all faiths and none respectively. In contrast to the Cross of Sacrifice, the design for the stone deliberately avoided "shapes associated with particular religions". The geometry of the structure was based on studies of the Parthenon. Each stone is 12 feet (3.5 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) high. The shape of the stone has been compared both to that of a sarcophagus and an altar. The feature was designed using the principle of entasis. The subtle curves in the design, if extended, would form a sphere 1,801 feet 8 inches (549.15 m) in diameter. #### Headstones Every grave is marked with a headstone. Each headstone contains the national emblem or regimental badge, rank, name, unit, date of death and age of each casualty inscribed above an appropriate religious symbol and a more personal dedication chosen by relatives. The headstones use a standard upper case lettering designed by MacDonald Gill. Individual graves are arranged, where possible, in straight rows and marked by uniform headstones, the vast majority of which are made of Portland stone. The original headstone dimensions were 30 inches (76 cm) tall, 15 in (38 cm) wide, and 3 in (7.6 cm) thick. Most headstones are inscribed with a cross, except for those deceased known to be atheist or non-Christian. In the case of burials of Victoria Cross or George Cross recipients, the regimental badge is supplemented by the Victoria Cross or George Cross emblem. Sometimes a soldier employed a pseudonym because he was too young to serve or was sought by law enforcement; in such cases his primary name is shown along with the notation "served as". Some American citizens who served with Commonwealth forces during the Second World War have the notation "Of U.S.A.". Those whose's exact burial location within a cemetery is not known will contain the superscript "Buried elsewhere in this Cemetery", "Known to be buried in this cemetery" or "Believed to be buried in this cemetery". Many headstones are for unidentified casualties; they consequently bear only what could be discovered from the body. The epitaph, developed by Rudyard Kipling, that appears on the graves of unidentified soldiers for which no details are known is "A Soldier of the Great War known unto God". Some headstones bear the text "believed to be buried in this cemetery" when the grave's exact location within the cemetery is not known. In some cases soldiers were buried in collective graves and distinguishing one body from another was not possible and thus one headstone covers more than one grave. The headstone does not denote any specific details of the death except for its date, and even then only if it is known, and are deliberately ambiguous about the cause of death. Due to local conditions it was sometimes necessary for the commission to deviate from its standard design. In places prone to extreme weather or earthquakes, such as Thailand and Turkey, stone-faced pedestal markers are used instead of the normal headstones. These measures are intended to prevent masonry being damaged during earthquakes or sinking into sodden ground. In Italy, headstones were carved from Chiampo Perla limestone because it was in more plentiful supply. In Struma Military Cemetery, in Greece, to avoid risk of earthquake damage, small headstones are laid flush to the ground. Due to their smaller size, the markers often lack unit insignia. #### Horticulture Commission cemeteries are distinctive in treating floriculture as an integral part of the cemetery design. Originally, the horticultural concept was to create an environment where visitors could experience a sense of peace in a setting, in contrast to traditionally bleak graveyards. Recommendations given by Arthur William Hill, the Assistant Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew enabled the commission to develop cemetery layouts and architectural structures that took into account the placement of suitable plant life. Combining structural and horticultural elements were not unfamiliar to the commission's architects. Sir Edwin Lutyens furthered his long-standing working relationship with horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll, whose devotion to traditional cottage garden plants and roses greatly influenced the appearance of the cemeteries. Where possible, indigenous plants were utilised to enhance sentimental associations with the gardens of home. Variety in texture, height and timing of floral display were equally important horticultural considerations. The beds around each headstone are planted with a mixture of floribunda roses and herbaceous perennials. Low-growing plants are chosen for areas immediately in front of headstones, ensuring that inscriptions are not obscured and preventing soil from splashing back during rain. In cemeteries where there are pedestal grave markers, dwarf varieties of plants are used instead. The absence of any form of paving between the headstone rows contributes to the simplicity of the cemetery designs. Lawn paths add to the garden ambience and are irrigated during the dry season in countries where there is insufficient rain. Where irrigation is inappropriate or impractical, dry landscaping is an ecological alternative favoured by the commission's horticulturists, as is the case in Iraq. Drier areas require a different approach not only for lawns but also to plants and styles of planting. Similarly, there are separate horticultural considerations in tropical climates. When many cemeteries are concentrated within a limited area, like along the Western Front or Gallipoli peninsula, mobile teams of gardeners operate from a local base. Elsewhere, larger cemeteries have their own dedicated staff while small cemeteries are usually tended by a single gardener working part-time. ## Organisation ### Commissioners The affairs of the CWGC are overseen by a Board of Commissioners. The President of the board is HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the Chairman is the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace MP and the Vice Chairman is Vice Admiral Peter Hudson CB CBE. Claire Horton was appointed Director-General of the CWGC in 2020 The members are: the High Commissioner for New Zealand to the United Kingdom, Phil Goff; the High Commissioner of Australia to the United Kingdom, Stephen Smith; the High Commissioner of the Republic of South Africa to the United Kingdom, Jeremiah Nyamane Mamabolo; the High Commissioner for India to the United Kingdom, Vikram Doraiswami; the High Commissioner for Canada to the United Kingdom, Ralph E. Goodale; Keryn James; Sir Tim Hitchens; Vice Admiral Peter Hudson; Hon Philip Dunne; Dame Diana Johnson; Vasuki Shastry; Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas; Lieutenant General Sir Ben Bathurst. ### Functional structure The CWGC is headquartered in Maidenhead, England. Offices or agencies that are each responsible for a specific geographical area manage the worldwide affairs of the organisation. They are: 1. United Kingdom and Northern Area - UKNA: responsible for United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Gibraltar, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia (West) / Ukraine 2. Central and Southern Europe Area - C&SEA: responsible for Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Malta, North Macedonia Republic, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Greece 3. France Area - FA: responsible for France, Switzerland, Monaco, Spain, Portugal, Azores, Madeira 4. Canada, Americas and Pacific Area - CAPA: responsible for Canada, United States, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Falkland Islands, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, British China (including Hong Kong), Fiji, Japan, Philippines, Russia Vladivostok, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand 5. Africa and Asia Area - AAA: responsible for Armenia, Bangladesh, Botswana, British Indian Ocean Territories, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Congo (Democratic Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Swasiland (Eswatini), Ethiopia, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia (including Somaliland), South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Helena and Ascension, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, Azerbaijan, Israel and Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Bahrain ### Financing The CWGC's work is funded predominantly by grants from the governments of the six member states. In the fiscal year 2020/21, these grants amounted to £66.1 million of the organisation's £74.5 million of income. This equates to an approximate cost of per commemorated war dead. The contribution from each country is proportionate to the number of graves the CWGC maintains on behalf of that country. The percentage of total annual contributions for which each country is responsible is United Kingdom 79%, Canada 10%, Australia 6%, New Zealand 2%, South Africa 2% and India 1%. ## Ongoing projects and issues ### Reburials and identifications Immediately following the First World War, the British Army remained responsible for the exhumation of remains. The Western Front was divided into sectors and combed for bodies by 12-man exhumation units. Between the Armistice and September 1921, the exhumation units reburied 204,695 bodies. After 1921, no further comprehensive search for bodies was undertaken, and in February 1921 responsibility for the cemeteries was transferred to the commission. Nevertheless, despite the rigour of the searches, bodies continued to be discovered in large numbers. In the three years following the conclusion of the general search 38,000 bodies were discovered. In the mid 1920s, 20 to 30 bodies were being discovered weekly. The discovery of remains of First and Second World War casualties remains a common occurrence, with approximately 30 bodies discovered annually. For example, in 2006 eight bodies of Canadian soldiers from the 78th Battalion (Winnipeg Grenadiers), CEF were discovered in a backyard in Hallu, France. In April 2013, the remains of four British soldiers discovered by a French farmer clearing land with a metal detector in 2009 were re-interred at H.A.C. Cemetery near Arras, France. In March 2014, the remains of 20 Commonwealth and 30 German soldiers were discovered in Vendin-le-Vieil, France, with the Commonwealth soldiers being subsequently reburied at Loos British Cemetery. When the remains of a Commonwealth soldier from the First or Second World War is discovered the commission is notified, and a Commission burial officer tries to collect any associated artefacts that may help identify the individual. The details are then registered and archived at the commission's headquarters. Evidence used for identification purposes may include artifacts found with the remains, anthropological data and DNA. Investigation of archival records by members of the public periodically results in the identification of previously buried casualties. The archival records of the commission are open to the public to permit individuals to conduct their own research. In December 2013, it was discovered that Second Lieutenant Philip Frederick Cormack, who was previously commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, had in fact been buried in a French military cemetery in Machelen, East Flanders in Belgium. Sergeant Leonard Maidment was identified in 2013 after a visitor to Marfaux British Cemetery discovered a headstone of an unknown sergeant with the Hampshire Regiment killed on 20 July 1918, and was subsequently able to show that only one sergeant from that regiment had been killed in France on that date. As of July 2022, the In From The Cold Project has so far identified 7,255 individuals with either unmarked graves or names missing from the Roll of Honour maintained at Westminster Abbey. The majority of the casualties commemorated on the Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial are servicemen and women identified by the In From The Cold Project as having died while in care of their families and were not commemorated by the Commission at the time. ### Vandalism Cemeteries, including those of war dead, are targets for vandalism. The gravestones, cemeteries and buildings of the Commission are no exception. The Commission believes that graffiti and damage to stonework are usually the work of young people, noting that the number of incidents increases when schoolchildren are on school holidays. Metal theft is also a problem: determined thieves target the bronze swords from the Cross of Sacrifice, which are now replaced with replicas made of fibreglass. The vandalism of Commission cemeteries has also been connected to the participation of Commonwealth countries in contemporary conflicts. In the 1970s, during the Troubles, Commission cemeteries in Ireland experienced vandalism. Vandals defaced the central memorial of the Étaples Military Cemetery in northern France with anti-British and anti-American graffiti on 20 March 2003 immediately after the beginning of the Iraq War. On 9 May 2004, thirty-three headstones were demolished in the Gaza cemetery, which contains 3,691 graves, allegedly in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. On 24 February 2012, during the Libyan Civil War, Islamist militia damaged over 200 headstones in the Benghazi war cemetery, as well as the central memorial. ### Inequalities in commemoration In April 2021, a special committee of the CWGC published a report on historical inequalities in commemoration, concerning "failures to properly commemorate black and Asian troops" after the First World War. A set of public statements by CWGC and the Special Committee on the issue and the next steps to be taken were published on the CWGC website, and the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace made an official apology in the House of Commons. ## See also - American Battle Monuments Commission - German War Graves Commission - World War I memorials

George H. Steuart (brigadier general)

Confederate Army general

George Hume Steuart (August 24, 1828 – November 22, 1903) was a planter in Maryland and an American military officer; he served thirteen years in the United States Army before resigning his commission at the start of the American Civil War. He joined the Confederacy and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia. Nicknamed "Maryland" to avoid verbal confusion with Virginia cavalryman J.E.B. Stuart, Steuart unsuccessfully promoted the secession of Maryland before and during the conflict. He began the war as a captain of the 1st Maryland Infantry, CSA, and was promoted to colonel after the First Battle of Manassas. In 1862 he became brigadier general. After a brief cavalry command he was reassigned to infantry. Wounded at Cross Keys, Steuart was out of the war for almost a year while recovering from a shoulder injury. He was reassigned to Lee's army shortly before the Battle of Gettysburg. Steuart was captured at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and exchanged in the summer of 1864. He held a command in the Army of Northern Virginia for the remainder of the war. Steuart was among the officers with Robert E. Lee when he surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Steuart spent the rest of a long life operating a plantation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In the late nineteenth century, he joined the United Confederate Veterans and became commander of the Maryland division. ## Early life George Hume Steuart was born on August 24, 1828, into a family of Scottish ancestry in Baltimore. The eldest of nine children, he was raised at his family's estate in West Baltimore, known as Maryland Square, located near the present-day intersection of Baltimore and Monroe Streets. The Steuart family were wealthy plantation owners and were opposed to the abolition of slavery. The Steuarts shared a long tradition of military service. He was the son of Major General George H. Steuart, of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, who served in the War of 1812, and with whom he is often confused. Baltimore residents referred to the father and son as "The Old General" and "The Young General." The elder Steuart inherited approximately 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) of land in around 1842, including a farm at Mount Steuart, and around 150 slaves, a high number in the Upper South. Steuart was the grandson of Dr. James Steuart, a physician who served in the American Revolutionary War, and the great-grandson of Dr. George H. Steuart, a physician who emigrated to Maryland from Perthshire, Scotland, in 1721, and was lieutenant colonel of the Horse Militia under Governor Horatio Sharpe. ## Early military career Steuart attended the United States Military Academy between July 1, 1844, and July 1, 1848, graduating 37th in the class of 1848, aged nineteen. Steuart was assigned as 2nd lieutenant to the 2nd Dragoons, a regiment of cavalry that served in the frontier fighting Indians. He served in the Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in 1848, carried out frontier duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1849, and participated in an expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1849. He actively participated in the US Army's Cheyenne expedition of 1856, the Utah War against the Mormons in 1857–1858, and the Comanche expedition of 1860. ## Marriage and family He married Maria H. Kinzie, granddaughter of John Kinzie, founder of the city of Chicago, on January 14, 1858. The couple had met in Kansas and, once married, lived at Fort Leavenworth, although they were separated for long periods while Steuart was on campaign duty and stationed at distant frontier posts. They had two daughters: Marie Hunter, who was born in 1860 and went on to marry one Edmund Davis, and Ann Mary, born in 1864, who married one Rudolph Aloysius Leibig (1863-1895). The coming of war would place considerable strain on the Steuarts' marriage, leading to "unfortunate differences", as Maria's sympathies lay firmly with the Union cause. ## Civil War Even though Maryland did not secede from the Union, Steuart's loyalty lay with the South, as did that of his father. He commanded one of the Baltimore city militias during the riot of April 1861, following which Federal troops occupied Baltimore, an incident which was arguably the first armed confrontation of the Civil War. Steuart resigned his captain's commission on April 16, 1861 and soon entered the service of the Confederate army as a cavalry captain. He and his father were determined to do their utmost to prevent Union soldiers from occupying Maryland. On April 22 Steuart wrote to Charles Howard, President of the Board of Baltimore Police: "If the Massachusetts troops are on the march [to Annapolis] I shall be in motion very early tomorrow morning to pay my respects to them". However, events did not move in their favor and, in a letter to his father, Steuart wrote: "I found nothing but disgust in my observations along the route and in the place I came to – a large majority of the population are insane on the one idea of loyalty to the Union and the legislature is so diminished and unreliable that I rejoiced to hear that they intended to adjourn...it seems that we are doomed to be trodden on by these troops who have taken military possession of our State, and seem determined to commit all the outrages of an invading army." Steuart's efforts to persuade Maryland to secede from the Union were in vain. On April 29, the Maryland Legislature voted 53–13 against secession. and the state was swiftly occupied by Union soldiers to prevent any reconsideration. Steuart's decision to resign his commission and join the rebels would soon cost his family dear. The Steuart mansion at Maryland Square was confiscated by the Union Army and Jarvis Hospital was erected on the estate, to care for Federal wounded. However, Steuart was welcomed by the Confederacy as "one of Maryland's most gifted sons", and it was hoped by Southerners that other Marylanders would follow his example. ### First Bull Run Steuart soon became lieutenant colonel of the newly formed 1st Maryland Infantry, serving under Colonel Arnold Elzey, and fought with distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run, taking part in the charge that routed the Union army. Very soon after he was promoted to colonel, and assumed command of the regiment, succeeding Elzey, who was promoted to brigadier general. He soon began to acquire a reputation as a strict disciplinarian and gained the admiration of his men, though he was initially unpopular as a result. Steuart was said to have ordered his men to sweep the bare dirt inside their bivouacs and, rather more eccentrically, was prone to sneaking through the lines past unwitting sentries, in order to test their vigilance. On one occasion this plan backfired, as Steuart was pummeled and beaten by a sentry who later claimed not to have recognized the general. Eventually however, Steuart's "rigid system of discipline quietly and quickly conduced to the health and morale of this splendid command." According to Major W W Goldsborough, who served in Steuart's Maryland Infantry at Gettysburg: "...it was not only his love for a clean camp, but a desire to promote the health and comfort of his men that made him unyielding in the enforcement of sanitary rules. You might influence him in some things, but never in this". George Wilson Booth, a young officer in Steuart's command at Harper's Ferry in 1861, recalled in his memoirs: "The Regiment, under his master hand, soon gave evidence of the soldierly qualities which made it the pride of the army and placed the fame of Maryland in the very foreground of the Southern States". Other historians have been less kind, seeing Steuart as a "tough and nasty martinet" and as a "cruel disciplinarian", suggesting that such "old army" discipline was not the best way to mould and lead what was essentially a citizen army. ### Shenandoah Campaign and the First Battle of Winchester Steuart was promoted to brigadier general on March 6, 1862, commanding a brigade in Major General Richard S. Ewell's division during Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign. On May 24 Jackson gave Steuart command of two cavalry regiments, the 2nd and 6th Virginia Cavalry regiments. At the First Battle of Winchester, on May 25, 1862, Jackson's army was victorious, and the defeated Federal infantry retreated in confusion. The conditions were now perfect for the cavalry to complete the victory, but no cavalry units could be found to press home the advantage. Jackson complained: "never was there such a chance for cavalry! Oh that my cavalry were in place!" The exhausted infantry were forced forward again, while Lieutenant Sandie Pendleton of Jackson's staff was sent to find Steuart. Pendleton eventually found Steuart and gave him the order to pursue Banks' retreating army but the general delayed, wasting valuable time on a point of military etiquette. He declined to obey the order until it came through General Ewell, his immediate divisional commander. The proper channels had not been followed. A frustrated Pendleton then rode two miles to find Ewell, who duly gave the order, but "seemed surprised that General Steuart had not gone on immediately". Steuart eventually gave chase and overtook the advance of the Confederate infantry, picking up many prisoners, but, as a result of the delay, the Confederate cavalry did not overtake the Federal army until it was, in the words of Jackson's report, "beyond the reach of successful pursuit". Jackson continued: "There is good reason for believing that had the cavalry played its part in this pursuit, but a small portion of Banks' army would have made its escape to the Potomac". It remains unclear precisely why Steuart was reluctant to pursue Banks' defeated army more vigorously, and contemporary records shed little light on the matter. It may be that his thirteen years' training as a cavalry officer led him to obey orders to the letter, with little or no room for personal initiative or variation from strict due process. No charges were brought against him however, despite Jackson's reputation as a stern disciplinarian. It is possible that Jackson's leniency had to do with the strong desire of the Confederacy to recruit Marylanders to the Southern cause, and the need to avoid offending Marylanders who might be tempted to join Lee's army. Soon after Winchester, on June 2, Steuart was involved in an unfortunate incident in which the 2nd Virginia Cavalry was mistakenly fired on by the 27th Virginia Infantry. Colonels Thomas Flournoy and Thomas T. Munford went to General Ewell and requested that their regiments, the 6th and 2nd Virginia Cavalry, be transferred to the command of Turner Ashby, recently promoted to Brigadier General. Ewell agreed, and went to Jackson for final approval. Jackson gave his consent, and for the remainder of the war Steuart would serve as an infantry commander. ### Battle of Cross Keys At the Battle of Cross Keys (June 8, 1862), Steuart commanded the 1st Maryland Infantry, which was attacked by, and successfully fought off, a much larger Federal force. However, Steuart was severely injured in the shoulder by grape shot, and had to be carried from the battlefield. A ball from a canister shot had struck him in the shoulder and broken his collarbone, causing a "ghastly wound". The injury did not heal well, and did not begin to improve at all until the ball was removed under surgery in August. It would prevent him from returning to the field for almost an entire year, until May 1863. ### Gettysburg Campaign and the advance into Maryland Upon his recuperation and return to the army, Steuart was assigned by Gen. Robert E. Lee to command the Third Brigade, a force of around 2,200 men, in Major General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's division, in the Army of Northern Virginia. The brigade's former commander, Brigadier General Raleigh Colston, had been relieved of his command by Lee, who was disappointed by his performance at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The brigade consisted of the following regiments: the 2nd Maryland (successor to the disbanded 1st Maryland), the 1st and 3rd North Carolina, and the 10th, 23rd, and 37th Virginia. Rivalries between the various state regiments had been a recurring problem in the brigade and Lee hoped that Steuart, as an "old army" hand, would be able to knit them together effectively. In addition, by this stage in the war Lee was desperately short of experienced senior commanders. However, Steuart had only been in command for a month when the Gettysburg Campaign got under way. In June 1863 Lee's army advanced north into Maryland, taking the war into Union territory for the second time. Steuart is said to have jumped down from his horse, kissed his native soil and stood on his head in jubilation. According to one of his aides: "We loved Maryland, we felt that she was in bondage against her will, and we burned with desire to have a part in liberating her". Quartermaster John Howard recalled that Steuart performed "seventeen double somersaults" all the while whistling Maryland, My Maryland. Such celebrations would prove short lived, as Steuart's brigade was soon to be severely damaged at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863). At first however, Lee's advance north went well. At the Second Battle of Winchester (June 13–15, 1863) Steuart fought with Johnson's division, helping to bring about a Confederate victory, during which his brigade took around 1,000 prisoners and suffered comparatively small losses of 9 killed, 34 wounded. ### Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) was to prove a turning point in the war, and the end of Lee's advance. Steuart's men arrived at Gettysburg "exhausted and footsore...a little before dusk" on the evening of July 1, following a 130-mile (210 km) march from Sharpsburg, "many of them barefooted". Steuart's men attacked the Union line on the night of July 2, gaining ground between the lower Culp's Hill and the stone wall near Spangler's Spring. But fresh Federal reinforcements blocked his further advance, and no further ground was gained. During the night a large number of Union artillery was wheeled into place, the sound of which caused the optimistic Steuart to hope that the enemy was retreating in its wagons. The morning of July 3 revealed the full scale of the Union defenses, as enemy artillery opened fire at a distance of 500 yards with a "terrific and galling fire", followed by a ferocious assault on Steuart's position. The result was a "terrible slaughter" of the Third Brigade, which fought for many hours without relief, exhausting their ammunition, but successfully holding their position. Then, late on the morning of July 3, Johnson ordered a bayonet charge against the well-fortified enemy lines, "confident of their ability to sweep him away and take the whole Union line in reverse". Steuart was appalled, and was strongly critical of the attack, but direct orders could not be disobeyed, and Steuart gave the order to "Left face" and "file right", sending his men into heavy enfilading fire. Steuart's Third Brigade advanced against the Union breastworks and attempted several times to wrest control of Culp's Hill, a vital part of the Union Army defensive line. The result was a "slaughterpen", as the Second Maryland and the Third North Carolina regiments courageously charged a well-defended position strongly held by three brigades, a few reaching within twenty paces of the enemy lines. So severe were the casualties among his men that Steuart is said to have broken down and wept, wringing his hands and crying "my poor boys". Overall, the failed attack on Culp's Hill cost Johnson's division almost 2,000 men, of which 700 were accounted for by Steuart's brigade alone—far more than any other brigade in the division. At Hagerstown, on the 8th July, out of a pre-battle strength of 2,200, just 1,200 men reported for duty. The casualty rate among the Second Maryland and Third North Carolina was between one half and two-thirds, in the space of just ten hours. Even though Steuart had fought bravely under extremely difficult conditions, neither he nor any other officer was cited by Johnson in his report. Gettysburg marked the high-water mark of the Confederacy; thereafter Lee's army would retreat until its final surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. ### Battle of Payne's Farm During the winter of 1863 Steuart's Marylanders again saw action, at the Battle of Mine Run, also known as the battle of Payne's Farm. On November 27 Steuart's brigade was among the first to be attacked by Union soldiers, and Johnson himself rode to Steuart's aid, bringing reinforcements. Steuart, bringing up the Confederate rear, halted his brigade and swiftly formed a line of battle in the road, to repel the Union attack. Confused fighting followed during which the Confederates fell back taking heavy losses, but prevented a Union breakthrough. Steuart himself was wounded for the second time, sustaining an injury to his arm. According to a historical marker which commemorates the engagement, Steuart's "boldness against a vastly superior force...helped to stall the advance of the entire Union army". ### Battle of the Wilderness In the summer of 1864, Steuart saw severe action during the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7, 1864). Steuart led his North Carolina infantry against two New York regiments, causing Union losses of almost 600 men. During the battle his brother, Lieutenant William James Steuart, was severely wounded in the hip, and was sent to Guinea station, a hospital for officers in Richmond, Virginia. There, on 21 May 1864, he died of his injuries. A friend of the family at the University of Virginia wrote to their bereaved father: "You will not charge me, I trust, with intruding on the sacredness of your grief, if I cannot help giving expression to my deep, heartfelt sympathy with your great sorrow. You have sacrificed so much for the righteous cause already, that I know you will present this last and most precious offering also with the fortitude of your character and the submission of a Christian. Still, I know how valuable this son of yours had been to your interests, how dear to your heart, and I cannot tell you, with what deep and sincere grief I heard of your terrible loss." ### Disaster at Spotsylvania Soon afterward, at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21, 1864), Steuart was himself captured, along with much of his brigade, during the brutal fighting for the "Mule Shoe" salient. The Mule Shoe salient formed a bulge in the Confederate lines, a strategic portion of vital high ground but one which was vulnerable to attack on three sides. During the night of May 11, Confederate commanders withdrew most of the artillery pieces from the salient, convinced that Grant's next attack would fall elsewhere. Steuart, to his credit, was alert to enemy preparations and sent a message to Johnson advising him of an imminent enemy attack and requesting the return of the artillery. Unfortunately, shortly before dawn on May 12, Union forces comprising three full divisions (Major General Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps) attacked the Mule Shoe through heavy fog, taking the Confederate forces by surprise. Exhaustion, inadequate food, lack of artillery support, and wet powder from the night's rain contributed to the collapse of the Confederate position as the Union forces swarmed out of the mist, overwhelming Steuart's men and effectively putting an end to the Virginia Brigade. Confederate muskets would not fire due to damp powder, and apart from two remaining artillery pieces, the Southerners were effectively without firearms. During the thick of the fierce hand-to-hand fighting that followed, Steuart was forced to surrender to Colonel James A. Beaver of the 148th Pennsylvania Infantry. Beaver asked Steuart "Where is your sword, sir?", to which the general replied, with considerable sarcasm, "Well, suh, you all waked us up so early this mawnin' that I didn't have time to get it on." Steuart was brought to General Hancock, who had seen Steuart's wife Maria in Washington before the battle and wished to give her news of her husband. He extended his hand, asking "how are you, Steuart?" But Steuart refused to shake Hancock's hand; although the two men had been friends before the war, they were now enemies. Steuart said: "Considering the circumstance, General, I refuse to take your hand", to which Hancock is said to have replied, "And under any other circumstance, General, I would have refused to offer it." After this episode, an offended Hancock then left Steuart to march to the Union rear with the other prisoners. After the battle, Steuart was sent as a prisoner of war to Charleston, South Carolina, and was later imprisoned at Hilton Head, where he and other officers were placed under the fire of Confederate artillery. The fighting at Spotsylvania was to prove the end of his brigade. Johnson's division, 6,800 strong at the start of the battle, was now so severely reduced in size that barely one brigade could be formed. On May 14 the brigades of Walker, Jones, and Steuart were consolidated into one small brigade under the command of Colonel Terry of the 4th Virginia Infantry. ### Petersburg, Appomattox and the end of the war Steuart was exchanged later in the summer of 1864, returning to command a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, in the division of Major General George Pickett. Steuart's brigade consisted of the 9th, 14th, 38th, 53rd and 57th Virginia regiments, and served in the trenches north of the James River during the Siege of Petersburg (June 9, 1864 – March 25, 1865). By this stage of the war, Confederate supplies had dwindled to the point where Lee's army began to go hungry, and the theft of food became a serious problem. Steuart was forced to send armed guards to the supply depot at Petersburg in order to ensure that his men's packages were not stolen by looters. He continued to lead his brigade in Pickett's division during the Appomattox Campaign (March 29 – April 9, 1865), at the Battle of Five Forks (April 1, 1865), and at Sayler's Creek (April 6, 1865), the last two battles marking the effective end of Confederate resistance. During Five Forks General Pickett had been distracted by a shad bake, and Steuart was left in command of the infantry, as it bore the brunt of a huge Union assault, with General Sheridan leading around 30,000 men against Pickett's 10,000. The consequences were even more disastrous than at Spotsylvania the previous year, with at least 5,000 men falling prisoner to Sheridan's forces. The end of Confederate resistance was now just days away. At Sayler's Creek Lee's starving and exhausted army finally fell apart. Upon seeing the survivors streaming along the road, Lee exclaimed in front of Maj. Gen. William Mahone, "My God, has the army dissolved?" to which he replied, "No, General, here are troops ready to do their duty." Steuart continued fighting until the end, finally surrendering with Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, one of 22 brigadiers out of Lee's original 146. According to one Maryland veteran, "no-one in the war gave more completely and conscientiously every faculty, every energy that was in him to the Southern cause". ### After the war After the war's end, Steuart returned to Maryland, and swore an oath of loyalty to the Union. He farmed at Mount Steuart, a two-storey farmhouse on a hillside near the South River, south of Edgewater. The house no longer exists, having since been destroyed by fire. He also served as commander of the Maryland division of the United Confederate Veterans. Maryland Square, the house owned by Steuart and his father before the war, was returned to the family in 1866 but Steuart chose not to live there, taking rooms instead at the Carrollton Hotel in Baltimore. The end of war saw Steuart reunited with his family, but domestic happiness did not follow. In the early 1890s he took in a housekeeper by the name of Fanny Grenor, causing a "still further estrangement between husband and wife... [which also] resulted in much bitter feeling on the part of the two children, Mrs Leibeg and Mrs Davis, these ladies holding with the mother that General Steuart should have selected some other housekeeper". Steuart died on 22 November 1903 at the age of 75 at South River, Maryland, of an ulcer. He died intestate, leaving an estate valued at around \$100,000, which was soon contested by Miss Grenor, who sought "pay for the 10 years she had acted as housekeeper, and also performed other duties of a more or less menial character". Steuart is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore with his wife Maria, who died three years later, in 1906. They were survived by their two daughters, Marie and Ann. Perhaps not surprisingly, as Maryland had remained in the Union throughout the war, there is no monument to Steuart in his home state. However, the Steuart Hill area of Baltimore recalls his family's long association with the city. ## See also - List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) - Maryland Line (CSA)

Start the Party (album)

Start the Party is the fourth studio album by Welsh post-hardcore band the Blackout. It was released by Cooking Vinyl on 21 January 2013. Following the touring cycle for their third studio album, Hope (2011), the band began writing material for their next album. They recorded the album with A frontman Jason Perry acting as producer. It revolves around party-going, having received comparisons to the output of the Beastie Boys, and the guitar work of the Foo Fighters and Papa Roach. Prior to the release of Start the Party, the Blackout embarked on a brief tour of the United Kingdom, and released music videos for "Start the Party" and "Running Scared". The album's artwork shows Dirty Sanchez' stunt performer Mathew Pritchard crowd-surfing. For promotion, the Blackout went on another headlining UK tour, a European support slot for Yellowcard, and made appearances at the Soundwave festival in Australia. Music videos for "Radio" and "Take Away the Misery" were released in mid-2013, and the Blackout embarked on a UK tour at the end of the year. Start the Party received generally positive reviews from music critics, some of whom commented on the Blackout's musicianship. The album reached number 35 on the UK Albums Chart. "Start the Party" and "Runnin' Scared" charted at number 22 and 35, respectively, on the UK Rock & Metal Singles Chart. ## Background and production Independent record label Cooking Vinyl released the Blackout's third studio album Hope, which was crowd-funded through PledgeMusic, in April 2011. While writing the album, the band had no funds, management or record label to support them. They chose to continue working with Cooking Vinyl for Start the Party, which allowed them to focus on writing rather than on business issues. The Blackout promoted Hope with two tours of the United Kingdom, and appearances at the Reading & Leeds, and Merthyr Rock festivals in late 2011. Shortly after the first promotional tour, the band started writing new material for the next album, with the rough of idea of centering it around partying. The members would work on songs in their own homes, before they get together to collaborate on them in vocalist Gavin Butler's garage in December 2011. They would do vocals at the Musicbox rehearsal space in Cardiff or in Butler's dining room. They aimed to release another album by September or October 2012. In May 2012, the band recorded with A frontman Jason Perry, who served as producer, and engineer Michael Morgan. Vocalist Sean Smith did not want Perry; instead wanting Terry Date, who was unavailable, Eric Valentine, who was out of their budget, or John Feldmann, who was working on someone else's album. John Mitchell mixed the recordings and Tom Baker mastered them at Precision. The Blackout initially planned to feature musicians Andrew W.K. and Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit on the album. Smith said W.K. "doesn't party hard enough for The Blackout", while Borland's guitar solo was not required when the band realised they could use vocals instead. ## Composition and lyrics Discussing the theme of partying, Smith said: "We just went 'What do we need right now, what does the world need?' and it's just a party album because everyone is so fucking miserable at the moment." Start the Party was compared to a hip hop-less version of the Beastie Boys, while the guitar work drew comparisons to the music of Lostprophets, Papa Roach, A, and the early work of Foo Fighters. The album has less of an emphasis on screaming than the Blackout's previous releases. The title track "Start the Party", which is also the album's opening track, is about enjoying life, and having fun. Partway through the song, the band yell out each letter of the word "party". "Radio" is about musicians stealing the songs of other artists, and passing them off as their own. "We Live On" talks about continuing through difficult times in one's life, and never giving up. Smith and Butler said "Let Me Go" is about women being angry. "Take Away the Misery" leans toward the Blackout's hardcore punk roots with its guitar riffs, and screaming vocals. "Keep Singing" is about fighting through life, and enjoying things one likes; its melody and lyrics recall the work of Jimmy Eat World. The pop punk track "Running Scared" showcases Smith's vocal ability, and is one of Start the Party's most upbeat tracks. It is followed by the ballad "You", which is reminiscent of the works of Brand New. "Free Yourself" returns to the Lostprophets-indebted guitar riffs that can be heard throughout the album; it talks about people living their own lives, and not worrying about the lives of others. The track is followed by "Sleep When You're Dead", which has an intro that is similar to the work of AC/DC; Butler said the song is a homage to Dirty Sanchez' stunt performer Mathew Pritchard, and is named after a party boat he owned. The closing track "Throw It All Away" is about having, and maintaining a positive outlook on life. ## Release and promotion In August 2012, the Blackout performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, before headlining the Merthyr Rock Festival. On 17 September of that year, Start the Party was announced for release in January 2013. As part of the announcement, the track listing and artwork were revealed, and the music video for "Start the Party" was released. The clip was filmed in Ibiza; Pritchard organized party boats to the island, and invited the band to film there. The following day, "Start the Party" was made available for free download through the Blackout's website. The Blackout played a few shows in the UK in October 2013. The music video for "Running Scared", which was directed by Sitcom Soldiers, was released the following month. It was also filmed in Ibiza and stars Smith, who is shown travelling around trying to find his bandmates. Start the Party was released through Cooking Vinyl on 21 January 2013; its artwork is an image of Pritchard crowd surfing. Butler said he was looking through his Instagram feed and came across a photograph of Pritchard "in a thong drinking champagne out of a bottle on a snowmobile in the middle of Norway", and felt he embodied the spirit of partying. The physical deluxe edition included a DVD on the making of the album, and live performances from the band's Reading & Leeds and Merthyr Rock appearances. The iTunes deluxe edition features covers of "Boom! Shake the Room" (1993), "Super Freak" (1981), and "Sorry for Party Rocking" (2012) as bonus tracks. In January 2013, the Blackout went on a headlining UK tour, with support from Sonic Boom Six, and Proxies. The band planned a series of acoustic performances at HMV stores, but HMV went into administration, and the performances were later moved to selected venues on the same day. The Blackout supported Yellowcard on their European tour in January and February 2013, before touring Australia as part of the Soundwave festival. Following this, the band headlined the Radstock and Takedown festivals. A music video for "Radio" was released on 2 April 2013. In August 2013, the Blackout performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Footage from their appearance was used in the music video for "Take Away the Misery", which was released the following month. In October of that year, the band went on the Final Party tour across the UK, with support from Framing Hanley. Blitz Kids were due to support the Blackout, but were replaced by Rat Attack. The tour was scheduled to last until November 2013; however, Butler had a recurrence of a hemiplegic migraine, which resulted in the cancellation of several dates. The dates were rescheduled for January and February 2014, and had LostAlone and Rat Attack as the supporting acts. ## Reception Start the Party was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 77, based on 4 reviews. Rock Hard editor Jens Peters noted the two vocalists "cover[ed] the entire range from nasty hardcore shouting to melodic rock" with "a knack for catchy melodies and singable hooks". Islington Gazette writer Stephen Moore found the album "a surprisingly sustained set" with its "well-used combo of pop structures, catchy melodies, [and] heart-on-sleeve lyrics". He further wrote that Butler's "accessible mid-Atlantic vocals and this clutch of fist-pumping tunes could turn The Blackout into stars". South Wales Argus reviewer Andy Howells admitted that the Blackout "get 2013 off to a cracking start with a throat blistering, mosh moving collection". Renee Jones of The Music said the band "shift away from their previous work to create a combination of catchy choruses and cheesy, fairly generic ... sounds", with every song "aiming for the obvious – a party-rock vibe". Dead Press! writer Laurence Kellett noted the "refined change", resulting in a "fine-tuned, polished album", which he said could "greatly benefit from the party rock ... attitude" of their prior material. The Crack's RM said the Blackout come across as "the Scrappy Doo of rock: relentless and yappy with it", and added the album "sounds like The Beastie Boys ... with the hip-hop and bratty humour surgically removed". DIY contributor Greg Inglis wrote that if the band removed all of the expletives on Start the Party "then there would be more potential singles here than a David Guetta and Calvin Harris combined Greatest Hits LP". According to Inglis, the album's "crux" lies in the "many individually solid tracks that are hummable in isolation but blend into uniformity over the course of an album". Andy Baber of musicOMH found the album difficult to figure out what the band members are "doing most of the time" and said "the album just sounds like the same guitar riffs recycled, with the distortion merging them all into one." Thrash Hits writer Tom Doyle wrote it "feels like an album made by a band rehashing ideas from their youth to appeal to their indefatigable but relentlessly young fanbase." laut.de reviewer Simon Tauscher said that the album "offers what you would expect after reading the title - nothing less and nothing more", adding that there "isn't much that is new to say about it". Start the Party reached number 35 on the UK Albums Chart. "Start the Party" charted at number 22 on the UK Rock & Metal Singles Chart, while "Runnin' Scared" reached number 35 on the chart. ## Track listing Track listing per booklet. All recordings produced by Jason Perry. ## Personnel Personnel per booklet. The Blackout - Rhys Lewis – bass - James "Bob" Davies – rhythm guitar - Gavin Butler – vocals - Sean Smith – vocals - Matthew Davies – lead guitar - Gareth "Snoz" Lawrence – drums Production - Jason Perry – producer - Michael Morgan – engineer - John Mitchell – mixing - Tom Baker – mastering Design - Marcus Maschwitz – photography - Gavin Butler – cover design - Paul Hainsworth – artwork ## Charts

George Armitage Miller

American psychologist (1920–2012)

George Armitage Miller (February 3, 1920 – July 22, 2012) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of cognitive psychology, and more broadly, of cognitive science. He also contributed to the birth of psycholinguistics. Miller wrote several books and directed the development of WordNet, an online word-linkage database usable by computer programs. He authored the paper, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two," in which he observed that many different experimental findings considered together reveal the presence of an average limit of seven for human short-term memory capacity. This paper is frequently cited by psychologists and in the wider culture. Miller won numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science. Miller began his career when the reigning theory in psychology was behaviorism, which eschewed the study of mental processes and focused on observable behavior. Rejecting this approach, Miller devised experimental techniques and mathematical methods to analyze mental processes, focusing particularly on speech and language. Working mostly at Harvard University, MIT and Princeton University, he went on to become one of the founders of psycholinguistics and was one of the key figures in founding the broader new field of cognitive science, circa 1978. He collaborated and co-authored work with other figures in cognitive science and psycholinguistics, such as Noam Chomsky. For moving psychology into the realm of mental processes and for aligning that move with information theory, computation theory, and linguistics, Miller is considered one of the great twentieth-century psychologists. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Miller as the 20th most cited psychologist of that era. ## Biography Miller was born on February 3, 1920, in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of George E. Miller, a steel company executive and Florence (née Armitage) Miller. Soon after his birth, his parents divorced, and he lived with his mother during the Great Depression, attending public school and graduating from Charleston High School in 1937. He moved with his mother and stepfather to Washington, D.C., and attended George Washington University for a year. His family practiced Christian Science, which required turning to prayer, rather than medical science, for healing. After his stepfather was transferred to Birmingham, Alabama, Miller transferred to the University of Alabama. At the University of Alabama he took courses in phonetics, voice science, and speech pathology, earning his bachelor's degree in history and speech in 1940, and a master's in a speech in 1941. Membership in the Drama club had fostered his interest in courses in the Speech Department. He was also influenced by Professor Donald Ramsdell, who introduced him both to psychology, and, indirectly through a seminar, to his future wife Katherine James. They married on November 29, 1939. Katherine died in January 1996. He married Margaret Ferguson Skutch Page in 2008. Miller taught the course "Introduction to Psychology" at Alabama for two years. He enrolled in the Ph.D. program in psychology at Harvard University in 1943, after coming to the university in 1942. At Harvard he worked in Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory, under the supervision of Stanley Smith Stevens, researching military voice communications for the Army Signal Corps during World War II. He received his doctorate in 1946; his doctoral thesis, "The Optimal Design of Jamming Signals," was classified top secret by the US Army. ### Career After receiving his doctorate, Miller stayed at Harvard as a research fellow, continuing his research on speech and hearing. He was appointed an assistant professor of psychology in 1948. The course he developed on language and communication eventually led to his first major book, Language and communication (1951). He took a sabbatical in 1950, and spent a year as a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, to pursue his interest in mathematics. Miller befriended J. Robert Oppenheimer, with whom he played squash. In 1951, Miller joined MIT as an associate professor of psychology. He led the psychology group at the MIT Lincoln Lab and worked on voice communication and human engineering. A notable outcome of this research was his identification of the minimal voice features of speech required for it to be intelligible. Based on this work, in 1955, he was invited to talk at the Eastern Psychological Association. That presentation, "The magical number seven, plus or minus two", was later published as a paper which went on to be a legendary one in cognitive psychology. Miller moved back to Harvard as a tenured associate professor in 1955 and became a full professor in 1958, expanding his research into how language affects human cognition. At the university, he met a young Noam Chomsky, another of the founders of cognitive science. They spent a summer together at Stanford, where their two families shared a house. In 1958–59, Miller took leave to join the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto, California, (now at Stanford University). There he collaborated with Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram on the book Plans and the Structure of Behavior. In 1960, along with Jerome S. Bruner, he co-founded the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard. The cognitive term was a break from the then-dominant school of behaviorism, which insisted cognition was not fit for scientific study. The center attracted such notable visitors as Jean Piaget, Alexander Luria and Chomsky. Miller then became the chair of the psychology department. Miller was instrumental at the time for recruiting Timothy Leary to teach at Harvard. Miller knew Leary from the University of Alabama, where Miller was teaching psychology and Leary graduated with an undergraduate degree from the department. In 1967, Miller taught at Rockefeller University for a year, as a visiting professor, From 1968 to 1979, he was Professor at the Rockefeller and continued as adjunct professor there from 1979 to 1982. Following the election of a new president at Rockefeller Miller moved to Princeton University as the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Psychology. At Princeton he helped to found (in 1986) the Cognitive Science Laboratory, and also directed the McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Science.. Eventually, he became a professor emeritus and senior research psychologist at Princeton. Miller had honorary doctorates from the University of Sussex (1984), Columbia University (1980), Yale University (1979), Catholic University of Louvain (1978), Carnegie Mellon University (in humane letters, 2003), and an honorary DSC from Williams College (2000). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957, the National Academy of Sciences in 1962, the presidency of the Eastern Psychological Association in 1962, the presidency of the American Psychological Association in 1969, the American Philosophical Society in 1971, and to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985. Miller was the keynote speaker at the first convention of the Association for Psychological Science in 1989. He was a Fulbright research fellow at Oxford University in 1964–65, and in 1991, received the National Medal of Science. ### Death In his later years, Miller enjoyed playing golf. He died in 2012 at his home in Plainsboro, New Jersey of complications of pneumonia and dementia. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife Margaret; the children from his first marriage: son Donnally James and daughter Nancy Saunders; two stepsons, David Skutch and Christopher Skutch; and three grandchildren: Gavin Murray-Miller, Morgan Murray-Miller and Nathaniel James Miller. ## Major contributions Miller began his career in a period during which behaviorism dominated research psychology. It was argued that observable processes are the proper subject matter of science, that behavior is observable and mental processes are not. Thus, mental processes were not a fit topic for study. Miller disagreed. He and others such Jerome Bruner and Noam Chomsky founded the field of Cognitive Psychology, which accepted the study of mental processes as fundamental to an understanding of complex behavior. In succeeding years, this cognitive approach largely replaced behaviorism as the framework governing research in psychology. ### Working memory From the days of William James, psychologists had distinguished short-term from long-term memory. While short-term memory seemed to be limited, its limits were not known. In 1956, Miller put a number on that limit in the paper "The magical number seven, plus or minus two". He derived this number from tasks such as asking a person to repeat a set of digits, presenting a stimulus and a label and requiring recall of the label, or asking the person to quickly count things in a group. In all three cases, Miller found the average limit to be seven items. He later had mixed feelings about this work, feeling that it had been often been misquoted, and he jokingly suggested that he was being persecuted by an integer. Miller invented the term chunk to characterize the way that individuals could cope with this limitation on memory, effectively reducing the number of elements by grouping them. A chunk might be a single letter or a familiar word or even a larger familiar unit. These and related ideas strongly influenced the budding field of cognitive psychology. ### WordNet For many years starting from 1986, Miller directed the development of WordNet, a large computer-readable electronic reference usable in applications such as search engines, which was created by a team that included Christiane Fellbaum, among others. Wordnet is a large lexical database representing human semantic memory in English. Its fundamental building block is a synset, which is a collection of synonyms representing a concept or idea. Words can be in multiple synsets. The entire class of synsets is grouped into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs separately, with links existing only within these four major groups but not between them. Going beyond a thesaurus, WordNet also includes inter-word relationships such as part/whole relationships and hierarchies of inclusion.Although not intended to be a dictionary, Wordnet did have many short definitions added to it as time went on. Miller and colleagues had planned the tool to test psycholinguistic theories on how humans use and understand words. Miller also later worked closely with entrepreneur Jeff Stibel and scientists at Simpli.com Inc., on a meaning-based keyword search engine based on WordNet. Wordnet has proved to be extremely influential on an international scale. It has now been emulated by wordnets in many different languages. ### Psychology of language Miller is one of the founders of psycholinguistics, which links language and cognition in the analysis of language creation and usage. His 1951 book Language and Communication is considered seminal in the field. His later book, The Science of Words (1991) also focused on the psychology of language. Together with Noam Chomsky he published papers on the mathematical and computational aspects of language and its syntax, two new areas of study. Miller also studied the human understanding of words and sentences, a problem also faced by artificial speech-recognition technology. The book Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960), written with Eugene Galanter and Karl H. Pribram, explored how humans plan and act, trying to extrapolate this to how a robot could be programmed to plan and act. Miller is also known for coining Miller's Law: "In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of". ## Books Miller authored several books, many considered the first major works in their respective fields. ### Language and Communication, 1951 Miller's Language and Communication was one of the first significant texts in the study of language behavior. The book was a scientific study of language, emphasizing quantitative data, and was based on the mathematical model of Claude Shannon's information theory. It used a probabilistic model imposed on a learning-by-association scheme borrowed from behaviorism, with Miller not yet attached to a pure cognitive perspective. The first part of the book reviewed information theory, the physiology and acoustics of phonetics, speech recognition and comprehension, and statistical techniques to analyze language. The focus was more on speech generation than recognition. The second part had the psychology: idiosyncratic differences across people in language use; developmental linguistics; the structure of word associations in people; use of symbolism in language; and social aspects of language use. Reviewing the book, Charles E. Osgood classified the book as a graduate-level text based more on objective facts than on theoretical constructs. He thought the book was verbose on some topics and too brief on others not directly related to the author's expertise area. He was also critical of Miller's use of simple, Skinnerian single-stage stimulus-response learning to explain human language acquisition and use. This approach, per Osgood, made it impossible to analyze the concept of meaning, and the idea of language consisting of representational signs. He did find the book objective in its emphasis on facts over theory, and depicting clearly application of information theory to psychology. ### Plans and the Structure of Behavior, 1960 In Plans and the Structure of Behavior, Miller and his co-authors tried to explain through an artificial-intelligence computational perspective how animals plan and act. This was a radical break from behaviorism which explained behavior as a set or sequence of stimulus-response actions. The authors introduced a planning element controlling such actions. They saw all plans as being executed based on input using a stored or inherited information of the environment (called the image), and using a strategy called test-operate-test-exit (TOTE). The image was essentially a stored memory of all past context, akin to Tolman's cognitive map. The TOTE strategy, in its initial test phase, compared the input against the image; if there was incongruity the operate function attempted to reduce it. This cycle would be repeated till the incongruity vanished, and then the exit function would be invoked, passing control to another TOTE unit in a hierarchically arranged scheme. Peter Milner, in a review in the Canadian Journal of Psychology, noted the book was short on concrete details on implementing the TOTE strategy. He also critically viewed the book as not being able to tie its model to details from neurophysiology at a molecular level. Per him, the book covered only the brain at the gross level of lesion studies, showing that some of its regions could possibly implement some TOTE strategies, without giving a reader an indication as to how the region could implement the strategy. ### The Psychology of Communication, 1967 Miller's 1967 work, The Psychology of Communication, was a collection of seven previously published articles. The first "Information and Memory" dealt with chunking, presenting the idea of separating physical length (the number of items presented to be learned) and psychological length (the number of ideas the recipient manages to categorize and summarize the items with). Capacity of short-term memory was measured in units of psychological length, arguing against a pure behaviorist interpretation since meaning of items, beyond reinforcement and punishment, was central to psychological length. The second essay was the paper on magical number seven. The third, 'The human link in communication systems,' used information theory and its idea of channel capacity to analyze human perception bandwidth. The essay concluded how much of what impinges on us we can absorb as knowledge was limited, for each property of the stimulus, to a handful of items. The paper on "Psycholinguists" described how effort in both speaking or understanding a sentence was related to how much of self-reference to similar-structures-present-inside was there when the sentence was broken down into clauses and phrases. The book, in general, used the Chomskian view of seeing language rules of grammar as having a biological basis—disproving the simple behaviorist idea that language performance improved with reinforcement—and using the tools of information and computation to place hypotheses on a sound theoretical framework and to analyze data practically and efficiently. Miller specifically addressed experimental data refuting the behaviorist framework at concept level in the field of language and cognition. He noted this only qualified behaviorism at the level of cognition, and did not overthrow it in other spheres of psychology. ## Legacy The Cognitive Neuroscience Society established a George A. Miller Prize in 1995 for contributions to the field. The American Psychological Association established a George A. Miller Award in 1995 for an outstanding article on general psychology. From 1987 the department of psychology at Princeton University has presented the George A. Miller prize annually to the best interdisciplinary senior thesis in cognitive science. The paper on the magical number seven continues to be cited by both the popular press to explain the liking for seven-digit phone numbers and to argue against nine-digit zip codes, and by academia, especially modern psychology, to highlight its break with the behaviorist paradigm. Miller was considered the 20th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century in a list republished by, among others, the American Psychological Association. ## Awards - Distinguished Scientific Contribution award from the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1963. - Distinguished Service award from the American Speech and Hearing Association, 1976. - Award in Behavioral Sciences from the New York Academy of Sciences, 1982. - Guggenheim fellow in 1986. - William James fellow of the American Psychological Society, 1989. - Hermann von Helmholtz award from the Cognitive Neurosciences Institute, 1989. - Gold Medal from the American Psychological Foundation in 1990. - National Medal of Science from The White House, 1991. - Louis E. Levy medal from the Franklin Institute, 1991. - International Prize from the Fyssen Foundation, 1992. - William James Book award from the APA Division of General Psychology, 1993. - John P. McGovern award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000. - Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology award from the APA in 2003. - Antonio Zampolli Prize from the European Languages Research Association, 2006. ## Works ### Chapters in books

Night of the Blood Beast

1958 American science-fiction horror film by Bernard L. Kowalski

Night of the Blood Beast is a 1958 American science-fiction horror film about a team of scientists who are stalked by an alien creature, which implants its embryos in an astronaut's body during a space flight. Produced by exploitation filmmaker Roger Corman and his brother Gene, it was one of the first films directed by Bernard L. Kowalski and was written by first-time screenwriter Martin Varno, who was 21 years old. It starred several actors who had regularly worked with Roger Corman, including Michael Emmet, Ed Nelson, Steve Dunlap, Georgianna Carter and Tyler McVey. The film was theatrically released in December 1958 as a double feature with She Gods of Shark Reef. It took Varno six weeks to write the script, the original working title of which was Creature from Galaxy 27. The story was partially influenced by the real-life Space Race and the Howard Hawks film The Thing from Another World (1951). Screenwriters Jerome Bixby and Harold Jacob Smith gave Varno uncredited assistance with the dialogue. With a budget of about \$68,000, it was shot over seven days at the Charlie Chaplin Studios, Bronson Canyon and a television station on Mount Lee in Hollywood. The Blood Beast alien costume was also previously used in the Roger Corman film Teenage Caveman (1958), which was filmed just two weeks earlier. Art director Daniel Haller, who built the rocket ship and other props, slept at the sound stage between work sessions. Following dissatisfaction with his treatment by the Cormans, Varno pursued two successful arbitration cases, one of which was for underpayment. The other was in response to Gene Corman's original story writing credit, even though Varno claimed to have written the entire story himself. The film was featured in a 1996 episode of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. ## Plot A rocket ship carrying astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) launches and orbits the Earth, marking the United States' first manned space launch. Shortly after taking off, the ship is struck by an unknown object, forcing Corcoran to abort the mission and land. However, the equipment cannot handle the fast descent back into the atmosphere and the ship crash lands in the woods, killing Corcoran. Dave Randall (Ed Nelson) and Donna Bixby (Georgianna Carter), two technicians from a nearby space agency tracking station, locate the crashed ship and recover Corcoran's body. They are baffled, however, by what appears to be a giant tear in the side of the destroyed spacecraft and a mud-like substance covering some of the wreckage. Randall and Bixby are joined by lead scientist Dr. Alex Wyman (Tyler McVey), technician Steve Dunlap (John Baer) and physician Julie Benson (Angela Greene), who was also Corcoran's fiancé. Wyman observes that Corcoran's body exhibits no signs of rigor mortis and that the blood pooling beside him is not livid as it should be. The team brings the corpse back to their lab to run tests and find further irregularities. Although the body lacks a heartbeat or pulse, it maintains the blood pressure of a living human being. After looking at his blood in a microscope, they find unusual, unidentifiable cells that seem resistant to destruction from human white blood cells. The team tries to call for further assistance, but find the radio is no longer working. Randall heads outside to check the power transformers, and is attacked by a large creature (Ross Sturlin) hiding in the underbrush around the station. Randall fires a few shots at the creature with his pistol and escapes unscathed. Although he did not get a good look at the creature, he describes it to the rest of the team as similar in size to a bear. Later, the team finds the infirmary has been trashed and Corcoran's body is gone. They initially believe the creature has broken in and stole the corpse, but are shocked to instead find Corcoran has mysteriously regained consciousness. Upon checking his blood again, there is no trace of the mysterious cells from before, but after investigating Corcoran's body, they find the cells have changed into lizard-like fetuses and entered into his abdominal cavity. The creature later breaks into the lab again, this time beheading Dr. Wyman. Randall and Dunlap are initially suspicious that Corcoran was involved in the death, which he denies, but it appears he has some sort of telepathic connection with the creature. Despite Wyman's death, Corcoran does not believe the creature is evil, but rather simply misunderstood. He implores the others to give the creature a chance to explain its actions and asks that they not condemn it as a monster simply because it is different. As the others plot to destroy the creature with improvised gas bombs and flares, Corcoran flees the station and finds the creature in a nearby cave. After consuming Wyman's brain, the creature is now able to speak with the scientist's voice and has absorbed his knowledge. Corcoran asks whether Wyman's death was needed, but the creature insists it was a necessary sacrifice. The others arrive to destroy the creature, but hesitate because Corcoran will not step aside and let them throw their bombs. The creature insists it is not an evil monster, but an intelligent alien who has come to Earth to save the human race from its own self-destructive tendencies. It explains that Corcoran's body has been implanted with its embryos, which will allow the alien species to multiply and take over the human race, which the creature claims is the only way to truly save humanity. Upon realizing the creature is forcing the will of its species on the human race, Corcoran concludes the creature is evil after all and commits suicide so its embryos cannot come to fruition. The others then throw their explosives and kill the creature, which in its dying breath warns that others from his species are waiting in space and will return one day to conquer humanity. ## Cast - John Baer as Steve Dunlap - Angela Greene as Dr. Julie Benson - Ed Nelson as Dave Randall - Georgianna Carter as Donna Bixby - Michael Emmet as Major John Corcoran - Tyler McVey as Dr. Alex Wyman - Ross Sturlin as The Creature ## Production ### Writing Night of the Blood Beast was one of several films produced by B movie filmmaker Roger Corman and his brother, Gene Corman. The two also partnered together in making Hot Car Girl (1958), Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and The Premature Burial (1962). Jerome Bixby, the science fiction screenwriter who wrote It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), was originally approached for the job, but Bixby was working on another project and recommended his close friend Martin Varno for the job. Varno, the son of veteran actor Roland Varno, was 21 years old at the time. He met with Roger and Gene Corman, who discussed with him what Varno called "some sort of a weird idea for the picture". They offered Varno a couple hundred dollars for the job, which was below the minimum compensation rates known as "scale", but Varno was not part of the Writers Guild of America at the time and did not know about the guidelines. He accepted the offer and signed a contract. Although Varno had a rough idea it would be a low-budget film, he said the Cormans set no specific guidelines for him: "I gave them the impression that I knew pretty much what I was doing, and they sort of got the idea that I wasn't going to use 50,000 extras and things." It took about six weeks to write the Blood Beast script. It was written under the working title Creature from Galaxy 27, which was conceived by Varno, but the Corman brothers later changed it to Night of the Blood Beast. Gene Corman received film credit for conceiving the film's story, but Varno claimed he wrote the film almost entirely himself and that Corman had little to do with the story: "He had some rambling ideas but they didn't have very much to do with the movie that became Night of the Blood Beast." Varno also said of him: "Gene didn't open his mouth, really, until Roger told him he could." Varno said he wrote the screenplay alone and showed parts of it to Roger and Gene Corman as he went along. Varno researched medical and aerospace technology at a library in Hollywood near Vine Street. The story, which fictionally portrays America's manned voyage into space, was heavily influenced by the real life Space Race ongoing between the United States and Soviet Union at the time. Gene Corman said another major inspiration was The Thing from Another World (1951), a Howard Hawks-directed science fiction film about a group of soldiers and scientists threatened by an alien creature in a remote Arctic research outpost. He said of the film, "How could you not be [influenced]? We had to be, if only indirectly or subconsciously. That was a classic film then, a classic film today." However, Varno said any influence from The Thing was only subconscious: "I loved some of the scenes in The Thing and I'm sure that crept in one way or another, but not overtly." Varno said he received uncredited assistance from his friends and fellow screenwriters Jerome Bixby and Harold Jacob Smith, the latter of whom won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Defiant Ones (1958). Varno ran lines and ideas by both men and sought advice. Smith in particular inspired lines for the speech made by the monster at the end of the film, in which the creature discusses how the human characters consider him the embodiment of evil simply because he is different from them. Varno said much of that dialogue from Smith, however, ended up getting cut from the final film. One of the primary themes of the film, as embodied in John Corcoran's attempts to defend the alien creature, was that simply because someone or something is ugly or different does not necessarily make it evil. However, the script also followed a common trait of most horror films of the 1950s that even somewhat understandable monsters are not entirely sympathetic and the Blood Beast creature proves itself evil by impregnating Corcoran against his will and pursuing world domination. ### Casting The Cormans cast the film together with director Bernard L. Kowalski, who was 28 years old at the time. Kowalski also directed Roger Corman's Hot Car Girl. Night of the Blood Beast was one of Kowalski's first directorial credits and his first science fiction film, although he later went on to direct Attack of the Giant Leeches. For the Blood Beast cast, they mostly selected actors that had worked on other Roger Corman films. Michael Emmet had worked with Kowalski on the Western television series Boots and Saddles, where Kowalski directed most of the episodes Emmet had a major role in and was impressed with the actor's work ethic. Emmet later starred in the Roger Corman film Attack of the Giant Leeches. Ed Nelson also worked on several Roger Corman films, including Swamp Women (1955), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Teenage Doll (1957) and She Gods of Shark Reef (1958). When asked what Nelson remembered about the film during a 2003 interview, he admitted, "Not much", but he said Roger and Gene Corman were very knowledgeable about film and treated the material "light-heartedly". ### Filming The film was shot over seven days with a budget of about \$68,000. Both Roger and Gene Corman were present for most of the film's production and involved creatively as well as financially. Gene was more involved with running the day-to-day operations while the more experienced Roger Corman supervised and provided guidance to both Gene and Kowalski. Martin Varno was also present for shooting. They operated out of the Charlie Chaplin Studios, which was called Kling Studios at the time. Some rewriting was done as the filming progressed, and director Bernard L. Kowalski called it a collaborative process that involved himself, the Cormans and the whole crew. Varno, however, said he was not happy with how the filming process went and that the Cormans changed dialogue and story elements without his consultation or permission. He said it reached the point where he called his agent and said, "I am not working for these sons of bitches any more! I am sick and tired of the whole thing!" All of the interior scenes were shot at sound stages inside Kling Studios. Most of the exterior shots were filmed at Bronson Canyon, a set of caves at Griffith Park in Los Angeles that was a popular shooting location for low-budget films. The exterior scenes of the tracking station were shot at a television station on Mount Lee, not far from the Hollywood Sign. Varno said it was the first television station built in Los Angeles, but was only being used for emergency broadcasts when Night of the Blood Beast was filmed; it had also been used during World War II to send information and propaganda to the Allied Forces' overseas allies. Varno secured permission to film there simply by calling the city of Los Angeles and asking permission, something he said nobody else considered trying because they assumed the city would not allow it. Varno was familiar with the station because his father, Roland Varno, appeared in the first dramatic television show released in Los Angeles and it was transmitted from that station. For the Night of the Blood Beast shoot, Los Angeles charged a fee of \$8 per actor to shoot at the station, but the crew could be any size. All shooting took place outside the station and none inside. Most of the station night scenes there were shot during the day, and the film crew often had to find shadows to shoot in or block out the sun to give the impression of nighttime. Gene Corman said of the shooting: "That was one of the more mobile units I've ever been involved with. Normally, everybody chases the sun; we were chasing the shadows." The alien costume featured in Night of the Blood Beast was the same as the one used in another Roger Corman film, Teenage Caveman (1958). This was done to save money, as the Cormans often tried to incorporate existing sets, costumes and other elements from previous films into new ones for financial savings. Varno said the Corman brothers were so conscious of their spending that "'cheap' was the main word in their vocabulary". The monster costume scenes in Teenage Caveman and Night of the Blood Beast were shot within about two weeks of each other. The costume was modified slightly for Blood Beast; Varno claimed somebody on the set said "the nose looks too Jewish", so it was cut down slightly to more resemble a beak. Ross Sturlin wore the costume for the scenes in both Teenage Caveman and Night of the Blood Beast. Filming was very difficult for Sturlin because it grew extremely hot inside the costume during the exterior shots. John Mathew Nickolaus, Jr. was director of photography for the film and Jack Bohrer was the production manager. Daniel Haller, who went on to become a film director himself, worked as art director on Night of the Blood Beast. Haller did much of the manual construction work on the set himself, and brought a trailer in to the sound stage so he could sleep there and between work sessions. Among the props he built was the rocket ship, the frame of which was made of plywood that had been cut into circles, then covered with a plastic sheet and spray-painted to look metallic. Haller also created blood cells that the characters looked at under a microscope and the baby aliens (which resembled seahorses) they looked at under a fluoroscope. Alexander Laszlo composed the music for the film. Almost the entire crew went on to work on Attack of the Giant Leeches with the Corman brothers and Kowalski. ## WGA arbitration Martin Varno's dissatisfaction with the Cormans eventually led him to take them into formal arbitration proceedings. Although Varno was not a member of the Writers Guild of America when he wrote the Blood Beast script, he was encouraged by actor Jay Jostyn to discuss the matter with them. According to Varno, Jostyn claimed several actors and writers had similar problems with the Cormans in the past, but were not taking action because the Cormans provided them continued work in their films. After meeting with the Writers Guild, Varno became a member and filed arbitration papers against the Cormans for not paying him enough. Roger Corman was in the process of editing the film when he received the arbitration notice, and he became so angry he started screaming and throwing things in the cutting room. Varno claims one of the film crew members approached him (Varno) and promised that the Cormans would hire Varno to work on many of their future films if he dropped the matter, but Varno refused. Varno later filed a second arbitration upon learning that Gene Corman was to receive writing credit for the original story. Varno claimed Corman had nothing to do with the story and produced large amounts of dated notes he claimed proved he wrote it himself. Varno won both arbitration matters. However, Roger Corman refused to pay Varno and, as a result, he was not allowed to use Writers Guild of America members on his films. Corman used non-union writers for several years, but he finally agreed to pay Varno when he wanted to use a union writer on one of his films. Varno said he would have sought more money for the delay, but he was out of the country when Corman paid the money and missed his opportunity. Additionally, despite winning arbitration in the writing credit matter, Gene Corman was given on-screen original story credit in Night of the Blood Beast. When contacted by the distributor, American International Pictures, he was told removing Corman's credit would mean recalling all of the prints and changing them, which would have cost thousands of dollars, and Varno agreed to allow it to remain unchanged. ## Release ### Distribution Night at the Blood Beast was distributed by American International Pictures. It was test-screened for audiences in unadvertised sneak previews, in which audiences attending a different film were surprised with a screening of Night of the Blood Beast instead. Coincidentally, Martin Varno attended one of these sneak previews without any advance knowledge of what it was. The screening was also attended by Roger and Gene Corman, who were not pleased by Varno's presence. It was the first time the screenwriter had seen the completed film, which he did not enjoy, and he said of watching it: "On my left side was sitting Forry Ackerman, and on my right side was sitting Jerry Bixby. And their main job was to keep my hands held down so I wouldn't cut my throat." During its theatrical release, Night of the Blood Beast was a double feature co-billed with She Gods of Shark Reef. The film was released in December 1958. ### Reviews John L. Flynn, a Towson University English professor who has written extensively about science-fiction film, unfavorably compared Night of the Blood Beast to The Creeping Terror (1964), which was also about an astronaut returning from space with a stowaway alien creature. Although Flynn said it lacked the "epic pretentiousness" of that film, he nevertheless said of Night of the Blood Beast: "Corman made a career out of making cheap knock-offs of popular films, but he seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel here". The Washington Post writer Tom Shales said "it would be hard to find a worse movie" and that the monster "looks like the San Diego Chicken after having been tarred and feathered". Film critic and historian Steven H. Scheuer said the plot was a good idea but criticized what he called a "sloppy execution". Literary and film critic John Kenneth Muir said he considered the film a failure because the monster "simply could not live up to expectations once revealed". Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars with the entry: "Well directed, but too low budget to succeed." Night of the Blood Beast was among several films universally considered terrible that film reviewer Michael Adams watched as part of a book about his quest to find the worst film of all time. However, Adams said he enjoyed it on a B movie level, calling it "cheap but enjoyable and buoyed by its ideas". John Stanley, who hosted the San Francisco television show Creature Features about science fiction films, said Night of the Blood Beast deliberately imitated the best scenes from The Thing from Another World. Chris Eggerston of Bloody Disgusting wrote that the alien in the film "looks like a human-sized parrot covered in feces" and ranked it as the fifth worst movie monster of all time. However, he said that the film's idea of an alien impregnating a human being was an "interesting concept," noting that it was reused in Ridley Scott's Alien. ## Mystery Science Theater 3000 Night of the Blood Beast was featured in the seventh season premiere episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, along with Once Upon a Honeymoon (1956), a short film by Bell Telephone about a married couple forced to postpone their honeymoon even further so that the husband can write a song for a demanding diva. Night of the Blood Beast was one of several Roger Corman-produced or -directed films that were featured on the show, along with It Conquered the World (1956), The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957), Teenage Caveman (1958) and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). Night of the Blood Beast was originally broadcast on November 23, 1995, as a Thanksgiving special; the non-movie segments revolved around Thanksgiving in Deep 13, the headquarters of the mad scientist who ran MST3K'''s bad movie experiment. The episode was later broadcast with all new non-movie segments; the original version ran only four times, none after the non-Thanksgiving version debuted February 3, 1996. The show's episode guide, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, calls the movie "a science fiction monster thriller with no thrills attached, featuring possibly the stupidest collection of scientists ever to peer into a microscope." Recurring gags during the movie segments include referring to the parasites implanted in Corcoran by the alien as shrimp and mocking the feebleness of the government's response to a rocket crash, sending only a handful of scientists and a flatbed truck to investigate. The movie features "gray men talking flatly in a gray office," head writer / performer Mike Nelson wrote. "The twist is that they all appear to be named Steve. There are some women there too, but their roles are kept to a minimum to avoid sparking any unnecessary interest or character interaction. Gray men talking is mission number one." The episode fared moderately well with fans, placing \#75 of 177 in a poll of MST3K Season 11 Kickstarter backers. Writer Jim Vogel, however, counted Night of the Blood Beast as the fifth-best episode of MST3K. "The film is just a dull speck of nothing," Vorel wrote, "and yet, the Best Brains make it something magical. ...There's no end to the amazing running gags that are established throughout." Vorel also is baffled by the short, unable to understand how an angel helping newlyweds compose for a musical was supposed to convince viewers to buy phones. The MST3K version of the film was released on July 20, 2010, by Shout! Factory as part of the Mystery Science Theater Collection Vol. XVI DVD set along with The Corpse Vanishes (episode \#105), Warrior of the Lost World (episode \#501), and Santa Claus'' (episode \#521).

The Bigg Chill

Frozen yogurt restaurant in Los Angeles

The Bigg Chill is a frozen yogurt shop in Westwood, Los Angeles. It was established in 1986, and bought in 1990 by current owners Diane Dinow, daughter Cary Russell, and son Michael Mendelsohn. The store has been noted for its interior design, variety of conventional flavors, and longevity. In 2021, The Bigg Chill was publicly criticized on Instagram by singer Demi Lovato, who suffered a social media backlash for her comments. ## Store The Bigg Chill's interior has a neon-pink and aqua theme. The store rotates daily from a selection of over 400 flavors and only accepts cash. Many of the store's early flavors were created by Michael Mendelsohn; in 1994, he told the Los Angeles Times that chocolate, vanilla, and peanut butter were the best-selling flavors, and the toasted almond and Mounds candy bar flavors also performed well. The store's owners reported in 2011 that they could see as many as 1,000 customers a day, and up to 1,300 on the weekends. ## History ### Early history The Bigg Chill was established in 1986 in a small strip mall in Westwood, Los Angeles. In 1990, the store was bought by Cary Russell and her mother, Diane Dinow. The Los Angeles Times characterized the name as a homage to the 1983 film The Big Chill. On January 26, 1990, a fire broke out at a neighboring cleaners store in the strip mall, causing "extensive" damage. In 1994, the Los Angeles Times wrote that The Bigg Chill saw hundreds of regular customers daily. Up to 150 people could call in a day to hear which flavors the store was offering, causing the owners to begin listing the daily rotation of flavors on their answering machine. Dinow had already received several offers to franchise the store, but she refused; she had plans to open another store in Studio City, securing a US\$100,000 loan ( in today's money) to open it. In 2006, frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry rose to popularity, causing The Bigg Chill's revenues to drop 30 percent. Russell created and heavily marketed a tart ice cream flavor known as "Chill Berry" to recuperate profits. ### Demi Lovato incident In April 2021, The Bigg Chill received widespread attention on social media after singer-songwriter and actor Demi Lovato criticized the store on her Instagram story. Lovato argued that it had too many diet foods prominently displayed, which she characterized as "perpetuating a society that not only enables but praises disordered eating", including the hashtag "#dietculturevultures". The Bigg Chill responded that it carries those products for people with celiac disease, diabetes, and vegans. They also directly messaged Lovato on Instagram, "We are not diet vultures. We cater to all of our customers needs for the past 36 years. We are sorry you found this offensive". The back-and-forth continued, with Lovato receiving significant backlash on social media and in the news. Some users accused Lovato of using her large platform—Lovato had 102 million Instagram followers—to unfairly criticize a small business. The Bigg Chill told The Huffington Post that they were "really hurt by Demi's comments" and reiterated their support for their variety of options. Lovato apologized a few days later, describing her experience in the store and how it triggered her, and said, "I just get really passionate. Y'all know me. I'm pretty feisty, and sometimes my emotions get the best of me". Afterwards, The Bigg Chill denied rumors that Lovato had donated \$100,000 to the store and said they did not want Lovato to do so. The store's following on Instagram increased from 6,000 to 42,000 followers during the controversy. Russell commented that people were "shocked by how she came at us. And so were we. It was like, wait, why is she attacking us? What did we do?" ## Reception and impact In a 2011 profile from The New York Times, Nicole LaPorte praised the store's endurance, despite emerging trends of designer frozen yogurt flavors and self-serve yogurt. While LaPorte characterized the ice cream as ordinary, she also argued that the store's resistance to change provides it authenticity and a loyal customer base, a strategy she characterized as more effective than the "unique and pleasing sensory environment" of Pinkberry. Customers compared The Bigg Chill to an "old-time ice-cream parlor". In a 2016 "Discourse On Frozen Yogurt" from Los Angeles magazine, Marielle Wakim categorized The Bigg Chill as an "OG Veteran" for its longevity among Los Angeles's frozen yogurt stores. Wakim noted the store's neon turquoise and pink motif, service, and simple non-designer flavors such as "Vanilla Custard" and "Fresh Strawberry" rather than "Taro" or "Green Tea". KCET also noted the store's resistance to exotic flavors, commenting that they did not "sell out to yogurt trends" when a rival store was opened nearby. They also complimented the store's yogurt pies and called the store a "UCLA institution" despite its location in West Los Angeles. While reviewing Los Angeles frozen yogurt stores, CBS Los Angeles complimented the store's "cool retro look" and large selection of flavors. Amy Salko Robertson told the Jewish Journal in 2013 that when she started a frozen yogurt shop in Santa Monica, she drew inspiration from The Bigg Chill to experiment with flavors. Los Angeles magazine reported that between March and June 2020—the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns—The Bigg Chill was the fifth most popular Los Angeles restaurant on food-delivery service Postmates.

Oh My God (Adele song)

2021 single by Adele

"Oh My God" is a song by English singer Adele from her fourth studio album, 30 (2021). Adele wrote the song alongside the producer Greg Kurstin. Columbia Records released it to US adult contemporary radio stations, as the album's second single, on 29 November 2021. A gospel pop song with influences of R&B and a dance-pop chorus, it has lyrics about Adele's desire to start dating again and being guarded while beginning a relationship with a new love interest. "Oh My God" received generally positive reviews from music critics, most of whom praised its catchy production and identified the commercial potential. The song reached number one in Israel and Mexico, and the top 10 in several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Sam Brown directed its music video, which was positively received and features religious imagery and Adele clad in designer outfits. She performed the song during her British Summer Time concerts. ## Background and release Adele began working on her fourth studio album by 2018. She filed for divorce from her husband Simon Konecki in September 2019, which inspired the album. After experiencing anxiety, Adele undertook therapy sessions and mended her estranged relationship with her father. Single again for the first time in almost 10 years, she sought a serious relationship in Los Angeles but struggled to find one. To Adele's displeasure, her friends would set her up on blind dates, but it did not work as she feared having the paparazzi called on her. She decided to have regular conversations with her son, which inspired her return to the studio and the album took shape as a body of work that would explain to him why she left his father. Adele co-wrote the song "Oh My God" with its producer Greg Kurstin, who had produced three songs for her third studio album 25 (2015)—"Hello", "Million Years Ago", and "Water Under the Bridge". "Oh My God" is about her desire to get back into the dating pool, but struggling to achieve this due to her celebrity status. Adele stated the song is "about the first time that [she] basically left [her] house after [her] anxiety and stuff like that started to sort of subside". She struggled with dating and wrote it about adjusting to flirting she received as a newly single person: do you mind? I'm married.' And my friends were like, 'but you're not.' And I was like, 'oh shit. OK, oh my God.'" Adele released "Easy on Me" as the lead single from the album, entitled 30, on 14 October 2021. She announced the album's tracklist on 1 November 2021, which included "Oh My God" as the fifth track. It became available for digital download on 30, which was released on 19 November. "Oh My God" replaced "I Drink Wine" as the second single from the album, which had been announced in November 2021. In the United States, Columbia Records serviced the song to adult contemporary radio stations on 29 November 2021, and contemporary hit radio stations the following day. It was sent for radio airplay to France on 12 January 2022, and Italy two days later. Adele performed "Oh My God" during her British Summer Time concerts on 1 and 2 July 2022. ## Composition and lyrics "Oh My God" is three minutes and 45 seconds long. Kurstin produced and engineered the song. He plays the bass, Hammond B3 organ, keyboards, percussion, piano, and provides the claps and drum programming; Adele plays the tambourine; and Chris Dave plays the drums. Julian Burg and Alex Pasco engineered the song at No Expectations Studios in Los Angeles; Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, and Bryce Bordone mixed it at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Randy Merrill handled mastering at Sterling Sound in New Jersey. Musically, "Oh My God" is a gospel pop song, with elements of R&B. Clash's Robin Murray described the song as "sheer gospel abandon", while Consequence's Mary Siroky and Glenn Rowley believed it "incorporates more R&B sounds". The instrumentation incorporates claps, keys, organ, "rumbling" bass, and whistles. Adele employs vocal harmonies reminiscent of typical gospel and soul patterns, along with jazz and swing. Ilana Kaplan of Rolling Stone felt that "Oh My God" has a dance-pop chorus and "Afrobeat-inspired" verses. Music columnist Bruno Tummers said on RTBF that she combines her vocal identity with new sonorities whilst retaining her soul roots in the song. He said it stands out from her "melancholic universe". Adele sings parts of it with a staccato, along with sped-up background vocals, which Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times thought were "processed nearly beyond recognition". NME's El Hunt described "Oh My God" as a "helium-charged" song reminiscent of Sault, and The Guardian's Alexis Petridis thought it offered an unprocessed take on the "stomping rhythm" included in the verses of "Rolling in the Deep" (2010). "Oh My God" has lyrics about Adele's desire to enjoy herself, which she has not had the chance to do in the past: "I know that it's wrong/ But I want to have fun". The song explores the topic of wanting to "put yourself out there", and the difficulties she has faced while doing so due to her fame. Adele sings about hookups and fulfilling her sexual needs without shame. It discusses being guarded while falling in love with a new person, whom Elle speculated might be Rich Paul, a sports agent she was dating at the time of its release. Adele expresses shock at this new encounter and wonders if she is still too hurt to begin flirting already. Some lyrics of "Oh My God" describe her finding fulfilment in being newly single: "I am a grown woman, and I do what I want to do." ## Critical reception After 30's release, Consequence chose "Oh My God" as "Song of the Week". Their writers Siroky and Rowley described the song's lyrics about internal conflict as "refreshing", and thought it strayed from other songs on the album. "Oh My God" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who mostly praised its production's catchiness. Variety's Chris Willman commented that the song's "four-on-the-floor beat and some electro-squiggles" were the nearest Kurstin got to making music suited to the year 2021 without sounding too out of place on 30. Jon Pareles of The New York Times described it as a "foot-stomper", and Spin's Bobby Olivier called the song "pulsating and catchy". Writing for AllMusic, Neil Z. Yeung foresaw commercial success for "Oh My God", and noted that it "rides an infectious beat peppered with handclaps and whistles". Consequence's Ilana Kaplan found the song smouldering and well-suited for clubs. Kyle Mullin of Exclaim! was positive about its "understated stomping percussion" and thought Adele's staccato delivery was entrancing. For The Guardian, Kitty Empire found the production of "Oh My God" playful. The Telegraph's Neil McCormick wrote that the song's vocal harmonies are "carefully stacked" and Adele "absolutely roll[s] in the deep blues". Wood thought its unrecognisible processing of her vocals was a surprising choice given her reputation for stellar vocals. Some critics identified "Oh My God" as one of the more radio-friendly tracks on 30. The A.V. Club's Gabrielle Sanchez wrote that, along with "Can I Get It", it constituted the "most pop-oriented and straightforward" segment of 30, and the use of steady handclaps drove them to be "the most uptempo section". Jill Mapes of Pitchfork thought "Oh My God" stylistically lays somewhere between the work of Ed Sheeran and Florence Welch, but Adele's vocal tics introduce personality. Eric Mason of Slant Magazine thought Adele explored a more modern sound on the song, but "with mixed results", and added that its production "feels somewhat sanitized, like the accompaniment to a car commercial". The Line of Best Fit's David Cobbald was critical and believed it was too removed from Adele's wheelhouse: "It's an arresting half-assed chant of a song that doesn't go far enough to be believable, employing a strange use of intonation and word placement that makes it one of the least memorable on the album." ## Commercial performance "Oh My God" debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart issued for 26 November 2021, on which Adele also placed "Easy on Me" at number one and "I Drink Wine" at number four. "Oh My God" received a Gold certification in the United Kingdom from the British Phonographic Industry on 20 May 2022. The song peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming her eighth top-10 on the chart, and the Recording Industry Association of America certified it Platinum in the US on June 29, 2022. It reached number eight on the Canadian Hot 100. In Australia, "Oh My God" charted at number six and the Australian Recording Industry Association certified it Platinum in 2022. In New Zealand, the song debuted at number four and received a Gold certification from Recorded Music NZ on 7 February 2022. Elsewhere, it peaked within the top five, at number one in Israel and Mexico, number two in Belgium and Sweden, number three on the Billboard Global 200, in Ireland, and Lithuania, number four in Iceland, and number five in the Czech Republic and Croatia. "Oh My God" further earned Gold certifications in France, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. ## Music video Sam Brown, who had previously directed the music video for "Rolling in the Deep", also directed the one for "Oh My God", which was shot on 14 October 2021. Adele shared a teaser of it on her Twitter account on 6 January 2022, and the video premiered on YouTube on 12 January. The black and white video features various versions of Adele performing the song in a room filled with wooden chairs, accompanied by backup dancers. In it, Adele successively wears three custom outfits by Harris Reed, Louis Vuitton, a scarlet red satin corset designed by Vivienne Westwood, and a Cartier diamond necklace. The latter half of the video features religious imagery, and Adele in a Louis Vuitton outfit designed by Nicolas Ghesquière, integrating a golden brocade dress, a short white cape, and black leather opera gloves, surrounded by a halo of light. The video received positive reviews from critics. Elle's Erica Gonzales viewed it as "a gorgeous visual display" and complimented Adele's fashion choices in it: "Adele is clearly the star, dressed in elegant gowns (including a custom Vivienne Westwood number) and perfectly-styled updos." Bria McNeal of Nylon thought the visuals were "stunning" and marked the beginning of a more vulnerable era for Adele, taking its viewers on "a winding journey". Writing for Billboard, Gil Kaufman described the video as dramatic and thought Adele portrayed a character reminiscent of Eve. It was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction at the 2022 ceremony. ## Credits and personnel Credits are adapted from the liner notes of 30. - Greg Kurstin – producer, songwriter, engineering, bass, claps, drum programming, Hammond B3 organ, keyboards, percussion, piano - Adele – songwriter, tambourine - Julian Burg – engineering - Alex Pasco – engineering - Chris Dave – drums - Serban Ghenea – mixing - John Hanes – mixing - Bryce Bordone – mixing - Randy Merrill – mastering ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Release history

Borchgrevinkium

Extinct genus of arthropods

Borchgrevinkium is an extinct genus of chelicerate arthropod. A fossil of the single and type species, B. taimyrensis, has been discovered in deposits of the Early Devonian period (Lochkovian epoch) in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russia. The name of the genus honors Carsten Borchgrevink, an Anglo-Norwegian explorer who participated in many expeditions to Antarctica. Borchgrevinkium represents a poorly known genus whose affinities are uncertain. It had several unique characteristics that differentiated it from many other arthropods, such as its long parabolic (nearly U-shaped) prosoma (head), its elongated first and second segments and the presence of paired "ridges" in the surface of its third to tenth tergites (dorsal halves of the segments). Furthermore, the opisthosoma (the "trunk") of Borchgrevinkium was triangular, and its telson (the posteriormost division of its body), short and wedge-shaped. It was a small animal, approximately 3 centimetres (1.2 inches) long. The only known specimen of the genus was collected in 1956 and described in 1959 by the Russian paleontologist Nestor Ivanovich Novojilov. He determined that it was a eurypterid and classified it in the family Mycteroptidae. However, its classification changed repeatedly over the years, being transferred from Eurypterida to Xiphosura and back to Eurypterida some time later. Borchgrevinkium is tentatively considered as a prosomapod, with more fossil material needed to ensure its current classification. ## Description The size of the only known specimen of Borchgrevinkium, identified with the label PIN 1271/1, is estimated more or less at 3 centimetres (1.2 inches), making it a small arthropod. The prosoma was longer than wider (covering one third of the length of the animal), parabolic (nearly U-shaped) and with a length of 1.35 cm (0.53 in). The eyes are not preserved and therefore, their position or shape is unknown. The prosomal appendages (limbs) are only known by the tip of poorly preserved left pairs. They were short, undifferentiated and spiniferous. The opisthosoma (the "trunk") was triangular and 1.23 cm (0.48 in) long. It was composed of 12 segments, with the first one being exceptionally long and forming with the second segment an "extension" of the prosoma. The genital appendage (a ventral "rod" part of the reproductive system) of Borchgrevinkium was long, spanning from its first to its second segment. The third to tenth tergites (dorsal halves of the segments) had distal (outwards-pointing) lobes on their sides that delimitated the dorsal and ventral parts of the opisthosoma. Furthermore, these tergites had on their surfaces converging paired "folds" or "ridges" that progressively narrowed to the center of the tenth tergite. These ridges were almost parallel to the lateral lobes. On the eleventh tergite, the edges were slightly curved. The pretelson (the segment that preceded the telson) had a bifid (divided into two lobes) dorsal projection. The telson (the posteriormost division of the body) was cuneiform (wedge-like), short and narrow, and measured 0.45 cm (0.18 in). The ornamentation of the body was composed by short scales with broadly rounded edges. ## History of research In 1956, the Russian paleontologist and geologist Vladimir Vasilyevich Menner discovered a series of fossils in Devonian deposits near the Imangda River at the southwest of the Taymyr Peninsula, near Norilsk, in the Krasnoyarsk Krai (Russia, then the Soviet Union). He sent them to the Russian paleontologist Nestor Ivanovich Novojilov, who in 1959 described, among others, a specimen labelled as PIN 1271/1, which was nearly complete. It was deposited in the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow, where it remains. Novojilov considered it unique enough to be erected as a new genus, Borchgrevinkium, named after the Anglo-Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink for his expeditions to Antarctica. He compared it with the then xiphosuran genus Weinbergina, assuming that Borchgrevinkium was also a xiphosuran. However, the Norwegian paleontologist Leif Størmer, who assisted him during his study, noticed that what Novojilov had considered to be an accidental fissure was actually part of the "macrosegment" (the first segment), finding as well the tip of the appendages after closer examination. The presence of this macrosegment convinced Novojilov that Borchgrevinkium represented a new eurypterid, and he classified it as such. In 1966, the American paleontologist Erik Norman Kjellesvig-Waering, during a study on the families and genera of the superfamily Stylonuracea (now known as Stylonuroidea), tentatively recorded an Upper Silurian occurrence of the genus Borchgrevinkium apart from the Lower Devonian one, believing that a new specimen had been found. This specimen was later named as "Borchgrevinkium sp.". In 2017, the British geologist and paleobiologist James C. Lamsdell and the Irish palaeontologist Derek Briggs found that this specimen was YPM IP 300790, collected in the Bertie Formation in the state of New York in 1967 by Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr., who identified it as a new undescribed species of Borchgrevinkium after contacting Størmer. Nevertheless, since this specimen was misidentified, it was redescribed as a new species of the chasmataspidid Diploaspis, D. praecursor, by Lamsdell and Briggs. The history of Borchgrevinkium soon became turbulent, being classified as a xiphosuran in 1989, and back to Eurypterida years later. Borchgrevinkium was tentatively moved by Lamsdell in 2013 to the clade (taxonomic group) Prosomapoda. ## Classification Novojilov, during his description of Borchgrevinkium, noted a certain resemblance to Weinbergina, especially for the paired "ridges" that both have on their tergites. Based on the aforementioned macrosegment, Novojilov classified the genus as a mycteroptid eurypterid and compared it to the species Mycterops matthieui and Woodwardopterus scabrosus (members of the family), without finding many similarities but still classifying Borchgrevinkium in the eurypterid group. Nowadays, however, his descriptions are considered inexhaustive and based only on the best preserved material. Nevertheless, the genus continued being considered by other authors as a eurypterid. In 1966, Kjellesvig-Waering classified Borchgrevinkium with Woodwardopterus in the family Woodwardopteridae. He based this conclusion on the similarity of the ornamentation, the shape of the prosoma and the exceptional size of the first two segments of both. In 1972, Størmer questioned the affiliation of the genus in this clade and suggested that it might represent a chasmataspidid within the order Xiphosura. Following this recommendation, Victor P. Tollerton, Jr. reclassified it in 1989 inside this order during his revision of Eurypterida. In 2004, the Norwegian paleontologist Odd Erik Tetlie did not support this change and transferred Borchgrevinkium as eurypterid, again in the family Woodwardopteridae with Woodwardopterus and Mycterops, but now in a different suborder, Woodwardopterina, suggesting that these arthropods actually could not represent eurypterids. The woodwardopterines were presumably united by the great elongation of the first two segments. This point of view was not approved by other researchers, and eventually Woodwardopterina was synonymized with Stylonurina and Woodwardopteridae with Mycteroptidae. In addition, Lamsdell considered the genus as needing a redescription. Nowadays, Borchgrevinkium is a highly uncertain and problematic genus. Its eurypterid nature was soon denied again in 2013, when Lamsdell placed it in the clade Prosomapoda. It encompasses all chelicerates with prosomal uniramous appendages (appendages composed of a single series of segments attached end-to-end) in the adult stage (excluding the sixth and last pair of appendages). However, the appendages of Borchgrevinkium are poorly known. Lamsdell made a note in it and in Anderella, determining that in order to consolidate the classification of both genera in Prosomapoda, new fossil material is needed. A phylogenetic analysis (the results presented in a cladogram below) conducted by Lamsdell in 2013 on the relationships within Xiphosura and the relations to other closely related groups concluded that Xiphosura, as presently understood, was paraphyletic (that is, it was a group sharing a last common ancestor but not including all descendants of this ancestor) and thus not a valid phylogenetic group. Prosomapoda was erected to include several chelicerates formerly classified mostly as xiphosurans, as well as the xiphosurans themselves and Planaterga. Borchgrevinkium was not included due to its scarce known material. ## Paleoecology The only known specimen of Borchgrevinkium has been recovered in Early Devonian (Lochkovian) deposits of the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, Russia. It was found alongside specimens of the chasmataspidids Dvulikiaspis menneri, Heteroaspis stoermeri and Skrytyaspis andersoni, as well as indeterminate eurypterids like Acutiramus. The lithology (physical characteristics of the rocks) of the place has been described as dark gray marls with gypsiferous and dolomitic; rich in dolomite occurrences. The fossils were collected 60 metres (200 feet) below the Early Devonian–Middle Devonian boundary.

Levi Lincoln Jr.

Massachusetts Governor and Congressman (1782–1868)

Levi Lincoln Jr. (October 25, 1782 – May 29, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician from Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the 13th Governor of Massachusetts (1825–1834) and represented the state in the U.S. Congress (1834–1841). Lincoln's nine-year tenure as governor is the longest consecutive service in state history; only Michael Dukakis (12 years), John Hancock (11 years) and Caleb Strong (10 years) served more years, but they were not consecutive. Born to Levi Lincoln Sr., a prominent Worcester lawyer, he studied law and entered the state legislature in 1812 as a Democratic-Republican. He supported the War of 1812 (a minority position in Federalist-dominated Massachusetts) and opposed the Hartford Convention. Over the next ten years his politics moderated, and he was elected governor in 1825 in a nonpartisan landslide after serving one year on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Lincoln oversaw significant economic development in Massachusetts during his tenure and issued the first-ever veto by a Massachusetts governor. Lincoln and Daniel Webster were leading forces in the foundation of the National Republican (later Whig) Party in Massachusetts, which dominated state politics until the 1850s. Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1835, serving in the House of Representatives until 1841, when President William Henry Harrison appointed him collector of the Port of Boston. He was a major civic and philanthropic force in Worcester, owning and developing land in the city, and serving as its first mayor in 1848. ## Early political career Levi Lincoln was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 25, 1782, the firstborn child of Levi Lincoln Sr. and Martha Waldo Lincoln. His father was a lawyer who soon thereafter assumed a prominent place in state politics. Lincoln attended Harvard College, graduating in 1802, studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1805. By this time his father had served as United States Attorney General, and was a dominant figure in Worcester politics and statewide Democratic-Republican Party affairs. Lincoln was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1812 as a Republican, where he supported the War of 1812, a minority position in a state dominated by Federalists. In 1814 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he opposed the Hartford Convention, a meeting of Federalist delegates from New England states to air grievances on the conduct of the war. He served terms in the state legislature until 1822, the last year as Speaker of the House. He was elected to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820–1821, called after Maine was separated from the state. The separation of Maine included the division of its extensive public lands, in which Massachusetts retained an ownership interest. Lincoln represented Massachusetts on the commission that oversaw the division of these lands. Over this time Lincoln's political views progressively moderated, and he came to be seen as relatively nonpartisan with respect to the Republican-Federalist divide. His opposition to the Hartford Convention raised his profile, and during the contentious Constitutional Convention debates, he maintained positive relations with political friends and foes. In 1823 he was elected lieutenant governor, serving under moderate Republican Governor William Eustis. In 1824 Eustis nominated him to fill a vacancy on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court created by the resignation of Maine justice George Thatcher. That year he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ## Governor In 1825 Lincoln was approached by Republican party leaders about running for governor. Adopting a firmly centrist stance, he refused to run as the candidate of a single party. When a Federalist caucus seconded the nomination, he agreed to stand and won the election in a landslide against insignificant opposition. For the next five years, he ran virtually unopposed, only occasionally facing opposition from what were basically single-issue candidates and the weak perennial Democratic candidate Marcus Morton. Historian Ronald Formisano characterizes Lincoln's administration as "basically a National Republican, proto-Whig administration." In 1832, opposition parties began to gain strength, and he won a narrow majority over Democratic and Anti-Masonic opposition. Economic development issues dominated Lincoln's tenure in office. He was a regular supporter of development initiatives and worked to change state laws to limit the liability of corporate investors. He ordered the state's first geographical and topographical surveys. The opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal (connecting New York City to the Great Lakes) and the Blackstone Canal (connecting Worcester to Providence, Rhode Island) in 1828 presented challenges to Boston's dominance as a shipping hub. Lincoln early on proposed a canal connecting Boston to the Connecticut River, but this idea never caught on. His government eventually approved plans for the construction of a railroad connecting Boston to Albany, New York, chartering its first stage, the Boston and Worcester Railroad, in 1831. The railroad charter was issued in the wake of a controversy over the nature of state-issued corporate charters that led to the first-ever veto by a Massachusetts governor. In 1826, after several years of lobbying by its proponents, the legislature granted a charter to the Warren Bridge Company for a second bridge connecting Boston to Charlestown. The proprietors proposed that the bridge would charge tolls for only six years and then become free. The proprietors of the competing Charles River Bridge, which also charged tolls, objected, claiming that the state had granted it an exclusive charter for that crossing, and prevailed on Lincoln to veto the new charter. This he did; the veto was overridden in the House but not the Senate. The veto brought in a storm of criticism from populist supporters of the new bridge, who established the Free Bridge Party and ran William C. Jarvis against Lincoln in the 1827 election. Lincoln approved the charter when it was resubmitted in 1828, after which the Charles River Bridge proprietors initiated a lawsuit. With Daniel Webster as their attorney, the case Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge made its way to the United States Supreme Court, which in 1837 ruled that the state had not granted exclusive privileges to the Charles River Bridge proprietors. Public health and correctional institutions were expanded during Lincoln's tenure. The state's first psychiatric hospital, the Worcester Lunatic Asylum, was authorized in 1830 and opened in 1833. The state prison, built at Charlestown in 1805, had long been a subject of agitation for reform. It was expanded in 1829 and converted to operation according to the latest Auburn system ideas. One reform idea proposed by Lincoln did not receive action from the legislature: in both 1826 and 1827 he promoted the idea of establishing a normal school to standardize the education of school teachers. These were not established until the administration of Edward Everett in the late 1830s. Lincoln was responsible for one of the major judicial appointments in Massachusetts in the 19th century. Following the death of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Isaac Parker, Lincoln offered the post to Lemuel Shaw, a lawyer with a solid reputation who had been at Harvard with him and had served with him in the legislature. Shaw at first refused the position, but Lincoln and Daniel Webster eventually prevailed on him to accept the seat. Shaw headed the court for thirty years, a period that included much groundbreaking jurisprudence. Lincoln's term as governor is the longest consecutive service in the state's history. Only Michael Dukakis, John Hancock and Caleb Strong served for more years, but their terms were not all consecutive. Lincoln's brother Enoch was Governor of Maine from 1827 to 1829; they were the first two brothers to be governors simultaneously. Later combinations of brothers as governors include John (California) and William Bigler (Pennsylvania) in the 1850s, Nelson (New York) and Winthrop Rockefeller (Arkansas) in the 1960s and 1970s, and George W. Bush (Texas) and Jeb Bush (Florida) from 1999 to 2000. Lincoln was one of several politicians whose leadership led to the solid establishment of the National Republicans and their successors the Whigs. The National Republican Party in Massachusetts grew out a coalition of former Jeffersonian Republicans (led by Lincoln) and former Federalists (led by Daniel Webster), who coalesced to support President John Quincy Adams in the late 1820s. Lincoln critically refused an offer of a position in the United States Senate in 1827, citing the need to remain in the state and strengthen the then-fragile National Republican organization. The Whig Party, which succeeded the National Republicans, dominated state politics until 1854. ## Congressman In 1833 Lincoln decided not to run for reelection, intending to return to private practice. He was instead prevailed upon in early 1834 to run for the recently vacated Congressional seat of fellow Worcester Whig John Davis, who had been elected governor. The race for governor was split three ways, and no one had won a majority, sending the election to the state legislature to decide. John Quincy Adams, who had run on the Anti-Masonic ticket, withdrew and endorsed Davis, preferring him over Morton and Davis was chosen by the legislature in January 1834. Davis had been reelected to his Congressional seat as well, and resigned that to assume the governorship. In a special election in February Lincoln was elected to the vacant Congressional seat. Lincoln served in the House of Representatives until 1841. He did not particularly distinguish himself in Congress, generally supporting the Whig agenda and taking a firm stance on the outstanding border dispute between Maine and the British (now Canadian) province of New Brunswick. In 1841 President William Henry Harrison appointed Lincoln collector of the Port of Boston, a post he held until September 1843. In what biographer Kinley Brauer terms the "only involuntary retirement in his career", Lincoln was replaced by Democrat Robert Rantoul Jr. on the order of President John Tyler. For his last statewide office, Lincoln won two terms to the state senate beginning in 1844, serving as the body's president. ## Growth of Worcester Lincoln inherited sizable properties in central Worcester from his father, and his development activities of these and other lands he acquired had a major impact on the city's character in the 19th century. He purchased and donated to the city the land that became Elm Park; it and the adjacent neighborhood form the Lincoln Estate-Elm Park Historic District. When Worcester was smaller, there had been little class division between its various neighborhoods; however, those that Lincoln laid out on the west side of the city became the place the wealthier elements of Worcester society chose to live. From the 1820s to the 1840s Worcester, at first a town of modest size, experienced significant growth. This was stimulated by first the construction of the Blackstone Canal and then the railroad, which connected it to Boston. The town experienced rapid industrial growth and a growing diversification of its population, especially by Irish Americans who had helped build the canal. There was political tension between the older elites, Lincoln among them, and the rising industrial working class. The arrival of Irish immigrants in the 1840s led to an increase in street gang activity and violence as the social systems of the town strained to deal with the influx. This led to calls for the town to receive a city charter, which was granted by the state in 1848. In the first mayoral election held that year, Lincoln ran against Rodney Miller, a local temperance advocate around whom opposition to the town's elites coalesced. Lincoln carried the election by more than ten percent, and became the new city's first mayor. He held the post for one year, during which he played host to Abraham Lincoln, a distant relation from Illinois who was electioneering for Zachary Taylor on the Whig ticket in the 1848 presidential election. (Worcester was carried by Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren, although Taylor won the election.) After one year as mayor, Lincoln retired from politics. He remained active in a large number of civic organizations including the American Antiquarian Society, of which he was a founding member in 1812, and later vice president from 1854 to 1868, the Worcester Agricultural Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He also served on the Board of Overseers of Leicester Academy. He briefly came out of political retirement to serve as a Republican Party presidential elector in the 1864 election, casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln, a distant relative of Levi Lincoln Jr. He was also a presidential elector in 1824 and 1848. He died in Worcester on May 29, 1868, and was interred in Worcester Rural Cemetery. ## Family and legacy Lincoln married Penelope Winslow Sever on September 6, 1807. She was a descendant of Plymouth Colony Governor Edward Winslow and a member of Worcester's Chandler family. The couple had nine children, of whom one died young and three others predeceased their father. As a consequence of the Lincoln family's prominence in Worcester, the city has a number of landmarks (streets, buildings and parks) bearing the Lincoln name. A house Lincoln had built in 1834 while awaiting completion of his 1836 mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Gov. Levi Lincoln House. The mansion, originally on Worcester's west side, now stands as a retail establishment near the entrance to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

HMS Thunderer (1911)

Orion-class dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy

HMS Thunderer was the fourth and last Orion-class dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August, her service during World War I generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. After the Grand Fleet was dissolved in early 1919, Thunderer was transferred back to the Home Fleet for a few months before she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. The ship was converted into a training ship for naval cadets in 1921 and served in that role until she was sold for scrap in late 1926. While being towed to the scrapyard, Thunderer ran aground; the ship was refloated and subsequently broken up. ## Design and description The Orion-class ships were designed in response to the beginnings of the Anglo-German naval arms race and were much larger than their predecessors of the Colossus-class battleship to accommodate larger, more powerful guns and heavier armour. In recognition of these improvements, the class was sometimes called "super-dreadnoughts". The ships had an overall length of 581 feet (177.1 m), a beam of 88 feet 6 inches (27.0 m) and a deep draught of 31 feet 3 inches (9.5 m). They displaced 21,922 long tons (22,274 t) at normal load and 25,596 long tons (26,007 t) at deep load as built; by 1918 Thunderer's deep displacement had increased to 27,416 long tons (27,856 t). Her crew numbered 738 officers and ratings when completed in 1912 and 1,107 in 1917. The Orion class was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower (20,000 kW) and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). During her sea trials on 5 March 1912, Thunderer reached a maximum speed of 20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph) from 27,427 shp (20,452 kW), although hampered by a boiler malfunction. The ships carried enough coal and fuel oil to give them a range of 6,730 nautical miles (12,460 km; 7,740 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). ### Armament and armour The Orion class was equipped with 10 breech-loading (BL) 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, all on the centreline. The turrets were designated 'A', 'B', 'Q', 'X' and 'Y', from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mark VII guns. These guns were split evenly between the forward and aft superstructure, all in single mounts. Four 3-pounder (1.9 in (47 mm)) saluting guns were also carried. The ships were equipped with three 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 20 torpedoes were provided. The Orions were protected by a waterline 12-inch (305 mm) armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes. Their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch (25 mm) and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches (279 mm) thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick (254 mm) barbettes. ### Modifications A prototype fire-control director was installed sometime before November 1912, on a platform below the spotting top. In 1914 the shelter-deck guns were enclosed in casemates and by October 1914, a pair of 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) guns were installed aboard each ship. Additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. Around the same time, a pair of four-inch guns were removed from the aft superstructure. Two flying-off platforms were fitted aboard the ship during 1917–1918; these were mounted on 'B' and 'X' turret roofs and extended onto the gun barrels. A high-angle rangefinder was fitted in the forward superstructure by 1921. ## Construction and career Thunderer was the sixth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy and was laid down by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at their shipyard in Poplar, London on 13 April 1910 and launched on 1 February 1911. She was commissioned on 15 June 1912 at Devonport. Including her armament, her cost is variously quoted at £1,892,823 or £1,885,145. Thunderer and her sister ships comprised the Second Division of the 2nd Battle Squadron (BS) of the Home Fleet. The ship, together with her sisters Monarch and Orion, participated in the Parliamentary Naval Review on 9 July at Spithead. They then participated in training manoeuvres with Vice-Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg commanding the "Blue Fleet" aboard Thunderer. On 13 November, the ship participated in comparative gunnery trials with Orion to evaluate the effectiveness of the former's gunnery director. Thunderer decisively outshot the latter ship, although some of her success was because her director was above the smoke that obscured the target from Orion's guns. The test was repeated in better conditions on 4 December and Orion performed much better, apparently beating Thunderer. The three sisters were present with the 2nd BS to receive the President of France, Raymond Poincaré, at Spithead on 24 June 1913. During the annual manoeuvres in August, Thunderer was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, commander of the "Red Fleet". On 4 November, Thunderer, Orion, the dreadnought King George V and the predreadnought King Edward VII fired at and sank the target ship Empress of India to give their crews experience in firing live ammunition against a real ship. ### World War I Between 17 and 20 July 1914, Thunderer took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review as part of the British response to the July Crisis. Arriving in Portland on 25 July, she was ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow four days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the Imperial German Navy. In August 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral Jellicoe. Repeated reports of submarines in Scapa Flow led Jellicoe to conclude that the defences there were inadequate and he ordered that the Grand Fleet be dispersed to other bases until the defences be reinforced. On 16 October the 2nd BS was sent to Loch na Keal on the western coast of Scotland. The squadron departed for gunnery practice off the northern coast of Ireland on the morning of 27 October and the dreadnought Audacious struck a mine, laid a few days earlier by the German armed merchant cruiser SS Berlin. Thinking that the ship had been torpedoed by a submarine, the other dreadnoughts were ordered away from the area, while smaller ships rendered assistance. On the evening of 22 November 1914, the Grand Fleet conducted a fruitless sweep in the southern half of the North Sea; Thunderer stood with the main body in support of Vice-Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. The fleet was back in port in Scapa Flow by 27 November. On 8 December, she sailed to Devonport for a brief refit to fix problems with her condensers. #### 1915–1916 Jellicoe's ships, including Thunderer, conducted gunnery drills on 10–13 January 1915 west of the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's battlecruisers, but Thunderer and the rest of the fleet did not participate in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place on 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place on 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April. The Grand Fleet conducted sweeps into the central North Sea on 17–19 May and 29–31 May without encountering any German vessels. During 11–14 June, the fleet conducted gunnery practice and battle exercises west of Shetland and more training off Shetland beginning on 11 July. The 2nd BS conducted gunnery practice in the Moray Firth on 2 August and then returned to Scapa Flow. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises. The ship, together with the majority of the Grand Fleet, conducted another sweep into the North Sea from 13 to 15 October. Almost three weeks later, Thunderer participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney during 2–5 November and repeated the exercise at the beginning of December. The Grand Fleet sortied in response to an attack by German ships on British light forces near Dogger Bank on 10 February 1916, but it was recalled two days later when it became clear that no German ships larger than a destroyer were involved. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Another sweep began on 6 March, but had to be abandoned the following day as the weather grew too severe for the escorting destroyers. On the night of 25 March, Thunderer and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support Beatty's battlecruisers and other light forces raiding the German Zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a strong gale threatened the light craft, so the fleet was ordered to return to base. On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Imperial Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft, but only arrived in the area after the Germans had withdrawn. On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea. #### Battle of Jutland In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of sixteen dreadnoughts, six predreadnoughts and supporting ships, departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Hipper's five battlecruisers. Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On 31 May, Thunderer, under the command of Captain James Fergusson, was the eighth ship from the head of the battle line after deployment. At 18:27 the ship briefly fired at the crippled light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, although the number of hits made, if any, is unknown, until her view was blocked by other British ships. Less than an hour later, Thunderer sighted two German dreadnoughts visible between Royal Oak and Iron Duke at about 19:15. She fired three salvoes of common pointed, capped (CPC) at the leading ship, but no hits were made and the second salvo was actually fired over the top of Iron Duke, before her view was totally obscured. After sunset, the battlecruiser SMS Moltke spotted the four Orion-class ships at 22:30 and signalled a challenge to Thunderer before sheering off. Fergusson chose not to engage without an obvious threat lest he reveal the location of the battlefleet. Thunderer fired just thirty-seven 13.5-inch shells (all CPC) during the battle. #### Subsequent activity The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea, but a series of miscommunications and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from intercepting the German fleet before it returned to port. Two light cruisers were sunk by German U-boats during the operation, prompting Jellicoe to decide to not risk the major units of the fleet south of 55° 30' North due to the prevalence of German submarines and mines. The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions. In April 1918, the High Seas Fleet again sortied, to attack British convoys to Norway. They enforced strict wireless silence during the operation, which prevented Room 40 cryptanalysts from warning the new commander of the Grand Fleet, Admiral Beatty. The British only learned of the operation after an accident aboard the battlecruiser SMS Moltke forced her to break radio silence to inform the German commander of her condition. Beatty then ordered the Grand Fleet to sea to intercept the Germans, but he was not able to reach the High Seas Fleet before it turned back for Germany. The ship was present at Rosyth, Scotland, when the High Seas Fleet surrendered there on 21 November and she remained part of the 2nd BS through 1 March 1919. By 1 May, Thunderer had been assigned to the 3rd BS of the Home Fleet. On 1 November, the 3rd BS was disbanded and Thunderer was transferred to the Reserve Fleet at Portland, together with her sisters. She was temporarily recommissioned during the summers of 1920 to ferry troops to the Mediterranean and back. The ship was still in Portland as of 18 December 1920, but was converted into a naval cadet training ship at Rosyth beginning in February 1921. Thunderer recommissioned on 5 May, but did not begin her first training cruise until 24 June. The ship was relieved by the monitor Erebus on 31 August 1926 and paid off at Portsmouth. On 6 November, Thunderer was sold for scrap to Messrs, Hughes, Bolckow & Co. for £66,150. She was too deep in draught to enter their scrapyard in Blyth and so was partially stripped down at Rosyth. Even so, she grounded at the Blyth harbour entrance on 24 December. After she was refloated on 30 December, she went back to Rosyth to be further lightened, as her draught was still too deep to allow her to enter Blyth. She was towed from Rosyth on 12 April 1927 and reached Blyth two days later to finish demolition.

Development of Final Fantasy XV

The development of Final Fantasy XV, a Japanese action role-playing video game, began in 2006 shortly before its announcement at that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Square Enix handled primary development on XV, and the game was released worldwide in November 2016; the total development time covered approximately ten years. The game was originally announced as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a PlayStation 3-exclusive spin-off title. It was part of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy, a subseries of games linked by a common mythos: while retaining thematic links, specific references were removed to aid with marketing. Additional media was created to portray the world of XV without using sequels; dubbed the "Final Fantasy XV Universe", it included a feature film, an original net animation, a virtual reality simulation game, multiple mobile projects including an abridged version of the game, ports to Windows and Stadia, and a novel The Dawn of the Future depicting an alternate finale. The game was originally directed by Tetsuya Nomura, who also created the story concept and main character designs. Nomura wanted to create a darker Final Fantasy title unsuitable for the main series. The initial development went slowly, and by 2007 the scale of the project generated discussions about rebranding the game as the next main entry in the series. Production on Versus XIII ended in 2012, when it was rebranded as Final Fantasy XV and transferred over to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PlayStation 3 version, which was originally built using the company's proprietary Crystal Tools game engine, was abandoned due to concerns about the platform's shortening life cycle. Its engine was changed to the Luminous Engine, custom-built by Square Enix for eighth-generation gaming hardware. After its change of platforms, the production team headed by Hajime Tabata, whose previous work included Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Type-0, was brought on board to aid production. Tabata became co-director, and was eventually promoted to sole director after Nomura was transferred to work on other projects within the company. After the transition to eighth-generation hardware, multiple changes were made so that it better suited the new consoles and its new status as a mainline game: these included radical staff reshuffles, and the reevaluation of the game's content. The latter part resulted in some scenes and characters from Versus XIII being cut. Later in production, multiple other studios were brought in to help with various aspects of the game. Since its original announcement, release of information became sporadic, leading to video game journalists labeling it as vaporware and eventually to rumors of its cancellation. After its public rebranding in 2013, the silence continued until its appearance at the 2014 Tokyo Game Show, at which point development and progress information was released on a regular basis. A demo for the game, Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae, was released in March 2015 with first print copies of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Promotion for the title was effectively restarted at the 2015 Gamescom. Its release was delayed due to polishing work and the wish for a simultaneous worldwide release, something no other mainline Final Fantasy title had managed to accomplish. Cosmetic, gameplay and story-based downloadable content (DLC) were developed between 2016 and 2019 to fix issues raised by players and expand upon the base game. ## Production ### Staff Final Fantasy XV was originally a spin-off title named Final Fantasy Versus XIII, created by Square Enix as part of the wider Final Fantasy franchise. It was directed by Tetsuya Nomura, and produced by Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase. Nomura created the original scenario, designed the main character, and was also the original director and one of the original game designers. The CGI cutscenes were directed by Takeshi Nozue, who had previously worked on Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The music was composed by Yoko Shimomura, and the script was written by regular Final Fantasy scenario writer Kazushige Nojima. Tomohiro Hasewaga was art director, the mechanical designer was Takeyuki Takeya, and the event planning director was Jun Akiyama. After the game's name and platform change in 2012, there were multiple staff reshuffles, though Shimomura, Hashimoto, Hasewaga and Nozue retained their original positions. Nomura became co-director alongside Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy Type-0, then was moved to other projects and replaced as full director by Tabata. Saori Itamuro became the new scriptwriter, using Nojima's original scenario as a base for the new work. Kitase left as co-producer, while Yusuke Naora, Isamu Kamikokuryo, and many artists involved in the development of Type-0 were involved. Non-Japanese staff included character designer Roberto Ferrari, game designer Prasert Prasertvithyakarn, and party interaction designer Wan Hazmer. The staff as formed in 2012, not counting later additions, was made up of the combined Final Fantasy XV and Type-0 development teams. By 2014, between 200 and 300 people were working on the game. From 2006 to 2013, Final Fantasy XV was developed by what was then Square Enix 1st Production Department. In the wake of extensive business restructuring in 2013, development was transferred to the newly formed Business Division 2, headed by Tabata and incorporating the core Final Fantasy development team. In 2018, the Final Fantasy XV team was incorporated into Luminous Productions, a new subsidiary led by Tabata who continued to work on both an untitled AAA project and post-release content for Final Fantasy XV. Along with bringing in staff members from other sections of the company, they also recruited help from other development studios: HexaDrive was brought in to help with engineering the game, XPEC Entertainment helped with the design for the later sections of the game, Shanghai company Plusmile helped with the design of buildings, licensed middleware from Umbra was used to boost the game's graphics, while Streamline Studios was brought in to help with technical development. It was initially supposed, after an announcement in 2015, that Avalanche Studios was brought on board to help create the game's airship mechanics. In the event, Avalanche and Square Enix did not directly collaborate: instead, Avalanche showed them their level of detail development methods, and Square Enix's internal team created the airship mechanics using that information. The image illustration and logo design was done by Yoshitaka Amano, who was brought on at the beginning of the game's production and designed the logo based on the game's themes. Several pieces of Amano's original artwork were retained and used in promotion when the game changed from Versus XIII to XV. In contrast to other major parts of the game, the logo artwork survived almost unchanged aside from its coloring. Amano also designed a new version of the logo that faded in during the game's ending, collaborating with the development team on its use. According to Tabata, the new logo signified the beginning of a new journey, and also representing the game's development since it was known as Versus XIII. ### Development Final Fantasy Versus XIII was created as part of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy, a subseries within the Final Fantasy franchise featuring games linked by a common mythos which included Final Fantasy XIII and Type-0: apart from the mythos, they are completely separate, and each game's staff are able to interpret the mythos for each game. Versus XIII was one of the original titles created for the subseries alongside Final Fantasy XIII, forming the core of the series around which future titles would evolve. Nomura intended Versus XIII to be a heavy departure from his lighthearted Kingdom Hearts series. He attributed this move to his "love for extremes" and explained the direction he took as closer to his personal taste and completely different from what producers had requested him to do in the past. Early in development, Nomura said that the concept and thinking behind the game was unfitting for a regular numbered Final Fantasy installment, thus explaining its original status as a spin-off. His role as director of Versus XIII, in addition to other projects, was a move made following the departure of series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi from the company. Production began in 2006 by the development team responsible for the Kingdom Hearts series as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, although Nomura had created the game concept some years prior. Versus XIII was defined by Nomura as the dark side of XIII, which was emphasized by the game's title. In 2008, it was reported that development was put on hold so the team could complete Final Fantasy XIII. This information was later clarified as a mistranslation, with the actual situation being that developers from the Versus XIII team were helping with XIII in their spare time, with development on both games going according to their original schedules. By June 2010, the game's story, and the character and clothing designs had been completed. By June 2011, the game was still in the pre-production phase. Full production on Versus XIII began in September of that year, with a planned release in late 2014. According to later staff, Versus XIII was only 20-25% complete when the change of name and platform took place, with Tabata saying that the game "never really took shape". It was also stated by Tabata that the staff's efforts to fix issues with Versus XIII went on for far too long. According to staff, when Tabata arrived the production team were "exhausted and fretful" following the project's collapse. Due to the growing scale of the project, talks about changing Versus XIII into the next numbered entry in the series were appearing as early as 2007. When Type-0, originally titled Final Fantasy Agito XIII, was renamed, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were presented to Square Enix in 2011, it was decided to shift the game onto those consoles. For a time, a PlayStation 3 version continued development, but after a title change announcement could not be made in 2012, the shortening lifespan of the console caused concern for the company and team. After some trial and error, the PlayStation 3 was abandoned as lead platform in favor of a DirectX 11-based development structure allowing easy porting to next-generation systems. Another presumed reason for the shift was due to the game's protracted development and escalating budget. The game was rebranded as Final Fantasy XV and began development in this form in July 2012. A proposal to turn XV into a musical after Nomura watched the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables was vetoed by the higher-ups at Square Enix. At the beginning of development for Final Fantasy XV, the new team reviewed the content of Versus XIII and decided what could be sensibly carried over to the new project. While many design elements were retained, some needed to be changed or removed. Tabata's new position as co-director and eventually as director was related to this change. The separate engine, gameplay, graphics and design sections of the team were merged into one unit to help with development. Nomura remained as co-director alongside Tabata so the project could remain as true to the original vision as possible, after which he was reassigned to other projects within the company including Kingdom Hearts III, while Tabata took up full directorial duties to bring the project to completion. Due to the state of the project during 2012, Square Enix's then-CEO Yoichi Wada was considering cancelling outright so the team could start from scratch under Tabata's direction. Most of Tabata's team were reluctant to merge with Nomura's team due to the negative reputation of Versus XIII within the company, with Tabata taking six months to bring them all round to the idea. Tabata officially became director in December 2013. Development initially followed the pattern of previous high-budget games, but the team eventually realized that such techniques had become dated. During the later part of development, Tabata's main concern was keeping the game on schedule instead of letting the development become delayed by experimentation with the technology. Despite the protracted development, the budget was kept under strict control. A major issue was deciding what elements to carry over and what had to be changed or discarded, as the project was already known and fans had expectations. When describing his attitude to development, Tabata described the team set-up as "horizontal", using a non-hierarchical staff structure to help speed up the exchange of information and feedback between departments. This drastic shift was unheard of for major Japanese game developers, and was met with a mixed reaction from staff: some were elated at their new freedom, while others felt downgraded. Including the initial work on Versus XIII, the game's development spanned approximately ten years from conception to release: despite its origins, Tabata considers Versus XIII and XV to be two separate entities. Speaking later, Tabata said that the developers were "playing it by ear", as little of the final game's content was set prior to his taking over. ### Post-release support Both free and paid downloadable content (DLC) was planned as early as April 2016. The main aim was to make players feel they had made a good purchase with the base game. Full production began after the main game was completed in November 2016. Square Enix revealed that the DLC was not content cut from the game itself, but original content to add new experiences for players. Reception of the first wave of story-based DLC was so strong that the team decided to create a second wave of content. During this period, production shifted from Business Division 2 to Luminous Productions, who worked simultaneously on the post-release content and their new IP. Tabata continued overseeing development as producer, but later got steadily less interested in the project, and wanted to go ahead on "his own path" without inconveniencing anyone at Square Enix. After internal discussions, Tabata decided to leave Square Enix and form his own studio. It was also decided by Luminous Productions to focus on development of their new IP, contributing to the DLC's cancellation. The company parted with Tabata on good terms, but the decision was made to cancel all but one of the subsequent DLC episodes and end post-release support for the game following that episode's 2019 release. Announced features related to the PC port such as mod support were also cancelled. ## Design ### Story and characters While XV's story was similar to other entries, Nomura wanted to create more realistic characters. He wanted to make XV "about men in the real world", including less fantasy elements, describing it as the darkest entry in the series. From 2010 onwards, the story was undergoing frequent revisions. When Versus XIII became XV, multiple aspects were changed, including the removal of story sequences and the redesigning of characters. The most notable change was the replacement of original heroine Stella Nox Fleuret with the similarly-named Lunafreya. Voice actor Tatsuhisa Suzuki later stated that two thirds of the planned script ended up being cut from the game. When consulted over the proposed changes, Nojima said that he would be content as long as the overall concept remained faithful to the original, giving the team the needed confidence to make the changes. The game's ending was left deliberately ambiguous so players could imagine what came next. The concept of reaper-worship from the original scenario was toned down, as it would have been a violation of age-rating criteria in some countries; explicit references to those elements were replaced with the general impression of black being a special color for the main cast and their home country. The game's main theme is "bonds", as represented by the relationships between Noctis and his comrades, and between protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum and his father Regis. A key narrative element was Noctis' personal journey from prince to king. The story took place over a ten-year time period to properly portray Noctis' journey, with the characters aging appropriately. As opposed to earlier Final Fantasy games which jumped between different character groups, the game focused almost entirely on the central cast, with developments concerning the supporting cast happening off-screen. This was chosen to make the main cast more compelling and create a narrative based on their point of view. In contrast to many previous Final Fantasy titles, the playable cast of XV is all-male, although women still played key roles in the story. This was influenced by Nomura's wish for a road movie vibe and experiences from his youth. The clothing for characters was designed by Hiromu Takahara, lead designer for Japanese fashion house Roen. He was brought on when Nomura was occupied with other duties including designing the main cast of Final Fantasy XIII. The main reason for his inclusion was the wish to preserve the game's realism by creating designs influenced by Western fashions. Takahara's designs were retained during the transition as they were a core part of the initial project. ### World design When first announced, XV used the mythos of Fabula Nova Crystallis, described by Kitase as "a backdrop and starting point" for the story. For Versus XIII, Nomura decided to focus more on the world and on realistic human characters. The terminology of the mythos, including the concept of l'Cie (magically imbued warriors burdened with a pre-determined task), was originally present in Versus XIII. A key figure in the mythos, the Goddess Etro, was originally represented in-game in a piece of artwork by Amano and was a key deity worshiped in the game world. During the transition process between Versus XIII and XV, the game "disconnected" from the mythos' core framework, existing as a thematic base for the world and story without being overtly expressed. While the adjustments were being decided upon, it was chosen to keep the mythos as part of XV, as much of the world was built upon it and would lose a lot of its substance if removed entirely. Instead, the team chose to adjust the mythos to fit the game's modern setting. Specific terminology such as "l'Cie" was removed so the game would retain an individual identity and introduce the concepts in an understandable way. A common theme carried over into XV was defined by Tabata as humans chosen by the crystal placing their lives at risk. The revised cosmology drew inspiration from Japanese folklore and various Western mythologies. The game's summoned monsters, referred to as "Astrals", were designed to play integral parts in the story and world as opposed to being simple monsters to be called into battle. They were intelligent beings that Noctis needed to forge a pact with rather than simply commanding them. Due to their key role in the story, the staff chose traditional Final Fantasy summons such as Leviathan and Titan instead of creating ones unique to the game. The central theme of the world and story is "fantasy based on reality": the setting is based on the real world and the fantasy elements grew out of familiar settings. Realizing this aspect of the game was quite difficult before the game's move onto eighth-generation hardware. Nomura had wanted to use a present-day setting for a Final Fantasy game ever since this idea had been considered but abandoned during the development of Final Fantasy VII. As such, some of the designs in Final Fantasy XV are based on real-world locations: among them are the districts of Tokyo, the Piazza San Marco and St Mark's Basilica in Venice, the Bahamas, and natural locations such as a cavern in Chiba Prefecture. Insomnia, the crown city of Lucis, is specifically influenced by the Shinjuku, Tokyo area which houses the headquarters of Square Enix and which Nomura passes through every day. The highway and tunnel seen in the game are almost exact replicas of the Shuto Expressway and a tunnel in the Ginza district, respectively. The team created these by driving down the real-world locations repeatedly during their research. The design inspirations for Niflheim ranged from the Roman Empire to pre-Germanic and Germanic civilizations. The game's theme of "fantasy based on reality" was emphasized on multiple levels in the environments, such as the blending of realism and fantasy in Insomnia, and the camping equipment, which was included through a collaboration with Coleman Company. Another factor in the original development of set pieces was the design of vast and seamless environments. They were meant to enable scenarios such as the player character being shot at from a great distance, or a battle which would change scenes between the outside and inside of a building. This corroborated Nomura's intended action-oriented system with more intuitive game controls. He instructed his team to study third-person shooters for reference, "not in simplistic terms, like controls or mechanics, but in the way they create tension and mood and incorporate the action within that". This carried over into XV, with the stated aim being to distance the game structurally from XIII and its sequels, which featured divided zones rather than a large seamless world. The original inspiration behind this approach was the world design of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with later inspirations being modern Western triple-A open world titles. The environments are divided into three different segments, with separate teams working on each: the world map, locations in the game world, and dungeons. The dungeons were designed to be beautiful, frightening, and memorable. Specific pieces of concept art were created to represent different regions and aesthetic concepts; a single building design was used to capture the essence of Altissia's Venice-inspired atmosphere, while older car designs when compared to the party's vehicle Regalia reflected the lack of human advancement outside Lucis. For the monster designs, Tabata told Hasegawa that their goal was a sense of realism equivalent to the photography of National Geographic. The first monster designed with this mindset was the Behemoth. For mystical enemies, the team went towards "throwback" designs, using popular enemy designs from the series' history. The monster designs were drawn from various sources. A difficult monster to design was the Catoblepas, one of the larger monsters; particular attention to detail was given to the head and legs, as they were the most visible areas to players. The Mesmenir, which was raised as an example of the balance between fantasy and realism, was designed with a horse-like body along with a horn inspired by the appendages on seahorses. The Goblins and Naga were not given an original design, instead being taken directly from their original artwork by Amano for earlier Final Fantasy games and inserted into the game in as realistic a form as possible. The Ronin was designed to resemble the traditional dress style of its namesake, with both the clothing and fabric created using descriptions from books and images of antique samurai clothing and swords. The game's mounts, recurring galliform birds called Chocobos, were designed so players would feel affection for them. The most challenging part of the design was adding fantastic flourishes while keeping it from being garish. Another recurring Final Fantasy creature, the Moogle, was originally present in Versus XIII, and was going to be similar in design to its Final Fantasy Type-0 incarnation. Moogles were initially dropped from XV; they were retained after a Twitter poll in November 2015, where fans requested that Moogles be included. Due to the game being close to completion, it was a token inclusion that would not impact the main development. ### Music The game's original score was primarily composed and arranged by Yoko Shimomura, who was most widely known for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series and was a first-time composer for the Final Fantasy series. Working on the greater majority of the soundtrack, Shimomura was involved throughout the game's development cycle. The theme song of Versus XIII, "Somnus", was sung by Aundréa L. Hopkins; its lyrics were written by Nomura, which were translated and adapted into Latin by Taro Yamashita and Kazuhiro Komiya. When Versus XIII was rebranded as XV, "Somnus" was retained as an important theme, though it was replaced as the official theme song. The game's theme song is a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me", performed by the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine and sung by the band's leader Florence Welch. In addition to "Stand by Me", Florence and the Machine created two original songs inspired by the world and story of XV: "Too Much Is Never Enough" and "I Will Be". For the game's additional media, the music was handled by other composers such as John R. Graham, Yasuhisa Inoue and Susumi Akizuki. Music for later content was handled by Yoshitaka Suzuki; guest composers were brought in for major story expansions, including Keiichi Okabe, Naoshi Mizuta, Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. The game's soundtrack was released on December 21, 2016, with multiple editions being created. The three songs by Florence and the Machine were released under the banner title "Songs from Final Fantasy XV" as digital singles on August 12 for iTunes, Google Play and Spotify. Tracks from the game were released on other albums of Shimomura's music, and "Somnus" was featured as downloadable content for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. ### Graphics During its initial development, Versus XIII used Crystal Tools, a proprietary game engine created by Square Enix for seventh-generation gaming hardware that would be used throughout the company for multiple games, including XIII and XIV. Later, Tabata described the Crystal Tools hardware as an extension of the technology of the previous gaming generation. During 2010, Nomura revealed that the team were using real world-based physical calculations to determine weather and cloud behavior in-game. By 2011, the game was no longer using Crystal Tools, and instead used a specially designed proprietary gameplay engine combined by lighting technology from Luminous Engine, an engine built for eighth-generation gaming hardware. The focus on realism influenced the decision to incorporate the more advanced lighting technology, while the specially designed engine had a limited area of use. The troubles with the original engine and its transition was a factor in the title's prolonged production. The planned scale of the open world increased so much that the older technology eventually became obsolete as it was restricting the developers. The need to create new technology to cope with these problems further added to initial development difficulties. The original plan was to have interactive real-time event scenes. Nomura felt that regular storytelling cutscenes in other games interrupted gameplay and caused players to skip them. Furthermore, the development frame could theoretically be shortened as there was no need to create cutscenes-exclusive high-polygon character models. However, seamless transitions of these events into the gameplay were hard to achieve and instead increased the time that had to be invested by the team. After the full shift onto eighth-generation platforms, multiple planned elements were influenced by the new Luminous technology: the in-game cutscene camera was optimized to work similarly to the one used in pre-rendered movies, and more environmental and gameplay elements could be included such as an increased number of destructible environments and the player character's warping to faraway spots on the game maps. It also enabled Nomura to start experimenting with higher facial detail for enemies such as behemoths. When the game was renamed and changed platforms, the team chose the Luminous Engine as the main game engine. The game's real-time graphics used 5,000 polygons per-frame, bringing its visual quality close to modern CGI cutscenes and to a level that would have been impossible for the previous generation's hardware. The game's native resolution was 1920 × 1080 pixels (1080p), with a frame rate of 30 frames per second: this was defined as being native to the game as opposed to upscaled games from the previous generation. For polygon models, the combined number of visible and occluded polygons was estimated as being 5,000,000. This number was approximately five times the amount of equivalent detail from last-generation games. Models used over 600 character bones: 150 bones were created for the face, 300 for the hair, and 150 for the body. A bone-based physical simulation technology was applied so that clothing would react to the body's movements. The polygon count for character hair was estimated as 20,000, the same number used in an entire character in last-generation games. All of these were achievable due to the fact that the eighth-generation console hardware had approximately sixteen times the amount of storage available in the previous generation. During the transition from Versus XIII to XV and the optimization of the Luminous Engine for game development, the team created a conceptual environment using a prototype engine environment called "Ebony". After the initial reveal, the team ran into difficulties with the new hardware, prompting them to contact HexaDrive due to their experience with high-spec gaming hardware. To solve the issues faced by XV, the team used a similar development approach to Ubisoft: they created an approximate game system that they could build on and edit in real-time. Graphics and animation were developed first, followed by a cinematics editor and a system to manage events during transitions between cutscenes and gameplay. This latter element was what allowed the developers to create what would become the game's final version. To help maximize the realism of the characters, their hair was first created by a hairstylist using a mannequin's wig, then rendered into the game using the technology of the Luminous Engine. The same technique was used for Agni's Philosophy, the engine's 2012 demo. Character movements were created using motion capture technology: the animators' movements were first captured while they wore special suits, then their actions were adjusted in the team's computer to perfect them and make minor additions like finger movements. These actions were then implemented in the game environment for the intended characters. During production, Tabata and the new development staff used experience from a failed attempt to develop an eighth-generation console sequel to Type-0 when handling the new hardware. While using Luminous Studio for games other than XV was considered during production, the engine's technology manager Julien Merceron advised against it until it has been proven and released in a finished form. While CGI cutscenes created by dedicated Square Enix subsidiary Visual Works were present throughout its lifetime, there were far fewer than originally planned in the final game. The team instead relied on real-time cutscenes as much as possible, except for scenes with a scale too great to use real-time graphics. The transition to next-generation hardware enabled the team to better realize their original vision for the game, as conveyed in the original reveal trailer. Visual Works also worked closely with the team during development of 3D modelling systems, due to their previous experiences with such technology in cutscene development. ### Gameplay Versus XIII used an action-based combat system based primarily on the Kingdom Hearts battle system. Gameplay elements from third-person shooters were also to have been incorporated. Character movement was designed to be fast-paced. During earlier gameplay trailers, the pace of gameplay was deliberately slowed down so viewers could have a better view of events. In addition to Noctis, his companions were also controllable, each harnessing unique weapons and all being able to enter and control mechs and airships. Noctis was the only character with access to all weapon types within the game (including swords, axes, guns, lances and others), with the current selection of weapons leading to different combos. Group attacks could not be manually triggered, but party members would team up automatically for a "super attack". In addition, attacks could be chained together by players switching between characters during battle. Magic was available to all characters, but only when Noctis was a part of the party, a consideration that was closely tied to the story. A job system was in place, but it was exclusive to enemy units, with those present including dragoons and summoners. Environments outside cities also featured a day-night cycle and roaming enemies, with different enemy monsters appearing at different times of day. Several initial concepts for the game had to be abandoned; a planned first-person view and the lack of a heads-up display (HUD) were scrapped because these ideas were deemed incompatible with the style of the Final Fantasy series. An overhead camera view was also considered for the open field areas, but it was decided against so the player would remain immersed. When the final Versus XIII trailer was released, the HUD was a mixture of finalized and temporary elements. There were even plans for the game to have a "unique" support setup for the Sixaxis controller. Although after the game's transition there were technological and mechanical changes, the basic elements established in trailers such as Noctis' warping and weapon abilities were carried over. For XV, the battle system was dubbed the Active Cross Battle system. Noctis was made the only player-controlled character, with the others being relegated to command functions governed by the game's artificial intelligence (AI). The team experimented with a multi-character battle system, but eventually decided that it presented too many development difficulties. Noctis' weapons were to be arranged in a deck, and contextually activated in combat. Later, this was changed so that weapon-switching could be done freely during battle, with special attacks using the standard weapons unless others were in place. Instead of a multi-button combo system, combat became focused on single-button combat tied to timed attacks and contextually activated special abilities, in addition to co-op attacks triggered with other members of the party. One ability that was carried over from Versus XIII to XV was Noctis's Limit Break "Armiger", where he summoned multiple weapons into battle to attack and defend; this was initially seen in the original trailer for XV, and later in both the demo and the final game. Noctis was to have been the only character in the world of XV to wield magic, but as this would not have worked from a gameplay perspective, the team created a story-related pretext that allowed other characters to wield magic. After the demo's release, the Cross-Link system was improved and other systems were put into place. Polishing work on the game continued up until the final version was released. The navigation was described after its 2014 re-reveal as "open world": Tabata later clarified that while character progression was driven by the story, the various areas within the world could be freely explored by players. He also wished for a fusion of gameplay and story similar to The Last of Us. Based on feedback from the game's first commercial demo, adjustable difficulty settings were added in the form of players changing "battle modes" to alter the speed and complexity of battles. A major element added to the game was Prompto Argentum's ability to take photographs. As the character had garnered negative feedback from players, Tabata wanted to make the character more useful and appealing to players, and so it was incorporated into the game so players could chronicle their journey. The inclusion of an airship function into the party's vehicle came from Tabata's wish to keep the party in the Regalia while simulating the experience of landing an aircraft. The team experimented with enabling compatibility with virtual reality headsets, but this proved impractical as players would likely be wearing them for hours at a time due to the game's size. The game's shift during the second half of the story from an open world to a linear structure was based on story requirements and budgetary restrictions, as making the entire experience open world would have doubled development time and costs. Many elements added to the game in later updates, such as controlling all the main characters, had to be discarded from the main game due to technological and budget-based restrictions. #### Artificial intelligence The lead designer for the game's AI was Yoichiro Miyake, who was one of the core team members for the game's engine. Miyake, whose reputation designing quality AI had landed him the position, had an initial concept of creating an AI that would learn and memorize new actions, creating a smooth flow through the various steps it needed to take to make a smoother and more advanced experience. At the start of its development, the developers used the two standard "classic" designs for AIs for reference: behavior-based, which revolved around adaptation and decision making, and state-based, which made decisions based on the environment. For XV, it was decided to create an advanced hybrid of these basic behavioral AI functions. Due to the way Luminous Studio's staff was structured, the team first needed to develop an easy-to-understand tool for managing and developing the AI. This tool was dubbed the "Luminous AI Graph", which represented the multi-layered construction of an AI. The amount of effort put into the AI was directly inspired by experiences of developing games for the previous console generation: the emphasis had been put on graphics, causing the AI and other gameplay-related elements to suffer. Between the release of its commercial demo and the full release, the AI underwent further refinement. The AI functions were divided into three different categories: "meta", which governed the environment and in-game progression; "character", which was devoted to the guest and non-playable characters (NPCs); and "navigation", which determined the best route and pattern for characters and other moving elements such as enemies to travel. The tasks assigned to the meta-AI were so numerous and large that it needed to be divided into separate interconnected elements, which included implementing a hierarchical structure for task management, transitioning and the merger of functions to create an intelligent system, and the exchange of various elements with specific localities. For the character-AI, a major point was the coordination between the AI and character animations when responding to different situations. Different levels and styles of AI were created for different groups of non-playable characters within XV's world, from the main party members to NPCs around the world. To ensure the navigation-AI worked properly for enemies and monsters, a system dubbed the "Point Query System" (PQS) was created, which could direct and steer them in a realistic manner while avoiding collisions with objects in the environment or other moving elements. A PQS was created for each enemy type, and made small changes to their behaviors easier to implement. The decision to create high-quality reactive AI for Noctis' companions helped influence the choice of making Noctis the only playable character. ## Business ### Announcement Versus XIII was originally announced at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) through a CGI trailer. The trailer, which showed Noctis advancing on a group of enemy soldiers, was created by Visual Works as a representation of what the development team were aiming for. The trailer also featured a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "[There] is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". This quote was intended to evoke the atmosphere Nomura was aiming for. After its initial announcement, the title was absent from multiple gaming events for several successive years, although a video showing an extended version of the reveal trailer was released in 2007 at a fan event. Two trailers were released in 2008, including in-game footage at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS). Footage of navigation was shown at TGS the following year in a closed theater. Its appearance at E3 2010 was apparently prevented due to multiple technical issues. Its final appearance as Versus XIII was at a Square Enix Press Conference in January 2011, appearing alongside other video games then in production. Because of its sporadic appearances in the public eye and its absence after the 2011 event, industry commentators labeled Final Fantasy XV as vaporware while it was still known as Versus XIII. In June 2012, there were rumors that the game had been cancelled, but those were swiftly refuted by Wada. After that, further rumors emerged claiming that it had either been quietly cancelled, or renamed and shifted to another platform during development. Its name and platform change were officially announced at E3 2013, with further trailers showcasing the game concept released later. The trailer was again a concept piece consisting mostly of CGI rather than actual gameplay footage. Staff later stated that XV had been announced and displayed too early. The game's next official appearance was made at TGS 2014, with the announcement of its commercial demo, and a tech demo showing off the game's engine. After its reappearance, regular livestreamed shows called "Active Time Reports" (ATR) were broadcast, giving updates to the game and responses to fan questions. According to Tabata, the ATRs were created to help fans left confused by the game's change of platform and title, along with establishing a two-way communication with the fanbase. During 2015, official forums were created to allow the developers to receive direct feedback from fans. Starting from February 12, the Japanese forums were discontinued and replaced with a developer's blog. Their stated reason was to offer a more accessible medium for both feedback and developer updates. After its appearance at the 2014 Paris Games Week, Tabata announced that XV's release window was "roughly decided", with the company recruiting new staff to work on the master build. While it did not show at E3 2015, it did appear at that year's Gamescom, which Tabata said was the beginning of its official marketing campaign leading up to further announcements. As part of the marketing, the game was distanced from the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries, as it would have placed symbolic limits upon their target audience. The game's minimal showing at the event caused a negative reaction from fans, with Tabata stating that Square Enix underestimated the importance of the event. Between May and November 2015, the publicity was deliberately kept low-key so staff could focus on completing the pre-beta version of the game. Once done, XV became playable in its entirety, enabling developers to get a full view of the product for the final stages of development and testing. Production on the beta version and progression to the debugging phase began in 2016. The master version, the version of the game that would be played at release, was completed in August, although further technical polishing took place after this. ### Demos During its TGS 2014 presentation, the real-time demonstration footage was dubbed Final Fantasy XV: The Overture, which demonstrated the graphic capabilities in Luminous Studio and the effect of environmental changes on gameplay. While it was intended as a one-off presentation, the team said they were considering creating a second demo for release in Japan based on The Overture. A demo featuring the battle against the Astral Titan was featured at E3 2016: while drawing on a part of the game, the fight was tailored for the demo so it could be completed within a ten-minute window, with the full version having different victory requirements. A Japan-exclusive commercial demo dubbed Judgement Disc was released on November 11. Spanning the game's events up to the middle of the first chapter, it was designed to allow players to judge the game's merits. The game also received an international demo titled Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae. The idea behind Episode Duscae was to give players a personal look at the game due to its long absence from the public eye, as well as demonstrate its gameplay and the fact that it was being actively developed. It was named after one of the regions in the game. The demo is set during the opening segment of XV, where the party temporarily lose their car and must gather funds for its repair by taking on jobs in the region. Gameplay and main story elements were tailored for a demo experience. One of the features left out was the ability for players to rent Chocobos, while the battle system was a slimmed-down version of what was planned for the final game, using the originally planned preset weapon deck feature. The character Cindy was also included. A summon with a simplified method of acquirement was also put into the game: originally intended to be Titan, it was replaced with Ramuh due to the former being a key character in the story. After TGS 2014, where Episode Duscae was first announced, Tabata and the team adjusted the gameplay experience based on fan feedback. The original plan was for a large area of the worldmap that players could explore using the car. While the ability to drive the party's car was originally included, it was later cut as Tabata feared that the feature would be too new for older fans of the series, who might have mistaken XV for "a driving game". The team decided to focus on the characters and environment. The demo included English and Japanese audio for all regions. The demo released in all regions alongside the physical and digital releases of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. The physical version was exclusive to day-one editions of Type-0 HD, while the digital version was valid for two months after purchase. The code had to be redeemed within one year of purchase. While players could save their progress in the demo, save data could not be carried over to the main game. Despite this, the team announced its intention to create a bonus for those who purchased the demo. A patch titled Episode Duscae 2.0 was released in June 2015, which included enhancements for the camera and controls, fixes for bugs, and adjustments to gameplay. The demo ran on Version 1.5 of Luminous Studio. ### Final Fantasy XV Universe Sequels to Final Fantasy XV were hinted at with the line "A World of the Versus Epic" in the E3 2013 trailer. Nomura explained that the game had a self-contained climax and that it was the first part of an intended continued epic. He said that Square Enix was considering using online elements and developing shorter stand-alone titles to keep players interested and to avoid long waiting times for them. This was interpreted as a move of the company towards a digitally distributed episodic format for possible sequels. Nomura later clarified at the Japan Expo 2013 that no plans for sequels had been finalized. Later, Tabata stated in interviews that Final Fantasy XV would be released as a single complete experience, and that no sequel was planned. In addition, there were no plans for multiple endings or a cliffhanger ending, with Tabata citing the XIII trilogy as a video game narrative style they were trying not to emulate. Despite this wish, the scale of XV's world and story would have needed multiple games to tell the entire story. To avoid turning Final Fantasy XV into a series of games, the team instead produced additional media surrounding XV, turning it into a multimedia project: while the main game could be enjoyed on its own, the other media could be used as introductions to the setting for newcomers. This project is being referred by Square Enix as the "Final Fantasy XV Universe". According to Tabata, the Universe is split into two halves; media designed to reach a wider audience than the game might manage alone, and additional game-related content such as ports to other hardware and DLC. A free tech demo, Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV was released on March 30, 2016. Birthed from the initial announced wish to develop a second tech demo and forming part of the "Final Fantasy XV Universe", Platinum Demo was created in two months using completed assets from the main game. First announced two months earlier in January, it was designed to showcase the game's graphics and physics, along with elements of its final combat system. Set in a dream world after Noctis is gravely wounded as a child, it follows his journey back to consciousness, guided by a creature called Carbuncle that protects Noctis. Players who completed the demo are able to name Carbuncle in the main game. According to Tabata, Platinum Demo served a dual purpose: it both introduced players to the gameplay mechanics, and gave them insight into Noctis' young life and his relationship with his father. It was originally intended to be a less emotive experience, but changed to being story-driven to better introduce players to the game's world. The demo was removed from sale in March 2017. A virtual reality-based fishing simulation game titled Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV was released in November 2017. Suggested by Sony Interactive Entertainment and originally a first-person shooter featuring Prompto and based on the storyline of Episode Duscae, the project was reworked into its current form to promote immersion and entertainment. The two major parts of the "Final Fantasy XV Universe" were the original net animation series Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV and the CGI feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. Brotherhood was produced by Square Enix and A-1 Pictures and was released through the game's official YouTube channel and anime streaming website Crunchyroll between March and September 2016. Each episode details the backstory of Noctis from his childhood to the game's opening, along with the backstories of his companions. The first and last episodes of the anime tie in with the Platinum Demo. The anime is intended to give people a view into Noctis' mind that would have appeared incongruous within the context of a video game. Kingsglaive was a joined production shared between the original staff of Advent Children and multiple Western companies including Digic Pictures, who had worked on the graphics for the Assassin's Creed series; and Image Engine, who had worked on multiple films including Jurassic World and the television series Game of Thrones. While similar in appearance to Advent Children, Kingsglaive had a different goal behind its development: while Advent Children was made for dedicated fans of Final Fantasy VII, Kingsglaive was made as an introduction for newcomers to the world of XV, along with conveying some of Regis' backstory. Digic Pictures later collaborated with Square Enix on "Omen", a promotional trailer based on the world and story of XV. Another anime feature, a short film titled Episode Ardyn Prologue which detailed the backstory of antagonist Ardyn Izunia, was released on February 12, 2019. To promote the game, and also forming part of the collection, a mobile app titled Justice Monsters Five was developed. Based on an arcade-style mini-game from XV, it used gameplay similar to the Monster Strike series and incorporated classic Final Fantasy monsters. Justice Monsters Five was released on August 30 for mobile platforms, and was eventually shut down on March 27, 2017, seven months after its initial release. A planned Windows 10 version was not released. A second promotional item was A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV, released through GameStop and EB Games in North America as a free pre-order bonus. Playing as an arcade-style beat 'em up, A King's Tale relates King Regis' exploits thirty years before the game's events, told to the young Noctis by Regis as fairy tales. The game was later made available for free for PS4 and Xbox One on March 1, 2017. In addition, another mobile game titled King's Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon was released in the same year. It is a remake of the 1986 game, and was available in XV as a game Noctis and his friends play. Square Enix and Machine Zone collaborated on a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for mobile devices based on the content of XV, first released on June 28, 2017. Titled Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire and developed by Machine Zone's subsidiary Epic Action, the game involves players taking the role of characters from XV and fighting other player armies in real-time battles for control of the Crystal. ### Release The game's year of release was officially announced at the 2015 PAX Prime event, with its release date set to be revealed at a special event the following year. Another announcement from that time was that Tabata was aiming for a simultaneous worldwide release, a first for the Final Fantasy series. This was later clarified by Tabata at the 2016 Taipei Game Show: Square Enix was aiming to release the game within the same time period across the world, although there might be minor variations depending on regions. The special event, called "Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV", took place on March 30 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, hosted by internet celebrities Greg Miller and Tim Gettys. The event was livestreamed worldwide. Free limited tickets for the event were made available on February 5 for North American residents. By the next day, all tickets had been claimed. Its former release date, September 30, was announced on the first day of the event. According to Tabata, this release date was decided upon in 2013 based on projected development time and costs. In August, rumors began circulating that Final Fantasy XV had been delayed by two months. Tabata later confirmed that the game's worldwide release had been delayed to November 29: alongside the announcement was an official apology to fans for the delay. The reason he gave was that, while the game had reached fully playable form, the team was not satisfied with the overall quality they were aiming for, so the extra time would be dedicated to polishing XV further. In addition, he wanted to give players without an online connection the full experience without needing a Day One patch. Tabata confirmed in a later interview that he was the one who requested the extension after the master disc had been created for mass distribution. Patches following the initial release allowed support for the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X models, featuring enhanced graphics, resolution and framerate. #### Localization The English localization of XV was led by Dan Inoue. One of the aspects of the localization was using different accents to show the characters coming from different regions of the world: a cited example was Ignis Scientia, who spoke with a British accent while the other main characters spoke with an American accent. For the game's lore, the team made a conscious effort to move away from the esoteric terminology Final Fantasy had gained a reputation for. They used understandable names like "Astral" and "Daemon". To stop the lore becoming uninteresting, the divine beings' speech was made very impersonal—such as Gentiana not using "I" or "You" during her dialogue—and using interpretive dialogue for simple concepts. Different issues raised later included Ignis' localized lines, which changed aspects of the character interaction, and the alteration of Cindy's name from the original "Cidney". In an interview with Famitsu during Gamescom, Tabata revealed that the main reason for the delays in XV's release were related to the game's localization and debugging, as the team wanted to bring the game out in the west close to its Japanese release. The decision for a simultaneous release meant the localization had to happen alongside the game production, with no extra time for tweaks and corrections. In addition to being released with French and German dubs and text translation for those respective regions, it was also localized for Latin America with Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese text: this was the first time a Final Fantasy title was localized into these languages. One of the early issues, which drew public attention with the release of Episode Duscae, was Noctis' English voice actor. In Episode Duscae, his voice was pitched rather low, making the character seem older and less energetic than his Japanese counterpart. This was explained as being due to tight scheduling removing the opportunity for Tabata to catch the issue and re-record before it was time for release. After Episode Duscae, the voice work was redone to better convey Noctis' personality. The localization methods also ended up backfiring due to the dialogue matching mechanism for characters causing line repetition or omission. They also needed to deal with the clash between normal dialogue and the fantastic elements, which threatened to undermine the narrative. This forced the different pieces of media to take different approaches, and some scripted character interactions to join up the different sides of the narrative. #### Versions and editions In addition to the standard release, Day One, Deluxe, and Ultimate Collector's Editions were also released. The former contained a copy of XV, an exclusive "Masamune" sword, and platform-specific elements such as Xbox Live avatars and PS4 themes. The Deluxe Edition additionally included a copy of Kingsglaive on Blu-ray, a steelbook case featuring Amano's official artwork, and promotional content in the form of an additional outfit for Noctis, and a recolor of their vehicle. The latter edition included the content of the Deluxe Edition, alongside a Blu-ray release of Brotherhood, a special soundtrack, a hardcover artbook, further promotional content in the form of in-game items, and a Play Arts Kai figurine of Noctis. Preorders opened on March 30, and the Ultimate Collector's Edition was limited to a 30,000 unit print run. A further 10,000 copies of the Japanese Ultimate Collector's Edition were produced due to increased demand, alongside further copies for North America and Europe. The limited quantity was due to the difficulties producing Noctis' figurine. No further additional shipments were created. In a collaboration with Sony, Square Enix produced a themed PS4 console bundle: dubbed the "Luna Edition", it came with the console, a copy of the game, a copy of Kingsglaive, and multiple pieces of DLC. The bundle was available in Japan, North America and Europe alongside the game: in North America, it was exclusive to GameStop. Europe also received a standard edition bundle with a plain PS4 console. Digital premium editions for PS4 and Xbox One featured added in-game items such as weapons and cosmetic elements for both the game and the console. Both versions also came with a season pass, allowing free access to DLC. Later, a "Royal Edition" was released on March 8, 2018, concurrent with the Windows version. The game includes all DLC released up to that point along with additional content including new boss fights, story sequences and lore. The Royal Edition content was also released as separate DLC for standard editions. A version for personal computers (PC) running the Windows 10 operating system was released on March 6, 2018 through Steam and Origin. Titled Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition and developed in cooperation with Nvidia using an upgraded version of the Luminous Studio engine, the game includes multiple graphical enhancements, and comes packaged with all free and paid DLC released up to that point. A port for the streaming-based Stadia platform was released on November 19, 2019 as a launch title. It was developed in-house by Luminous Productions. The Stadia release featured all accompanying DLC and expansion material, and exclusive challenge missions. The console version was made available in Japan through NTT Docomo's subscription service for streaming on mobile phones on May 21, 2020. A remake tailored to mobile devices titled Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition was also released in 2017. Released for iOS, Android and through Windows Store, it carries over the core story and gameplay while using a different artstyle and touch controls catered to a casual gaming audience. The story plays out across ten episodes; the first episode is free, while the rest must be purchased separately. The game was later released as Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 7, 2018, and for the Nintendo Switch on September 13. The Switch version was the first Final Fantasy to appear on the platform. #### Downloadable content Among the DLC released were various promotional content utilised as tie-ins to the base game, as well as character-driven "episodes" with additional story elements intended to address player criticisms of the game's narrative structure and missing details. Episode Gladiolus was released on March 28, 2017; featuring Gladiolus as a playable character, the scenario also featured recurring Final Fantasy character Gilgamesh. Following his defeat by Ravus Nox Fleuret, Gladiolus leaves the party to grow his strength under Cor Leonis' guidance while challenging Gilgamesh. Episode Prompto was released on June 27; featuring Prompto as a playable character and taking place during a late-game narrative gap while Prompto left the party, the gameplay shifts towards third-person shooting and stealth-based mechanics. Episode Ignis was released on December 13; set following a key story event, the episode follows Ignis as he teams up with supporting character Ravus Nox Fleuret to protect Noctis. Episode Ignis was planned to be the last installment of post-release DLC. Due to popular demand, the team decided to extend DLC support into 2018, focusing on content to expand character stories and the world's lore. Comrades is an expansion that allows online multiplayer battles with up to four players. It takes place in the ten-year gap in the game's narrative, focusing on player-created members of the Kingsglaive combating powerful monsters. With the release of Comrades, Final Fantasy XV became the first mainline single-player game in the series to feature multiplayer content. A standalone version of "Comrades" was released on December 13, 2018. Episode Ardyn was released on March 26, 2019. Set thirty years prior to the main game, Episode Ardyn details how Ardyn was found by Niflheim and began his plot of revenge against the Lucis bloodline. Episode Ardyn marks the end of post-release support for Final Fantasy XV. ### The Dawn of the Future Episode Ardyn was to be part of a four-episode scenario dubbed The Dawn of the Future, with three episodes focusing on Noctis, Lunafreya and supporting character Aranea Highwind. The Dawn of the Future was to expand upon the base narrative and offer a new scenario where the group defy their predetermined fates to create an ideal future. Due to Tabata's decision to leave and subsequent changes within the development team, all but Episode Ardyn were cancelled in November of that year. Instead, the scrapped content and Episode Ardyn were turned into the novel Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future, written for long-term fans of the game to provide closure for the project and its universe. The novel was written by Emi Nagashima, who had written supplementary materials for Final Fantasy XIII and Nier Automata, based on the DLC draft. The novel was released in Japan in April 2019. An English version was released in June 2020 through Square Enix Books & Manga, a publishing imprint of Square Enix created in partnership with Penguin Random House.

Box lacrosse

Indoor version of lacrosse

Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse. Lacrosse is Canada's official national summer sport. Box lacrosse is played between two teams of five players and one goalie each, and is traditionally played on an ice hockey rink once the ice has been removed or covered. The playing area is called a box, in contrast to the open playing field of field lacrosse. The object of the game is to use a lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball in an effort to score by shooting a solid rubber lacrosse ball into the opponent's goal. The highest level of box lacrosse is the National Lacrosse League. While there are 62 total members of World Lacrosse, only fifteen have competed in international box lacrosse competition. Only Canada, the Iroquois Nationals and the United States have finished in the top three places at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. ## History Lacrosse is a traditional indigenous people's game and was first encountered by Europeans when French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley witnessed the game in the 1630s. Lacrosse for centuries was seen as a key element of cultural identity and spiritual healing to the people of Turtle Island. It originated as a field game and was adopted first by Canadian, American, and English athletes as a field game, eventually settling on a 10 v 10 format. Box lacrosse is a modern version of the game that was invented in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. The roots of indoor lacrosse are obscure, but its invention has been attributed to one Paddy Brennan, a field lacrosse player and referee from Montreal, who, being annoyed by the constant slowing of play from balls going out of bounds in the field game, experimented with indoor games at the Mount Royal Arena during the early 1920s. Joseph Cattarinich and Leo Dandurand, owners of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens in the 1920s, led the participating ice hockey arena owners to introduce the new sport. In the 1930s, 6 v 6 indoor lacrosse came to be played in the summer in unused hockey rinks. Canadians adopted the new version of the sport quickly. Eventually, it became the more popular version of the sport in Canada, supplanting field lacrosse. The form was also adopted as the primary version of the game played on Native American reservations in the US and Canada by Iroquois and other Native peoples. It is the only sport in which the American indigenous people are sanctioned to compete internationally, participating as the Iroquois Nationals. However, many field lacrosse enthusiasts viewed the new version of the sport with negativity. The first professional box lacrosse games were held in 1931. That summer, the arena owners formed the International Lacrosse League, featuring four teams: the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Cornwall Colts. The league lasted only two seasons. In the wake of the original International Lacrosse League opened the American Box Lacrosse League featuring six teams: two in New York City, and one each in Brooklyn, Toronto, Boston, and Baltimore. The league played to small crowds on outdoor fields such as Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, before closing midway through its inaugural season. Lacrosse was officially declared Canada's National Summer Sport with the passage of the National Sports Act (Bill C-212) on May 12, 1994. The first box lacrosse match conducted in Australia came about as part of a fund raising appeal for the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne. The Victorian Lacrosse Association was approached by the appeal committee to stage a lacrosse match as part of a multi sport carnival at the Plaza (Wattle Path Palais) ballroom at St Kilda on 1 July 1931. After a lightning six-a-side (outdoor) tournament format was successfully carried out a few weeks prior, it was decided to play six-a-side for this exhibition game between MCC and a composite team from other clubs, with players wearing rubber shoes and using a softer ball for the match. Newspaper articles at the time suggest that the sport may have even been created in Australia, with P. J. Lally of the famous Canadian lacrosse stick manufacturing company requesting a copy of the rules of the game from the VLA Secretary. By 1933, box lacrosse matches were being played in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. This new version of the game however did not overtake the traditional version of lacrosse in popularity in Australia as happened in Canada. The Canadian Lacrosse Association began sponsoring box lacrosse. In 1932, the Mann Cup, the most prestigious lacrosse trophy in Canada, was contended for under box lacrosse rules for the first time. Previously, the national senior men's lacrosse championship, awarded since 1901, was competed for under field lacrosse rules. The Mann Cup is an annual tournament that presents the champion of the Western Lacrosse Association and Major Series Lacrosse in a best of seven national championship. A few years later, in 1937, the Minto Cup, began being awarded under box lacrosse rules to the junior men's champions. Currently the Canadian Lacrosse Association oversees the Mann Cup, the Minto Cup, the Presidents Cup (Senior B national championship) the Founders Cup (Junior B national championship) all under box lacrosse rules. Briefly in 1939, a professional box lacrosse league started up in California, called the Pacific Coast Lacrosse Association. This four team league also folded shortly after opening. Professional box lacrosse did not return to the United States again until 1968 when the Portland Adanacs and Detroit Olympics franchises played in the National Lacrosse Association, a circuit that folded after one summer season. A new professional indoor lacrosse league was created in the 1970s with the formation of the original National Lacrosse League. This league opened in 1974 with teams in Montreal, Toronto, Rochester, Syracuse, Philadelphia, and Maryland. For the 1975 season, Rochester moved to Boston, Syracuse moved to Quebec City, and Toronto moved to Long Island. Thus, by its second year, the original NLL was playing in all major league arenas: the Colisée de Québec, the Montreal Forum, the Boston Garden, Nassau Coliseum, the Spectrum, and the Capital Centre. When the two wealthier '75 NLL franchises, Philadelphia and Maryland, finished out of the playoffs, and with Montreal losing access to the fabled Montreal Forum in the upcoming season due to the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, the league folded after two seasons due to financial uncertainty. The rebirth of professional box lacrosse in the United States came on March 13, 1986, with the formation of the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League, which was incorporated by Russ Cline and Chris Fritz. The league originated with four teams: the Philadelphia Wings, New Jersey Saints, Washington Wave, and Baltimore Thunder, and unlike box lacrosse generally, was played during the winter. The league rebranded itself as the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL) immediately after its inaugural season, and in 1998 renamed itself again, this time to the NLL. In 1998, the NLL entered into the Canadian market for the first time with the Ontario Raiders. Although five of the league's nine teams are based in American cities, more than two-thirds of the players are Canadian. On June 29, 2022, a group of Lacrosse fans announced a new league the Professional Box Lacrosse Association. The league spokesperson identified nine teams which will be in cities in the United States. ## Rules ### Players, equipment and officials During play, a team consists of six players: a goaltender and five "runners". A runner is any non-goalkeeper position player, including forwards, transition players, and defenders. Runners usually specialize in one of these roles and substitute off the field when the ball moves from one end to the other. When the sport originated teams played with six runners. However, in 1953 the sixth runner, a position called rover, was eliminated. The goalkeeper can be replaced by another runner, often when a delayed penalty has been called on the other team or at the end of games by teams that are behind to help score goals. A player's lacrosse stick must be between 40 inches (1.0 m) and 46 inches (1.2 m) in length (youth levels may use shorter sticks). In most box lacrosse leagues, the use of a traditional wooden stick is allowed. However, almost no lacrosse players use wooden sticks anymore, preferring aluminum or another metal, and a plastic head. In the NLL, wooden lacrosse sticks are not allowed. Besides a lacrosse stick, each player must also wear a certain amount of protective equipment, including a lacrosse helmet with face mask, lacrosse gloves, arm and shoulder pads, and back/kidney pads. Rib pads are optional in some leagues. In some box leagues, especially the NLL, the five "runners" wear helmets specifically designed for box lacrosse. These helmets consist of a hockey helmet with a box lacrosse face mask attached instead of a hockey cage. During a typical game the number of officials can range from one to three, depending on the league and level of play. In most games there are at least two referees: a lead official and a trail official. In NLL games there are three officials per game. #### Goaltender The goaltender's responsibility is to prevent the opposition from scoring goals by directly defending the net. Box lacrosse goaltenders equipment includes upper body gear (measuring no more than 3 inches (7.6 cm) up and 5 inches (13 cm) out off the shoulder—much larger than similar gear for field lacrosse or ice hockey goaltenders), large shin guards that must measure no more than 11 inches (28 cm) at the knee, 9 inches (23 cm) at the top of the shin and 7 inches (18 cm) at the ankle, and a field lacrosse helmet or ice hockey goalie mask. The 9 feet (2.7 m) to 9 feet 3 inches (2.82 m) radius area surrounding the net is called the "crease". Players except for the goaltender may not enter the crease while playing the ball. Punishments for crease infractions include a change of possession, resetting of the time-clock, or a possible two-minute penalty depending on the infraction. Opposing players may not make contact with the goaltender while he is in the crease. Once he leaves the crease, however, he loses all goaltender privileges. Even as box lacrosse grows in the United States, the American goalkeeper is a rarity. The skills required to be a successful field lacrosse goaltender and a successful box lacrosse goaltender are very different and do not lend well to one another. #### Defenders A defender is a player position whose primary responsibility is to prevent the opposing team from scoring. Unlike in field lacrosse where some defensive players carry longer sticks, all box lacrosse defenders play with a maximum 46 inches (1.2 m) long stick. Defensive tactics include cross checking (where a player uses the shaft of his stick to push the opposition player off balance), body checking (where a player makes contact with the opposition player in order to slow him down), and stick checking (where a player makes contact with the opposition player's stick in order to knock the ball loose). #### Transition A transition player is a player whose responsibility is primarily to play during defensive situations with an offensive mindset. The goal of this player is to create fast breaks and scoring opportunities. #### Attack An attack is a player position on the field whose responsibility is primarily offensive. Typically, an Attack is dominant throwing with one hand or the other, and will primarily play on that side of the floor. Some players, known as creasemen, do not focus on one side or the other. These players instead focus their offensive attention near the crease area in front of the goaltender. ### Playing area The playing area of box lacrosse is typically an ice hockey rink during the summer months. The playing surface is usually the concrete floor underneath the melted ice. Generally the playing area is 180 feet (55 m) to 200 feet (61 m) in length and 80 feet (24 m) to 90 feet (27 m) in width. The NLL plays on artificial turf placed on top of the ice. Some leagues, and teams that have dedicated box lacrosse arenas (such as the Iroquois), have outfitted their playing surface with artificial turf similar to the NLL. Box lacrosse goal dimensions are traditionally 4 feet (1.2 m) wide by 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. In the NLL, the dimensions are slightly larger at 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m) wide by 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. These nets are significantly smaller than field lacrosse nets which measure 6 feet (1.8 m) wide by 6 feet (1.8 m) tall. ### Duration and tie-breaking methods A traditional game played under the rules of the Canadian Lacrosse Association consists of three periods of 20 minutes each (similar to ice hockey), with the teams changing ends each period. The NLL plays four 15-minute quarters rather than three periods. If the game is tied at the end of regulation play, a 5-minute overtime (15 in NLL) can be played. Overtime may or may not be sudden victory, depending on the league. ### Ball in and out of play Each period, and after each goal scored, play is restarted with a face-off. If a ball travels over the boards and outside of the playing area, play is restarted by possession being awarded to the opposing team to that which last touched the ball. During play, teams may substitute players in and out freely. Sometimes this is referred to as "on the fly" substitution. Substitution must occur within the designated exchange area in front of the players bench in order to be legal. The sport utilizes a shot clock and the attacking team must take a shot on goal within 30 seconds of gaining possession of the ball. In addition, players must advance the ball from their own defensive end to the offensive half of the floor within 10 seconds (8 in NLL). ### Penalties For most penalties, the offending player is sent to the penalty box and his team has to play without him and with one less player for a short amount of time. Most penalties last for two minutes unless a major penalty has been assessed. The team that has taken the penalty is said to be playing shorthanded while the other team is on the power play. A two-minute minor penalty is often called for lesser infractions such as slashing, tripping, elbowing, roughing, too many players, illegal equipment, holding, or interference. Five-minute major penalties are called for especially violent instances of most minor infractions that result in intentional injury to an opponent, as well as for fighting. Players are released from the penalty box when either the penalty time expires, or the opposition scores a goal (or three goals for the instance of a major penalty). At the officials' discretion a ten-minute misconduct penalty may be assessed. These are served in full by the penalized player, but his team may immediately substitute another player on the playing area unless a minor or major penalty is assessed in conjunction with the misconduct (a "two-and-ten" or "five-and-ten"). In that case, the team designates another player to serve the minor or major; both players go to the penalty box, but only the designee may not be replaced, and he is released upon the expiration of the two or five minutes. In addition, game misconducts are assessed for deliberate intent to inflict severe injury on an opponent. A player who receives a game misconduct is ejected and may not return to play. Receiving two major penalties in a game risks a game misconduct. A penalty shot, where a player from the non-offending team is given an attempt to score a goal without opposition from any defending players except the goaltender, may be awarded under certain circumstances. By rule, teams must have at least three runners in play. If a team commits a third penalty resulting in a "three man down" situation a penalty shot is awarded in favor of having the offending player serve in the penalty box. A penalty shot may also be awarded, at the referee's discretion, if a defensive player causes a foul to prevent a goal (by throwing his stick, holding, tripping, or by deliberately displacing the goal, or a defensive player intentionally falls and covers a ball in his own team's crease). In the NLL, a penalty shot is awarded against any team taking a too-many-men penalty in the final two minutes of the game or overtime. #### Fighting Similar to fighting in ice hockey, fighting is tolerated in professional box lacrosse. Professional players are not automatically subject to ejection, but incur a five-minute major penalty. In Canadian Lacrosse Association play, players are assessed a five-minute major penalty plus a game misconduct. Fighting in youth or club level box lacrosse is typically penalized with expulsion and suspensions. In 1990, when the Six Nations created the new Mohawk lacrosse league, fighting was specifically targeted as unacceptable. Violators were ejected from the game in which the altercation occurred and given a minimum three game suspension. ## International competition Box lacrosse is the most popular version of the sport in the Czech Republic. It is also played to a marginal degree in Australia, primarily by players who have played field lacrosse. Club level box lacrosse leagues in the United States have increased the number of players exposed to the sport, including the: Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League, the Philadelphia Box Lacrosse Association, and the Metro Area Box Lacrosse League. The first world championship of box lacrosse, "The Nations in 1980", was staged in several arenas in British Columbia, Canada in July 1980 involving teams representing the United States, Australia, Canada East, Canada West and the Iroquois Nationals. Canada West (Coquitlam Adanacs) defeated the Iroquois in the nationally televised world championship game from Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. This was the first time in history that competitors from the Indigenous peoples of the Americas represented themselves in an athletic world championship competition. The second international box lacrosse tournament was held in 2003, with the inaugural World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. The competitors were national teams from Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Iroquois Nationals, Scotland, and the United States. The 2015 WILC was hosted by the Onondaga Nation which marks the first time an international sporting event has been held on indigenous land. Thirteen teams competed in the championship: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Iroquois Nationals, Ireland, Israel, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. Canada, Iroquois Nationals and the United States have won gold, silver, and bronze respectively in each of the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships held. Canada has yet to lose an international game in box lacrosse. Other international tournaments have been played. Annually, the European Lacrosse Federation holds the Aleš Hřebeský Memorial tournament in Prague. This is the largest European box lacrosse tournament. In 2002 and 2004, the Heritage Cup was played between the United States and Canada featuring mostly players that were members of NLL teams. ## Women Historically, box lacrosse has been exclusively a men's sport. Women who played the sport of lacrosse typically played the women's field lacrosse version. Recently, Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and British Columbia have established girls' and women's box lacrosse leagues. During the 2003 NLL season, goaltender Ginny Capicchioni appeared in two preseason and one regular season games to become the only woman to make an appearance in the NLL. Women's Box Lacrosse (News and Articles) ## See also - Lacrosse in Canada - Major Indoor Lacrosse League/National Lacrosse League (1997–present) - Major Series Lacrosse (1887–present) - Sports in Canada - Western Lacrosse Association (1932–present) - IBLA -USA - Hudson Valley Box Lacrosse League / Rockland County, New York - Professional Box Lacrosse Association (2022–present)

Anstey Hill Recreation Park

Anstey Hill Recreation Park is a 362-hectare (890-acre) protected area established in 1989 and located approximately 19 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Adelaide, South Australia. The park is a significant reserve of bushland in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges and is home to rare or vulnerable native plants and animals, and problematic invasive species. It is managed by the City of Tea Tree Gully, the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and a volunteer group—The Friends of Anstey Hill. The park is designed for recreational walking and has no visitor facilities. It is managed in association with the regional planning initiative known as of Yurrebilla, the Greater Mount Lofty Parklands. The park's land was gradually acquired by the Government of South Australia beginning in 1966, based on recommendations in a 1962 report. From 1981 onwards, plans were published that aimed to develop the area for commercial purposes, but public pressure led to its declaration as a public reserve in 1989. The last land added was a small area in 2003. Anstey Hill, once known as Anstey's Hill, is a 371-metre-high (1,217 ft) peak in the park's south. Both hill and park are named after a road built by agricultural pioneer George Alexander Anstey. Fire authorities regard the park as an "arson hotspot", and it is frequently burned by bushfires—mostly deliberately lit. There is no permanent water except for springs in Water Gully, adjacent to ruins of a nursery, although there are many seasonal creeks. Much of the land is steep, rising 200 m (660 ft) across the park's breadth, with gradients often steeper than one in three. Erosion and land movements due to a significant geologic fault zone created this land form. The Gun Emplacement, a listed Geologic Monument and remnant of an ancient land surface, lies in the southwestern corner. The Mannum–Adelaide pipeline crosses the park and the Anstey Hill water filtration plant lies on its southern boundary; together they supply 20% of Adelaide's reticulated water. Significant historical uses of the area are preserved as ruins and highlighted with interpretive signs. The ruins of Newman's Nursery are all that remains of what was once the largest plant nursery in the Southern Hemisphere. Ellis Cottage is one of the earliest homes in the area, and the Rumps Bakery building housed the first bakery in Tea Tree Gully. Quarries supplied stone for significant Victorian buildings in Adelaide and aggregate for road building. Klopper's quarries in the southwest hosted plays for the Festival of the Arts in 1980 and 1988. ## Today's park Anstey Hill Recreation Park is a reserved area of public land with short seasonal creeks, low hills and steep-sided gullies. Its boundaries are largely formed by Lower North East, North East, Perseverance and Range Roads; there is a small section south of Lower North East Road. It lies at the edge of the Mount Lofty Ranges' foothills and forms part of the "hill's face" that is visible from Adelaide's metropolitan area. The park covers 362 hectares (890 acres) of the City of Tea Tree Gully, approximately 19 km (12 mi) northeast of Adelaide's central business district, with parts in the suburbs of Tea Tree Gully, Vista, Highbury and Houghton. The Adelaide–Mannum water supply pipeline crosses the park's south, and an associated filtration plant is sited on its southern boundary. Adjacent to the water filtration plant is Anstey Hill, reaching 371.1 m (1,218 ft) above mean sea level. The hill is 50 m (160 ft) shorter than a nearby unnamed peak. The park's southern boundary abuts the Anstey Hill Quarry, a producer of white clay, and two large disused quarries. Management of the park is influenced by the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources's long term biodiversity goals for the hill face zone and is also being managed in the broader context of a planning initiative known as Yurrebilla – The Greater Mount Lofty Parklands. The Department manages the park in association with local council and a volunteer group—The Friends of Anstey Hill. This volunteer group makes significant contributions to revegetation, weed control, ruin stabilisation and creation of walking trails. There are no visitor facilities or amenities except for walking trails, most of which follow fire access tracks; a single constructed pedestrian trail leads to Klopper's Quarry. The park is mostly designated as a "conservation zone" where only passive recreation, including walking dogs on leads, is permitted. Horses and motor vehicles are not allowed and only the main tracks are maintained. In recognition of the established and popular activity of mountain biking in the greater Adelaide area, and to better accommodate the mountain biking community in the north eastern suburbs, it was proposed in 2006 to permit cycling in designated zones on purpose-built tracks and on certain management tracks within the park. The intention is to satisfy both biodiversity and recreation objectives in the park and reducing the incidence of illegal mountain bike riding in other non-designated areas. Anstey Hill Park lies between Bureau of Meteorology measured rainfall contour lines that denote an annual average from 580 to 820 mm (23 to 32 in). It has hot dry summers, as does all of Adelaide, and December to February's average maximum daily temperatures 28 °C (82 °F) to 29 °C (84 °F). Temperatures drop significantly in the wetter winters; July's average maximum temperature is 14.6 °C (58.3 °F). Apart from springs in Water Gully, the site of Newman's Nursery ruins, all of the numerous creeks in the park are seasonal and dry for much of the year. The park rises from approximately 220 m (720 ft) above mean sea level on its western side to 420 m (1,380 ft) at the highest point in the park's southeast corner. Most of the park is steeply sloping with gradients steeper than one in four. Except for the base of Water Gully, topsoil throughout the park is shallow and low in plant nutrients. There are frequent serious bushfires in the park. Much of the reserve was burned in 1980, eastern parts burned in 1981, and most of the park burned again in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires; Newman's Nursery's remains were devastated during the 1983 bushfire. As recently as 2004, a major fire burned over 100 ha (247 acres) of bushland next to Anstey Hill. Most fires in the park are deliberately lit and the park is regarded as a "hotspot" for arson. Arson in the park is not a recent phenomenon; an early record comes from an 1869 coronial inquiry. The park has more than one arson attack, on average, each year. In the hill's face, encompassing Anstey Hill, approximately 60% of all fires (1999–2004) are deliberately lit and less than 5% are classed as naturally occurring. Most deliberately lit fires begin at the park's boundaries and are contained within it. ### Geology Elevation rise across the park results from land uplift along the Burnside-Eden fault zone. This zone is a major land fault separating the Adelaide Plains from the Mount Lofty Ranges and runs north-north-east across the park from its southwest corner. The park is underlain by neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks of the Burra Group overlying a Precambrian crystalline basement. Sediments were formed approximately 700 million years ago (mya) from sand washed into a shallow sea. Sand layers were then folded and slightly metamorphosed during the delamerian orogeny, a period of mountain building caused by tectonic plate movements and resulting east–west compression of Australia. This pushed up a mountain range, on the site of the present Mount Lofty Ranges, approximately 450 mya. The range was eroded to a level plain over the following 350 million years. Approximately 40 mya, the location of today's ranges and plains were flat, with a hard sedimentary capping. About 2 mya, block faulting raised the Mount Lofty Ranges, and much of the former land surface west of the ranges eroded away. The Gun Emplacement is a small remnant of this pre-erosion surface. It is a raised semi-circular flat area and has views over much of Adelaide from the southwestern corner of the park. The Emplacement is seen as an important regolith deposit, particularly for its role in understanding Adelaide's landscape's evolution. The Emplacement was declared a Geological Monument in 1978 for this geologic importance as well as its aesthetic and recreational value. Across the park, different ages of exposed rocks are seen. Stoneyfell quartzite, composed mostly of quartzite with sandstone and some siltstone, is the youngest. Woolshed flat shale is older and is composed of siltstone, dolomite and some sandstone. The oldest regular exposure is Montacute dolomite, which is a blue-grey dolomite with magnesite, siltstone and sandstone. Quarries in the south of the park have been mined for Stoneyfell Quartzite. This type of quartzite is a clean, white, feldspathic quartzite with interbedded thin siltstone layers up to 30 cm (12 in) thick occurring at gaps of 1–2 metres (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in). Ripple marks in this rock clearly indicate its shallow water origin. Next to Newman's Nursery is a quarry with grey to blue silicaceous dolomite used for road material. It contains traces of pyrite and is overlain by phyllite. Tea Tree Gully freestone, as found in the largest quarry in the park, is a feldspathic sandstone bedded with quartzite. Decay of the feldspar has enabled it to be cut and dressed as a quality building stone. The Tea Tree Gully iron (or silver) mine lies in an iron-rich fault zone. The ore body is ironstone, 150 m long, 50 m wide and 30 m thick (490 ft by 160 ft by 100 ft). It is primarily limonite, detrital quartz and silica. It is thought to have been chemically deposited during the Paleogene and Neogene periods, 2 mya to 66 mya. ### Flora and fauna In the 1983 concept plan, 413 plant species were identified, including 124 that were not native to the park. The park was noted as one of the few remaining significant areas of bushland in the foothills. By 2006, the flora list contained 411 species, with 107 of these non-native. Five of the native species were then noted as rare or vulnerable, including Prasophyllum pallidum (pale leek-orchid). The park has significant stands of pink gums (Eucalyptus fasciculosa) and long-leafed box (Eucalyptus goniocalyx). button daisy, pussy tail (Ptilotus macrocephalus), needlebush (Hakea sericea), silky guinea flower (Hibbertia sericea) and black rapier sedge (Lepidosperma carphoides) are common. black-boys (Xanthorrhoea), hop bush (Dodonaea viscosa ssp. spatulata) and tea-tree form the understory in parts of the park. The area around the ruins of Newman's Nursery is noted for its spring orchid display. Quarry floors have large plants typical of much of the Mount Lofty Ranges. Golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha) and drooping sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata), as well as red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), native pine (Callitris preissii) and blue gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon) are common. Invasive weeds are prevalent in, and damaging to, the park. Species common in other formerly occupied parts of the foothills are also common in the park. Of significant concern, largely for their impact on native flora, are bridal creeper (Asparagus asparagoides), boneseed (Chrysanthemoides monilifera), artichoke thistle (Cynara cardunculus), varieties of broom, Spanish heath (Erica lusitanica), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), olives, blackberries, common gorse (Ulex europaeus) and dog rose (Rosa canina). In July 2001, Phytophthora cinnamomi, a significant cause of plant disease in the Adelaide Hills, was found in the park. Mechanical countermeasures, in the form of boot scrubbing stations, have been introduced to control its spread. The concept plan identified 145 species of birds as either known or expected to be found in the park. By 2006, 98 species had been recorded in the park's area, though not all specifically within the park's boundaries. Of the park's insects, seven species were found to be largely confined by its boundaries, with little presence in the rest of Adelaide. Their presence was unusual, as they were regarded as arid zone species. Approximately 35 reptile and amphibian species have been recorded within Anstey Hill park. Fauna in the park includes western grey kangaroo, common ringtail possum, common brushtail possum, short-beaked echidna, Gould's wattled bat, chocolate wattled bat, little forest bat, white-striped free-tailed bat and the lesser long-eared bat. Koalas are present, though they are not native to the area, having been deliberately introduced to the Adelaide hills. Foreign animals are also found, in common with much of Adelaide. While red foxes, cats, European rabbits, black rats, house mice and European hares are seen, there has been no systemic recording of alien fauna species. Exotic birds, including rock pigeons, European goldfinch, house sparrow, starlings and blackbirds are common. Introduced bees and European wasps are present, with the aggressive wasps an issue for the park's visitors. ### Naming The name of the park derives from a road built by George Alexander Anstey, a South Australian pastoral and horticultural pioneer. Anstey established Highercombe Estate on two land sections east of the park that he purchased in 1840. He built a private road to his estate, which ran along the base of a gully and up a steep hillside. The road was initially named "Anstey Hill Road"; this name was later used for the hill, the subsequent land reserve and the current recreation park. The Gun Emplacement was officially named as such in 1997 after a period of unofficial usage. This name was first used by Major William Hubert Edmunds, a Lieutenant cartographer in the Boer War who later enlisted in the Commonwealth of Australia forces. After leaving the military, Edmunds carried out "reconnaissance surveys" on the fringes of the Adelaide metropolitan area. As part of the work, he took particular note of an unusual plateau at the edge of what is now Tea Tree Gully. By the time his work was published in 1926, he had named the plateau "The Gun Emplacement", presumably for its suitability as a location for a field gun battery. ## Foundation In 1962, the South Australian Planning Authority's town planning committee released a report on the development of metropolitan Adelaide. The report, in part, recommended that a regional park be established north of Anstey Hill and southeast of Tea Tree Gully. The stated intention was preservation of the character of the face of the foothills, as visible from Adelaide's suburbs. From 1966 to 1977, land was purchased under the auspices of the State Planning Authority, for what was then "reserve 13". One notable purchase was of 73 hectares (180 acres) in 1969, of which 16 hectares (40 acres) was an active quarry operated by Quarry Industries. This quarry was known as the Tea Tree Gully freestone quarry and today lies in the park's northwest. It had a permit to operate until December 1970, which was later extended to December 1980. Additional land affected by the quarrying was purchased in 1971. By the end of the lease, rehabilitation work completed did not meet the standard required by the Planning Authority. Quarry Industries vacated the site in April 1982, other firms then contracted to continue rehabilitation work. Land beneath the Gun Emplacement was subdivided for housing in 1966. A developer unsuccessfully attempted to have the plateau subdivided in 1975. The site was purchased by the government in 1978 and added to the then Anstey Hill Reserve. During the 1970s, part of the park's area was earmarked to be subdivided and developed for housing. Significant opposition to this use, due to the land's historical and scientific significance, came from the South Australian division of the Geological Society of Australia, the National Trust of South Australia and the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia. The Planning Authority established the Anstey Hill Joint Steering Committee in 1981, initially to prepare a concept plan for development of the reserve. The draft report was published in late 1981 with a proposal to spend up to \$3.5 million establishing the park. Uses were explored including: a rock climbing area, motocross circuit, kiosk, cycle track, horse riding area, caravan and camping grounds and a restaurant. In 1983, the then state Department of Environment and Planning published the final concept plan for the "Anstey Hill Regional Park". The plan indicated that a caravan park, or possibly a velodrome, might be an appropriate development. There was significant interest by developers to use parts of the park commercially. Increasing public opposition to this concept led to the declaration of the entire reserve as a public recreation park. The Friends of Anstey Hill Recreation Park volunteer group was formed in 1990. Most of the then 306.5 ha (757-acre) park was proclaimed on 31 August 1989 with a smaller 55.5-hectare (137-acre) addition in October 2001. It was officially opened by Environment and Planning Minister Susan Lenehan in a ceremony on 17 September 1989. The Department for Environment and Heritage added one last section to the park in 2003. A wedge of land 15 by 260 m (49 by 853 ft) remained from a purchase by George Dickerson in 1857. This land formed part of a cliff and had long been managed as part of the park. No known current owner was found and the Department compulsorily acquired the land and added it to the Recreation Park. ## Land use Although it lies within the traditional lands of the Aboriginal Kaurna people, no occupation sites have been found. Much of the park has been used for agriculture since European settlement. Significant European uses of the park's land have been Newman's Nursery, a main road, mines, quarries and a water filtration plant. ### Newman's Nursery The remains of Newman's Nursery, established by Charles Newman and his family in the second half of the 19th century, are situated within the park at the base of Water Gully. After living on a rural property near Houghton, he bought 68 acres (28 ha) of unfenced land in 1854. This land encompassed what became known as Water Gully, a gully with a creek and permanent springs. The first house, a simple slab hut set into a hill bank, was built on the property by 1855. The Newmans added more land from 1866; at its largest the property covered 469 acres (190 ha) and had a land tax valuation of GBP£7850 (A\$ 1.64 million in 2005) by 1885. From 1854 onwards, the initially heavily wooded land was continuously cleared, planted and developed. The Newmans developed a nursery on the site between 1857 and 1871, over time assisted by their 17 children. There were hothouses in operation by 1870, and produce from the site was shown in exhibits from 1871. At maximum extent in the late 19th century it had its own dairy and large numbers of glasshouses and hothouses. At the time it was the largest nursery in the southern hemisphere. Newman renamed it in 1875 to 'Newman's Model Nursery', probably for promotional purposes. In 1889 plant stocks included over 100,000 orange trees, the same number of mostly muscatel grape vines and 500,000 other fruit trees. It grew 300 varieties of orchids, 350 of chrysanthemums and 700 of roses. The nursery was a frequent prize winner at agricultural fairs and exhibitions. At the Great Exhibition for the Queen's Jubilee in 1887, the Newmans won two "First Orders of Merit", the exhibition's highest award, and all three "Exhibition Diplomas" on offer. Charles Newman died in 1889 after falling from his horse, and control of the nursery passed to his sixth son, Frederick. During a severe storm in February 1913, 2 inches (51 mm) of rain fell in an hour, setting the streams, creeks and roads awash and damaging the nursery. In October of the same year, another storm destroyed buildings and plantings. Due to the extent of the destruction, and the lack of funds for full repairs, the nursery never fully recovered. Frederick Newman left the nursery in 1925 to run a smaller one in Tea Tree Gully, next to North East Road; control of the original nursery passed to Harry Newman. With the death of Charles' wife Mary Ann in 1932, the property was sold and subsequently used as a dairy. It changed ownership again in 1935, then used for sheep grazing. The new owner removed everything of value from the property; slate paving and benches were sold, buildings were stripped to walls and foundations, pine trees lining the entrance road were turned to box wood and some outbuildings were knocked down. Most remaining plants and fruit trees from the property's nursery days were destroyed by bushfires during Ash Wednesday in 1983. The ruins of Newman's Nursery consist largely of foundations and walls and are listed on the State Heritage Register. ### Mining and quarrying dolomite, sandstone and quartzite rock have been extensively mined in the park. Though traces of silver, copper and gold are present, there have been no economic finds. The park is scattered with many quarries; the largest within the park is an open-cut in the northwest corner. It was in operation until 1982 supplying stone for buildings, including Adelaide's war memorial and St Peter's Cathedral. Tea Tree Gully Freestone from some quarries has been used for the facades and ornamental dressing of many of Adelaide's Victorian public buildings. Adelaide Town Hall, the General Post Office and Supreme Court Buildings in Adelaide were all built entirely of this stone. The quarries supplied dressing stock for ornamentation on buildings, including St Peter's Cathedral, St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, Flinders Street Baptist Church and the University of Adelaide's Mitchell Building. An ironstone mine was opened to work on a rock outcrop in 1853. The mine was to supply flux for the Port Adelaide copper smelting works, but it apparently closed within a year. It was reopened in 1861 and operated until 1862. The Tea Tree Gully Silver Mining Company began work in the area in 1888, constructing a tramway, blacksmith shop and a new road. With no economic finds, the company closed in July 1889. The quarry, in Water Gully adjacent to the nursery's ruins, has been mined for blue dolomite, some of which was used for the nursery's buildings. Quarries elsewhere in Water Gully were opened in the 1880s and intermittently supplied quartzite road metal for the District Council of Tea Tree Gully. A crushing plant was erected on the north side of the gully in 1912 to create this road material. When the park was proclaimed, land zoning regulations allowed existing mining prospecting rights to continue. These rights were restricted to previously mined areas; this coupled with further restrictions imposed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service Act (1972) make it unlikely that mining will occur in the future. ### Klopper's quarries Klopper's quarries, in the park's south, were mined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were established by Heinrich Kloepper—later anglicised to Henry Klopper—who arrived at Adelaide in 1847 from Hamburg, Germany. He purchased land in Hope Valley and a section below Anstey Hill. On the Anstey Hill section he opened his first quarry in 1850. The Klopper quarries supplied aggregate for road building and bluestone for home and road kerbs. After Klopper's death in 1888 his wife and sons continued the quarries' operation. Stone from the first quarry was used to build a family home, on the south east corner of nearby Valley and Grand Junction roads. Additional quarries were opened and supplied metal for most of the roads constructed in Highercombe. In 1905 the family opened a freestone quarry within the park that operated until its 1927 sale. The freestone quarry was used to host plays as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. It seated about 800 people and its 20 m (66 ft) face provided a backdrop to the performances. Three plays were performed over fifteen nights in the 1980 festival. A nine-hour production of the Mahābhārata, by the theatre company of Peter Brook, was performed in 1988. ### Ellis Cottage and Rumps Bakery The historic Ellis Cottage and Rumps Bakery buildings lie near the corner of Perseverance and North East roads. Built in 1854, Ellis Cottage is a single room stone building built by John Stevens, founder of Steventon Estate that later become the suburb of Tea Tree Gully. It was named after the Ellis family, who owned and used the building for storage for many years until World War II. Rumps Bakery was built in 1854 with local stone. From 1867 to 1893 it was rented to Charles Rumps, who started Tea Tree Gully's first bakery in the building in 1872. In 1894, the building was sold to Ernest Heitmann, who continued to use it as a bakery. Until the mid-20th century, the Ellis family and an adjacent general store frequently used it for storage. Assisted by a government grant and supervised by the Department of Environment and Heritage, the Friends of Anstey Hill stabilised both buildings in 2000. ### Water filtration plant In the 1970s, the Engineering and Water Supply Department chose an area at the top of the park, adjacent to Lower North East Road, to build a water treatment works. Based partly on seismic refraction traverses, a ridge underlain by dolomite and quartzite was deemed to be stable enough for construction. The site was also selected because of its hydraulic advantages; all other sites would have required the construction of a major pumping station. The exact placement of the site was made so that it could not be seen from the metropolitan area. It has a design flow of 313 megalitres (ML) per day with a maximum capacity of 344 ML. The plant was commissioned in 1980 and uses filtration and sedimentation techniques to clean water from the Mannum to Adelaide pipeline. It was the second plant in Adelaide, after the opening of the Hope Valley plant in 1977. Most of the water is piped directly from the River Murray, but some is sourced from Millbrook Reservoir. The plant was intended to serve 70,000 homes in the outer northeastern suburbs of Adelaide, specifically those north of the River Torrens. The total construction cost was \$14.5 million, including changes to the existing pipeline. As of 2005, the plant filters approximately 20% of Adelaide's water supply. A small hydroelectric plant began operating in adjacent Hope Valley in 2003, using the head of water as it flows down Anstey Hill. The plant is designed to supply 7,000 megawatt hours per year. ### Roads Lower North East Road runs around Anstey Hill and up the escarpment of the Burnside-Eden Fault Zone. It connects the suburbs—formerly villages—of Hope Valley and Houghton. Three roads were surveyed and built to connect the same locations. The first was a private road constructed by George Anstey in 1841—although officially surveyed in 1844—to reach his estate, as a mostly straight-line extension of Grand Junction Road. It followed the base of a gully, before rising steeply up Anstey Hill. From 1842 to 1846, Anstey constructed a replacement private road with a devil's elbow (double hairpin bend) that followed the land's contours more closely. As Chairman of Roads for the District of Yatala, Anstey allocated most of the district's funding to his road, leading to a public outcry that forced him from office in 1851. This ungravelled road became known as Anstey Hill Road and remained in use for 20 years. New Road, later renamed Houghton Road and subsequently Lower North East Road, was constructed in 1873 as a replacement. It was longer than the preceding roads but lacked a devil's elbow, was more evenly sloped, and was paved in 1930. It now separates a small part of the park—that contains Klopper's quarries and the Gun Emplacement—from the rest. Remains of the two previous roads can be seen near Klopper's quarries. Perseverance Road, and some housing, defines the western edge of much of the park. William Haines was the district clerk for Tea Tree Gully from 1867 to 1902 and Member of Parliament for Gumeracha from 1878 to 1884. Since 1862, he had lobbied for construction of a road to link Tea Tree Gully to Anstey Hill Road. The 1–1⁄2 mile road was eventually approved and subsequently opened in 1880. Known as Haines' Folly before its completion, it was officially called Haines' Perseverance Road at the opening ceremony. ## Anstey Hill Quarry The Anstey Hill Quarry is adjacent to the southern border of the park. In 2017, the then very neglected quarry was used for another Adelaide Festival production (as Klopper's quarry, which had been used in the 1988 festival, had been regenerated): The Secret River, written by Andrew Bovell and first staged in 2013. Before the production could be staged, the abandoned quarry had to be cleaned of a large amount of rubbish and weeds, and the dirt track sealed in order to carry the traffic. The show was a record-breaking success, selling out all performances over its 18 nights, with an audience of 800 each night. It was a co-production of the State Theatre Company of South Australia and the Sydney Theatre Company, co-directed by Neil Armfield and Geordie Brookman. ## See also - List of protected areas in Adelaide

Katy Hudson (album)

Katy Hudson is the debut studio album by American singer Katy Hudson (later known as Katy Perry). It was released on March 6, 2001, by Red Hill Records. The album, unlike the subsequent albums that made her known worldwide, primarily incorporates Christian rock and contemporary Christian music elements with lyrical themes of childhood, adolescence, and Hudson's faith in God. Before its release, Red Hill went bankrupt, preventing it from marketing and promoting the album, which subsequently sold about 200 copies and received mixed reviews. ## Background Growing up in a conservative household and raised by pastor parents, Hudson spent most of her childhood with gospel music, as secular music was not permitted. At the age of 15, she began pursuing a career in music and started recording demos and learning to write songs, capturing the attention of Red Hill Studios, who signed her a deal. Hudson then began working on her debut album Katy Hudson. ## Music and lyrics ### Themes and influences Katy Hudson saw Hudson exploring Christian rock and contemporary Christian music (CCM). Amongst what was described as an alternative direction were prominent influences of pop rock. During an interview for her official website at the time, Hudson cited artists Jonatha Brooke, Jennifer Knapp, Diana Krall, and Fiona Apple as her musical influences. The album was described as eschewing bubblegum pop and evoking Christian pop songstresses Rachael Lampa and Jaci Velasquez. ### Songs "Trust in Me", "Naturally", and "My Own Monster" were said to capture "loneliness, fear and doubt often ascribed to teens". The first features "haunting" strings with "electronica effects" and "solid rock roots". An aggressive track, "Piercing" depicts the infatuation people have with expendable things. In "Piercing", Hudson sings: "Lord, help me see the reality / That all I'll ever need is You". "Last Call" was written by Hudson while reading the book Last Call for Help: Changing North America One Teen at a Time, written by Dawson McAllister. Musically, it sees Hudson going into a more jazz-oriented sound. Hudson described "Growing Pains" as an anthem for children and adolescents, explaining that society shares a misconstructed image of them, often viewing them as individuals that do not believe in or do not know much about God. "Faith Won't Fail" was inspired by faith always sufficing in Bible situations and chapters; and Hudson commented on "Search Me": "I was struggling with the fact that I would have the huge responsibility of how others would be affected through what I was doing or saying on stage. I don't want to put on some kind of front that everything is good when it's not. I wanted to keep it real, but still give people hope." The record closes with "When There's Nothing Left", which has been described as a "crisp and clean 'love note' to God". ## Release and promotion The album was released on March 6, 2001. It was released on two formats: the standard CD and cassette tape. The album was a commercial failure for bankrupted Red Hill Records, only selling between 100 and 200 copies. ### Tour To promote the album, Hudson went on the Strangely Normal Tour, with Phil Joel, Earthsuit, and V\*Enna and later embarked on 46 solo performances throughout the United States. ### Charts The song "Trust in Me" spent two weeks on the Radio & Records Christian Rock chart, peaking at number 17. "Search Me" also appeared on the Christian CHR chart, spending three weeks and peaking at number 23. ## Critical reception The album received generally mixed reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic awarded the record three stars out of five, stating that with the album, Hudson had "betray[ed] a heavy, heavy debt to Alanis Morissette". Erlewine described the record's overall sound as "the kind of assaultive, over-produced Wall of Sound that some CCM rockers do in order to prove they're contemporary". Christianity Today writer Russ Breimeier was positive about Katy Hudson, highlighting Hudson's songwriting style for being "insightful and well matched to the emotional power" of Hudson's music. He further deemed Hudson a "young talent" and expected to hear more from her in the next year. Similarly, Tony Cummings from Cross Rhythms also considered Hudson to be a "vocal talent", recommending readers to listen to the album. The Phantom Tollbooth's Andy Argyrakis stated that Hudson having been reared in church had "paid off", and noted that "Although a mere pop lightweight, it's hard to ignore Hudson's sincerity and lyrical maturity." DEP from Billboard, also calling Hudson a talent, classified the record as "textured modern-rock collection that is equal parts grit and vulnerability" and "impressive". ## Track listing Credits extracted from Katy Hudson liner notes. ## Personnel Adapted from Katy Hudson liner notes. - Katy Hudson – lead vocals (1–10), background vocals (2, 7, 8) - Tommy Collier – production (2, 3), acoustic guitars (1), guitars (3), keyboards (2, 3), loops (2, 3) - Otto Price – production (1, 7, 8), synthesizers (1, 7, 8), bass (1, 2, 4–10), loops (2), programming (1, 7, 8), B-3 (1, 8), additional guitars (7, 8) - Scott Faircloff – piano (2), keyboards (2, 3), wurlitzer (3) - David Browning – production (4–6, 9, 10), keyboards and programming (4–6, 9, 10), B-3 (7), piano (8), string arrangements (5, 9, 10) - Chris Graffagnino – guitars (4-6, 9, 10) - Barry Graul – electric guitars/12-str (1), guitars (7, 8) - Tony Morra – drums (2–6, 9, 10) - Scott Williamson – drums (7, 8) - Greg Herrington – drums (1), additional drums (7) - Matt Pierson – bass (3) - Jeffrey Scot Wills – saxophone (4) - Otto Price, III – wah guitar (8) - David McMullan – brass (7) - Kim Palsma – woodwinds (1, 8) - David Davidson – violin (1, 7) - Kristin Wilkinson – viola (1, 7) - John Catchings – cello (1, 7) - Mark Stuart (of Audio Adrenaline) – background vocals (1) - Stacy Tiernan – background vocals (3) ## Aftermath Katy Hudson is the only Christian music-influenced album by Hudson, who subsequently adopted Katy Perry as her stage name. After her popularity increased, previously sold copies of Katy Hudson have become a sought-after item amongst her fans.

Magnificat (Rutter)

Musical composition by John Rutter

The Magnificat by John Rutter is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat, completed in 1990. The extended composition in seven movements "for soprano or mezzo-soprano solo, mixed choir, and orchestra (or chamber ensemble)" is based on the Latin text, interspersed with "Of a Rose, a lovely Rose", an anonymous English poem on Marian themes, the beginning of the Sanctus and a prayer to Mary. The music includes elements of Latin American music. The composer conducted the first performance in Carnegie Hall on 26 May 1990, and the first recording with the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia. Oxford University Press published Magnificat in 1991 and Of a Rose, a lovely Rose separately in 1998. While the canticle Magnificat was often set to music, being a regular part of Catholic vespers and Anglican evensong, Rutter's work is one of few extended settings, along with Bach's composition. Critical reception has been mixed, appreciating that the "orchestration is brilliant and very colourful" and "the music weaves a magical spell of balm and peace", but also experiencing a "virtual encyclopedia of musical cliches, a ... predictable exercise in glitzy populism". ## History and text The Magnificat or Song of Mary is one of the three New Testament canticles, the others being Nunc dimittis and Benedictus. Mary sings the song on the occasion of her visit to Elizabeth, as narrated in the Gospel of Luke (). It is a daily part in Catholic vesper services and Anglican Evening Prayer. Rutter followed the tradition of setting it to music, especially the work by Johann Sebastian Bach which also structures the text in movements of different character. Magnificat was composed on a commission by MidAmerica Productions, a concert organisation in New York performing in Carnegie Hall with a choir of about 200 voices selected in the United States. Rutter was inspired by "jubilant celebrations of Mary in Hispanic cultures" and conceived the work as a "bright Latin-flavoured fiesta". In addition to the liturgical Latin text, he chose a 15th-century poem, which compares Mary to a rose. In the third movement, the beginning of the Sanctus is inserted after the mentioning of "sanctum nomen eius" (his holy name). The text of the doxology in the last movement is interspersed with a prayer to Mary, "Sancta Maria, succure miseris" (Holy Mary, help those in need). Rutter supplied a singing version in English for the complete work. ## Music and scoring The composer wrote: > The ... Magnificat – a poetic outpouring of praise, joy and trust in God, ascribed by Luke to the Virgin Mary on learning that she was to give birth to Christ – has always been one of the most familiar and well-loved of scriptural texts, not least because of its inclusion as a canticle in the Catholic office of Vespers and in Anglican Evensong. Musical settings of it abound, though surprisingly few of them since J.S. Bach's time give the text extended treatment. I had long wished to write an extended Magnificat, but was not sure how to approach it until I found my starting point in the association of the text with the Virgin Mary. In countries such as Spain, Mexico and Puerto Rico, feast days of the Virgin are joyous opportunities for people to take to the streets and celebrate with singing, dancing and processions. These images of outdoor celebration were, I think, somewhere in my mind as I wrote, though I was not fully conscious of the fact till afterwards. I was conscious of following Bach's example in adding to the liturgical text – with the lovely old English poem 'Of a Rose' and the prayer 'Sancta Maria' (both of which strengthen the Marian connection) and with the interpolated 'Sanctus', sung to the Gregorian chant of the Missa cum jubilo in the third movement. The composition of Magnificat occupied several hectic weeks early in 1990, and the première took place in May of that year in Carnegie Hall, New York. Musicologist John Bawden notes that Rutter's work has several features in common with Bach's setting: both repeat material of the first movement in the last, use chant melodies, devote "more reflective verses" to a soloist, and insert additional text, in Bach's work texts related to Christmas. Rutter scored the work for a female soloist, soprano or mezzo-soprano, who at times represents Mary, and a mixed choir, usually SATB, but sometimes with divided parts. He offers two versions, for orchestra or chamber ensemble. The orchestra consists of - woodwind: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons - brass: 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba - percussion: timpani, percussion (glockenspiel, snare drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, tambourine, bongos) - strings: harp, strings The chamber version replaces the brass mostly by the organ and uses only one each of flute, oboe, clarinet and horn. Timpani, percussion and harp are the same as in the orchestra version, and for the strings, a minimum of two first violins, two second violins, two violas, one cello and one double bass required. ## Movements The following table shows the incipit, Tempo marking, voices, time, key and text sources for the seven movements. The information is given for the beginning of the movements. Rutter frequently shifts tempo, key and time. The source for the details is the vocal score, unless otherwise noted. ### 1 The work opens with a short instrumental introit in G major, marked "Bright and joyful", alternating between 3/8 and 3/4 time. Simple polyrhythms are achieved by dividing the 3/4 measure in two for the orchestra and in three for the chorus. While Bach structured the first verses of the canticle in several movements of different scoring, Rutter unites the first three verses in one choral movement, treating the different ideas to different motifs and setting, and repeating the first verse at the end as a recapitulation. The soprano and alto enter in unison Magnificat anima mea (My soul doth magnify [the Lord]). The vocal motif of Magnificat leaps up a major sixth and rises even higher. It is repeated several times in different combinations of voices, always in homophony. The second verse, Et exultavit spiritus meus (And my spirit hath rejoiced), is sung first by soprano and alto in third parallels. The men repeat it similarly and continuo in Deo (in God), Deo accented by the characteristic figure of a lower mordent, which is repeated throughout the whole work, often when God is mentioned. The conclusion of the idea, in Deo salutari meo (in God my saviour), is expressed by a descending line, alternating the rhythm, one measure in 3/4, one 6/8, and alternating the women's voices in sequences. A short recapitulation of Magnificat anima mea marks the end of the second verse. The beginning of the third verse, Quia respexit humilitatem (For he hath regarded the low estate [of his handmaiden]), is rendered even simpler: the sequences are repeated in even rhythm, then broadened and coloured by parallel triads. The continuation, Ecce enim (for, behold, [from henceforth ... shall call me blessed]), builds in similar fashion, with all parts divided, to the climax of the first movement on the word beatam ("blessed" or "happy"), marked "f dolce". The text omnes generationes (all generations) is again given in sequences of descending lines, now alternating one measure of 6/8 and one of 4/4. While the bass sings the line first, the tenor adds a sequence of sustained notes rising step by step one fifth. In Bach's treatment of the same text, each entry of a fugue theme is one step, covering an octave in measures 15 to 20 of Omnes generationes. A repeat of the text and the motifs of verse 1 concludes the movement, ending on Magnificat, without retard, with accents on each syllable and cut short. ### 2 Rutter inserted an anonymous English poem from the 15th century, Of a Rose, a lovely Rose, as the second movement. Marked "Tranquil and flowing", it imitates chant singing, with flexible times and in Doric mode. The poet imagines Jesus as a rose springing from Mary, comparable to "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen". She is seen as a rose bush with five branches: the Annunciation, the Star of Bethlehem, the three Kings, the fall of the devil's power, and heaven. The last stanza asks Mary to “shield us from the fiendes bond”. The eight stanzas, in four lines of which three rhyme, are set as variations of an old tune. The short refrain is first sung by the soprano alone, immediately repeated by soprano, alto and tenor, the voices in unison but for triads on "lovely". It is repeated after the first stanza by soprano and tenor in unison. After the fourth stanza, it appears again, now in three different parts, and a last time before the final prayer, again slightly different. The first stanza ("... this rose began to spring ...") is sung by the bass, the second ("... out of her bosom ...") by the alto, the third ("... an angel from heaven's tower ...") by two sopranos and alto, the fourth ("... star shone over Bethlehem ...") by tenor and bass, the fifth ("... three kinges ...") by the bass, the sixth ("... sprang to hell ...") by four parts SATB, the seventh ("... sprang to heaven ...") by soprano and alto, the final prayer ("Pray we to her ...") by four parts again but mostly in unison. ### 3 Quia fecit mihi magna (For he [that is mighty] hath done to me great things), concentrates on two ideas from the canticle verse. Marked "Andante maestoso", the choral movement in D major opens with solemn dotted rhythms, features of the French overture. A motiv of four measures is repeated three times, interrupted by fanfares. Then it is repeated five times, beginning with only the basses, marked piano, adding the motif in a higher part each time, with two sopranos, and increasing volume and intensity. The second idea of the verse, Et sanctum nomen eius (And holy is his name), builds similarly. The alto begins, marked "dolce and tranquillo" (sweet and calm) a melody of ten measures, beginning like the first motiv but more flowing. The alto keeps singing sustained notes, while first soprano and tenor sing the melody in a canon one measure apart, then bass and soprano sing it in a canon, one measure apart and the soprano a fifth higher. Finally the sustained notes are sung by the bass, while the other three voices continue the imitation. The movement is closed by a chant-like accompanied Sanctus, taken from the Missa cum jubilo. ### 4 Et misericordia (And his mercy [is on them that fear him from generation to generation]) is sung by the soprano soloist first, repeated by the choir. A motif alternating a measure of six undulating eighth-notes and a measure of one long note dominates the movement. In a middle section, the chorus continues the material, while the soloist picks up the first Magnificat in text and motif. ### 5 Fecit potentiam (He hath shewed strength) begins with irregular energetic rhythms. The basses sing a short call which dominates the movement, first marked "pp marcato". The other voices join from the lowest to the highest, only then is the thought continued in bracchio suo [with his arm). In a process similar to movement 3, the voices build bass to divided soprano. Dispersit superbos (he hath scattered the proud [in the imagination of their hearts]) is presented in fast 3/8 movement, while Deposuit potentes de sede (He hath put down the mighty from their seats) is rendered on a steady monotone beat by bass, then tenor, then alto. In great contrast, the soprano begins softly a rising melody on et exaltavit humiles (and exalted them of low degree), joined by all other voices. ### 6 The last movement devoted to the canticle summarizes the rest of the text in Esurientes ([He hath filled] the hungry), sung again by the soloist, supported by continuous eighth-notes in 12/8 time in the orchestra and answered by the chorus. ### 7 The composition is closed with the doxology Gloria Patri (Glory be to the Father). The music is based on movement 3, repeating the dotted rhythm and the building from bass to two sopranos. A prayer addressing Mary interrupts the doxology: Sancta Maria, asking "for support of humanity, including the needy, the timid, the clergy, women, and the laity". It is sung by the soloist on sustained chords in the orchestra. The final Sicut erat in principio (As it was in the beginning), repeats, as often, material from the very beginning of the work, the initial Magnificat motif, and the descending lines ending on a mordent on Amen. ## Performance, recording and publishing The first performance, conducted by the composer, was on 26 May 1990 in Carnegie Hall, with soloist Maria Alsatti and the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. Rutter also conducted a recording with soloist Patricia Forbes, the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia. A performance lasts about 40 minutes. Timothy Mangan reviewed the reportedly first performance on the West Coast with the Master Chorale of Orange County conducted by William Hall. He described the piece as a "virtual encyclopedia of musical cliches, a long-winded, tamely tonal, predictable exercise in glitzy populism." He heard influence of composers such as Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky and Vaughan Williams. The work was published by Oxford University Press in 1991. The composer provided an optional English singable version of the Latin parts. Of a Rose, a lovely Rose was published individually in 1998. A reviewer notes that Rutter "emphasises the joy experienced by a ... soon to be mother", with "a good balance between the extrovert and intimate", and singable melodies with an understanding for the voice. He ends: "The orchestration is brilliant and very colourful, with lots of trumpet fanfares complementing the festive spirit of the music." Nick Barnard, reviewing a 2006 recording of the chamber version with the Choirs of St. Albans Cathedral conducted by Andrew Lucas, summarizes that "the faster dynamic sections rely too heavily on formulaic use of ostinato rhythms and Rutter fingerprint instrumental colours. Set against this many of the lyrical passages are amongst his finest." More specifically he notes that in the Esurientes "the music weaves a magical spell of balm and peace – for me the highlight of the entire disc and one of Rutter's moments of greatest inspiration in any work."

Sleepless (comics)

Comic book by Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca

Sleepless is an American comic book created by writer Sarah Vaughn and artist Leila del Duca. It was initially serialized in eleven issues published by Image Comics between December 2017 and January 2019, then reprinted in two paperback collections. The creators worked with colorist and editor Alissa Sallah and letterer Deron Bennett. Set in a medieval kingdom, the fantasy story is about Lady "Poppy" Pyppenia, the illegitimate daughter of the recently deceased king. Poppy and Cyrenic, her personal protector who does not need sleep because of a magic spell, are unsure if they have a place in the royal court when Poppy's uncle becomes the new king. When assassins target Poppy, she believes they were sent by the new king's daughter and nephew out of fear she will try to usurp the throne. Despite being in love with Cyrenic, the king suggests Poppy marry his nephew. On their wedding night, her husband is killed by the mastermind behind the assassination plot, which is motivated by revenge against her father. The series received generally positive reviews. Although some plot elements were criticized for being cliché, most critics praised Poppy's memorable characterization and del Duca's distinctive art. Reviews were split on the effectiveness of the story's narrative pace and the handling of expository dialogue. ## Publication history ### Development Prior to working on Sleepless, writer Sarah Vaughn had previously created the webcomic Sparkshooter and co-wrote the fifteen-issue Image comic series Alex + Ada with Jonathan Luna from 2013 to 2015. The initial concept for Sleepless came to her when she had trouble falling asleep, and she developed it over the course of a few years. Vaughn was approached by artist Leila del Duca, who was working on the Image comic series Shutter, about collaborating on a romance comic at the 2015 New York Comic Con. Vaughn sent del Duca a short list of story pitches, and she selected the one that became Sleepless. When del Duca's saw her work schedule would open up in early 2017, the two submitted the idea to Image. The publisher liked it and the series was officially announced on March 2 at the Image Expo segment of the 2017 Emerald City Comic Con. ### Production When Vaughn and del Duca began working on the project, they recruited Alissa Sallah, an intern at del Duca's art studio, to be their colorist and editor. A piece written by Sallah had been published in the Image comic book Bitch Planet: Triple Feature, but Sleepless was her first big art job in the comics industry. Both del Duca and Sallah were involved with any changes to the plot. They based their fantasy world on cultures from the early 16th century. Unlike typical medieval fantasy settings which are derived from Northern European cultures, Sleepless is a combination of Mediterranean and North African cultures, particularly Moroccan culture. The artist's initial research included watching The Borgia, Ever After, and other films with a similar setting. Then she began mixing in Moroccan patterns and designs. The uncommon inspiration allowed the team more freedom in their designs. In addition to the nontraditional visuals, both leads are non-whites, which is unusual in the genre, and the plot subverts traditional female roles in fantasy by having their decisions and actions be vital to plot twists. Sallah colored del Duca's line art with a simple wash style to enhance del Duca's emotive lines, and avoided using saturated color to maintain the Old World setting. Their letterer, Deron Bennett, created a unique font specifically for Sleepless. The logo was designed by del Duca, who started with medieval typography before trying to make it "feel sleepy and flowing". Within the context of the story, the creative team intentionally kept magic subtle and mysterious. Image assigned the comic a "young adult" rating instead of the more common "mature" label, but the creators did not intentionally tone down elements to achieve it. ### Publication The first issue was released digitally and to comic specialty shops on December 6, 2017. Estimated physical sales of the first issue were around 9,500 copies, putting it the 174th position on the month's sales-by-units chart. Sales fell steadily with each new monthly issue, and the sixth issue had estimated sales of 2,900 copies in May 2018, putting in at the 381st chart position. There was a four-month gap between publication of issues six and seven. During the break, Image made a digital version of the first issue available for free. A paperback collection of the first six issues was released July 11, 2018. When the series returned to monthly installments after its hiatus, estimated sales had fallen another 300 units, or ten percent. Vaughn and del Duca intended to finish the series. The conclusion had been planned from the beginning, as Vaughn prefers to write stories that are complete and definite rather than being serialized without end. Although initially expected to run twelve issues, the series concluded at issue eleven. The final issue sold an estimated 2,200 copies. A second paperback volume released on March 13, 2019, collected the final five issues. ## Synopsis ### Characters - Lady "Poppy" Pyppenia is a teenager and the illegitimate daughter of the king of Harbeny and a foreigner. During her father's reign, Poppy enjoyed an active role in the royal court. - Cyrenic is a member of the Sleepless Knights, men who use magic to shorten their lives in exchange for a state of constant wakefulness. Unlike other members of the order who are pledged to the throne, Cyrenic made his vow directly to Poppy at her father's request following an assassination attempt on her life several years before the story begins. The spell is beginning to have side effects, and Cyrenic believes he will soon enter a sleeping state from which other knights have never awoken. - King Surno is Poppy's uncle on her father's side and has lived in Edtland for many years. When Poppy's father dies, Surno returns and is crowned king of Harbeny. - Princess Rellen is Surno's only child. She is near Poppy's age and has prominent scars on her face due to acne. - Lord Helder is Surno's nephew by marriage. He aspires to be Surno's heir. - Lord Otrano was an advisor to Poppy's father, and his services are retained following the coronation of King Surno. ### Themes and symbolism According to the creators, time is the most important theme in the story. Critics also identified agency, sleep, dreams, memories, and death as prominent themes. Poppy's name is an allusion to opium, which is made from poppy flowers. Opium was used to help people sleep in medieval times, and this led to the flower becoming a common symbol of sleep and death. ### Plot Book One Following the death of her father, the king, Poppy is uncertain of her place in the royal court and wishes to travel to her country estate or her mother's homeland. She makes a formal request to King Surno at his coronation, but that night an assassin attacks her and Cyrenic in the castle. Poppy believes Princess Rellen was behind the attack to prevent Poppy from trying to usurp the throne. Surno denies her travel request, saying she will be safest if she remains with him. To celebrate the new king, a tournament of knights is held in his honor. To gain the favor of Surno and Rellen, Poppy grants her chooses Lord Helder as her champion in the competition. Cyrenic defeats Helder, winning the tournament. His prize is a walk with the king at a time of Cyrenic's choosing. The tournament is followed by a feast, where Poppy's pet alerts her to poison on her plate. Shortly thereafter, Poppy has a private conversation with Rellen, confessing that she only wants to leave Harbeny and bears Rellen no ill will. Rellen reveals she has a bracelet that tells her when people are lying to her, then admits that her concerns about Poppy had been fed by Helder. Together, they suspect Helder is behind the two assassination attempts. On the way back to her chamber, two more assassins attack but are killed by Cyrenic. Before dying, one confesses that Helder hired them. Poppy and Cyrenic go to the king, who is already meeting with Helder. King Surno suggests the two of them marry to legitimize Poppy's place in the court before Poppy explains what the assassin told her. Surno calls for Rellen, who uses her bracelet to monitor Helder's responses. Rellen admits Helder's careful denials are true, but the king ignores her when she requests to ask more direct questions. Frustrated by these developments and worried he will be unable to protect Poppy if his wakefulness spell falters and he falls asleep, Cyrenic plans to murder Helder. Poppy voices her love for Cyrenic and begs him not to do something that will cause his death. He kisses her in return, but refuses to change his mind. With no other way to stop him, Poppy recites the incantation that releases Cyrenic from his vow. He immediately falls into a deep sleep. Book Two One year later, Cyrenic is still asleep. Court physicians do not know what to expect because no Sleepless Knight has ever been released before. His body has been moved to the crypt where former Sleepless Knights are also kept. No other threats to Poppy's life have arisen, and plans for her marriage to Helder have moved forward despite Poppy's continued suspicions. Cyrenic awakens, but it takes him time to adjust to his new condition. In addition to being rested, his body is weak and his mind is uncertain because his vow no longer guides his actions. His relationship with Poppy sours over her coming marriage. After Poppy and Helder are married, they retire to his bed chamber to consummate their union. With Poppy's prompting, Helder admits that he was behind the assassination attempts, but he now hopes they can rule together. Poppy tells him she has no intention of assisting him, and will actively work against him for the rest of his life. Helder moves to attack her, but she evades him and bloodies his nose. She flees, letting him be seen chasing her through the castle. Cyrenic sees her and helps her escape. Lord Otrano appears behind Helder and chastises him for failing before pushing him over a ledge to his death. He then spreads rumors among the uncertain witnesses that Poppy pushed him with Cyrenic's help. King Surno organizes a search party to locate Poppy and Cyrenic with orders to kill them. Poppy and Cyrenic sneak back into the castle to find out who has betrayed them. Guards loyal to Otrano capture them and he explains that her country estate used to belong to his fiancé and be part of another kingdom. When his fiancé's family supported an enemy of Harbeny, Poppy's father annexed the estate, removed record of her family, and granted the land to Poppy. Otrano has wanted revenge ever since, and he has been behind all the assassination attempts on Poppy's life, including the one years ago that led to Cyrenic guarding her. King Surno is called to witness their executions, but Cyrenic reminds him of his prize from the tournament and demands they take their walk before he is put to death. Cyrenic recounts what Otrano told them, and Surno believes the truth. Otrano is executed. Poppy and Cyrenic travel to her country estate to live in peace. ## Reception Sleepless received mostly positive reviews upon release and throughout its run. It appeared on numerous critics' "Best of 2018" lists and was frequently described as one of the best fantasy comics. Poppy was singled out as one of the most memorable female protagonists of 2018 by Barnes & Noble. The first issue began in medias res with three nearly silent pages with much subtle foreshadowing. ComicBook.com called it "ideal" and credited the narrative pace for its success. The story's structure was compared to a Shakespearean drama by Adventures in Poor Taste. The amount of exposition divided critics, with Comics Beat believing it was well-handled while Bleeding Cool thought there was too much. The issue lacked a cliffhanger or unexpected twist, which led Comic Book Resources to conclude the story might read better in longer installments. Poppy's depiction was praised throughout the series for being memorable, compelling, and relatable. The romance between her and Cyrenic was well executed according to Comics Beat, but Bleeding Cool compared it to Jane Austen novels and called it "common and dull". In a later review, Comic Bastards acknowledged the cliché elements, but argued the world the team has built was fascinating enough to overcome that weakness. Later elements of the story were contrasted with other modern comic series. Multiversity Comics took special note of how effective the narrative ellipsis between issues six and seven was, which is a plot device infrequently used successfully in comic books. Both Comics Beat and ComicBook.com appreciated the self-contained nature of the story in an industry where most stories are continuing, interconnected, or both. Many critics applauded del Duca's artwork. Black Nerd Problems said the art is what set the comic apart from others, and Comic Bastards said the art had a fairy tale quality perfectly suited to the story. The character's costumes were called "beautiful" and "ornate", and del Duca's linework was described as "intricate". Many important story elements are nonverbal, and Comic Bastards felt del Duca's layouts did an excellent job of guiding a reader's eye to prevent those points from being overlooked. Bleeding Cool agreed with this sentiment, adding that illustrating emotion appears to be del Duca's specialty. Reviewers disagreed on how best to describe the style, with some comparing it to paintings while others compared it to Art Nouveau or woodblock prints. Adventures in Poor Taste thought Sallah's colors were too dull, but Multiversity Comics felt they were "exotic" and Comic Bastards thought they complemented the artwork well.

Lactarius rufulus

Species of fungus

Lactarius rufulus, commonly known as the rufous candy cap, is a species of fungus in the family Russulaceae. The fruit bodies have fleshy brownish-red caps up to 10 cm (3.9 in) wide, and closely spaced pinkish-yellow gills. The stem is up to 12 cm (4.7 in) long and 3 cm (1.2 in) thick and colored similarly to the cap. The species, known only from California, Arizona, and Mexico, grows on the ground in leaf litter near oak trees. The fruit bodies resembles those of L. rufus, but L. rufulus tends to grow in clusters at a common base, rather than solitarily or in groups. A distinguishing microscopic characteristic is the near absence of large, spherical cells called sphaerocysts that are otherwise common in Lactarius species. Lactarius rufulus mushrooms are edible, and have an odor resembling maple syrup. They have been used to flavor confections and desserts. ## Taxonomy The species was first described by American mycologist Charles Horton Peck in 1907, based on specimens collected at Stanford University in California. The type collections were made by A.M. Patterson and S. Nohara, botany students at the Leland Stanford Junior University who made a number of collections during the winter of 1906–07. Lactarius rufulus is classified in the section Thejogali of the subgenus Russularia of the genus Lactarius. The surface characteristics of many species in section Thejogali (as defined by Hesler and Smith in 1979) are called rimulose-areolate (irregularly cracked, with the cracks crossing one another) based on a surface with "numerous mounds of inflated cells" paired together with crevices. The mushroom is commonly known as the "rufous candy cap". ## Description The cap of L. rufulus is 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 in) wide, broadly convex, becoming flattened and eventually shallowly funnel-shaped, sometimes with a slight umbo. The cap margin (edge) is initially curved inwards but becomes curved upward in maturity. The surface is usually uneven or wrinkled. It is brownish red at first, but fades to orange-brown with age. The attachment of the gills to the stem is adnate (squarely attached) to subdecurrent (running slightly down the length of the stem). They are packed close together, at first pinkish-yellow, but with age become a darker red or reddish brown. The gills are not forked, nor do they stain a different color when bruised. The stem is 4–8 cm (1.6–3.1 in) long, about 0.5–1.5 cm (0.2–0.6 in) thick, nearly equal or slightly enlarged downward, dry, smooth, and reddish brown. It may be solid or stuffed (filled with cotton-like mycelia), but may become partially hollow with age. The flesh is firm, white to pinkish-orange, and does not stain when cut. The latex is scant, white, unchanging, and does not stain tissues. Its taste is mild. The spore print is white to creamy yellow. The mushroom is edible, with a mild taste and a slight odor of maple syrup. American author David Arora suggests that the fruit bodies may be used in a manner similar to the candy cap mushrooms, despite being not as fragrant. Chefs in the San Francisco Bay Area have been known to use it for desserts such as ice creams, cakes and caramels. ### Microscopic characteristics The spores are 7–9 by 7–9 μm, spherical or nearly so, ornamented with a partial to complete reticulum (a system of raised, net-like ridges), with prominences up to 0.5 μm high. The basidia (spore-bearing cells) are both two- and four-spored, and measure 45–52 by 9–11 μm. The cap cuticle is a poorly formed layer of inflated cells with scattered filamentous pileocystidia (cystidia on the cap). Somewhat unusual for a Lactarius, L. rufulus lacks or has few swollen cells (sphaerocysts) in the cap and stem. ### Similar species Lactarius rubidus is similar in appearance to L. rufulus, but it has watery to whey-like latex and develops a strong odor of maple syrup or butterscotch when dried. Another lookalike is Lactarius thiersii, but it has a smaller cap and stem and has mild-tasting flesh and latex. The flesh and latex of Lactarius rufus have a strongly acrid taste, and its fruit bodies are stouter and lack an umbo. Additionally, L. rufus typically grows in a caespitose manner—with the fruit bodies clustered at a common base, and has more pallid colors and a more intense odor than L. rufulus. L. vinaceorufescens has a yellowing latex. ## Ecology, habitat and distribution Lactarius rufulus is a mycorrhizal species, and lives in a mutualistic association with oak species. The fungus forms an ectomycorrhizae—characterized by an external sheath that surround the rootlets of the oak. The fungus receives soluble carbohydrates that are byproducts of the plant's photosynthesis, while affording the plant greater access to soil nutrients needed for growth. The fruit bodies of L. rufulus grow scattered or in groups on the ground under oak, usually from January to March; their appearance is uncommon. Once thought to be only in California (where they are most prevalent in the southern part of the state), they were reported from Mexico in 1998, and from Arizona in 2006. ## See also - List of Lactarius species

Lichen growth forms

Gross morphological classification

Lichens are symbiotic organisms made up of multiple species: a fungus, one or more photobionts (an alga and/or a cyanobacteria) and sometimes a yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their growth form. This form, which is based on the appearance of vegetative part of the lichen (its thallus), varies depending on the species and the environmental conditions it faces. Those who study lichens (lichenologists) have described a dozen of these forms: areolate, byssoid, calicioid, cladoniform, crustose, filamentous, foliose, fruticose, gelatinous, leprose, placoidioid and squamulose. Traditionally, crustose (flat), foliose (leafy) and fruticose (shrubby) are considered to be the three main forms. In addition to these more formalised, traditional growth types, there are a handful of informal types named for their resemblance to the lichens of specific genera. These include alectorioid, catapyrenioid, cetrarioid, hypogymnioid, parmelioid and usneoid. ## Overview Lichens are composite organisms made up of multiple species: a fungal partner, one or more photosynthetic partners (also known as photobionts), and sometimes a yeast. It is a symbiotic relationship, to which each partner contributes. In most cases, the fungal partner provides the structure in which the various partners live; this structure helps to protect the photobiont from environmental pressures. The photosynthetic partner(s) provide the nutrients which the various partners need to survive. The yeast (where present) appears to help ward off microbes and potential predators through the production of various chemicals. Thallus types have evolved to provide the lichen's photobiont with optimal levels of light, water, and carbon dioxide, with different environmental conditions favouring different forms. With the exception of calicioid lichens, lichen growth forms are based on the appearance of the thallus, which is the vegetative (non-reproductive) part of the lichen. In most species, this form is determined by the lichen's fungal partner, though in a small number, it is instead the alga or cyanobacteria (the lichen's photosynthetic partner) that determines the organism's overall shape. Growth form groupings are not always consistent with lichen taxonomy; lichens with similar growth forms are not necessarily related, and some of those which are related do not have similar growth forms. Not every species can be easily categorized. Some show characteristics of two growth forms, and different authors may place such species in different groups. In general, a particular species shows same overall growth form wherever it is found, but this is not always the case. Traditionally, crustose, foliose and fruticose are considered to be the three main forms. ## Growth forms ### Areolate An areolate lichen is the most common form of crustose lichen. As with all crustose lichens, it has a paint-like appearance, and is inseparable from the substrate on which it grows. However, its thallus is broken into regular polygonal sections, which can look a bit like cracked mud, flaking paint or little islands. These sections, known as areolae, are surrounded by a thin layer of fungal hyphae called a hypothallus. This layer, which is usually dark, generally grows faster than the thallus which rides above it. This growth form is an adaptation which allows the lichen to cope with alternating periods of wet and dry. During wet periods, the lichen can absorb water, its tissues can swell, and the cracks close. The term "areolate" is derived from the Latin word areolatus, meaning "with areolae" (the plural of a diminutive form of area, meaning "halo" or "open space") combined with the Latin suffix -atus, meaning "provided with" or "likeness". ### Byssoid A byssoid lichen has a wispy, cottony or teased wool appearance due to the loosely woven hyphae in its thallus. It has no outer cortex. Lichens with this growth type can be split into two types. In one type, the thallus is dominated by fungal hyphae, with a photobiont – typically a coccoid green alga – sprinkled throughout. In the other, the thallus is dominated by photobiont filaments which have a thin fungal coating. Byssoid lichens are not particularly common, but they occur across a range of orders and families. Though they are found in a variety of habitats, they appear to be most common in rainforests. Byssoid lichens typically grow in areas of high humidity, on surfaces where they have no direct contact with rainfall or running water – areas such as cactus spines in fog oases or the underside of branches in rainforests. Their loose thallus structure and lack of a cortex may allow them to absorb water vapor directly from the air. Some lichenologists consider byssoid lichens to be a specialised type of fruticose lichen. The term "byssoid" is derived from the Greek býssos, a word for "linen cloth of very fine threads" (via the Latin byssus) in combination with the Latin suffix -aceus (via the English -aceous), meaning "of or pertaining to" or "with the nature of". ### Calicioid Unlike the other growth forms detailed here, a calicioid lichen is distinguished by its fruiting bodies rather than its thallus. Members of the order Caliciales (which gives the form its name), they are commonly known as "stubble lichens" or "pin lichens". In these lichens, mature spores build up in a thick layer on the surface of the fruiting bodies. This layer, called a , is typically brown or black, and spores are dispersed passively from it. Most calicioid lichens are crustose with tiny stalked fruiting bodies. However, because the fundamental characteristic of a calicioid lichen is the presence of a mazaedium rather than a stalked fruiting body, a handful of fruticose lichens also fall into this category. Calicioid lichens are generally restricted to old-growth forest, and can be used as indicators of the age and quality of such ecosystems. ### Cladoniform A cladoniform lichen is one with a dimorphic thallus. The form is named for the genus Cladonia, as most lichens in this genus show a combination of two growth types: squamulose and fruticose. The primary thallus is composed of small, overlapping scales, while the secondary thallus (which supports the lichen's fruiting structures) is fruticose in appearance. These secondary thalli, which are known as podetia, can be branched, spike-like or cup-shaped. Lichens with this growth form are found in the families Cladoniaceae and Baeomycetaceae. ### Crustose A crustose lichen, as its name suggests, is crust-like and two-dimensional, closely and completely bound at nearly all points to the substrate on which it grows. It typically cannot be removed from the substrate without at least partial destruction of one or the other. Some crustose lichens are thick and lumpy, others thin and smooth, and some are almost completely submerged into the substrate with only apothecia emerging to the surface. Crustose lichens lack a lower cortex, though most have an upper cortex. The layer lies just below the upper cortex. Many crustose lichens have a ring of unlichenised fungal hyphae at their edges. This fringe, known as a , may be black, white or the same colour as the rest of the thallus. The term "crustose" derives from the Latin crustosus, meaning "crusted". ### Filamentous Unlike most of the other forms detailed here (the exception being some byssoid lichens), a filamentous lichen's morphology is determined by its algal partner rather than its fungal partner. A thin layer of fungal hyphae surrounds an algal chain, resulting in a thread-like or hair-like structure. Because of their high surface to mass ratio they can quickly absorb moisture, enabling them to take advantage of even short periods of high humidity (such as fog or dew). They are often epiphytic, growing on trees in forested areas, but are also common in some alpine zones. Lichenologists tend to consider filamentous lichens to be a type of fruticose lichen. This is an uncommon growth form, found in only a handful of genera. The term "filamentous" is derived from the Latin filamentum, meaning "filament", itself derived from the Latin filare, meaning "to spin", from filum, meaning "thread". ### Foliose A foliose lichen has flat, leaf-like that are generally not firmly bonded to the substrate on which it grows. It typically has distinct upper and lower surfaces, each of which is typically covered with a cortex; some, however, lack a lower cortex. The photobiont layer lies just below the upper cortex. Where present, the lower cortex is usually dark (sometimes even black), but occasionally white. Foliose lichens are attached to their substrate either by hyphae extending from the cortex or , or by root-like structures called . The latter, which are found only in foliose lichens, come in a variety of shapes, the specifics of which can aid in species identification. Some foliose lichens attach only at a single stout peg called a , typically located near the lichen's centre. Lichens with this structure are called "umbilicate". In general, medium to large epiphytic foliose lichens are moderately sensitive to air pollution, while smaller or ground-dwelling foliose lichens are more tolerant. The term "foliose" derives from the Latin word foliosus, meaning "leafy". ### Fruticose A fruticose lichen is typically shrubby or coral-like in appearance, though some are hair-like or strap-like instead. Some grow upright while others hang. They attach to the substrate only at a single point at their base (or at most a very few points), and can be easily removed. Sometimes, as in the case of vagrant lichens, they are completely unattached to a substrate. Unlike a foliose lichen, a fruticose lichen does not have a distinct upper and lower surface. Instead, a cortex covers its entire surface, and the photobiont layer lies just below this, on all sides of the lichen's branches. The centre of a fruticose lichen's branches varies depending on the genus involved. In most, the centre is hollow. However, lichens in the genus Usnea have a fairly elastic cord running through the middle. This is the most three-dimensional of the lichen growth forms, and the most sensitive to air pollution. The term "fruticose" is derived from the Latin word fruticosus, meaning "shrubby" or "similar to a shrub" (from frutex, meaning "shrub"). ### Gelatinous A gelatinous lichen, also widely known as a "jelly lichen", is one with a cyanobacterial species ("blue-green alga") as the principal photobiont. Chains of the photobiont, rather than fungal hyphae, make up the bulk of the thallus, which is unlayered (and undifferentiated) as a result. Such lichens lack a cortex. Despite this lack of internal structure, gelatinous lichens usually have external growth forms that resemble those of fungal-dominated lichens. Gelatinous lichens are particularly common in areas with erratic rainfall or periodic inundation (such as rock pools). The presence of Nostoc cyanobacteria allows the lichen to absorb significant amounts of moisture, swelling in the process. It can then remain sufficiently hydrated to allow photosynthesis long after the wetting event is over. The term "gelatinous" means "resembling gelatin or jelly". ### Leprose A leprose lichen, which is typically considered to be a form of crustose lichen, is one with a powdery or dust-like appearance. Its undifferentiated thallus is an irregular mix of fungal hyphae and scattered photobiont cells, lacking a cortex or any definable layers. Morphologically, it is the simplest growth form. The cell walls of leprose lichens contain chemical compounds which make them hydrophobic, and thus largely water repellent. However, the lack of a cortex allows them to absorb water directly from humid air. Leprose lichens often grow in damp, shaded places generally untouched by rain. They may be completely covered in soredia – small aggregates of fungal hyphae and photobiont cells which can break off to form new lichen colonies. They have never been found with fruiting bodies. The term "leprose" derives from the Latin leprosus, meaning "scurfy" or "scaly" (from the Greek lepras, meaning "leprosy"). ### Placodioid A placodioid lichen is a form of crustose lichen with lobed margins. These lobed edges, which radiate from the central part of the lichen, are its only growing sections; the central part of the lichen typically contains reproductive structures and does not expand. The growth rates of these lobes can vary – sometimes significantly – which can lead to some lobes being overgrown by others. When this happens, the overgrown lobes stop growing and are ultimately swallowed up by the expanding lichen. As with other crustose lichens, placodioid lichens have a cortex on their upper surface, but not their lower one. This allows them to be distinguished from foliose lichens, which can be similar in appearance but have both an upper and a lower cortex. Crustose lichens may be both placodioid and areolate, as in, for example, Variospora flavescens. The term "placodioid" derives from the Greek plakós, meaning "plaque" or "tablet", and the Latin suffix -oides – a contraction of the Greek oeides, which denotes similarity. ### Squamulose A squamulous lichen has a thallus composed of small, scale-like plates – known as squamules – measuring 1–15 mm in diameter. These plates may be attached to the substrate across their entire lower surface, or they may be attached only along one edge, so that they overlap neighbouring plates like shingles on a roof. A squamulose lichen typically has no cortex on its lower surface, though a few species do. Some lichenologists consider squamulose lichens to be crustose lichens which peel up at their outer edges. Others consider them to be intermediate between crustose and foliose lichens. Squamulose lichens are particularly common in biological soil crust communities. In the Intermountain West of the United States, for example, almost 60% of all soil lichens are squamulose. The term "squamulose" is derived from the Latin squamulosus, meaning "provided with small scales" (from squamula, the diminutive of squama, which means "scale"). ## The "look-alikes" In addition to the above forms, lichenologists have named a handful of informal growth forms for their resemblance to members of particular genera. Each of these is a subset of one of the growth forms described above. ### Alectorioid Alectorioid lichens are either members of, or resemble members of, the genus Alectoria. They are fruticose, typically with a beard-like thallus that is dangling or clustered; members of the genera Bryoria, Oropogon, Pseudephebe, and Sulcaria also have this growth type. ### Catapyrenioid Catapyrenioid lichens were historically members of the genus Catapyrenium; many have now been moved to other genera within the family Verrucariaceae. They are squamulose and lack algae in their hymenium – the part of the fruiting structure where spores are formed. Their simple ascospores have no partitions. ### Cetrarioid Cetrarioid lichens were historically classified in the genus Cetraria; many have now been moved to other genera within the family Parmeliaceae. They are foliose or subfruticose with erect lobes, and their apothecia and pycnidia are located on the lobe margins. ### Hypogymnioid Hypogymnioid lichens are either members of, or resemble members of, the genus Hypogymnia (which are also known as "tube lichens", "bone lichens", or "pillow lichens"). They are foliose with lobes that are swollen and inflated, and without rhizines on their undersides. Members of the genus Menegazzia also have this growth type. ### Parmelioid Parmelioid lichens were historically classified in the genus Parmelia; many have now been moved to other genera within the family Parmeliaceae. They are primarily foliose, often closely attached to the substrate upon which they grow, and have apothecia and pycnidia over their entire surface (), rather than only at the margins. ### Usneoid Usneoid lichens are either members of, or resemble members of, the genus Usnea (which are known as "beard lichens"). They are fruticose with an elastic in the medulla; members of the genus Dolichousnea also have this growth type. ## See also - Lichen morphology - Symbiosis in lichens

Diamond Rio

American country and Christian music band

Diamond Rio is an American country music band. The band was founded in 1982 as an attraction for the Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee, and was originally known as the Grizzly River Boys, then the Tennessee River Boys. It was founded by Matt Davenport, Danny Gregg, and Ty Herndon, the last of whom became a solo artist in the mid-1990s. After undergoing several membership changes in its initial years, the band consisted of the same six members from 1989 to 2022: Marty Roe (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Gene Johnson (mandolin, guitar, fiddle, tenor vocals), Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Dan Truman (keyboards), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals). After Prout and Johnson both departed in 2022, they were replaced by Micah Schweinsberg and Carson McKee respectively. After assuming the name Diamond Rio, the band was signed to Arista Nashville and debuted in 1991 with the single "Meet in the Middle", which made them the first band ever to send a debut single to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The band charted 32 more singles between then and 2006, including four more that reached No. 1: "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" (1997), "One More Day" (2001), "Beautiful Mess" (2002), and "I Believe" (2003). Diamond Rio has recorded nine studio albums, four Greatest Hits compilations, and an album of Christmas music. Three of the band's albums have achieved RIAA platinum certification in the United States. In addition, Diamond Rio has received four Group of the Year awards from the Country Music Association, two Top Vocal Group awards from the Academy of Country Music, and one Grammy Award. The band is known for its vocal harmonies, varied instrumentation, and near-exclusive use of only its own band members on recordings instead of session musicians. Their sound was originally defined by mainstream country, bluegrass, and rock influences, but later albums drew more influence from Christian country music and country pop. ## Beginnings In 1982, Matt Davenport and Danny Gregg founded a band at Opryland USA, a former country music-based amusement park in Nashville, Tennessee. The band was first named the Grizzly River Boys, after a new river rafting ride at the park, but quickly changed names to the Tennessee River Boys due to its members disliking the original name. Originally intended to promote the park through a one-time television special, the band proved popular enough that it became one of many regular performers there. Davenport, Gregg, and Ty Herndon alternated as lead vocalists, with Davenport also playing bass guitar and Gregg on rhythm guitar; completing the lineup were Larry Beard (lead guitar, fiddle, banjo), Mel Deal (steel guitar), Al DeLeonibus (piano), and Ed Mummert (drums). The group "swapped lead voices, told jokes, and balanced old-school country concert shtick with a contemporary sound". Herndon left the group in 1983 to compete on the talent show Star Search, and became a solo artist for Epic Records between 1995 and the early 2000s. Herndon was temporarily replaced by Anthony Crawford and then Virgil True before his role was taken over by Marty Roe, who had originally toured nationally with the Christian band Windsong, and worked in the park by doing impersonations of Larry Gatlin. Following Herndon's departure, DeLonibus and Mummert quit as well, with Dan Truman (who had previously played in Brigham Young University's Young Ambassadors) and Jimmy "J. J." Whiteside taking their places. Beard quit shortly afterward and ultimately became a session musician, and former Mel McDaniel sideman Jimmy Olander took his place. The band, through the assistance of Bill Anderson's drummer Len "Snuffy" Miller, submitted demos to various Nashville record labels with no success. By 1985, the Tennessee River Boys had quit working at Opryland. According to Roe, while the band enjoyed playing at the park, they also felt that their status as a theme park attraction discredited them as "real musicians" to those in the Nashville community. For the next few years, they played at small venues, such as high school auditoriums, and usually worked no more than four concerts a month. They also competed on Star Search, but were eliminated in the first round. Frustrated by the sporadic touring schedules, Whiteside quit the group and was replaced by Brian Prout, who previously performed in Hot Walker Band and Heartbreak Mountain. Around 1986, Deal and Gregg both left the group, the latter due to health complications from a serious illness he had developed as a teenager. They initially chose to operate as a quintet, with Davenport as the sole lead vocalist and Roe and Prout singing harmony; when this arrangement proved unsuccessful, they found mandolinist Gene Johnson, a former member of the bluegrass group Eddie Adcock's IInd Generation, which Olander was a fan of as a child. Johnson debuted at a concert in Clewiston, Florida, in May 1987. Also at this point, the band members supplemented their incomes with outside jobs: Johnson continued to work in carpentry, Olander and Roe mowed lawns, and Prout drove tour buses. In 1988, the band caught the attention of Keith Stegall, a singer-songwriter who would later become known primarily for his work as Alan Jackson's record producer. Stegall produced demos for the Tennessee River Boys, but noted that Davenport could not record the lead vocal and bass parts at the same time, as they would be difficult to separate in the control room. As a result, Stegall had Roe sing a "scratch" vocal track live with the other musicians, which would then be replaced by Davenport's voice in post-production. Upon hearing Roe sing the "scratch" track, Stegall successfully convinced the other members that Roe should be the lead vocalist instead. Due to his discomfort outside the lead role and his wife's dissatisfaction with his career, Davenport quit in late 1988, becoming the last founding member to leave. The group quickly had to find a replacement, as they were scheduled to appear on the talk show Nashville Now on January 23, 1989. Alan LeBeouf, who had just left Baillie & the Boys, expressed interest in replacing Davenport but ultimately declined due to other commitments. They finally chose Dana Williams, a nephew of the bluegrass group Osborne Brothers and former sideman for Jimmy C. Newman, who had been a fan of the Tennessee River Boys since Herndon was a member. ### 1990: Signing with Arista Nashville Williams officially joined before the Nashville Now appearance, but the band still did not have a record deal at this point. They continued to record demos in Prout's garage with assistance from Monty Powell, who had previously hired Roe and Olander for recording jingles, but wanted to produce commercial music. Powell was a friend of audio engineer Mike Clute, who would later become one of the band's producers, and songwriters Tim DuBois and Van Stephenson. DuBois was talking with record executive Clive Davis about creating a country music branch of Arista Records called Arista Nashville; Stephenson would later sign to the label in 1993 as a member of Blackhawk. Initially, DuBois was hesitant about signing the Tennessee River Boys, as he felt that there were too many popular bands in country music, and he was about to sign both Asleep at the Wheel and Exile. He expressed interest in signing Roe as a solo artist, but at Powell's insistence, he agreed to see the band open for George Jones at a May 1989 concert, and officially signed them to Arista Nashville in 1990. The band members also decided to choose a new name, as they thought that Tennessee River Boys sounded more suitable for a bluegrass or gospel group than a country one. Among the names they had chosen were Kilroy and T-Town Mavericks, the latter of which was rejected by Arista executives. Prout suggested Diamond Rio, after the truck manufacturing company Diamond Reo Trucks. The name had been previously rejected by another country band, Shenandoah, whose lead singer Marty Raybon (also a former member of Heartbreak Mountain) gave Prout permission to use the name even though Shenandoah "conducted business" under that name. Shortly after the band received its record deal, the band underwent a series of misfortunes when Olander, Johnson, and Williams came down with health problems. On August 9, 1990, Johnson was injured in a carpentry accident in Arkansas a day before his 41st birthday, severely cutting his left thumb. Robert Bolin substituted for Johnson during the band's tour in Brazil with Kevin Welch and Jann Browne. On September 6, four weeks after Johnson's accident, Williams was water skiing with his family in Cookeville, Tennessee, as his boat came forward at high speed when his wife was picking him up. The propeller slashed Williams' legs, and he was rushed to a hospital for his injuries. Brian Helgos and Paul Gregg (Danny Gregg's brother, and a member of Restless Heart) substituted for Williams. Meanwhile, Olander discovered that he had a lemon-sized tumor that was pressing against his esophagus. The tumor was never successfully diagnosed, although it ultimately vanished. ## Musical career ### 1991–1992: Diamond Rio After Olander, Williams, and Johnson had recovered, the six musicians set to work on their debut album. In doing so, Johnson soon discovered that the injuries to his hands had altered his dexterity on the mandolin, and threatened to walk away after Powell offhandedly remarked that he would have Roe dub in his own tenor harmonies instead of having Johnson sing them. The band also had commitments to finish as the Tennessee River Boys, to the point that they occasionally had to promote themselves under both names in the same day. Arista Nashville released Diamond Rio's debut single, "Meet in the Middle", on February 6, 1991. As the lead single to their self-titled debut album, "Meet in the Middle" went on to spend two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, making Diamond Rio the first country music group ever to send its debut single to the top of that chart. Following its release, the band performed its first official concert as Diamond Rio on May 4, 1991. They shared the bill with Wild Rose, whose membership included Prout's then-wife, Nancy Given Prout. Released three weeks later with DuBois and Powell as producers, Diamond Rio was met with positive critical reception from critics such as Allmusic, Chicago Tribune, and Entertainment Weekly, which praised the band's vocal harmonies, instrumentation, and song choices. Four more singles were released from Diamond Rio, all reaching top 10 on the Billboard country singles charts: "Mirror, Mirror", "Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me", "Norma Jean Riley" (which was previously the B-side of "Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me"), and "Nowhere Bound", the latter two of which were co-written by Powell. Roe and Prout had found both "Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me" and "Mirror, Mirror" by attending shows at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, a popular spot for performances by aspiring songwriters. Truman and an employee of Arista had found "Norma Jean Riley", which was originally titled "Pretty Little Lady" until DuBois remarked that the lady in the song should have a name: "It could be 'Norma Jean Riley', anything!" Johnson spoke positively about "Mama Don't Forget to Pray for Me", which was written and originally recorded by Larry Cordle, and the impact that it had on fans. He recalled a letter sent to him by a female fan who had run away from home and chose to return after hearing that song, and said that "We already didn't wanna do the drinkin' songs and stuff ... if you're gonna touch someone, touch them with something that's positive." Diamond Rio was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping one million copies in the United States. In addition, the band won the Academy of Country Music's Top Vocal Group for 1992, an award they would receive again in 1993, 1994, and 1997. They were also nominated for Top New Vocal Duet or Group by the same association in 1992. A cut from the album, the instrumental "Poultry Promenade", gave the band its first Grammy Award nomination. ### 1992–1995: Close to the Edge and Love a Little Stronger Close to the Edge, the group's second album, was released in 1992. Certified gold by the RIAA for U.S. shipments of 500,000 copies, the album produced the Top 5 country hits "In a Week or Two" and "Oh Me, Oh My, Sweet Baby", the latter of which was originally recorded by George Strait on his 1989 album Beyond the Blue Neon. The next singles, "This Romeo Ain't Got Julie Yet" and "Sawmill Road", both failed to reach top 10. Roe considered Close to the Edge a weaker album than their debut because the band only had one month to pick the songs for it; in a 1994 interview with New Country magazine, he stated: "There aren't ten great songs out there for everybody, certainly not that you could find in a 30-day period of time." Olander was also critical of the novelty factor of "This Romeo Ain't Got Julie Yet", which he co-wrote, saying that it was "by far not my favorite Diamond Rio recording – but that's at the time when I'm thinkin', 'Oh, this is easy, let's write this. It's kinda cute.'" Brian Mansfield of Allmusic was also critical of the song, but described the rest of the album with favor, saying that its "strongest material emphasizes the virtues of God, family and honest living – traditional stuff, no doubt influenced by the members' bluegrass background", while Jack Hurst of the Chicago Tribune thought that "In a Week or Two" and "Sawmill Road", "which is about the diverse trails some rural schoolmates follow in adulthood", were the strongest tracks. In 1994, the band released its third album, Love a Little Stronger. The album was recorded on a more relaxed schedule than the previous album; as a result, they did not have a single on the charts for three months after "Sawmill Road" fell off the charts. For this album, Clute joined DuBois and Powell as co-producer, a role that he has held on all of the band's subsequent releases. The title track (co-written by Billy Crittenden, later a member of the vocal group 4 Runner), reached a peak of No. 2 on the Billboard country singles charts, and No. 1 on the country singles chart published by Radio & Records. It was followed by the No. 9 hit "Night Is Fallin' in My Heart", originally recorded by J. P. Pennington in 1991. Next were the Top 20 hits "Bubba Hyde" and "Finish What We Started". Because the band had taken a longer period of time to choose songs for Love a Little Stronger, they considered it a superior album to its predecessor; Mansfield shared a similar opinion in his review of the album, stating that "Spurred by the relatively lackluster performance of Close to the Edge ... Diamond Rio explored the musical possibilities of its talents rather than digging for easy commercial success." Bob Cannon of New Country was more mixed, saying that "the production on Love a Little Stronger is so sparkling clean it could've been recorded in an operating room." This album also earned the band its second platinum certification. ### 1996–1999: IV, Greatest Hits, and Unbelievable IV, Diamond Rio's fourth album, was released in 1996. It was the "first country release recorded entirely on a digital console"; specifically, a Fairlight console which recorded the album directly to a hard drive. Produced by DuBois, Clute, and the band itself, it was also their first album not to have Powell as a co-producer. According to DuBois, Powell left this role on good terms, as he "saw a need to go in a certain direction, and the guys saw a need to go in a different direction." Roe thought that the album benefited from a new label policy that allowed label personnel to respond more quickly to pitches from songwriters. He recalled to Billboard that the label's head of artists and repertoire (A&R) recommended the lead single "Walkin' Away" while co-writer Craig Wiseman (who co-wrote "Bubba Hyde") was still recording its demo, and the band was able to record the song in the same day that the demo was completed. "Walkin' Away" peaked at No. 2 on the country charts in early 1996. Three more singles were released from the album: the top 10 hits "That's What I Get for Lovin' You" and "Holdin'" (also written by Wiseman), with the top 20 "It's All in Your Head", co-written by Van Stephenson, in between. The music video for "It's All in Your Head" featured Martin Sheen and Ramon Estevez, the former playing the part of a snake handling preacher. A year after IV, Diamond Rio released its first Greatest Hits package, which included eleven of the singles from their first four albums, plus the album cut "She Misses Him on Sunday the Most" from IV and two new songs: "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" and "Imagine That". "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" became the band's second No 1 on Hot Country Songs, as well as their longest-lasting at three weeks, making it the biggest chart hit for any country group that year. "Imagine That", co-written by Bryan White, reached Top 5 by early 1998. Greatest Hits became the band's third platinum album. Diamond Rio was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in April 1998, becoming the first band in fourteen years to be inducted. Later in the year, the band released its fifth studio album, Unbelievable. Contributing songwriters to the album included Paul Williams, former NRBQ member Al Anderson, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and Huey Lewis. The lead single was the ballad "You're Gone", which reached top 5 on the country charts. After it was the title track, which peaked at No. 2 on the country charts and became the band's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached No. 36. The third and final single was "I Know How the River Feels", originally recorded on Herndon's 1996 album Living in a Moment and later released as a single by McAlyster in 2000. Diamond Rio's rendition peaked at 33 on the country charts, their lowest chart peak at the time. In 1998, Prout began dating Mary Bono, the widow of singer and politician Sonny Bono. The two became engaged but later ended their relationship in 2001. On December 28 of the same year, Prout married singer-songwriter Stephanie Bentley, best known for co-writing Faith Hill's 1999 single "Breathe". ### 2000–2002: One More Day Diamond Rio released its twenty-third official chart single, "Stuff", in May 2000. The song was originally intended to be the title track to their sixth studio album, which would have been released on August 22 of the same year, but according to Truman, "Certain radio stations, for some reason, didn't want to play 'Stuff'." As a result, "Stuff" was withdrawn after peaking at number 36 on the country charts, and the album was delayed until February 2001. Following this song's failure, the band released "One More Day" later in 2000. The song was written by Steven Dale Jones and Bobby Tomberlin, the same two writers who wrote "She Misses Him on Sunday the Most". "One More Day" went on to spend two non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the country charts, with the album, by this point re-titled One More Day, having its release date moved up to February 6, 2001. The song also peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, in addition to reaching top 10 on the Adult Contemporary charts (the band's first appearance on that chart). Regarding the song's popularity among fans who have used the song to cope with personal losses, Prout said, "Actually, 'One More Day' was recorded as a love song. Then one of Oklahoma State's basketball team's plane went down, then in early 2001 we lost Dale [Earnhardt] in Daytona, and then of course, 9/11 came after that. And every event of that year, the song took on a different meaning to different people ... We hear quite often in e-mails and people talking to us in shows. If you're asking how it makes us feel? Pretty darn special ... to know that you had that impact on someone's life and helped in a tough time of healing and hope." The third and fourth singles from One More Day were less successful: "Sweet Summer" made Top 20, while "That's Just That" failed to make Top 40. The album featured a guest vocal from Chely Wright on "I'm Trying", making for the band's first ever duet with another artist on one of their own albums. It also included a cover of "Hearts Against the Wind", originally recorded by J. D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt for the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. Chris Neal of Country Weekly thought that the album showed a greater musical variety than its predecessors, specifically noting the "spoken-word verses" of "Here I Go Fallin'", the "Hearts Against the Wind" cover, and the Wright duet as standout tracks. Rick Cohoon of Allmusic cited the album's singles and the Wright duet as the album's best tracks, adding that "If any flaw can be found here it would be the band's choice not to experiment with new sound, but then again, why tamper with a good thing?" Starting in 2001, the other members had noticed that Roe was having difficulty maintaining proper pitch in concert. Although they did not want to confront him about it for fear of "bruis[ing] his ego", they eventually convinced Roe of his problems by listening to concert recordings together. Roe also consulted unsuccessfully with vocal coaches and throat doctors at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The band attempted to cover up Roe's problems by removing certain songs from concert set lists, lowering the key on others, having Truman sometimes take the lead vocal, and using pitch correction software, but even these did not fully correct the issues. Finally, they consulted vocal coach Diane Sheets, a friend of Johnson's son-in-law. She determined that Roe was over-compensating for a small degree of hearing loss typical of musicians who have performed live for long periods of time, thus tightening muscles in his throat and diaphragm and causing him to lose pitch. Although Roe was initially "cynical" toward Sheets's coaching, she was ultimately successful in restoring his voice. ### 2002–2007: Completely, Can't You Tell, and Greatest Hits II In 2002, Diamond Rio released its seventh studio album, Completely. The band originally conceived it as a double album, featuring traditional country on one disc and more pop-oriented country on the other, but according to Prout, this concept did not fully materialize because "country music has blinders on as far as what's acceptable – and what isn't", although Olander and Williams noted that the idea allowed them "more leeway in choosing songs". In addition to earning a gold certification, it produced two consecutive No. 1 singles in "Beautiful Mess" and "I Believe", the latter being the band's last single to top Hot Country Songs. Third single "Wrinkles" made Top 20, while the last single, "We All Fall Down" (also written by Steven Dale Jones), failed to reach top 40. Two of the album's tracks were previously recorded by other artists: "Make Sure You've Got It All", written by Bill Anderson and Steve Wariner, was originally recorded on Collin Raye's 1998 album The Walls Came Down, and "If You'd Like Some Lovin'" by its co-writer, David Ball, on his 1996 album Starlite Lounge. Rick Cohoon of Allmusic praised the album for its musical variety, saying, "With artists as well anchored in the business as Diamond Rio, the musical quality is a given. The real challenge is outdoing yourself and coming up with fresh concepts. The selections on this album seem to be the fruition of that search for musical renewal". He cited "Beautiful Mess" and "I Believe" as standout tracks. Ray Waddell of Billboard also thought that the singles were among the best tracks on the album, while highlighting the instrumental track "Rural Philharmonic" (which Olander had originally intended to record for a solo album) as an example of the band's strong musicianship. Chrissie Dickinson of the Chicago Tribune was less favorable, commending the "masterful musicianship" and Roe's "light vocal timbre", while criticizing the song selections as "mostly a paint-by-numbers trip around the musical block, from the predictable power balladry of 'I Believe' to the saccharine sentiments of 'We All Fall Down.'" A seventh album, tentatively titled Can't You Tell, was recorded in 2003, but it was cancelled after its first two singles – the title track and "One Believer" – both failed to make Top 40 upon their releases in late 2004 and early 2005 respectively. Diamond Rio's second Greatest Hits package, Greatest Hits II, was released in 2006. Like their first Greatest Hits album, this compilation included several new songs as well as the band's greatest hits; one of these new songs, "God Only Cries", was released as a single, peaking at No. 30. Shortly after the album's release, Diamond Rio parted ways with Arista Nashville. ### 2007–present: New record label, The Reason, and I Made It On August 31, 2007, Diamond Rio signed with Word Records, a Christian music label based in Nashville. Their first album for Word was a Christmas album entitled A Diamond Rio Christmas: The Star Still Shines, which they recorded in Olander's basement studio. Roe said in an interview with CMT that "we just didn't try to copy anybody else. We tried to make up our own arrangements." The group released its first contemporary Christian album, The Reason, on September 22, 2009. It earned the band three Dove Award nominations: Song of the Year for "God Is There", Country Song of the Year for the title track, and Country Album of the Year. In 2014, Olander told The Arizona Republic that the group was no longer signed to Word Records and planned to release new material independently. "I will say that I was proud of the material, but maybe it's not the best version of Diamond Rio," Olander told the publication. "We were kind of in a no-man's land. We didn't fit in with country radio and we didn't fit with Christian radio. It was something that wasn't fully realized." The band began releasing records independently, starting with a live album in 2014 and following in 2015 with the studio album I Made It. Prout and Johnson both retired from the band in 2022. Micah Schweinsberg filled in on drums, and Carson McKee on harmony vocals, mandolin, and fiddle, for a series of concerts in 2022. Said tour, focused on songs from their 2007 Christmas album, was the band's first since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Schweinsberg and McKee both became official members of the band in mid-2023, making McKee the band's first female member. The first single following their addition to the lineup, an instrumental called "The Kick", was released soon after. ### Outside contributions Diamond Rio has been featured on several projects featuring multiple country artists, including three tribute albums released between 1993 and 1994. The first was a cover of the Eagles' 1975 hit "Lyin' Eyes" for Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, an album released in late 1993 via Giant Records which featured various country musicians covering that band's songs. Diamond Rio had originally wanted to record the song for Love a Little Stronger, but DuBois rejected the idea because he felt that they were not yet well-established enough to record a cover song on one of their own albums. The second was Keith Whitley: A Tribute Album, to which they contributed a cover of Keith Whitley's 1986 hit "Ten Feet Away", and the third was a cover of Merle Haggard's "Workin' Man Blues" for a tribute album entitled Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard. This rendition, which featured guest appearances from Lee Roy Parnell and Steve Wariner (both of whom were also signed to Arista Nashville at the time), was credited to "Jed Zeppelin". The song peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard country charts from unsolicited airplay, and was made into a music video. In 1996, the band covered "Beauty and the Beast" for the multi-artist compilation The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney and contributed the original song "Christmas Spirit" (which Powell and Roe co-wrote) to Star of Wonder: Country Christmas Collection, a Christmas album featuring various artists on Arista Nashville's roster. A year later, Diamond Rio contributed a recording of the gospel standard "Walkin' in Jerusalem" to a compilation entitled Peace in the Valley: A Country Music Journey Through Gospel Music. Diamond Rio and Collin Raye also sang backing vocals on Kenny Rogers' 2000 single "He Will, She Knows". In 2002, the band was featured on country parodist Cledus T. Judd's "Man of Constant Borrow", a parody of "Man of Constant Sorrow" on his album Cledus Envy. Jerrod Niemann's late-2017 album This Ride features Diamond Rio on the song "I Ain't All There". Some of the individual members have also contributed to songs by other artists. Roe sang duet vocals with then-labelmate Pam Tillis on "Love Is Only Human", a cut from her 1992 album Homeward Looking Angel. Olander was featured along with bluegrass musicians Carl Jackson and Mark O'Connor on the track "Hap Towne Breakdowne" from Steve Wariner's 1996 instrumental album No More Mr. Nice Guy. He also co-wrote Kenny Chesney's 2001 single "I Lost It", Marshall Dyllon's 2001 single "You", and the track "The Night Before (Life Goes On)" from Carrie Underwood's 2005 debut album Some Hearts. Truman co-wrote Shane Minor's 1999 single "Ordinary Love"; Minor would later co-write the band's hit "Beautiful Mess". In 2003, Truman and songwriter Jason Deere co-founded the Nashville Tribute Band, which has recorded three albums for missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Truman is a member. Roe, Johnson, and Williams sang backing vocals on Josh Turner's 2006 single "Me and God" (from the album Your Man), which also featured a guest vocal from bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley. ## Musical stylings In the country music industry particularly, record producers hire mostly session musicians to record tracks for an album for both solo artists and bands, as opposed to rock bands who record their own instrumental and vocal tracks on their albums. Diamond Rio has been one of few self-contained country bands to have followed the practice of each member playing their own instruments and singing their own vocals on all their albums themselves, without any additional input from outside musicians. The sole exception has been the inclusion of string sections on some of their later work, starting with "I Know How the River Feels" and continuing through certain tracks on One More Day and Completely. According to Prout, other labels had rejected the band prior to their signing with Arista Nashville due to the band members' insistence that they play all their own instruments. Their early music blended neotraditionalist country with occasional traces of country rock, primarily in the song's prominent rhythm sections. A bluegrass influence has also been shown, primarily in the three-part harmonies among Roe (lead), Williams (baritone), and Johnson (tenor). Bluegrass influences are also shown in the band's prominent use of the mandolin, as well as in the instrumentals featured on many of their earlier albums. The band's later material has tended towards pop-oriented ballads, such as "I Believe" and "One More Day" – songs which received critical acclaim for their often religious-themed messages, but were considered departures from the more traditional material of their first four albums. Another trademark of Diamond Rio's sound is the custom-built B-Bender guitar played by Olander. He refers to this instrument as the "Taxicaster" because of its yellow body and black-and-white checkered pickguard, which give it the coloration of a taxicab. ## Awards Diamond Rio received the Academy of Country Music's award for Top Vocal Group in 1991 and 1992. In 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1997, they also received the Country Music Association's award for Vocal Group of the Year (an award for which they received fifteen total nominations, more than any other country music group). In addition, Diamond Rio has received thirteen Grammy Award nominations. In 2010 they received three nominations for the GMA Dove Awards, and on April 22 won the award for Country Album of the Year. In 2011, they received their first Grammy Award in the Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album category for The Reason. ## Personnel ### Members Current members - Dan Truman – (born August 29, 1956; piano, keyboards) (1983–present) - Marty Roe – (born December 28, 1960; lead vocals, rhythm guitar) (1984–present) - Jimmy Olander – (born August 26, 1961; lead guitar, banjo) (1985–present) - Dana Williams – (born May 22, 1961; bass guitar, baritone vocals) (1989–present) - Carson McKee – mandolin, fiddle, tenor vocals (2022–present) - Micah Schweinsberg– drums (2022–present) Former members - Larry Beard – lead guitar, fiddle, banjo (1982–1985) - Al DeLeonibus – piano (1982–1983) - Matt Davenport – bass guitar, lead vocals (1982–1988) - Danny Gregg – rhythm guitar, lead vocals (1982–1986) - Ty Herndon – vocals (1982–1983) - Ed Mummert – drums (1982–1983) - Jimmy "J. J." Whiteside – drums (1983–1985) - Anthony Crawford – vocals (1983) - Virgil True – vocals (1984) - Brian Prout - drums (1985–2022) - Gene Johnson – mandolin, fiddle, tenor vocals (1987–2022) ## Discography - Diamond Rio (1991) - Close to the Edge (1992) - Love a Little Stronger (1994) - IV (1996) - Unbelievable (1998) - One More Day (2001) - Completely (2002) - A Diamond Rio Christmas: The Star Still Shines (2007) - The Reason (2009) - I Made It (2015)

Déjà Vu (2006 film)

2006 film by Tony Scott

Déjà Vu is a 2006 American science fiction action film directed by Tony Scott, written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film stars Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Val Kilmer, Adam Goldberg and Bruce Greenwood. It involves an ATF agent who travels back in time in an attempt to prevent a domestic terrorist attack that takes place in New Orleans and to save a woman with whom he falls in love. Filming took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The film premiered in New York City on November 20, 2006, and was released in the United States and Canada on November 22, 2006. It received mixed reviews from critics and earned \$180 million worldwide against its \$75 million production budget. It was the 23rd most successful film worldwide for 2006. The film was nominated for six awards, winning the International Gold Reel Award. ## Plot In New Orleans, a ferry carrying U.S. Navy sailors and their families across the Mississippi River for Mardi Gras explodes, killing 543 people. ATF Special Agent Doug Carlin discovers evidence of a bomb planted by a domestic terrorist, and examines the body of Claire Kuchever, seemingly killed in the explosion but found in the river shortly before the time of the blast. Informing Claire's father and searching her apartment, Doug learns that she called his ATF office the morning of the bombing, and determines that she was abducted and killed by the bomber hours before the explosion. Impressed with Doug's deductive ability, FBI Special Agent Paul Pryzwarra invites him to join a new governmental unit investigating the bombing. Led by Dr. Alexander Denny, the team utilizes a surveillance program called "Snow White", which they claim uses previous satellite footage to form a triangulated image of events four-and-a-half days in the past. Convinced that Claire is a vital link, Doug observes her past footage and is able to track the soon-to-be-bomber when he calls about a truck she has for sale. Deducing that Snow White is actually a time window, Doug persuades the team to send a note to his past self with the time and place the suspect will be. His partner Larry Minuti finds the note instead, and is shot attempting to arrest the suspect. By using a mobile Snow White unit, Doug is able to follow the suspect's past movements as he flees to his hideout with the wounded Minuti, and then witness Minuti's murder. In the present, the bomber is taken into custody after facial recognition systems identify him as Carroll Oerstadt, an unstable "patriot" rejected from enlisting in the military. He confesses to killing Minuti and Claire, taking her truck to transport the bomb and staging her death as one of the ferry victims. The government closes the investigation, but Doug, convinced that Snow White can be used to alter history, persuades Denny to send him back to the morning of the bombing so he can save Claire and prevent the explosion. Doug survives the process by being sent back to a hospital emergency room, where doctors are able to revive him. Stealing an ambulance, he arrives at the hideout in time to stop Claire's murder, but Oerstadt shoots him and flees with the bomb. Doug drives Claire to her apartment to treat his wound, but a suspicious Claire holds him at gunpoint and calls the ATF to confirm his identity — the call his office received the day of the bombing. He convinces her of the truth, and they leave together for the ferry dock. Doug boards the ferry seeking to disarm the bomb in Claire's truck, but Oerstadt realizes he has been followed and captures Claire, tying her to her truck's steering wheel. A gunfight ensues, but Doug distracts Oerstadt with information from his future interrogation, and Claire rams him with the truck, allowing Doug to shoot him dead. Doug gets into the truck to try to free Claire, but police surround them. Out of time to disarm the bomb, they drive the vehicle into the river, saving the ferry passengers; Claire swims free, but Doug is unable to escape the damaged truck and dies in the underwater explosion. Picked up by a rescue boat, a mourning Claire is approached on the pier by the Doug Carlin from her present timeline. ## Cast - Denzel Washington as ATF Special Agent Douglas Carlin - Paula Patton as Claire Kuchever - Val Kilmer as FBI Special Agent Paul Pryzwarra - Jim Caviezel as Carroll Oerstadt - Adam Goldberg as Dr. Alexander Denny - Elden Henson as Gunnars - Erika Alexander as Shanti - Bruce Greenwood as FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Jack McCready - Matt Craven as ATF Special Agent Larry Minuti - Elle Fanning as Abbey - Enrique Castillo as Claire's father ## Background and production ### Script The idea of a time travel thriller film originated between screenwriters Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio, who were friends. Rossio had a one-page idea for a film called Prior Conviction about a cop who uses a Time Window to look seven days into the past to investigate his girlfriend's murder. As they were talking about it, Marsilii says "I had this explosive kind of epiphany—"NO! He should fall in love with her \*while\* he's watching the last few days of her life. The first time he sees her should be at her autopsy!" Rossio later wrote, "The first concept was good, and the second concept was good, too, and together they were great. Ideas and issues and themes seemed to resonate, and in the end the screenplay felt as if it was telling a single powerful story." Marsilii and Rossio wrote the script together. They communicated via email in attempts to develop the plot due to communication difficulties. However, the creation of Déjà Vu's progenitor was set aside by the September 11, 2001 attacks that disrupted New York-native Marsilii, and the advent of the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which occupied Los Angeles native Rossio. However, by 2004, the two screenwriters had completed the concept. Brian Greene from Columbia University was brought in as a consultant to help create a scientifically plausible feel to the script. Greene stated "the way I try to explain wormholes in terms of bending paper and connecting the corners, that's there in the film and it was fun to see that made it in." The script was sold for a record \$5 million. It was bought by Jerry Bruckheimer who got Denzel Washington to star and Tony Scott to direct. Rossio later wrote that Scott was "Completely the wrong choice, in that Tony had stated he had no interest in making a science fiction film, and suggested the time travel aspect be dumped. ... My hope was that we had a screenplay that could be the next Sixth Sense. Tony wanted to make just another also-ran surveillance film." Rossio says at one point Scott quit the project and he and Marsilii had to work on the script so that Denzel would not quit. They reworked the script over two weeks and "the revision was deemed so good that not only did Denzel re-commit, he called Tony and talked him into coming back on board. Reportedly Denzel made Tony look him in the eye and swear he wouldn't quit the movie again. Tony said yes, but on one condition—he wanted to bring on his own writers." ### Filming Principal photography in New Orleans, Louisiana, was delayed following Hurricane Katrina because of the devastation caused by the storm and the collapse of the levees. Many of the exteriors were set to be shot in New Orleans, including a key sequence involving the Canal Street Ferry across the Mississippi River. After the city was reopened, the cast and crew returned to New Orleans to continue filming. Some scenes of the post-Katrina devastation were worked into the plot, including those in the Lower 9th Ward; additionally, evidence of Katrina's impact on the city was worked into the script. The filming crew spent two weeks filming a scene at the Four Mile Bayou in Morgan City, Louisiana. According to director Tony Scott, Déjà Vu was written to take place on Long Island, but after a visit to New Orleans Scott felt that it would be a far better venue. Jerry Bruckheimer reportedly said that Denzel Washington was "adamant about returning to New Orleans to film after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region", but Washington recalled being neutral on the subject, while agreeing that it was "a good thing to spend money there and put people to work there". To create a sense of realism, Scott and Washington interviewed numerous men and women whose real-life occupations pertained to positions in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Washington has noted that he and Scott conducted similar research during the productions of Man on Fire and Crimson Tide. ### Visual effects Visual effects editor Marc Varisco, who had previously collaborated with director Scott on the 2005 film Domino, worked again with Scott to develop Déjà Vu into a fully-fledged work. In total, approximately 400 visual effects scenes were shot during the production of Déjà Vu. They had acquired a LIDAR device, which incorporated lasers to scatter light with the intent of mapping out a small region, during the production of Domino; Scott and Varisco decided to use the apparatus again during the production of Déjà Vu. Additionally, the two utilized the Panavision Genesis high definition camera to film the shots that would encompass the past that the Snow White team would peer at throughout the film, as well as the various night scenes. The LIDAR apparatus, which was operated by a hired Texan company devoted to the device, performed scans of Claire Kuchever's apartment, the ferry, the ATF office, and actress Paula Patton, among others. Effects editor Zachary Tucker combined the elements created by the Texan LIDAR company with computer-generated graphics to make possible the scenes of time-travel experienced in the film. The explosion of the Stumpf was filmed using an actual New Orleans ferry in a portion of the Mississippi River sectioned off especially for the event; the occurrence took over four hours to prepare. Under the supervision of pyrotechnics expert John Frazier, the ferry was coated entirely with fire retardant and rigged with fifty gasoline bombs including black dirt and diesel, each one set to detonate within a five-second range. People and cars were added in later as elements of computer-generated graphics. Chris Lebenzon was largely responsible for moving clips from each of the sixteen cameras in place to create the sensation of an extended explosion sequence. The spectacular explosion actually caused no significant structural damage to the ferry; after a bout of sandblasting and repainting, the ferry was very similar to its previous state. The ferry was returned into service four days after the production of the film's scene concluded. During filming of the underwater car scenes, actual cars were dropped into the water; computer-generated effects were later added, simulating the entities' explosions. Compositing was done on the Autodesk Inferno special effects program. ### Similarities between Timothy McVeigh and Carroll Oerstadt Jim Caviezel's character, Carroll Oerstadt, seemed to mirror in several ways the story of Timothy McVeigh, a domestic terrorist who destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City with a bomb in 1995. Caviezel and Scott did not deny this, and both admitted that the Oerstadt character was at least partly based on McVeigh. Ross Johnson of The New York Times also compared the ferry bombing at the film's beginning to the Oklahoma City bombing. ## Home media Déjà Vu was released on DVD and Blu-ray approximately five months after its release in American theaters, on April 24, 2007. In the two weeks succeeding the day of the video release, the film was the second most purchased DVD in the United States. It was second only to Night at the Museum during this period in time. Special features on the disc include an audio commentary from director Tony Scott for both the film and its deleted scenes. The DVD & Blu-ray also includes a "Surveillance Window" feature, which includes featurettes on the film's production in New Orleans. ## Soundtrack The track listing for Déjà Vu largely borrows music not originally produced for the film; three of the songs that make an appearance in Déjà Vu uphold elements of soul and gospel. "Don't Worry Baby" by The Beach Boys simulated the actual concept of déjà vu, as detailed in the plot. Songwriters such as Harry Gregson-Williams contributed music to the film; artists like Charmaine Neville and Macy Gray performed music especially for the film. The music featured in the film's trailer was titled "Hello Zepp", the main theme for Saw. The soundtrack was released by Hollywood Records. ## Reception ### Box office Déjà Vu premiered in New York City on November 20, 2006, two days before its wide release in all of the United States and Canada. Alongside Mexico, the three countries were the sole nations to open the film in November. The United Kingdom opened the film on December 15, 2006, and was followed shortly thereafter by New Zealand on December 22. Australia was the last English-speaking country where the film premiered, on January 18, 2007. The film opened in the \#3 spot with \$20.5 million in 3,108 theaters, an average of \$6,619 per theater. Déjà Vu ran for fourteen weeks, staying in the top ten for its first three weeks. It grossed \$64 million in the United States and Canada and \$116.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of \$180.6 million, against a production budget of \$75 million. These earnings made Déjà Vu the 23rd most successful film of 2006 worldwide. ### Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Déjà Vu has an approval rating of 55% based on 160 reviews and an average rating of 5.92/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Tony Scott tries to combine action, science fiction, romance, and explosions into one movie, but the time travel conceit might be too preposterous and the action falls apart under scrutiny." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Joel Siegel of ABC News called the film technically "well-made," but criticized its attempt to describe a supposedly scientific basis for time travel as both silly and dull, as did Manohla Dargis of The New York Times, who additionally found the depiction of parishes decimated by Hurricane Katrina "vulgar". Todd Gilchrist from IGN rated the film eight out of ten, calling it a "bravura set piece", despite an ending that "feels inappropriate given the urgency (and seeming inevitability) of the story's dénouement." Likewise, Michael Wilmington of the Orlando Sentinel rated the film three out of four stars, citing the "good cast, Tony Scott's swift direction, and unyielding professionalism" as rationale for his rating. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described the film's exploration of the nature of time and the implications of time travel as having been a "sci-fi staple for generations". ### Criticism Both Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii have acknowledged that the film was not shot the way they had wanted it to be, shifting the blame to director Tony Scott and his goal to focus more on the action aspect of the film than on the more meaningful plot the screenplay had called for. Marsilii, although "quite critical of the mistakes made," said he was proud of the finished product. Rossio, however, was so put off during filming that he, as of May 2008, had not seen the film. Rossio complained that Scott had ignored the inclusion of important plot details from the screenplay whenever "there was something he wanted to do" instead. In the DVD commentary, Scott admits that he thought he did a mediocre job shooting [the chase scene]. Rossio and Marsilii believe that many of the negative reviews of Déjà Vu are a direct result of Scott's direction of the film, and have stated that "Tony Scott added nothing to Déjà Vu and made several hundred small mistakes and about eight or nine deadly mistakes", which makes the film seem like it has many unforgivable plot holes, when it should not have had any. "[T]here are no plot holes at all, and scrutiny reveals the plot to be air tight." says Rossio. "We had years to think of all this and work it out." It was felt there were many misunderstandings that Scott's take on the plot introduced into the film. In his own defense, Scott cited in an interview with Iain Blair of BNET that only nineteen weeks were provided for the production of the film, which "isn't a lot for a film like Déjà Vu." ### Awards Although reviews from critics were mixed, Déjà Vu was nominated for six different awards, winning one. Déjà Vu was nominated for the Saturn Award in the category "Best Science Fiction Film", but lost to Children of Men. Paula Patton, who played Claire Kuchever, was nominated for "Best Breakthrough Performance" for the Black Reel Awards. The award was won by Brandon T. Jackson for his performance in the film Roll Bounce. Harry Gregson-Williams, the composer of the film's soundtrack, was nominated for the "Film Composer of the Year" division of the World Soundtrack Academy Awards (the award was won by Alexandre Desplat for his score with The Queen). Déjà Vu received two nominations pertaining to the "Best Fire Stunt" and the "Best Work with a Vehicle", while it won the International Gold Reel Award at the Nielsen EDI Gold Reel Awards ceremonies. ## See also - List of films featuring time loops - Wormholes in fiction - Deus ex machina

M-212 (Michigan highway)

State highway in Aloha Township, Cheboygan County, Michigan, United States

M-212 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan. It provides access from M-33 to the community of Aloha on Mullett Lake's eastern shore and Aloha State Park, where the highway ends. It is shorter than all other signed highways in the state, including M-143 at 0.936 miles (1.506 km) and the business route, Business M-32 in Hillman at 0.738 miles (1.188 km), which is about 32 feet (9.8 m) longer. M-212 was assigned on December 29, 1937, from the intersection with Second Street to an intersection with US Highway 23 (US 23). In 1940, the state of Michigan rerouted US 23 and replaced it with M-33. ## Route M-212 begins at an intersection with Second Street and the Tromble Trail north of the Aloha State Park entrance gate. The community was originally a stop on the Detroit and Mackinac Railway, named after a trip to Hawaii by the local sawmill owner. The state highway runs northward on Second Street away from the park gate before turning eastward on Center Street. The railroad right-of-way is now the North Eastern State Trail, which M-212 crosses along Center Street in Aloha. Eastward, the highway intersects Third and Fourth streets, both of which are separated by woodlands and residences. This is followed by a large clearing, giving way to a farm to the north and more residences to the south. Beyond this there is a large field where M-212 terminates at an intersection with M-33 in Aloha Township. According to the Lansing State Journal, "most people could walk the darn thing in about 20 minutes." ## History The Michigan State Highway Department assigned the M-212 designation to its current alignment from what was then US 23 on December 29, 1937. It has broadly remained the same since. Originally, US 23 ran along the highway at the eastern terminus of M-212, but the highway department realigned this along the shore of Lake Huron in 1940 and later assigned M-33 to the old alignment, which remains the case. M-212 was called a "smidgin" of a highway as part of a group of roadways that lacked the glamor of other highways in a profile of the shortest highways in the state in 1972. In 1996, the highway became the state's shortest when M-209 in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was transferred to local control and lost its state highway designation. Since M-212 gained this superlative, in 2018 a radio station in Kalamazoo called it "likely" the state's quietest highway, or the highway with the lowest annual average daily traffic. ## Major intersections ## See also - List of shortest state highways in the United States

Typhoon Matsa

Pacific typhoon in 2005

Typhoon Matsa, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Gorio, was the second of eight Pacific tropical cyclones to make landfall on China during the 2005 Pacific typhoon season. The ninth tropical storm and fifth typhoon of the season, Matsa developed on July 30 to the east of the Philippines. Matsa intensified as it tracked northwestward, and attained peak 10-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) near Taiwan before weakening and striking the Chinese province of Zhejiang on August 5. The system continued northward into the Yellow Sea, and on August 7 Matsa became extratropical after again moving ashore along the Liaodong Peninsula. Matsa is a Laotian name for a lady fish. In Taiwan, Matsa dropped torrential rainfall of up to 1,270 mm (50 in), which caused mudslides and moderate damage across the island. Flooding from the rainfall contaminated some water supplies, leaving around 80,000 homes without water at one point; much of Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City) was without water for at least 5 days. As in Taiwan, the typhoon dropped heavy precipitation in the People's Republic of China, and in combination with strong winds destroyed about 59,000 houses and damaged more than 20,000 km² (7,700 sq mi) of croplands. Throughout the country, Matsa caused 25 direct fatalities and ¥18 billion (2005 CNY, \$2.23 billion 2005 USD) in damage. ## Meteorological history The origin of Typhoon Matsa is traced to the formation of an area of convection about 185 km (115 mi) east of Yap in late July. The convection gradually consolidated over a weak low-level circulation, and at 0300 UTC on July 30 the system was first mentioned in the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) Significant Tropical Weather Outlook. Located within an area of moderate wind shear, the system continued to slowly organize, and by 1200 UTC on July 30 it was sufficiently organized for the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) to classify it as a weak tropical depression while located about 65 km (40 mi) east of Yap. Shortly thereafter, the JTWC followed suit by issuing a tropical cyclone formation alert. The depression tracked steadily westward, followed by a turn to the northwest on July 31 under the influence of a mid-level ridge to its east. It continued to organize, and at 1200 UTC on July 31 it intensified into Tropical Storm Matsa; the depression was unofficially classified a tropical storm six hours earlier by the JTWC. Additionally, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) named the system Tropical Storm Gorio, due to its location within the administration's area of responsibility. Tropical Storm Matsa gradually intensified as it tracked steadily northwestward; by late on August 1 it strengthened into a severe tropical storm. Outflow and deep convection to the north remained limited, though the storm was able to intensity further to attain typhoon status on August 2 about 780 km (480 mi) south of Okinawa. Intensification slowed, and late on August 3 Matsa reached a peak intensity of 150 km/h (93 mph) while located 495 km (308 mi) east of the southern tip of Taiwan as reported by the JMA; the JTWC and the National Meteorological Center of China reported the typhoon as strengthening further to attain peak winds of 165 km/h (103 mph) on August 4. Shortly after passing over the Japanese island of Ishigaki, Matsa began to weaken steadily as it approached the coast of China, and made landfall as a minimal typhoon late on August 5 near Yuhuan in the southern region of Zhejiang Province. It crossed the Gulf of Yueqing and 40 minutes after its first landfall it struck Mainland China near Yueqing. It quickly weakened to a tropical storm, and within hours of moving ashore the JTWC issued its last advisory. Matsa turned to the north, weakening to a tropical depression on August 7 shortly before entering the Yellow Sea. The weakening depression continued northward, and became an extratropical cyclone on August 9 after hitting the Liaodong Peninsula. ## Preparations The Taiwan Central Weather Bureau warned for the potential for heavy amounts of rainfall across the island. This resulted in officials to close schools and offices in Taipei. Additionally, the typhoon caused the cancellation or delay of several flights in and out of Taipei, though complete air service was restored by the day after Matsa's passage. The Taiwan Stock Exchange closed due to the threat of the typhoon. Prior to the arrival of the typhoon, officials in China ordered the evacuation of about 2.3 million people, mostly in Zhejiang. The typhoon also resulted in the cancellation or delay of thousands of flights, with the two main airports in Shanghai closed for 30 hours. Officials near Matsa's projected landfall were advised to lower the levels in reservoirs to mitigate the threat of flooding. In Zhejiang, officials set up shelters for about 35,000 boats to prevent marine damage. Due to the potential for rough seas, officials closed the port at Ningbo and Shanghai and also canceled some ferry service. Matsa was predicted to be first typhoon to affect Beijing in 11 years by dropping heavy amounts of rainfall. Local officials advised water operators to lower water levels to prevent flooding. Up to 100 mm (3.9 in) of rainfall was forecast for the city, and officials prepared to evacuate 40,000 residents in the outskirts of the city. ## Impact ### Taiwan While passing to the north of Taiwan, Matsa produced strong winds reaching 144 km/h (89 mph), with gusts of up to 188 km/h (117 mph). The storm dropped heavy rainfall across the island, with precipitation totals reaching up to 1,270 mm (50 in) in a 30‐hour period; one station located in Taitung County recorded 843 mm (33.2 in) in one day, which was the highest daily rainfall total in association with the storm. The rainfall led to flooding and mudslides throughout the island. In response to the flooding, residents placed sandbags around houses and office buildings to prevent flood damage. The mudslides blocked roads across the mountainous region, leaving hundreds stranded, and in combination with flooding the mudslides washed away several bridges and damaged some roadways. Strong winds left 56,211 houses without power, most of which were quickly repaired. Typhoon Matsa caused moderate crop damage across the island, which was still recovering from the damage caused by Typhoon Haitang a month before. More than 80,000 homes were left without water due to the passage of the typhoon. Subsequent flooding left more than 630,000 homes without water or receiving water at infrequent intervals. About 368 hectares (910 acres) of crop fields were destroyed, and crop damage from Matsa totaled NT\$47 million (2005 TWD, \$1.5 million 2005 USD). According to the Taiwan Council of Agriculture, the banana and pear crops were the worst affected. ### China Upon making landfall in China, several coastal locations reported winds in excess of 120 km/h (75 mph), with wind gusts peaking at 175 km/h (109 mph). Further inland, winds reached 147 km/h (91 mph) at Shanghai, the highest wind gust on record in the city. The storm produced heavy amounts of rainfall, reaching a maximum of 701 mm (27.6 in) at a station in Yongjia County. Extreme amounts of precipitation fell in short durations, including 91 mm (3.6 in) in just 1 hour and 200 mm (7.9 in) in 3 hours at Dinghai District. Just days after a previous heavy rainfall event, the rainfall from Matsa caused record-breaking river flooding along eight Chinese rivers, including a station at a floodgate on Suzhou Creek which peaked at 4.55 m (14.9 ft). In Zhejiang, where Matsa made landfall, high storm tides occurred along the coastline. In some areas, water levels rose quickly, with some coastal homes experiencing flooding from the tide. Rough seas off of Ningbo capsized a fishing boat, leaving its three occupants missing. About two-thirds of the province reported more than 50 mm (2.0 in) of rainfall, resulting in flooding in low-lying areas as well as several mudslides, one of which killed two people. The combined effects of the winds and rains destroyed 21 reservoirs and more than 200 km (120 mi) of embankment, and damaged several water stations. Matsa damaged 3,380 km² (1,310 sq mi) of crops, with around 224 km² (86 sq mi) of cropland destroyed from the flooding. About 13,000 houses were destroyed in the province. Throughout Zhejiang, Matsa caused \$8.9 billion (2005 CNY, \$1.1 billion 2005 USD) in damage and five direct fatalities. Heavy rainfall in Shanghai flooded 84 city streets; in some locations insufficient water drainage left homes and apartments flooded, with a total of 20,000 houses reporting flooding. The flooding also closed the city subway system for a few hours. Strong winds downed 2,700 trees and 400 power lines in the city. The typhoon damaged a construction site in the city, leaving three injured and one person killed. Throughout the city an estimated 15,000 houses were destroyed. Additionally, four people were electrocuted as a result of the flooding. In Shanghai alone, damage totaled \$1.33 billion (2005 CNY, \$164.5 million 2005 USD); seven people died in the city. Despite the anticipated effects, Beijing experienced only light rainfall. Throughout China, over 31 million people were affected in over eight provinces. Typhoon Matsa left the agricultural industry severely impacted, with over 20,000 km² (7,700 sq mi) damaged. The combination of its winds and flooding damaged around 200,000 buildings, including a total of 59,000 destroyed houses. Damage in the country totaled about \$18 billion (2005 CNY, \$2.23 billion 2005 USD). ### Okinawa and South Korea Typhoon Matsa affected the southernmost Okinawa Prefecture, and produced peak wind gusts of 182 km/h (51 m/s; 113 mph) on Ishigaki. The storm dropped moderate to heavy rainfall across the region, peaking at 318 mm (12.5 in) on Miyako-jima. The remnants of Matsa also affected South Korea, with moderate amounts of rainfall reaching 229 mm (9.0 in) in Masan. ## Aftermath Subsequent to the passage of the typhoon in Taiwan, large quantities of mud and impurities entered and polluted the Shihmen Reservoir in Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City), the county's primary source of water. Severe cloudiness occurred in the water, and at one time the reservoir recorded 25,000 nephelometric turbidity units. Such facilities are unable to operate with mud in the water, and in response, the Taiwan Water Corporation established temporary water stations to alleviate the situation, and the Pingting Water Treatment Plant worked to treat the problem. Furthermore, officials drilled wells to accommodate the shortage. Water supply in the southern portion of Taoyuan County was restored by five days after the storm, with supply restored to the northern portion of the county by ten days after the passage of the typhoon. The same problem had occurred previously after Typhoon Mindulle in July 2004. As a result of the crop damage, the Taiwan Council of Agriculture opened its reserve of frozen vegetables to prevent overharvesting of the existing crops. Despite the measures, crop prices reached record levels, which led to groups calling out for the government to stabilize the price of foods. In reaction, a member of the Council of Agriculture remarked that "vegetable prices [were] expected to go back to normal gradually ... as supplies increase[d]." The passage of the typhoon left hundreds of residents in Hsinchu County isolated from the outside world for four days. As a result, officials deployed helicopters with rescue supplies and returned with the injured. Aid from one internal organization totaled \$NT300,000 (2005 TWD, \$9,500 2005 USD). Shortly after the effects of the typhoon ended on the island, work began to repair and rebuild the impacted bridges and roads. Electricians quickly began restoring power across northern Taiwan; by the day after the typhoon's passage, the number of houses without power decreased by 90%. In the People's Republic of China, members of the People's Liberation Army assisted in search and rescue operations. Officials called for about 100,000 citizens in Shanghai for work in disaster control and distribution of relief aid, with some providing relief supplies to flooded areas by inflatable rafts. Within a month, Typhoons Talim and Khanun also affected the same area, further compounding the effects of Matsa. During the 38th Session of the World Meteorological Organization in Hanoi, Vietnam, the name Matsa was retired; during the next session, the name Pakhar was nominated as its replacement. It was first used in the 2012 season. ## See also - Other tropical cyclones named Gorio - Timeline of the 2005 Pacific typhoon season - Typhoon Fitow

Ross Perot

American businessman and politician (1930–2019)

Henry Ross Perot Sr. (/pərˈoʊ/ ; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American business magnate, politician, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an independent campaign in the 1992 U.S. presidential election and a third-party campaign in the 1996 U.S. presidential election as the nominee of the Reform Party, which was formed by grassroots supporters of Perot's 1992 campaign. Although he failed to carry a single state in either election, both campaigns were among the strongest presidential showings by a third party or independent candidate in U.S. history. Born and raised in Texarkana, Texas, Perot became a salesman for IBM after serving in the United States Navy. In 1962, he founded Electronic Data Systems, a data processing service company. In 1984, General Motors bought a controlling interest in the company for \$2.4 billion (). Perot established Perot Systems in 1988 and was an angel investor for NeXT, a computer company founded by Steve Jobs after he left Apple. Perot also became heavily involved in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, arguing that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War. During the presidency of George H. W. Bush, Perot became increasingly active in politics and strongly opposed the Gulf War and ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In 1992, Perot announced his intention to run for president and advocated a balanced budget, an end to the outsourcing of jobs, and the enactment of electronic direct democracy. A June 1992 Gallup poll showed Perot leading a three-way race against President Bush and presumptive Democratic nominee Bill Clinton. Perot withdrew from the race in July, but re-entered the race in early October after he qualified for all 50 state ballots. He chose Admiral James Stockdale as his running mate and appeared in the 1992 debates with Bush and Clinton. In the election, Perot did not win any electoral votes, but won over 19.7 million votes for an 18.9% share of the popular vote. He won support from across the ideological and partisan spectrum, but performed best among self-described moderates. Perot ran for president again in 1996, establishing the Reform Party as a vehicle for his campaign. He won 8.4 percent of the popular vote against President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole. Perot did not seek public office again after 1996. He endorsed Republican George W. Bush over Reform nominee Pat Buchanan in the 2000 election and supported Republican Mitt Romney in 2008 and 2012. In 2009, Dell acquired Perot Systems for \$3.9 billion (). According to Forbes, Perot was the 167th richest person in the United States as of 2016. ## Early life, education, and military career Ross Perot was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Lula May (née Ray) and Gabriel Ross Perot, a commodity broker specializing in cotton contracts. His patrilineal line traces back to a French-Canadian immigrant to the colony of Louisiana in the 1740s. He attended a local private school, Patty Hill, before graduating from Texas High School in Texarkana in 1947. One of Perot's childhood friends was Hayes McClerkin, who later became the Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives and a prominent lawyer in Texarkana, Arkansas. Perot started his first job at 8 years old, helping to distribute the Texarkana Gazette as a paperboy. His father died when Perot was 25 years old. Perot had an older brother, Gabriel Perot Jr., who died as a toddler. Perot joined the Boy Scouts of America and made Eagle Scout in 1942, after 13 months in the program. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. From 1947 to 1949, he attended Texarkana Junior College, then entered the United States Naval Academy in 1949 and helped establish its honor system. Perot claimed his appointment notice to the academy—sent by telegram—was sent by W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, Texas's 34th governor and former senator. Perot served as a junior officer on a destroyer, and later, an aircraft carrier from 1953 to 1957. Perot, who had only ever owned one pair of shoes at a time, was shocked to find that he was issued multiple pairs of shoes in the navy, which he would later point to as "possibly my first example of government waste". Perot then went to the Naval Reserve, which he left on June 30, 1961, with the rank of Lieutenant. In 1956 Perot married Margot Birmingham, whom he met on a blind date as a midshipman docked in Baltimore. ## Business After he left the Navy in 1957, Perot became a salesman for IBM. He quickly became a top employee (one year, he fulfilled his annual sales quota in a mere two weeks) and tried to pitch his ideas to supervisors, who largely ignored him. He left IBM in 1962 to found Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Dallas, Texas, and courted large corporations for his data processing services. Perot was denied bids for contracts 77 times before receiving his first contract. EDS received lucrative contracts from the US government in the 1960s, computerizing Medicare records. EDS went public in 1968, and the stock price rose from \$16 a share to \$160 within days. Fortune called Perot the "fastest, richest Texan" in a 1968 cover story. In 1984, General Motors bought a controlling interest in EDS for \$2.4 billion (). In 1974, Perot gained some press attention for being "the biggest individual loser ever on the New York Stock Exchange" when his EDS shares dropped \$450 million in value in a single day in April 1970. Just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the government of Iran imprisoned two EDS employees in a contract dispute. Perot organized and sponsored their rescue. The rescue team was led by retired United States Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons. When the team was unable to find a way to extract the two prisoners, they decided to wait for a mob of pro-Ayatollah revolutionaries to storm the jail and free all 10,000 inmates, many of whom were political prisoners. The two prisoners then connected with the rescue team, and the team spirited them out of Iran via a risky border crossing into Turkey. The exploit was recounted in the book On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett. In 1986 this was turned into a 2-part television mini-series (alternatively titled "Teheran") with the actor Burt Lancaster playing the role of Colonel Simons and Richard Crenna as Perot. In 1984, Perot's Perot Foundation bought a very early copy of Magna Carta, one of only a few to leave the United Kingdom. The foundation lent it to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where it was displayed alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. In 2007, the foundation sold it to David Rubenstein, managing director of The Carlyle Group for \$21.3 million () to be used "for medical research, for improving public education and for assisting wounded soldiers and their families". It remains on display at the National Archives. After Steve Jobs lost the power struggle at Apple and left to found NeXT, his angel investor was Perot, who invested over \$20 million. Perot believed in Jobs and did not want to miss out, as he had with his chance to invest in Bill Gates's fledgling Microsoft. In 1988, he founded Perot Systems in Plano, Texas. His son, Ross Perot Jr., eventually succeeded him as CEO. In September 2009, Perot Systems was acquired by Dell for \$3.9 billion (). ## Political activities ### Early political activities After a visit to Laos in 1969, made at the request of the White House, in which he met with senior North Vietnamese officials, Perot became heavily involved in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. He believed that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war, and that government officials were covering up POW/MIA investigations to avoid revealing a drug-smuggling operation used to finance a secret war in Laos. Perot engaged in unauthorized back-channel discussions with Vietnamese officials in the late 1980s, which led to fractured relations between Perot and the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. In 1990, Perot reached an agreement with Vietnam's Foreign Ministry to become its business agent if diplomatic relations were normalized. Perot also launched private investigations of, and attacks upon, United States Department of Defense official Richard Armitage. In Florida in 1990, retired financial planner Jack Gargan, employing a famous quotation from the 1976 movie Network, funded a series of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" newspaper advertisements denouncing Congress for voting to give legislators pay raises at a time when average wages nationwide were not increasing. Gargan later founded "Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out" (THRO), which Perot supported. Perot did not support President George H. W. Bush, and vigorously opposed the United States' involvement in the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. He unsuccessfully urged Senators to vote against the war resolution, and began to consider a presidential run. ### 1992 presidential campaign On February 20, 1992, Perot appeared on CNN's Larry King Live and announced his intention to run as an independent if his supporters could get his name on the ballot in all 50 states. With such declared policies as balancing the federal budget, favoring certain types of gun control, ending the outsourcing of jobs and enacting electronic direct democracy via "electronic town halls," he became a potential candidate and soon polled roughly even with the two major-party candidates. Perot's candidacy received increasing media attention when the competitive phase of the primary season ended for the two major parties. With the insurgent candidacies of Republican Pat Buchanan and Democrat Jerry Brown winding down, Perot was the natural beneficiary of populist resentment toward establishment politicians. On May 25, 1992, he was featured on the cover of Time with the title "Waiting for Perot," an allusion to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. Several months before the Democratic and Republican conventions, Perot filled the vacuum of election news, as his supporters began petition drives to get him on the ballot in all 50 states. This sense of momentum was reinforced when Perot employed two savvy campaign managers in Democrat Hamilton Jordan and Republican Ed Rollins. While Perot was pondering whether to run for office, his supporters established a campaign organization United We Stand America. Perot was late in making formal policy proposals, but most of what he did call for was intended to reduce the deficit, such as a fuel tax increase and cutbacks to Social Security. In June, Perot led a Gallup poll with 39% of the vote. In July, the Perot campaign fell into disarray and his polls fell sharply. The 1992 Democratic National Convention was held on Monday, July 13 through Thursday, July 16, during which time there was increased media coverage of the general election. The Milwaukee Sentinel reported that Perot's campaign managers were becoming increasingly disillusioned by Perot's unwillingness to follow their advice to be more specific on issues, and his need to be in full control of operations. The St. Petersburg Times reported such tactics as forcing volunteers to sign loyalty oaths. Perot's poll numbers had slipped to 25%, and his advisers warned that if he continued to ignore them, he would fall into single digits. Hamilton Jordan (a high-ranking manager in the Perot campaign) allegedly threatened to quit, but senior campaign officials denied this. On July 15, Ed Rollins resigned after Perot fired advertisement specialist Hal Riney, who had worked with Rollins on the Reagan campaign. Rollins would later claim that a member of the campaign accused him of being a Bush plant with ties to the Central Intelligence Agency. Amid the chaos, Perot's support fell to 20%. The next day, Perot announced on Larry King Live that he would not seek the presidency. He explained that he did not want the House of Representatives to decide the election if the result caused the electoral college to be split. Perot eventually stated the reason was that he received threats that digitally altered photographs would be released by the Bush campaign to sabotage his daughter's wedding. Whatever his reasons for withdrawing, his reputation was badly damaged. Many of his supporters felt betrayed, and public opinion polls subsequently showed a largely negative view of Perot that was absent before his decision to end the campaign. In September, he qualified for all 50 state ballots. On October 1, he announced his intention to re-enter the presidential race. He campaigned in 16 states and spent an estimated \$12.3 million of his own money. Perot employed the innovative strategy of purchasing half-hour blocks of time on major networks for infomercial-type campaign advertisements; this advertising garnered more viewership than many sitcoms, with one Friday night program in October attracting 10.5 million viewers. At one point in June, Perot led the polls with 39% (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton). Just prior to the debates, Perot received 7–9% support in nationwide polls. The debates likely played a significant role in his ultimate receipt of almost 19% of the popular vote. Although his answers during the debates were often general, Frank Newport of Gallup concluded that Perot "convincingly won the first debate, coming in significantly ahead of both the Democratic challenger Clinton and incumbent President George H.W. Bush". In the debate, he remarked: > Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it. Perot denounced Congress for its inaction in his speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 1992; he said: > This city has become a town filled with sound bites, shell games, handlers, media stuntmen who posture, create images, talk, shoot off Roman candles, but don't ever accomplish anything. We need deeds, not words, in this city. In the 1992 election, he received 18.9% of the popular vote, about 19,741,065 votes, but no electoral college votes, making him the most successful non-major-party presidential candidate in terms of share of the popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election. Unlike Perot, however, third-party candidates since Roosevelt won multiple electoral college votes: Robert La Follette in 1924, Strom Thurmond in 1948, and George Wallace in 1968. Compared with Thurmond and Wallace, who polled very strongly in a small number of states, Perot's vote was more evenly spread across the country. Perot managed to finish second in two states: In Maine, Perot received 30.44% of the vote—ahead of part-time resident Bush's 30.39% (Clinton won Maine with 38.77%); in Utah, Perot received 27.34% of the vote—ahead of Clinton's 24.65% (Bush won Utah with 43.36%). Although Perot did not win a state, he received a plurality of votes in some counties. His popular vote total is still by far the most ever garnered for a non-major-party candidate, almost double the previous record set by Wallace in 1968. A detailed analysis of voting demographics revealed that Perot's support drew heavily from across the political spectrum, with 20% of his votes coming from self-described liberals, 27% from self-described conservatives, and 53% coming from self-described moderates. Economically, however, the majority of Perot voters (57%) were middle class, earning between \$15,000 and \$49,000 annually, with the bulk of the remainder drawing from the upper-middle class (29% earning more than \$50,000 annually). Exit polls also showed that 38% of Perot voters would have otherwise voted for Bush, and 38% would have voted for Clinton. Though there were widespread claims that Perot acted as a "spoiler," post-election analysis suggested that his presence in the race likely did not affect the outcome. According to Seymour Martin Lipset, the 1992 election had several unique characteristics. Voters felt that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed Bush. A strong third-party candidate was a rare event. Liberals launched a backlash against 12 years of a conservative White House. The chief factor was Clinton's uniting his party, and winning over a number of heterogeneous groups. In 2016, FiveThirtyEight described the theory that Perot was a spoiler as "unlikely." Based on his performance in the popular vote in 1992, Perot was entitled to receive federal election funding for 1996. Perot remained in the public eye after the election and championed opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). During the campaign, he had urged voters to listen for the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs heading south to Mexico should NAFTA be ratified. ### Reform Party and 1996 presidential campaign ### 1996 presidential campaign Perot tried to keep his movement alive through the mid-1990s, continuing to speak about the increasing national debt. He was a prominent campaigner against NAFTA, and frequently claimed that American manufacturing jobs would go to Mexico. On November 10, 1993, Perot debated with then-Vice President Al Gore on the issue on Larry King Live with an audience of 16 million viewers. Perot's behavior during the debate was a source of mirth thereafter, including his repeated pleas to "let me finish" in his southern drawl. The debate was seen by many as effectively ending Perot's political career. Support for NAFTA went from 34% to 57%. In 1995, he founded the Reform Party and won their presidential nomination for the 1996 United States presidential election. His vice presidential running mate was Pat Choate. Because of the ballot access laws, he had to run as an Independent on many state ballots. Perot received 8% of the popular vote in 1996, lower than in the 1992 race, but still an unusually successful third-party showing by U.S. standards. He spent much less of his own money in this race than he had four years prior, and he also allowed other people to contribute to his campaign, unlike his prior race. One common explanation for the decline was Perot's exclusion from the presidential debates, based on the preferences of the Democratic and Republican party candidates. Law professor Jamie Raskin filed a lawsuit over Perot's exclusion years later. ### Later activities In the 2000 presidential election, Perot refused to become openly involved with the internal Reform Party dispute between supporters of Pat Buchanan and John Hagelin. Perot was reportedly unhappy with what he saw as the disintegration of the party, as well as his own portrayal in the press; thus, he chose to remain quiet. He appeared on Larry King Live four days before the election and endorsed George W. Bush for president. Despite his earlier opposition to NAFTA, Perot remained largely silent about expanded use of guest-worker visas in the United States, with Buchanan supporters attributing this silence to his corporate reliance on foreign workers. In 2005, Perot was asked to testify before the Texas Legislature in support of proposals to extend access to technology to students, including making laptops available to them. He supported changing the process of buying textbooks by making e-books available and by allowing schools to purchase books at the local level instead of going through the state. In an April 2005 interview, Perot expressed concern about the state of progress on issues that he had raised in his presidential runs. In January 2008, Perot publicly came out against Republican candidate John McCain and endorsed Mitt Romney for president. He also announced that he would soon be launching a new website with updated economic graphs and charts. In June 2008, his blog launched, focusing on entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social security), the U.S. national debt, and related issues. In 2012, Perot endorsed Romney for president again. Perot did not give any endorsements for the 2016 election. ## Political views Perot did not fit the usual political stereotypes; his views were seen as either pragmatic or populist, depending on the observer, and usually focused on his economic policy, such as balancing the budget, to gain support from both Democratic and Republican voters. Perot supported stricter gun control such as an assault weapons ban and supported increased research in AIDS. Perot was hesitant on covering the issue of gay rights during his 1992 campaign, but openly supported gay rights in 1996. From 1992, Perot was a pro-choice activist, and a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood. He stated that poorer women in particular should have access to abortions via federal funding. From 2000, he was pro-choice reluctantly. ### Economic policy Perot believed taxes should be increased on the wealthy, while spending should be cut to help pay off the national debt. Perot also believed the capital gains tax should be increased, while giving tax breaks to those starting new businesses. > "We cut the capital gains tax rate from a maximum rate of 35% to a maximum rate that got as low as 20% during the 1980s. Who got the benefit? The rich did, of course, because that's who owns most of the capital assets." In his 1993 book Not For Sale at Any Price, Perot expressed support for giving tax cuts for small and medium-sized enterprises, as opposed to larger corporations. Additionally, Perot supported a balanced budget amendment, stating, "spending should not exceed revenue for 27 consecutive years." On trade, Perot stated that NAFTA caused the trade deficit between Mexico and the United States and a loss of manufacturing jobs. His position on free trade and NAFTA became his defining campaign principle of both the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. Perot argued: "We have got to stop sending jobs overseas. It's pretty simple: If you're paying \$12, \$13, \$14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory south of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, ... have no health care—that's the most expensive single element in making a car—have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south." > ... when [Mexico's] jobs come up from a dollar an hour to six dollars an hour, and ours go down to six dollars an hour, and then it's leveled again. But in the meantime, you've wrecked the country with these kinds of deals. ## Personal life Perot and his wife Margot (née Birmingham; born November 15, 1933), a graduate of Goucher College, had five children (Ross Jr., Nancy, Suzanne, Carolyn, and Katherine) and 19 grandchildren. With an estimated net worth of about US\$4.1 billion in 2019, he was ranked by Forbes as the 167th-richest person in the United States. ### Death Perot died from leukemia in Dallas, Texas, on July 9, 2019, less than two weeks after his 89th birthday. He was buried at the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery and a memorial service was held at Highland Park United Methodist Church, with 1,300 invited guests. ## Honors and achievements - In 1970, he was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. - In 1985, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. - In 1986, Perot became the third American to receive the Winston Churchill Award for his efforts on behalf of American POWs in Vietnam in the 1960s and for organizing the rescue of two EDS employees from a prison in Iran. - In 1980, he received the Oak Cliff Lions Clubs' "Humanitarian Award". - In 1986, Perot received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards. - Perot was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988. - On April 22, 2009, Ross Perot was made an honorary Green Beret at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. - In May 2009, he was appointed an honorary chairman of the OSS Society. - On September 18, 2009, the Texarkana Independent School District named him (1947 graduate of Texas High School) as a 2009 Distinguished Alumnus. - On October 15, 2009, the United States Military Academy at West Point awarded him with the distinguished Sylvanus Thayer Award. - On April 20, 2010, Perot was presented with the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Command and General Staff College Foundation, Inc., Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. - In honor of Perot's 80th birthday, the bridge connecting Walton and University drives in Texarkana, Texas, was named the H. Ross Perot Bridge. - On October 2, 2010, Perot was given the William J. Donovan Award from the OSS Society at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C. He is the 26th recipient of the award. - In September 2011, Perot accepted the Army Heritage Center Foundation's Boots on the Ground Award. - On October 28, 2011, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science announced it was naming a new species of the dinosaur genus Pachyrhinosaurus after the Perot family. The new species is named Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum. ## Electoral history

Pittsburgh railroad strike of 1877

Strike in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh railway strike occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It was one of many incidents of strikes, labor unrest and violence in cities across the United States, including several in Pennsylvania. Other cities dealing with similar unrest included Philadelphia, Reading, Shamokin and Scranton. The incidents followed repeated reductions in wages and sometimes increases in workload by railroad companies, during a period of economic recession following the Panic of 1873. Between July 21 and 22 in Pittsburgh, a major center of the Pennsylvania Railroad, some 40 people (including women and children) were killed in the ensuing riots; strikers burned the Union Depot and 38 other buildings at the yards. In addition, more than 120 locomotives and more than 1,200 rail cars were destroyed. Due to track damage, trains did not run for a week following the cessation of violence. Estimates of losses ranged from \$2 million to \$5 million, according to the railroad company and an 1878 report by a state legislative investigative committee. Pittsburgh was the site of the most violence and physical damage of any city in the country during the Great Strike. Fresh troops arrived in the city on July 28, and within two days peace had been restored and the trains resumed. Commentators would later place blame for the incident on a range of actors, from the railroad, to reluctant or even sympathetic members of the police and militia, to tramps and vagrants who travelled to the city to take part of the growing public unrest. In the immediate aftermath, the events in Pittsburgh and elsewhere help to solidify support for various labor groups, which had struggled during the years of the economic downturn. A number of historical markers have since been erected at points throughout the city of Pittsburgh to commemorate events that took place during the strikes. ## The Long Depression and the Great Strikes The Long Depression, sparked in the United States by the Panic of 1873, had far-reaching implications for US industry, closing more than a hundred railroads in the first year and cutting construction of new rail lines from 7,500 miles (12,100 km) of track in 1872, to 1,600 miles (2,600 km) in 1875. Approximately 18,000 businesses failed nationwide between 1873 and 1875, production in iron and steel dropped as much as 45 percent, and a million or more lost their jobs. In 1876, 76 railroad companies went bankrupt or entered receivership in the US alone, and the economic impacts rippled through many economic sectors throughout the industrialized world. During the summer of 1877, tensions erupted across the nation in what would become known as the Great Railroad Strike, or simply the Great Strikes. Work stoppage was followed by civil unrest across the nation. Violence began in Martinsburg, West Virginia and spread along the rail lines through Baltimore, and on to several major cities and transportation hubs of the time, including Reading, Scranton and Shamokin, Pennsylvania; a bloodless general strike in St. Louis, Missouri; and a short lived uprising in Chicago, Illinois. What began as the peaceful actions of organized labor attracted the masses of working discontent and unemployed of the depression, along with others who took opportunistic advantage of the chaos. In total, an estimated 100,000 workers participated nationwide. State and federal troops followed the unrest as it spread along the rail lines from city to city. ### Pittsburgh In 1877, there was a prevailing feeling in Pittsburgh that the city was suffering from the unfair pricing of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad was blamed for costing the city its preeminence in oil refining, and privileging Philadelphia at their expense. Indeed, at this time it cost 20% more to ship freight to San Francisco from Pittsburgh, than from New York, and freight rates from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia were identical to that for the 100-mile-longer (160 km) route from Oil City to Philadelphia. On June 1, 1877, the Pennsylvania Railroad announced a wage reduction of 10% for all employees and officers making more than a dollar a day, and including a number of other railroads controlled by the company. This caused a small unsuccessful strike north of Pittsburgh in Allegheny, but was otherwise accepted without disturbance. The company announced that on July 19, it would implement the practice of double heading (joining two trains' worth of cars into one train with two locomotives) for all trains moving through Pittsburgh. This would reduce the number of jobs that were available, require more work, and increase the likelihood of accidents. The same day double heading was to go into effect, the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh issued an order that, according to strikers, effectively doubled the mileage of what was considered a day's work, increasing it from 46 miles (74 km) to 116 (187), without increasing the size of the crews. In total, the company would be able to discharge fully half of their workforce. The Trainmen's Union was actively organizing on the news. Around the same time, the workers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which also had a significant presence in Pittsburgh, received a pay cut of their own. ## July 19 On Thursday July 19, one crew, led by Conductor Ryan, sent word that they would not take out their train. The company called for replacements, and when 25 conductors and brakemen refused to act, they were immediately fired. Yet a third group attempted to take the train but were attacked by the strikers, who moved to the stock yards at East Liberty Street, and convinced the men there to join. Together, at 8:45 am, they captured the main track, took control of the switches, and brought rail traffic to a halt. David M Watt, acting on behalf of railroad superintendent Robert Pitcairn, who was away, requested assistance from Mayor William C. McCarthy, in clearing the tracks, dispersing the crowd, and resuming operation of the railroad. Due to financial problems, the city's force had been cut in half, and no troops were available as the day force had been entirely disbanded by the city council. The mayor however, allowed the dispatch of some of the previously discharged men so long as they were paid for at the railroad's expense. Between 10 and 17 men were provided. Watt and his men made their way to the 28th Street crossing to restart traffic. He ordered one man to take control of a switch so that the train could be set on the correct track, and when he refused out of fear for his safety, Watt attempted to do so himself and was struck by one of the strikers, who was arrested over the protests of the crowd. They then moved to the stock yards at Torrens Station, but at 1:00 pm and again at 4:00 pm they found yet more crowds of strikers preventing the movement of any trains. After finding the mayor was now out of town in Castle Shannon, Watt and another from the railroad traveled to the residence of Allegheny County Sheriff R. C. Fife. Fife arrived on the scene at 28th Street and ordered the crowd to disperse. They refused, and, having limited means of his own with which to assemble any force to address the situation, Fife dispatched the following to Lieutenant Governor John Latta, and Governor John F. Hartranft: > A tumult, riot, and mob exist on the Pennsylvania Railroad at East Liberty and in the Twelfth Ward of Pittsburgh. Large assemblages of people are upon the railroad and the movement of freight trains either east or west is prevented by intimidation and violence, molesting and obstructing the engineers and other employés of the railroad company in the discharge of their duties. As the sheriff of the county, I have endeavored to suppress the riot, but have not the adequate means at my command to do so, and I therefore request you to exercise your authority in calling out the military to suppress the same. By midnight, up to 1,400 strikers had gathered in the Pennsylvania Railroad rail yards, which were located on the flats southeast of the Allegheny River, stopping the movement of some 1,500 cars. The lieutenant governor, through General Albert Pearson, ordered the 6th Division 18th Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard from Philadelphia, to assemble to support the sheriff. According to the later testimony of a railroad official, Pearson commented that he believed he could have retaken the station with these available forces, but that it would have resulted in a great loss of life, and he was therefore reluctant to do so. ## July 20 On the morning of Friday the 20th, a large crowd remained at the station near 28th Street, and grew as trains arrived and their crews joined them. The railroad made preparations to move their trains as soon as they might be allowed, and secured sufficient crews to man them, but the locomotives were blocked and could not be moved without injuring members of the crowd, who also maintained control of the switches. Sheriff Fife again commanded those gathered to disperse to no effect. The men of the 18th and 14th Regiments, Sixth Division were ordered to the scene, where Sheriff Fife again addressed the gathering. He was mocked with jeers of "Bring us a loaf of bread," and "You're creating a riot yourself." Seeing this, General Pearson of the Sixth Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, made his own address. He assured the crowd, through their laughter and cheers, that he had been ordered by the governor to protect the trains from any molestation by the crowd, and ensure that they ran normally: > You that know me know that I will obey orders...I have troops who will obey my orders and I tell you, gentlemen, these trains must go through. My troops will have no blank ammunition, and I give you warning of this in time. An additional garrison of 180 men of the Duquesne Grays arrived at three o'clock, but were soon joined by a trainload of nearly 1,000 additional strikers. Recognizing that the current force would be insufficient to control the gathering should violence erupt, Pearson sent word to state authorities. The same day, adjutant general and acting governor James W. Latta telegraphed Major General James Beaver: > Situation in Pittsburgh is becoming dangerous. Troops are in sympathy, in some instances, with the strikers. Can you rely on yours? Workers of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis railroads in Allegheny City, also struck and stopped the movement of freight along their lines. Governor John Hartranft, en route to California at the time, was notified of the situation and turned back toward Pennsylvania. With freight movement stopped, the economy of the entire region was brought nearly to a standstill. Alexander Cassatt, vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, had arrived in the city that morning and was given the demands of the strikers: no more double headers, pay reinstated to the rate prior to June, the rehiring of all those who had been laid off, and the abolishment of pay grades for the workers. The reply to his subordinate, Superintendent Pitcairn, was simply: "Have no further talk with them. They've asked for things we can't grant them at all." ## July 21 ### Shooting By the morning of Saturday the 21st, it had become clear that many of the Pittsburgh police and local militia had sided with the strikers and they refused to take action against them. Many of the troops ordered to muster at the rail yards never arrived. Some had relatives among the crowd, and many held sympathy for the workers. In the words of the militiamen: "We may be militiamen, but we are workmen first." Adjutant General J. W. Latta ordered General Brinton along with his First Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, to report to Pittsburgh. At 3:00 am on the 21st, some 600 of their men set off from Philadelphia. They arrived between 1:00 pm and 1:45 pm, bringing two Gatling guns with them. It was hoped that these troops from the competing industrial city of Philadelphia, would be less sympathetic to the cause of the strikers. Twenty rounds of ammunition were distributed to each man. At 3:30 pm the order was given for the sheriff and his deputies, accompanied by National Guard troops, to move on the outer depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad, where a large mob had gathered, and arrest the group's leaders. At 28th Street, what troops did arrive found a crowd of 2,000, with another 10,000 nearby, along with the two additional regiments of city troops and one battery. Fife's attempts to serve his writs met with derision. He read the Riot Act and the troops set forth attempting to disperse the crowd. Some strikers attempted to wrest the rifles from the soldiers, and one was injured in the advance of bayonets. A cry arose of "Stick to it; give it to them; don't fall back!" and some protesters began to throw rocks and fire pistols at the troops; several men were injured, at least one seriously. The troops returned fire and used their bayonets, beginning with a single unordered shot, and continuing in a volley for nearly ten minutes. When the firing ceased, an estimated 20 men, women and children had been killed, with another 29 wounded. "The sight presented after the soldiers ceased firing was sickening," reported the New York Herald; the area "was actually dotted with the dead and dying." Within five minutes the mob had reformed, infuriated by the killings, although they did not again engage the soldiers. ### Rioting begins At 6:00 pm, the militia troops were ordered to retreat. Within two hours the mob was moving about the city, sacking shops and breaking into armories and a local gun factory to procure arms. Hearing what had occurred, a group of 600 workingmen from nearby Temperanceville began a march toward Pittsburgh. Throughout the city, the situation quickly deteriorated. As Harper's Weekly reported the situation: > The news of the slaughter of the mob spread through the city like wild-fire, and produced the most intense excitement. The streets were rapidly crowded, and the wildest rumors prevailed. When the news reached the large number of rolling-mill hands and workmen in the various shops of the city, they were excited to frenzy, and by eight o'clock the streets of the central portion of the city were alive with them. A large crowd broke into the manufactory of the Great Western Gun-Works, and captured 200 rifles and a quantity of small-arms, and various other crowds sacked all the other places in the city where arms were exposed for sale, getting about 300 more. Among them were 1,000 mill hands from Birmingham, on the south side. The rioters fell upon the rail yards, set fire to train cars and locomotives, and prevented any effort at extinguishing them, in some cases at gunpoint. ### Garrison of the roundhouse A group of Philadelphia Guard soldiers, finding themselves enveloped by the mob, retreated and took refuge in the roundhouse at the train depot. By 10:00 pm, several thousand strikers surrounded the building. For a time, the mob avoided the position for fear of the garrison opening fire. The soldiers saw that a captured artillery piece was positioned within a hundred yards of the roundhouse; they concentrated fire around it to prevent the rioters from manning and firing it. Fifteen men were killed in the endeavor. The soldiers' shooting initially dissuaded the attackers, but they soon regrouped, and returned fire with pistols and muskets. They eventually resolved to burn the roundhouse, as they had much of the surrounding yard. As one member of the mob phrased it: "We'll have them out if we have to roast them out." Rail cars containing oil, coke, and whisky were set ablaze and forced downhill toward the roundhouse, which began to slowly burn. At 5:00 am, with the roundhouse alight, the crowd broke and the troops made an orderly escape through Liberty Street, and then on to 33rd, Penn Avenue, and Butler Street, pursued by as many as 1,000 men, and under harassing fire. As one soldier recounted: > It was better to run the risk of being shot down than burned to death, and so we filed out in a compact body ... It was lively times, I tell you, reaching the US Arsenal ... I thought we should all be cut to pieces According to the legislative report in 1878, the National Guard forces "were fired at from second floor windows, from the corners of the streets...they were also fired at from a police station, where eight or ten policemen were in uniform." Three troops were killed during the march, as were some protesters. The pursuit broke off after the party crossed the Allegheny River; the troops continued to march until well into the following evening, when they bivouacked near Sharpsburg, on the north side of the Allegheny River. ## July 22 By 7:00 am on the morning of Sunday the 22nd, the fires extended from Millvale station to 20th street. US Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright would later testify that riots were, in some instances, aided by agents of the railroad company, attempting to destroy aging and soon-to-be replaced cars that they could then charge to the County. Widespread looting continued. Hundreds were engaged in breaking into train cars and distributing their contents, with occasional assistance from police. With the military having retreated, and the large portions of the militia having sided with the rioters, there was little that could be done: "Mayor McCarthy endeavored early in the day to stop the pillage, but the handful of men at his command were unable to control the crowd." In Pittsburgh, a citizens' meeting was held at 11:00 am and sent liaisons to meet with rioters, and attempt some type of negotiation, but this failed. Yet more were sent to the treat with authorities from the railroad companies, but none could be found. At 3:30 pm, a burning rail car was run into the Union Depot and the building set alight. Looters turned their attention to the Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad, and when the goods there were carried away, it too was set on fire. The fire department of the city remained on duty throughout the conflagration, and concentrated their efforts on private property along Liberty Street, as they were continuously prevented by the mob from accessing the burning railroad facilities. By the time the Allegheny fire department (then a separate jurisdiction) was dispatched to cross the river and ensure the flames passed no further than Seventh Street, a full three-mile (4.8 km) stretch of the city, between the river and Middle Hill, was burning. ### Allegheny The disturbance spread north across the river, in the town of Allegheny, where employees of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad voted to strike. They asserted that the assembled militias had no authority (the governor being out of state), raided the local armory, and set up patrols and armed guards in rifle pits and trenches. All freight traffic in the city was brought to a halt, and the strikers took over control of the telegraph and the railroad, and began managing the running of passenger trains. The strikers exerted such total control over the area that on July 24, when the governor passed through the area, it was Robert Ammon of the Trainmen's Union that assured his safe travel. ## Conclusion and aftermath Few shops opened on the morning of July 23, and there was great anxiety as to whether violence would continue. Many prominent members of the town had set to work organizing a militia, and by this time several thousand had been gathered and were put under the command of General James S. Negley, a veteran of the Civil War. Word was received that 1,000 miners were en route to the city from the Allegheny, intent on causing further disturbance. They arrived unarmed and were met by two companies of the 19th Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, and a squad of local veterans. One of their leaders made a speech to the effect that they had come on word that the workers of the city were being abused by soldiers. Mayor McCarthy entreated them to return to their homes, and General Negley gave assurances that he was returning his troops to their homes, and that the miners should do the same. They did so throughout the day. On July 28, Governor Hartranft arrived in Pittsburgh with fresh militiamen from Philadelphia, in addition to 14 artillery and 2 infantry companies of federal troops. Two days later the railroads began to resume operation. ## Casualties and cost An estimated 53 rioters were killed, and 109 injured, although many hid their injuries to conceal their involvement in the mob. Eight soldiers were killed in clashes, and another 15 were wounded. A total of 139 were arrested. In total, the riots and fires destroyed 39 buildings, 104 locomotives, 46 - 66 passenger cars, and 1,200 - 1,383 freight cars, and overall almost 2 square miles (5.2 km²) of the city was burned. The Pennsylvania Railroad claimed losses of more than \$4 million in Pittsburgh. The next year the state legislature established an investigative committee. According to its 1878 report, the railroad claimed \$2 million in losses exclusive of freight, and the committee estimated a total of \$5 million in loss and damage to the city. One other source estimated the damage as being between four and ten million dollars. Railroad ties were damaged and twisted by fire, and could not be repaired for a week. During that time, no trains moved through the city. In total, authorities were forced to mobilize 3,000 federal troops, and thousands more in state national guard and local militia to Pittsburgh in order to restore and enforce the peace. ## Examination ### Blame The pro-labor Pittsburgh National Labor Tribune on July 28, 1877, placed blame squarely on the shoulders of the railroads, writing "there is a point beyond which endurance ceases to be a virtue, a point beyond which it is unsafe to press the workingmen of America." As Lloyd points out, the railroad may not have taken the possibility of strikes or violence seriously, and chose to announce the change to double headers with full knowledge of outbreaks already happening elsewhere around the country. The official who issued the double header order, Robert Pitcairn, told a reporter "the men are always complaining about something." Similarly, writing in 1984, Couvares characterized the events as being not directed mainly at the railroad as an employer, but against the railroad as a symbol of monopoly, meaning: > The Pennsylvania Railroad, with its immense resources, its dominance of markets, its arrogant treatment of distant customers, its political influence, and its militarized command structure, which turned employees into mere foot soldiers and sometimes into mutineers. As noted in the state legislative report of 1878, from the beginning of the strike in Pittsburgh, railroad workers were supported by much of the population, who believed the railroads had discriminated against the city in freight rates, making its manufacturing less competitive, and had treated the workers badly. Businessmen and tradesmen were also affected when workers' wages were cut, so many had a stake in the actions of the railroads. Police and local militia were reluctant to act against strikers and many sympathized with, or outright joined them. For its part, the final report of the Legislative committee placed blame on both labor and capital, but drew a distinction in stages of events as they unfolded. They maintained that the strike, as such, was not an insurrection, and blamed the ensuing riots on "tramps and idle vagrants instead of the railroad workers or the unemployed in general." For its part, Harper's Weekly saw the essential moral of the strikes and riots as that the maintenance of a strong militia was necessary to maintain order. Their editor, writing that September, asserted: > We frankly own that the scenes at Pittsburgh and Chicago were worthy only of the savages who in earlier years roasted and otherwise tortured the Roman priests in Canada. Riot and anarchy are mere barbarism. ### Effect on organized labor As French points out, the strike and ensuing riots of 1877 greatly strengthened the cause of organized labor, which had struggled for years, and especially through the depression of the 1870s, to form coherent and effective political and social institutions. He quoted a leader of the Pittsburgh Knights of Labor as saying that the result of the riots was to "solidify and organize the working men," and French continues to clarify, "especially for political action". ### Demographics The state legislature investigating committee noted an unusual aspect of this strike: the notable participation of women. They supplied strikers with tea and coffee during the first two nights of the strike. They also participated in carrying away goods as the strikers and mob looted rail cars and stores. One study by Bruce suggested that strikers from the railroad composed a minority in the mobs, with most being made up by other industries as well as women and children, or as Bruce phrased it, "boys and halfgrown men". An analysis by Cayne of those arrested, indicated representation from "all ranks of working class men." Couvares echoed this sentiment, calling it an "almost perfect cross-section of Pittsburgh's ethnic and occupational structure." In addition, large numbers of men who had become unemployed during the depression were camped near the outskirts of the city, making for what Lloyd dubbed "a volatile mix of poverty and anger". ### Comparisons to the Paris Commune Daucus, in writing about Pittsburgh, drew a connection to earlier violence of the Paris Commune in 1871 and wrote, "The Commune has risen in its dangerous might, and threatened a deluge of blood," and many contemporaries, especially among conservatives, followed suit, wishing to, as Archdeacon phrased it, blame "real domestic dissent, on imaginary foreign machinations." Rhodes also criticized the comparison, saying simply that "writers have pushed their parallel too far." As Gilje points out, this parallel was used in Pittsburgh and elsewhere by the strike leaders themselves, employing "anticapitalist rhetoric". However, he goes on to point out that this was equally employed by the opponents of organized action, sometimes to deleterious effect as "labeling a movement as anarchist, socialist, or even communist often enabled officials to take preemptive action that, while legal or quasi-legal, often set off popular disorder." ## Commemoration On September 23, 1997, a historical marker was placed at the corner of 28th Street and Liberty in Pittsburgh, commemorating the location of the July 21, 1877 shootings in connection with the strike and ensuing riots. The inscription reads: > In July, unrest hit US rail lines. Pennsylvania Railroad workers struck to resist wage and job cuts. Here, on July 21, militia fatally shot some twenty six people. A battle followed; rail property was burned. The strike was finally broken by US Troops. Additional historical markers can be found at: - Penn Avenue near 18th Street - 21st Street near Penn Avenue - The corner of 21st Street and Smallman Street - On Railroad Street at 23rd Street Former historical markers were located at: - The corner of 11th Street and Liberty Avenue - 13th Street, between Penn Avenue and Smallman Street ## See also